The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1889-08-01
SPIRITUAL CLEANSING.
Mankind's Need of the Purging
Influences of Religion.
Little Hope for Apologize sinners-The
Depravity of Others No Excuse for
Us-Retribution Sure to Fol-
low WrOng-Doing.

II wash myself with snow water, and should
cleanse my hands in alkali, yet shalt Thor
plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes
shall abheR me.-Job tx, 30-31.
Albert Barnes-honored be his name on
earth and in Heaven-went straight back
to the original writing Of my text, and
translated it as have 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 q
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 failed to do it's work, then
they would take I've or alkah and mix il
with OIL, and under that preparation they
Ielt that the last impurity would certainly
be gone. Job, in my text in most force
ful figure, sets forth the idea that all his
attempts to make himself pure before God
were dead failure, and that unless we
are abluted by something better than
earthly liquids and chemical prepara-
tons, we are loathsome and in the ditch.
IF | wash myself with snow water, and
should cleanse my hands in alkali, yet
shalt Thou plunge me in the ditch, and
pine own clothes shall abhor me-" You
are now sitting for your picture. I turn
the camera obscura of Gods word full
upon you, and l pray that the sunshine
falling through the skylight may enable
me to take you just as you are. Shall it
be hattering picture or shall it be a
true one? You say: 'sLet it be a true
one." The first profile that was ever
taken was taken three hundred and thirty
years before Christ of Ambiguous. He
had a hind III r. L a.
ist to take his profile so as to hide the de-
feet in his vision. But since that inven-
ton, three hundred and thirty years be-
fore Christ, there have been great many
proiles.
Shall / to-day give you a one-sided
view of yourselves, profile, or shall it
be a full-length portrait, showing you
just what you are? If God will help me
by His almighty grace, shall give you
that last kind of a picture. When l first
entered the ministry used to write my
sermons out and read them, and run my
hand along the line lest should lose my
place. have hundreds of those manu-
scripts. Shall l ever preach them?
Never; for in those days 1 was somehow
over mastered with the idea 1 heard
talked all around about of the dignity of
human nature, and 1 adopted the idea,
and | evolved it, and l illustrated it, and
/ argued it; but coming on in life, and
having seen more of the world and studied
better my Bible, I fiLd that that early
teaching was faulty, and that there is no
dignity iii human nature until it is recon-
structed by the grace of God. Talk about
vessels going to pieces on the Skerries.
on Irelandl There never was such a
shipwreck as in the Ghion and the Hid
dekel, rivers of Eden, where our first par
ents foundered. Talk of a steamer 60
ing down with five hundred passengers
on board! What is that to the shipwreck
OF one billion four numbered million
soulsg We are by nature mass of I'M
eleanness and puterfaction, from which
1t takes all the omnipotence and infini-
tude OF Gods grace to extricate US. "If
wash myself with snow water, and
should cleanse my hands in alkali, vet
shalt Thou plunge me in the ditch, and nv
own clothes shall abhor me-"
Iremark, 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: 81 am sinner:
confess that; but l inherited this, NV
father was sinner, my grandfather. INV
great great grandfather, and all the wav
back to Adam, and 1 couldn't helm NV
self" My brother, have you not every
day in your life, added something to the
original estate of sin that was beuueatbed
to you? Are you not brave enough TO con-
Tess that you have sometimes surren-
dered to sin, which you ought to have con-
quered? | ask you whether it is fair
play to put upon our ancestry
things for which we ourselves are
personally responsible? If your nature
was askew when you got it, have you not
sometimes given it an additional twist?
WIZ all the tombstones of those who
nave preceded us make a barricade high
enough for eternal defenses? l know n |
deVout man who had blasphemous parent |
age. know an honest man whose father |
was a thief. l know pure man whose
father was waif OF the street. The
hereditary tide may be very strong. but |
there is such thing as stemming. The |
TACT that | have a corrupt nature is no |
reason why | should yield to it. The deem |
stains of our soul can never be washed |
put by the snow water of such insufficient
apology.
Stlll further, says some one: eff have
gone into sin it has been through nv com
oanlons, my comrades and associates.
.hey ruined me. They taught me to drink,
They took me to the gambling hell. They
plunged me into the house of sin. Tbev
'uined my SOUL" / do not believe If
fod gave to no one the power to DESTROY
'ou or me. If man is DESTROYED he
S self-destroyed, aud that is always so
did you not break away from themP
t they had tried to steel your purse. Won
Fould have knocked them down; if thew
lad tried to purloin your gold watch. Won
you'd have riddled them with shot: but
Fhen they tried to steal your immortal soul
ou plaeidly submitted to it, Those had
elbows have cup of fire to drink: do NOT
our your cup into it. In this matter of
ne SOUL every man for himself. That
nose persons are not fully responsible
or your sin prove by the fact that Won
till consort with them. You can NOT oet
by blaming them. Though YOU gather
p all these apologies; though there
'ere great flood of them: thoucb tbev
hould come down with the force of The
letting SHOWS from Lebanon, they couId
OF wash out one stain of your immortal
DlIl. ''-
Still further, some persons apologize
n their sins by saying: awe are a
reat deal better than some people. You
% people all around about us that are a
reat deal worse than we." You stand