The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1896-08-15
"ANOTHER CHANCE"
DR.. Talmage breaches of the Fall
lacy of any Hope for 1t.
Graphic Picture of the Day of Judgment
As the Tree Falls to the North or the
South, There 1t Shall Remain.

In a recent sermon at Washington
Rev. I. Dewitt Talmage took for his
subject, ''Shall We Have Another
Chance" The text is, Eccl. liza: IF
the tree fall toward the south, or
toward the north, in the place where
the tree falleth, there it shall be-"
There is a lowering hope in the mind
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 ship
wreck we may make of earthly life, it
will be on a beach up which we may
walk to a palace; hat as the defendant
NAV lose his case in a circuit court and
appeal it and nave it go up to the su-
preme court or court of chancery and
all the costs thrown over on the other
party, SO a man must lose his case in
this world, but in the higher jurisdic-
ton of eternity ave the decision OF
the earthly case set aside, all the costs
RENTED and the defendant be trium-
plant orever.
The object of my sermon is to show
Won 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 1t
hall be-" There are those who say
that if the ~impenitent and u~nforgiven
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; but we have 10, 600 in
stances all around about us OF people
who have done wrong and disaster
suddenly came upon them-didt the dis
aster heal them? No, they went on.
There is a man flung of designations
The doctor says to him: Now, my
friend, if you don't stop drinking and
don't stop this fast life you are living,
you will die" The patient thanks the
physician for his warning and gets
better; he begins to sit up, begins to
walk around the room, begins to go to
business and takes the same round of
rrog 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 pro-
tracted, the liver more obstinate, the
stomach more irritable, the digestive
organ more rebellious. But still, under
medical skill, he gets better, goes forth,
commits the same sacrilege against his
physical strength. Sometimes ne wakes
up to see what he is doing, and he real
ICES 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 diff
ferent from the roseate wife he married
that her old schoolmates do not recog-
nize her on the street, and hat his sons
are going out in life under the taunt
of a fathers drunkenness, and that his
daughters are going out in life under
the sterilization of a d~isreputable an
cestry. His nerves are all a 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 delirium tremens
pours out upon his pillow a whole jun
gle of kissing reptiles. His screams
horrify the neighbors as he dashes out
of bed crying: Take these things off
mel" He is drinking down the com
fort of his family, the education of his
children, their prospects 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, L am going
to have a 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 medi-
cines do not touch his case. C%onsulta-
~-~ ~ |
hope. Death ends the scene That
process of inebriation and physical suf-
fering and medical warning and disso-
luton is taking place within a stones
throw of where you sit and in every
neighborhood 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, four times, six times Punished
again and again, but they go right on.
Millions of cider and instances
working the other way, and yet men
think that in the next world punish
ment will work out for them salvable
effects. Why, you and ] cannot
other world than we have seen men in
this world, and without any salutary
consequence.
NV friends, do you know what made
the ancient deluge a necessity? 1t
was the longevity of h antediluvians.
They were worse in the second century
than in the first, and worse when they
got 800 years old, and worse at 400, and
worse at 500, and worse at 600, and
worse at 500; until the world had to be
washed and secured and scrubbed and
soaked and sunk and a whole
month under water before it was fit
for decent people to live in. l have
seen many pictures of old Time with
his scythe to cut, but never saw any
picture of Time with a chest of medi-
cines to heal. Seneca said that in the
first few years of his public life Nero
was set up as an example OF
clemency and kindness, but he
got worse and worse, the path descend
ing, until at 90 years of age he was the
suicide. If 800 years of lifetime could
cure the antediluvians of their iniquity,
1 undertake to say that all the ages of
eternity would De only prolongation of
depravity. But" says some one, '"in
the next life the evil surroundings will
be withdrawn and good influences will
be substituted, and hence, expurgation,
sublimation, Qualification" But you
must remember hat the righteous, all
their sins forgiven, pass right up into
a beatific state, and then having passed
up into the beatific state, not needing
any other chance, that will leave all
hos who have never been forgiven,
and who were impenitent, alone
alone! and where are the salvable
influences to come from? Can it
be expected that DIR. Duff. who spent
his whole life in pointing the Hindoos
to Heaven, and DIR. Abeel, who spent
his life in evangelizing China, and that
Judson, who spent his life in preach
ing the gospel to B~urmah-can 1t be
expected hat they will be sent down
from some celestial missionary society
to educate and to save those who
wasted their earthly existence? No.