The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-08-10
HOPE OF ANOTHER CHANCE.
THE SUBJECT or DIR. TAEWAGE's
SERMON AT WASHINGTON.


HOpe OF an Opportunity 10 Correct
Mistakes of This Life in the Here
after Il ChimerIcnl-NO Chance FOR
the Unpenitent After Death-W ny
the Ancient DeIuEe Was n Neces-
sity-In This World Il the Gnance
for Salvation.
Washington. Aug. s-Dr Talmage TO-
day discusses a question that every BODY
some time discusses. II IS one % tremen-
dous import Shall We have another
chance? The text is. Eel I-3; III the
tree fall toward the south. or toward the
north. IN the place where the tree falleth.
there it shall be"
There is a lowering hope IN the minds
OF vast multitude OF people that there
viii be an opportunity In the next world
OF correcting the mistakes Of this; that
however complete a shipWreck we may
make OF our earthly life. il viii be on
beach up which We may walk to palace;
that as the defendant may lose his case
IN a circuit court and appeal IL and have
Il 20 ID 10 the supreme court or court Of
chancery and all the costs thrown over on
the other party. so a man may lose his
case in this world, but in the highsr ju-
risdiction Of eternity have the decision
Of the earthly case set aside. an the costs
RENTED and the defendant be triumphant
forever.
The object OF my sermon Is 10 show you
that common sense declares with the text
that such an expectation IS chimerical. IF
the tree fall toward the south. or toward
the north. in the place where the tree fall
eth, there II shall be-" There are those
who say that IL the impenitent and unfor-
given man enters the next world and sees
the disaster. as a result Of that disaster
he viii turn, the distress the cause Of his
reformation; but we have ten thousand in
stances all around about US Of people who
have done wrong and disaster suddenly
came upon them-did the disaster heal
them? No, they went on. There is
man flung Of designations The doctor says
10 him: Now, my friend. II you don't
stop drinking and don't stop this fast life
you are living, you will die" The patient
thanks the physician for his warning and
gets better; he begins to sit up. begins to
walk around the room, begins TO 90 TO
business and takes the same round of
grog-shops where he got his morning dram
and his evening dram and the drains be-
tween. Down again. Same doctor. Same
physical anguish. Same medical warning.
But now the sickness is more prOtracted,
irritable. the digestive organs more rebel
lious. But still. under medical skill, he gets
better goes forth, commits the same sac
rilege against his physical health. Some
times he wakes up TO see what he IS doing
and he realizes he is destroying his fami-
~ and that his life is a perpetual perjury
against his marriage vows. and that that
broken-hearted woman Is so different from
the roseate wife he married that her Old
schoolmates do not recognize her on the
street, and that his sons are going out in
life under the taunt Of a fathers drunk
enness, and that his daughters are going
out In life under the scarification of a dis
reputable ancestry. His nerves are all a
Jangle. From crown of head to sole Of
foot he is one aching, rasping, crucifying
damning torture Where is he2 He is in
hell on earth. Does II stop him? Ali no
After awhile delirium tremens pours out
upon his pillow a whole Jungle of kissing
reptiles. His screams horrify the neig-
Dors as he dashes out of bed crying.
Take these things off met He Is drinking
down the comfort Of his family, the educa-
ton OF his children, their prospects for this
life and perhaps there prospects for the
life to come. Pale and convalescent he
sits up. Physician says TO him: Now,
my gooo yellow. am going to
have a plain talk with you. II you
ever have an attack of this kind again
you Will die. / can't save you, and all
the doctors in creation can't save you. ="
The patient gets up, starts out. goes the
same round of dissipation and is down
touch his case. Consultations Of physicians
say there is no hope. Death ends the scene
That process of inebriation and physical
suffering and medical warning and disco
tuition is taking place within a stones
throw OF where you sit and in every neigh
borhood of Christendom. Pain does not re-
form. Suffering does not cure. What is
true In regard to one sin is true In regard
20 all sins, and yet men are expecting in
the next life there will be opportunity for
purgatorial regeneration. Take up the
printed reports OF the prisons of the Unit
ed States and find that the vast majority
of the criminals were there before, some
for two times, three times four times six
times. Punished again and again, but they
go right on. Millions of incidents and in
stances working the other way and vet
men think that in the next world punish
ment Will work out for them salvable eff
1ects. Why you and ! cannot imagine any
worse torture from another world than we
nave seen men in in this world and with
out any salutary consequence.
Furthermore, the prospect of reforma-
Hlon IN another world is more improbable
than mere. DO you not realize the fact
that man starts in this world with the
innocence of infancy? In the other case.
starting in the other world, he starts wit h
the accumulated bad habits of a lifetime
Is II not TO be expected that you could
Dufld a better ship out of new timber
than out Of an old hulk that has been
ground up in the breakers? If starting
with comparative innocency the man does
1Aoe bS~o4AAO SoAAgf - IL DosSlniE lDaL start
ing with sin a seraph can be evoluted >
Is there not more prospect That a sculo-
tor Will make a finer statue out of a block
of pure, white Parian marble than out
of black rock that has been cracked
and twisted and split and SCARED with
the storms of half century? Could YOU
not write last VIII and testament, or
write a deed, or write an important docu-
ment on a pure white sheet of paper cas-
Ter than you could write il upon a sheet
scribbled all over with infamy and blot
ted and torn from top to bottom2 And
yet there are those who are so uncom-
mon-sensical as to believe that though a
man starts in this world with infancy
and its innocence and turns out badly.
in the next world he can start with a
dead failure and turn out well. but. -
say some people, I'VE ought TO have an.
other chance in the next world because
our life here is so very brief; we scarce
~ nave room to turn around between
the cradle and the grave, the wood of the
one almost striking against the marble of
the other. We ought to have another
chance because of the brevity of this life -
My friends, do you know what made the
ancient deluge a necessity? 1t was the
longevity of the antediluvians. They were
worse in the second century than in the
nrst, and worse when they got three hum
dred wears old and worse NJ fo,1r H,,,r,.7-o.4