The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1895-07-19

wasted, and he strives to get back hi
early advantages. Does he get then
back-the days of boyhood, the days il
college, the days under his fathers roof
"Oh," he says, "if I could only ge
those times back again, how l would
improve them!' My brother, you viii
never get them back. They are gone
gone. You may be very sorry about it
and God may forgive, SO that you may
at last reach heaven, but you will never
get over some of the mishaps that have
come to your soul as result of you
neglect of early duty. You may try t.
undo it; you cannot undo it. When yor
had a boys arms, and boys eyes, ant
a boys heart, you ought to have attend
ed to those things. A man says at &c
years of age, 81 do wish I could gel
over these habits of Incidence. " When
did you get them? At 20 or 25 years Of
age. You cannot shake them off. They
will hang to you to the very day of YOU
death. If young man through long
course of evil conduct undermines his
physical health and then repents of it in
after life, the Lord may pardon him,
but that does not bring back good phys.
ical condition. I said to minister OF
the gospel one Sabbath at the close of
the service, Where are you preaching
now?" "Oh," he says, II am not
preaching. I am suffering from the phys
ical effects of early sin. I can't preach
now; am sick. - A consecrated man
he now is, and he mourns bitterly over
early sins, but that does not arrest their
bodily effects.
The simple fact is that men and wom-
en- often take 20 years of their life to
build up influences that require all the
rest of their life to break down. Talk
about a man beginning life when he is
21 years of age talk about a woman be-
ginning life when she is 8 years of age !!
All, no! In many respects that is the
time they close life. In nine cases
out of ten all the questions of eternity
are decided before that. Talk about a
majority Of men getting their fortunes
between 80 and 40! They get or lose
fortunes between 10 and 20. When you
tell me that a man is just beginning
life, I tell you he is just closing it. The
next so years will not be of as much i'm
portance to him as the first 20.
Cannot Be Undone.
Now, why do say this? Is it for the
of those who have only a
baleful retrospection? You know that is
not my way. l say it for the benefit Of
young men and women. I want them to
understand that eternity is wrapped up
in this hour; that the sins of youth we
never get over; that you are now fash
Joining the mold in which your great
future is to run; that minute, instead
of being go seconds long, is made up of
everlasting ages. You can see what dig
nifty and Importance this gives to the
life of all our young folks. Why, in the
light of this subject life is not some
thing to be frittered away, not some
thing to be smirked about, not some
thing to be danced out, but something
to be weighed in the balances of eternity.
Oh, young man, the sin of yesterday,
the sin of tomorrow will reach over 49,
900 years-aye, over the great and unend-
ing eternity. You may after awhile
say: 81 am very sorry. Now 1 have got
to be 80 or 40 years of age, and l do
wish had never committed those sins.
What does that amount to? God may
pardon you, but undo those things you
never will, you never can.
In this same category of irrevocable
mistakes l put all parental neglect We
begin the education of our children too
late By the time they get to be 10 or
10 we wake up to our mistakes and try
70 eradicate this bad habit and change
hat, but it is too late. That parent who
omits in the first ten years of the child's
life to make an eternal impression for
Christ never makes it. The child will
go ON with all the disadvan-
ages, which might have been avoided
~ parental faithfulness. Now you see
what a mistake that father or mother
makes who puts off to late life adher-
9nce to Christ. Here is man who at so
years of age says to you, II must be a
Christian" and he yields his heart to
God and sits in the place of prayer to-
lay Christian. None of us can doubt
t. He goes home, and he says: Here
1t 80 years of age have given my heart
10 the Saviour. Now must establish a
amily altar. 3" What? Where are your
children now? One in Boston, another
n Cincinnati. another in New Orleans,
md you, my brother, at your fiftieth
,ear going to establish your family al
ar? Very well, better late than never,
,ut alas, alas, that you did not do it 25
years agol
When 1 was in Chamouni, Switzer-
and, saw in the window of one of the
hops a picture that impressed my
mind very much. 1t was picture of an
ccident that occurred on the side of
ne of the Swiss mountains. A company
f travellers, with guides, went up some
cry steep places-plaoes which but few
ravelers attempted to go up. They |
we're, as all travellers are there, fastened |
ogether with cords at the waist, so that
one slipped the rope would hold him,
be rope fastened to the others. Passing
long the most dangerous point, one of |
be guides slipped, and they all started
own the precipice. But after awhile
ne more muscular than the rest struck
is heels into the ice and stopped, but
be rope broke, and down, hundreds and