Democratic messenger., 1894-06-23

would be post mortem." post funeral,
post sepulchral, and the world with
one jerk be pitched off into impiety and
godlessness.
Furthermore, let me ask why n chance
should be given in the next world if We
have refused innumerable chances i'll
this? Suppose you give banquet, and
you invite a vast number of friends, but
one man declines to come or treats
your invitation with indifference. You
in the course of 90 years give 20 ban
quets. and the same man is invited TO
them all and treats them all in the same
obnoxious way. After awhile you re-
move to another house. larger and bet
ter, and you again invite your friends,
but send no invitation to the man who
declined or neglected the other invita-
tions. Are you to blame? Has he
right to expect TO be invited after all
the indignities he has done You? God
in this world has invited us all to the
banquet of his grace. He invited us by
his providence and his spirit 365 days
of every year since we knew our right
hand from our left. II we declined it
every time or treated the invitation
with indifference and gave 20 or 40 or 80
years of indignity on our part toward
the banqueter, and at last he spreads
the tarcuct in a more luxurious and
kingly place, amid the heavenly gar.
dens. have we n right to expect him to
invite us again, and have we right to
blame him if he does not invite us?
Only One Offer.
If l2 gates of salvation stood open 90
years or 80 years for our admission. 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 chance:" II the steamer is to sail
for Hamburg, and we want to get to
Germany by that line, and we read in
every evening and every morning news
paper that it will sail on u certain day,
for two weeks we have that advertise
ment before our eyes. and then we go
down TO the docks 10 minutes after il
has showed off 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
ont planks and let me come on board"
Such behavior would invite arrest as a
madman.
And if. after the gospel ship has lain
at anchor before our eyes for years and
years, and all the benign voices of earth
and heaven have urged us to get on
board, as she might sail away ut any
moment, and after awhile she saiis
without us, 10 il common sense to ex-
pect her to come back? You might as
well go ont on the highlands at Nave
sink and call to the Majestic after she
has been three days out and expect her
to return as to call back an opportunity
for heaven when it once has sped away.
All heaven offered us as gratuity. and
for lifetime we refuse to take il, and
then rush on the bosses of Jehovah's
buckler demanding another chance.
There ought to be, there can be, there
will be, no such thing as posthumous
opportunity. Thus our common sense
agrees with my text, IF the tree fall
toward the south or toward the north,
in the place where the tree falleth there
it shall be.
You see that 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 for which all the
preparation must be made in 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 9TH
er chance! Oh, how that augments the
value and the Importance of this chancel
Alexander with his army used TO sur
round n city and then would lift a
great light in 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 battering
rams would swing against the wall, and
demolition and disaster would follow.
Well, all we need do for our present
and everlasting safety is to make sur
render to Christ, the king and con-
queror-surrender of our hearts, surren-
der of our lives. surrender of everything
And he keeps great light burning, light
of gospel invitation, light kindled with
the wood of the cross and flaming up
against the dark night of our sin and
sorrow. Surrender while that great light
continues to burn. for after it goes out
there will be no other opportunity of
making peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ. Talk of another
chance! Why. this is supernal chance!
No Chance In the Next World.
In the time of Edward vi, at the
battle of Musselburg, private sol
dier, seeing that the Earl of Huntley
had lost his helmet, took off his own
helmet and put it upon the head Of the
earl. and the head of the private soldier
uncovered he was soon slain, while his
commander rode safely out of the bat
tie. But in our case, instead of a pri-
vate soldier Offering helmet TO an earl,
it is a king putting his crown upon an
unworthy subject, the king dying that
we might live. Tell it to all points of
the compass. Tell it to night and day.
Tell it to all earth and heaven. Tell it
to all centuries, all ages, all millen-
niums. that we have such u magnificent
chance in this world that we need no
other chance in the next
am in the FURNISHED judgment hall
of the last day. A great white throne
is lifted. but the judge has not yet TAX
en- il. While we are waiting for his ar
rival hear immortal spirits in conver-
sation. What are you waiting here
for?" says soul that went up from
Madagascar to a soul that assembled
from America The latter says, Il
came from America, where 40 years ]
heard the gospel preached and Bible
read. and from the prayer that learned