Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 November 1887 — THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH [ARTICLE]

THE GOSPEL OF HEALTH

How Health Should Be Enjoyed, ] Physically and Spiritually. On* K»««nttnt to the Promotion of the Other—Early Training in Both l>.meltons the Only or the Parent. Hev. Dr. Talmage preached at the BirooWyn Tabernacle, last Sand ay. Subject: “The\Goepel of Health.” Text: Prov. vii, 23, He said: I preach to yon this morning the Gospel of health. In taking diagnosis of the diseases of the boul you must also take the diagnosis of the diseases of the body. As if to recognize this, one Whole hook of the New Testament was written by a physician. Luke waß a doctor and he discourses much of phys ical effects, and he tells of the good Samaritan’s medication of the wounds by pouring in oil and wine, and recog nizes hunger as a hindrance to hearing the Gospel, so that the five thousand were fed; and records the spare diet of the prodigal away from home, and the extinguished eyesight of the beggar by the wayside, and lets us know of the hemorrhage of the wounds of the dying Christ and the miracnloua post-mortem resuscitation. And any estimate of the spiritual condition that does not include also an estimate of the physical condition is incomplete. When the door-keeper of Congress fell dead from excessive joy because Burgoyne had surrendered at Saratoga, and Philip the Fifth of Spain dropped dead at the news of his country’s defeat in battle, and Cardinal WolBey expired as a result of Henry the Eighth’s anathemas, it was demonstrated that the body and soul are Siamese twins. And when you thrill tbe-one with, joy or sorrow you thrill the other. We might as well recognize the tremendous fact that there are two mighty fortresses in the human body, the heart and the liver—the heart the fortress of all the grace, the lortresa of all the furies. You may have the bead hired with all the intellectualities, and the ear with all musical appreciation, and the mouth with all eloquence, and the hand with all industries, and the heart with all generosites, and yet “a dart strike through the liver.” First, let Christian people avoid the mistake that they ate all wrong with God because they suffer from depression of spirits. Many a consecrated man has found his spiritual sky befogged, and his hope of heaven blotted out, and himself plunged chin deep in the slough of despond, and has said: “My heart is not right with God, and I think I must have made a mistake, and instead of being a child of light I ana a child of darkness. No one can feel as gloomy as I feel and be a Christian.” And he has gone to his minister for consolation, ami be has collected PtKyei!s books f and Cecil’s books, end Baxter's books, and read and read and read, and prayed and prayed and prayed, and wept and wept and wept, and groaned and groaned and groaned. My brother your trouble is not with the heart, it is a gastric cfis.Qrder.. or rebellion of the liver. You need a physician more than you do a clergyman. It iB not sin that blots out your hope of heaven, but bile. It not only yellows your eyeball, and furs your tongue, and makes your head ache, but swoops upon "your eottl in dejections and forebodings. The devil is after you. He has failed to despoil your character, and lie does the next best thing for him—he ruffles your peace of mind. When he says that you are not a forgiven soul, when he says that you are not right, with God, when he says you will never get to heaven he lies. You are just as sure of heaven as though you were th“re already. But Satan, finding that he can not keep you out of the'promised land of Canaan, has determined' that the spies shall not bring yon any of the Esehol grapes beforehand; an<l that you shall have nothing but prickley pear and crab apple. You are just as good now under the cloud as yon were when you were accustomed to rise in the

