The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1890-03-14

be demolition. You got through, a. Job
says, BY the skin Of your teeth. Next time
you might not get through at ALL Satan
would say: II know him now better than
did before, and have for so years been study
ing his weaknesses, and I will weave a
stronger web OF circumstances to catch him
next time" And Satan would concenter his
forces on this one man, and the last state Of
that man would be worse than the first. My
friend, our faces are in the right direction.
Better go forward than backward even If We
had the choice. The greatest disaster can
think of would Be for you to return to
boyhood in 1890. Oh, if life were
smooth Luzerne or Cayuga lake. | would like
to get into a yacht and sail over it, not
once. but twice-yea, thousand times. But
life is an uncertain sea, and some of the ships
crash on the icebergs of cold indifference. and
some take fro of evil passion, and some lose
their bearings and run into the skerries, and
some are never heard of. Surely on such q
treacherous sea as that one voyage is
enough.
Besides all this, do you know if you could
have your wish and live life over again it
would putyou SO much further from reunion
with your friends in heaven? You may put
into the remaining years of your life all you
have iearued of wisdom in your past life.
You may make the coming 10 years worth
the preceding 40 or so years. When a 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
proves that if he could go back he would
do almost the same US he has done. II
man eat green apples some Wednesday in
cholera time and 10 thrown into fearful cramps
and says on Thursday: II wish had been
more prudent in my diet; oh, if l could live
eats apples just as green, he proves that it
would have been no advantage for him to
live Wednesday over again. And If we, de-
ploring :our past life and with the idea OF i'm
provement, long for an opportunity to try
it over again, yet go on making the same mis-
takes and committing the same sins, we only
demonstrate that the repetition of our exis-
teuce would afford no improvement. 1t was
green apples before and it would be green ap-
pies over again. As soon as ship captain
strikes q rock on the lake or sea he reports
it and buoy is swung over that reef and
marines hencefOrth stand off from that rock.
and all our mista kes in the past ought to be
buoys warming US to keep in the right chan
mel There is no excuse Tor US if we split on
the same rock where we split before. Going
along the sidewalk at night where excava-
tions are being made. we frequently see
lantern on framework, and we turn aside
for that lantern says, keep out of this hole.
And tall along the pathway Of life lanterns
are set as warnings, and by the time We come
to midlife we ought to know where it is safe
to walk and where it is unsafe.
Beside 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 post indolenco or past transgres-
sion is by future assiduity. Yet you often
find Christian men who are not converted
until they were 40 or so, as old age comes
on, saying: "Well, my work is about done
and it is time for me to rest" They gave 40
years of their life to Satan and the world, a
little fragment of their life to God, and now
they want to rest. Whether that belongs to
comedy or tragedy say not. The man who
gave one-half of his existence to the world
and OF the remaining two-quarters one to
Christian work and the other to rest, would
not, suppose, get a very brilliant reception
in heaven.
As supposed it would be- there are multi
tudes Of young people listening to this sermon
on whom this subject has acted with the
force OF galvanic battery. Without my say
ing word to them, they have soliloquized,
saying: "As one cannot live his life over
again, and can make only one trip, | must
look out and make no mistakes: l have
but one chance and must make the most of
it," My young friends. am glad you made
this application of the sermon yourself.
When O minister toward the close of his ser
mon says: "Now q few words by way of ap-
plication," people begin to look around Tor
their hats and get their arm through one
sleeve of their overcoats, and the se1monic
application is a failure. l am glad you have
m ade your own application and that you are
resolved, like q Quaker of whom ! read years
ago, who, in substance said: "Ishall he along
this path of life but once and SO l must do
all the kindness can and all the good can"
My hearers. the mistakes of youth can never
be corrected. Time gone is gone forever An
opportunity passed the thousandth part OF
second has by one leap reached the other
side of great eternity. In the autumn when
the birds migrate you look up and see the
sky black with wings and the focks stretch
ing out into many leagues of air, and
SO to-day look up and see two large wings
in full sweep. They are the wings of the fly
ing year. That is followed by a flock Of
three hundred and sixty-fve and they are
the flying DAYS. Each of the flying, days is
followed by twenty-four, and they are the
flying hours and each OF these is followed by
sixty, and these are the flying minutes.
Where did this great flock start from? Eter
nifty past. Where are they bound? Eternity
to come You might as well go a.gunning
for the quails that whistled last year in the
meadows or the robins that last year caroled
in the sky as to try to fetch down and bag
one of the past opportunities of your life.
Do not say, Il will lounge now and make it
up afterwards" Young men and boys, you
can't make it up. My observation is that
those who in youth sowed wild oats, to the
end of their short life sowed wild oats, and
that those who start sowing Genesee wheat
always SOW Genesee wheat. And then the
reaping of the harvests is SO different. There
is grandfather now. He has lived to old age
because his habits have been good. His eye
sight for this world has got somewhat dim,
but his eyesight for heaven is radiant.
His hearing is not SO acute as
it once was, and he must bend clear
over to hear what his little grandchild says
when she asks him what he has brought for
her. But he easily catches the music raised
from supernatural spheres. Men passing in
the street take off their hats in reverence and
women say: "What good old man he is. :"
Seventy or 80 years oil for God and for max
ing this world happy. Splendid! Glorious!
Magnificent! He will have hard work getting