The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1890-03-26
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUN.
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "Would You Like to Live
Your Life Over Again"

TEXT: "AN that a man hath piN he gire
for his ife."-Job. H., 4.
That is untrue. The Lord did not say it,
but Satan said it to the Lord, when the evil
one wanted Job still more afflicted. 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 disease since then, and he hopes by
poisoning the blood to poison the soul. But
the result Of the diabolical experiment. which
left Job victor proved the falsity of the
will he give for his life" Many a
captain who has stood on the bridge Of
the steamer till his passengers got or
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 drawbridge: many fire
man who plunged into blazing house to get
sleeping child out, sacrificing his life IN the
attempt, and thousands of martyrs who sub
mitted to fiery stake and knife OF massacre
and headsman's ak and guillotine rather than
surrender principle, proving that IN many
case my text was not true, when it says:
"All that man hath will he give for bis
life"
But Satan's falsehood was built on truth.
Life is very precious, and if 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
everything to prolongit. Hence all sanitary
regulations, ali study of hygiene, all fear OF
draughts, all waterproofs, all doctors. all
medicines, all struggle in crisis Of accident.
An admiral of the British navy was court
martialed for turning his ship around in time
Of danger and so damaging 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 1t was dam,
aged, but do you want to know why
turned it? There was q man over.
board, and I wanted to save him, and
did save him, and consider 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 life so precious they would
like to repeat it, they would like to try 1t
again. They would like to 60 back from
seventy to sixty, from sixty to fifty, from
fifty to forty, from forty to thirty, from
thirty to twenty. purpose for very prac-
tical and useful purposes, as will appear pc
fore I get through, to discuss the question
we have all asked of Others and others have
again and 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 dis past life. we
have all made so many mistakes, stumbled
into so many blunders, said so may 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 ninety-hve
per cent. of Improvement. Now would 1t
not be grand if the good Lord would say to
you: "You can go back and try it over
again. I will by a 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 PROPOSE
ton were made I think many thousands
would accept it. That feeling caused the
ancient search for what was called the Foun-
tain of Youth, the waters OF which taken
would turn the hair of the octogenarian into
the curly locks of boy, and however old
person who drank at that fountain 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 Span
ish explorer, Juan Ponce de Leon, fellow
voyager with Columbus, have no doubt
felt that if he could discover that Fountain
of Youth he would do as much as his friend
had done in discovering America. So ne put
out in 1872 from Porto Rico and cruised
about among the Bahamas in search Of that
fountain. 1 am glad he did not find it.
There is no such fountain. But if there
were and its waters were bottled up and sent
abroad at thousand dollars bottle, the de-
mand would be greater than the supply, and
MANY a man who has come through
life Of uselessness, and perhaps sin, to
old age would be shaking up the po-
tent liquid, and if he were directed to
take only teaspoonful after each meal
would be 80 anxious to make sure Work ne
would take tablespoonful, and If directed to
take tablespoonful would take glassful.
But some of you would have to 60 back
further than to twenty-one years OF age to
make fair start, for there are many who
manage to get all wrong before chat period.
Yea, in order to get fair start some would
have so go back to the father and mother and
get them corrected; yea, to the grandfather
and grandmother and have their
life corrected, for some of you are
suffering from bad hereditary infiu-
ences which started a hundred years
lived his life over again and your father
lived his life ovsr again and you lived your
life over again, what cluttered up place
this world would be, place filled 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
chance.
Beside that if we were permitted to live
life over again, it would be stale and stupid
experience. The Zest and spur and enthu-
siasm 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 a man in mid-life or old age, were
with your present feelings and large attain
ments, put back into the thirties, or the
twenties, or into the teens what a nuisance
you would be to others and what an unhap-
piness to yourself. Your contemporaries
would not want you and you would not want
them. Things that in your previous journey
of life stirred your healthful ambition, or
gave you pleasurable surprise, or led you into
happy Interrogation, would only call forth
from you a disgusted "Oh, pshaw~ You
would be blase at thirty and a misanthrope
at forty and uncomfortable at fifty. The most
nane and stupid thing imaginable would be
Il second journey of life 1t is amusing to
hear people say: would like to live my life
over again, if could take my present ex-
uerience and knowledge of things back with
me and begin under those improved auspices"
Why, what an uninteresting boy you would
be with your present attainments in child's
mind. No one would want such boy around
the house: A philosopher at twenty, scien-
list at fifteen, an archeologist at ten and
domestic nuisance all the time. An oak
crowded into an acorn. A Rocky Mountain
eagle thrust back into the egg shell from
which it was Matched.
Besides that, if you took life over again,
YOU would have to take its deep sadnesses
Ss 2ye ss and tGs g
reavements through which you have gone?
What mercy that we shall never be called
0 suffer them againl We may have Others
bad enough, but those old ones never again.
Would you want to 60 through the process