Connecticut western news., 1894-06-21
ONLY ONE JUDGMENT.
REV. OR. TALMAGE DISCUSSES A CHI
 MERlcAL EXPECTATION.


 h the Next world-The Verdict Is Based Upon Our Earthly Lives The Final Chance.
 BR0OKLYN, June 17.-Rev. Dr. Tal- mage, who is now on his round the world journey, has selected as the sub jeot for his sermon through the press to- day Another Chance" the text being taken from Ecclesiastes Ri, 8, "If the tree fall toward the south or toward the north, in tho place where the tree fall eth there it shall be. ;"
 There is lowering hope in the minds of vast multitude that there will be an opportunity in the next world to cor rect the mistakes of this; that if we do make complete shipwreck of our earthly life it will be on shore, up which we may walk to palace; that as defendant may lose his case in the circuit court and carry it up to the su- preme court or court of chancery and get reversal of judgment in his be- half, all the costs being thrown over on the other party, so, if we fail in the earthly trial, we may in the higher ju- risdiction of eternity have the judgment of the lower court set aside, all the costs remitted, and we may be victorious de- fendants forever My object in this sermon is to show that common sense as we'll as my text declares that such an expectation is chimerical. You say that the impenitent man, having got into the next world and seeing the disaster, will, as a result of that disaster, turn, the pain the cause of his reformation. But you can find 10, 900 instances in this world of men who have done wrong and dis tress overlook them suddenly. Did the distress heal them? No; they went right on.
 That man was flung of dissipations. "You must stop drinking" said the doctor, land quit the fast life you are leading. or it will destroy you. The patient suffers paroxysm after paroxysm, bat under skillful medical treatment he begins to sit up, begins to walk about the room, begins to go to business And, To, he goes back to the same grogshop for his morning dram, and his evening dram, and the drams be- tween Flat down againl Same doc tori Same physical anguish Same medical warning Now the illness Is more protracted, the liver is more stub born, the stomach more irritable, and the digestive organs are more rebellious But after awhile he is out again, goes back to the same dramshops and goes the same round of sacrilege against his physical health.
 Suffering Does Not Always Reform.
 He sees that his downward course is running his household; that his life is perpetual perjury against his marriage VOW; that that broken hearted woman is so unlike the hopeful young wife whom he married that her old schoolmates do not recognize her; that his sons are to be taunted for lifetime by the fathers drunkenness; that the daughters are to pass into life under the scarifcation of a disreputable ancestor. He is drinking up their happiness, their prospects for this life, and perhaps for the life to come. Sometimes an appreciation of what he is doing comes upon him. His nervous system is all a-tangle. From crown of head to sole of foot he is one csohAA6, 1hoPAuSy VI uS1AJ AuS, 0h1AliIuS torture. Where is he? In he'll on earth. Does 1t reform him?
 After awhile he has delirium tre- mems, with whole jungle of missing reptiles let out on his pillow, and his screams horrify the neighbors as he dashes out of his bed, crying, ''Take these things off mep' As he sits pale and convalescent the doctor says: Now, want to have plain talk with you, my dear fellow. The next attack of this kind you have you will be be- yond all medical skill, and you will die" He gets better and goes forth into the same fight again. This time medi- cine takes no effect. Consultation of physicians agree in saying there is no hope. Death ends the scene.
 That process of inebriation, warning and dissolution is going on within stone's throw of you, going on in all the neighborhoods of Christendom Pain does not correct. Suffering does not re- form. What is true in one sense is true in all senses and will forever be so, and yet men are expecting in the next world purgatorial rejuvenation. Take up the printed reports of the prisons of the United States, and you will find that the vast majority of the incarcerated have been there before, some of them four. five, six times. With 1, 1000, 900 Il lustrations all working the other way iy, this world, people are expecting that distress in the next state will be saliva tory. You cannot imagine any worse tor ture in any other world than that which some men have suffered here, and with out any salutary consequence.
 Prospects of Reform.
 Furthermore, the prospect of refor- nation in the next world is more inn probable than a reformation here. In this world the life started with inno- cence of infancy In the case supposed the other life will open with all the accumulated bad habits of many years upon him. Surely it is easier to build strong ship out of new timber than out of an old hulk that has been ground up in the breakers. If with innocence to begin with in this life a man does not become godly, what prospect is there that in the next world, starting with sin, there would be a seraph evo- luted? Surely the sculptor has more prospect of making fine statue out of a block of pure white Parian marble than out of an old black rock scanned and cracked with the storms of half century. Surely upon a clean white sheet of paper it is easier to write a deed or will than upon sheet of pa per all scribbled and plotted and torn from top to bottom. Yet men seem to think that, though the life that began here comparatively perfect turned out badly, the next life will succeed, though 1t starts with dead failure.
 But, says some one, 'I think we ought to have a chance in the next life, because this life is so short it allows only small opportunity. We hardly have time to turn around between cradle and tomb, the wood of the one almost touch