Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1906-01-05


OF y hair. Almost were we destroyed,
but almost was not quite enough to
anniblate us. ~ "a
We fear 10 meet our past financial
aadAphy sicai ana domestic dangers
again. we should also tremble when
we look back upon our past spiritual
Temptations. II is absurd for some OF
MS % say IL we had our lives to live
over again we would do any different
spiritually from what we did in days
that are gore. In all probability we
would DO Just the same as we did in
TIE past il not worse, Why. Because
today. with all our experiences and
shortcomings, we are going ahead sin
ming all the time Edward Young.
tie author OF the famous might
Thoi'Shts.' wen expresses the idea
l,asn he wrote;
At thirty man suspects himself a fool: <
knows il at forty; then resolves
{ And re resolvesiand dies the same. IDf /
knowledge about the dietary
and gastropomic laws make the physi-
can careful about what he eats and
now be eatsg on no. Y Doctors eau
prescribe all right for their patients.
Sat they are proverbial iconoclasts at
al the shrines Of health when they APP
ply those laws TO their own tables.
Their doctrine Is. .Do not eat n Z do
-1sl,i eat as / say-"--Let n conyention Of
physicians, sassembses and -<haFrQiaa
Lave the most intellectual papers read
before them Upon the properF tresasaoV
ofNdyspepsia. Then they adjourn and
go to the table aud eat ewics7ss much
MS they ought to eat and eat thdt rn1
naastieatel food in hair the time they
ought to eat IL. Then they will return
= their homes and have their meals
ut Irregular hours. The physician
would never let his dyspeptic patients
eat as lie does. He knows what he
ought TO do, but he does it not. Now,
if we had TO live our lives over again
ia all probability we would do in refer
ence to temptation just as the average
physician docs in reference to his well
known gastronomic laws. We would
fan before temptation as he yields to
the temptation OF the palate. And for
one would be very much surprised if
we would turn out again spiritually as
well as we have done.
Fruits OF Experiences. ai..-
force myself to this belief for sec
ond reason. We had but little expert
cnce i'm 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 precip!ce OF
sin with our eyes wide open. For
many years you We're addicted to
drink. You have been in the past a
drunkard. You sre reformed one
now. You know all the miseries and
horrors Of 4 drunkard's lfc. But tel
NE about your first glass. DID you not
have just as much horror OF liquor
then as you do now? Did you not lie
awake all night long. feeling that fiery
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 tcmpter again and
again! You have been desecrater OF
tire sabbath day. You can see the aw.
fUl results of what goddess Sabbath
Is upon your present. life Why do you
not make Sunday a. holy day? Did the
sin of broken sabbath ever appear TO
YOU more heinous than when on the
first sabbath YOU stayed away from
church and wet with some sinful boys
picnickinS In the woods? All, Christ
was right when i'm the parable OF Dives
and Lazarus he represented the rich
man In hell who had asked him to send
Lazarus back 10 earth TO warn his five
brothers lest they come into this Mace
or torment rs receiving the answer
from Abraham, IF they hear not
Moses and the prophets neither will
they he persuaded though one rose
from the Head" II we deliberately
sinned when we first went through life
we should surely deliberately sin IL we
went through life n second time. In all
probability IL we had life To live over
again we would not turn out spiritually
as well ~ we have already done.
Then consider another fact. If we
were going TO live our lives over again
we would have to change time. In.
stead OF being seventy. sixty, fifty or
forty years OF age we would have to
become ten. twenty or thirty years OF
age. What does that meany Why. IL
means when we call back our fathers
and mothers and sisters and brothers
and run around again as n curly head.
cd child -wc-would have to give I'D our
wives apd HUSBANDS and children "a nd
EraIideLhdrens. Mould, yoa like ID do
that! OF course II you were a little
girl of eievens years of age You could
not have husband and a lot of ba.
.bies' as you lave row. or cousss II
you We're q -schoolboy you could not
have a rcoCp!e-or other schoolboys run
ming taround and calling Won r'papa''
and asking YOU what they should do
Were YOU happier when you We're
young than yon are now. l doubt IL.
\ donbt-f the opportunity Of being or
dered around oy your teaclsers ana by
your parents and by your older broth
ers and sisters were laid alongside OF
your present opportunities you would
say, Give me back my youth" L
think that you would say: LET me
stay as | au. would prefer to be a
man rather than boy or a wife and
a mother rather than little child be-
ing put TO sleep in trundle bed"
Would We Change Our rrieadss
We loved and still do love our IA
theirs and mothers and sisters and
brothers. But do we not also love and
cling 10 our wives and husbands and
children? We seem TO grow bigger
baby about them every day. When we
so away from home now we long to get
back, just as Il little child cries for it's
mother. How would you like to go
back 10 childhood AMI live ten, twenty
or thirty years before you had the
pleasures of domestic life that you
have now? Are You sure that you
would find wife as well adapted to
you as she who is now your companion
and helper? You know how faithfully
she has chung 10 you. She is like a sap
ling. She knows how to bend before
the angry tornadOes: but, like the sap
ling. she never loses her anchorage.
When the storm OF anger subsidies she