Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1885-05-07
@eadiua fur the Sabbath,
CONDUCTED BY
REV. ROBERT LATHAM.
''Original.]
STRANGE PLEA.

loriginal
STRANGE PLEA.
The eleventh verse of the tWenty-tifth
Psalm reads as follows: "For thy names
sake, o Lord, pardon mine iniquity; for it
is very great" When carefully looked at,
this is certainly very remarkable language.
The inspired Psalmist pleads with the Lord
to pardon his iniquity. There is nothing
very strange in this. Every individual who
has any just conception of iniquity desires,
in some sense, pardon. There is, however,
something very strangein the reasons which
he urges for the pardon of his iniquity.
Before noticing these reasons, let US notice
very briefly, what he means by "iniquity."
The thing which was prominent in his
mind is expressed in the seventh verse, as
follows: "Remember not the sins of my
youth, nor my transgressions." The words
''of my youth" limit both ''sins and trans
gressions." They might be translated ''sins
and faults of my youth" The Psalmist is
taking retrospective view, not of the ca
own life. Before he reaches the present mo-
ment of his existence, before he reaches his
manhood days, he eXclaims in grief, in ago
ny, in holy anxiety, 80, Lord, remember
not my sins and faults of YOUTH" This
twenty-ffth Psalm purports to have been
written by David, and there is no reason to
doubt this. Such being the case, there is,
after all, something very remarkable in the
petition, 80, Lord, pardon my iniquity."
If iniquity in the eleventh verse means the
same thing that sins and faults of youth in
the seventh verse mean, there is beyond
question, something very remarkable in the
petition.
David, as boy or man, was not remarka-
BILE for his sins. AS q boy, his time was
largely spent in watching sheep. While
following this humble occupation, he GER
tainly was not exposed more than boys usu-
ally are to temptation. In fact, judging
from everything which we know of the
boyhood of David, we may safely conclude
"a good boy" There was a sweetness in
his disposition which won for him the love
of all who knew him, and there was man
| illness in his behavior which secured for him
| the esteem and respect of his playmates.
Judging from human standpoint, nothing
but good can be said about David as youth.
Notwithstanding this, David, when he
looked back over his boyhood days-over
his youth-when he marshalled before him
his sins and faults of youth, he cried out in
agony, 20, Lord, pardon my sins and faults
of YOUTH"
Another remarkable feature about this
| petition Is CIlc ldCL ClltI He IeutllIuSACu no
sins and faults of youth at all. The wonder
is that he thought of these. Remembering
sins and faults of youth do not trouble men
generally. On the contrary, they sit down
on the curbstone of the street, or around
their firesde, or meet on the public high
way, or anywhere, and tell over the sins
and faults of youth with joyfulhearts The
narrative of the sins of our youth is gener-
ally an ineXhaustibe source of fun. There
was no fun to David in thinking over his
past life There is no fun in sin. Only fools
make mock of sin. No doubt the word
pardon, as here used by David, includes the
taking away of the liability to be punished
on account of iniquity and the cleansing
from the moral filth of iniquity. The petit
ton is as if he had said, so, Lord, take
away from me the guilt of sin and cleanse
me from the pollution of SIM" The Ian
guage denotes intense feeling and earnest
ness. He felt that his case was a perilOus
one He needed a remedy and he needed it
to be applied promptly-now Just now. In
another Psalm, we find the following Ian
guage, snake haste, 0, Lord" So here.
His case he felt to be desperate one. A
moments delay would be ruinous both for
time and eternity.
Strange as the petition itselfis, the grounds
or reasons which he assigns why the petition
should be granted is even more strange.
There are two. The first is, "For thine own
names sake" And the second is, 'for his
iniquity is very great" There is nothing
like this in mere human transactions. No
man ever asked a governor, or king, or chief
magistrate of nation to pardon his trans
gressions of the law of the land, for the sake
of the individual in whom was lodged the
dent of the United States think of the indi-
vidual who, after having been condemned for
some reasonable act, would petition the
President to pardon this reasonable act for
| his-the Presidents sake. No such thing is
known in human governments. Men, When
they ask for pardon, state some ground IN
themselves, or in some one, or in some thing
with which they are connected, why they
should be pardoned They may claim that
the punishmentis is greater than the ottense,
or that there were palliative circumstances
connected with the commission OF the Of
fense, or they may claim that although con-
demned, they are not guilty. David, how
ever, sets up no such claims. He admits
the guilt, he assents to the fairness of the
trial, and the Righteousness of the eondem-
nation, and that the punishmentis is no great
er than it tshould be. In one word, he sim
ply pleads that the Lord, for his own names
sake, would pardon his iniquity. Marvel
Gus plea.
The expression, "For thy names sake"
means the same as ''for thy sake" In other
words, David pleads with God to pardon his
sin for his own sake, for the sake Of his own
honor and glory. This is the only ground,
or reason, for which God ever pardoned in
iuuity in any one. Sin is degrading. Sin
makes those who practice it very miserable.
But God does not pardon sin because it de-
grades and makes miserable. Sin degraded
Satan. Our Saviour says he saw Satan fall
from Heaven. This was great degradation:
Yet his sin is not pardoned and never Will
be pardoned. Satan expects no pardon.
He desires no pardon, he asks for no pardon.
Satan is miserable. The wages of sin to
him is death, as we'll as to man. The smoke
of his torment goes up forever and ever.
Still there is no pardon for him. Groansand
sighs cannot move God to pardon sin.
Nothing can move him to pardon sin but
his own glory. Sin is rebellion. The way
that God has chosen to crush out of exist
ence that rebellion, is to pardon sin for his
own names sake.
1t is in pardoning sin that God exhibits or
manifests himself as the wOnderworklng
Jehovah. There is no being in the Universe
except God that can pardon iniquity, and yet
God does not pardon sin as human govern
Ors pardon it. For his own names sake,
God has provided an all-sutficient atone
ment for SIM Jesus Christ the Son OF God,
is the sin-bearer of Gods people. He takes
their sins and bears them away into the
wilderness of forgetfulness.
The next reason which the Psalmst pleads
as ground for the pardon of his sins and
faults of youth is, that they are many or
crroot rbis * a rnarvnlOuS reason, Mere