The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1890-03-26
ar from the golden gate at which gou

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 postpone
ment Of the time of reunion! 1t would
be as though you were going to San
Francisco to great banquet and you
got to Oakland, four or five miles this
side Of it, and then came back to Hobo.
ken or Harlem to get better start; as
though you were going to England to be
crowned, and having come in sight Of
the mountains of Wales you put back to
Sandy Hook in order to make better
voyage. The further on you get in life,
If a Christian, the nearer you are
to the renewal of broken up
companionship. No; the wheel of
time turns in the right dircc lion.
and it is we'll it turns so fast Three nun
dred and sixty-fve revolutions in year
and forward, rather than 965 reyolutions
in year and backward. But hear We!
hear We! while tell you how you may
practically lived 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 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 has always lived.
do YOU not see he stultifles himself? He
proves that if he would go back he
would do almost the same as he has
done. If man eat green apples some
| Wednesday in cholera time and is
thrown into fearful cramps, and says on
Thursday: II wish I had been more
prudent in my diet; oh, if l could live
Wednesday over again." and then on
Friday eats apples just as green, no
proves that it would have been no
advantage for him to live Wednes'
day over again. And if we, deploring
our past life and with the idea of inn
provement, long for an opportunity to
try 1t over again, yet 60 on making the
same mistakes and committing the same
sins, we only demonstrate that the rep
etition OF our existence would afford
no improvement. 1t was green apples
before, and it would be green apples
over again. AS soon as ship captain
strikes rock in the lake or sea he re-
ports it, and buoy is swung over that
reef and marines hsnceforth stand oil
from that rock. And all our mistakes
in the past ought to bs buoys warning
us to keep in the right channel. There
is NO excuse for us If we split on the
same rock where we split on before. Go
ing along the sidewalk at night where
excavations are being made, we frequent
ly see lantern on . framework, and
we turn aside, for that lantern says,
keep out Of this hole. And all along
the pathway of life lanterns are set as
warnings, and by the time we come to
mid-life we ought to know where it is
safe to walk and where 1t is unsafe.
Besides that, we have all these years
been learning how to be useful, and in
the next decade we ought to accomplish
more for God and the church and the
world than in any previous four decades.
The best way to atone for past in.
dolence or past transgression is by
future assiduity. Yet you often find
Christian men who were not converted
until they we're forty or fifty, as old age
comes on, saying: "Well, my work is
about done and it is time for me tc
rest" They gave forty years of theil
life to Satan and the world, little
fragment of their life to God, and now
they wait to rest. Whether that be-
longs to comedy or tragedy I say not
The man who gave one half of this
earthly existence to the world and o.
the remaining two quarters one tt
Christian work and the other to rest
would not, l suppose, get very bril-
liant reception in Heaven. If there are
any dry leaves in Heaven
they would be appropriate fol
his garland; or ii there is
any throne with broken steps it would
be appropriate for his coronation; or any
harp with relaxed string it would be
appropriate for his lingering. My
brother, you give nine-tenths Of your
life to sin and Satan and then get con
verified and then rest awhile in sanoti
fed laziness and then 60 up TO get your
heavenly reward, and warrant IL will
not take the cashier OF the royal bank.
ing house a great while to count out tc
you all your dues. He will not ask you
whether you will have it in bills Of
large denomination or small. would
|. like to put up one sentence Of my ser
mon in italics, and have it underscored
and three exclamation points at the enc
of the sentence, and that sentence IL
this: As we can not live our lives ovel
again, the nearest we can come to atone
for the past is by redoubled holiness and
, industry in the future.
If this raik train Of life has been de
!, tanned and switched Of and 10 far be
I hind the timetable. tho engineer fo
, the rest Of the way must put on more
/ pressure Of steam and 60 q mile min
| ute in order to arrive at the right tint
, and place under the approval Of con
t ductors and directors.
| As supposed it would be, tAere ar,
| multitudes of young people listening II
J this sermon on whom this subject ha
acted with the force In q galvanic bat
terry. Without my saying . word t.
them they have soliloquized, saying
) "As one can not live his life over again
, and can make only one trip, l mus
, look out and make no mistakes; I hav
: but one chance and l must make tn
, most Of it," My young friends,
: am glad you made this application o
r the sermon yourself. When a ministe
| Il "a L.