The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1896-08-27
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
rHE NOTED DIVINE'S SUNDAY
DISCOURSE.
Subject: "ShalI We Have Another
Chance?n


Subject: "Shan We Have Another
Chance?'
TEXT: 1T the tree fall toward the south,
or toward the north In the place where the
tree falleth, there it shall be-" Eccl H., g.
There is lowering hope in the minds of a
vast multitude of people that there will 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,
it will be on beach up which we may walk
to palace; that as defendant may lose his
case in Circuit Court and appeal it and
have it 60 up to the Supreme Court or Court
of Chancery and ali the costs thrown over on
the other party, so a 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 faleth,
| there it shall be-" There are those who say
| that if the imrenitent and unfortunate man
| enters the next world and sees the disaster.
| as result OF that disaster he will turn the
| distress the cause of his reformation; bst 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 dissipatiors. The doctor says to him:
Now, my friend, if 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 to 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
| 1cat warning. But now the sickness
is more protracted. the liver more
obstinate, the stomach more irri-
! table, the digestive organs moro rebellious.
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 he is destroying his family and that
| his life Is d perpetual perjury against his
| marriage vows, and that that broken-hearted
| woman is so different from the roseate wife
he married that her old schoo.mates do not
recognizes hor on the street, and that his sons
are going out in life under the taunt of Il
| father 5 drunkenness. and that his daughters
are going out in life under the scarifi-
| cation of disrepuable ancestry. His
| nerves are all iangle. From crown of
| head to sole OF foot he is one aching, rasp-
| Ing. crucfying, damnng torture. Where is
ne! He Is in hell on earth. Does it stop
him? All! no. After awhile delrium ire
mems pours out upon his pillow a whole
| Jungle OF Kissing reptiles. His screams hor-
rify the neigbbors as he dashes out OF bed
crying, Take the-e 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 convalt scent he sits up Physician
says to him., Now, my good fellow,
I am going to have a plain talk with
you. If you ever have an attack of this
kind again you will die. 1 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 suf-
fering and medical warning and dissolution
Is taking place within stones throw of
where you sit and in every neighborhood of
Chrlstendom. Pain does not reform. Sui
fering does not cure. What is true in re-
gard 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 regeneration.
Again, l 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 1t all right in the future?
That would be the Generalization of sooi-
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
| h,1
will not be we'll for US in the next existence,
Is the chief Influence that keeps civilization
from rushing back into semi-barbarism, ar d
keeps semi-barbarism from rushing back
into midnight savagery. and keeps midnight
! 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 as to YOU'VE ARE on
the same level, and though the platform is
little higher than the pew, 1t is only for
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
talk to yours-my friends, why another
chance in another world when we have de-
cilned so many chances in this? Sup
pose you spread a banquet and you in
vtte vast number of friends, and among
others you send an invitation to man who
d1sregards 1t. 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 this
man, who disregards your invitation or sends
back some indignity. After a while you
move into larger house and amid more
luxurious surroundings, and you invite
your friends, but you do not invite that
man to whom twenty times YOU sent
an invitation to the smaller house. Are
you to blame? You would only make
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-
tesy, and can he blame you? Can he come
up to your house on the night of the ban
quet? Looking up and seeing it is a finer
house will he have any right to say: "Let me
In. have declined all those other offers.
but this is larger house. more luxurant
abode. Let me in. Give me another
chance"
God has spread a banquet of His grace be-
fore us. For three hundred and sixtv-fye
days OF every year, since we knew the differ r.
ence between our right hand and our left
He has invited US by His Providence and by
His Spirit. Suppose we decline all these of.
| ferS of kindness. Now the Ia nnuat Ia enroorl