The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1885-11-11
DR.. TALhAGE'S SERMON.
OPPORTUNITY.

POSTHUMOUS OPPORTUNITY.
The text was from Ecclesiastes XII, 8:
eff the tree fall toward the south or toward
the north, in the place where the tree falleth
there it shall be-"
"There is a lowering hope" said the
preacher, Gin the minds of a vast multitude
that there will be an opportunity in the next
world to correct the mistakes Of this; that II
We do make complete shipwreck of our earth
ly life it will be on a shore up which we may
walk to q palace; that, as a defendant may
lose his case in the Circuit Court and carry
it up to the Supreme Court or Court OF Chan
cery and get a reversal of Judgment in his
behalf, oil tho costs being thrown over on
the other party, so if we fail in the earthly
trial, we may in the higher jurisdiction of
eternity have the Judgment Of the lower
court set aside, all the costs RENTED, and
we be victorious defendants forever. My
object in this sermon is to show that common
sense, as we'll as my text, declares that such
an expectation is chimeriral. You say that
the impenitent man having got into the next
world and seeing the disaster, will. as a re-
suit of that ditas:er, turn, the pain the cause
of his reformation. But you can find ten
thousand instances in this world OF men VINO
nave JULIO WIOlS LII oAoC1Coo WIN tAoIA
suddenly. Did tho distress heal them! No,
they went right on.
"'You must stop drinking said the doc.
tor, and quit the fast life you are leading, or
it will destroy YOU The patient suffers
paro1ysm after paroxysm, but under skilful
medical treatment he begins to set up, be-
gins to walk about the room, begins 10 60 to
business. And, 10! he goes back to the same
grog shops for his morning dram and his
oron;o~ 3,,op ~ op6 tho lra M hofwoan Flat
down 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 ore more rebelllous. But
after awhile 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 downward course is running his house.
hold; that his life is a perpetual perjury
hearted woman is so unlike tile roseate young
wife that he married, that her old school
mates do no: recognize her; that his sons are
to be tainted for a lifetime by the fathers
drunkenness, that the daughters are to pass
into life under the specification Of q disreput-
able ancestor. He is drinking up their hap.
piness, their prospects for this life and per-
haps for the life to come. Sometimes an ap-
probation Of what he is doing comes upon
him. His nervous system is all in q jangle.
From crown of head to sole of foot he is one
aching, rasping, c%rucifying, damning torture.
Where is he! In hell IN earth. Does it reform
him! Alter a while he has delirium tremens,
when a whole Jingle 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 mel As LIE sits,
/ want to havea plain talk with you, my dear
fellow. The next attack of this kind you will
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
medicine takes no effect Consultation Of
physicians agree in saying there is no hope.
Death ends the scene. That process of inc
briation. warning and dissolution is going on
in all the neighborhoods Of Christendonl
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 world purgatorial
reiuvenation. Take up the printed reports
of the prisons of the United States and you
will find that the vast majority Of the incar-
cerated nave been there before, some of them
four, t1ve, six times. With a million ~illustra-
tions all working the other way in this world
people are expecting that distress in the next
any worse torture in any other world than
that which some men AVE suffered here and
without any salu.ary consequence.
"Furthermore, the prospect OF O reforma-
ton in the next world is more improbable
than a reformation here. In this world the
life 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, it is easier to build a
strong ship out OF new timber than out Of an
old hulk that has been ground up in the
breakers. If, 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 q sin, q seraph should be
~evoluted? Surely the sculptor has more pros
pect of making a fine statue out OF a
block of pure white Parian marble
than out Of an old black rock scanned n
cracked with the storms Of a half century.
Surely upon a clean white sheet of paper it
is easier to write a deed or O will than upon q
sheet of paper all scrubbed and blotted and
torn from top to bottom. Yet mon seem to
think that though the life that began here
comparatively perfect turned out badly, the
next life will succeed though it starts with
q dead failure. But says some one, Think
we ought to have a chance in the next lite,
because this life is SO short it allows only
small opportunity. We hardly have time to
turn around between cradle and tomb, the
wood Of the one almost touching the marble
of the other But do you know what made
the ancient deluge a necessity2 It was the
longevity of the a~ntediluvians. They were
worse in tho second century of their lifetime
than in the first hundred years, and still
worse in the third century, and still worse
all the way on to seven, eight and nine hund.
red years, and the earth had to be washed
and scrubbed and soaked and anchored clear
out Of sight for more than a month before it
could be made fit for decent people to live in.
Longevity never cures impenitency. All the
pictures of Time represent him with a scythe
to cut, but I never saw any picture OF lime
with q case of medicines to heal. Seneca says
that Nero for the first five years OF his public
life was set up for an example OF clemency
and kindness, but his path all the way de-
scended. until ut sixty-oight he became a sui
eide. II 800 years did not make antedllu-
VANS any better, but only made them
worse, the ages of eternity could have
no effect except p~rolongation Of depravlty.
But says some one, in the future state evil
surroundings will be withdrawn and elevated
influences substituted, and hence expurgation
and sublimation and glorifcation.' But the
righteous, all their sins forgiven, have passed
on into a beatific state, and consequently the
pected that DR.. Duff, who exhausted himself
in teaching Hindoos the way to Heaven, and
DR.. Abel. who gave his life in the evangoli-
cation of China, and Adoniram Judson, who
toiled for the redemption OF Borneo, should
be sent down by soma celestial missionary
society to educate those who wasted all their
earthly existence. Evangelistic and mission
airy efforts are ended. The entire kingdom
Of the morally bankrupt by themselves, where
are the savable influences to come rom!
Can one speckled and bad apple in a barrel
of diseased apples turn the other apples good?
Can those who are themselves down help 9TH
ers up Can those who have themselves