Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 June 1894 — THE LAST CHANCE. [ARTICLE]

THE LAST CHANCE.

A Supersedeas Never Granted Beyond the Grave, Man Determines Ills Own Destiny—Conaeanencea of Sin—Dr. Talmage’s Sermon. j-. Theßev. Dr. Talmage, who is now on his round-the-world journey, selected as the subject for his sermon through the press, last Sunday, ’‘Another Chance," the text being taken from Ecclesiastes xi, 3: “If the tree fall toward the south or tgr ward the north, in the place where the tree falleth there it shall be.” There is a hovering hope in the minds of a vast multitude that there will be an opportunity in the next world to correct the mistakes of this; that if wo do make complete shipwreck of our earthly life it will be on a shore, up which we may walk to a palace: that, as a defendant may lose his case in the Circuit Court and carry it up to the Supreme Court or Court of Chancery and get a revimsat of jufigii!en ti n his beiial f, all the costs being thrown over on the other party, so if we fail in the earthly trial we may in the higher jurisdiction of eternity have the judgment of the lower court set aside, all the costs remitted, and we may be -victorious defendants forever. My object in this sermon is to show that common sense as well as my text declares that such an expectation is chimerical. You say that the impenitent man, having got into the next world and seeing the disaster, will, as a result of that disaster turn, the pain the cause of his reforihutioni But you canfind ten thousand instances in this world of men who have done wrong, and distress overtook them suddenly. Did the.distress.heal them? No. They went right on. __ The mart was flung oUdTssipafldhsl" “You must .stop drinking,” said the ; doctor,, “and quit the fast life you are leading, or it will destroy you.” The patient suffers paroxysm after paroxysm, but under skillful medical treatment he begins to sit up, be-, begins to walk about the room, begins to go to business. And, 10, he goes back to the same grogshops for his morning dram.and his evening dram, and the drams between. Flat down again. Same doctor. Same physical anguish. Same medical warning. Now the illness is more protracted, the liver more stubborn, the stomach more irritable, and the digestive organs are. more " rebellious. But after awhilehe’s out again, goes back to the same d r amshops ami goes - the j same round of sacrilege against .his j physical health.; He sees that his down ward course is ruining his household; that his life is ; a perpetual perjury against his marriage vow; that that broken hearted woman is so unlike the roseate young wife whom he married that her old schoolmates do not recognize her: that his sons are to be taunted for a lifetime -by the. father’s drunkenness; that the daughters j are to pass life under the scarifica- j tion of a disreputable ancestor. He j is drinking up their happiness, their i prospects for this' life and perhaps I for the life to come. Sometimes an ■ appreciation of what he is doing comes upon him. His nervous system is all a-tinglc. From crown of head to sole of foot be is one aching, rasping, crucifying, damning tortu re. WheredsHe? —In hell or on earth. Does it reform him? After awhile he has delirum tre-mens,-with a whole jungle of hissing reptiles let out on his pillow, and his screams horrify the neighbors as he dashes out of his bed. crying, “Take these things off me!” As he sits, I pale and convalescent, the doctor [ says: “Now, I want to have a plain ! talk with you, my dear fellow, The next attack of this kind will be beyond all medical skill, and you will die.” He gets better and goes forth into the same round again. This time medicine takes no effect. Consultation of physicians agree in saying there is no hope. Death ends |he scene. _ “But,” says some one, “in the future state evil surroundings will | be withdrawn and elevated influences substituted, and hence expurgation 1 and sublimination and glorification.” But the righteous, all their sins forgiven, have passed on into a beatific state, and consequently the unsaved will be left alone. It cannot be expected that Dr. Duff, who exhausted himself in teaching Hindoos the way to heaven, and Dr. Abeel, who gave his life in the evangelization of China, and Adoniram Judson, who toiled for the redemption of Borneo, should be s«jt down to some celestial missionary society to educate those who wasted their earthly existence. , Poneropolis was a city where King Phillip of Thracia put all the bad people of his kingdom. If any man had opened a primary school at Poneropolis Ide not thinV -the parwits from other cities would havp sent their children there. Instead of amendment in the otherworld, all the associations, now that the good are involved, will be degenerating and down. You would not want to send a man to a cholera or yellow fever hospital for his health, and the great lazaretto of the next world, containing the diseased and plague struck, will be a poor place for moral recovery. Furthermore, it would not be safe for this world if men had another chance in the next. If it had been announced that, however wickedly a man might act in this world, he could fix it up all right in the next, society would be terribly demoralized

