Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-03-26
1 RETURN TRIP.
Some of the Difficulties that 0bstruct
the Return Of a Sinner TO
the Fold.
The F0rce Of Moral GrsVitatlon, tie
Power Of EVu Habit, and the
RepulsiOns Of Society.
I. Dewitt Ta'maKs Explains LucidIy md
Logically How the Paths of Virtue
FOrBaken May be RSgained.
Special TO the Gazette.

Dewitt Talmsge, DID,, pastor of the
Tabernacle, Brooklyo, n. Y, preached
here this evening His subject WAS, Gre
formation from Evil Habits" and his
text, Proverbs xiii, So: "When shall 1
awake? l will 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 mental opera
tons of one who, having stepped aside
from the path Of rectitude, desires to re-
turn. With wish for something better,
ne says: "When shall l awake? When
shall come out of this horrid nightmare
of iuiquity7" But seized upon by unerad-
icsted habit, and forced down hill by his
passions, he cries out: "I will seek il
yet again will try it once more"
Our libraries are adorned with an ele-
CANT literature addressed to young men,
pointing out to them 81 the dangers and
perils OF life-complete maps of the voy-
age, showing all the rocks, the quick
sands, the shoals. But suppose man
has already made shIpwreck; suppose he
is already CT the track; suppose he mas
already gone sstrsy, how is he to get
back? That is fisld comparatively IN
touched. propose to address myself
this evening 10 such. There are those In
this audience who, with every passion of
their agoniz9d soul, are ready TO hear
this discussion. They compare them
selves with what they were ten years ago,
and cry out from the bondage in which
they are incarcerated. Now, il there be
any IN this house, come with an earnest
purpose, yet feeling they are beyond the
na1a ~ (NhriGfjan q and hot ho
sermon can hardly be expected to address
them, then, at this moment, l give
them my right hand and call them broth
er. Look up. There is glorious and tri-
umphant hope for you yet. sound the
trumpet Of gospel deliVerance. The church
is ready to spread d banquet st your re-
turn aud the hlerarchs Of heaven to fall
into line OF hammered procession st the
news OF your emancipation. So far as
God may help me, propose 10 show what
sre the obstacles OF your return, and then
how youiare to suTmount these obstacles.
The first diff Guilty in the way OF your
return IS the force Of moral gravitGtion.
Just as there is . natural law which
brings down to earth anything which you
throw into the air, so there is cores
ponding moral gravitstion. In other
words, it is easier to go down than it is
10 go up; 1t is easier to do wrong than it
is to do right. Call 10 mind the comrades of
YOUR BoYHoOD DAYS,
some Of them goot, some Of them bad.
Which most Effected you? Call to mind
then necdotes that you have heard in the
last i've or ten yeSrs-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 ce, tain courses of conduct-some
Of them good, some Of them bad. To
which style OF habit did you the more cas-
lily yield? All, my friends, we have to
take but 8 moment OF selfinspection to
find out that there is in all our souls q
force of moral gravitstion. But that
grsyitati5n msy be resisted. Just as you
may pick up from the earth something
and hold it in your hand toward heaven,
just so by the power CT Gods grace a soul
fallen may be lifted toward peace, toward
pArdoU, toward heaven. Force of moral
gravitstion IN every one of US, but power
in Gods grace to overcome that force Of
moral grsviGstion.
The next thing in the way of your re-
turn is the power ut evil habit. 1 know |
there are those who say it is very easy
for them 10 give up evil habits. l do not |
believe them. Here is man given to in !
toxlcation. He knows it is disgrscing |
his family, destroying his property, ruin |
Ing him, body, mind aid soul. If that
man, beicg an intelligent man, and low |
ing his family, could easily give up that |
habit, would he not do ST.? The fact that |
he does MT give it up proves it is hard to |
give It up. It is very easy thing to sail |
down stream, the tide carrying you with |
great force; but suppose you turn your |
boat up streSm, is 1t SO easy then to row |
it AS long as We yield to the evil in |
clinRtioBs in our heaTts and our bad |
h3bi's, we are ssllipg down stream; but |
the moment We try I'd return, we put our |
boat in the rapids j Ist above Niagara,
and try to row up stream. Take man |
given 20 the habit Of uaing tobacco, as
most Of you do, ara let him resolve to |
stop, and he finds it very difficult. T1en- |
ty-one years ago quit that habit, and
would as sooD dare to put my right hand
in the fire as once to indulge ID II. Why! |
Because it WAS such
A TERRIBLE STRUGGLE
to get over II. Now, let man be sd- |
used by his physici4n to give up the use
of tobacco. He goes around not know |
ing what to do with himself. He cannot
add up q line of figures. He cannot |
steep 1l2nlS. IL seems as II lnS WOrIQ |
had turned upside down. he feels his |
business is going to ruin. Where he was |
kind sud obligir G he is scoldjng and fret
full. The compOsure that characterized
him has given way to fretful restlessness,
end be hiss become q complete f1dget. |
WHAT power is it that has rolled wsve |
OF woe over the earth and shaken por-
tent in the heavens? He has tried to
stop smoking. After while he says: 81
am going to do as 1 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 atrrac- |
tive 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 |
greenness into the mountain foliage, and |
the glow of sapphire into the sunset! |
What chautmens has lifted q 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 q task master; as long IS we
obey it, 1t does not chsstise us; but let |
VIC iSf NJ ma fO ha ls chad /