Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1894-06-29

tion comes, AID with diploma signe1 ny
satan. the president. and other protessor'al
demoniacs, attestinS that the candidate mas
been long enough under their Grill, no
passes up to enter heaven! Pandemoniun
preDarative course for heavenly Wlmis-
sion Ah my friends, satan and his coherts
have fitted uncounted millions for ruin, but
never flttel one soul for happiness
Furthermore, it would not be safe for this
world if men had another chance in the
next. If it had been announced that, how
ever wickedly man might act in this world,
he could fix it up all right In the next,
society would be terribly demolallze1. and
the human race demolished in few years.
The fear that If we are bad ana unforgivan
here il will not be we'll for us in the next eX-
istence is the chief influence that keeps civil
izatiOn from rushing back to semiharbar-
ism, and sembsrbarism from rushing into
mighty savaCery, and midnight savagery
from extinction for it is the astrinSent I'M
preston OF all nations. Christian AMI
heather. that there is no future chance Tor
those VINO have waste this.
Multitu les Of men who are kept within
bounds would say 600 to. now! Let mo
get all out Of this life there is in it, Come.
gluttony and inebriation AMI unceanness
and revenge and all sensualtles, and wait
upon me! Ny Ito may be somewhat short
ened in this world by dissoluteness, but that
will only make heavenly in Indulgence on a
larger scale the sooner possible. 1 will over
take the saints at last and will enter the
heavenly temple only a little later than
those who behaved themselves here. l will
on nay way to heaven take little wider ex-
cursiOn than those who We're on earth pious,
and I shall go TO heaven via gehenna and
via sheol." Another chance in the next
n,,1 hui 4 nv,
ment in this.
Suppose you were party in an important
case at law, and you knew from consultation
with judges and attorneys that it would be
tried twice. AMI the first trial would be Of
little importance. but that the second would
decide everything. for which trial would you
make the most preparation. for which retain
the ablest attorneys, for which be most anX
ious about the attendance OF witnesses? You
voull put all the stress upon the second
trial, all tbs anxiety, all the expenditure,
saying, "The first is nothing, the last is
everything" Give the race an assurance Of
a second and more important trial in the
subsequent life, and all the preparation for
eternity would be "post mortem," post fd-
neral, post sepuchral. and the world with
one JERK be pitched off into impiety and god
lessness
should be given in the next world II we have
refused innumera)ie chances in this? Sup
pose you give banquet, an you invite
vast number OF frienls. but one man de-
clines to come or treats your invitation with
Indifference. You in the course Of twenty
years give twenty banquets, ana the samo
man is invitel 10 them all AMI threats them all
in the same obnoxious way. After while
you remove to another house larger and bet
-, Frio L. huf
send no iny alton TO the man wac declined
or neglected the other invitations.
Are you to blame? Has he right
to expect to be invited after all
the iDdgnities he has done you? God in
this world has invited us all to the banquet
of His grace. He invited VI by HIS provi-
dence and His spirit 365 days OF every year
since we knew our right hqn1 from our LEFT.
II we decline it every time or treatet the
invitation with Indifference aud gave twenty
or forty or fifty years of indignity on our
part toward the banqueter, and at last He
spreads the banquet in more luxurious anu
kingly place, amid the heavenly gar lens,
have wa Il right to expect Hin to invite us
again, and have we right to blame HIM II
He does not invite us?
Ii twelve gates OF salvation stool open
twenty years or fifty years for our a1mis
sion, and at the end Of that time they are
closed, can we complain OF it and say:
"These gates ought TO be open again. Give
us another chencsY" Jfthesteamer is to sail
for Hamburg and we want to get to Ger
many by that line, and va read in every
evening an | every morning newspaper that
it will sail on a certain day. for two weeks
we have that advertisement before our eyes,
and then we 90 down to the docks fifteen
minutes after it has showed OF into the
stream and say "Come back! Give me
another chance! 1t is not fair to treat me
in this way! Swing up to the dock again
! and throw out planSs and let me come on
/ bo9rIw Such behavior Wo1ld invite arrest
as mailman.
And if, after the gospel ship has lain at
anchor before our eyes for years and years,
/ and all the benign voices of earth AMI
| heaven have urged Us TO get on board, as
| she might sail away at any moment, an
after awhile she sails without us, is it
/ common sense TO expect her 10 come bacS'
/ You might as we'll go out on the highlands
/ at Navesink AMI call TO the Majestic after
| she has been three days out aud expect her
! to return as TO call back an opportunity for
/ heaven when it once has sped away. All
| heaven Offered US as a gratuty, and for a
! lifetime We refuse to take it, and then
rush on the bosses OF JehoVahs bucSier de-
! naming another chance. There ought to
! be, there can be, there will be, no such
: thing as posthumous opportunity. Inus
| our common sense agrees with my text, I'll
the tree fall toward the south or toward the
north, in the place where the tree falleta
! there 1t shall be.
You see this idea lifts this world up from
! an unimportant way station to platform OF
stupendous issues and makes all eternity
whirl around this hour. But one trial fol-
which all the preparation must be made II
! this world or never made at all. That piles
| up all the emphases and all the climaxes and
/ all the destinies into life here. No Other
/ chance Oh, how that augments the value
| and importance Of this chance!
Alexander withhis army used 10 surrouDc
! city and then would lift great light II
| token to the people that if they SURRENDERED
! before that light went out all would be well
/ but if once the light went out then the bat
! tering xams would swing against the wall
/ and demolition AMI disaster would follow
! We'll. all We need do for our present an(
! everlasting safety is to make surrender
/ Christ, the King and Conqueror-surrende
OF our hearts, surrender or our lives, sur
render OF everything. And He keeps grea
| light burning, light OF gospel invitation, ign
| kindled with the wood of the cross ant
| flaming up against the dark night OF our siI
! and sorrow. Surrender while that grea
| LIGHT continues TO burn, for after 1t goes ou
there will be no other opportunity OF making
peace with God through our Lord Jesu
| Christ. Talk of another chance Why, thi
is supernal chance
In the time of Edward VI, at the battle
Musselburg. private soldier, seeing tina
the Earl OF Huntley had lost his helmet, too
of his own helmet and put it upon the heat
OF the carl, and the head of the private So
der, uncovered, he was soon slain, Will
his commander rode safely out of the battle
But in our case, instead OF private soldie
Offering helmet to an earl, it is King put