Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1889-07-31
ONE UNHOLY INTIMACY WILL FILL
YOUR SOUL WITH MORAL DIS
TEMPER.
THE SORT OF FAREWELL LETTER
TO WRITE.


| LAKE MAxINKUCKEE. IND, July 81
Rev. T. De Witt Talmage preached at Cul.
yer Park assembly, this place, to day, great
crowds of people being present from Chica-
GO, Indianapolis, and the surrounding re-
gions. His subject was: "How to Con-
quer." The text was: "When shall I
awake? will seek it yet again. Prov.
xiii, 30. The eloquent preacher 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
puth of rectitude. desires to return. With a
wish for something better, he said: "When
shall awake? When shall I come out of
this horrid nightmare of iniquity ?" But,
seized upon by uneradicated habit, and
forced down hill by his passions, be cries
out: 81 will seek it yet again. l 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 ship wreck; suppose man is al.
ready off the track; suppose he has already
gone astray. How is he to get back? That
is field comparatively untouched l pro-
pose to address myself to such. There are
those in this audience who, with every pas
sion of their agoniZed soul, are ready to
hear such discussion. They compare
themselves with what they were ten years
ago, and ely out from the bondage in which
they are inearcerated Now, if there be
yet feeling they are beyond the pale of
thric IA no
Mon can hardly be expected to ad-
dress them, then, at this moment, 1
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 dsli7erance. The Church
is ready to spread banquet at your re-
turu, and the hierarchs of heaven to fall
into line of hammered 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 surmount those obstacles. The
first difficulty in the way of your return is
the force of moral gravitation. Just as
there is a natural law which brings down
to the earth anything yon throw into the
air, so there is a corresponding moral gravi-
tation. In other words, it is easier to 60
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-whieh 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 more easily sticks
to your memory? During the years of
your life you have formed certain courses of
conduct-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 a moment of self-inspec-
tlon to find out that there is in all our soul
force of moral grayitation? But that
gravitation may be resisted. just as you
may pick up from the earth something and
hold it in your band toward heaven, just so,
by the power of Gods grace, soul fallen
may be lifted toward peace, toward pardon,
toward heaven. Force of moral gravita-
tion in every one of Us, but power in Gods
grace to overcome that force of moral gravi-
tation.
The next thing in the way of your return
is the power of evil habit. l know there
are those who say it is very easy for them
to give up evil habits. I do not believe
them. Here is o man given to intoxication.
He knows it is disgraeing- his family, de.
stroying his property, running him, body,
mind and soul. If that man, being an in