Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1896-08-28
REV. DR.. TALMAGB.
The Eminent Washington pivinss
Sunday Sermon.
Subject: "ShaII We Have Another
Chance"


1t will be on beach up which we may walk
10 palace; that as defendant may lose his
case in a Circuit Court and appeal it and
have it go up to the Supreme Court or Court
OF Cbancery and ali the costs thrown over on
the other party, 80 man may lose his case
IN this world, but in the higher jurisdiction
OF eternity have the decision 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. eff
the tree fall toward the south, or toward the
north. in the place where the tree falleth,
there il shall be-" There are those who say
that if the impenitent and unfortunate man
enters the next world and sees the disaster,
rs a result Of that disaster he will turn, the
distress the cause Of his reformation; bat we
have ten thousand 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 man flung
! of designations. The doctor says to him;
"Now, my friend, il you don't stop drinking
and don't stop this fast lite you are living,
| you will die" The patient thanks
the physician for his warning and gets bet
ter; he begins to sit up, begins 10 walk around
the room, begins to go to business and takes
the same round OF grog shops where he got
| his morning dram and his evening dram and
the drains between, Down again. Same
doctor. Same physical anguish. Same med
ical warning. But now the sickness
is more protracted the liver more
obstinate, the stomach more irri-
, table, the digestive organs more rebelliou5.
But still, under medical skill, he gets better,
goes forth. commits the same sacrilege
against his physical health. Sometimes he
wakes up to see what he is doing. and he
realizes be is destroying his family and that
his life is Il perpetual perjury against his
| marriage vows and that that broken-hearted
woman is so different from the roseate vile
he married that her Old schooimates do not
| recognize her on the street. and that his sons
are going ont in lille under the taunt OF
| fathers drunkenness, and that his daughters
are going out in life under the scarih-
cation of disreputable ancestry. His
nerves are all a jungle. From crown OF
head to sole Of foot he is one aching, rasp-
ing, crucifyiDg, damnng torture. Where is
he? He is in hell on earth. Does it stop
him? All! no. After awhile delirium tre-
mems pours out upon his pillow whole
| jungle of Kissing reptiles. His screams hor-
rify the neighborS as he dashes out OF bed
crying, "Take these things off Of mel" he
is drinking down the comfort OF his family,
the education of his children, their pros
poets for this life and perhaps their
prospects for the life to come Pale
and convalescent he sits up. Physician
says to him, "Now, my good fellow,
1 am going to have Il plain talk with
you. If you ever have an attack OF this
| kind again you will die. I 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 again; but this time medicines do not
/ touch his case. Consultations OF physicians
say there is no hope. Death ends the scene.
That process of inebriation and physical sut-
fering and medical warning and dissolution
is taking place within a stones throw OF
where you sit and in every neighborhood OF
Christendcm. Pain does not reform. SUI
fering does not cure What is true In re-
gard 10 one sin is true in regard to
all sins, and yet men are expecting
in the next life there will be opportunity for
purgatorial regeneration.
Again, wish you to further notice that
another chance in another world means the
ruin OF this. Now, suppose a wicked man
is assured that after a lifetime Of wicked
ness he can fix it all right in the future?
That would be the decentralization OF soci-
ETY., that would be- the demolition OF the hui
man race. There are now men who are kept
on the limits of sin by their fear. The fear
that if we are bad and unforgiven here l.
will not be well for US in the next existence,
is the chief influence that keeps civilization
from rushing back into semi-barbarism, ard
keeps semi-barbarism from rushing back
into midnight savagery. and keeps midnignt
savagery from rushing back into extinction.
Another chance in another world means the
demolition of this world.
Furthermore, my friends-for am preach
ing to myself as we'll us 10 you've are on
the same level, and though the platform is
a little higher than the pew, 1t is only Tor
convenience, and that we may the better
speak to the people; we are all on the same
platform, and am talking to my soul while
I talk to yours-my friends, why another
chance in another world when we have de-
clined so many chances in thlsT Sup
pose you spread a. banquet and you in
vite vast number of friends, and among
others YOU send an invitation to a man who
disregards if. or treats it in an obnoxious
way. During twenty years you gave twenty
banquets, banquet year, and you invite
your friends and every time you invite TINS
man, who disregards your Invitation or sends
back some inaignity. After while you
move into q larger house and amid more
luxurious surroundings, AMI you invite
your friends, but you 10 not invite that
man to whom twenty times you sent
an invitation to the smaller house. Are
Yourself absurd before God and man to send
that man another invitation. For twenty
years he has been declining your offers and
sending insult for your kindness and cour-
tesv, and can he blame you? Can he come
up to YOUR house on the night of the ban
! ouel? Looking up and seeing it is finer
house will he have any right to say: LET me
in. have declined all those other oners,
but this is n larger house. 4 more luxuriant
abode. Let me in. Give me another
chance"
God has spread a banquet OF His grace be-
fore us. For three hundred AID slxty-nve
days Of every year, nee we knew the CHER
ence between our right hand and our let
He has invited us by His Providence and by
His Spirit. Suppose we decline all these o.
fers Of kindness. Now the banquet is spread
in q large place, in the heavenly palace. ln'
vitations are sent out. but no invitation il
sent to us. Why? Because We decinet
al those other banques. Will Goo
be to blame? Will we have an!
right to rap on the door of heaven and say
Il ought not to be shut out Of this place
give me another cbancef" Twelve gates o
salvation standing wide for free admission
all our life aud then when the twelve gates
close we rush on the bosses OF Jehovah!
buckler. saying: "Give me another chance.
A ship is to sail for Hamburg. You want t.
go to Germany by that line. You see thu
advertisement Of the steamers sailing. Yor
see il for two weeks. You sea it in th'
morning papers and you see itin the eveniuS
papers; you see it placarded on the walls
Circulars are thrown into your ofhc'
telling you all about that steamer. On
dav you como down on. the Wharl AM
the steamer has swung out into the stream
hat