and the human race demolished in a few years. The fear that if we are bad and unforgiven here it will not be well for us in the next existence is the chief influence that keeps civilization from rushing back to semibarbaraism, and , semi-barbaraism f rom rustling intornidmghtsavagery, quid iiiidiiight savagery from e.xtinction, for it is the astringent impression of : all nations—Christian and heathen—that there is no future chance for those who have wasted this. , . Suppose you were a party in an important case at law, and you knew from bonsultation with judges and attorneys that it would be tried twice, and the first trial would be of little importance, butthat the second would decide everything. For which trial would you make the most preparation, for which retain the ablest attorneys, for which be anxious about the attendance of witnesses? You would put all the. stress upon thd second trial, all the anxiety, all the expenditure, saying, “The first is—nothing;-the . last, is everything.” Fur thermo re, let me ask why a -chance shouM be given in the next world if you have refused innumerable chances in this? Soppose you give a banquet, and you invite a vast n umberof Triends, , but one man declines to come or treats your invitation with indifference. You in the course of twenty years give twenty banquets, and the same man is invited to them all and treats them all in the same obnoxious way. After awhile you remove to another house, larger and better, and you again invite your friends, but send no invitation to the man who declined or neglected the other invitations. Are you toblame? Has he a right to expect to be invitedTfiter all the indignities he has done you? And if after the gospel ship has lain at anchor before our eyes for years and years, and all the benign voices of earth and heaven have urged us to get on board, as she might sail away at any mmnent. and after awhile she sails without us, is it common sense to expect her to comeback? You might as well go out on the highlands at Navesink and call to the Majestic after she has been three days out and expect her to return as to call back an opportunity for heaven when it has sped away. You see that this idea lifts this world up from an unimportant way station to a platform of stupendous issues and makes all eternity whirl around this hour. But one trial for which all the preparation must be made in this world or never made at all. That piles up all the emphasis and all the climaxes and all the destinies into life here. No other chance! Oh, how that augments the value and the importance of this chance!'" Alexander, with his army, used to surround a city, and then would lift a great 1 ight in token to the |>eo ple that if they surrendered before that light wenfout all would be well. But if once the light went out then the battering rams would swing against the wall, and demolition and disaster would follow. Well, all we need do for our present and ever-_ lasting safety is to make surrender to Christ, the king and conqueror — surrender of our hearts, surrender of our lives, surrender of everything. And He keeps a great light burning, light of gospel invitation, light kindled with the wood of the cross%ftcb flaming up against the dark night of our sin and sorrow. Surrender while that great light continues to burn, for after it goes out there will be no other opportunity of making peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, Talk of another chance! Why, this is a supernal chance! I am in the burnished judgment hill of the last day. A great white throne is lifted, but the Judge has not yet taken it. While we are waiting for His arrival I hear immortal spirits in conversation. “What are you waiting here for?,” says a soul that went up from Madagascar to a soul that ascended from America. The latter says: “I came from America, where forty years ago I heard the gospel preached and Bible read, and from the prayer that I learned in infancy at my mother’s knee until my last hour I had gospel advantage, but for some reason I did not make the Christian choice, and I am here waiting for the Judge to give me a new trial and another chance.” “Strange,” says the other. "I had but one gospel call in Madagascar. and I accepted it, and I do not need another chance.” “Why are you here?” says one who on earth had'feeblest intellect to one who had great brain, and silvery tongue, and scepters of influence. The latter responds: “Oh, I knew more than my fellows. I mastered libraries and had learned titles from colleges,and my name was a synonym for eloquence and power. And yet I neglected my soul, and I am here waiting for a new trial.” “Strange," savs the one of the feeble earthly capacity. “I knew but little of worldly knowledge, but I knew Christ’and made Him my partner, and I have no need of another chance." Now the ground trembles with the approaching chariot. The great folding doors of the hall swing open. “Stand back!” cry the celestials ushers. “Stand ba< ; k, and let the Judge of quick and dead pasp through!” He takes the throne, and, ISoking over the throngs of nations, He says: “Come to judgment, the last judgment. the only judgment!" By one flash from the throne all the history of each flames forth to the vision of himself and all others. “Divide!” says the Judge to the assembly.

“Divide'” echo the walls. “Divide!” cry the guards angelic. And now the immortals separate! rushing this way and that, and after awhile there is a great aisle between them, and a great vacuum widening and widening, and the Judge, turning to the throng on ’one side, says: -i ‘He t.hat. m righteous, let him be righteous still; and he that is holy, let him be holy still,” and then turning toward the throng on the opposite side, he says: “He that is unjuso, let him be unjust still, and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still,” ami th£D v lifting one hand toward each group, He declares: “If the tree fall to wa rd the sou th or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth there it shall be.” And then I hear something jar with a great sound. It is the closing of the book of judgment. The Judge ascends the stairs behind the throne. The hall of the last assize is cleared -and shut. The high court of eter J nity is adjourned fore- er.