The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-07-18

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fearful cramps, and says on Thursday: Il
wish had been more prudent in my diet;
Oh if / could live Wednesday over again!"
ana then on Friday eat apples just es
green, he proves that it would have been
no advantage for him to live Wednesday
over again. And if We depioring our
past life, and with the idea of improve
ment long for an opportunity TO try it over
| again. yet go on making the same mis-
takes aud committing the same sins, We
only demonstrate that the repetition Of our
existence would afford no Improvement.
IL was green apples before, and 1t
would be green apples over again.
As soon as ship captain strikes a rock
in the lake or sea he reports il, and buoy
| is swung over that reef ana mariners
henceforth stand off from that rock. And
an our mistakes in the past ought TO be
| buoys, warning us to keep in the right
channel. There as no excuse for US if we
split on the same rock where we split be-
fore. Going along the sidewalk at night
where excavations are being made we fire.
quently see lantern on a framework ana
we turn aside, for that lantern says keep
out Of this hole. And all along the path
way Of life lanterns are set as warnings,
and by the time We come 10 mid-life we
ought to know where it is safe to walk
and where il is unsafe
Besides that we have all these years
been learning how to be useful, and in the
next decade we ought to accomplish more
for God and the church and the world
than I'm any previous. four decades. The
best way to atone for past Incidence or
past transgression is by future assiduity.
Yet we often find Christian men who were
not converted until they were forty or
fifty, as old age comes on, saying: well,
my work Is about doneAand il is time for
me to rest" They gave forty years of
their life to satan and the world, a little
fragment OF their life TO God, and now
they want rest. Whether that belongs to
comedy or tragedy l say not.
The man who gave one-half of his
early existence to the world and of the
remaining two quarters one to Christian
work and the other to rest, would not, 1
suppose, get a very brilliant 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
tenths of your life to sin and satan, and
then get converted, and then rest awhile
in sanctified laziness, and then go up to
get your heavenly reward. and l warrant
il will not take the cashier of the royal
banking house a great while to count out
to you all your dues. He will not ask you
whether you viii have il in bills of large
denomination or small. l would like to
put one sentence of my sermon in italics,
and have it UNDERSIGNED, and three ex-
clamation points at the end of the sem
tence, and that sentence is this: AS we
cannot live our lives over again, the near
est we can come to atone for the past IS
by redOubled holiness and industry in the
future. If this rai-train of life has been
detained and switched off and is far be-
hind the time table, the engineer for the
rest of the way must put on more pressure
of steam and go a mile a minute in order
to arrive at the right time and place, UNI
der the approval of conductor and direc-
tors
AS I supposed it would be, there are
young people on whom this subject has
acted with the force of a galvanic battery.
Without my saying a word to them, they
have soliloquiZed, saying GAS one can
not live his life over again, and 1 can
make Only one trip, 1 must look out and
make no mistakes; / have but one chance
and l must make the most of it." Ny
young friends. l am glad YOU made this
application of the sermon yourself. When
a minister toward the close of his sermon,
says, Now, a few words by way of ippli-
cation" people begin TO dock around foe
their hats and get their arm through enc
sleeve Of their overcoats, and the sermonic
application is a failure. / am glad you
have made your own application, and that
you are resolved, like a Quaker of whom
l read years ago, who in substance, said:
II shah be along this path of life but
cam and all the good l can"
My hearers, the mistakes Of youth can
never be corrected. Time gone is gone
forever. An opportunity passed the thou
sandth part of a second has by one leap
reached the other side of n great eternity.
In the autumn when the birds migrate
you look up and see the sky black with
wings, and the flocks stretching out into
many leagues Of air, and so to-day l look
up and see two large wings in full sweep.
They are the wings of the flying year.
! That is followed by a flock of three hun
bred and siXty-hVe, and they are the flying
! days. Each of the flying days is followed
| by twenty-four. and they are the flying
| hours, and each of these is followed by
| sixty, and these are the flying minutes.
| Where did this great flock start from?
! Enternity past. Where are they bound?
/ Eternity to come. You might we'll so
! a-gunning for the quails that whistled last
! year in che meadows, or the robins that
| last year caToled in the sky, as to try to
| fetch down and bag one of the past OPP
| portunites of your life. Do not say: Il
/ will lounge now aud make it up after
| ward" Young men and boys. you cant
4 make it up. My observation is that those
who in youth sowed wild oats. to the end
of their short life sowed wild oats, and
that those who start sowing Genesee
wheat always SOW Genesee wheat.
And then the reapng of the harvest is
so different There is grandfather now.
He has lived to old aSe because his habits
| have been good. His eyesght for the
world has got somewhat DIM, but his eye
sight for heaven is radiant. His hearing
| is not so acute as il once was, and he
must bend clear over 10 hear what his lit
| tie grandchild says when she asks him
what he has brought for her But he
easily catches the music rained from SUI
pernal spheres. Men passing in the streets
take off their hats in reverence, and wo-
men say: what a good old man he is"
| Seventy or eighty years, all for God and
! for making this world happy. Splendid!
! Glorious! Magnificent He viii have
hard work getting into heaven, because
those whom he helped to get there Will fill
up and crowd the gates. to tell him how
| glad they are at his coming, until he
! says, please TO stand back a little till
| mass throngh and cnst. NV croun at ahe