The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1878-01-31

VIC uescend TO supreme woe. In the ladder
up and the ladder down in the universe, the
rungs are in the same side-pieces. The SELF
propagating power OF sin and the self.propa-
eating power of holiness are one law. The
law of judicial blindness is one With that by
which the pure in heart see God, .alnl they
VINO walk toward the east find the morning
brighter and brighter to the perfect day.
NEVER TOO LATE TO MEND
OF course shall offend many if L assert
That there may be penalty that has no rcme-
dial tendency. But, gentlemen, ask you
to be clear, and to remember that an I'M
welcome truth is really not destroyed by
shutting the eyes to it. There are three
kinds OF natural laws, the physical, the Or
ganic, and the moral. Ia1rm that s'Necer
100 fate TO mend'' IS not doctrine Of science
m the domain Of tie physical lars, nor is it
IN that file organic.
Under the physical laws of gravitation a
ship may careen to the right OF left, and
only remedial effect be produced, The
danger may teach the crew seamanship; it
makes men bold and wise. Thus the penal
ty OF violating up to certain point the
physical law is remedial in its tendency.
But. let the ship careen beyond certain
line and it capsizes. If it be of iron it re-
mains at the bottom of the sea, and hum
dreds and hundreds of years of suffering OF
that penalty has mo tendency to bring it
back. Under the physical natural laws,
plainly there is such a thing as being too
late to mend. In their Unreasonable do
main there is distinction between penalty
that has {. remedial tendency, and penalty
that has no remedial tendency at all.
So, under the organic law, your tropical
tree, gashed at certain point, may throw
forth its gums, and even have greater
strength than before; but gaahed beyond
the centre, cut through, the organic law is
so far violated that the tree falls; and after
thousand years, you do not expect to see
the tree escape from the dominion OF the
law which is enforcing upon it penalty, do
you? There is no tendency in that penalty
| toward remedial effect; none at all and
you know it. Therefore, under the organic
| laws there is such thing as its being too
| late to mend.
Now, gentlemen, keep your eyes fastened
upon the great principle Of analogy, which
Newton and Butler call the supreme rule in
science. and ask yourselves whether, il you
were to find some strange animal in a geo
logical stratum, and if you were to know,
| by having one OF the hands free, that it had
three fingers, and if You were to find two
| fingers on the other hand free from the
rock, and both shutting toward the palm,
would you not infer that the third finger, if
you could loosen it from the rock, would
also be found closing toward the palm
Just so ask whether, il we find that under
| two sets OF natural laws which are all in
cluded under three classes. there is lcon-
troyertibly such thing as penalty without
remedial effect, there may not be the same
under the third set: Two fingers shut to-
| ward the paint cannot quite trace the
whole range Of the moral law; but know
| by analogy that if two fingers shut toward
the palm, the third probably does. Ifthere
is sucA a thing as its being .forerer too late
10 mend under the organic and the physical
| natural lo'c, probably, and more than pr oba-
bly, there as such thing under the moral
natural lac. .s.s~ .n..t
Yes but you say the will is free, and
therefore, that lit cannot be supposed that
man will fall into final dissimiarity OF feel
ing with God; or can so lose the desire to be
holy, that he will not choose the right when
greater light comes. YOU affirm that the
self-propagating power of sin may place me-
cessity upon the disordered nature You
say that the denial that all moral penalty is
| remedial requires us to deny that the will OF
lost souls continues free. | beg your par
don again, and that in the name of science.
Gentlemen. there may be certainty where
there is no necessity.
CHARACTER CRYsTALIsEs. p,
Ill. Under irreoerstble natural laau, CHAR
acte1 tends 10 a final oermanence, good or
bad. In the nature ot'the case. final % en-
manence IS attained but once.
If asked whether a final pernianence Of
| character is,a natural law, what should you
say if we were to speak without reference
| to conclusions in religious science? How
have men in all ages expressed themselves
in literature and philo sophy on this theme
Is it not perfectly certain that all the great
writers of the world justify the proposition
that character tends to a final permanence,
good or bad? 4if i4s
Gentlemen, this universe up to the edge
of the tomb is not a joke. There are in
this life serious differences between the
right hand and the left. Nevertheless, in
our present career, man has but one chance.
Even il you come weighted into the world,
as Sinbad was with the Old Man of the
Mountain, you have but one chance. Time
does not fly in a circle, but forth and right
on. The wandering, squandering, desic.
Gated moral leper is gifted with no second
set OF early years. There is no foun-
tain in Florids that gives perpetual youth,
and the universe might be searched, proba
bly, in vain for such spring. Waste your
middle life you shall have but one chance
Waste your old age; you have but one
chance. 1t is an irreyersible natural law
that character attains final permanence,
and in the nature of things final perma-
nence can come but once. This world is
fearfully and wonderfully made, and SO are
we, and we shall escape neither ourselves |
nor these stupendOus laws. 1t is not to me
a pleasant thing to exhibit these truths from
the side of terror; but, OH the other side, (
these are the truths of bliss; for by this /
very law through which all character tends I
to become unchanging, soul that attains
final permanence of good character runs but |
one risk, and is delivered once for all from its !
torture and unrest. 1t has passed the boilrn e |
from behind which no man is caught out of /
the fold. He who is the force behind all
natural law is the keeper of His sheep. and |
no one is able to pluck them out OF his hand. |.
Himself without variableness or shadow of
turning, he maintains the irreyersibleness of