Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1896-08-18

N5ETEIM IAO"NNSI SOHipiCL'
VII q shipwreck we,
g. may make of our
earthly life. it will be on a beach up
which we may walk to palace; that as
the defendant may lose his case in a
Circuit Court and appeal it and have it
go up to the Supreme Court or Court
of Chancery and all the costs thrown
over on the other party, so 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. IF the tree fall toward the
south, or toward the north. in the place
where the tree falleth, there shall 1t
be-" There are those who say that II
the impenitent and unfortunate man
enters the next world and sees the dis
aster, as a 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 have done wrong and disaster sud
denly came upon them-did the disaster
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 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 sacrilege
against his physical health. Some
times he wakes up TO see what he is
doing, and he realizes he is destroying
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 a fathers
drunkenness, and that his daughters
are going out in life under the scarifica-
ton of a disreputabe ancestry. His
nerves are all 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 jungle of kissing
reptiles. His screams horrify the
neighbors as he dashes out of bed cry
ing: Take these things off mer 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 to him: Now, my
good fellow, am going to have plain
TX with you. II you ever have an at
lick of this kind again you will die. |
;an't save you. and all the doctors in
i'eation can't save YOU" The patient
Eets 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 says
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 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
anu AGAIN. ONN my ~ right Oiis NH
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 saiVable effects
Why you and | cannot imagine any
worse torture from another world than
we have seen men in in this world, and
Without any salutary consequence.
Furthermore, the prospect OF refor-
nation in another world is more i'm
probable than here. Do you not realize
the fact that a man starts in this world
with the innocence OF infancy? In the
\ other case, starting in the other world,
Vie starts with the accumulated bad
habits of life time. Is it not To be
expected that you could build better
ship out of new timber than out of an
OLD hulk that has been ground up on
the breakers? If starting with COM
parative innocency the man does not
become godly, is ii possible that start
ing with sin seraph can be evoluted?
there not more prospect that a sculp-
will make q liner statue out Of a