St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1896-10-03
TALMAGE's SERMON.
The Fallacy Of Any Hope For
Another Chance"
Graphic Word Picture of the Day Of
Judxmese-As the Tree Falls to tho
North or the South There
1t Shall Remain.

Rev. T. Dewitt Talmagc delivered
the following sermon on the subject:
s.Shall We Have Another Chance?
before his Washington congregation,
taking for his text:
II the tree fall toward the south. or toward
the north, In the place where the tree faileth.
there it shall be.-Eccl-., XII, 3
| There is lowering hope in the
minds of vast multitude of people
that there will be an opportunity in
the next world of correcting the mis-
| takes of this: that, however complete
shipwreck we may make of earthly
life, it will be on a beach up which we
may walk to palace; that as the de-
PENDANT may lose his case in circuit
court and appeal it and have it 60 up
to the supreme court or court of chan
| Gerry and all the costs thrown over on
the other party, SO q man may lose his
case in this world, but in the higher
jurisdiction of eternity have the decis-
ion of the earthly case set aside. all
the costs RENTED and the defendant
be triumphant forever
The object of my sermon is to show
you that common sense declares with
the text that such an expectation is
| chimerical II the tree fall toward
the south, or toward the north, in the
place where the tree falleth, there it
shall be-" There are those who say
thai if the impenitent and unforgiven
| man enters the next world and sees
The disaster, as a result of that dis
aster he will turn, the distress the
cause OF his reformation; but we have
| 10, 600 instances 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 a
man flung of designations The doc
tor says to him: Now. my friend. il
you don't stop drinking and don't stop
this fast life you arc living, you will
die. The patient thanks the physi-
clan for his warning and gets better;
he begins to sit up, begins TO walk
around the : ON, begins to 60 to busi-
ness and tax . the same round Of Grog
shops where he got his morning dram
and evening dram and the drains be-
tween. Down again. Same doctor.
, uC puy SiC0A aug uA0us O0IAC uCul'
cal warning.
But now the sickness is moro pro-
tracted, the liver more obstinate, the
stomach more irritable, the digestive
organs more rebellious. But still, un-
der medical skill, he gets better, goes
forth, commits the same sacriIege
against his physical health. Some
times he wakes up to see what he is
doing, and he realizes he is destroying
his family, and that his life is per-
petual perjury against his marriage
VOWS, and that that broken-hearted
woman is SO different fom the roseate
wife he married that her old school
mates do not recognize her on the
street, and that his sons are going out
in life under the faint Of a fathers
drunkenness. and that his daughters
are going out in life under the sacrifi-
cation of disreputable ancestry.
His nerves are all jangle. From
crown of head to sole OF foot he is one
aching, rasping, crucifying, damning
torture. Where is he? He is In
hell on earth. Does it stop
him? All! no. After awhile de-
lirium tremcns pours out upon
his pillow q whole jungle of kissing
reptiles. His screams horrify. the
neighbors rs he dashes out Of bed cry
ing: Take these things OF mel" He
is drinking down the comfort of his
family, the education of his children,
their prospects for this life and per-
haps their prospects for the life to
come. Pale and convalescent he sits
up. Physician says to him: NOW,
my good fellow, l am going to have a
plain talk with you. If you ever have
m attack of this kind again you will
die. can't save you, and all the doc
tors in creation can't save you" The
patient gets up, starts ont, goes the
same round of dissipation and is down
again; but this time medicines do not
touch his case. Consultations of physi-
clans say there is no hope. Death
ends the scene That process Of in
ebriation and physical suffering and
medical warning and dissolution is
taking place within stones throw Of
where you sit and in every neighbor-
hood of Christendom. Pain does not
reform. Suffering does not cure
What is true in regard to one sin is
true in regard to all sins, and yet men
are expecting in the next life there will
be opportunity for purgatorial rezen-
Grafton. Take up the printed reports
Of the prisons of the United 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 instances working the other way,
and vet men think that in the next
world punishment will work out for
them salvable effectA Why, you and
can not imagine any worse torture
from another world, and without any
salutary consequences.
Furthermore, the prospect of reform
alton in another world is more inn
probable than hero. Do you not real
Ire the fact that man starts in this
world with the innocence Of infancy?
In the other case, starting in the other
world, he starts with the accumulated
bad habits of lifetime. Issit not to
be expected that you could build q
better ship out of new timber than
out Of an old hulk that has been
ground up in the breakers? If start
ing with comparative innocency the
man does not become godly, is it pos
sible that starting with sin . serapll
can be evolutcd? Is there not more
prospect that sculptor will make =
finer statue out of 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 will and testament, or
write deed, or write an important
document on pure white sheet 81
paper easier than you could write il
upon ! sheet=of paper scribdsa1 MI
over with infamy and Dlotted and torn
from top u bottom? Indy thers1re
those who are souncommop-sensical IS
to believe that though : man starts in
this world with infancy and its inno-
cence and turns out badly, in the next