morning at five O’clock to pray and sing "Hallelujah, ’tie done!” Mv friend. Rev. Dr. Joseph H. Jones, of Philadelphia, a translated spirit now. wrote ~ hook, entitled, “Man; Moral and Physical,” in which he shows how different the same things may appear to different people. He says: "After the great battle on the Mincio, in 1859, between the French and the Sardinians on the one side and the Austrians on theother. so disastrous to the latter, the defeated army retreated, followed by the victors, A description of the march of each army is given by two correspondents of the Londen Times, one of whom traveled with the successful host, the other with the defeated. ‘ The difference in views and statements of the same place, scenes and events, is remarkible. The former are said to be marching through a beautiful and luxuriant country during the day, and at night encamping where they are supplied with an abundahee of tne best - provisions, an da 11 sorts of ruraTdalhties. There is nothing of war,shout the proceeding except its stimulus and excitement. On tne side of the poor Aus trians it is just the reverse, fn his letter of the same date, describing the same places and march over tne same road, the writer can scarcely find words to set forth the suffering:, impatience and disgust existing around him. Wbat was pleasant to *he former was intollerable to the latter. What made all this difference? asks the journalist. One condition only: The French are viotori. Otis, the Austrians have been defeated. j The contrast may convey a distinctive idea of the extent to which moral impressions affect the efficiency of the soldier.-’ ” - So, my dear brother, the road you are ; traveling is the same you have been ! traveling a long while, but the difference jin your physical conditions makes it I look different and therefore the two I reports you have given of yourself sre -‘as widely different as the reports of the Luidon Times from the two correspondents. Edward Payson,. sometimes so far upon the mount that it seemed as if the centripetal force of earth could no longer hold hint, sometimes through a physical disorder was so far down that it seemed as if the neither world would clutch him. Glorious Wjlliam (lowper was as good as good could be, an t will be loved in the Christian Church a® l<>m as it sings his hymn beginning. ‘'Tilere os a ton ma n fibe-d wmv hio«wf,” and (iie» Ifymu tiegint.ing, ‘ Oti. fur amoaer Ufalk wifrh i-»<wl ” and Tils hymn beginning, "What various hindrances wo meet,” and hts hymn

loginning, "God moves in a m\6ierious way.” Yet, so was he overcome of melancholy, or black bile, that it was only through the mistake of the cab driver, who took him to a wrong place, instead of the river bank, that he did nqt commit suicide. If the sou is so mightily affected by the physical state, what a great Opportunity this gives lo the Christian physican, for he can feel at the same time both the pu’se of the body and the pulse ot the soul, and he can administer to both at once, and if medicihe is needed he can give that, and if spiritual connsel is needed he can give that—an earthly and a divine prescription at the Bame time—and call on not only the apothecary of the earth, bnt the phar macy of heaven. Ah, that is the kind of a doctor I want at my bedside when I i get sick, one who can not only countout the right number of drops, but who can also pray. That is the kind of a doctor I have had in my house when sickness or death came. Ido not want any of your profligate or atheistic doctors around my loved ones when the balances of life are trembling. A doctor who has gone through the medical college,and indiasectingroom has traversed the wonders of the human mechanism, and found no God in any of the labyrinths, is a fool, and can not doctor me or mine. But, oh, the Christian doctors! What a comfort they have been in many of our households. And they ought to have a warm place in our pray ers. as well as praise on our tongues. Dear old Dr. Skillman! My father’s doctor, my mothers doptor in the village home, He carried all the confidences ot all the families for ten miles around. We all felt better as soon as we saw him enter the house. His face pronounced a benediction before he said a word. He welcomed all of us children into life,and he closed the old people’s eyes when they entered the last slumber! I think I know what Christ said-to him when the old doctor got through with his work. I think he was greeted with the words: “Come in, doctor. 1 was sick and ye visited me!” I bless God that the number of Christian physicians is multiplying, and some of the students of the medical colleges are here to-day, and I hail you and 1 bless you, and I ordain you to the heaven descended work of a Christian physician,and when you take your diploma from the Long Island Medical College to look after the perishable body, be sure also io get a diploma from the skies to look after the imperishable soul. Let, all Christian physicians unite with ministers of the Gospel in persuading good ieop!e that it is not because God is against them that they sometimes feel depressed, but because of their diseased body. I suppose David, the psalmist, was no more pious when he called on everything "human and angelic, animate and inanimate,and from snowflake to hurricane, to praise God tiian when he said: ‘’Out of the depths of hell have I cried unto Thee, 0 Lord,”or that Jeremiah wasanyhettet, when he wrote his prophecy than when he wrote his "Lamentations,” or that Job was any better when he said: “I know that my Redeemer liveth,” than when covered all over with the pustules of elephantiasis he sat in the ashes scratching the scabs off with a broken piece of-pottery; ot that ‘ Alexander" Cruden, the concordat, was any better man when he compiled the book that has helped ten thousand students of the Bible than when under the power of physical disorder he was, handcuffed and straight waistcoated in Bethnal Green Insane Asylum. "Ob,” says some Christian man, "no one ought to allow'pnysical disorder to depress his soul. He ought to live so near to God as to be always in the sunshine.” Yes, that is good advice; but I warrant that, you, the man who gives the advice has a sound liver. Thank God every day for healthful hepatic condition, for, just as certainly as you lose it, you will sometimes, like David, and like J eremiah, - and like Cow per, and like Alexander Cruden, and like ten thousand other invalids, be playing a dead march oil the same organ with which now you play a toccata. My object at this point is not only to emoltiate the criticisms of the well against those in poor health, but to show Christian

