Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1890-03-10
LIVING LIFE OVER.
S0ME OF THB PLEASURES AND SORROWS
THAT WOULD BkssT US.
A Ssrmon by DR.. Talmsge Upon a Repetition Of
Existence Some Notable Illustrations
in Life APPLY Drawn.
sOectsl Tslegron 10 TIE Register.

mat Is untrue. The Lord did not say 1t,
but Satan said it to the Lord. when the
evil one wanted Job still more sffiicted.
The record is: $50 went Satan forth from
the presence Of The Lord and smote Job
with soae boils." Aud Satan has been the
author of all eruptiye disease since then,
and he hopes by poisoning the blood to
poison tn, soul. But the result of that
diabolical experiment which lefs Job vic
ter proved the fslsity OF the Satanic re-
mark-"Al that q man hath he will give
for his life. Many a captain who has stood
on the bridge of the steamer till his pas
sengers got eff and he drowned: many an
enginser who has kept bis 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 drsw-bridge; many
fireman who plunged into blsziDg houss
to get sleeping child out, sacrificing his
life in the attempt, and thousands of mar
tyrs who submitted to fiery stake and
knife Of massacre and headsman's ex and
guiliotine rather than surrender principle,
proving that in many a case the text was
rot true, when it says: "All that a man
hath will he give for his life" The fact
is that no intelligent and right fearing
man is satisfied with bis past life. We have
all made so many mistakes, stumbled in
10 so msny blunders. said so many things
that ought not have been said and done so
many things that ought not to have been
done, that We can suggest at least ninety
five per cent. of improvement. Now would
1t be grand if the good Lord wonid say to
you: 'You can 90 bsak and try it over
again.
But if we were permitted to live life
over again, il would be stale and stupid
experience. The zest and spur and enthu-
siasm of life come from the fact tbst we
have never bsen along this rood before, and
everything is new, and We are alert for
what may appear at the next turn of the
road. Suppose you, man in middle life
or old age, we're, with your present feelings
and large attainmente, put back into the
thirties, or tWentie5, or into the teens,
what o nuisance you would be to Others
and what an unhappiness to yourself.
Your contemporaries would not want you
and you would not want them. Things that
in your previous journey of life stirred
your healthfnl ambition, or gave you
PLEAsURABLE SURPRISE,
or led you into happy Interrogation, would
only call forth from you disgusted 'Oh,
pshawm You would be blase st thirty
and q missnthrope at forty and unendur-
able at fifty. The most inane aud stupid
thing imaginable would be second jour-
ney OF life. 1t is amusing 10 hear people
say: 81 would like to live my life over
again, il could take my life over again,
if l could take my present experiences and
knowledge o. things back with me and be-
gin under those improved auspices.
Why, what an uninteresting boy you
would be with your present at.ainments in
a child's mind. No oae would want such
boy around the house: A philosopher at
twenty, a scient ct at fifteen, an arch
u llogist at ten aud a domestic nuisance
all the time. An osk crowded into an
acorn. A Rocky Mountain eagle thrust
back into the egg she'll from which 1t was
hatched.
Besides th t, if you took life over again,
you would have to take its deep ssdnesses
over again. Would you want to try again
the griefs and the heart breaks and the
bereavements through which you have
CONT? What mercy that we shall never
be called to suffer them again! We may
have others bad enough, but those old ones
never sgain.
Besides that, would you want to risk the
temptations OF life over again? From the
fac. that you are here / conclude that
though in many respects your life may
have been unfortunate and uncousecrated
You have got on go far tolerably well, II
nothing more than tolerSble. As for my
self, though my life has been far from be.
ing consecrated as l would like to have had
it, would not want to try it over again,
lest next time l would do worse. Why,
lust look at the temptations we have all
passed through and Just
LOOK AT THE MULIITUDEs
who have gone completely under. Just
call over the roll OF your school mates and
college me- es, the clerks who were with
you in the same store or bank, or the
operatives in the same factory with juss az
good prospects as you, who have come to
complete mishap Some young man that
told on that he was going to be a million
aite and own the fastest trotters on West
chester turnpike and retire by the time be
was thirty. five years OF age, you DO not
hear from for many years, and know
nothing about him until some dzy he comes
into YOUR store and asks for five cents to
oct a mug of beer. You, the good mother
household and all your children risiug up
70 call you blessed, can remember when
YOU were quite jealous Of the belle OF the
village who was SO trauscsndently far ana
popular. Bat while you have these Two
honorable aud queeDly names OF wiie ana
mother. she became a poor wife o1 the
street. aud went into the blackness OF
darkness forever Live life over sgsinF
Wby. if many of those who are now re-
spec,able were permitted to experiment,
the next Journey would be demolition.
You got through, as Job says, by the SKIN
of the teeth. Next time you might not
get through at all. Satan would say:
know him now better than did before,
and have for fifty years been studying his
weaknesses, snd l will weave stronger
web Of circumstances to catch MIN next
time" And Satan would
CONCENTRATE HIS fOhOhS
on this one man, and the last state OF that
man would be WORSE than the first. My
friends. our faces are in the right direc-
tion. Better go forward than backward,
even il we had the choice. The greatest
disaster can think Of would be for you to
return to boyhoOd in 1880. Oh, II life
we're a smooth Luzsrne or Osyugs lake, |
would like to get into yacht and sail
over it, not oLce, but twice yea a
thousand times. Bat life is an uncertain
sea, and some Of the ships crash on the ice
bsrps of cold indifference, and come take
fire Of evil passion, aud some lose their
bearings and run into the skerries, and
some are never heard Of. Surely on such
treacherous sea as this one voyage ia
enough.
Beside all this, do you know if you
could have your wish and live life over
again it would put you SO much further
from reunion With your friends in heaven?
II you are in the nom of life or the eve
ming of life you are not very far from the
golden gate at which you are to meet your
transported and empsrsdised loved ones.
You are now, let US say, twenty years or
ten years or one year off from celestial con-
junction. Now suppose you went back in
your earthly life thirty years or forty
years or fifty years what
AN AWFUL PosTPoSENENT