The Penn's Grove record., 1896-08-21
REV, DR. TALMAGE,
The Eminent Divine's Sunday
Discourse.
SIbject: "Shali We Have Another
Chance?"

TEXT: "If the tree fall toward the south
or toward the north, 10 the place where the
tree falletb, there 1t shall be" Feel. H., 8.
There is a hoverinc hope in the minds OF {
vast m~ultitudeof people that there will be ar
opportunity in the next world of correcting
the mistakes Of this: that however complete
n shipwreck we may make Of our earthly life
1t will BIO on a beach up which we may wall
TO "a palace; that as a defendant NAV lose hi,
case in a Circuit Court and appeal It and
have 1t go up to the Supreme Court or Court
OF Chancery and ali the costs thrown over on
the other party, 80 a man may lose his case
In this world, but in the higher jurisdiction
of eternity have the decision Of the earthly
ease set aside, all the costs RENTED and the
defendant be triumphant forever.
Inc object OF my sermon Is to show you
that common sense declares with the text
that such an expectation is chimericaL. All
the tree fall toward the south, or toward the
north, IN the place where the tree falleth,
there II shall be-" There are those who saw
that If the impenitent and unfortunate man
enters the next world and sees the disaster,
as 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
-hAu ttt ulSdSIbT neal tnbm( No.
they went on. There Is a man flung
OF designations. The doctor says to him:
"Now, nv friend, II 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
Inc drama hal wan Down ouratn Annnn
doctor. Same physical anguish. Same med
fcal warning. But now the sickness
is more protracted. the liver more
obstinate, the stomach more irri-
table, the digestive organs more rebellious.
But still, under medical skill, he gets better,
goes forth. commits the same sacrilege
against his physical health. Sometimes he
wax up to see what he is doing, and he
realizes he is destroying his family and that
his life is a perpetual perjury against his
marriage vows, and that that broken-hearted
woman Is so different from the roseate wife
he married that her old schooimates do moi
recognize her on the street, and that his sons
are going out In life under the taunt OF a
fathers drunkenness, and that his daughters
are going out in fife under the scarifi.
cation of a disreputable ancestry. His
nerves are all a jangle. From crown OF
head to sole OF foot he Is one aching, rasp-
ing, erucifying, damning torture. Where is
her He Is In hell on earth. Does 1t stop
him? Ali no. After awhile delirium tre-
mems pours out upon his pillow a whole
jungle of kissing reptiles. His screams hor-
rity 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 convalesceDt he sits up. Physician
says to him, Nov, my good fellow,
l am going to have a plain talk with
kind again you will die. l 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 IL
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 n medical warning and dissolution
Is taking place within a stones throw OF
where You sit and in every ne~ighborhood of
Chrlstendom. Pain does not reform. Suf-
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 it all right In the future?
That would be the Generalization of soci-
ETY., that would be- the demolition of the hu-
man race. There are now men who are kept
on the limits of sin by their fear. The fear
that II we are bad and unforgiven here 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 ard
keeps semi-barbarism from rushing back
into midnight savagery, n keeps midnight
savagery from rushing back into extinction.
Another chance in another world means the
demolition of this world.
Furthermore, my friends-for I am preach
ing TO myself as we'll rs to'you-ws ARE on
the same level, and though the platform is
a 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 l am talking to my soul while
! talk to yours-my friends. why another
chance In another world when we have de-
clined so many chances in thls2 Sup
pose you spread a banquet and you in
vite q vast number of friends, and among
others you send an invitation to a man who
disregards II. or treats II in an obnoxious
way. During twenty years you gave twenty
banguets, a banquet a year, and you Invite
your friends, and every time you invite this
man, who disregards your invitation or sends
back som i~ndignity. After a while you
move into a larger hosse and amid more
your friends, but you do not invite that
man to whom twenty times you sent
an invitation to the smaller house. Are
you to blame2 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
faap and aan ha hioma unIrp Can ha napna
up to your house on the night Of the BAN
quei? Looking up and seeing l. is a finer
house will he have any right to say: "Let me
In. have declined all those other offers,
but this ia a larger house. a more luxurlant
abode. Let me In. Give me another
God has spread a banquet OF His grace be-
fore US. For three hundred and sixty-fve
days of every year, since We new the differ-
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 banquet Is spread
In a large place, in the heavenly palace. In
vitations are sent out, but no Invitation Is
sent to US. Why? Because we declined
all those other banquets. Will God
be- to blsme7 Will we have any
right to rap on the door of heaven and say;
~ ought 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 then when the twelve gates
close we rush on the bosses of JehoVah's
buekler, saying: "Give me another chance"
A ship is to sail for Hamburg. You want to
to Germany by that line. You sec the
advertisement Of the steamers sailing. You
see 1t for two weeks. You see 1t In the
morning papers aud you see 1t in the evening
papers; you see 1t placarded on the walls.
Circulars are thrown into your Office
telling you all about that steamer. One
dav you come down on the wharf and
the steamer has swung out into the stream.
You say; 'Oh, that isn't fair. Come back,
swing up again to the docks. Throw the
planks ashore that l may come on board.
II isn't fair. l want to go to Germany by
that steamer. Give me another chance"
Here is a magnificent offer for heaven. It
has been anchored within our sight year
after year, and all the benign voices of earth
heaven have urged US to go on board
since 1t ma sail at any moment.
Suppose We let that opportunity sail away, |
and then we look out and say, ''Send back
opportunity; / want TO take II; IL isn't
me fairly. Give me another chance"
Why, my brother, You might "a well go out
aud stand on the Highlands at the Navesink
49, -, - &c. - -k