The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1898-07-20


would take glassful.
But some of you would have to go
back further than to twenty-one years
of age to make a fair start, for there
are many who manage to get all
wrong before that period. Yea, in
order to get fair start, some would
have to go back to the father and
mother and get them corrected; yea,
to the grandfather and grandmother,
and have their life corrected, for some
of you are suffering from bad heredi-
tary influences which started hun
dred years ago. Well, if your grand
father lived his life over again, and
you lived your life over again, what
cluttered-up place this world would
be place filled with miserable at
tempts at repairs. begin to think
that it is better for each generation
to have only one chance, and then for
them to pass off and give another gen
Grafton a chance. Besides that if we
were permitted to live life over again,
it would be a stale and stupid expert
ence. The zest and spur and en-
thusiasm of life come from the fact
that we have never been along this
road before, and everything is new and
we are alert for what may ap-
pear at the next turn of the road.
Suppose you, a man of mid-life or old
age, were, with your present feelings
and large attainments, put back into
the thirties, or the twenties, or in the
| teens, what nuisance you would be
to others, and what an unhappiness to
yourself! Your contemporaries would
not want you, and you would not want
them. Things that in your previous
| journey of life stirred your healthful
ambition, or gave you pleasurable sur
prise, or led you into happy interroga-
ton, would only call forth from you
disgusted "Oh, pshaw!" You would
be blase at 30, and misanthrope at
40, and uncomfortable at so. The most
insane and stupid thing imaginable
would be second journey of life. 1t
is amusing to hear people say: II
would like to live my life over again,
if / could take my present experience
and knowledge of things back with
me and begin under those improved
auspices" Why, what an uninterest-
ing boy you would be with your pres
ent attainments in child's mind. No
one would want such boy around the
house-a philosopher at 20, scientist
at Is, an archaeologist at 10, and a
domestic nuisance all the time. An
oak crowded into an acorn. A Rocky
Mountain eagle thrust back into the
egg-shell from which it was hatched.
Besides that, if you took life over
again you would have to take its deep
sadnesses over again. Would you
want to try again the griefs and the
heartbreaks and the bereavements
through which you have gone? What
a mercy that we shall never be called
to suffer them again We may have
others bad enough, but those old ones
never again. Would you want to go
through the process of losing your
father again, or your companion in
life again, or your child again? If
life again, or your child again?
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 very far from the golden gate at
which you are to meet your trans
ported and emparadised loved ones.
You are now, let us say, twenty years,
or one year off from celestial coniunc-
tion. Now, suppose you went back in
your earthly life 80 years, or 40 years,
or so years, what an awful postpone
ment of the time of reunion! 1t
would be as though you were going
to San Francisco to a great banquet,
and you got to Oakland, four or five
miles this side of it, 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
revolutions in a year and forward,
rather than 365 revolutions in year
and backward.
But hear ye! hear ye! while I tell
you how you may practically live your
life over again and be all the better
for it. You may put into the remaining
years Of your life all you have learned
of wisdom in your past life. You may
make the coming ten years worth the
preceding so years. When a man says
he would like to live his life over again
because he would do so much better,
and yet goes right on living as he has
lived, do you not see he stultifies him
self? He proves that if he could go
back he would do almost the same as
he has done.
The man who gave one-half of his
earthly existence to the world and of
the remaining two quarters one to
Christian work and the other to rest,
would not, I suppose, get very bril-
liant reception in Heaven. If there
are any dried leaves in Heaven they
would be appropriate for his garland;
or if there is any throne with broken
steps, it would be appropriate for his
coronation, or any harp with relaxed
string, it would be appropriate for his
lingering My brother, you give nine
| tentbs of vonr life TO sin and Satan.