Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1894-06-29
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUN
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "ADother Chance"

There il a lowering hope In the minds OF
| vast multitude that there will be IN op-
| poruntty In the next world TO correct the
mistakes of this that II we do make COM
| plete shfpwreck of our earthly life It will be
| on a shore, up which We may walk to pal
| ace that, as a defendant NAV lose his case
| in the circuit court and carry il up TO the su-
| preme court or court CO chancery and get
| reversal OF Judgment in his behalf. all the
| costs being thrown over on the other party.
| go, II 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 ser
| mon Is to show that common sense as we'll
| az my text declares that such an expectation
| Is chfmertcaI. You say that the irs panItent
man, having got into the next world and
seeing the disaster will. as n 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, and distress overlook them sud-
| denly. 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 parOxvsm
after parOxYsm but under skilIful 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
and tho drains between. Flat down again?
Same doctor! Same physical anguish Same
medical warning! Now the Illness Is more
protracted, the liver is mOta Stubborn the
stomach more irritable. and hedigestive or
Rans are more rebeltiOuS. But after 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-
|
that broken hearted woman is SO unlike tho
hopeful young wife whom he married that
her old schoOlmates do not recognize her
that his sons are to he tainted for a lifetime
by the fathers drunkenness that the dauch-
tiers are to pass into life under the scarifca-
ton of a disreputable ancestor. He is
drinking up their happiness, their prospects
for this life, and perhaps forthe life to come.
Sometimes an appreciation of what he 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,
damning torture. Where is he? In hell on
eLrth.S Does 1t reform him?
After awhile he has delrium tremens with
n whole jungle of Kissing reptiles let out on
his pillow, and his scream 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 have 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 die" He gets better
and goes forth into the same fight again.
This time medicine takes effect. Consul
tation 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 neighborhoods of
Christendom. Pain docs not correct. Suf-
iering 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 rejuvenation Take up
the printed reports of the prisons of the
United States and you Will find that the
vast ma iOrity Ofthe incarcerated have been
there before, some of them four, flve six
times. With zoo, 900 illustrations all work
ing the other way in this world, people arc
expecting that distress In the next state will
be salvatory. You cannot imagine any worss
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 moro 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
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 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
evoluted? Surely the sculptor has more
prospect of making a fine statue out OF a
block of pure white Parian marble than ont
OF an old black rock scanned and cracked
with the storms of half century. Surely
upon clean white sheet of paper 1t is easier
to write a deed or will than upon a sheet
of paper all scrubbed and blotted and torn
from top to bottom. Yet men seem to think
that, though the life that began here com
paratively perfect turned out badly, the next
life will succeed, though it starts with dead
failure
"But," says some one. 81 think we ought
to have chance in the next life, because
this life is SO short it allows only small Op-
pOrtunity. 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 an
clent deluge necessity? 1t was the longe-
witty of the antediluvans. 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 700, 500 and 900 years, and the earth
had TO be washed and scrubbed and soaked
and anchored clear out of sight for more
than month before it could be made fit for
decent people to live in.
Longevity never cures irapenitencv. All
the pictures of Time represent him with a
scythe to cut, but never saw any picture of
It,
Seneca says that Nero for the first five years
of his public life was set up for an example
OF clemency and kindness, but his path all
the way descended until at 69 A. D. he be-
came suicide. If 800 years did not make
antediluvians any better, but only made
them worse, the ages of eternity could have
no effect except prolongation of depravity.
But, says some one, Gin the future state
evil surroundings will be withdrawn and
elevated influences substituted, and hence
ON rFPDf
ton" But the righteous, all their sins for
given, have passed on into beatific state.
and consequently the unsaved will be left
alone. 1t cannot be expected that DR.. Duff,
who exhausted himself in teaching Hindoos
the way to heaven, and DIR. Abeel, who gave
his life in the evangelizatiOn of China, and
Adoniram Judson, who tOilej for the re-
demption of BOrneO, should be sent down by
some celestial missionary society to educate
those who wasted all their earthly existence.
EYangelisttc and missionary efforts are
ended. The entire Kingdom OF the morally
bankrupt by themselves. where are the
salvatOry influences to come from? Can one
speckled and bad apple in a barrel of dis
eased apples turn the other apples gooi?
Can those who arc themselves down help
others up? Can those who have themselves
failed in the business of the soul pay the
debts Of their spiritual insoIvents? Can
million wrongs make one right?
Poneropolis was city where King Philip
OF Ihracla put all the bad people of his |
Kingdom. If any man had opened primary
school at Poneropolis, | do not think the
parents from other cities would have sent |
their children there. Instead of amendment |
In the other world, all the associations, now
that the good are evolved, will be degenera-
ting and down. You would not want to send |
man to cholera or yellow fever hospital |
1or his health, and the great lazaretto OF the |
next world, containing the diseased AMI |
plague struck, will be a poor place for moral |
recovery. IF the surroun ltngs in this world !
were crowded OF temptation, the surround
ings OF the next world, after the righteous
have passed up and on, will be THOUSAND
per cent. more crowded of temptation.
The Count of Chateaubriand made his lit
tie son sleep at night at the top OF castle
turret, where the winds howled. and where
specters were said to haunt the place, and
WINE the mother and sisters almost died
with fright the son tells US that the process