Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1888-04-06

a Sermon By Talmags, on Reformation from
Evu Habits"


Rev. Z. Dewitt Talmage preached in
Chicago on Sunday evening, March %.
His subject was, Reformation From
Evil Habits, and his text, Proverbs
xiii, 30: when shall L awake? I
silI seek it yet again. He said:
With an insight into human nature
such as no other man ever reached,
Solomon, in my text, sketches the men
tai operations of one who, having
stepped aside from the path of rectitude
desires to return. With a wish for
something better, he says: when
shall awake? When shall I come out
of this horrible nightmare of iniquity ?"
But seized upon by uneradicated habit,
and forced down hill by his passions,
he cries out: Il viii seek it yet again.
viii try it once more"
Our libraries are adorned with an
elegant literature addressed to young
men, pointing out to them all
the dangers and perilsof complete
maps of the voyage, showing all the
rocks, quicksands, and shoals But
suppose a man has already made ship
wreck; suppose he has already gone
astray, how is he to get back? That is
a field comparatively untouched.
propose to address myself this evening
to such. There are those in this audi
ence who, with every passion of their
agonized soul are ready to hear this dis
cussion. 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 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. Look up. There is
glorious and triumphant hope for you
yet. I sound the trumpet of gospel
deliverance. The church is ready to
spread banquet at your return, and
the hierarchies of heaven to fall into line
of hammered procession at the news OF
your emancipation. So far as God may
help me, propose to show what are
the obstacles of your return, and then
show how you are to surmount those
obstacles.
The first difficulty in the way OF
Your return is the force of moral gravi-
tation. just as there is a natural law
which brings down to the earth any
thing which You throw into the air, SC
there Is a corresponding moral gravita-
ton. In other words, it is easier to 60
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 you? Call
TO mind the anecdotes that you have
heard in the last five or ten years
some of them are pure and some Of
them impure. Which the more easily
sticks to your memory? During the
years of your life you have formed
certain courses of cOnduct-sOme o.
them good, some of them bad. To
which style of habit did you the NOR,
easily yield? All my friends, we have
to take but a moment of self-inspec
ton to find out that there is in all Oul
souls q force of moral gravitaiOn. Blu
that gravitatiOn may be resisted. JUS
as you may pick up from the eartl
something and hold it in your hanC
toward heaven, Just so by the power e
Gods grace, a soul fallen may be LITE,
toward peace, toward pardon, tOwar,
heaven. Force of moral gravitatiOn IL
every one of us, but power in God
grace to overcome that force of mora
gravitatiOn.
The next thing in the way of you
return Is the power of evil habit.
know there are those who say it is yer,
easy for them to give up evil habits. d,
not believe them. Here is a man givel
to intOxicatiOn. He knows it Is disgrac
ing his family, destroying his property
running him, body, mind and soul
If that man, being an intelligen
man and loving his family, could easil,
give up that habit, would he not do so
The fact that he does not give it III
proves 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 III
stream, Is it so easy then to row it? A
long as we yield to the evil inclination
In our hearts and our bad habits. W
are sailing down stream, but the mo
ment we try to turn, we put our boa
in the rapids Just above Niagara AM
try to row up stream. Take a MAJ
given to the habit of using tobacco, a
most of you do, and let him resolve t
stop, and he finds it very difficult
Twenty-one years ago quit that habit
and I would as soon dare to put m
right hand into the fire as once to in
dulge In it. Why? Because it wa
such terrible struggle to get over it
Now, let a man be advised by his physi