The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1894-06-18
Il. DEWITT TALMAGE.
WRITES Us HIS USUAL SUNDAY
SERMON.
Another Chance" the Subject Thereof
People Who Think They Can Cor
rect Their Mistakes In this World are
Doomed to disappointment

There is a lowering hope in the
minds of a vast multitude that there
viii be an opportunity in the next
world to correct the mistakes of this;
that, if we do make complete ship
wreck of our earthly life, it will be on
shore up which we may walk to a
palace; that, as a defendant may lose
his case in the Circuit court, and carry
1T up to the Supreme court or Court OF
Chancery and get a 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 well 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, as
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 distress 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 warning.
Now, the illness is more protracted;
the liver is more stu bborn, 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.
He sees that his downward course is
running his household, that his life is
a perpetual perjury against his mar
riage VOW, that that brOxen-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 scarifica ton of a dis
reputa bic 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 whole jungle of kissing reptiles
let out on his pillow, and his screams
horrifv the neighors as he dashes out
of his bed, crying: '"Talxe these things
off me!' AS he sits pale and GONZALES
cent, the doctor says: ''Now 1 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. Consultat ton 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 neighborho Gods of christendom
Pain does not correct. Suffering does
not reform What is true in one sense
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 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 a 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 innocencs to start
with in this life a man does not be-
come godly, what prospect is there
that in the next world, starting with |
sin, there would be a 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 half a CEN
fury. Surely upon a clean, white |
sheet of paper If Is easier to write a |