The Opelousas courier., 1890-11-22
REV. DR.. TALMAGE
THE BROOKLYN DIvINE's SUN
DAY SERMON.
Subject: Would You Like to 1.-Two
Your Life Over Again"

TEXT: "AM that q man hath tciu he oiye
for his ~hfe."-Job. H.,
That is untrue. The Lord did not saw it.
puJ Satan said it to the Lord, when the evil
one TAINTED Job still more afflicted. The
record is: so went Satan forth from tho
presence OF tho Lord and slnoteJ ob with sore
boils.s And Satan has been the author of all
eruptVe disease since then, and he hopes by
poisoning the blood to poison the soul. BIZ.
Shc result of the diabolical experiment which
left dob victor proved the falsity of the
Satanic remark" All that a man hath
Will he give for his life" Many a
captain who has stood on the bridge OF
tne steamer till his passengers got off
ana ne drowned; many an engineer who
mas Kept his hand on the throttle valve
or his foot on the brake until the most of tho
tram was saved while he went down to DEATH
through the open drawbridge: many a fire.
man n plunged into a blazing house to get
a sleeping child out, sacrificing his life in the
attempt, and thousands OF martyrs who sub.
mltted to fiery stake and knife of massacre
Il headsman's ak and guillotine rather than
surrender principle, proving that in many a
case my text was not true, when it saws.
All 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 ws would
surrender rather than surrender it. We sec
how precious life is from the fact that we dc
everything to prolongi it. Hence all sanitary
regulations, all study Of hygiene, all fear OF
draughts, all w~aterproofs, all doctors, all
medicines, all struggle in crisis of accident.
An admiral of the British navy was court
martialed for turning his ship GROUND in tins
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 I
turned it2 There was a man over
board, and / wanted to save him, and
| did a v him, and | consider the life of ono
sailor worth all the vessels OF the British
navy No wonder he was indicated. Life
IS indeed very precious. Yea, there are
those who deem life SO precious they would
like to repeat it, they would like to try il
again. They would like to go back from
seventy to sixty, from sixty to fifty, from
fifty to forty, from forty to thirty, from
thirty to twenty. purpose for very prac-
tfeai and useful purposes, as will appear be-
fore I get through. to discuss the question
we have all asked of Others, and others have
again and again asked of us-would you liks
to live your life over again.. :
The fact is that no intelligent I'M right
fearing mar is satisfied with his pastllfe. We
have all made SO many mistakes, stumbled
into SO many blunders, said so may things
that ought not to have been said and done SO
many things that ought not to nave been
done, that we can suggest at least n~inety-fve
per cent. of improvement. Now would it
not be grand If the good Lord would say -
you: ssYou can go back and try it over
again. / will by a word turn your hair to
brown or black or golden, and smooth all
the wrinkles out of your temple ans
cheek, and take the bend out of your
shoulders, and extirpate the stiffness from
tho Joint and tho rheumatic fv-iuoa from The
foot, and you shall be twenty-one years OF
age and just what you were when you
reached that point before" Ii the PROPOSE
tion were made I think many thousands
would accept it. That feeling caused tns
ancient search for what was called the o
tain of Youth, the waters of which taken
would turn the hair of the octogenarian int
the curly locks of a boy, and however old q
person who drank at that fountain he would
be young again. The island was said tn
belong to the group of the Bahamas, but
lay far out Id the ocean. The great Span
ISL explorer, Juan Ponce de Leon, fellow
Y wager with Columbus, / have no doubt
felt that il he could discover that Fountain
o. Youth he would do as much as his friend
| Il lone in discovering America. So ne put
out in 1872 from Porto Rico and cruised
about among the Bahamas in search Of thai
fslntain. / am glad he did not find it
There is no such fountain. But it thels
were and its waters were bottled up and Sc {
abroad at a thousand dollars a bottle, the de-
mand would be greater than the supply, and
many a man who has come through a
lis of uselessness, and perhaps sin, to
Old age would be shaking up the pc
I 1t liquid, and If he were directed M
ia 20 only a ~teaspoonful after each meal
would be so anxious to make sure work he
would take a tablespoonful, and il directed u.
take d tablespoonful would take a glassful
R-,4 cnrna ~ ,ro1, uo51fG hayvp I'm on hack
further than to twenty-one years OF age t
make a fair start, for there are many vhc
manage to get all wrong before that perloL.
Yea, N order to get a fair start some would
ha-eso go back to the father and mother and
get tDem corrected, yea, to the g~randfathes
all grandmother and nave their
life corrected, for sone of you ers
suffering from bad hereditary infu-
ences which started a hundred yeats
ago. Well, if your grandfather
lived his life over again and your father
lived his, life over again and you lived your
life over again, what o cluttered up place
this world would b.. a 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. or and give another generation a
chance.
Beside that, If we were permitted to live
life over again, it would be a stale and stupid
experience. The zest and spur and enthu-
siasnl of life corne 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 in mid-iife or old age. were,
with your present feelings and large attain
ments. put back into the thir-ties, or the
| twepties, or into the teens, what a nuisance
| YOU would be to others and what an unhap-
| piness to yourself. Your contemporaries
| would not wantyou and you would not wan,
them. Thinos that in your previous journey
| az lie stirred your healthful ambition, OF
| gave you ~pleaslrable surprise, or led q lntt
| happy interrogation, would only call fortf
from o a disguised HOh, pshaww 1os
would be blase at thirty and a misanthrops
at forty and uncomfortable at fifty. The mos
inane and stupid thing imaginable would o
i a second journey of life. 1t IS amusing q
hear people q I would like to live my III
| over again, .if i could take my present ex
p~erience and knowledge Of things q VIII
! me and begin under those improved auspices
| Why. what an uninteresting boy You Woult
/ he with your present attachments IN a cnild4
mind. No one would want sucna boy AROUND
the house: A philosopher at twenty, q scien
list st fifteen. an a~rchaologisg az zen anu
domestic nuisance all the time. An oal
crosvded into an acorn. A Rocky Mountali
eagIa thrust back into the egg shell iron
which it was Matched
ResifIes that. lie you took life over again
Won would have to take its deep sadnesse
ovcr again. Would you want TO NY, aRan
the griefs and the heart breaks ana ons "
reayernents through which o have gone
What a mercy that we shall never De cailes
10 suffer them again! We may have other
had enough. but those old ones never again
| Would you want to 20 through the process
Of losing your father again or your mo1ne
again or your companion n me agaln 9
GTrFTf