The Leon reporter., 1901-12-19
TALMAGE's SERMON.
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE is ON OUR
JOURNEY THROUGH LIFE.
Text from Joshua: '.Ye Have Not Passed
This Way Opportunities
Must Be Taken Advantage OF Now
Necessity for Trust in God.

Copyright 1901. by Louis Klopsch, N. W
Washington, Dec. 15.-This dis
course is most unusual presentation
VI tnlngs that take place in our lives,
and DR.. Talmage pleads for merciful
Interpretation of human behavior. The
text is Joshua iii, 4, "Ye have not pass
cd this way heretofore
IN December, 1885, | waded the riv-
er Jordan, and although the current
was strong, l was able to bear up
against it, but in the time of spring
1reshet when the SHOWS on Mount Le-
panon melt. nothing but miracle
would enable anyone to cross the
river. 1t was at the dangerous spring.
time that Joshua and the officers of
MS army uttered the words of my text
to the people who We're in few hours
TO cross the Jordan. About that cross
Ing we say but little, because on a
previous occasion we discoursed con-
cerning that piling up of the waters
into crystal barricade. We only speak
or the march to the brink of the river.
NO stranger. thing has ever occurred
In all history.
What was truthfully said of the an
cient Israelites may be truthfully said
OF us. We are making our first and
last journey through this world. 1t
is possible, as some of my good friends
believe, that this world will be cor
rected and improved and purified and
norallzed and emparadised as to eli
mate and soil and character until it
snail become heaven for the ransom
ed, but do not think it, | have an
idea that heaven is already built some
Where. Our departed friends could not
walt until this world is fixed up for
sanity and angelic residence. Having
once gone out of the world, l do not
think we will come back, except as
remain in the earthly struggle or per-
maps to look at the wondrous spectacle
OF a burning planet.
But, leaving that theory aside, we
are very sure that we are for the first
time walking the earthly pilgrimage
Ye have not passed this way before"
Other folks have gone over the same
road we are travelling, but it is our
nrst trip. New appearances, new
temptations, new sorrows, new joys.
Ihat is the reason SO many lose their
way. They meet some one on the road
OF life and ask for direction, and
wrong direction is given. We have all
| l. ~
asking the way to some place we wish
ed to visit. Some one said to us,
Take the first road to the right, and
having gone mile on that road, take
the first road to the left and you will
soon reach your destination" We took
the advice, but our informer forgot a
| turn in the road or forgot one of the
roads leading to the left, and we took
the wrong road and We're lost in the
woods, and night came on, and we
were put to. great irritation and
trouble.
The fact is I blame no one for MAX
ing lifetime mistakes. l pity them in
stead of blaming them. There are so
many wrong roads, but only one right
one. You cannot in middle life draw
upon your youthful experiences for
wisdom, for middle life is so entirely
different from youth. You cannot in
old age draw upon midlife experiences,
for the two stages of existence are so
diverse. What is wisdom for one man
to do would be folly for another to un-
dertake. A man of nerve and pluck
is not qualified to advise man timid
and shrinking. An achievement that
would be easy for you might be i'm
possible for me. Human advice is
ordinarily of little value. Most of the
great. mistakes that have been made
have been made under human advise
ment
So, alas it may be said to every ma
tion, eye have not passed this way be-
FORE" Our own republic is going
| through novel experiences. Every
president, every congress, has new
crises to meet and new questions to
SETTLE So prophecies made about con-
ditions in this country fifty years from
now may turn out as far untrue as the
prophecies made fifty years ago by
| the greatest of American statesmen
| when he declared on yonder Capitol
| hill that it was unwise to think of civ
| ilization or prosperity the other side
of the Rocky mountains, and accord
ing to his belief the Pacific coast
would be the perpetual abode of bar
barians and mountain lions, and we
must not think of anneXing those for
bidding regions.
Many phophecies in regard to our
nation failed and many prophecies
concerning it's future will fail because
| it is travelling a new road. The opin-
| ion of a Monroe or Jefferson in the
| far past is not of as much value as
the opinion Of our wisest men now.
| How could men know in 1923 what it
would be best for this nation to do in
| 1901? In all other things the world
| has advanced Can it be that in states
manchin If has pona hack and that thi G