The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1888-03-30
DIR. TALMAGE In THE WEST
REFORMATION FROM EVIL HABITS"
HIS SUBJECT IN CHICAGO.

Power In Gods Grace to Overcome the
Force of Moral Grayitation--Few People
Hearty Eandsiake.
CHICAGO, March 25.-The Rev. T. Dewitt
Talmage, D. D., pastor of the Tabernacle,
Brooklyn, II. Y, preached here this morning.
His subject was, Reformation from Evil
Habits and his text, Proverbs xiii, IS:
"When shall l awake9 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 operations Of
ono who, having stepped aside from the path
of rectiLude, desires to return. With wish
for something better, he says: "Whcn shall
! awake! When shall I come out of this
horrid nightmare Of iniquityF' But seized
upon by uneradicated habit, and forced
down hill by his passions, he cries out: ~
will seek it yet again. will try it once
more"
Our libraries 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
therocks, the quicksands, the shoals. But
suppose a man has already made shipwreck;
suppose he is already off the track; suppose
he has already gone astray, how is he to get
back! That is a field comparatively I'M
touched. propose to address myself this
evening to such. There are those in this sau-
dicnCo who, with every passion Of their
agoniZed soul, are ready to hear this discus
sion They compare themselves with what
they wero 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 l give
them my right hand and call them brother.
Look up There is glorious and triumphant
hope for you yet. / 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 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 is 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 60 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 you9 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 con-
duct-some of them good, some of them bad
To which style of habit did you the more
easily yield! Ali 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 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
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 gravitation.
The next thing in the way of your return is
the power of evil habit. know there arc
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, 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'll 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 boat in the rapids just above
Niagara, and try to row up stream. Take a
man gwen 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 daro to put my right hand in the fire
as once to indulge in it. Whyl Because it
was such a 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
obliging, he is scolding and fretful The COM
posure that characterized him has given way
to fretful rcstlessness, and he has become a
complete fidget. What power is it that has
rolled a wave of woe over the earth and
shaken a portent in the heavens9 Ho
has tried to stop smoking. After while
he says: 81 am going to do as please.
The doctor doesn't understand my case.
Pm 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, seeing 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 sunset2 What enchantment has
lifted 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 taskmaster; as long as we obey it,
it does not chastise us; but let us resist, and
we find that we are to be dashed with scorpion
whips, and bound with ship cable, and thrown
into the track of bone breaking Juggernauts.
During the war Of 1919 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 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-
n II. IL bon has