Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1894-06-22
I. DEWITT TAIN AGE.
WRITES US HIS UsUf L SUNDAY
SERMOF..
Another Chance" the Subject Theveof
People Who Think They Can Cor
rect Their Mistakes In this World are
Doomed 10 disappointment

WIZ OO OPBOA bhhAbJ III WIZ hN-NS
world to correct the mistakes of this;
that if we do make complete ship
wreck Of our earthly life, it will be on
n shore up which we may walk TO
palace; that, as a defendant may lose
his case in the Circuit court, and carry
it up to the Supreme court or Court ~
Chancery and get reversal of judg-
ment in his behalf, all the costs being
thrown over on the other party, SO, If
we fail in the earthly trial, we may in
the higher jurisdiction of eternity have
the Judgment of the lower court set
aside, all the costs RENTED, and we
may be victorious defendants forever.
My object in this sermon is to show
that common sense, as we'll as my text,
declares that such an expectation is
chimerical. You say that the impeni-
tent man, having got into the next
world and seeing the disaster, will, ms
n result of that disaster, turn, the pain
the cause of his reformation. But
you can find ten thousand instances in
this world of men who have done
wrong and distress overlook them
suddenly. Did the distr' heal them?
No; they went right on.
That man was flung of designations
You must stop drinking" said the
doctor, and quit the fast life you are
leading, or it will destroy you" The
patient suffers paroxysm after paroX-
ysm; but, under skillful medical treat
ment, he begins to sit up, begins TO
walk about the room, begins
to go to business. And, 10! he goes
back to the same grog shops for his
morning DRAM and his evening dram,
and the drains between. Flat down
again! Same doctor! Same physical
anguish. Same medical warming
Now, the illness is more protracted;
the liver is more stubborn, the stom-
ach more irritable, and the digestive
organs are more rebellious. But after
awhile he is out again, goes back to
the same dram shops, and goes the
same round Of sacrilege against his
physical health.
lie sees that his downward course is
running his household, that his life is
perpetual perjury against his mar
riage vow, that that broken-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 to be tainted for a
life time by the fathers drunkenness,
that the daughters are to pass into
| life under the scarifcation of dis.
reputa BILE ancestor. He is drinking
up their happiness, their prospects for
this life, and, perhaps, for the life to
come. Sometimes an appreciation of
what he is doing comes upon him.
His nervous system 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 him?
After awhile he has delirum tremens,
with n whole jungle of kissing reptiles
let out on his pillow, and his screams
horrifv the neighors as he dashes out
of his bed, crying: Take these things
off me!' AS he sits pale and GONZALES
cent, the doctor says: "Now l want
to have a plain talk with you, my
dear fellow. The next attack of this
kind you have you will be beyond all
medical skill, and you will die" He
gets better and goes forth into the
same round again. This time medicine
takes no effect. Consultation OF ply
sicians agree in saying there is no
hope. Death ends the scene.
That process of inebriation, warn
ing 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 rejuvena-
ton. Take up the printed reports of
the prisons of the United States,
and you will find that the vast ma
jority of the incarcerated have been
there before, some of them four, five,
six times. With a million illustrations
all working the other way in this
world, people are expecting that dis
tress in the next state will be saliva
tory. You can not imagine any worse
torture in any other world than that
which some men have suffered here,
and without any salutary conse-
quence.
Furthermore, the prospect of refor.
nation In the next world is more i'm
probable than a reformation here.
In this world the life started with in
nocence of infancy. In the case sup
posed, the other life will open with
all the accumulated bad habits OF
many years upon him. Surely, it Is
easier to build strong ship out Of
new timber than out of an old hulk
that has been ground up in the
breakers. If with innocence to start
with in this life a man does not be
come godlv, what prospect is there
that in the next world, starting will
sim there would be seraph evoluted.
Surely the sculptor has more prospect
of making fine statue out of blocI
of pure white Parian marble than GU
of an old black rock scanned anC
cracked with the storms of half a cen
tury. Surely upon a clean, white
sheet of paper it is easier to write |
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