Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-05-27

dear brother, have you anyiidea that q resoln
tion about the future viii liquidabe the past:
Suppose / owed you 5000 and l should come tc
you tomorrow and say: '.Sir, will never rur
in your debt again: if should live 90 years
win never run IN You debt again. viii you turn
TO me and say: IF you viii not run in debt in
the future will forgive you the SCOOP viii
you do Ihatf MOI Nor will God. We have
been running up long score of Indebtedness
with God. If for the future we should abstain
from sin that would be no defrayment of past
indebtedness, Though You should live from
this time forth pure as an archangel before the
throne that would not redeem the past. God
in the Bible distinctly declares that He will re-
quire that which is past'-past opportunities,
past neglects, past wicked words. past impure
inasTnatlons, past everything
The past is great cemetery. and every day
is buried in it And here is long row Of S65
graves. They are the dead DAYS of 1888. Here
the dead DAYS of 1851. And here is along row
of 365 more graves. and they are the dead days
OF 1856. 1t is a vast cemetery of the past. But
God viii rouse them all up with resurrection
ary blast and, as the prisoner stands race TO
face with juror and judge, so You and l will
have to come and look upon those departed
days face to face, exulting in their smile or
covering IN their frown.
MURDER WILL OUT"
is proverb that stops too short. Every sin.
however small. as well as great viii out. In
hard times in England, years ago, it is authen-
tically STATED that a manufacturer was on the
way, with a bag of money, to pay of his hands.
A man infuriated with hunger met him on the
road, and took a rail with a nail IN it from a
paling tence and struck him down, and the
nail entering the skull instantly slew him.
Thirty years after that the murderer went
back to that place. He passed into the grave
yard, where the sexton was digging grave,
and while he stood there the spade of the SEX
ton turned up skull and 10! the murderer
saw nail protrHding from the back part of
the skull; and as the sexton turned the
skull it seemed with hollow eyes to glare
on the murderer; and he, first petrifed with
horror, stood in silence, but soon cried ont,
GUILTY. guiltyI o Godr' The mystery of the
crime was over. The man was tried and exc
cuted.
My friends, all the unpardoned sins of our
lives though we may think they are buried out
OF sight and gone into a mere skeleton of
memory, will turn up in the cemetery of the
past, and glover upon us with their misdoings
say all our unDardoned sins. oh, have you
done the preposterous thing of supposing that
good resolutions for the future will wipe out
the past? Good resolutions though they may
be pungent and caustic as alkah, have no power
to neutralize a SIN, have no power to " ash away
a transgresson- 1t wants something more than
earthly chemistry to do this Yea, yea, though
II wash myself with snow water. and should
cleanse my hands in alkali, yet shalt thou
plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes
shall abhor me-"
JOBS IDEA OF SIN.
You see from the last part of this text that
Jobs idea ofsin was very different from that.of
Eugene Sue or George Sand or NJ. J. Mlchelet
or any of the hundreds of writers who have
done up iniquity in meZzotint and garlanded
the wine cup with eglantine and rosemary, and
made the path of the ibertine end in bowers
of ease instead of on the hot tagging of eter-
nal torture. You see that Job thinks that sin
is not fowery parterre; that it is not table
land OF hne prospects; that it is not music, dull
elmer, violoncello, castanet and Pandean pipes,
all making music together. No. He says 1t is
a ditch, long, deep. 1oathsome, stenchful and
we are all plunged into it, and there we wallow
and sink and struggle, not able to get out
Our robes of propriety and robes of worldly
profession are saturated in the slime and
and our soul, covered over with
tTansgression, hates its covering, and the COW
erfng hates the soul, until we are plunged into
the ditch, and our own clothes abhor us.
