Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1888-04-06
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Weekly DisoOurses of the Great
Brooklyn Preacher,
Subject: aRefOrmatiOnF From
Evil Esabits.o preached
at ChicagO.l

TEXT: "When shall diUdlse9 ItUM seek Il
yet dg1in."-Proverbs, xiii, 81.
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 a wish
for something better, be says; "When shall
l awakel When shall / come out Of this
horrid nightmare of iniquity~ But seized
| upon by uneradicatel habit, and forced
down hill by his passions, he cries out: II
VIII seek 1t yet again. will try it once
| more,n
Our libraries are adorned with an elegant
| literature addressed to young men, pointing
out TO them all the dangers and perils of life,
compete maps of the voyage, showing all
the rocks, the quicksands, the shoals But
suppose man has already made shpwreck;
suppose he is already of the track; suppose
he has already gone astray, how is he to get
back2 That is a field comparatively un-
touched propose to address myself this
evening to SUCH There are those in this au-
| dience who, with every passion Of their
| agonized soul, are ready to hear this discus
| sion. They compare themselves with what
they were ten years ago. and cry out from
the bondage in which they ere incarcerated.
Now, if there be any in this house, come
| with an earnest purpose, yet feeling they are
beyond the pale of Christian sylnpa' hy, 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
Gospel deliverance. The church is ready to
| spread banquet at your return and the
| hlerarchs of heaven TO fall into line of ban
nered procession at the news of your emanci.
patton. So far as 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 re-
turn is the force of moral gravitation. Just
as there sa natural law which brings down
to the earth anything which you throw into
the air, SO there is a corresponding moral
| gravitation. 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 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 mora easily sticks
to your memory! During the years of your
life you have formed certain courses of con-
duct-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 moment of self inspection to find
out that there is in all our souls force of
| moral gravitation. But that gravitation
may lie resisted Just as you may pick up
| from the earth something and hold it in your
hand toward heaven, just So by the power
of Gods grace, a 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 gravtation
Ihe 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. | do not believe them Here
is man given to intoxication. He knows it
is disgracng his family, destroying his prop
erty, running him, body, mind and soul If
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. 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 it 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 Soat in the rapids just above
| Niagara, and try to row up stream. Take
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 | quit that habit, and | would
as soon dare to put my right hand in the fire
as once to indulge in it. Why! 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
| cannot add up line of figures He cannot
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 scolding and fretful. The com
posure that characterized him has given way
to fretful restlessness, and he has become a
complete fidget What power is it that has
| rolled wave of woe over the earth and
shaken portent in the heavens! He
has treed to stop smoking. After while
he says; II am going to do as | please
| The doctor doesn't understand my case.
| I'm going back to the 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 ng the diff
ference, hail the return of their fathers genial
disposition. What wave of color has dashed
blue into the sky, and greenness into the
mountain foliage, and the glow of sapphire
into the sunset! 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 own experience, that
| habit is taskmaster; as long as we obey it,
| it does not chastise us; but let us resist and
we find that we are to be lashed with scorpion
whips, and bound with ship cable, and thrown
into the track of bone breaking Juggernauts.
| During the war of 1872 there was ship set
on fire just above Niagara Falls, and then,
cut loose from its moorings, 1t came on
| down through the night, and tossed over
the falls. 1t was said to have been a
scene brilliant beyond all description. Well,
there are thousands Of men on fire of evil
habit coming down through the rapids and
through the awful night of temptation to-
ward the eternal plunge. Oh, how hard it
is to arrest them. 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 allied
| against him. He cannot sleep nights He
| gets down on his knees in the midnight and
cries. 'God help mel" He bites his lips. He
| grinds his teeth. He clenches his fist in de.
termination to keep his purpose. He dare
| not look at the bottles in the windows of a
wine store 1t is one long, bitter, exhaustive,
hand to hand fight with in1amed, tan5aliz-
| ing and mercess 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 one
poor reindeer. In Paris there is sculptured
representation of Bacchus, the god of
revelry. He is riding on a panther at
full leap Oh! how suggestive. Let every
| one who is speeding on bad ways
understand he is not riding a docie and
we'll broken steed, but he is riding monster
wild and bloodthirsty, going at death leap.
| How many there are who resolve on a better
life, and say; "When shall | awaken
but, seized on by their old habits, cry: ~
will try it once more; will seek it yet
again" Years ago, there were some Prince
| ton students who were skating and the ice
was very thin, and some one warned the
company back from the air hole, and
finally warned them entirely to leave
the place But one young man with bravado,
after all the rest had stopped, cried out:
Zone round more y He swept around, and
went down, and was brought out corpse.
My friends, there are thousands and tens Of