Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1890-03-21
DIR. TALMAGE's SERMON.
"ALL THAT A MAN HATH WILL HE
GIVE FOR HIS LIFE"

"ALL THAT A MAN HATH WILL He
GIVE FOR HIS LIFE"
Like to Live Their Lives Over Again
False Reasoning Which Could but Result
In Disappointment.
The Rev. T. De Witt Talmage preached
in the Academy of Music on the morn
ing of Sunday, March 8, to IN overflow
ing congregation. After expounding
appropriate passages Of Scripture he
announced his subject to be: Would
You Like to Live Your Life Over Again."
His text was Job ii, 4: "All that a man
hath will he give for his life." He said:
That is untrue. The Lord did not say
it, but Satan said it to the Lord, when
the evil one wanted Job still more af-
ficted. The record is: $50 went Satan
forth from the presence of the Lord and
smote Job with sore boils." And Satan
has beenthe authorofal all eruptive disease
since then, and he hopes by poisoning
result of the diabolical experiment
which left Job victor proved the talsity
OF the Satanic remark-"All that a man
hath will he give for his life" Many n
captain who has stood on the bridge of
the steamer till his passengers got off
and he drowned; many an engineer who
has kept 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 a fireman who plunged
n q blazing house to get q sleeping
child out, sacrificing his life in the at
tempt, and thousands of martyrs who
submitted to fiery stake md knife of
tine rather than surrender principle,
proving that in many a case my text
was not true. when it SAYS: All that q
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 that we would surrender rather
than surrender it. We see how precious
life is from the fact that we do every
thing to prolong 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 martialed for
turning his ship around in time of dam
saf and SO damaging the ship. 1t was
PAONSo uSAAhoo AAlus 11uC WHICH, II Ill
came to be heard he said: Gentlemen,
1 did turn the ship around and admit it
was damaged, but do you want to know
why turned it? There was q man over
board, and l wanted to ave him, and I
did saw him, and I consider the life of
one sailor worth all the vessels of the
British navy" No wonder he was vim
dicated. Life indeed is very precious.
Yea, there are those who deem life sc
precious they would like to repeat it.
They would like to try it 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. I purpose for very practical
and useful purposes, as will appear be-
fore l get through, to discuss the ques-
ton We have ali asked of others, and
others have again and again asked US
would you like to live YOUR life over
again?
The fact is that no intelligent and
right fearing man is satisfied with his
past life. We have all made SO many
mistakes. stumbled into SO many blum.
ders, said SO many things that ought not
have been said and dones so many things
that ought not to nave been done, that
we can suggest at least ninety-fve pei
cent. of Improvement. Now would il
not be grand If the good Lord would
say to you: You can go back and try il
over again. l will by u word turn youl
hair to brown or black or golden. and
smooth all the wrinkles out of youl
temple md cheek, andtake the bend out
of your shoulders, and extirpate the
stiffness from the joint and the rheuma-
tic twinge from the foot, and you shall
be twenty-one years of age and Just
| what Won <yapa whar Won rooohnl flok
point before" It the proposition were
made | think many thousands would ac-
cept it. 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 octogenarian
into the curly locks of a boy, and how
ever old q person who drank ut that
fountain he would be young again. The
island was said to 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, I nave no doubt felt that
if he could discover the Fountain of
Youth he would do rs much as his friend
he put out in 1912 from Porto Rico and
cruised about among the Bahamas in
search of that fountain. ] an glad he
did not find it. There is no such foun-
tain. But if there were and its waters
were bottled up Ind sem abroad at q
thousand dollars a bottle, the demand
would be greater than the supply, and
many a man who has come through q
life Of uselessness, and perhaps sin, to
old age would be shaking up the potent
liquid, and if he were directed to take
only a teaspoonful after eachmeal would
be SO anxious to make sure work he
would take q tablespoonful, and if di-
rected to take a tablespoonful would
take a glassful. But some of you would
have to go back further than to twenty
one years of age to make a fairstart, for
there are many who manage to get all
wrong before that period. Yea, in order
to get a fair start some would nave to go
back to the father and mother and get
them corrected; yea, to the grandfather
and grandmother and have their life
corrected, for some of you are suffering
from bad hereditary Influences which
started 4 hundred years 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 a cluttered up place this world
would be, a place filled with miserable
attempts at repairs. i begin to think
that it is better for each generation to