know that some modern religionists carica-
ture sorrow for sin, and they make out an
easier path than the pilgrims progress that
travel does not stop where Johns did at the |
city of Destruction, but at the gate of the uni
VersitY; and am very certain that it will not |
come out where Johns did, under the shining |
ramparts of the celestial city. No repentance,
no pardon. If you do not, my brother, feel that |
you are down in the ditch what do you want |
Of Christ to lift you out? If you have no ap-
O1 Tile IdCI LudI you are aSLTay, WlaG
10 you want of Him who came to seek and |
save that which was lost? Yonder is the City |
If Paris, the swiftest of the Inmans coming |
across the Atlantic. The wind is abaft. SO that |
sails up. / am ON board the Umbria, of the Gu |
lard line. The boat davits are swung around |
The boat is lowered / get into it with a red |
lag, and cross over to where the City of Paris |
S coming, andI
WAVE THE FLAG.
The Captain looks off from the bridge and |
ays: What do you want?" reply: 81 come |
% take some of your passengers across to the |
,ther vessel; think they will be safer and hap
,ier there" The Captain would look down |
With indignation and say: "Get out of the way |
II 1 will run you down." And then would |
Jack oars amidst the jeering of two or three |
hundred people looking over the taffrail But |
he Umbria and the City of Paris meet under
liferent circumstances after a while. The City /
# Paris is coming out of a cyclone: the life
'oaIs are smashed; the bulwarks are gone; the
essel rapidly going down. The boatswain gives
lis last whistle of despairing command. The
'assengers run up and down the deck, and some
ray and all make great outcry. The Captain
ays: You have about Is minutes now to pre-
rom stem to stern and from the ratlines down
o the cabin. l see the distress. l am let
lown by the side of the Umbria. I push
II as fast as can toward the sinking City of
Paris. Before 1 come up people are leaping
nto the water in their anxiety to get to the |
'oat, and when / have swung mp under the |
lde of the City of Paris, the frenzied passen-
ers rush through the gangway until the Off.
ers, with ak and clubs and pistols, try to keep
ack the crowd, each waiting his turn to come
ext. There is but one 1ifeboat, and they all
rant to get into it. and the cry is: me next!
ne next!' You see the application before
make it As long as man going on in his sin
eels that all is well, that he is coming out at
beautiful port, and has all sail set, he wants
CffTicf 1Ro 1,o1,, \ /
eseue; but if under the fash of Gods convict
lg spirit he shall see that by reason of sin he
dismasted and waterlogged and going down
ITO the trough of the sea where he cannot
We, how soon he puts the sea glass to his eve
nd sweeps the horizon, and at the first sign of
clip cries out; II want to be saved. want to
e saved now. want to be saved forever"
sense Of danger, no application for rescue.
Oh, FOR A SENSE OF sINFULNEssl
Oh, that Gods eternal spirit would fash
pom us a sense of our sinfulness! The Bible
Ills the story in letters of fire. but we get used
it We joke about sin. We make merry
YER It. What is sin? Is it a trfaing thing?
in is a vampire that is sucking out the life
ood of your immortal nature. Sin? 1t is a |
astile that no earthly key ever unlocked. Sin?
is expatrlation from God and heaven. Sinf
is grand larceny against the Almighty, for
e Bible asks the question: will man rob
od?" answering it in the affirmative. This
1spel is q writ of repleEin to recover property |
detained from God. .
In the Shetland Islands there is a man with |
prosy. The hollow of the foot has swollen
atil it is fiat on the ground. The joint begins
fall away The ankle Jhickens until it looks
ke the foot of a wild beast. A stare unnat-
al comes to the eve. The nostri is con-
ricted. The voice drops to an almost inaudi-
e hoarseness. Tubercles blotch the whole
,dy. and from them there comes an emulation ,
at is unbearable to the beholder. That is ,
prosy, and we have all got it unless cleansed
the grace of God. See Levitieus. See II. ,
ings. See Mark. See Luke. See fifty Bible ,
lusions and combinations.
The Bible is not complimentary in its Ian ,
laee. 1t does not speak mincingly about our
MS If does mot talk anolopetiea1lv Thara ia