Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1901-12-28
TALMAGE,S SERMON.
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE Is ON OUR
JOURNEY THROUGH LIFE.
Text from Joshua: "Ye Have Not Passed
This Way ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Must Be Taken Advantage OF Now -
Necessity for Trust In God.

copyright, 1901, by Louis Klopsch, N. Y.)
Washington, Dec. 15.-This dis
course is a most unusual presentation
OF things 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
ed this way heretofore
In December. 1889, 1 waded the riv-
er Jordan, and although the current
was strong, I was able to bear up
against it, but in the time of spring
freshet when the SHOWS on Mount Le-
banon melt, nothing but a miracle
would enable anyone to cross the
river. 1t was at the dangerous spring
time that Joshua and the officers of
his army uttered the words of my text
to the people who were in few hours
TO cross the Jordan. About that cross
ing we say but little, because on a
previous occasion we discoursed con-
corning that piling up of the waters
into crystal barricade. We only speak
OF 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
fioraliZed and emparadised as to cli-
mate and soil and character until it
shall become a heaven for the ransom
ed, but 1 do not think it. 1 have an
idea that heaven is already built some
where. Our departed friends could not
wait until this world is fixed up for
sanity and angelic residence. Having
once gone out of the world, 1 do not
think we will come back, except as
ministering spirits to help those who
remain in the earthly struggle or per-
haps to look at the wondrous spectacle
of burning planet.
But, leaving that theory aside, we
are very SIRE 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
first trip. New appearances, new
temptations, new sorrows, new joys.
That 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
been perplexed by misdirection after
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 were 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. 1 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 a 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.
Yea, our entire world is on a new
pathway. 1t may be swinging in the
same old orbit as when by the hand OF
the Almighty immensity was sprinkled
with worlds, but it has been rocked
with earthquakes and scorched with
volcanic fires and whelmed with tida
waves and wrought upon by climatic
changes sunk and islands lifted
and mountains avalanched into valleys
So it is another world than that which
was first started in the solar system
Yet it is all the time changing and viii
keep changing until the hour of it,
demolition. OF this beautiful world
this lustrous, this glorious world, il
may be said, "Ye have not passed thi:
way before
The Israefites needed to learn tn,
lesson of reverence, as we all need t.
learn it. Irreverence has cursed al
nations, and none more than our own
Irreverence in the use of Gods name
Hear you it not on the streets ant
in social groups, and is not a profan
point jocosity? Irreverence for tn
Scriptures, the. phraseo1 1ogy of tn
Bible often introduced into the mos
frivolous conversation and made mirtl