The Forrest City times., 1888-03-31
TALMAGE IN THE WEST.
APPROPRIATION FROM EVIL HABITS. ,

TSlmare b. D., pastor of the Tabernacle Rpos1yn, \. Y; preached here this evening Ills sue,ect was, "Reformation from Evil Hshta- and his text Proverbs xiii, s5; When shall awakei will seek it yet again" He said:
 NiA sn insight into human nature such as no otser man ever reached, Solomon, in my tert skstches the mental operations of one wha havng stepped aside from the path of reciituae. desires to return. With a wish for somethtng better, he saysi "When shall l a~akei When shah come out of this hor- rid nightnarc of inlqulty" But seized upon ey urersdlcaied habit and forced down hill hy As passions, he cries out; Fl will seek it yet again l will try 1t once more"
 Our libraries are adorned with an elegant literature addressed to young men, pointing out to them sii the dangers and perils of life -ooIn plete maps of the voyage, showing all the rockS tho quicksands, the shoals But suppose . man has already made shipwreck; {; suppose he is already of the track; suppose he has already gone astray, how is he to get baeki That Is a field comparatively untouch- sd propose to address myself this evening b such There are those in this audience vho, with every passion of their agonized soul arc ready to'hear this discussion. They oompsre themselves with what they were ten years sgo and cry out from the bondage in which they arc incarcerated. Now. if there be sny in this house, come with an earnest purpose. yet feeling they are beyond the pale of Christian sympathy aud that the sermon can hardly be expected to ad
 dress them, then, at this moment, l give them my right hand and call tbem brother. Look up. There is glorious and triumphant hope for you yet. l sound the trumpuet of Gospel deliversnce. The church Is ready to spread banquet at your return and the hlersrchs of heaven 10 fall into line of banner ed procession at the news of your emsne pa- ton. So far as God may help me, l prot ose to show what are the obstacles of your return, and then how 1ou afe 10 suTmoGat 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 .o the earth anything which you throw into the afr, 90 there corresponding moral gravitation. In other words, IL Is easier to go down than 1t is to go up; It is easier to do wrong than it is to do right Gall to mind the comrades of your bOyhoOd dai s-some or them good, some of them bad. Which most affected youi Call to mind the anecdotes that you have beard in the last i've or ten years-some of them are pure and some of them impure Winch the more easily sticks to our memoryi During the years of your life You have formed certain courses Of con duct-some Of them good, some Of tbem bad. To which style of habit did you the more easily yleldt An my friends, we have 10 take but moment of self-inspection to find out that there is in all our souls force ot moral gravltstiou. But that gravltstIon may be resisted. Just as you may pick up from the earth some thing and hold 1t m your hand toward heaven, just as by the power of God 8 grace s soul fallen may be lifted toward peace, toward pardon toward heaven. Force of moral grayitation in every one Of us, but power in Gods grace to overcome that force of moral grsvitation,
 The next thing n the way of your return is the power of evl habit. I know there are those who say it is very easy for them to give up evil babts. do not believe them. Here l Is a man given to intoxication. He knows 1t It Is disgracing his famly destroying hIs property, ruinlng him, body, mind and soul. II that man, being an intelligent man, and loving his family, could easily ve up that habit, would he not do sol The fact that be does not gve 1t up proves that it Is hard to give 1t up. It is a very easy thing to sail down tue stream, the tide carrying YOU with great force; but suppose you turn the boat up | stream, is 1t So easy then to row iti As long as we yield to the evil incllnations in our hearts and our bad habts we are sailing down stream; but the moment we try to turn, we put our boat in the rapds just above Niagara and try to row up stream Take a man r ven 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 1 once to indulge in it Whyi Because 1t was such terrible struggle to get over 1t. 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 can not add up line of figures. He cannot sleep nights l: seems as if the world had turned upside down. He feels his business is going to ruin Where he was kind aud obliging he Is scolding and fretful. The com l posture that characterised him has given way to fretiul resllessness, and be has become a complete hdget What power IS 1t that has rolled wave of woe over the earth and shal- en portent in the heavensi He has tried to stop smoking. After a while he saysi ''I 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 usu- al composure His business seems to brighten. The world becomes an attractive place to live in. His children, seeing the difference, hail | the return of their fathers genial d spostion. What wave of color has dashed blue into the sky and greenness into the mountain foliage and the glow of the sapphire into the sunset What enchantment has lifted world of beau , ty and joy on his soult He has gone back lo smoking. Oh, the fact is as we all know in our own experience, that habit is a task mas ter; as long AS we obey 1t, it does not chastise us, but let us resist, and we find We are to be lashed with scorpion whips, and bound with ship cable, and throw into the track of bone breaking Juggernauts- During the war of ! 1872 there was a ship set on fire just above 1 Niagara Falls, and then, cut loose from its | moorings, 1t come on down through the night, l and tossed over tue Falls. It was said to have been 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 1t 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 ths forces of darkness are allied agansi him He cannot sleep nights. He gets down on his knees in the midnight and cries. God held mel" He bites his lip. He grinds his teeth. He clenches his fist in a determ nation to keep his purpose. He dares not look at the bottles in the windows of wine store. It 1. one long, bitter, exhaust ve, hand-to-hand fight with enfamed, tantalizing and mere less habit When he thinks he is entirely free the old inclinations bounce upon him like pack Of bounds with their muZzes tearing away al the fahks of one poor reindeer. In Paris there is sculptured representation of Bae- chus, the god Of reyelry. He Is riding on a panther at full leap Ohl how suggestive
 Let every one who Is speeding on bad ways understand he is not riding a dOele and well broken steed. but he Is riding monster wild and blood thirsty, going at death leap. How many there are who resolve on a better life, and say When shall awaken but. SC zed on by their old habits, cry: "l Will try ii once more; Will seek it yet againW Years ago, there were some Princeton students W he were skating and the ice was Yer thin, and some one warned the company back from the r-hole, and finally warned them entirely to leave the place. But one young man with brsvsdo, after all the rest had stopped. cried out: 'One round moreri He swept around, and went down, and was brought out corpse, My friends, there are thousands and tens of thousands oi men losing their souls in that
 way. It is the one round more.
 have also to say that II a man wants to turn from evil practices, SOC ety repnlses him. Desiring to reform, he says: "Nuw, 1 will
 shake of my old associates, and will find Chr stiau companions lip" And he appears at the church door some Sabbath day, and he
 usher greets him with A look as much as to say: "Why, you herel You are the last man I ever expected to see at church Come, take this seat right down by the door.p h. stead of saying: "Good morning; l am glad you are here. Come; l will give you a first
 rate seat, right up by the pulpit" Well, the
 prodigal, not yet discouraged, enters a prayer meeting, and some Christian man, with more zeal than common sense, says: "Glad to see you; the dying thiet was saved,