people who are atrabilarious what is the matter with them. Do not charge against the heart the crimes of another portion of your organism. Do not conclude that been use t he path of heaven is not arbored with as fine a foliage,or the banks beautifully snowed under with exquisite chrysanthemums as once, that therefore you are oh the wrong road. The road will bring you out at the same gate whether you walk with the stride of an athlete or come up on crutches. Thousands of Christians morbid about their business; and morbid about the present, and morbid about the future, heed the sermon I am now preaching. Another practical nse of this subject is for the young. The theory is abroad that they must first sow their wild oats, and afterward Michigan wheat. Let me break the delusion. Wild oats are generally sown in the liver,and they can never be pulled up. They so preoccupy tltft. organ that there is no room for -the implanta ion of a righteous crop. You see aged men about us at eighty, erect, agile, splendid, grand old men. How much wild oats did they sow between eighteen years and thirty? None, absolutely none. God does not very often honor with old age those who have in early life sacrificed swine on the altar of theibodily temple. Remember, 0 young man, that while in after life and after years of dissipation thou may perhaps have your heart changed, rehgion does not change the liver. 1 remb ing and staggering along these streets to-day are men, all bent anu decayed and prematuiely old lor the reason that they are paying for liens they put upon their physical estate beiore 1 hev were thirty. JBv early dissipation they put on their body a first mortgage, and a second mortgage,and a third mortgage to the devil, and these mortgages are now being foreclosed, and all that remains of iheir earthly estate the undertaker will soon put out of sight. Many years ago, in fulfillment of my text, a dart struck through their liver, and it is there vet forgives, but outraged physical law never, never, nev- ! er. That has a Sinai, bat no Calvary, j Solomon in my text knew what he was talking ah mi He hid in early life been a-profligate, and he r SfS up on his : ihri n- o' w 1 "Idly splendor to shriek out a warning to a i the "centuries. David j had in early life, but v >od in later lire, ■cries out with an agony of earnestness] “Run-mber pot the sms of my youth.” 1 Wtm? W u a inau’s body never completely newer from earlv dissipa--titrtrm rhie world?";NeverT'Tfow about | the wo Id ro C'.me? Perhaps God will fix it up in the resurrection body so

