Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-06-06

and some pray and all make a great out
cry. The captain says: You have about
fifteen minutes now to prepare for the
next world" No hoper' sounds from
stem to stern and from the ratlines down
to the cabin. ] see the distress. am let
down by the side of the Umbria. push
off as fast as l can toward the sinking
City of Paris Before / come up the people
are leaping into the water in their anxiety
to get to the boat and when have swung
up under the side of the City of Paris, the
| frenzied passengers rush through the gang
| way until the officers, with axe and club
| and pistols, try to keep back the crowd,
each wanting his turn to come next There
| is lut one life boat and they all want to
get into If. and the cry is: sMe next! me.
nextw You see the application before /
! make it. As long as a man going on in
his sins feels that all is we'll, that he is
| coming cut at a beautiful port, and has
all sail set. he wants no Christ, he wants no
| help, he wants no rescue; but if under the
| flash of Gods convicting spirit he shall
see that by reason of sin he is dismasted
and waterlogged, and going down into
the trough of the sea where he can not
| live, how soon he puts the sea glass to his
eve and sweeps the hor. .zon, and at the
first sign of help cries out: II want to be
saved l want to be saved now. I want
to be saved forever" No sense of danger,
| no application for rescue.
o, that Gods eternal spirit would fash
! upon us sense of our sinfuness. The
Bible tells the story in letters of fire, hut
we get used to it. We joke about sin. We
make merry over it What is sin. Is it
| trifing thingi Sin is a vampire that is
sucking out the life blood of your i'm
mortal nature. Sin? 1t is a Bastile that
| no earthly key ever unlocked Sin? 1t is
| expatria alton from God and Heaven. Sini
1t is grand larceny against the Almighty,
| for the Bible asks the question: will a
man rob God:" answering it in the affirm
ative. This gospel is writ of replevin to
recover property unlawfully detained
| from God.
In the Shetland islands there is 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
| thickens until it looks like the foot OF a
| wild beast. A stare unnatural comes to
the eye The nostril is constructed. The
| voice drops to an almost inaudable hoarse-
| ness. Tubercles blotch the whole body,
and from them there comes an exudation
| IudL Is uuDcdIdDlc " Inc De0Olu6T. lndI
is leprosy, and we have all got it unless
cleansed by the grace of God See Levi
ticus. See Second Kings. See Mark. See
| Luke. See fifty Bible allusons and con-
| firmations.
The Bible is not complimentary in its
| language. 1t does not speak mincingly
about our sins. 1t does not talk apologet-
| ically. There is no vermlion in its style.
1t does not cover up our trangressions
with blooming metaphor. 1t does not
sing about them in weak falsetto; but ID
thunders out: ''The imagination of mans
heart is evil from his youth" " Every
one has gone back. He has altogether
become filthy. He is abominable and
| filthy, and dEinketh in iniquity like
water" And then the Lord Jesus Christ
| filings down at our feet this humiliating
catalogues: "Out of the heart of men pro-
ceed evil thoughts. adulteries, fornication,
murders, thefts, blasphemy." There is a
| text for your rationalists to preach from
| o, the dignity of human nature! There is
an element of your science of man that
| the anthropologst never has had the
courage yet to touch. and the Bible, in all
| the ins and outs of the most forceful style,
sets forth our natural pollution, and rep
resents iniquity a frightful thing, as an
exhausting thing, as a loathsome thing.
1t is not mere befouling of the hands;
it is going down, head and ears under, in
u ditch, until our clothes abhor US.
My brethren, shall we stay down where
sin thrusts us: l shall not if you do. We
can not afford to. l have to-day to tell
YOU that there is something more pungent
than alkali, and that it is the blood of Jesus
Ill
the river of salvation, bright, crystalline
and Heaven born, rushes through this
audience with billowey tide strong enough
to wash your sins completely and forever
away. o. Jesus, let the dam that hold, it
| tion roll over us.
| Let the water and the blood,
| From thy side 4 healing food,
| Be of sin the double cure,
| Save from wrath and make nee pure
Let us get down on both knees and
| bathe in that flood of mercy. Ay, strike
out with both hands and try to swim to
the other shore of this river of Gods
grace. To you is the word of this saliva
ton sent. Take this largest of the divine
| bounty. Though you have grown down
| in the deepest ditch of libidinous desire
anu yOu ho'o
sworn all blasphemes until there is not
| one sinful word for you to speak, though
you have been submerged by the trans
gressions of lifetime, though you are
so far down in your sin that no earthly
| help can touch your case-the Lord Jesus
Christ bends over you to-day and offers
you His right hand proposing to lift you
up. first making you whittier than snow,
| .han tn 0lOriQS that
die. 'sBilly," said Christian bootblack
to another, "when we come up to Heaven
| it won't make any difference that we've
| been bootblacks here, for we shall get in.
not somehow or . her. but. Billy, we shall
get straight through the gate" D, If you
onIyknew how full and free and tender
il the offer of Christ this day you would
all take Him without one single exception;
and if all the doors of this house were
locked save one and you were compelled
to make egress by only one door and L
stood there and questioned you and the
gospel OF Christ had made the right I'M
preston upon your heart to-day you
would answer me as you went out. one
and all: Jesus is mine and l am His"
O. that this might be the hour when you
would receive him! 1t is not gos-
pei merely for footpads and va
grants and buccaneers; it is for
the highly polished and the
educated and the refined as we'll. "Ex-
cent a man be born again he can not see
the kingdom of God" Whatever may be
YOUR associations, and whatever your
worldly refinements l must tell you, as be-
fore God expect to answer in the last
day, that if you are not changed by the
grace of God you are still down in the
ditch of sorrow, the ditch of condemna-
,ion; ditch that eSpties into deeper