New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-02-16

mana body was modering under tho walls Of Macherus
tho message which he had brought was not dead and
could not die.
True, that fiery and undaunted spirit tina, little
while before had burst like meteor upon slumbering
Judea and running out It's clear and piercing message
with snch electric force resting at length with It's
work performed. But as In an army, when ITS ME
leader falls, the vacant places sraghtway heh ana
the column made solid AS before IA In the old gov
ernments the king died. but the two cries. The
king is dcad Long live the kne!" were sounded TO
gether so the message which John the Baptist stood for
ala NOT and could not die no matter what became Of
him II was Johns supreme dignity that In the order
ing of the eternal Providence the being who TOOK up
his message a. IL fen from his hushed lips was none
other thu the ncaruatc son Of God; but II John had
been born loo years before, IL would have been no
otherwise. This voice Of God to humanity arouslng 1t
from its ethargy warning IT in its cIreessncss, rcbuk
ing it for its sin wholly hushcd-nor can 1t be-
Now IL is Noah. now Elijah, now jeremiah, and at last
John the BIptst and thus voice after another takes
up the strain OF that clear searching personal message
OF warning that intrusive condemnation Of our separate
persona sins which has never OF this world Of
ours, nor any solitary human experience IN IT,
and which God has meant never shall ,
And yet the problem OF lie with greht many peope
nowadays "a in Herod's day. il to imprson. stiio or
somehow cxtingush. # that be possible, the unpleasant
parsonage who tells the truth about our own SINS
Friendship between man and man. and woman ana
woman will stand almost all sorts OF strains rather thah
that But when your friend ntrudcs upon you III some
moment OF selfish indulgence in sOme habit OF more or
less deliberate def Ince of tho eternal purity or truth,
or right aud says yOu with John the Baptistllko
drectness "Thst is not lawful" then straighway You
want get rid OF him. II we can, we SHAKE
ourselves loose from his Acquaintance we freeze MIN
with reserve. mOrtify him win our Indifference
And in such way 1t is easy enough for most people
10 silence unpleasant and what they call impcrlnrn NJ
criticism themselves, their speech or morals But IN
the last analysis IL the effort to shs or silence te
accusing voice impOtent now IL was with Her0d
X bake lakes on new forms; condemnation somehow
ncarnates itself again, and hearing our SINS brought
home to In tones that, though new. are startingy
familiar cry out, with Horod, lt John the Bip
list whom beheaded."
Toe speaker then went 10 show how this act fonnd
It's explanation in the answering witness wach eyery
man has within him 10 such warnings IN the human
conscience. There only one way to silence thlt voice,
or those accusations from without which II ecDOes; IL
Is to obey that voice. Tue warning becomes thus era
ciOus and heahfu MONITOR II cOnvinces us at once U
our own mpOtencev, and OF tho suftciency OF that
hi cher strength in which alone can obey IT, Bs tns
our Ienen work As stand upon the threshold OF
this season of sackcOth and ashes, let US make
IL an era ia spiritual history OF every one OF US
the clear spirit of oteral truth and right lays us manu-
upon one after another or cherished slns' saving
TINS, aud this and this Is not lawful let us see 10
that strive TO imprsOn OF SINE tho "aiuS' pu'
rather TO behead the SIN.
At the close OF the sermon liberal collection was
taken up for the bcnel. Of the Orphans Home at Lex
ngtouave. and Forty -niuth-st