The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1890-03-26

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was our Pompeian visit in November.
| Beside that, would you want to risk tbs
| temptations of life over again? From the
I fact that you are here conclude that though
in many respects your life may have been
| unfortunate and unconscerated you have got
on so far tolerably well, if nothing more than
tolerable. As for myself. though my life has
been far from being as consecrated as L
would like to have had it, would not want
to try it over again, lest next time would do
worse. Why, just look at the temptations we
have all passed through and just look at the
multitudes who have gone completely under
Just call over the roll Of your school mates
and college mates, the clerks who were with
you in the same store or bank, or the opera
tives in the same factory with just as good
prospects as you. VINO have come TO complete
mishap. Some young man that told you
that he was going to be millionaire and
own the fastest trotters on Westchester turn
pike and retire by the time he was thirty five
years of age, you do not hear from for many
years. and know nothing about him until
some day he comes into your store and asks
for i've cents to get mug Of beer. You, the
good mother of household and all your
children rising up to call you blessed, can re-
member when you were quite jealous OF the
belle of the village who was so transcendly
fair and popular. But while you have these
two honorable and queenly names of wife and
mother, she became poor waif Of the street,
and went into the blackness Of darkness for
ever. Live life over again? Why, if many
of those who are now respectable 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 getthrough
at all. Satan would say. II know him now
years been studying his weaknesses, and
will weave 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 friends, our faces are in the
right direction. Better go forward than
backward, even if we had the choice. The
be for you to return to boyhood in 1890. Oh,
if life were a smooth Luzerne or Cayuga Lake,
would like to get into yacht and sail over
it, not once but twlce-yea, thousand
times But life is an uncertain sea, and
some of the ships crash on the icebergs of
cold Indifference and some take fire Of evil
passion, and some lose their bearings and run
into the skerries, and some are never heard
or. Surely on such 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 put you so much further from reun-
in the noon of life or the evening Of life you
are not very far from the golden gate at
which you are to meet your transported and
emparadsed loved ones. You are now, let
us say, twenty years or ten years or one year
off from celestial conjunction. Now suppose
you went back in your earthly Life thirty
years or forty years OF fifty years. what an
awful postponement Of the time of reunion
1t would be as though you were going to San
fo q orraof bo and vOT1 p0t tO
Oakland, four or five miles this side Of and
then came back to Hoboken or Harlem to get
a 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 a better voyage. The further
on you got in life, if Christian, the
nearer you are to the renewal Of broken
up companionship. No; the wheel of
well it turns so fast. Three hundred and
sixty-fve revolutions in year and for
ward rather than three hundred and
/ sixty-fve revolutions in year and back
ward But hear vel hear yel while tell
| you how you may practically live 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
| ing forty or fifty years. When a man says
| he would like to live his life over again be-
cause he would do so much better, and yet
goes right on living as he has always lived,
| do you not see he stultifes himself? He
proves that if he could 60 back he would do
almost the same as he has done. II a man
eat green apples some Wednesday in cholera
time and is thrown into fearful cramps and
says on Thursdays II wish had been more
prudent in my diet oh, if could live Wednes-
| day over again" and then on Friday eats APP
Piles just as green, he proves that it would
have been no advantage for him to live
Wednesday over again. And if We, deplor-
ing onr past life and with the idea of i'm
provement, long for an opportunity to try 1t
over again, yet 20 on making the same mis-
| takes and committing the same sins, we only
| demonstrate that the repetition of our exist
ence would afford no Improvement 1t was
green apples before and it would be
green apples over again. AS soon as a ship
reports it and buoy is swung over that reet
and marines henceforth stand of from
| that rock. And all our mistakes
in the past ought to be buoys warning us to
| keep in the right channel There IS no eI.
cuse for lis il we split on the same rock
where we split before. Going along the
sidewalk at night where excavations are be
| ing made we frequently see lantern on a
| framework, and We turn aside, for that Ian
tern 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 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 past Incidence or past transgres-
sion is by future assiduity. Yet you often
find Christian men who were not con-
as old age comes on, saying: "Well,
my work is about done and it is time for me
to rest" They gave forty years of their Life
to Satan and the world, 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
earthly existence to the world and Of the re-
naming two-quarters oneto Christian work
and the other to rest would not sup
pose, get very brilliant reception IN
heaven: If there are any dried leaves
pirate for his garland; or il there is any
throne with broken steps it would be appro-
pirate for his coronation, or any harp with
relaxed string it would be appropriate for
his lingering. My brother, you give nine
tenths of your life to sin and Satan and then
get converted and then rest awhile in sanctl-
fed laziness and then go up to get your heav-
enly reward, ana l warrant it will not take
the cashier OF the royal banking house
great while to count out to you all
your dues. He will not ask you whether you
will have it in bills of large denomination or
small. would like to put one sentence of
NV sermon in italics and have it under