that it will npt) have to go limbing through all eternity; but get the liver thoroughly damaged and it will stiy damaged. Physicians call it cancer of the liver, or hardening of the liver, or cirrhosis of the liver, or inflammation of the liver, or fatly degenera', n of the liver, hut Holoraoh puts ail these panpß into one figure and fay's: "Till the dapt strike through his liver.” Hesiod seemed to have some hint, of this when he represented Prometheus for his crimes fastened to a pillar and an eagle feeding on l\is 'liver, which was renewed again each night, so that fche- devouring went on until finally Hercules slew the eagle and rescued Prometheus. And as dissipated early life assures a*iorocitv pecking away and clawing away at the liver year in and year out, and death is the only Hercules who can break the power of its beak or unclench its claw. So also Virgil and Homer wrote fables about vultures preying upon the liver, but there are those here to-dav with whom it is no fable, but a terrific reality. That young man smoking cigarettes and smoking cigars has no idea that he is getting for himself smoked liver. That young man has[no idea that he has by ealry dissipation so depleted hiß energies that he will go into battle only half armed. Napoleon lost Waterloo days before it was fought. Had he attacked the English army before it was re-en-forced, and taken it division by division, he might have won the day; but he waited until he had only one hundred thousand men against two hundred thousand. And here is a young ipan who, if he put all his forces againßt the regiment of youthful temptations, in the strength of God might drive them back; but he is allowing them to be reenforced by the whole army of middlelife temptations, and when all these combined forces are massed against him, and no Grouchy comes to help him, and Blucher has come to help his foes, what but immortal defeat can await him? ■ ; v '„, .... — Oh, my young brother, do not make the mistake that thousands all around you are making in opening the battle against sin too late, for this world too late, and for the woild to come too late. Some years ago a scientific lecturer went through the country exhibiting on a great canvas different parts of the human body when healthy, and different paitA when diseased. And what th« world want 3 now is some eloquent scientist to go through the country showing to our young people on blazing canvas the drunkard’s liver,the idler’s liver, the libertine’s liver, the gambler’s liver. Perhaps the spectacle might stop some young man before he comes to the same catastrophe, and the dart strike through his own liver.

My hearer, this is the first sermon you have heard on the Gospel of Heal th, and it may be the last you may ever hear on that subject and I charge you in the name of God. and Christ, and usefulness, and eternal destiny take better care of your health. There is a kind of sickness that is beautiful when it comes from overwork for God, or one’s country, or one’s own family. I have seen wounds that were glorious. After Ihe battle of Antietam in a hospital a soldier in reply to mv “Where are you hurt?” uncovered his bosom and showed me a gash that looked like a badge of eternal nobility. I have Been an empty s'eeve that was more beautiful than the mbst muscular forearm, i have seen a green shade over the eye shot out in battle that was more beautiful than any two eyes that had passed without injury. I have seen an old missionary worn out with the malaria of African jangles who looked to me more radiant than a rubi-

cund gymnast. I have seen a mother after six weeks’watching over a family of children down with scarlet fever, with a giory a-ound her pale and wan face that surpassed the angelic. It all depends on how you got your sickness and in —what" battle your wottr.ds. Frederick T. Frelinghuysen, the pride of New Jersey— aVe of the nation —and one of the pillars of the Christian church, and- for nearly four years practically President of the United States, although in the office of Secretary of State, in his determination to make peace with all the Governments on this American continent, wore himself out. and while his brain was as keen as it evi-r was, and his heart beat as regularly as it ever did, he was, according to the bulletin of his physicians at Washington and Newark, dying of hardening of the liver. Satan, who does not like good menj sent a dart through his liver. The last, my dear friend—for he was my friend and my father’s friend before me —the last he was seen in Washington was in the President’s carriage leaning bis head against the, shoulder of the President on his way to the depot to take the train to go home to die. Martyr of the public service, he died for his country,, though he died in time of peace. In his earlier life he was called the nephew of his uncle, Theodore Frelinghuysen, but he lived to render for God and his country a service that will make ethers proud to be bis nephew, and which will keep his name on the scroll of history as the highest style of Christian statesman that this cemurvorany century has produced. My Lord and my God! If we must get sick and worn out, let it be in Thy service and in the effort to make the world good and happy.* A Curious Find in a Tree. Chamber s Journal. Curious finds have not unfrequentlv been made iu trees. Some woodcutters in the :orest of Drommling made a strange discovery. They began to fell a venerable oak, which they soon found to be quite hollow. Being iialf-decay-ed, it speedily came to the ground with, a crash, disclosing a skeleton in excellent preservation, even the boots,which came above the knee, were perfect. By its side were a powder-horn, porcelain, pipe-bowl and a silver watch. The teeth were perfect. It would seem to be the skeleton of a man between 30 and 49 years of age. It is conjectured that while engaged in hunting he climbed the tree for some purpose and slippe 1 into the hollow trunk, from which there, was no release, and he probably died of starvation. The Actor Wight alter night a mimic death he died. While i-jmpatbetiu thousands wept and sighed; But <rheri at last he came in truth to die, Ko teardrops fell from any mourner's eye. —Clinton ScoHard.