The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1894-06-22

but that the second would decide every-
thing, for which trial would you make
the most preparation, for which retain
the ablest attorneys, for which be most
anxious about the attendance of wit
nesses? You would put all the stress
upon the second trial, all the anxiety,
all the expenditure, saying, "The first
is nothing; the last is everything +"
Give the race assurance of q second and
more important trial in the subsequent
life, and all the preparation for eternity
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 chance
should be given in the next world if we
have refused innumerable chances in
this? Suppose you give a banquet, and
you invite vast number of friends, but
one man declines to come or treats
your invitation with indifference You
in the course of 20 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 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 providence and his spirit 365 days
of every year since we knew our right
hand from our left. If we declined it
every time or treated the invitation
with indifference and gave 20 or 40 or so
years OF indignity on our part toward
the banqueter, and at last he spreads
the banquet in more luxurious and
kingly place, amid the heavenly gar
dens, have we right to expect him to
invite US again, and have we a right to
blame him if he does not invite us?
Only One Offer.
Ii IL gates Of salvation stood open 20
years or so years for our admission and
at the end of that time they are closed,
can we complain of it and say: "These
SNoCS OuElO w NC OJCll dSdlIls NIlN6 us
another chance?' If 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 certain day.
for two weeks we have that advertise
ment before our eyes, and then we go
down to the docks Is minutes after it
hoe ch0ra1 off int +lo cfro
Come back Give me another chancel
1t is not fair to treat me in this way
Swing up to the dock again and throw
out planks and let me come on board!"
Such behavior would invite arrest as a
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
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 it common sense to ex-
pect her to come back? You might as
well go out 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 it, and
then rush on the bosses of Jehovahs
buckler demanding another chance
There ought to be, there can be, there
will be, no such thing as posthumous
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 theze
is shall be-
You see that this idea lifts this world
up froln an unimportant way station to
q platform of stupendous issues and
makes all eternity whirl around this
hour. But one trial for which all the
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
or chance! Oh, how that augments the
value and the Importance of this chancel
Alexander with his army used to sur J
round city and then would lift a
great light in token to the people that
II they SURRENDERED before that light
went out all would be we'll, 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 :
md everlasting safety is to make sur }
lender to Christ, the king and con- /,
of our hearts, surren- ;
Ter of our lives, surrender of everything. d,
And he keeps great light burning, light !;
If gospel invitation, light kindled with q
he wood of the cross and flaming ND ;
against the dark night of our sin and :
Iorrow. Surrender while that great light :
continues to burn, for after it goes out ,
here will be no other opportunity of q
making peace with God through our :
Lord Jesus Christ Talk of another :
hancel Why, this is supernal chancel
No Chance In the Next World. !
In the time of Edward VI, at the !
'attle of Musselburg, a private sol q
Iier, seeing that the Earl of Huntley :
lad lost his helmet, took off his own :