The Sussex Republican., 1906-01-06

road accident? Perhaps you were on
a train that was wrecked In which
many passengers were crushed or mu-
tilated. You do not know how it hap
pened. You were sitting In the car
reading. Suddenly the engine gave a
shrek; the brakes were jammed hard
down. Then you awoke in dazed
condition. You heard groanings and
prayers being uttered all about you.
You escaped, like Job, by the skin Of
your teeth. The man who sat within
three feet of you was dead or, what
ls worse, physically mangled for life.
IL you had to go through that accident
again, would you be physically well
and whole as you are today? Oh, mol
Most of us do not wish to run again
the risks we ran during our past lives.
Financial risks, domestic risks, phys
ical risks! They nearly destroyed us.
We could not be sure that we should
have the same chances for success
over again If we had to meet the
same dangers. Most of our friends
who have been destroyed were wreck
ed by chance trivial as hair. Most
/ VI uS, "a hOh dii VI u5g Oh tuS OthCi
hand, have been saved by that turning
of hair. Almost were we destroyed,
but almost was not quite enough to
annihilate us.
We fear to meet our past financial
and physical and domestic dangers
again. We should also tremble when
we look back upon our past spiritual
| . Is, al, ,,l Co.. ,1f
US to say if we had our lives to live
over again we would do any different
spiritually from what we did In days |
| that are gone. In all probability we
would do Just the same as we did In |
the past IL not worse. Why? Because |
today, with all our experiences and |
shortcomings, we are going ahead sim |
ming all the time. Edward Young, |
the author of the famous might |
Thoughts" well expresses the idea |
when he wrote:
At thirty man suspects himself fool;
Knows 1t at forty; then resolves
And re.resolves and dies the same.
Does knowledge about the dietary
and gastronomic laws make the physi
clan careful about what he eats and
how he eats? Oh, no. Doctors can
prescribe all right for their patients.
But they are proverbial iconoclasts at
all the shrines of health when they ap-
ply those laws to their own tables.
Their doctrine is, do not eat as do,
but eat as l say" Let a convention of
physicians assemble, and they will
have the most intellectual papers read
before them upon the proper treatment
of dyspepsia. Then they adjourn and
go to the table and eat twice as much
as they ought to eat and eat that un-
masticated food In half the time they
ought to eat it. Then they will return
to their homes and have their meals
at Irregular hours. The physician
would never let his dyspeptic patients
eat as he does. He knows what he
ought to do. but he does it not. Now,
IL we had to live our lives over again
In all probability we would do in refer
ence to temptation just as the average
physician does In reference to his well
known gastronomic laws. We would
fall before temptation as he yields to
the temptation of the palate. And l for
one would be very much surprised If
we would turn out again spiritually as
well as we have done.
Fruits of Experience.
force myself to this belief for sec
ond reason. We had but little expert
ence in the past. But we did have
some experience and knowledge Of sin.
We did not fall into sin as trap is
sprung upon the unwary bird. We
walked straight over the precipice of
sin with our eyes wide open. For
many years you were addicted to
drink. You have been In the past a
drunkard. You are a reformed one
now. You know all the miseries and
horrors of a drunkard's life. But tell I
me about your first glass. Did you not
have just as much horror of liquor
then as you do now? Did you not lie
liquor burning its way down your
throat and into your heart after your
first drink? Yet did that experience
lead you to forswear drink? Did you '
not return to your tempter again and
again? You have been desecrater of
the Sabbath day. You can see the aw-
full results of what a goddess Sabbath {
Is upon your present life. Why do you |
not make Sunday holy dayf Did the
sin of broken Sabbath ever appear to {
you more heinous than when on the /
first Sabbath you stayed away from |
church and went with some sinful boys s
picnicking in the woods? All. Christ ]
was right when In the parable of Dives r
L. 4.I it
man In hell who had asked him to send /
Lazarus back to earth to wan his five
brothers "lest they come into this place n
of torment as receiving the answer I
from Abraham, 'If they hear not !
Moses and the prophets neither will i
they be persuaded though one rose
from the dead" If we deliberately a
sinned when we first went through life :
we should surely deliberately sin II we :
went through life second time. In all 4
IL we had life to live over q
again we would not turn out spiritually n
as we'll as we have already done.
Then consider another fact. II we y
were going to live our lives over again 6
we would have to change time. In. t
stead of being seventy, sixty, fifty OF q
forty years of age we would have to Il
become ten, twenty or thirty years of
age. What does that mean? Why, II
means when we call back our fathers b
and mothers and sisters and brothers Q
and run around again as curly head. Il
ed child we would have to give up our
wives and husbands and children and o
grandchildren. Would you like to do t.
that? OF course If you were little t.
girl of eleven years of age you could 81
not have husband and a lot of ba- o.
bies as you have now. OF course II cl
you were a schoolboy you could not Il
have couple of other schoolboys run i
ming around and calling you papa" Il
and asking you what they should do. v