Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1889-06-08

future will wipe out the past? Good res
olutions, though they may be repugnant
and caustjc as alkali, have no power 10
neutraiiZe a Sin, have no power to wash
away a transgression. 1t wants some
thing more than earthly chemistry to do
this. Yea, yea, though Il wash myself
| with snow water. should ! cleanse my
hands ia alkali, yet shalt thou plunge me
in the Glitch, and mine W clothes shall
adhor me-"
You see from the last part Of this text
that Jobs idea of sin was very different
from that of Eugene Sue, or George
Sand, or Nj. j. Michelet, or any Of the
hundreds of writers who have done up
~iniGuity in mezzotint, and garlanded the
| wine cup with ~eglantine and rosemary,
and made the path of the libertine end in
bowers Of ease instead of on the hot flag
ging of eternal torture. You see that
Job thinks that sin is not a f1owery par
terre; that it is not a tableland of fine
prospects; that it is not music, dulcimer,
v~ioloncello, C~astanet and Pandean pipe,
all making music together. No. He
says it is a ditch, long, deep, loathsome,
stenchful, and we are all plunged into it,
and there WI wallow and sink and strug-
gle, not able to get out. Our robes of
property and robes of worldly profession
are saturated in the slime and abomina.
ton, and our soul, covered over with
transgression, hates its covering, and the
covering hates the soul until we are
plunged into the ditch, and our own
clothes adhor us.
know that some modern religionists
caricature sorrow TO sin, and they make
D.t , nnsa xenAI .- a .l-sl
grim's progress that John Bunyan
dreamed of. The road they 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, I'M
der 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
appreciation of the fact that you are
astray, what do you want of him who
came TO seek and save that which was
lostY Yonder is the City Of Paris, the
swiftest Of the Inmans, coming across the
Atlantic. The wind is abaft, SO that she
has not only her engines al work, but all
sails up. | am on board the Umbria Of
the Cunard line. The boat davits are
swung around. The boat is lowered. I
get into it with a red flag. The captain
locks off from the bridge, and says:
What do you want?' | reply: II
come to take some of your passengers
across to the other vessel; | think they
will be safer and happier there" The
captain would look down with indigna.
ton and say: Get out of the way, or |
will run you down" And then ! would
back oars, amidst the jeeripg of 200 or
800 people looking over the %taffrail.
But the Umbria and the City Of Paris
meet under different circumstances after
a while. The City Of Paris is coming out
Of a cyclone; the life boats arc smashed;
the bulwarks gone; the vessel rapidly
going down. The boatswsin gives his
last whistle of desparing command. The
passengers run up and down the deck.
and some pray, and all make a great
outcry. The captain says: You have
about fifteen minutes now to prepare
for the next world" "No hope"
sounds from stern to stern and from
the ~ratlines down TO the cabin. !
see the distress. ! i'm let down by the
side of the Umhria. ] push off as fast
IS I can toward the sinking City of Paris.
Before l come up people are leapinC into
the water in their anxiety to get 10 the
boat, and when | have swung up under
the side Of the City Of Paris, the frenzied
passengers rush through the gangway
until the officers, with axes and clubs ard
pistols, try 20 keep back the crowd, each
wanting his turn 10 come next. There Is
bat one life boat, and they al want 10
get into it, and the cry is: Me next. me
nextl' You see the application before /
make it. AS long as q mar going on in
his sin feels that al is well, tina! ne is
coming III at a beautiful port, and has
al sail set, he want no Christ, he wants
no help, he wants no rescue; but if under
the fash Of Gods convincing spirit he
shall see that by reason Of sin he is dis
masted and waterlogged, and going down
into the trough Of the sea, where he can
not live, how 500 lie puts the sea glass
TO his eye and sweeps the horizon, and
at the first sign Of help cries out; Il
want to be saved. | want to be saved
now. want TO be saved fCi5ver." No
sense OF danger, 40 application for res
cue.
OF, FOR A EMS OF s~INFULNEsst
oh, that Gods eternal spirit would
UdSl UPON us II bplEe Oh our SlIIulutS rs
The Bible tells the story in letters Of fire,
bu. we get used 20 il. We joke about
sin. We make merry over it. What is
sin2 Is it a tritling thing? Sin is q YAM
pire that is sucking out the life blood Of
your immortal nature. SinY 1t is a Bias
tile that no earthly key ever unlocked.
Sin? 1t is cxpatriation from God and
heaven. Sin? 1t is grand larceny against
the Almighty, for the Bible asks the
question: "Will a man rob GodY" an
swering it in the affirmative. This Cos
pei is a writ of replevin to recover prop
erty unlawfully detained from God.
In the Shetland islands there is a man
with leprosy. The hollow of the foot
has swollen until it is fat on the ground.
The joints begin TO fall away. The ankle
thickeas until it looks like the foot of a
wild beast. A stare unnatural comes to
the eye. The nostril is CONSTRUCTED. The
voice drops 10 an almost inaudible hoarse-
ness. Tubercles blotch the whole body,
and from them there ONE an emulation
that is unbearable to the beholder. That
is leprosy, and we have all got it unless
cleansed by the grace of God. See Lee
vlticus. See ii Kings. See Mark. See
Luke. See fifty Bible illusions and con
firmations.
The Bible is not complimentary in its
language. 1t does not speak mincingly
about sins: 1t does not talk apollo