Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1886-12-17
DR.. TALMAGEN SERMON.
THE BROOKLYN DtVINE's SUM-
DAY SERMON.
Subject of Sermon preached at
Cleveland, Ohio: "Of Track
How to Get On Again."

| IEXT-"H Hhen hdU IurdkeP ItCHt sees
1t yet again "-Froverbs xiii, 80.
With an insight into human nature such
MS 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 a wish
for something better he said: "When shall
awake; When shall l come out of this horrid
nightmare of iniquityP But, seized upon by
uneradicated habit and forcaddown hill by
his passions, be cries out; 81 will seek it yet
! again will try it once more" Our libra
ries are adorned with an elegant literature
addressed to young men, point.n ng out to them
all the dangers and perils of life-complete
maps of the voyage, showing all the rocks,
the quicksands aud the shoals But sup
pose man has already made spipwreck;
suppose he is already Off the track: suppose
he has already gone astray, how is he to get
| back! That is field comparatively unt
touched. | propose to address myself this
morning to such. There are those IN this au-
done who, with every passion of their ago
nj ed soul, are ready to hear such a discus
sion. They compare themselves with what
they were ten years ago, and cry out from
| the bondage in which they are incarcerated.
Now, if there be any in this house, come with
an earnest purpose, yet feeling that they
are beyond the pale of Christian sympathy,
and that the sermon can hardly be expected
to address them, then, at this moment, | give
them my right hand and call them brother.
| Lock up! There is glorious and triumphant
hope for you yet l sound the trumpet Of
gospel deliverance. The church Is ready to
spread banquet at your return, and the
hierarchs of heaven t. fall into line of BAN
nered procession at the news of your eman
ciI alton. So far rs God may help me, pro-
pose to show what are the obstacles of your
return, and then how you are to surmount
those obstacles. The first difficulty in the
| way of your return is the force of moral
| 1I,ito It1gt n io N NO 1axx
which brings down to the earth anything
you throw INTO the air, SO there is a corre-
spon ling moral gravitation. In 5rner words,
it easier to G down thanit is to go up; it
| is cas- er to d. 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 you! Call to mind the
ane .dotes that you have heard in the last five
or ten years-some of them are pure and
some of them impme. Which the more
! easily sticks to your memoryg During the
years Of your life you have formed certain
courses of condu ,t1some Of them good,
some of them bad. To which style of habit
did you the more easily yied9 Ali my
friends, we have to take but momeut
of self-inspection to find out that
there is in all our souls force of moral gray
| itation. But that gravitation may be re-
sisted. Jut as you may pick up from the
earth something and hold it in your nand to-
| j
| grace soul fallen may be lifted toward
| peace toward pardon, toward heaven
| Force of moral gravitation in every one of
us, but power in Gods grace to overcome
that force of moral grayitation. 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. l do not believe them. Here is
man given to intoxi alton. He knows it is
disgracing his family, destroying his prop
| erty, running him, body, mind and soul. If
| that man, being au intelligent man and low
ing his family, could easily give up that habit
would he not do so: The fact that he does
not give it up proves it is hard to give it up
1t is a very easy thing to sail down stream
the tide tarrying you with great force but
! suppose you turn the boat up stream, is it SO
easy them to row it! AS long as we yield to
the evil inclination 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 ju,t above Niagara and
| try to row up stream. Tale man given to
the habit OF using tobacco, as most of YOU
do, and let him resolve to stop, and he finds
1t very difficult Twenty-one years ago |
quit that habit, and l would as soon dare to
put my light hand in the fire as once to in
dulge in it, Why! Because it was such a
terrible struggle to get over it. Now, let a
man be advised by his physician to give up
the use of toba :co. He goes around not
knowing what to do with himself He can
| not add up q line of figures. He cannot seeo
nights. 1t seems as if the world had turned
upside down He feels his business is going
to ruin Where he was kind and oblioing
he is scolding and fretful. The composure
that characterized him has given way to a
fretful restlessness, and he has become a COM
plete 1idget. What power is it that has
rolled wave of woe over the earth and
shaken portent in the heavens? He has
tried to stop smoking! After a while he
says: 81 am going to do as please The
doctor doesn't understand my case. I'm 90
ing back to my old habit" And he returns.
Everything assumes its usual comrosure,
His business SENS to brighten, The
world becomes an attractive place to live
in His children, see.ng the differen Q, hail
the return of their father genial disposition.
What wave of color has da, b ID blue into the
sky, and greennesS into the m )untain foliage
and the glow of sapphire into the sunset2
what enchantment has lifted world of
beauty and JOY on his soul? He has gone
back to smoking. Oh, the fact is as we all
know in our experience, that habit is a task
raster; as long as we obey it. it does not
chastise us, but let us resist, and we find we
are to be lashed with scorpion whips aud
bound with ship cable, and thrown into the
track of bone-breakng Juggernauts. Dur
ing the war of 1872 there was q ship set on
fire just above Niagara Falls and then, cut
through the night and tossed OVER the falls
1t was said to have been a scene brilliant be-
yond all description. Well, there are thou
sands OF men on fire of evil habit, coming
down through the rapids and through the
awful night OF temptation toward the eter-
nal plunge. Oh! how hard it is to ar
rest them. God only can arrest them.
Suppose man. after five. or ten or twenty
years of evil-doing, resolves to do rights
Why, all the forces of darkness are allied
against him. He cannot sleep nights. He
gets down on his knees i'll the midnight, and
cries: God help me!n He bites his lip. He
grinds his teeth. He clinches his fist in a
determination to keep his purpose. He dare
not look at the bottles in the window of a
wine store. 1t was one long, bitter, exhaust
i've, hand-to-hand fight with iniamed, tan
taliz1ng and merciless habit. When he
thinks he is entirely Free the old inclinations
pounce upon him like pack of hounds with
their muzzles tearing away at the flanks of
oae poor reindeer. In Paris1here is a sculp
tured representation of Bacchus the god
of revelry. He is riding ON panther
at full leap. oh, how suggestive Let
every one who is speeding on bad ways
understand he is not riding docile and
well-broken steed but he is riding monster
wild and bloodthirsty going at death lean
How many there are who resolve on n het
, ter life aud say: when shall awaken d,
but. seized on by their old habits, cry: rI
will try it once more; l will seek it vet
again" Years ago there were some Prince
constituents who were skating, and the ice
was very thin, and some one warned the
: company back from the airhole, and finally
warned them entirely to leave the place.
But one young man, with bravado, after all
the rest had stopped, cried out: "0ne round
moreln He swept around aud went down,
and was brought out corpse. My friends,
there are thousands and tens of thousands OF
men losing their souls in that way. 1t Is the
one round more