The Bossier banner., 1885-11-19
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
@Shall We Have Another Chance
In the Next Worldq'
The Doctrine That Gas the Tree Falls So
It Mast Lie" Practically and Forci-
bly, Presented - Another
Chance Improbable.

Rhineberger. DR.. Talmaga read and ex.
pounded the 31st chapter of the First Book
of Samuel, showing that the old grudge
between the Philistines and the Israelites
was kept good, and that people generally
die as they live. The hymn sung was:
When Thou, myrighteous Judge, shalt come
TO take Thy ransomed people home,
Shall l among them stand?
Shall such a worthless worm as /,
Who sometimes am afraid to die,
Be found at Thy right hand?
: The subject OF the sermon was: "Shall
We Have Another Chance in the Next
WorldW The text was:
II the tree fall toward the south or toward
the north, in the place where the tree falleth,
there 1t shall be.-Ecclesiastes, XII, 3.
There is a lowering hope in the minds of
a vast multitude that there will be an op
portunity in the next world to correct the
mistakes of this; that, If we do make
complete shipwreck of our earthly life, it
will be on shore up which we may walk
to palace; that, as defendant may lose
his case in the Circuit Court and carry it
up to the Supreme Court or Court of Chan.
Gerry, and get rsal of Judgment in
his behalf, and the costs being thrown
over on the other party, so if we fail in the
sarthly trial, we may in the higher juris-
diction Of eternity have the Judgment of
the lower court court set aside, all the
costs remitted, and we be victorious de-
PENDANTS forever.
; My object in this sermon is to show
that common-sense, as we'll as my text,
declares that such an expectation is
chimerical. You say that the impsnitent
man having got into the next world and
seeing the disaster, will, as a result of
that disaster, turn, the pain the cause
of his reformation. But you can find
ten thousand instances in this world of
men who have done wrong and distress
overlook them suddenly. Did the distress
heal theme No; they went right on.
That man was flung of disipations.
"You must stop drinking" said the doc
tor, "and quit the fast life you are lead
ing or it will destroy YOU" The patient
suffers paroxysm after paroxysm, but
under skillful medical treatment he be.
gins to sit up, begins to walk about the
room, begins to 60 to business. And 10!
he goes back to the same grog-shops for
his morning dram, and his evening dram,
and the drains between. Flat own again.
Same doctor. Same physical anguish.
Same medical warning. Now the illness
is more protracted, the liver is more
stubborn, the stomach more irritable and
the digestive organs are more rebellious.
But after while he is out again, goes
back to the same dram shops, and goes
the same round Of sacrilege against his
physical health. He sees that his down.
ward course is running his household,
that his life is a perpetual perjury against
his marriage vow, that the broken-hearted
woman is so unlike the roseate young wife
that he married, and her old schoolmates
do not recognise her; that his sons are to
be taunted for lifetime by her fathers
drunkenness; that the daughters are to
pass into life under the scari6cation Of a
disreputable ancestor. He is drinking up
their happiness, their prospects for this
life and perhaps for the life to come.
Sometimes an appreciation of what he is
doing comes upon him. His nervous sys.
tenn is all jangle. From crown of head
TO sole Of footis one aching. rasping, cruci-
flying. damning torture. Where is he? In
hell on earth. Does it reform him? After
while he has delirium tremens, with a
whole jungle of Kissing reptiles let out on
his pillow, and his screams horrify the
neighbors as he dashes out of his bed cry
ing: "Take these things off of meW AS
he sits pale and convalescent the doctor
says: SNOW | want to have q plain talk
with you, my dear fellow. The next at
tack OF this kind you have you will be
beyond all medical skill, and you will
die." He gets better and goes forth into
the same round again. This time medi.
cine takes no effect Consultation of ply.
sicians agree in saying there is no hope.
Death ends the scene.
That process of inebriation, warning
and dissolution is going on within q
stones throw of this church, going on in
all the neighborhoods of Christendom.
Pain does not correct Suffering does not
reform. What is true in one sense is true
in all senses, and will forever be so, and
yet men are expecting in the next w orld
purg gstorial rejuvenation. Take up the
printed reports of the prisons of the United
States and you will find that the va st ma
1ority OF the iucarcerated have been there
before, some of them four, five, six times.
With million illustrations all working
the other way in this world, people are
expecting that distress In the next state
will be salvable. You can not imagine
any worse torture in any other world than
which some men have suffered here, and
without any salutary consequence.
Furthermore: The prospect of reforma-
tion in the next world is more improbable
than a reforma'io ion here. In this world
the line started with innocence of infancy.
In the case supposed the other life will
open with all the accumulated bad habits
OF many years upon him. Surely IL is
easier to build strong ship out of new
timber than out of an old hulk tina: has
been ground up in the breakers. II with
innocence TO start with in this life, a man
does not become godly, what prospect is
there that In the next world, starting
with SIM seraph should be evolved?
Surely the sculptor has more prospect of
making fine statue out of block of pure
white Parian marble than out of an old
black rock scanned and cracked with the
storms of half century. Surely upon a
clean white sheet of paper it Is easier to
write deed or will than upon sheet of
paper all scribbled and blotted and torn
Erom top to bottom Yet men seem to