Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1901-11-16

Proverbs XXlll., 80, Nv hen snail 1
awake? will seek it yet again
With an insight into human nature
such as no other man ever had Solomon
in these. words is sketching the mental
processes of man who has stepped
aside from the path of rectitude and
would like to return. Wishing for some
thing better, he says: When shall l
awake? When shall l get over this hor
rible nightmare of iniquityf" But, seized
upon by uneradicated appetite and push
ed down hill by his passions, he cried out:
II will seek it yet again. l will try ii
once more!'
So far as God may help me | propose
to show what are the obstacles to your
return and then how you are to surmount
those obstacles. The first difficulty in
the way of your return is the force of
moral gravitation. just as there is a nat
ural law which brings down to earth any
thing you throw into the air, so there is a
corresponding moral gravitation. ! new
er shall forget a prayer | heard a young
man make in the Young Mems Christian
Association of New York. With trem-
bling voice and streaming eyes he said:
20 God, thou knowest how easy it is for
me to do wrong and how hard it is for
me to do right. God help met That
man knows not his own heart who has
never felt the power of moral gravitation.
In your boyhood you had good associ-
ates and bad associates. Which most inn
pressed you? During the last few years
you have heard pure anecdotes and inn
pure anecdotes. Which the easiest stuck
to your memory? You have had good
habits and bad habits. To which did
your soul more easily yield? But that
moral gravitation may be resisted. Just
as YOU may pick up anything from the
earth and hold it in your hand toward
peace, toward pardon, toward salvation.
The force of moral gravitation is in every
one of us, but also power in Gods grace
to overcome that force.
The next thing in the way of your re-
turn is the power of evil habit. l know
there are those who say it is very easy
for them TO give up evil habits. l cannot
believe them. Here is man given to
intoxication, who knows it is disgracing
his family, destroying his property and
running him-body. mind and soul. If
that man, being an intelligent man and
loving his family, could easily give up
that habit, would he not do so? The fact
that he does not give it up proves that it
is hard to give it up. 1t is very easy
thing to sail down stream, the tide carry
ing you with great force; but suppose
you turn the boat up stream, is it so
easy then to row it? AS long as we yield
to the evil inclinations in our heart and
to our bad habits we are sailing down
stream, but the moment we try to turn
we put our boat in the rapids just above
Niagara and try to row up stream.
Slavery TO Habit.
A physician tells his patient that he
must quit the use of tobacco, as it is de-
stroying his health. The man replies, Il
can stop that habit easy enough" He
quits the use of the weed. He goes
around not knowing what TO do with
himself. He cannot add up q column of
figures; he cannot sleep nights. 1t seems
as if the world had turned upside down.
He feels his business is going to ruin.
Where he was kind and obliging he is
scolding and fretful. The composure that
characterized him has given way TO
fretful restlessness, and he has become
complete fdget. What power is it that
has rolled a'wave of woe over the earth
and shaken a portent in the heavens? He
has quit tobacco. After awhile he says:
II am going to do as please. The doc
tor does not understand my case. | am
going back to my old habits" And he re-
turns. Everything assumes its usual COM
posure. His business seems to brighten.
The world becomes an attractive place to
live in. His children, seeing the differ
ence, hail the return of their fathers
genial disposition. What wave of color
has dashed blue into the sky, and green
ness into the mountain foliage. and the
glow of sapphire into the sunset? What
enchantment has lifted world Of beauty
and JOY on his soul? He has resumed to-
bacco.
The fact is, we all know in our own ex-
perience that habit is a taskmaster. As
long as we obey it 1t does not chastise
US; but let US resist, and We find that we
are dashed with scorpion whips and
bound with ship cable and thrown into
the track OF bone breaking Juggernauts.
Suppose a man OF five or ten or twenty
years of evildoing resolves to do right,
why are all the forces Of darkness allied
IN the midnight and cries, God help
me' He bites his lip. He grinds his
teeth. He clinches his fist in a deter
mination to keep to his purpose. He dare
not look at the bottles in the window of
wine store. 1t is one long, bitter ex-
haustive, hand-to-hand fight with infam-
cd tantalizing, merciless habit. When
ne thinks he is entirely free, the old in
clnation pounces upon him like a pack Of
hounds. all their muzzles tearing away
az the tanks Of one poor reindeer.
have also to say if a man wants to
return from evil practices society re-
pulses him. The prodigal, wishing to re-
urn tries to take some professor of re-
,.s!on by the hand. The professor of re-
i'sion looks at him, looks at the faded APP
parei and the marks of dissipation. and
Instead OF giving him a firm grip of the
e e offers him the tip end of the longer
myers Of the left hand, which is equal
!" striking man in the face. Oh. how
Ie" Christian people understand how
,Aueh gospel there is in a good, honest
1aAa-shakingi Sometimes when you have
Aelt the need Of oucoY,ra Uamnn4 and sarua