The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1889-06-07

| and some pray. and all make great out.
| cry. The captain says: you have about
| fifteen minutes now to prepare for tho
| next world" mo hopep 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- Ipush
| 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 ut one life boat and they all want to
| get into ii. and the cry is: ''Me next! me
| next" You see the application before
| make it. As long as a man going on in
his sins feels that all is well, that he 10
coming cut at a beautiful port and has
all sail set, he wants no Christ he wants no
help, he wants no rescue; but il under the
fash 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
eye and sweeps the hor zon, and at the
first sign of help cries out: IT want to be
saved. 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 a sense OF our sinfulness! The
Bible tells the story in letters of fire, but
we get used to it. We joke about sin. We
make merry over it What is sins Il it a
trifling thing! Sin Is a vampire that is
sucking out the life blood of your i'm.
mortal nature. Sin? 1t is Bastile that
no earthly key ever unlocked. Sinf 1t is
expatriation from God and Heaven. Sni
1t is grand larceny against the Almighty,
for the Bible asks the question: will q
man rob God!" answering it in the affirm.
alive. This gospel is q writ Of replevin to
recover property unlawfully detained
from God.
In the Shetland islands there il q 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 .
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 emulation
that is unbearable to the beholder. That
is leprosy, and we have all got 1t unless
cleansed by the grace Of God See Levi.
ticus SEE Second Kings. See Mark. See
Luke. See fifty Bible illusions and con-
firmations.
The Bible is not complimentary in it,
language. 1t does not speak mincingly
about our sins 1t does not talk apologet-
t.. ;vx; <, til
1t does not cover up our trangressions
with blooming metaphor. 1t does not
sing about them in weak falsetto; but 10
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 drinketh 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-
coed evil thoughts. adulteries, fornication,
murders, thefts, blasphemy." There Is .
text for your rationalists to preach from
o, the dignity of human nature! There is
an element of your science Of man that
the anthropologist never has had the
courage yet to touch. and the Bible, In all
the ms and outs of the most forceful style,
sets forth our natural pollution, and rep.
resents iniquity as frightful thing, as an
exhausting thing, as a loathsome thing.
1t is not a mere befouling Of the hands;
it is going down, head and ears under, in
u di'ch, until our clothes abhor US.
My brethren. shall we stay down whore
sin thrusts us? I 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
Christ that cleanseth from all sin. Ay,
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 holds it
back now break and the floods of saliva
ton roll over US.
Let the water and the blood,
From thy side healing food,
Be Of sin the double cure,
Save from wrath and make ne pure
Let us get down on both knees and
battle in that food Of mercy. Az, 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
and corrupt behavior, though You have
sworn all blasphemies 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,
and then raising you to glories that never
die. ''Billy," said a 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 OF other. but Billy, we shall
get straight through the gate" o, IL you
onlyknew how full and free and tender
is the OFF, 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 Hist"
0, that this might be the hour when you
would receive him! 1t is not COS.
pei merely for footpads and va
grants and buccaneers; it Is for
tie highly polished and the
and the refined as we'll. "Ex-
cspt man be born again he can not see |
the kingdom of God" Whatever may be |
your associations, and whatever your |
worldly refinements must tell you, as be- |
fore God l expect to answer in the last |
day, that il you are not changed by the |
grace of God you are still down in the |
ditch of sorrow, the ditch of condemna- !
lion: a ditch that empties into q deeper