The Progress. (Shreveport, La.) 1892-1900, 1896-08-15

GS may make OF our
| earthly life. it viii be on a beach up
which We may walk to palace; that as
the defendant may lose his case in q
Circuit Court and appeal it and have it
so up to 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
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 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 falleth, there shall it
be-" There are those who say that if
the impenitent and unfortunate man
enters the next world and sees the dis
aster, as result of that disaster he
will turn, the distress the cause Of his
reformation; but We have ten thousand
instances all around about Us Of people
who hive done wrong and disaster sud
denly came upon them-did the disaster
heal them? No, they went on. There
is a nan flung of designations. The
doctot says to him: Nov, my friend
if yol don't stop drinking and don't
stop this fast life you are living, you
will die The patient thanks the ply
stefan for his warning and gets better;
he begins to sit up, begins to walk
around the room, begins to go to bust
ness 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 medical
warning. But now the sickness is more
protracted. 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 sacrilepe
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 a per-
'petual perjury against his marriage
vows. and that that broken hearted
woman is SO different from 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 taunt of fathers
drunkenness, and that his daughters
are going out in life under the scarifica-
ton OF disreputable ancestry. His
nerves are all jangle. From crown Of
head to sole of :oot 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 delirium tremens pours out upon
his pillow whole jungle OF Kissing
reptiles. His screams horrify the
nejghbors as he daShes out of bed cry
ing: Take these things off me-" He
is drinking down the comfort of the
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. Physicians say 10 him: Now. nv
good fellow, am going to have plain
I TX with you. If you ever have an at
tack of this kind again you will die. [
cant save you, and all the doctors in
creation cant save you" The patient
gets up, starts out, goes the same round
fof dissipation and is down again; but
this time medicines do not touch his
case. Consultations of physicians saws
there is no hope. Death ends the scene.
That process of inebriation and physi-
cal suffering and medical warning and
dissolution is taking place within a
stones throw OF where you sit and in
every neishborhOed 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 purga-
torial regeneration. 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
foNr times, six times. Punished again
and again. but they go right on. Mil
lions of incidents and instances work
Ing the other way, and yet men think
That in the next world punishment will
work out for them salvable effects.
Why you and | cannot imagine any
worse torture from another world than
we have seen men in in this world and
without any sanitary consequence.
Furthermore, the prospect of refor-
nation in another world is more i'm
rfobable than here. Do You not realize
the fact that . man starts in this world
Nith the innocence Of infancy? In the
other case, starting in the other world,
he starts with the accumulated bad
habits Of life time. Is it not to be
expected that you could build better