The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1894-06-29
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
NO Opportunity in tho Next World
to Correct Mistakes Of This
Common sense Declares such an ExDecta-
tipn Chimarica1--By Our Acts on Earth
SHAH We BE- Ja6god--No Other
Chance For Us.

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SHAH We be Ja6ged--No Other
Chance For Us.
The subject selected by Rev. II. De-
Witt TalmaRe for presentation 10 his
reading congregation the week is ''An-
other Chance" IL Is based ON the text:
If fhe tree fan toward she south OK toward
the north. il the place where the tree falleth
there Nc shall --Ecclcsiastes. XII 4
There is "a lowering hope In the
minds Of a vast multitude that there
win Re an opportunity In the next
world TO correct the mistakes Of
this; that If we do make complete
wreck Of our earthly life, II viii be on
q shore up which we may walk TO Al
palace; that, as a defendant may lose
his case In the circuit court, and carry
II up 70 the supreme court or court Of
chancery and get a reversal of judg-
ment In his behalf, all the costs being
thrown over on the other party, so, IL
we fail in the earthly trial, we
may i'm the higher jurisdiction Of
eternity have the judgement of the
lower court set aside, all the costs re-
mitted, and we may be victorious de-
fendents forever Ny object in this
sermon IS to show that common sense,
as well 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 dis
aster, will as a result of that disaster,
turn, the pain the cause of his reforma-
ton. But you can find ten thousand
instances in this world Of men who
have done wrong and distress overlook
them suddenly. Did the distress heal
them? No; they went right on.
That man was flung of designations.
'4You must stop drinking" said the
doctor, aand quit the fast life you are
leading, OF IL viii destroy you" The
patient suffers paroxysm after par
Oxysm, but, under slkillful medical
treatment, he begins to sit up, begins
70 walk about the room, begins to go
10 business And loi he goes back to
the same grog-shops for his morning
dram and his evening dram, and draas
between Flat down againl Same
doctorl Same physical anguish. Same
medical warning. Now, the illness is
more protracted, the liver is more
stubborn, the stomach more irritable,
and the digestive organs are more re-
bellious. But after awhile he is out
shops, and goes the same round of
sacrilege against his physical health.
He sees that his downward course is
running his household, that his life is
perpetual perjury against his marriage
vow, that that broxen-hearted woman
Is so unlike the roseate young wife
whom he married; that her old school
mates do not recognize her; that his
sons are tainted for a lifetime by
the fathers drunkenness; that the
daughters are to pass into life under
the scarifcation Of a disreputable an
cestor. He is drinking up their happi-
ness, their prospects for this life, and
perhaps for the life to come. Some
times an apprecia ton Of what he is do
ing comes upon him. His nervous sys-
tenn is all a-tangle- From crown of
head to sole of foot he is one aching,
rasping, crucifying, damning torture.
Where is he? In hell on earth. Does it
reform him2
After awhile he has delirium tremens,
with a whole jungle of kissing reptiles
let out on his pillow, and his screams
aorrify the neighbors as he dashes out
of bed, crying: Take these things off
mel" 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,
Won viii be beyong all medical skill,
and you VIII die" He gets better and
goes forth into the same round again.
This time medicine takes no effect.
Consultation Of physicians agree in say
ing there is no hope Death ends the
scene.
That process of inebriation, warning
and dissolution is going on within
stones throw of you; going on in all
the neighborhoods of Christendom.
Pain does not correct. Suffering does
not reform. 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 regeneration.
Take up the printed reports of the
prisons Of the United States, and you
viii find that the vast majority of the
incarcerated have been there before,
some of them four, five, six times
With million illustrations, all work
ing the other way in this world, peo-
pie are expecting that distress in the
next state viii be salvatory. You can
not imagine any worse torture in any
other world than that which some men
have suffered here, and without any
salutary consequence
Furthermore, the prospect of re-
formation in the next world is more
improbable than a reformation here
In this world the life started with in
nocence Of infancy. In the case sup
posed. tho other life viii open with all
the accumulated bad habits of many
years upon him Surely, il is easier to
build "a strong ship out of new timber
than out Of an old hulk that has beeA
ground up in the breakers. If with
innocence 20 start with in this life a
man does not become godly, what
prospects are there that in the next
world, starting with sin, there
would be seraph evoluted- Surely
the sculptor has more prospect Of max
ing a fine statue out of block of pure
white Parian marble than out of an old
black rock, scanned and cracked with
the storms Of half century. Surely
upon clean, white sheet Of paper it is
easier to write a. deed or a viii than
upon a sheet Of paper all scrubbed and
bIotted and torn from top 10 bottom.
Yet men seem TO think that. though
the life that began here comparatively