The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-06-18
FALSE HOPE OF SALVATION.
Heavens Gates Closed TO the One Who
Dies Impenitent.

in the Next World After Innumer-
able Chances IN This World Are IN
improved.
Brooklyn, June 11.-Rev. DR.. Talmage,
who is now on his round-the-world Jour
ney. has selected as the subject for his
sermon through the press to-day, AN
other Chance" the text being taken from
Ecclesiastes, II g: If the tree fall to-
ward the south or toward the north, in
the place where the tree faneth there it
shall be-
There is a lowering hope in the minds
of a vast multitude that there will be an
opportunity in the next world to correct
the mistakes of this; that, if we do make
complete shipwreck of our earthly life, it
will be on a shore up which we may walk
to a palace: that, as a defendant may lose
his case II the circuit court and carry it
up TO the supreme court or court of chan
Gerry and get 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 juris-
dictiOn of eternity have the judgment of
the lower court set aside, all the costs re-
mitted, and we may be victorious defend
ants forever. My object in this sermon
is to show that common sense, as well as
my text, declares that such an expeeta-
ton is chimericaL You say that the i'm
penitent man, having got into the next
world, and seeing the disaster, will as a
result of that disaster, turn, the pain the
cause Of his reformation. But you can
find 10000 instances in this world of men
who have done wrong and distress over
took them suddenly. Did the distress
heal them No: they went right on.
That man was flung of designations.
"You must stop drinking" said the doc
tor, - and quit the fast life you are lead
ing, or it will destroy you" The patient
suffers paroxysm after paroXysm; but,
under skillful medical treatment, he be-
gins to sit up. begins to walk about the
room, begins to 90 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 warning. Now
the illness is more protracted; the liver
is more stubborn, the stomach 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 sacri-
lege against his physical health.
He sees that his downward course is
running his household, that his life is a
perpetual perjury against his marriage
VOW, that that brokeu-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 lifetime by the fathers
drunkenness, that the daughters are to
pass into life under the scarifcation of a
disreputable 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 tor
ture. Where is hel In hell on earth.
Does it reform himl
After awhile he has delirium tremens.
with whole jungle of kissing reptiles let
out on his pillow, and his screams hor-
rlfythe neighbors as he dashes out of his
bed, crying: Take these things off me!''
AS he sits pale and convalescent, the
doctor says: Now ] want to have a
pin talk with you, my dear fellow. The
next attack of this kind YOU have. YOU
will be beyond all medical skill, aud YOU
Will die" He gets better and goes forth
into the same round again. This time
medicine takes no effect. Consultation of
physicians agree in saying there is no
hope. Death ends the scene.
That process of inebriation, warning,
and dissolution is going on within stones
throw of you. going on in all the neigh
borhoods 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 vet
men are expecting IN the next world pur-
gatorial regeneration. Take up the printed
reports of the prisons of the United
States, and you will find that the vast
majority of the incarcerated have been
4 hraf If g.. q
times. With million illustrations all
working the other way in this world,
people are expecting that distress in the
next state will be salvatory. You cannot
imagine any worse torture in any other
world than that which some men have
suffered here, and without any salutary
consequence.
Furthermore the prospect of reforma-
ton in the next world is more improbable
than 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, 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 man
does not become godly, what prospect is
there that IN the next world, starting
with sin, there would be a seraph
evoluted2 Surely the sculptor has more
prospect Of making a fine statue out of a
block of pure white Parian marble than
out Of an old black rock scanned and
cracked with the storms of a half cen
fury. Surely, upon a clean. white sheet
of paper it is easier to write deed or a
will, than upon sheet of paper all
scrubbed and blotted and torn from ton
TO bottom. Yet men seem to think that
though the life that began here compare.
lively perfect turned out badly, the next
life will succeed, though it starts with a
dead failure.
but, . says one, 81 think we onght to
have chance in the next life, because
this life is SO short it allows only small
opportunity. We hardly have time TO
turn around between cradle and tomb.
the wood Of the one almost touching the
marble of the other" But do YOU know
what made the ancient deluge a neces-
sitya 1t was the longevity of the antedi-
luvians. They were worse in the second
century of their lifetime than in the
first hundred years, and still worse in
the third century, and still worse all the
way on to seven, eight, and nine hundred
years and the earth had TO be washed,
and scrubbed, and soaked, and anchored
clear out of sight for more than a month
before il could be made fit for decent peo-
pie TO live in. Longevity never cures i'm
penitency. All the pictures of Time rep
resent him with a scythe to cut, but I
never saw any picture of Time with. n