The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-12-22
DR.. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S Sun.
DAY SERMON.
Cleveland, Ohio: "Of Track
How to Get On Again."


as no other man ever reached, Solomon, in
my text, sketches the mental operations or
one who, having stepped aside from the path
OF rectitude, desires to return. With a Wlsn
for something better be said: "When shall l
awake! When shall come out of this horrld
nightmare of iniquityN But. seized upon by
uneradicated habit and forced down hill oy
again. will try it once more" Our nDra-
ries 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 uuicSsandS and the shoals. But sup
pose man has alreeady made SplpWreck;
suppose he is already off the track: suppose
he has already. gone astray, how IS ne TO get
back? That is field comparatively I'M
touched. I propose to address myself this
morning to such. There are those IN this au-
d:euce who, with every passion OF their ago
nized soul, are ready to hear such 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 symra.h
and that the sermon can hardly be expected
to address them, then, at this moment, give
them my right hand and call them brother
IL ok up! There is glorious and trlumphans
hope for you yet. I sound the trumpet Oh
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 enan-
@EpaSon. So far as God may help me, pro-
pose to show what are the obstacles OF your
return, and then how you are to surnnount
those obstacles. The first difficulty in the
way Of your return is the force 1 Oh m9ral 9ra.
which brings down to the earth anything
YOU throw into the air, so there is corre-
spon ling moral gravitation. In ether words,
tits easier to e. down than it is to go up; it
is cas- or to do wrong than 1t 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
anecdotes that you have heard in the last five
some Of them impure. Which the more
easily sticks to your memory? During the
wears of your life you have formed certain
courses Of condu :t-some Of them good,
some Of them bad TO which style Of habit
did you the more easily yield! All! my
friends, we have to take but momeut
of self-inspection to find out that
there is in all our souls force of moral grav-
itation. But that gravitation may be re-
sisted. Just as you may pick up from the
earth something and hold it in your nand to-
ward heaven, just so, by the power of Gods
grace, q 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 gravitation. The next
thing in the way Of your return is the power
of evil habit. I know there are those who
say it is very easy for them to give up evil
habits. I do not believe them. Here is a
man given to intoXitation. He knows it is
disgracing his family, destroying his prop
h<N IND md c0,,1
that man, being an 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.
It Is q very easy thing to sail down stream,
the tide carrying 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
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
cry to row up stream. Taie man given to
the habit of using tobacco, as most of you
do. and let him resolve to STOP and he finds
it very difficult. Twenty.one years ago I
Quit that habit, and I would as soon dare to
out but INV nv right hand in the fire as once to in.
dulge in it Whys Because it was such
terrible struggle to get over it Now, 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 cam
not add up line of figures. He cannot sleep
nights It seems a. il the world had turned
upside down He feels his business is going
to ruin. Where he was kind and obliging,
he is scolding and fretful. The composure
that characterized him has given way to q
fretful restlessness, aud he has become COM
plete fdget. Whit power is it that has
rolled q wave Of woe over the earth and
shaken a portent in the heavens? He has
tried to stop smoking! After a while he
says: 81 am going to do as please. The
ing back to my old habit" And he returns.
Everything assumes its usual composure.
His business scens to brighten. The
world becomes an attractive place to live
in His children, seeing the difference, hail
the return Of their fathers genial disposition.
What wave Of color has dashed blue into the
sky, and greenness into the mountain foliage,
What enchantment has lifted world of
beauty and Joy on his soul7 He has gone
back to smoking Oh. the fact is, as we all
know in our experience, that habit is task.
master; as long as we obey it. it does not
chastise US, but let us resist, and we lind We
are to bs lashed with scorpion whips and
bound with ship cable, and thrown into the
track of bone breaking Juggernauts. Dur
ing the war Of 1872 there was ship set on
fire Just above Niagara Falls, and 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 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 than. God only can arrest them
Suppose man, after five or ten or twenty
years Of evil-doing, resolves to do right!
WHY, all the forces Of darkness are alled
against him. He cannot sleep nights. De
gets down on his knees in the midnight, and
cries: "God help me-" He bites his lip. de
erinds his teeth. He clinches his fist IN a
determination to keep his purpose. He care
not look &C the bottles in the window OF a
wine store 1t wai one Ing, bitter, exhaust
i've, hand-to hand fight with intiamed, tan. y.
talizing aad me.ciless habit. When ne
thinks he is entirely free, the old in nclinations
pounce upon him like pack Of hounds with
their muzzles tearing away at thu fanks OF
oae poor reindeer. In Paris there is scuip
tured representation or Bacchus, the god
at full leap. Oh, how suggestive! Let
every one who is speeding on bad ways
understand he il not riding docile and
well-broken steed but he is riding q monster,
wild and blgoitn:rsty, going at death leap.
How many there are who resolve on q bet
ter life aid say: when shall IawakeT
but. seized on by their oil habits, cry: y
will try it once more: l will seek it yet
again!" Years ago there were some Prince
ton stu lents who were skating, and the ice
was very thin, and some one warned the
company ba X from the airhols, and finally
warned them entirely to leave the place.
But one young man, with brayado, after all
the rest had stopped, cried out: "One round
more!" He swept around ard went down,