Here then is our duty plainly pointed out.  If we will exercise this spirit of benignity to our enemies, subdue all our revengeful passions, and indulge a spirit of love and friendship, of meekness and cheerfulness towards our friends and neighbors, we shall not only be happy as our natures can bear, not only revel in all the rational enjoyments this life can impart, but we shall in the common course of providence live to old age.  All those, with very few exceptions, who have lived to 80, 90, and 100 years, have been remarked for their equanimity.  They were mild spirited, kind, cheerful, and of such a temperament, that neither misfortune, nor any outward circumstances, that agitated the world, could disturb their heaven-born repose.

Thus we see that the path of duty, enjoined in the sacred scriptures, is not only the path of peace and joy, but conducts to a good old age.  The goodness of the Divine Being is most strikingly exemplified in uniting health and temperance, happiness and longevity, and our duty to our fellow creatures, all in one.

Long life and good days, however, depend more upon the state of our minds than upon almost any other circumstance.  He who lives in fear and trouble arising from any cause whatever; whether from contemplation of endless misery in the future world, or from the apprehension that his earthly prospects will be blasted and his fortune laid in ruins—­or if he is continually involved in quarrels, broils and tumults with his neighbors, has but little prospect of living to old age, and certainly no hope of seeing good days.  He is in a constant hell.  Here then we see the beauty and propriety of our text:  “What man is he that desireth life and loveth many days that he may see good?  Keep thy tongue from evil and thy lips from speaking guile; depart from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.”

The first condition for a long life is, “keep thy tongue from evil and thy lips from speaking guile.”  But the question arises, in what sense can the violation of that condition have any effect upon the length of life?  The answer is at hand—­the slanderer is ever a busy body in other men’s matters.  He is secretly endeavoring to injure his neighbors.  He circulates falsehoods about them from house to house.  One and another hears the reports put into circulation.  They call upon the author for an explanation of his conduct.  Involved in trouble, arising from fear, guilt and mortification, he tells a thousand falsehoods to clear up one.  All this preys upon his inmost vitals, while perhaps with another, whom he has slandered, he is involved in a quarrel, and it terminates in a settled hatred; and a third case becomes an incurable distemper of rancour and revenge.  Here is a man who by slander has rendered his existence wretched.  He is like the troubled ocean whose waters find no rest.

There is but little hope of his reaching the common age of man.  Instead of seeing good days he is walking in the regions of night and wo.  Says the wise man, “where there is no fuel the fire goeth out, so where there is no tattler, strife ceaseth.”  Yes, “where there is envying and strife, there is confusion and every evil work.”