Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1890-03-15
THE TALMAGE SERMON.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO LIVE YOUR
LIFE OVER AGAIN:
Preached in the Academy of Music,
Brooklyn, New York


one wanted Job still more afflicted. The
record is $50 went Satan forth from the
presence of the Lord and snote Job with sore
hoils' And Satan has been the author or all
eruptive disease since then, and lie hopes by
poisoning the blood to poison the soul. But
the result of the diabolical experiment. which
left Job victor proved the falsty OF the
Satanic remark" All that man hath
will he give for his life" Many
captain who has stood on the bridge of
she steamer till his passengers got OH
and he drowned: many an engineer who
has kept his hand on the throttle valve
OF his foot OH the brake until the most OF the
train was saved while ho went down to death
through the open drawbridge: many lire
man who plunged into n blazing house 10 get
sleeping child out, sacrificing his life Ill the
attempt. and thousands OF martyrs VINO sub
,nitted To fiery stake and knife of massacre
and headsmansax and guillotine rather than
surrender principle, proving that in many
case nv text WAS not true. when 1t says:
''All that man hath will he give for his
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 1t. we SEQ
how precious life is from the fact that we do
everything TO proong it. Hence all sanitary
regulations, all 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
T:l:rtiaied for turning his ship around III time
of danger and so damaging the ship: 1t was
proved against him. But when his time came
20 be heard he said; Gentlemen, did turn
ne ship around and admit that 1t was dam,
aged, but do nc, you want TO Know why |
armed il? There was man over
.,card, and / wanted 10 save him, and
did save him, and consider the life of ono
sailor worth all the vessels of the British
navy" No wonder he was vindicated Lie
g indeed very precious. Yea, there are
:incse who deem life SO precious they would
Ike to repeat it, they would like TO try 1T
again. They would like 10 SO back from
asventy to sixty, from sixty TO fifty, from
iftv 10 forty. from forty to thirty, from
.;nirty to twenty. Ipurpose for very prac-
ira and useful purposes, as will appear be-
ore get through to discuss the question
re have al assea 81 Others, and others have
again and agci., ASKED OF us-would you Ike
20 live your life ov2s again:
The fact is that no intelligent and right
earring man is satisfied with his past life. We
:,nve all made so many mistakes. stumbled
MO so many plumbers. sGid 50 may things
that ought not TO have been said and done so
many things that ought not tc have been
i,cre that we can suggest at least ninety-tive
.,e:- cent. of improVenent Now would it
30: be grand if the good Lord would say to
--cu you cen go back aud try it over
aeein. will by word turn Your hair 10
io-cTp OF black or golden, and smooth all
he wrinkles out OF Your temple and
cheek. and take the bend out of your
houlders. and extirpate the stiffness from
ne joint and the rheumatic twin5e from the
Get and you shall be twenty-one years OF
,Se aud Just what YOU were when you
:.eacacd that poiut before Ii the PROPOSE
vion were made think lnany 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 octoserarian into
person who drank at that fountain lie would
be Young again The island was sud TO
belong to the group of the Bahamas, but
lay far out in the ocean The great Span
ish explorer. Juan Ponce ne Leon fellow
voyagei' with Columbus, | have no doubt
feit that il he could discover that Fountain
NJ Mouth be would 10 SIS R,uch rs his friend
had done IN discovering America. So he put
cut in 1912 from Porto Rice and cruised
sbc,it among the Bahamas in search Of that
fountain J am glad he did not find IT.
there is no SUCH fountain. But if there
we're and its waters were bottled up aud sent
abroad at thousand dollars bottle. the de-
nland would be greater than the supply, and
many man who has come through
life of uselessness. and perhaps sin, to
old age would he shaking up the po-
tent LIQUID, and il he were directed to
take only teaspoonful after each meal
would be so anxious to make sure work he
would take tablespoonful. and il directed to
take tablespoonful would take glasSful
But some of You would have TO go back
further than TO twenty-one years OF age TO
make fair start, for there are many who
manage to get all wrong before that period.
Yea. in order to get Il fair start some would
have SO 90 back to the father and mother and
get them corrected: yea, to the grandfather
and grandmother and have their
life corrected, fer some of you are
suffering from bad hereditary influ-
ences which started hundred years
ago WE'LL if your grandfather
lived his life 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 filed with
miserable attempts at repairs. begin to
think that it is better Tor each generation to
have only one chance and then for them
to pass off and giva another generation
chance.
Beside that. If we were permitted to live
life over again. ii would be Il stale ard 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 i'll mid-lte 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 IN unhap-
piness 10 yourself Your contemporaries
would not want YOU and Won 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
would be blase at thirty and a misanthrope
at forty and uncomfortable at fifty. The most
inane and stupid thing imaginable would be
a second journey of life 1t is amusing to
hear people say: would like to live my life
over again. if l could take my present ex-
perience and knowledge of things back with
me and begin under those improved auspices"
Why, what an uninteresting boy you would
be with your present attainnents in a child's
mind No one would want sucn boy around
the house; a philosopher at twenty, scien-
fist 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, II you tooS lie over again,
you would have to take its deep sadnessss
over again. Would you want to try again
the griefs and the heart breaks and the be-
reavements through which you have gone?
What a mercy that We shall never be called
to suffer them again We may have others
bad enough, but those old ones never again.
Would you want TO go through the process
Of losing your father again or your mother
again or your companion IN life again or
your child again? II you We're permitted
to stop at the sixtieth milestone OF the
fiftietE milestone or the tortieth mile
stone and retrace your steps TO the
twentieth, yonr experience would be
something like mine one day last November
in Italy. Walked through great city with
friend and two guides, and there were in all
the city only four persons and they were those
OF our own group. We went up and down
the streets, we entered the houses, the
museums. the temples, the theatres. We x
amined the wonderful pictures on the wills
and the most exquisite mosaic on the foor!