Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-03-10
THE DREAD OF DEATH
And the Ghosts of the Vanished Past
That Make One Wish He Might
LIVE HIS EARLY LIFE OVER AGAIN.
The Service of Satan Responsible for Such
TOrmenting Regrets.
FINDING THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH
SPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DIsPArcH.I

SPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DIsPArcHI
BROOKLYN. March 9.-The Rev. T. De
Witt Talmage, d. D., preached in tn
Academy of Music, Brooklyn, this morning
10 an overfowing congregation. After ex
pounding appropriate passages of Scriptur
he announced his subject to be: "woul
You Like to Live Your Life Over Again.
His text was Job ii. 4: "All that ma
hath will he give for his life." He said:
That is untrue The Lord did not say it, bu
Satan said it to the Lord. when the evil on
wanted Job still more afflicted. The record is
$50 went Satan forth from the presence of tn
Lord and smote Job with sore boils" An,
satan has been the author of all eruptive dis
ease since then. and he hopes by poisoning tn
blood to poison the soul. But the result of tn,
diabolical experiment which left Job victo
proved the talsity of the Satanic remark: "Al
that man hath will he give for his life" Man,
n captain who has stood on the bridge of tht
steamer till his passengers got off ant
he drowned: many an engineer who has KEEP
his hand on the throttle valve or his foot on the
brake until the most of the train was saved
while he went down to death through the open
draw-bridge; many fireman who plunged into
blazing house 10 get sleeping child out sac
Tlncing his life in the attempt, and thousands
OF martyrs who submitted to fiery stake and
knife of massacre and headsman's AK and gull
lotine rather than surrender principle, prove
that in many case my text was not true. when
it saws: "AI that a man hath will he give for
his life
But Satan's falsehood was built on a truth.
Life is very precious and if we would not give
up all there are many things we would surrea-
der rather than surrender 1t. We see how pre-
CiOus life is from the fact that we do every
thing to prolong IL. Hence all sanitary regula-
tionS all study of hygiene all fear of draughts,
all waterproofs, all doctors, all medicines, all
struggle in crisis of accident.
REGRET FOR THE PAST.
An admiral of the British navy was court
martialed for turning his ship around in time
of danger and SO damaging the ship. 1t was
proved against him. But when his time came
TO be heard he said: Gentlemen, did turn
the ship around and admit that it was dam
aged. but do you want to know why turned
it? There was man overheard, and wanted
to save him, and did save him. ana consider
the life of one sailor worth all the vessels of
the British navy" No wonder he was yindi-
Gated. Life is indeed very precious Yea.
there are those who deem life so precious they
would like 10 repeat 1t, they would like to trv
to So from 60 to 50. from so to 10, from 20 to so
from 30 10 70. purpose for very practical and
useful purposes. as will appear before get
through, to discuss tne 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 fear
ing man Is satisfied with his past life, We
have all made so many mistakes, stumbled
into so many blunders. said 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 95 per cent of i'm
provenent. Now, would it not be grand if the
good Lord would say to you: You can go back
and try 1t over again. will by a 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 shoul-
ders, and extirpate the stiffness from the joint
ard the rheumatic twlnge from the foot, and
you shall be 2l years of age and just what you
were when you reached that point before" II
the pro ,-osltion were made, think many thou
sands would accept il. That feeling caused the
ancient search for what was called
THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH,
the waters of which taken would turn the hair
of the octeGenarian into the curly locks of a
boy, and however old a person who drank at
that fountain he would be young again. The
island was said 10 belong to the group of the
Bahamas but lay far. out in the ocean. The
great Spanish explorer, Juan Ponce de Leon,
fellow voyager with Columbus, 1 have no
doubt felt that if he could discover that Foupt-
ain OF Youth he would do as much as his friend
had done in discovering America. So he put
out in 1872 from Port Rico ana crulsed about
among the Bahamas in searh of that fountain
am glad he diu not find it. There is no such
fountain. But If there were and its waters
we're bottled up at thousand dollars bot
tie, the demand would be ereater than the
supply, and many man who has come through
a life of uselessness, and perhaps sin to old age
would be shaking up the potent liquid and if
he were directed to take only teaspoonful
after each meal would be SO anxious to make
sure work he would take tablespoonful and
If directed to take tablespoonful would take
a glassful.
But some of you would have to go back
further than to q years of age to make fair
start, for there are many who manage to get ali
wrong before that period. Yea, in order to get
falr start some would have to go back to the
father and mother and get them corrected: yea
10 the grandfather and grandmother and have
their life corrected, for some of YOU are suffer-
ing from bad hereditary influences which
started hundred wears ago. Well, if your
grandfather lived his life over again and You
lived your life over again, what a cluttered up
place this world would be- place filled with
miserable attempts at repairs begin to think
that it is better for each generation to have
only one chance, and then for them to pass off
and give another generation chance.
LESSONS OF EXPERIENCE.
Beside that, if We were permitted to live life
over again, il would be a stale and STUPID expe-
rience. The zest and spur and enthusiasm OF
life come from the fact that we have never
been along this road before, and everything is
new and we are alert for what may appear at
the next turn of the road. Suppose YOU, a man
OF mid-life or old age, were, with your present
feelings and large attairments, put back into
what nuisance you would be to others and
what an unhappIness to yourself. Your cotem-
poraries would not want you and you would not
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
from you disgusted "Oh, pshawr' You would
be blase at 30 and misanthrope at 40 and un-
endurable at 50. The most inane and stupid |
thing imaginable would be a second journey of
life. 1t Is amusing TO hear people say: ~ would
ike TO 1--we my life over again, if could take |
my present experience and knowledge of things |
back with me and begin under those improved |
auspices; why, what an uninteresting boy |
you would De with your present attainments in |
a child mind. No one would want such boy |
around the house: A philosopher at 90 a srien.
tist at 10, an arch9ologist at 10 and domestic
nuisance all tie time. An oak crowded into an |
acorn A Rocky Mountain eagle thrust back
into the egg shell from which it was hatcbed-
Beside that, if you took life over again. Won
would have to takeit deep sadnesses over again.
Would you want to try again the griefs and be-
reavements through which You have poneP
W hat mercy that we shall never be called to
suffer them againi We NAV have others bad |
enough, but those old ones never again WouId
you want TO so through the process of losinG
your father again OF your mother again or YOUR
child again? If you we're permitted to stoD ar |
the sixtieth milestone or the fftieth milestone
or the fortleth milestone and retrace your stems |
TO the twentieth. your experience would he
like mine one day last November in
Italy.
ALONE IN PoMPEII.
Iwalked through great city with friend
and two guides, and there were in all the city
onIy four persons and they were those of our
own group. We went up and down the streets.
we entered the houses. the museums the tenn
PIES the theaters. We examined the wonder
fuI pictures on the walls and the most exouis-
tie mosaic on the floor. In the streets were
he deep worn ruts of wagons. but not a wagon
d the city. On the front steps of the mansions
he word WELCOME" in Latin, but no human
no,,,r rroof ba only hodfas of on, !