The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1896-08-15

the righteous having pdSSSu up ihIO
the beatitic state, the association Will
be more de~teriorating, depreciating
and down. You would not send to n
cholera or yellow fever hospital n man
for his health, and the great lazaretto
of the future, in which are gathered
the diseased and the plague-struck,
will be a poor place for moral recovery.
The count of Chateaubriand, in order
to make his child courageous, made
him sleep in the turrets of the castle,
where the wind howled and specters
were said to haunt the place. The
mother and the sisters almost died of
fright, and the son afterwards gives
his account, and he says: THAT gave
me nerves of steel, and gave me cour-
age that has never faltered."
Again, l wish you further to notice
that another chance in another world
means the ruin of this. Now, suppose
a wicked man is assured that after a
lifetime of wickedness, he can fix it all
right up in the future. That would be
the generalization of society, that
would lie the demolition of the human
race. There are men Who are now kept
on the limits of sin by their fear. The
fear that if we are bad and unforgiven
here it will not be well with us in the
next existence, is the chief influence
that keeps civilization from rushing
back into semi-barbarism, and keeps
semi-b arbarism from rushing back into
midnight savagery, and keeps midnight
savagery ON rushing back into ex-
tinction. Now, the man is kept on the
limits of sin. But this idea coming in
to his soul, this idea OF another chance,
he says, $50 to, now; PIl get out of
this world all there is in it. Come glut-
tony and revenge and uncleanness and
all sensualities, and wait upon me. 1t
NAV abbreviate my earthly life by dis
soluteness, but that will only give me
heavenly indulgence on a larger scale
in a shorter length of time. 1 will
overtake the righteous before long. l
will only come in Heaven a little late,
and 1 will be a little more fortunate
THAI those who have behaved them
selves on earth and then went straight
to the bosom of God, because l will see
more and have wider excursion, and l
will come into HEAVIER via Gehenna,
via sheolr' Hearersl Readers! An
other chance in the next world means
free license and the demolition of
this. Suppose you had a case in
court, and all the judges and all
the attorneys agreed In telling you
the first trial of tit would be tried
tvice-the first trial would not be of
very much Importance, but the second
trial would decide everything. On
which trial would you put the most ex-
penditure? On which trial would you
employ the ablest counsel? On which
trial would you be most anxious to
have the attendance of all the wit
nesses? 'Oh," you would say, IF
there are to be two trials, and the first
trial does not amoun to much, the sec
ond trial being everything, everything
depending upon that, l must have the
most eloquent attorney, and L must
nave all my witnesses present, and /
will eXpend my money on that" Ii
these men who are i~mpenitent and
who are wicked felt there were two
trials, and the first was of no very
great Importance, and the second trial
was the one of vast and infinite impor-
lance, all the preparations for eternity
would be post mortem, post funeral,
post sepulchral, and this world would
be jerked off into impenitency and god
~lessness. Another chance in another
world means the demolition of this
world.
Furthermore, my friends-for I am
preaching to myself as well as to you;
we are on the same level, and though
the platform be a little higher than
the pew, it is only for convenience,
and that we may the better speak to
the people; we are all on the same
platform, and l am talking to my soul
while l talk to yours-my friends, why
another chance in another world When
we have declined sc many in this?
Suppose you spread a banquet and you
invite a vast number of friends, and
among others you send an invitation
to man who disregards it, or treats it
in an obnoxious way. During 20 years
you give 20 banquets, ban
quet a year; and you invite your
friends, and every time you in
vite this man, who d~isregards your
invitation or sends back some indig-
nifty. After awhile you move into q
larger house and amid more luxuriant
surroundings, and you invite your
friends, but you do not invite that man
to whom 20 times you sent an invi-
tation to the smaller house. Are you
to blame? You would only make your
self absurd before God and man to
6CLd OAAdO AAaA hlOtlC GOA
20 years he has been declining your Of
fers and sending insult for your kind
ness and courtesy, and can he blame
you? Can he come up to your house
on the night of the banquet? Looking
up and seeing it is a finer house, will
he have any right to say: "Let me in.
1 declined all those other offers, but
this is a larger house, a brighter
house, a more luxuriant abode.
Let me in. Give me another
CHANGER" God has spread a ban
quet of His grace before us. For 1865
days of every year since we knew the
difference between our right hand and
our left he has invoked us by his Prov
idence and by his Spirit Suppose we
decline all these offers and all this
kindness. Now the banquet is spread
in a larger place. in the heavenly
palace. Invitations are sent out, hut
no invitation is sen to us. Why? Be-
cause we declined all those other ban
quets. Will God be to blame? Will
we nave any right to rap on the door
of heaven and say: 81 ough hit not to be
shut out of this place; give me another
CHANGER" Twelve gates of salvation
standing wide for free admission all
our life and hen when the IL gates
close we rush on the bosses of Jeho-
vah's buckler, saying; "Give me an
other chance"
o see, common sense agrees with
my text in saying that "if the Tree fell
toward the south, or toward the north,
in the place where the tree falleth,
there it shall be" You see, this idea
lifts this world from an unimportant
way station to Il platform of stupen-
dous issues, and makes all eternity
whirl around this hour. Oh, my SOUL
my soull Only on trial, and all the
preparations for that trial to be made
in this world, or never made at all.
Oh, my soul! my soul! You see. his
piles up all the emphasis and all the
climaxes and all the destinies into this
life. No other nance. Oh, how that in
tensifies the value and the Importance
of this chance Alexander and his army
used to come around a city, and they
would kindle a great light, with the
understanding that as long as that