The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1889-08-02
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Brooklyn Preacher Tells the
Hoosiers elbow to Conquer.
A Sermon on the Force OF Evu Habits
and the Difficulties In the nth
way of Reform - Through
Christ We Conquer.

Rev. 7. Dewitt Taimage preached the
following sermon at Lake Maxinkuckee,
Ind, on the subject Of Chow to Conquer"
His text was:
When shall hawke? will seek it yet again.
Proverbs xiii, IS.
With an insight into human nature
such as no other man ever reached, Solo
mon, in my text, sketches the mental Op-
eratiOns Of one who, having stepped
aside from the path of rectitude, desires
to return. With a wish for something
better he said: ''When shall 1 awaken
When shall / 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 ele-
CANT literature addressed to young men
pointing out to them all the dangers and
perils of life, complete maps of the voy-
age, showing all the rocks, the quick
sands, the shoals. But suppose 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 field comparatively I'M
touched. propose to address myself to
such. There are those in this audience
EN%1oAN-A
nized soul, are ready to hear such a dis
cussiOn. tn ey 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 feel
ing they are beyond the pale of Christian
sympathy, and that the sermon can hard
ly be expected to address them, then. at
this moment, 1 give them my right hand,
III Al, l. l.
Is glorious and triumphant hope for you
yet. l sound the trumpet Of Gospel de-
liverance. The Church is ready to spread
a banquet at your return, and the hie-
rarchs of Heaven to fall into line of BAN
nered procession at the news OF your
emanci patton. So far as God may help
me, propose to show what are the OBJ
stacles Of your return, and then how you
are to suTmOunt those obstacles.
The first difficulty in the way of your
return is the force of moral graTitation.
Just as there is q natural law which
brings down to the earth any thing you
throw into the air, so there is a corre-
spending moral gravitatiOu. In other
words. it is easier to go 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. Which most af-
fected your Call to mind the anecdotes
you have heard in the last five or ten
years-some Of them pure and some Of
hem 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, you have to take but a mo-
ment Of self-inspection to find out that
there is in all our souls a force of moral
gravitation! Bat that gravitatiOn may
be resisted. Just as you may pick up
from the earth something and hold it III
your hand toward Heaven, just so, by
the power Of GOls grace a soul fallen
may be lifted toward peace, toward par
don, toward Heaven. Force Of moral
gravitation in every one of US, but power
in Gods grace to overcome that force of
moral gravitaiou.
The next thing in the way of your re-
tuIn is the power of evil habit. I know
there are those who say it is very easy for
them to give up evil habits. 1 do not be-
lieve them. Here is q man given to iu-
toxicaGOn. He knows it is disgracing his
family, destroying his property, running
him, body, mind and soul, II that man,
being an intelligent man, and loving his
family, could easily give up that habit,
would he not do so? The fact that he
does not give it up proves that it is hard
| to give it up. It is a very easy thing to
sail down stream, the tide carrying you
with great force; but suppose you turn
the boat upstream, is it so easy then to
row it? As long as we yield to the evil
inclinations in our hearts, and our bad
habits, we are sailing downstream; but
the moment we try to turn, we put our
| boat in the rapids Just above Niagara, and
| try to run upstream.
Take man given to the habit of using
| tobacco, as most Of you do, and let him
resolve to stop, aud he finds it very diff
| cult Twenty years ago l quit the
/ habit, and would as sOOE dare put my
right hand in the fire as once to indulge in
it. Why? Because it was such a terrible
| struggle to get over it. Now, let a man
be advised by his physician 10 give up the
usa of tobacco. He goes around not
/ knowing what to do with himself He can
not add up a line of figures. He can not
sleep nights. It seems as if the world
/ had turned upside down. He feels his
| business is going to ruin. Where he was
kind and obligiug he is scolding and fret
| full. The cOmposure that characterized
| him has given way to a fretful restless
| ness, and he has become a complete
| fidget. What power is it that has rolled
/ a wave of woe over the earth and shaken
| a porteut in the heavens? He has tried to
| stop smoking or chewingI After awhile
/ he says: 81 am going to do rs l please.
! The doctor doesn't understand my case.
| Pm going back to my old habit" Aud
he returns. Every thing assumes its usual
| Composure. His business seems to
| brighten. The world becomes an attract
| i've place TO live in. His children, seeing
| the difference, hail the return of their
| fathers genial disposition. What wave
| of color has dashed blue in the sky, and
! greeuness into the mountain foliage, and
| the glow of sapphire into the sunseti
! What enchautmsut has lifted a world of
! beauty and joy on his soul? lie has gone
| back to tobacco!
! Oh, the fact is, as we all Know in our
/ own experience, that habit is a taskmas-
/ ter; as long as we obey it, it does not
| chastise us; bat let US resist and we find
/ We are to be dashed with scorpion whips
| and bound with ship cable, and thrown
/ into the track of bone breaking Jurger-
/ nauts Duri,es thu war of 1912 there was
| a ship set on hre just above Niagara Falls,
| and then, cut loose from its moorings, il
| came on down through the night and
| tossed over the falls. 1t was said to have
/ been q scene brilliant beyond all de-
/ scription. Well, there are thousands OF