The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-06-05
ON THE EFFECTS OF SIN.
THE NEED OF SPIRITUAL CLEANSING.
A sermon by the Rev. Or. Talmage-The
Folly II Excnsing Error by MAX
ing References to the
Grimes OF Others.

selecting as his text:
If / wash myself With snow water, and
should cleanse my hands in alksli, yet shall
thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own
clothes shall abhor me-JOb TX. 50-31.
Albert Barnes-bonored be his name on
earth and in heavsn-went straight back
TO the original writing of my text, and
translated it as Ihave now quoted it, Civ
ing substantial reasons for so doing. AL
though We know better, the ancients had
an idea that in snow water there was a
special power to cleanse, and that gar
ment washed and rinsed in it would be as
clean as clean could be; but If the plain
snow water tailed to do its work, then
they would take I've or alkali and mix il
with oil, and nnder that preparation they
felt that the last impurity would certainly
be gone. Job, in my text, in most force
ful figure sets birth the idea that all his
attempts TO make himself pure before God
were a dead failure, and that unless we
are abluted by something better than
earthly liquids and chemical preparations,
we are loathsome and in the ditch. eff /
wash myself with snow water, and should
] cleanse myhandsin alkali. yet shalt thou
plunge me in the ditch, and mine own
clothes shall abhor me-" You are now
sitting for yonr picture. / turn the cam
era obscura Of Gods word full upon YOU,
and / pray that the sunshine falling
through the sky-light may enable me To
take YOU Just as you are. shall it be a
fattering picture or shall it be true one
You say; ALet il be a true one" The first
l. thok kalr al.
years before Christ of Antigonus He had
blind eye, and he compelled the artist to
take his profile so as to hide the defectin his
vision But since that invention, $50
years before Christ, there have been a
great many profles.
ShallI to-day give you one-sided view
OF yourselves, a profile, or shall it be a
full-length portrait, showing YOU Just
what YOU are? If God will help me bv
His almighty grace l shall give you that
last kind OF a picture. When [ first en-
tered the ministry 1 used to write nv SER
mons all out and read them and run my
hand along the line lest / should lose my
Pace. | have hundreds of those manu-
scripts. Shall | ever preach them? Never;
Tor in those days / was somehow over
mastered with the idea / heard talked all
around about of the dignity of human ma
ture, and / adopted the idea, and / evolved
1t, and illustrated it, and argued it; but
coming on in life, and having seen more
OF the world and studied better nv Bible
! find that that early teaching was faulty
and that there is no dignity in human ma
ture until it is reconstructed by the grace
OF God. Talk about vessels going to
pieces on the skerries of Ireland! There
never was such shipwreck as in the
Gihon and the Hiddekel, rivers of Eden,
where our first parents foundered. Talk
OF steamer going down with 500 passen-
gers on board What is that TO the ship
wreck of ], 400, 100000 souls? We are by
nature mass OF uncleanliness and putre-
faction from which it takes all the omnip-
otence and infnitude of Gods grace to
extricate us. eff l wash myself with
snow water, and should / cleanse my
hands in alkali, yet shalt thou plunge me
in the ditch, and my own clothes shall
abhor me-"
remark, in the first place, that some
people try to cleanse their soul OF sin in
the snow water of fine apologies. Here is
one man who says: II am a sinner; I
confess that; but inherited this Ny
father was sinner, my grandfather, my
reat-great-grandfather and all the way
back TO Adam, and couldn't help my
T.,
day in your life, added something to the
original estate or sin that was bequeathed
to you? Are you not brave enough to
confess that Won have sometimes surren-
dered to sin, which you ought TO have
conquered? ] ask you whether it is fair
play to put upon our ancestry things for
which We ourselves are personally respon-
slble2 Ii your nature was askew when
you got it, have you not sometimes given
IL an additional twist? Will all the tomb
stones OF those who have preceded us
make barricade high enough for eternal
defenses? know devout man who had
blasphemous parentage. know an hon
est man whose father was a thief. I know
pure man whose mother was waif of
the street. The hereditary tide may be
very strong. but there is such a thing as
stemming it. The fact that I have cor
rupt nature is no reason why | should
yield 20 it The deep stains OF our soul
can never be washed out by the snow
water Of such insufficient apology.
Still further. says some one "If have
gone into sin, it has been through nv
companions, my comrades and associates;
they ruined me. They taught me to
drink. They took me to the gambling
hell. They plunged me into the house Of
sin. They ruined my soul" / do not be-
heve it. God gave 10 no one the power to
destroy you or me. If man is destroyed
be is self-destroyed, and that is always so.
Why did you not break away from them?
II they had tried to steal your purse, you
would have knocked them down; if they
had tried TO purloin your gold watch, YOU
would have riddled them with shot but
when they tried to steal your immortal
soul you placidly submitted to it. Those
bad fellows have cup of fire to drink do
not pour your cup into it. In this matter
of the soul every man for himself That
those persons are not fully responsible for
your Fin prove by the fact that you still
eonsort with them. You cannot get of
by blaming them. Though you gather up
all these apologies; though there were q
great food of them; though they should
come down with the force of the melting
SHOWS from Lebanon, they could not wash
out one stain OF your immortal soul.
Still further, some persons apologize for
their sins by saying: ave are great deal
better Il an some people. You see people
all around about US that are great deal
worse than We You stand up columnar
In your integrity, and look down upon
those who are PROSTATE in their habitsan
crimes. What of that, my brother? If /
failed through recklessness and wicked
for $4,000, is the matter ale
waited at all by the fact that somebody
else has failed for 100000, and somebody
else for 100000? Oh, no. III / have the
shall refuse medical attend
onca bacauaa nv ueiohbor has virn1ent