American citizen. [volume] (Butler, Butler County, Pa.) 1863-1872, 1864-02-24
Religious department.
From the New England Farmer.
THE T,AY-PREACHER,


| PSALMS.
The great doctrine of individual re-
sponsibility is here impressively declared
We can expostulate with the sinner, pray
for him, entreat with him; we can re-
move from his path all temptations under
our control, but the plague spot in the
heart only the offender himself, with Gods
and mans assistance, can effectually re-
move. There isa point at which endeav-
or finds an impossible barrier, the point
whence the soul must decide for Itself
Love and anxious care can press the cup
of living water to the lips, but beyond
that it can 90 no farther, and it may be
compelled to see, with what patience it
can command, the precious offering cast
aside and the black waters of pollution
swallowed with avidity, entailing moral if
not physical destruction.
This sad truth should carry no discour-
agement with it, since, though man cannot
do all towards redeeming his brother,
what he may do may be the very effort
needed to induce the sinner to pause, re-
fleet, resolve and thereby work out his
own salvation. How many have stopped
amid sins wild career and commenced
the work of reformation, influenced by
the gentle remonstrance, the fearful en-
treaty Conscience answered to the call
and would not again be lulled to the fatal
apathy in which it had long lain. Scar
ed and blasted and heaped over with ru-
ins it may be, but it never dies, and with
what overwhelming power it at last as
serts itself
Are we looking in our own experience
for something extraneous to redeem us
from the bondage of sin? We have all
that the scriptures can give of warning,
entreaty, encouragement; we have the ex-
ample of the good; the eloquent pleader
within; we have Gods love around us
manifested in the continual outpouring of
his mercies; we walk amid all fair and
glorious things, emanations of Fathers
unlimited affection and wisdom, and for
the rest, that must come from within.
In the silent, unseen recesses of the
soul there must be awakened a conscious
ness of individual responsibility for its
moral condition. Our hunger may be
satisfied, our nakedness clothed by others,
but conscience preserves inviolate the
sanctity of its freedom. No other can
fill up the record of our life's history
no handwriting but the genuine will be
received in the court of heaven. The
sins as well as the virtues are our own
If we have entertained the idea, however
disguised to ourselves, that others are
even in part answerable for our short
comihgs, it is time the deluson were torn
away and that we see ourselves as we
stand before God, answerable for the tai
ents, one or many, that He bestowed when
He called us into being.
None of them can by any means re-
deem his brother What sad eyes have
pored over this passage! What torn and
bleeding hearts have felt their wounds
deepen over this vital truth And how
many have been led, after all efforts to
redeem the lost one have been wasted, to
cast their sorrowful burden upon the Sa-
viour, and find Him comfort and peace.
How priceless is the belief that there
is no anguish Jesus cannot sooth--no
wound He cannot heal. All that makes
life precious may be trailing in the dust,
high hopes blasted, home itself prove no
longer refuge from the IMPLYING storm,
but the Saviour is there still, unchanged
bic in His love and promises, immovable
in His strength to sustain unto the end.
Would mankind but believe that there
is no peace or happiness in sin, that it
darkens every home where 1t enters, that
it wells the sunlight and the beauty of the
whole earth, that it begets an inward dis
content and unhappiness which nothing
outward can dispel, they would as a mat
ter of self-love abstain from its commits
sion. Its fruit is desolation and death,
and there is no other evil to be appre-
hended
Since we cannot redeem our brother,
let us redeem ourselves, and walk in the
clear light of Christian duty. In that
pathway lies peace, content, happiness too
deep for words; and he who treads there
in finds, when his feet are weary, that
they are already at the opening gate of