The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1894-07-04

| get all OUT OF tnlS llIe tuero u Ill IL. C0Luo,
eluttony and inebriation and uncleanness
and revenge and all sensualities, and wait
upon me! My life may be somewhat short
ened In this world by dissoluteness, but that
will only make heavenly indulgence on
| larger scale the sooner possible. will over
take the saints at last and will enter the
heavenly temple only little later than
those who behaved themselves here. Twill
on my way to heaven take little wider e1-
curs:on than those who were on earth pious,
and shall go to heaven via gehenna and
via sheol." Another chance In the next
world means free license and wild abandon
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. and 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-
would put all the stress upon the second
trial, all the anxiety, all the expenditure,
saying, "The first is nothing, the last 1.
everything" Give the race an assurance o.
second and more Important trial in the
subsequent life, and all the preparation for
eternity would be "post mortem," post fu-
neral. post sepulchral. and the world with
one jerk be pitched OF into 1npiety andgod-
lessness.
Furthermore, let me ask why a chance
should be given in the next world II we have
refused innumerabie chances In this? Sup
pose you give banquet, and you invite
vast number Of friends. but one man de-
cllnes to come or treats your invitation with
indifference. You in the course Of twenty
years give twenty banquets, and the same
man Is invited to them all and treats them all
In the same obnoxious way. After while
you remove 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 invitations.
Are YOU to blame? Has he a 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 provi-
ience and His spirit S65 days Of every year
since we knew our right hand from our Left.
invitation with indifference and gave twenty
or forty or fifty years OF indignity on our
part toward the banqueter, and at last He
spreads the banquet In a more luxurious and
kingly place, amid the heavenly gardens,
have we right to expect Him to invite US
again, and have we right to blame Him II
He does not invite US?
I'tTelve gates OF salvation stood open
twenty years or fifty years for our admis-
sion, and at the end Of that time they are
closed, can we complain of 1t and say:
"These gates oughtto be open again. Give
us another chance" Ifthesteamer is to sail
for Hamburg, and we want to get to Ger
many BY that line, and We read In every
evening and every morning newspaper that
II will sail on certain day, for two weeks
We have that advertisement before our eyes,
and then We 60 down to the docks fifteen
minutes after it has showed of into the
stream and say: "Come back! Give me
another chance! It Is not fair to treat me
in this way! Swins up to the dock again
and throw out planks and let me come on
board" Such behavior would invite arrest
as madnan.
And II, 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 at any moment, and
after awhile she sails without US, Is 1t
common sense to expect her to come back?
You might as well so out on the highlands
at Navesink and call to the Majestic after
she has been three days out und expec! her
to return as to call back an opportunity for
heaven when 1t once has sped away. All
heaven offered US as a gratuity. and for
lifetime ws refuse to take 1t, and then
rush on the bosses of Jehovahs buckleS de-
handing 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, III
the tree fall toward the south or toward the
north, In the place where the tree falleth
! 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 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 c1maxes and
all the destinies into life here. No other
chance! Oh, how that augments the value
and Importance OF this chance!
Alexander with his army used TO surround
city and then would lift great light In
token to the people that II they surrendered
before that light went out all would be well,
but II once the light went out then the bat
tering 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 surrender to
Christ, the King and Conqueror--surrender
| OF our hearts, surrender Of our lives, sur
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 10 burn, for after 1t 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 supernd chance.
In the time of Edward VI, at the battle OF
Musselburg, a private soldier, seeing that
the Earl OF Huntley had lost his helmet, tool
| of his own helmet and put it upon the head
| OF the earl, and the head Of the private SOL
| dier, uncovered, he was soon slain, while
| his commander rode safely out Of the battle
But in our case, instead OF a private soldts:
offering helmet to IN earl, 1t is King put
ting His crown upon an unworthy subject
the King dying that We might live. Tell 1t to
all points of the compass. Tell 1t to night
and day. Tell it to all earth and heaven.
Tell 1t to all centuries. all ages. all miilenni'
INNS. that we have such magnificent chance
In this world that we need no other chance
In the next.
lam In the FURNISHED judgment ball ct the
last day. great white throne is lifted,
but the Judge has not yet taken It. While
we are waiting for his arrival hear immor-
tal spirits in conversation. "What are you
waiting here for?" says soul that went up
from Madagascar to q soul that ascended
from America. The latter says. 81 came
| from America WQere 1ortS years Dehtu luo
gospel preached and Bible read, and from
the prayer that learned in infancy on my
mothers knee until my last hour I had gos-
pei advantage. hut for some reason I did not
make the Christian choice. and am here
waiting for the judge % give me new trial
and another chance" 'Strange!" !" says the
other. 81 had but one gospel call In NADIA
gascar. and accepted it, and do not need
another chance"
"Why are you here2" says one who on
earth had feeblest intellect to one who had
great brain and silvery tongue and scepters
of influence. The latter responds: "Oh,