Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1890-03-20
LIVING OVER AGAIN.
Or. Talmage Discourses on the
Preciousness Of Life.
Man Not Satisfied With the Many MISTAKES
of the Pasta Second Trial Would
likely Prove a Failure Prof
iting By the Past.

4. DE Witt IalmRge took for his sub
feet: Would You Like to Live Your
Life Over Again?" His text was Job ii.
4: "All that man hath will he give for
his life" He said:
That is untrue. The Lord did not say
it, but Satan said it to the Lord when
the evil one wanted Job still more az
licted. The record is; $50 went Satan
forth from the presence Of the Lord and
smote Job with sore boils" And Satan
has been the author of all eruptive dis
eases since then, and he hopes by poi
soning the blood to poison the soul But
the result of the diabolical experiment
which left Job victor proved the falsity
of the Satanic remark: "All that man
hath will he give for his life" Many a
captain who has stood on the bridge of
the steamer till his passengers got of
and he drowned; many an engineer who
has kept his hand on the throttle valve
or his foot on the brake until the most
OF the train was saved while he went
down TO death through the open draw
bridge; many fireman Who plunged
into a blazing house to get sleeping
child out sacrificing his life in The IT
tempt, and thousands 81 martyrs who
submitted 10 fiery stake and knife of
Massacre and headman's axe and guillo-
tine rather than surrender principle,
proving that in many case my text
was not true, when it says: 'All that a
man hath will he give for his life"
But Satan's falsehoOd was built on a
truth. Life is very precious, and IL we
would not give up all there are many
things we would surrender rather than
surrender it. We see how precious life
is from the fact that we do every thing
TO prolong it. Hence all sanitary regu-
lations, all study of hygiene, all fear of
draughts, all waterproofs, all doctors,
all medicines, all struggles in crisis Of
accident
An Admiral of the British navy was
court-martialed for turning his ship
around in time of danger and so damsg-
ing the ship. 1t was proved against
him. But when his time came to be
heard he said: Gentlemen, did turn
the ship around and admit that it Yves
damaged, but do you want to know why
/ turned il? There was q man overheard
and wanted to save him and did save
him. / considered the life of one sailor
worth all the vessels of the British
navy" No wonder he was indicated.
Life is indeed very precious. Yea, there
are those who deem it so precious they
would like TO repeat it; they would like
to try it again. They would like to go
back from seventy to sixty, from sixty
to fifty, from fifty to forty, from forty TO
thirty, from thirty to twenty. 1 pro-
pose for very practical and useful pur-
poses, as will appear before 1 get
through, to discuss the question we have
asked of others, and have again asked
of us-would you like to live your life
over again?
The fact is that no intelligent and
right fearing man is satisfied with his
past life. We have all made so many
mistakes, stumbled into so many blum
ders, said so many things that ought
not to have been said and done so many
things that ought not to have been done
that We can suggest at least B5 per cent
O. Improvement Now would it not be
grand if the good Lord would say to
you; "You can go back and try it over
again. will by word turn Your hair
to brown or black or golden, and smooth
all the wrinkles out of your temple and
cheek, and take the bend out of your
shoulders, and extirpate the stiffness
from the joint and the rheumatic twinge
from the foot and you shall be twenty
one years of age and Just what you were
when you reached that point before"
If the proposition were made l think
many thousands would accept it
That feeling caused the ancient search
for what was called the fountain of
youth, the waters Of which taken would
turn the hair of the octogenarian into
the curly lock of boy, and, however
old person who drank at that foun tain,
he would be young again. The island
was said to belong to the group of the
Bahamas, but lay far out in the ocean.
The great Spanish explorer, Juan Ponce
de Leon, fellow voyager of Columbus,
have no doubt felt that if he could dis
cover that fountain of youth he would
do as much as his friend had done in
discovering America. So he put out in
1912 from Porto Rico and cruised about
among the Bahamas in search of that
fountain. am glad he did not find it.
There is no such fountain. But IL there
were, and its waters were bottled up
and sent abroad at $1,000 bottle, the
demand would be greater than the sup
ply, and many man who has come
through life of uselesSness, and per-
haps sin, to old age would be shaking
up the potent liquid, and if he were di-
rected to take only teaSpoonful after
each meal would be so anxious to make
sure work he would take tablespoonful
and if directed to take a tablespoonful
would take glassful. But some of you
would have to go back further than to
twenty-one years of age to make fair
start for there are many who man
age to get all wrong before that
period. Yea, in order to get a fair
start some would have to go back to
She father and mother and get them
corrected; yea, to the grandfather and
grandmother and have their life cor
rected, for some of you are suffering
from bad hereditary influences which
started a hundred years ago. Well, if
your grandfather lived his life over
again and, your father lived his life over
again and you lived your life over again,
what a cluttered up place this world
would be, place filed with miserable
attempts at repairs. l begin to think
that it is better for each generation to
have only one chance and then for them
TO pass off and give another generation
q chance.
Besides that If we were permitted to
live life over again. it would be state
of stupid experience. The Eest and spur
and m Al -tsinc-.n ~ lifo cnr,naS from tia