The Russellville Democrat., 1890-03-20
A PERTINENT QUESTION.
An Interesting Sermon by Rev. T
 Dewitt Taimage.
As We Can Not Live Our Lives Over Again, Let Us Atone for the Past by Redoubiod Holiness
 and Industry.

Rev. T. Dewitt TaImage on the sub ieot: Would You Like to Five Your Life Over Again" His text was
 All that a man hath will he give for his iife.--Job H., f.
 That is untrue. The Lord did not say it, but Satan said it to the Lord, when the evil one wanted Job still more af- flicted The record is: ''So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord and smote Job with sore boils." And Satan has been the author of all etuptive dis eases since then, and he hopes by pois- oning the blood to poison the soul But tho result of the diabolical experiment which left Job victor proved the falsity of the satanic remark:
 All that a man hath will he give for hts life.
 Many a captain has stood on the bridge of the steamer till his passen- gers got of and he drowned; many an engineer has kept his hand on the throt- tie valve or his foot on the brake until the must of the train was saved, while he went down to death through the open draw-bridge; many a fireman has plunged into blazing house to get sleeping child out sacrificing his own life in the attompt, and thousands of martyrs have submitted to fiery stake and knife of massacre and headsman's axe and guillotine rather than surren- der 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 falseh,ood was built on truth. Life is very precious, and if we would not give up ap 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 drafts, all water-proofs, all doctors, all medicines. all struggle in crisis of acci- dent An Admiral of the British navy was court-martialed for turning his ship around in time of danger and so damag- ing the ship. It was proved against him. But when his time came to be heard he said:
 'Gentlemen, I did turn the ship around and admit that it was damaged, but do you want to know why I turned itP There was man overheard, and I wanted to save him, and l did save him, and I consider the life of one sailor worth all the vessels of the British navy"
 No wonder he was vindicated. Life is indeed very precious. Yes, there are those who deem life so precious 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 twen- ty. I parpose for very practical and useful purposes, as will appear before l 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 his past life. We have all made so many mis- takes, stumbled into so many blunders, 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 ninety-fiye per cent of Improvement Now, would it not be grand If the good Lord would say to you,
 ''Yon 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 ago and just what you were when you reached that point before"
 If the proposition were made think | l de That feeling caused the ancient search for what was called the Fountain of Youth, the waters of which taken would tnrn 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, hut lay far out in the ocean. The great Spanish explorer, Juan Ponce de Leon- follow voyager with Columbus, I have no doubt felt that if he could discover that Fountain of Youth he wozild do as much as his friend had done in dis covering America. So he put out in 15s2 from Porto Rico and cruised this fountain. l am glad he did not find it.
 Taere is no such fountain, but if there were and It's waters were bottled up and sent abroad at one thousand dollars bottle, the demand would be greater than the supply, and many a man who has come through a life of uselessness, and pershaps sin, to old age would be shaking up the potent liquid, and if he were directed to tD take only tea spoonful after each meal would be so anxious to make sure work he would take tablespoonful, and if directed to take tablespoonful would take glass full. Eut some of you would have to go back further than to twenty-one years of age to make fair start, for thero are many who manage to get all wrong be- fore that period. Yes, in order to get fair start some would have to go back to the 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 hundred years ago. We'll, if your grandfather lived his live over again and your father lived his life over again and you lived your life over again, what cluttered up place this world would be, place filled with mis- erable attempts at repairs. l begin to think that it is better for each genera tion to have only one chance, and then for them to pass off and give another generation a chance.
 Beside that, if we were permitted to live life over again it would be stale and stupid experience. The zest and spur and enthusiasm of life come from the fact that we have never been along this road before, and every thing isnew, and we are alert for what may appear at the next turn of the road. Suppose you, 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 nuisance you would be to others, and what an unhappiness to yourself. Your