Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-08-01
HOW TO CONQUER.
Dr.. Talmage Gives Advice to Those
Seeking Salvation
The Power of Evil Inclinatfons When Once
Acquired-SocIety Not Inclined to Aid
the Fallen-The Lord Ever Ready
to Help.

In a recent sermon Rev. T. Dewitt Tall
malge discoGrseu on the subject: How
to Conquer" The text was: when shall
l awake: Twill seek it yet again" Prov
erbs xiii IS. He said:
With an insigh 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
a wish for something better he said:
When shall come out of this horrid
nightmare of iniquity:" But, seized upon
b. uneradicated habit and forced down
hill by his passions, he cried out: Il will
seek it yet again. / will try it once more"
Onr libraries are adorned with an ele-
CANT literature addressed to young men,
pointing out 10 them al the dang gers and
perils of Efe-complete maps of the voy-
age, showing all the rocks, and quick
sands, the shoals. But suppose a man has
already made shipwreck; suppose he is
already off the track; suppose he has al
ready gone astray. How is he to get
back? That is field comparatively un-
touched. l propose to address my
self TO such. There are those in this audi
ence who, with every passion Of their
agon;zed soul, are ready to hear such a
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 I 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
dSliverance. The Church is ready to
spread 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
gravitaton. 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, it is easier to go down than
it is to go up; 1t is easier to do wrong than
to 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-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-
tion to snd out that there is in all our
souls a 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, 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 gPavitation.
The next thing in the way of your re-
turn is the power of evil habit l know
there are those who say that it is very
easy for them to give up evil habits. l do
not believe them. Here is man given to
intoxication. He knows it is disgracing
his family, destroying his property, ruin
ing him. body, mind and soul. II that
man, being an intelligent man, and loving
his family, could es silly 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. 1t is 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
it? As long as we yield to the evil inclina-
tions in our hearts we put our boat in the
rapids just above Niagar and try to row
up stream
Take q 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 l quit
that habit and l 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 physician to
give up the use of tobacco. He goes
around not knowing what to do with him
self. He can not add up 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 obliging he is scold-
ing and fretful. The composure that char
acterized him has given way to fretful
restiessaess, and he has become a COM
plete idget. What power is it that has
rolled a wave Of woe over the earth and
shaken a portent in the heavens? He has
tried to stop smoking or chewing! After
awhile he says: Il 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
attractive 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
skv. and greenness into the mountain
foliage. and the glow of sapphire into the
sunset? What eRchantment has lifted
world of beauty and joy on his soull 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 fnd we are to be
lashed with scorpion whips andIbound with
shin cable and thrown into the track of
bone-breaking JugXernauts! During the
war of 1912 there was a ship set on fire
lust 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 tempta-
ton toward the eternal plunge. o. how
hard it is to arrest them. God only can
arrest them.
Suppose a man after five, or ten, or
twenty years of evil doing resolves to do
right: Why, all the forces Of darkness