The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-03-26
SINS H0RRID NIGHTMARE
TALMAGE TELLS HOW TO SHAKE
OFF EVIL HABITS.

DlncultieS That beSet the Man Bent
on Moral Reform - Churches Too
Anxious About Their Membership
Society's Tendency to Repulse -
Association With Bad Companions
Must be Cut OF Entirely.
CHICAGO, March 25.-The Rev. T. De-
Witt Talmage, d. D., pastor of the Taber
nacle, Brooklyn, N. Y, preached here this
evening. His subject was Reformation
from Evil Habits" and his text Proverbs,
xiii, 35: "When shall awaKe' 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 operations of
one who, having stepped aside from the
path of rectitude, desires to return. With
a wish for something BETTER he says;
out of this horrid nightmare of in
iquityr But seized upon by uneradicated
habit, and forced down hill by his passions,
he cries out: 81 will seek it yet again.
will try it once more"
Our libraries are adorned with an elegant
literature addressed to young men, point
ing out to them all the dangers and perils of
life-complete maps of the voyage, showing
all the rocks, the quicksands, the shoals.
But suppose man has already made a ship
wreck; suppose he is already Off the track !;
suppose he has already gone astray, how is
he to get backi That is field compara-
lively untouched. l propose to address
myself this evening to such. There are
those in this audience who, with every pas
sion of their agonized soul, are ready to hear
this discussion. 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
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 a banquet at your return and the
hierarchs of heaven to fall into line of ban
nered 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 how you are to sur
mount those obstacles.
The first difficulty in the way of your re-
turn is the force of moral gravitation. Just
as there is a natural law which brings
down to the earth anything which YOU
throw into the air, so there is correspond
ing moral gravitation. In other words, it
is easier to go down than it is to go up: 1t 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
youa 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 10
your memorys 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 more easily
yieldl All my friends, we have to take
but a moment of self-inspection to find out
that there is in all our souls a force of moral
gravitation. But that gravitation may be
resisted. just as you may pick up from
the earth something and hold it in your
hand toward heaven, jut so, by the power
of Gods grace, soul fallen may be lifted
toward peace, toward pardon, toward
heaven. Force Of moral gravitation in
every one of us, but power of Gods grace
to overcome that moral gravitation.
The 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 a man given to intoxication.
He knows it is disgracing his family, de-
stroying his property, running him, body,
mind and soul. If that man, being ar intelii-
gent man, and loving his family, could
easily give up that habit, would he not do
sol The fact that he does not give 1t up
proves it is hard to give it up. 1t is a very
easy thing to. sail down stream, the tide car
ryiDg 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
lnclinations in our hearts and our 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 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
l quit that habit, and / would
as soon dare put my right hand in the fire
as once to indulge in it. Whyi Because it
was such terrible struggle to get over it,
Now, let IA man he advised by his physician
to give up the use Of tobacco. He goes
around not knowing what to do with him
self. He cannot add up a line of figures
He cannot sleep aights. 1t seems as II thes
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 fretful restlessness,
and he has become a complete fdget
What power is it that has rolled wave of
woe over the EARTH and shaken portent in
the heavens? He has tried 10 stop smoking.
After a while he says: 81 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 it's
usual composure. His business seems to
brighten. The world becomes an aitrac-
tive 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, and
the glow of sapphire into the sunsetl What
enchantment has lifted a world Of beauty
and joy on his souli He has gone back tO
smoking. Oh, the fact is, as we all know
in our own experience, that habit is tusx-
master; as long as we obey it, IL does not
chastise us; but let MS resist, and we find we
are to be lashed with scorpion whips, ana
bound with ship cable and thrown into
the track of bone-breaking Juggernnuts.
During the war OF 1912 there was ship set
on fire lust above Niagara Falls, and then,
cut loose from its moorings. IL came on
down through the night, and tossed over
the falls. II was said 10 have been scene
brilliant beyond all descrip-
ton. Well, there are thousands
Of men on fire of evil habit, com ng
down through the rapids and through the
awful night Of temptation toward the
eternal plunge. Oh, how hard IL Is 10 arrest