The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1902-01-01
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.

Subject: The Merciful Interpretation OF
Human Behavior-Follow the Divine
Leading-we VIII Not Pass This Way
Again, So Do Your Good Now.
WASHINGTON, D. C.-This discourse is
most unusual presentation of things
that take place in many lives, and Or.
Talmage pleads for merciful Interpretation
of human behavior. The text is Joshua
ii, 4, eye have not passed this way hereto
In December, 1889, I waded the River
Jordan, and, although the current was
strong, was able to bear up against 1T,
but in the time of spring freshet, when
the SHOWS on Mount Lebanon melt, moth
ing but a miracle would enable any one to
cross this river. 1t was at the dangerous
springtime that Joshua and the officers OF
his army uttered the words of my text to
the people who were in few hours to
cross m the Jordan. About that crossing We
say but little, because on previous occa-
sion we discoursed concerning 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.
The ark of the covenant was brilliant
chest OF acacia wood, overlaid with gold. !.
on the top of which were two winged
figures facing each other. 1t was five feet
long and three feet wide. Poles were
thrust through the rings at the side, and
by these poles the ark was lifted. This
splendid box was to be carried three.
quarters of a mile ahead of the hosts of
Israel on the way to the crossing. That
distance between the box and the advanc..
ing thousands must be kept because OF
n
divine symbol that they must observe by
keeping three-quarters of a mile away.
They must watch that glittering box and
follow; otherwise they would lose their
way and not arrive at the right place for
crossing. They had never been there be-
fore, and they must be guided. For that
reason Joshua utters the words of my text.
"Ye have not passed this way heretofore" !"
And the subordinate officers at the head
of the regiments repeated it, eye have not
passed this way heretofore"
What was truthfully said of the ancient
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 corrected and improved and puri-
fed and foralized and emparadised as to
climate and soil and character until it
shall become a heaven for the ransomed,
but I do not think it. I have an idea that
heaven is already built somewhere. Our
departed friends could not wait until this
world is fixed up for staintly and angelic
residence. Having once gone out of the
world, I 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
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" Every min
ute is a new minute, every hour a new
horr, every century new century. Other
folEs have gone over the same road we are
travelling, but it is our first trip. New ap-
pearauces, new temptations, new sorrows,
new joys. That is the reason so many lose
road of life and ask for direction, and
wrong direction is given. We have all
been perplexed by misdirection after ask
ing the way to some place we wished to
visit. Some one said to us, "Take the first
road to the right and, having gone mile
that Sesd. take the first road on the
seE so "a ll&csoop -Easnh yOur destina-
ton" We took the advice, but osr infor-
mer forgot turn in the road or forget
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 making
lifetime mistakes. I pity them instead OF
blaming them; There are so many wrong
roads, but only one right one. You can.
not in midlife draw upon your youthful ex-
periences for wisdom, for midlife is so en-
tireiy different from youth. You cannot
in old age draw upon midlife experiences,
for the two stages of existence are so di-
verse. What is wisdom for one man to
DO would be folly for another to undertake.
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 impossible for me. Human ad-
vice is ordinarily of little value. People
review their own successes or failures and
then tell US what is beat for US to do. not
realizing that our circumstances are differ
ent, our temperament is different, our
physical and mental and moral capacities
different. Most of the great mistakes
that have been made have been made un-
der human advisement.
So, also, it may be said to every nation:
Eye have not passed this way before. .,
Our own republic is going through novel
twenty years ago have prophesed present
conditions? Every President, every Con-
gress, has new crises to meet and new
questions to settle. So prophecies made
about conditions in this country fifty
years from now may turn out as far untrue
as the prophecies made fifty years ago by
the greatest o. American statesmen when
he declared on yonder Capitol hill that it
was unwise to think of civilization or pros
perity the other side of the Rocky Mount.
aims, and according to his belief the Pa.
cifc coast would be the perpetual abode of
barbarians and mountain lions, and we
must not think of annexirg those forbid
ding regions.
Many prophecies in regard to our nation
failed and many prophecies concerning its
future will fail, because it is travelling a
new road. Every step it takes on that
road is a novelty. The opinion of Mon.
roe 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 hest for this nation to do
in 1901? 1t is beiittling as well as unwise
for our statesmen, who are quite equal to
the statesmen of the past and who have,
in addition to the natural talents of their
predecessors, attainments in knowledge
that were impossible in any decade but
our own, to depend on advice Of men who
have been dead thres-quarters of a cen.
tury. In all other things the world has
advanced. Can it be that in statesman
ship it has gone back. and that this open
ing of the twentieth century must consult
the opening of the nineteenth century?
eye have not passed this way before"
Yea, our entire world is on new path.
way. 1t may be swinging in the same old
orbit as when bv the hand of the Al
mighty immensity was sprinkled with
worlds, but it has been rocked with earth
quakes and scorched with volcanic fires
and whelmed with tidal waves and
wrought upon by climatic changes-cities
avalanched into valleys