Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1890-03-12
DR.. Talmsge's Sermon last Sunday.

"Wou!d you like to live your life over
againP" That was the question with which
the Raw. DR. Talmage began his sermon at
the Brooklyn Academy of Music Sunday
morning.
satisfied with bis past life" said the preach
or "We have all made so many mistakes,
stumbled into SO many bIunders, said 80
many things that ought not to have been
said, and done 30 many things that ought
never to have been done that we can sug-
gest at least ninety five per cent of improve
ment.
'"Would it not be grand if the good Lord
would say to you. 'You can go back and
try it all over againP Many thousands
would think 30, for life is precious and
Ponce de Leon perilled his life to fad the
Fountain of Youth. / am glad he did not
find it, for if Its waters were sold at 81 900
bottle the demand would be greater than
the supply, and many a man who has gone
through useless and sinful life would be
shaking up the potent liquid, and if he were
directed to take only teaspoOnful after
each meal, would ba SO anxious to make
sure work that he would take tablespoon.
fnl
STALE AND sTgBIn.
eff we were permitted to live life over
again it would be stale and stupid expert
ence. The East and spur and enthusiasm
of life come from the fact that we have
never been along this road before and every
thing is new, and we are alert for what may
appear at the next turn of the road. Sup
pose you, % IN in mid life or Old age, were,
with your present feelings and large attain
meuts, put back into the thrties, Or the
tventies, Or into the teens, what nuisance
you would be to others and what an uuhap.
piness to yourself"
"Your contemporaries would not wspt
you and you would not want them. Things
that in your previous journey of life stirred
your bealthfu ambition, or gave you pleas
urable surprise. or led you into happy in
terrngsuon, would only call forth from you
disguised, Oh, pshawP You would be
blase at thirty, misauthrops at forty, and
unendurable at fifty.
"The most inspe and STUPID thing i'm
aginable would be second journey of life
Besides that. if you took life over again
you would have to take it's deep sadaesses
over again Would you want to try again
the griefs and the heat breaks and the
bsrsavements through which you have
gomez
my frieads, our faces are In the right
direction Better go forward than back
ward. eveo if we had the choice. The
greatest disaster can think of would be
for you to return to bog hood in 1890 On,
if life were smooth Luz irne or Caynga
Lake, | would like to get lnsc yacht and
sail over it, not once, but twice-yea,
thousand times. But life is an uncertain
sea, and some of the ships crash oG the ice
bsrgs Of cold Indifference, and some take
fire of evil passion, and some lose their
bearings and run into the skerries, and some
are never heard Of Surely, on such
treacherous sea as that QUE voyage is
enough.
s'N ;; the wheel of time turns 10 the right
direction, and it is we'll it turns SO fast.
Three lIdred and sixty-fve revolutions in
year and forward, rather than three hun
dred and sixty i've revolutions in a year and
back ward. We have all these years been
learning how to be useful, and in the next
decade we ought to accomplish more fol
God and the Church and the world than in
any previous four decades.
''Tbe bsst way to atone for past indol-
ence or past transgressinn is by future ASST
duty, Yet 70. often fiud Christian men,
Who we're not converted until they were for
" or n1ty, aS Olu age comes on. eaY1pg:-
'Well, my work is about done and it is time
for ne to rest They give forty years of
their life to Satan and the world, little
fragment of their life to God aud now they
want to rest. Whether that belongs to
comedy OF tragedy say not.
DRIED LEAVES IN HEAVEN.
"The man who gave one half of bis earth
ly existence to the world, and of the re-
naming two quarters one to Christian work
and the other to rest, would not, suppose,
get very brilliant reception in heaven If
there are any dried leaves in heaven they
would be appropriate for his garland; OF if
there is any throne with broken steps it
would be appropriate for his coronation; or
aLy harp with relaxed string it would be
appropriate for his fiogering.
''My brother, you give nine tenths of
your life to sin and Satan, and then get cou-
verified, and then rest awhile in sanctifled
lsziness, and then go up to get your heaven
ly reward, and | warrant it will not take
the cashier of the royal banking house a
great while to count out to you all your
dues He will not ask you whether you
will have it iu bills of large denomination
or small.