Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1890-03-20

ond journey Of life. 1t is amusing to
hear people say: Il would like to live
my life over again, II 1 could take my
present experience and knowledge of
things back with me and begin indeF
those improved auspices" Why, what
an uninteresting boy you would be with
those present attainments IN child
mind. No one would want such a boy
around the house. A philosopher at
twenty, scientist at fifteen, an archa-
ologist at ten and a domestic nuisance
all the time. An oak crowded into an
acorn. A Rocky mountain eagle thrust
into the egg shell from which it was
Matched.
Besides that, If you took life over
again, you would have to take its deep
sadness over again. Would you want to
try again the griefs and the heartbreaks
and the bereavements through which
you have gone? What a mercy that we
shall never be called to suffer them
againl We may have others bad enough,
but those old ones never again. Would
you want to 60 through the process of
losing your father again or your mother
again or your companion in life again or
your child again?
Besides that would you want to risk
the temptations of life over again?
From the fact that you are here 1 con-
clude that though in many respects
your life may have been unfortunate
and Unconsecrated you have got on so
far tolersbly well, if nothing more than
to,erable. AS for myself, my life has
been far from being as consecrated as
would like to have had it. l would not
want TO try it over again, lest next time
would do worse.
Why, just look at the temptations we
have all passed through, and just look
at the multitudes who have gone COM
pletely Under. Just call over the roll
OF yoGr school mates and college mates,
the clerks who were with you in the
same store or bank, or the operatives in
the same factory, with just as good
prospects as you, who have come to COM
plete nishap. Some young man that
told you that he ives going to be mill
lionaiFe and own the fastest trotters on
Westchester turnpike and retire by the
time he was thirty-five- years of sgej
you do not hear from him for many
years, and know nothing about him un-
til some day he comes into your store
and asks for five cents to get d mug Of
beer. You, the good mother of the
household and all your children rising
up TO call you blessed, can remember
when you were quite jealous of the belle
of the village who was so transeendent-
ly fair and popular. But while you
have these two honorable and queehly
names of wife and mother; she became
poor waif of the street and went into
the blackness of darkness forever. Live
life over again? Why, if many of those
who are now respectable were permitted
to experiment the next journey would
be demolition. YOU got through, as Job
says, by the skin of your teeth. Next
time you might not get through at all.
Satan would sayi Il know him better
how than l did before, and have for
fifty years been studying his weak
nesses, and / will weave a stronger
web of circumstances to catch him
next time" And Satan would center
state of that man would be worse than
the first My friends, our faces are in
the right direction. Better go forward
than backward, even If We had the
choice, The greatest disaster / can
think of would be for you to return to
boyhood in 1890 o, if life were smooth
Luzerne or Cayuga lake, would like to
get into a yacht and sail over it. not
once, but twice-yea, thousand times.
But life is an uncertain sea, and some of
the ships crash on the icebergs of cold
Indifference, and some take fire of evil
passions, and some lose their forbearings
and run into the skerries, and some are
never heard of. Surely on such treach-
erous sea as that one voyage is enough.
Besides all this, do you know if you
could have your wish and live life over
again it would put you so much farther
from reunion with. your friends in
Heaven? If you are in the noon of life
or the evening of life you are not very
far from the golden gate at which you
are to meet your transported and en-
paradised loved ones. You are now, let
us~say, twenty years or ten years or one
year of from celestial conjunction. Now
suppose you went back in your earthly
life thirty years or forty years or fifty
years, what an awful postponement of
the time of reunion! 1t would be as
though you were going to San Francisco
to great banquet and you got to Oak
land, four or five miles this side of it,
and then came back to Hoboken or Har-
lem to get better start; as though you
were going to England to be crowned
and having come in sight of the mount
aims of Wales you put back to Sandy
Hook in order to make better voyage.
The further on you get in life, if Chris
tian, the nearer you are to the renewal of
broken up companionshipS. No; the
wheel of time turns in the right direc-
ton, and it is well it turns so fast.
Three hundred and sixty-five revolu-
tons year and forward. But, hear We!
hear We! while tell you how you may
practically live your life over again and
be all the better for it. You may put
into the remaining years of your life all
you have learned of wisdom in your past
life. You may make the coming ten
years worth the preceding forty or fifty
years. When a man says he would like
to live his life over again because he
would do so much better, and yet goes
right on living as he had always lived,
do you not see he stultifies himself? He
proves that if he could go back he would
do almost the same as he has done. II
a man eat green apples some Wednesday
in cholera time and is thrown into fear
full cramps and says on Thursday: 81
wish 1 had been more prudent in my
diet; O, if 1 could live Wednesday over
again" and then on Friday eats apples