The Penn's Grove record., 1894-06-22

TEXT III the tree lall toward Inc SOutn Oh
toward the north, in the place where the
tree falleth there it shall e."-Ecclesiastcs
ri, 8.
There is n lowering hope in the minds Of
q vast multitude that there will be an OPP
p%ortunity in the next world 10 correct the
mistakes Of this that II we do make COM
plete shipwreck of our earthly life ii will be
or a shore, up which we may walk to a pal
ace that, as u defendant may lose his case
in the circuit court and carry 1t up to the SUI
preme court or court of chdncery and get n
reversal OF judgment 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 nave the
judgment of the lower court set aside, all
the costs RENTED, and we may be victorious
defendants forever. My object in this SER
nor is TO show that common sense as we'll
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 disaster, will, us u result of that
disaster, turn. the pain the cause of his
reformation. But you can find 10000 in
stances in this world of men who have done
wrong, n distress overlook them sud-
denly. Did the distress heal then2 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" II patient suffers paroxysm
after paroXysm, but under skillful medical
treatment 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-shop
for his morning dram, and his evening dram.
and the drains between. Flat DOWN again2
Same doctor! Same physical anguish! Sama
medical warning! Now the illness is moro
| protracted, the liver is mole stubborn, tho
stomach more irritable, and the digestive or-
gans are more rebellious. But after a while
he is out again, goes back TO the dramshops
and goes'the same round Of sacrilege against
his physical health.
He sees that his downward course is ruin
ing his household that his life is a perpet-
ual perjury against his marriage vow that
that broken hearted woman is so unlike the
hopeful young wife whom he married that
her old schoolmates do not recognize her ,
that his sons are to be tainted for n lifetime
by the fathers drunkenness that the daugh-
tiers are to pass into life under the scarinca-
tion OF a d~isreputable ancestor. He is
drinking up their happiness, their prospects
for this lie, and perhaps forthe life to come.
Sometimes an appreciation of what be is do
ing comes upon him. His nervous system is
all a-tangle. From crown OF head to sole OF
foot he is one aching, rasping, crucifying,
damninS torture Where is heP In hell on
earth. Does it reform him?
After awhile he has delirium tremens, with
a whole jungle of kissing reptiles let out on
his pillow, and his screams horrity the
neighbors as he dashes out OF his bed, cry
Ing, "Take these things off me !" As he sits
pale and convalescent the doctor says
Now, | want to nave a plain talk with you,
my dear fellow. The next attack of this
kind you have you will be beyond all medi-
! cal skill, and you will de-" He gets better
and goes forth into the same fight again
This time medicine takes no effect. Consul
tation OF physicians agree in saying there is
no hope. Death ends the scene
That process of inebriation, warning anu
dissolution is going on within a stones throw
of you, going on in all the neighborhoods OF
Christendom. Pain does not correct. Suf-
fering does not reform. VIII at Is true in one
sense is true in all senses and will forever be
so, n yet men are expecting in the next
world purgatorial r~ejuvenation. Take up
the printed reports of the prisons of the
United States, and o will find that the
vast majority ofthe iucarcerated have been
there before, some of them four, five, six
times. With 1000, 900 illustrations all work
ing the other way in this world, people are
expecting that distress in the next state will
be salvatory. You cannot imagine any wors
torture in any other world than that which
some men have suffered here, and without
any salutary consequence.
Furthermore, the prospect of o reforma.
ton in the next world Is more improbable
than a reformation here. In this world the
life started with innocence of infancy. In
the case supposed the other life will open
with all the accumulated bad habits of many
years upon him. Surely 1t is easier to build
a strong ship out Of new timber than out Of
an old hulk that has been ground up in the
breakers. If with innocence TO begin witt
In this life a man does not become cody
what prospect is there that in the next world
starting with sin, there would be n seraph
evoluted? Surely the sculptor has more
prospect of making 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 a half century. Surely
upon a clean white sheet of paper it is easier
to write a deed or a will than upon a sheet
OF paper all scrubbed and blotted and torn
from top TO bottom. Yet men seem to thinl
that. though the life that began here com
paratively perfect turned out badly, the mex
lie will succeed, though 1t starts with a deat
failure.
"But," says some one, 81 think we ought
10 nave a chance IN the next life. because
this life Is so short it allows only small op
l%portunity. We hardly nave time to turI
around between cradle and tomb. the wool
of the one almost touching the marble ofth'
other" But do you know what made the an
cient deluge a necessity 1t was the longe
Iity of tho antediluvians. They were worst
in the second century of their lifetime thar
in the first hundred years, and still worse IL
the third century, and still worse all the wa,
on to 700, 800 and 800 years, n the eartl
had TO be washed and scrubbed and soaket
and anchored clear out OF sight for NOR
than a month before it could be made fit TO
decent people to live in.
Longevity never cures impenitency. AL
the pictures Of Time represent him with
lseythe TO cut, but l never saw any picture o
Time with a case of medicines to heal
Seneca says that Nero for the first five year
Of his public life was set up for an exampl,
of clemency and kindness, but his path al
the way descended until at 68 A. d. he be
came a suicide. II 500 years did not max,
antediluvians any better, but only mad
them worse, the ages of eternity could hav
no effect excep. ~prolongation of depravity.
''But," says some one, "in the future stat,
evil surroundings will be withdrawn an
elevated influences substituted, n henc
expurgation and sublimation and glorlhca
ton" But the righteous, all their sins for
given, have passed on into a beatiflo state
and consequently the unsaved will be lief
alone. 1t cannot be expected hat DIR. DUFF
who exhausted himself in teaching Hindoo
the way to heaven, and DR.. Abeel, who CAV
, his life in the evangelization Of China, an
Adoniram Judson, who toiled for the re-
demption of Borneo, should be sent downb,
some celestial missionary society to educat
those who wasted all their earthly existence
E~vangelistic and missionary efforts ar
ended. The entire kingdom Of the morall
ba lErupt by themselves, where are tn
salvatory influences to come from2 Can on
speckled and bad apple in Il barrel of dis
eased apples turn the other apples good
Can those who arc themselves down hel
others up2 Can those who have themselve
failed in the business of the soul pay til
debts Of their spiritual insolyents? Can
million wrongs make one right?
Poneropolis was a city where King Phil
of -Thracia put all the bad people of hi
kingdom. II any man had opened a primar
school at Poneropolis, l do not think tn
parents from other cities would have sen
their children there. Instead OF amendmer
in the other world, all the associations, no'
that the soot are evolved, will be deGen ia
ting and down. You would not want TO sen
n man to q cholera or yellow fever hosp't'
for his health, and the great lazaretto of tn
| hpxt world. containing the diseased an
plague struck, will be a poor place for mors
recovery. il the surroundings in this worl
were crowded of temptation, the SURROUND
J ings OF the next world, after the righteou
| have passed up and on, will be a thousan
mar aant mora crowded Of termination