The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1898-08-13

into the blackness of darkness for
ever. Live life over again? Why, il
many of those who are respectable
were permi ted to experiment, the
next journey would be demoli-
ton. You got through, as Job says,
by the skin of your teeth. Next time
you might not get through at all.
Satan would say: 81 know him now
better than | did before, and have for
so years been studying his weaknesses,
and will weave stronger web Of cir
cumstances to catch him next time"
And Satan would concentrate his forces
on this one man, and the last state of
that man would be worse than the
first. My friends, our faces are in the
right direction. Better go for
ward than backward, even if we
had the choice. The greatest dis
aster l can think of would be for you
tn return to boyhood in 1898. Oh, if
life were a smooth Luzerne or Cayuga
lake, l would like to get into yacht
and sail over 1T, not once, but twice
yea, thousand times. But life is an
uncertain sea, and some of the ships
crash on the icebergs of cold inditfer-
ence, and some take fire of evil pas
sions, and some lose their bearings and
run into the Goodwi sands, and some
are never heard of. Surely on such q
treacherous sea as that one voyage is
enough.
Besides all this, do you know, if you
could have your wish and live life over
again, it would put you so much fur
ther from reunion with your friends in
Heaven? If you are in the noon of life,
or the evening of life, you are not veiy
far from the golden gate at which you
are to meet your transported and ers-
paradised loved ones. You are now,
let us say, 20 years, or ten years,
or one year off from celestial conjunc-
ton. Now, suppose you went back In
your earthly life 80 years, or 40 years,
or 50 years, what an awful post
ponement of the time of reunion!
1t would be as though you were
going to San Francisco to a great
banquet. and you got to Oak
land, four or five miles this side of 1t,
and then came back to Baltimore to
get better start; as though you were
going to England to- be crowned, and
having come in sight of the mountains
of Wales, you put back to Sandy Hook
in order to make better voyage.
Would you like for many years to ad-
journ the songs of Heaven, to adjourn
the thrones of Heaven, to adjourn the
companionship of Heaven, to adjourn
the rest of Heaven, to adjourn the
presence of Christ in Heaven? No;
the wheel of time turns in the right
direction, and it is well it turns so fast.
Three hundred and sixty-five revolu-
tions in year, and forward, rather
than 365 revolutions in year and
backward.
And then the reaping of the harvest
is so different. There is grandfs.
ther now. He has lived to old age be-
cause his habits have been good. His
eyesight for this world has got some.
what dim, but his eyesight for Heaven
is radiant. His hearing is not so acute
as it once was, and he must bend clear
over to hear what his little grandchilG
says when she asks him what he has
brought for her. But he easily
catches the music rained from
supernal spheres, Men passing in
the streets take off their hats il
reverence, and women say: "Wha'
good old man he is" Seventy
of so years, all for God and for making
this world happy. Splendid! Glorious
Magnificent He will have hard work
getting into Heaven, because those
whom he helped to get there will fill
up and crowd the gates, to tell hin
how glad they are at his coming, unit
he says: "Please to stand back little
till pass through and cast my crown
at the feet of Him whom, having no,
seen, love-" do not know what you
call that, l call it the harvest o
Genesee wheat.
Out yonder is a man very old at A
years of age, at time when he ough
to be buoyant as the morning. He go
bad habits on him very early, and thos'
habits have become worse. He 10
man on fire, on fire with alcoholism
on fire with all evil habits, cut will
the world and the world out with him
Down, and falling deeper His swollel
hands in his threadbare pockets, ant
his eye fixed on the ground, as h
passes through the street, and the quicl
step Of an innocent child, or the stron,
slep Of an Young man, or the roll o
prosperous carriage maddens him
and he curses society aod he curse
God. Fallen sick, with no resources
he is carried to the almshouse. A loath
some spectacle, he lies all day lonl
waiting for dissolution, or in the nigh
rises on his cot and fights apparition
of what he might have been and wha
he will be. He started life with a
, good prospect as any man on tn
? American continent, and there he is,
bloated carcass, waiting for the shoy
, els of public charity to put him tiv
, feet under. He has only reaped wha
} he sowed. Harvest of wild oats! "Ther
. is way that seemeth right to a mar
l but the end thereof is DEATH"
A Young Scotchman was taken car
} tive in battle by band of Indians
and he learned their language an
D adopted their habits. Years passe
on, but the old Indian chieftain neve
s forgot that he had in his possession
t young man who did not belong to him
3 Well, one day this tribe Of Indian
e came in sight of the Scotch regiment
from whom this young man had bee