The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1885-11-11

IL would not be safe Tor this world II men
had another chance In the next If it had
been announced that however wickedly q
man might act in this world he could fix it
up all right in the next, society would be ter
ribly demoralized and the human race de-
molished in a few years. The fear that if we
are bad and unforgiven here it will not be
we'll for US in the next existence, is the chief
influence that keeps civilization from rush
ing back to semi-barbarism, and semi-bar-
barism from rushing into midnight savagery,
and midnight savagery to extinction; for it
is the astringent impression of oil nations,
Christian and heathon. that there is no future
chance for those who have wasted this. Null
titudes Of men who are kept within bounds
would say: SO to, now; lot me get all out of
this life there is in it. Como g%luttony and
ineDriation, and uncleanliness, aud revenge,
and all sensualities, and wait IDOL me. Ny
life may be somewhat shortened in this world
by dissoluteness, but that will only make
heavenly indulgence on a larger scale the
sooner possible. I will overtake the saints at
last, and will enter the heavenly temple only
a little later than those who behaved them
selves here. will on my way to heaven take
a little wider excursion than those who were
on earth pious, and I shall go to heaven via
Gehenna and via Sheol.'
"Another chance in the next world means
free license and wild abandonment in this.
Suppose you were a party in m important
case at law, and you knew from consultation
with judges and attorneys that it would be
tried twice and the first trial would be Of lit
tie Importance, but that the second would de-
eide everything, for which trial you would
make the most preparation, for which retain
the ablest attorneys, for which % most anx-
ious about the attendance Of witnessed You
would put all the stress upon the second trial,
all the anxiety, tho expenditure. saying,
The first is nothing, the last is everythlag.'
Give the race assurance Of q second n more
important trial in the subsequent life, and all
the preparation for eternity woull be post
norton, post-funeral, p~ost.sepulchral, and
tho world with one jerk be pitched or into
impiety and godlessness. Furthermore: Let
me ask why O chance in the next world, II
ehave refused innumerable chances in this2
Suppose you give a banquet and invite a vast
number of friends, but one man declines to
come or treats your invitation with lEdltfer-
ence. YOU in the course Of twenty years,
twenty bauquets, and the same man is
invited to them all and treats them all In the
same obnoxious way. After O while you re-
move to another house, larger and better, and
you again invite your friends, but send no IN,
vitation to the man who declined or neglected
the other invitations. Are you to blame?
Has he a right to expect to be invited after
all the indignities he has done you? God
in this world has invited us all to the
banquet Of His grace. He in
vited us by His Providence and His
Spirit 365 days of every year since we knew
our right hand from our let. If we declined
it every time, or treated the invitation with
indifference, and gave twenty or forty or
fifty years If in1ignity Q n our part toward
the banaueter, AMI at last bespreads the BAN
uuet in a more luxuriant and kingly place,
amid the heavenly gardens, have we a right
to expect him to invite US again, and have we
q right to blame him if he does not invite
us?
'lf twelve gates of salvation stood open
twenty years or fifty yearsf for our admission,
and OF the end Of that time they are closed,
can we complain of it and say: these gates
ought to be open again. Give us another
chance If the steamer is to sail for Ham
burg. and wo want to get to Germany by
that line, and we read in every evening and
every morning newspaper that it will sail on
q certain day, for two weeks we have the adj
v%ertisement before our eyes, and then we 60
down to the docks fifteen minutes after it has
showed off into the stream and say. Come
back. Give me another chance. 1t IS not
fair to treat ME in this way. Swing up to
the dock again and throw out the planks and
let me come on board u behavior would
the Gospel ship has lain at anchor before
our eyes for years and years n years, and
oil the benign voices Of earth and heaven
have urged us to get on board, as she might
sail away at any moment, and after q while
she sails without US, is it commo sense to
expect her to como back? You might as we'll
20 out on the highlands at Navesink and hail
the Aurania after she had been three days
out, and expect her to return, as to call back
an opportunity for heaven when II once
has sped away. All heaven Offered us
az a gratuity, and for q lifetime We refuse to
take it, and then rush on thesbossos Of Jeho-
vah's buckler demanding another chance.
There ought to be, there can be, there will be
no such thing as ~posthumous opportunity.
Thus our common sense agrees with my te4G:
II the tree falls toward thu south or TOWARD
the north, in the place where the tree falleth
there it shall be- You see that.this tree lifts
this world up from an ..unimportant way sta.
tion to a platform Of stupendous issues, and
makes ali eternity whirl around this hour.
But one trial for which all the preparation
must be made in this world, or never, never
made at all. That piles up all the emphasis
and oil the climaxes and all the destlnlesl INTO
life here. No other chance! Oh, how that
augments the value and the importance OF
this chance! Alexander with his army used
to surround a city and then would iltt a great
light in token to the people that, II they sur.
rendered before that light went out, all would
De We'll, DuU IL OhCo Vuo I6ho GA Wv eN
the battering rams would swing against tho
wall, and demolition and disaster would fol-
low. Well, all we need to do for our present
and everlasting safety, is to make surrender
to Christ, the king and %conqueror, surrender
of our hearts, surrender of our lives, surren.
der Of everything. And he keeps q great
light burning-light Of Gospel invitation,
light kindled with the wood Of the cross and
flaming up against the dark night Of our sin
and sorrow. Surrender while that great light
continues to burn, for after it goes out
there will be no other opportunity Of making
peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ. Talk of another chance! In the time
Of Edward the VI, at tho battle Of Mussel.
burgh, a private soldier, seeing that the earl
of Huntley had lost his helmet, took of his
own helmet and put it upon the head Of the
earl; and the head Of the private uncovered,
he was soon slain, while the commander
rode safely out Of the battle. But in the
our case, instead Of a private soldier offer-
ing helmet to on earl, it is a king putting his
crown upon an unworthy subject, the king
dying that we might live. Tell it to all points
Of the compass. Tell it to night and day:
Tell it to all earth and heaven. Tell it to all
centuries, all ages, all millenniums, that we
have such a magnificent chance in this world
that we need no other chance in the next.
"a dream: lam in the FURNISHED judgment
hall of the last day. A great white throne IS
lifted, but.the judge has not yet taken it.
While we are waiting for his arrival l hear
immortal spirits in conversation: What are
you waiting here for9' says a soul that went
up from Madagascar to a soul that assembled
from America. The latter says: I came
from America, where for forty years l heard
the gospel preached and the Bible read and
from the prayer I learned in infancy at my
mothers knee until my last hour I had Cos
pal advantages; but for some reason did not