Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1896-08-15


than you could write il upon sheet
scribbled all over with infamy and blot
ted and torn from top to bottoms And
yet there are those who are 50 unconl-
mon sensical as TO believe that though
man starts in this world with infancy
and It's innocence and turns ont badly,
N the next world he can start with
dead failure and turn ont well.
But, say some people, 1--WE ought
70 have another chance in the next
world because our life here is so very
brief. We scarcely have room to turn
around between the cradle and the
grave, the wood of the one almost strik-
ing against the marble Of the other. We
ought to have another chance because of
the breyity of this life. /" NY friends,
do you know what made the ancient
deluge necessity? 1t was the longevity
of the antediluvians. They were worse
III 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
anchored whole month under water
before 1t was fit for decent people to live
III. / have seen many pictures of cid
Time with his scythe to cut. but never
saw any picture Of Time with chest of
medicines to heal. Seneca said that in
the first few years of his public life
Nero was set up as an example of Glenn
ency and kindness, but he got worse
and worse, the path descending, until
at 6S years of age he was the suicide.
If 500 years of lifetime could not cure
the antediluvians of their iniquity,
undertake to say that all the ages of
eternity would be only prolongation Of
depravity.
But, says some one, Sin the next
life the evil surroundings will be with
drawn and good influences will be sub
stituted, and hence expurgation, subli-
nation, Qualification. y But you must
remember that the righteous, all their
sins forgiven, pass right up into be-
attic state, and then, having passed up
into the beatific state, not needing any
other chance, that will leave all those
who have never been forgiven, and who
were lmpenitent, alone-alone-an
where are the salyable influences to come
from? Can it be expected that DIR. Duff,
who spent his whole life in pointing
the Hindoos to heaven, and DR.. Abeel,
who spent his life in evangelizing
China, and that Judson, who spent his
life III preaching the gospel to Burma
can it be expected that they will be sent
down from some celestial missionary
society to educate and to save those who
wasted their earthly existence? No
We are told distinctly that all mission
airy and evangelistic influences will be
ended forever, and the good, having
passed up to their beatific state, all the
morally bankrupt will be together. and
where are the salvable influences to
come from? Will a specked or bad apple
put i'll barrel of diseased apples make
the other apples good? Will one who is
down be able to lift others up? Will
those who have miserably failed i'll the
business of this life be able to pay the
debts of other spiritual insolvents? Will
million wrongs make one right? Po-
Metropolis was the city where King Ru-
fus of Thracia put all bad people of his
kingdom, and whenever there We're ill.,
iquitous people found in any part of the
land they were all sent to Poneropolis.
1t was the great capital of wickedness.
Suppose man or woman had opened
primary school in Poneropohs; would
the parents of other cities have sent
their children there TO be educated and
reformed?
If a man in this world was surrounded
with temptation, in the next world, all
the righteous having passed up into the
beatific state, the association will be
more deteriorating, depreciating and
down. You would not send to a cholera
or yellow fever hospital man for his
health, and the great lazaretto of the
future, in which are gathered the dis
eased and the'plague struck, will be a
poor place for moral recovery. The
Count of Chateaubriand, in order TO
make his Child courageous, made him
sleep IN the turrets of the castle, where
the winds howled and specters were
and the sisters almost died of fright,
but the son afterward gives his account,
and he says, tThat gave me nerves Of
steel, and gave me courage that has
never faltered.
But, my friends, 1 do not think the
turrets of darkness or the spectral
world swept by sirocco and euroclydon
will ever prepare a soul for the eternal
land of sunshine. | wonder what is the
curriculum in the College Inferno,
where man, having been prepared by
enough sin, enters and goes up from
freshman Of iniquity to sophomore of
abomination, and on up, from sopho-
more to junior, and from Junior to SEN
Tor, and day of graduation comes, and
the diploma is signed by satan, the
president, and all the professional de-
moniacs attest the fact that the candi-
date has been sufficient time under
their drill, and then enters heaven.
Pandemonium, a preparatory school for
celestial admission All, my friends,
while satan and his cohorts have fitted
a vast multitude for ruin, they never
fitted one soul for happiness-neverl
The Logic of 1t.
Again, wish you further to notice
that another chance in another world
means the ruin of this. Now, suppose a
wicked man is assured that after life
time of wickedness he can fix it all
right up in the future. That would lie
the decentralization Of society, that
would be the demolition of the human
race. There are men who are now kept
ON the limits of sin by their fear The
fear that If we are bad and unforgiven
here it will not be well with us in the
next existence is the chief influence
that keeps civilization from rushing
back into semibarbarism, and keeps
standardization from rushing back into
midnight savagery, ard keeps midnight
savage1y from rushing back into extinc-
ton. Now, the man is kept ON the linn
its of sin. But this idea coming into his
soul, this idea of another chance, he
says: go to, now. I'll get out of this
world all there is in it. Come gluttony
and revenge and uncleanness and all
sensualities, and wait upon me. 1t may
abbreviate my earthly life by dissolute-
ness, but that will only give me heav-