Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1886-12-16
THE REV. DIR. TALMAGE GIVES
GOOD ADVICE TO THE
REPENTANT.
Hope Extended to All Mankind
Difficulties in the Way of
the Sinners Return
Pointed Out.
Evil Habits Cling Tightly to a
Manhood Resolutions
Broken.
How to Win the Repentant-Pardon
Promised to All.
81 etid 10 The Kansas City Times.

the lrack-How to Get On Again." from thu
text Proverbs, xiii. ,35: "When shall awake
will seek 1t yet again"
With an insight into human nature such a.
40 other man ever reached, Solomon, in m,
text, sketches the mental operations Of on,
"ho, having stepped aside from the path o
Tectitude, desires to return. With wish fol-
something better he said: "When shall
awake! When shall come out Of this horrid
nightmare Of inlquityl" But seized upon b;
uneradicated habit and forced down hill BY
his passions he cries out; 81 will seek it vel
again. will try 1t once more.'
Our libraries are adorned with an elegant
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 sup
pose man has already made shipwreck; sup
pose he Is already off the track; suppose he
has already gone astray, how Is he to get
bacAt That is a field comparatively un-
touched. propose to address myself this
morning to such. There are those in this
audience who, with every passion of their
agonizcd soul, are ready to hear such dis
cussion. They compare themselves with
what they were ten years ago, and cry out
rom the bondage in which they are incar-
Grated.
FOR ALL HOPE MANKIND.
Now, II there be any in this house, come
with an earnest purpose, yet feeling they are
teyond 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.
Look up There is glorious and triumphant
hope for you yet. l sound the trumpet of
go pei deliverance. The church is ready to
spread banquet at your return, and the
hierarchs of heaven to fall intoline OF banner
ed procession at the news of your emancipa-
ton. So far as God may help me propose to
snow what are the obstacles Of your return,
and then how are you to surmount those OBJ
stacles.
The first difficulty in the way of YOUR return
is the force of moral gravitation. just as
there is a natural law which brings down to
the earth anything you throw into the air. so
there is corresponding moral grayitation.
In other words, 1t is easier to go down than it
Is 10 90 up; 1t Is easier to do wrong than it is
10 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 anecdotes that you have heard in
the last nye or ten years-sOme of them are
pure and some of them impure Which the
more easily sticks to your mcmory9 During
me 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
the more easily yieldi
GRAvlTATIoN AND EVIL HABIT.
All, my friends, we have to take but a mo-
ment OF sclfinspcction TO find out that there
IS In all our souls force of moral gravita-
uon' But That gravtation may be resisted.
just as you may pick up from the earth some
thing and hold 1t in your hand toward heaven,
Just SO, by the power of Gods grace, a soul
iallen may be lifted toward peace, toward
pardon, toward heaven. Force OF moral
grayitaton In every one of us, but power in
Gods grace to overcome that force of gravta-
ton.
The next thing IN the way of your return is
the power Of evil habit. / know there are
those who say 1t Is very easy for them to give
up evil habits | do not believe them Here
Is man given to intoxicaton. lie knows it
Is dlsgracing his family, destroying his prop
erty, running him, body, mind and soul If
that man being an entc,ligent man and low
ing his family, could easily give up that habit,
would he not do so! The fact that he does not
give 1t up proves 1t is hard to give it up 1t
very easy thing to sail down stream, the
tide carrying you with great force: but SUD
pose you turn the boat up stream, is it SO easy
evil lnclinations in you hearts and your bad
habits We are sailing down stream, but the mo-
ncnt we try 10 turn we put our boats in the
rapids just above Niagara and try to row up
4'"am.
TIE Use OF TOBACCO.
man given to the habit of, using TO-
as most of you do, aud let him resolve
= land he finds 1t very difficult. Twenty
jears ago | quit that habit, and | would
As soon dare to put my right hand in the fire
as again to indulge in it, Whyi Because it
was such terrible struggle to get over it,
Now !, W. let 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 line of figures. He can not
sleep nights. 1t seems as if the world had
turned upside down. He feels his business is
going to ruin. Where he was kind and oblig-
ing, he is scoding and fretful. The comps.
ure that characterized him has given way to a
fretful restlessness and he has become a com
plete fdget. What power is it that has rolled
wave OF woe over the earth and shaken n
portent In the heavensa He has tried to stop
smoking After while he says: II am
going to do as l please: The doctor doesn't
old habit" And he returns. Everything
assumes its usual composure. His business
seems to brighten. The world becomes an
attractive place to live in. His children, see
ing the difference, hail the return of their
fathers genial disposition. What wave of
color has dashed blue into the sky and green.
ness into the mountain foliage, and the glow
OF sapphire into the sunset! What enchant-
ment has lifted world of beauty and Joy on
bis sPuli He has gone back to smoking.
THE POWER OF EVIL HABIT.
U, the TACT Is, as we all know in our own ex-
perience, that habit is a taskmaster; as long as
we obey 1t 1t does not chastise us, but let us
resist and we find we are to be dashed with
scorpion whips and bound with ship cable and
thrown into the track of bone breaking lug
gernauts. During the war of 1912 there was a
ship set on fire just above Niagara Falls and
then cut loose from its mornings. 1t came on
down through the night and tossd over the
falls 1t was said to have been a scene bril-
liant beyond all description. Well, there are
thousands OF men on fire Of evil habit, coming
down through the rapids and through the aw-
ful night OF temptation and toward the eternal
plunge. ., how hard it is to arrest them. God
only can arrest them. Suppose a man, after
five or ten or twenty years Of evil doing, re-
solves to do right Why, all the forces of dark
ness are allied against him. He cannot sleep
nights. He gets down on his knees Ia the
midnight and cries: GOD help mem He
bites his lip. He grinds his teeth. He clenches
MS nj hst In determination to keep his purpose.
He dare not look at the bottles in the window
OF wine store. 1t was one long, bitter, ex.
haustive, hand. To- hand fight with iniamed,
tantalizing and merciless habit. When he
thinks he Is entirely free the old incliuations
pounce upon him like pack of hounds with
their muzzles tearing away at the TANKS of one
poor reindeer. In Paris there is sculptured
representation of Bacchus. the god of reyelry
He is riding on a panther at full leap. O, how
suggestiyel Let everyone who Is speeding on
bad WAYS understand he is not riding on a do.
Gle and well-broken steed, but he is riding q
monster, wild and bloodthirsty, going at
death leap.
GOOD RESOLUTIONS HRoKrS
How many there are who resolve on better
life and say: when shall / awaken but,
seized on by Their old habits, cry: II will try
1t once more; will seek II yet againl" Years
ago there were some Princeton students who
were skating, and the ice was very thin, and
some one warned the company back from the
ar-hole, 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 morew He swept around
and went down, and was brought out a corpse.
My friends, there are thousands and tens of
thousands OF men losing their souls In that
way. Ii Is the one round more.
have also to say that II a man wants to re-
turn from evil practices society repulses him.
Desiring to reform, he says: Now, I will
shake off my old associates, and will find
Christian companionship." And he appears at
the church door some Sabbath day, and the
usher greets him with a look, as much as TO
say: "Why, you herea You are the last man
ever expected TO see at church, Come, take
this seat right down by the door!' instead Of
saying: "Good morning; am glad you are
here. Come; | will give you a first rate seat,
rid nm hV he Inf all ha