The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1886-12-10
OFF THE TRACK"
The Many Obstacles in the Way OF
Return.
Rev. T. De Witt TaInage Tells How the
Shackles of Bad Habits May BE Unriv-
tied, and How the Paths of Vir-
tue May BE Regained.

CLEVELAND, O., Dec. 5-Rev. DR.. Talmage
preached in this city to-day. He took for his
text the thirty-fifth verse of the twenty
third chapter Of Proverbs: "When shall 1
awakef will seek it vet asaitf.'' His sub
ject was: "Of the Track-How TO Get Oh
Again" The sermon is as follows:
With an insight into human nature, such
as no other man ever reached, Solomon, in
my text, sketches the mental operations Of
one who, having stepped aside from the
path of rectitude, desires to return. With
wish for something better he said:
tWhen shall / awakel When shall l come
out of this hoFrid nightmare Of iniquity!'
But seized upon by uheradiGated habit and
forced down hill by his PASSIONS he cries
out: g I will seek it yet again will try
1t once more"
Our libraries are adorned with an ele-
CANT literature addressed to young men,
pointing out to them all the dangers and
perils Of life-complete maps of the voyage,
showing all the rocks, the quicksands, the
shoals But suppose a man has already
made shipwrecki suppose he is already of
| the track! suppose he has already gone
! astray, how is he to get back! That Is
| field comparatively untouched. l propose
! to address myself this morning to such.
| There are those III this audience who, with
| every passion of their agonized soul; are
Il
! compare themselves with what they were
| ten years ago. and cry out from the bondage
/ in which they are incarcerated. Now, II
| there be any in this house, come with an
| earnest purpose, yet feeling they are be-
/ yond the pale of Christian sympathy, and
/ that the preacher can hardly be expected TO
| address them, then, at this moment; / give
! them my right hand, and call them brother.
! Look up. There is glorious and triumph
| ant hope for you yet. l sound the trumpet
! of Gospel deliverance. The church is
! ready to spread a banquet at your return,
! and the hierarchs of Heaven to fall into
| line of hammered procession at the news OF
! your emancipation. SO far as God may
| help me, Ipr0pose to show what are the
| obstacles to your return, and then how you
are to surmount these obstacles.
! The first difficulty in the way of your re
| turn is the force of moral gravitation. Just
! as there is a natural law which brings
! down to the earth any thing you throw in
| to the air, so there is moral grsvitation.
! In other words; it is easier to go down than
| it is to go up; it is easier to do wrong than
| it is to do right Call to mind the comrades
/ of your boyhood days-some of them good,
! some of them bad: Which most affected
/ you2 Call to mind the anecdotes you have
/ heard in the last five or ten years-some
| of them pure and some of them i'm
/ pure. Which the more easily sticks to your
/ memory! During the years of your life you
! have formed certain courses of conduct
/ some of them good some Of them bad. To
/ which style of habit did you most easily
/ yieldl
Ahi my friends, we have to take but q
/ moment of self-inspection to find out that
! there IS in all souls a force of moral graVi-
tation. But that gravitation may be re
! sisted. just as you may pick up from the
earth something and hold it III your hand
CT Eyyf fha If
! Gods grace, a soul fallen may be lifted
4 towards peace, toward pardon, toward
Heaven. The force of moral gravitation
+ is in every one of US, but there IS power in
I Gods grace to overcome that force of
/ moral gravitatiOn.
The next thing in the way of your return
is the power Of evil habit. know there
are those who say it is very easy for them
to give up evil habits. 1 do not believe
them. Here is a man given to intoxication.
He knows it is degrading his family; de-
stroying his property, running him, body
mind and soul. If that man, being an in
teligent man, could easily give up that
habit, would he not do so! The fact that
he does not give it up proves that it is hard
to give it up. 1t is very easy thing to
sail down stream, the tide carrying you
with great force; but suppose you turn the
! boat up stream, is 1t so easy then to row it!
As long as we yield to the evil inclinations
in our hearts, and our bad habits, we are
/ sailing down stream, but the moment we
try to turn we put our boat in the rapids
just above Niagara, and try to row up
stream.
/ Take a man given to the habit of using
/ tobacco, as most Of you do, and let him re-
/ solve to stop, and he finds it very difficult.
Twenty-one years ago Iquit that habit and
/ ! would as soon put my right hand into the
/ fire as once to indulge in it. Why9 Be
! cause 1t was such terrific struggle 20 get
over it. iNoW, let a man be advised by his
physician to give up the use of tobacco. He
/ goes around not knowing what to do with
himself. He can not add up a line of fig
/ ures; he can not sleep nights; 1t seems as
/ if the world had turned upside down; he
! feels his business is going to ruin; where
i he was kind and obligiDg he is scolding and
fretful; the composure that characterized
him has given way to fretful rest
/ lessness, and he has become a COM
plete fidget. What power IS it that
has rolled a wave of woe over the
earth and shaken pOrtent in the Heavensi
He has tried to stop smoking After awhile
. he says: Il am going to do as please. The
doctor does not understand my case. am
going back to my old habit" And he re-
turns. Every thing assumes its usual com
pOsure; his business seems to brighten
the world becomes an attractive place to
live in; his children, seeing the difference,
hail the return of their fathers genial dis
position. What wave Of color has dashed
blue into the sky, and greenness into the
mountain foliage, and the glow of sapphire
into the sunsets What enchantment has
lifted a world of beauty and joy on his
soull He has gone back to smoking.
Oh! the fact is, as we all know in our own
I experience, that habit is a taskmaster; as
I long as we obey il it does not cnastise us,
/ but let US resist and we find we are to be
nd xsyffh
ship cable, and thrown into the track OF
bone-breaking juggernauts-
During the war of 1912 there was a ship
set on fire just above Niagara Falls, and
1 then, cut loose from its moorings, it came
on down through the night and tossed over
the falls. 1t was said to have been a scene
brilliant beyond description. Well, there
are thousands of men on fire Of evil habit
coming down through the rapids and
/ through the awful night Of temptation
/ toward the eternal plunge. Oh how hard
/ it is to arrest them. God only can arrest
I them. Suppose a man, after five or ten
/ or twenty years Of evil doing, resolves 70
do right. Why, all the forces of darkness
are allied against him. He can not sleep
nights; he gets down on his knees in the
/ midnight and cries: tsGOd help me ~ he
bites his lip; he grinds his teeth; he
I clenches his fist in a determination to keep
his purpose; he dare not look at the bottles
4 In the WINDOW OF q VINE SbOFc ~ Is one
! long, bitter, exhaustive hsnd-to-hand fight
} with infiamed, tantalizing and mercIless
habit When he thinks he is entirely fec,
! the old incLnatiOns pounce upon him ike a
/ pack of hounds with their muzzles tearing
away at the TANKS OF one poor reindeer.
In Paris there is a sculptured represen-
tatiOn Of Bacchus, the god OF revelry- lie
! is riding a panther at full leap oh,
/ how suggcstivei Let every one who is
/ speeding on bad ways understand he Is not
riding a docile and well-broken steed, but
( he is riding a monster, wild and blood
thirsty, going at a death leap. How many