Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1890-04-17

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
ear 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 reunionl 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
IL Christian, the nearer you are
10 the renewal of broken up
companionship. No; the wheel Of
time turns in the right direction
and it is well it turns so fast. Three hun
bred and sixty-five revolutions in a year
and forward. rather than 365 revolutions
in a year and backward. But hear vel
hear vel 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 nifty
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 stultifies himself? lie
proves that if he would go back he
would do almost the same as he has
done. II man eat green apples some
Wednesday in cholera time and IS
thrown into fearful cramps, and says on
Thursday: 81 wish | had been more
prudent in my diet; oh, If ] 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 II we, deploring
our past life and with the idea Of i'm
provement, long for an opportunity to
try 1t over again, yet go 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 1t would be green apples
over again. AS soon as ship captain
strikes a rock in the lake or sea he re-
ports ii, and a buoy is swung over that
reef and marines henceforth stand OF
from that rock. And all our mistakes
in the past ought 70 be buoys warning
us to keep in the right channel. There
| is no excuse for us II 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 1t is
safe to walk and whore it 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 hnd
Christian men who were not converted
until they we're forty or fifty, as old age
comes on, saying: 'Wen, my work IS
about done and it is time for me to
rest" They gave forty years OF theii
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 | say not
The man who gave one half of this
earthly existence TO the world and o.
the remaining two quarters one L
Christian work and the other to rest
would not, | suppose, get a very bril-
liant reception in Heaven If there are
any dry leaves in HEAVIER
they would be appropriate fol-
his garland; or il there /:
any throne with broken steps it woulc
be appropriate for his coronation; or any
harp with relaxed string it would bt
appropriate for his lingering. My
brother, you give nine-tenths OF YOU
life to sin and Satan and then get con
verted and then rest awhile in sancti
fed laziness and then go up to get your
heavenly reward, and l warrant it will
not take the cashier of the royal bank
ing house a great while to count out K
YOU all your dues. He will not ask yot
whether you will have it in bills o
large denomination or small. woulC
like to put up one sentence OF my ser
mon in italics, and have 1t underscored
and three exclamation points at the enc
of the sentence, and that sentence i
this: As we can not live our lives owe
again, the nearest we can come to atom
for the past is by redoubled holiness an'
industry in the future.
II this rail train of life has been de
tanned and switched of and is far be
/ hind the timetable, the engineer 70
, the rest of the way must put on NOR
pressure Of steam and go mile min
ute in order to arrive at the right tim
, and place under the approval of con
. d,atOrc aud IfractorE