Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1895-07-26
TALMAGE'S SERMON
INTERESTING THEME BY THE
NEW YORK PREACHER
Subject "rs7 objectionable sin.n

'Au heiN blv-A u HllaAi uot DE forgiven him
neither IN this world. neither in the world I
come e. Matthew xii. 81. 80. He found NJ
place Of repentance. though be sought !
carefully with tear. Hebrews xii. II.
As sometimes YOU gather the whole famil,
around the evening stand To- hear some booi
read. so now We gather. a great Christian
family group, 10 study this text, and now
may one and the same lamp cast its glow OIL
all the circle
You see from the first passage that I read
that there is a sin against the Holy Ghost for
which man j. never pardOned. Once
having committed 1t, he Is bound hand aud
foot for the dungeons Of despair Sermons
may be preached to him. songs NAV be sung
10 him, prayers may be offered in his behalf
but all 10 no purpose. He is a captive for this
world aud Il captive for the world that is to
come. Do YOU suppose that there is any one
here who has committed that sim All sins
are against the Holy Ghost. but nv text
speaks of one especially. 1t is very clear to
nv mind that the sin against the Holy Ghost
was the ascribng Of the works OF the spirit
to the agency II the devil in the time Of the
apostles.
Indeed the Bible distinctly tells US that. In
other words. il man had sight given to
him, Orif another was raised from the dead,
and some one standing there should say,
"This man got his sight by satanic power;
the Holy Spirit did not do this; Beelzebub
accomplished it." or This man raised from
the dead was raised hy satanic influence, "
the man who said that dropped down under
the curse of the text and had committed the
fatal sin against the HOLY Ghost.
Now, | do not think it is possible in this
day to commit that sin. think il was pos
sible only in apostolic times. But it is a very
terrible thing ever to say anything against
the Holy Ghost. and II is a marked fact that
our race has been marvelOuSly kept back
from that profanity. You hear a man swear
by the name of the eternal God, and by the
name of Jesus Christ hut you never hear o
man swear by the name Of the Holy Ghost.
There are those here to-day who fear they
are guilty of the objectionable sin. Have
you such anxiety? ,ThenrI have to tell you
positively that you have not committed that
sin, because the very anxiety is result Of
the movement OF the gracious Spirit. and
your anxiety is proof positive, rs certainly as
anything that can be demonstrated in math-
ematics. that YOU have not committed the
sin that | have been speaking Of. | can look
of upon this audience and feel that there is
salvation for all 1t is not like when they
put out with those ifeboats from the Loeb
Earn for tho Vile de Havre. They knew
there was not room for all the passengers.
but they were going to do as we'll rs they
could. But to-day we man the lifebOat Of
the gospel, and we cry out over the sea,
Groom for air. Oh, that the Lord jesus
Christ would this hour bring you all out of
the food OF sin and plant you on the deck OF
the glorious old gospel craft!
But while do not think it Is possible for
us to commit the particular sin spoken of in
the first text have, by reason of the second
text, to call your attention to the fact that
there are sins which, though they may be
pardoned, are in some respects irrevocable,
and You can find no place for repentance,
though you seek it carefully with tears.
Esau had birthright given him. In olden
times it meant not only temporal but spirit
ual blessing. One day Esau took his birth
right and traded it off for something to eat,
Oh, the folly! But let us not be TOO severe
upon him, for some of us have committed
the same folly. After he had made the trade
he wanted to get it back. Just as though
you tomorrow morning should take all your
notes and bonds and Government securities
and should go into restaurant and in fit
Of recklessness and hunger throw all those
securities on the counter and ask for u plate
OF food, making that exchange. This was
the one Esau made. He sold his hlrthright
for mess Of pottage, and he was very sorry
about it afterward but The found no place
for repentance, though he sought it care
fully with tears "
There is an impression in almost every
mans mind that somewhere in the future
there will be q chance where he can correct
all his mistakes. Live as we may, Ii we
only repent in time God will forgive us, and
then all will be as well as though we had
never committed sin. My discourse shall
come in collision with that theory | shall
show you, my friends, as God will help me,
that there is such Il thing as unsuccessful
repentance; that there are things done wrong
that always stay wrong, and for them you
may seek some place Of repentance and seek
it carefully, but never find it.
Belonging to this class of irrevocablc mis-
takes is the folly of misspent youth. We
may look back to our college days and think
how we neglected chemistry or geology or
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 bad we attended to those duties in
early life2 A man wakes up at forty years
of age and finds that his youth has been
wasted, and he strives to get back his early
advantages. Does he get them back-the
days OF boyhOod, the days in college, the
days under his fathers roof ooh, he says,
iii could only get those times back again.
how would improve them!' My brother,
you will never get them back. They are
gone, gone. You may be very sorry about
it, and God may forgive 50 that you NAV at
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 1t: 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 saws
at nf a Ar,,t1h
over these habits of incidence" When did
you get them? At twenty or Twenty-Five
years of age. You cannot shake them of.
They will hang to you to the very day of
your death. II young man through long
course of evil conduct undermines his physi-
cal health and then repents of 1t In after life.
the Lord may pardon him, but that does moi
bring back good physical condition. said
to minister Of the gospel one Sabbath at the
close of the service, Where are you preach
ing now?' "Oh," he says. 81 am not preach.
ing. am suffering from the physical effects
OF early sin. can't preachnow; am sick"
A consecrated man he nowis. and he mourns
bitterly over early sins. but that does not
arrest their bodily effects.
The simple fact is that men and women
often take twenty years of their life to build
up influences that require all the rest of
their life to break down. Talk about a mnn
beginning life when he is twenty-one years
OF age; talk about n 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 uues-
tons of eternity are decided before that.
TAX about majority OF men getting theiJ
fortunes between thirty and forty years
They get or lose fortunes between ten and
twenty. When you tell me that q man is
Just beginning life, l tell you he is Just clos.
ing IT. Inc next fifty years will not be of as
much Importance to him as the first twenty.
Now why do l say this? Is it for the
ANNOYANCE of those who have only baleful
You know that is not my
way. say it for the benefit of young men
ana women. Iwant them to understand that
eternity is wrapped up in this hour; that the
SINS OF youth we never get over; that you are
40" Iasaloning the mold in which your
great future is to run; that a minute. in
stead OF being sixty seconds long is made
ip OF everlasting ages. You can see what
iishlty and Importance this gives to the
N