The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1889-08-02
HOW TO CONQUER.
Dr.. Talmaae Gives Advice to Those
Seeking Salvation.

| The Power of Evil Inclinati0ns When Once
Acquired-Society Not Inclined to Aid
the Fallen-Ths Lord Ever Ready
to Help.
In a recent sermon Rev. T. Dewitt Tai.
mafge discodrseu on the subject: How
to Conquer" The text was: when shall
awake? will seek it yet again." Prov.
cribs xiii IS. 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
wish for something better he said:
when shall l come out Of this horrid
nightmare Of iniquity?" But seized upon
by uneradicated habit and forced down
hill by his passions, he cried out: II will
seek it yet again. will try it once more. {"
Our libraries are adorned with an ele.
CANT literature addressed to young men.
pointing out TO them all the dangers aud
perils of Efe-complete maps of the voy.
age, showing all the rocks, and quick.
sands, the shoals. But suppose man has
already made shipwrsck; suppose he Is
already off the track; suppose he has al.
ready gone astray. How is he to get
back? That is a field comparatively I'M
touched. I propose to address N.Y.
self to such. There are those in this audi
snce who, with every passion of their
a4onizsd soul, are ready to hear such q
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
here, come with an earnest purpose, yet
feeling they are beyond the pale of Chris.
tian sympathy, and that the sermon 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 vet. sound the trumpet Of Gospel
dsliverance. The Church is ready to
spread a banquet at your return and the
hierarchss 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 any
thing you throw into the air, so there is a
corresponding moral gravitation. In
other words, 1t Is easier to 60 down than
it Is to go up; it is easier to do wrong than
60 do right. Call to mind the comrades Of
your boyhood days-some of them good.
some Of them bad-which 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 con-
duct-soms 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 moment of self inspec.
ton to snd out that there is in all our
souls force Of moral gravitation! But
that gravitation may be resisted. Just as
you pick up from the earth something and
hold it in your hand toward Heaven. just
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
moral gravitation.
turn is the power Of evil habit know
there are those who say that 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 property. ruin
ing him. body, mind and soul. If that
man, being an intelligent man, and loving
his family, could ca silly give up that habit
h< do h. Co. H., H. 4
not give it up proves that it is hard to
give it up. 1t is a very easy thing to sail
down stream, the tide carrying you with
reat force; but suppose you turn the
boat up stream. is it so easy then to row
il? As long as we yield to the evil inclina-
tions in our hearts we put our boat in the
rapids just above Niagara and try 10 row
up stream
Take a man given to the habit of using
tobacco, as most of you do, and let him
resolve to stop and he finds it is very diff
ficult Twenty-seven years ago 1 quit
that habit and would as soon dare to
put my right hand in the fire as once to
indulge in it. Why? Because it was such
a terrific struggle to get over it. Now.
let man be advised by his ply stefan to
give up the use of tobacco. He goes
around not knowing what to do with him.
self. He can not add no q line of figures.
He can not sleep nights. 1t seems as if
the world had turned upside down. He
feels his business going to ruin. Where
he was kind and obli2ing he is scold-
ing and fretfuL The composurs that char
acterizsd him has given way to fretful |
and he has become a com.
plete fidgst. What power is it that has
rolled a wave Of woe over the earth and |
shaken portent in the heavens? He has |
tried to stop smoking or chewing! After |
awhile he says: II am going to do as |
please. The doctor doesn't understand |
nv case. Pm going back to my old hab- |
it." And he returns. Every thing as.
sumes its usual composure. His business |
sesms to brighten. The world becomes an |
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 |
sunset? What enchantment has lifted a |
world of beauty and joy on his souli He |
has gone back to tobacco!
o, the fact is, as we all know in our own |
experience, that habit is a taskmaster; as
long as we obey it it does not chastise us,
but let US resist and we find we are to be
lashed with scorpion whips andlbound with
ship cable and thrown into the track of |
BONE breaking jug yernau.s! During the
war of 1912 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 q 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 tsmpta-