Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1895-07-24
REV. DR.. TaLuaGE.
The Brooklyn Divine's Sunday
Sermon.
Subject: "The objectionable SIM"


given him, but whosoever speaketh agains
the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven him
neither In this world, neither in the world t
com"."-Matthew xii, 81, 80. "He found n
p'' Of repentance. though he sought l
car -;ily with tears. Hebrews xii, II.
As sometimes you gather the whole famil
around the evening stand to hear some boo
read, so now We gather. n great Christia
family group, to study this text, and no,
may one and the same lamp east its glow o
all the circle.
You see from the first passage that rea,
that there is sin against the Holy Ghost fo
which man Is never pardoned. One
having committed it, he is bound hand an,
foot for the dungeons of despair. Sermons
may be preached to him, songs may be sun.
to him, prayers may be offered in his behalf
but all to no purpose. He is a capt. We for th
world and captive for the world that is t.
come. Do you suppose tia there is any on
here who has committed that sin? All sin
are against the Holy Ghost, but my tex
speaks of one especially. 1t is very clear t.
my mind that the sin against the Holy Ghos
was the ascribing Of the works of the spiri
to the agency CT the devil in the time Of th'
apostles.
There is an impression in almost ever
mans mind that somewhere in the future
there will be a chance where he can correct
all his mistakes. Live as we NAV, if We
only repent in time God will forgive US, and
then all will be as well as though We ha
never committed sin. My discourse shall
come in collision with that theory. 1 shall
show you, my friends. as God will help me-
that there is such n thing as unsuccessful
repentance; that there are things done wrong
that always stay wrong. and for them yor
may seek some place of repentance and seet
1t carefully, but never find it.
Belonging to this class of irrevocabIe mis-.
AL "a Ill r
may look back to our college days and think
how we neglected chemistry or geology o,
botany or mathematics. We may be sorry
about it all our days. Can We ever get the
discipline or the advantage that we would
have had had we attended to those duties in
early life3 A man wakes up at forty years
Of age and finds that his youth has beer
wasted, and he strives to get back his early
advantages. Does he get them back-ths
days of boyhood. the days in college. the
days under his fathers roof? "Oh. " he SAYS,
''if | could only get those times back again,
how | would improve them"' Ny brother
you will never get them back. They are
gone. gone. You may be very sorry about
1t. and God may forgive. so that you may al
last reach heaven, but you will never get
over some OF the mishaps that have come to
your soul as result Of your neglect of early
duty You may try to undo it; you cannot
undo it. When you had boys arms. and
boys eyes, and boys heart, you ought to
have attended to those things. A man say
1t fifty years of age. II do wish l could get
over these habits of incidence" When did
you get them? At twenty or twenty-five
years of age. You cannot shake them off.
They will hang to you to the very day OF
your death. Ii n young man through long
course of evil conduct undermines his physi-
cal health and then repents of it In after life
the Lord may pardon him. but that does not
E-t, Ia,I 4 l,,I,, IL 4
10 a minister of the gospel one Sabbath at the
close of the service, where are you preach
Ing now?' ''Oh." he says. Il am not preach.
Ing. am suffering from the physical effects
Of early sin. 1 can't preach now; 1 am sick. :"
consecrated man he now is, and he mourns
bitterly over early sins. but that does moi
Arrest their bodily effects.
The simple fact is that men and womeI
often take twenty years of their life to build
up influences that require all the rest OF
their life to break down. Talk about man
life when he is twenty-one years
OF age; talk about woman beginning life
when she is eighteen years OF age! All, no!
In many respects that is the time they close
life. In nine cases out of ten all the ques-
tons of eternity are decided before that
Talk about a majority of men getting their
fortunes between thirty and forty years,
They get or lose fortunes between ten and
twenty. When you tell me that man is
lust beginning life. I tell you he is just clos
ng it. The next fifty years will not be of "a
much Importance to him as the first twenty.
Now. why do l say this? Is it for the
annoyance of those who have only a baleful
.etrospectiOn? You know that is not my
way. l say it for the benefit of young men
and women. Iwant them to understand that
eternity is wrapped up in this hour; that the
sns of youth we never get over; that you are
now fashioning the mold in which your
&I,&
ltead of being sixty seconds long, Is made
up OF everlasting ages. You can see what
dignity and Importance this gives to the
life of all our young folks. Why, in the
light of this subject life Is not something to
be frittered away. not something to be
smirked about, not something to be danced
put, but something to be weighed in the
balances of eternity. Oh, young man. the
bin of yesterday, the sin of tomorrow will
reach over 1000 years-aye, over the great
and unending eternity. You may after
awhile say: lam very sorry. Now have
got to be thirty or forty years of age, and l
so wish had never committed those SINS"
What does that amount to? God may par
Son You, but undo those things you never
will, You never can.
In this same category Of irrevocable mis-
lakes / put all parental neglect. We begin
fhe education of our children too late. BY
the time they get TO be ten or fifteen we wake
up to our mistakes and try to eradicate this
bad habit and change that. but 1t Is too late.
That parent who omits In the first ten years
Of the chiid's life to make an eternal impress
sion for Christ never makes 1t. The child
will probably so on with all the disadvan-
tages, which might have been avoided by
parental faithfulness. Now you see what a
mistake that father or mother makes who
puts off to late life adherence to Christ
Here is man who at fifty years of age says
h.. H.: l.,
Yields his heart to God and sits in the place
OF prayer to-day Christian. None Of us
can doubt 1t. He goes home, and he says:
Here at fifty years Of age 1 have given my
heart to the Saviour. Now must establish
family altar" What2 Where are your
children now? One in Boston, another in
Cincinnati, another in New Orleans, and you,
my brother, at your nitieth year gong to
establish your family altar? Very we'll, bet
ter late than never, but alas, alas, that yoU
did not do It twenty five years agoi
When l was in Chamouni, Switzerland
I saw In the window Of one of the shops a
picture that impressed my mind very much
It was a picture Of an accident that occurred
on the side of one of the Swiss mountains.
A company of travellers, with guides, went
up snme very steep places-places which but
lew travellers attempted to go up. They
were, as all travellers are there, fastened to-
gether with cords at the waist, so that if ond
slipped the rope would hold him, the rope
fastened to the others. Passing along the
most dangerous point, one OF the guides
slipped and they all started down the preci-
pice. But after awhile one more musculaI
than the rest struck bis heels into the ice
and stopped, but the rope broke, and down
hundreds and thousands Of feet, the res
vent.
And so I see whole families bound to
gether by ties Of affection and In many cases
walking on slippery places Of worldlin es:
and sin. The father knows It, and the
mother knows it, and they are bound all to.
gether. After awhile they begin to slid'
down sleeper and sleeper, and the fathe
becomes alarmed, and he stops, planting hi
Ieet on the ''rock or ages. He stops. bu
the rope breaks. and those who were ono
tied fast to him by moral and spiritual in
Huences go over the precipice. Oh, there il
tuch a thing as coming to Christ soon enougl
10 save ourselves, but not soon enough II
ave others.
How many parents wake up in the latte
part OF life to find out the mistake! The par