The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1889-06-12

| guage. 1t does not speak mlnclngly about
our sins. 1t does not talk apologetically.
There is no vermilion in its style: It does
not cover up our transgressions with bloom
ing metaphor. 1t does not sing about
them in weak falsetto; but it thunders out:
1.-THE imagination Of mans heart is evil
from his youth" every one has gone back.
He has altogether become filthy. he is
aboninable and filthy, and drinketh in In,
iauity like water" And then the Lord
initiating catalogue: "Out Of the heart
Of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries,
fornication, murders, thefts, blasphemy."
There is a text for your rational
lists to preach from. Oh, the dignity
of human nature! There is an
elem element Of your y1.,,s science % Of f. man nan
the courage yet to touch; and the
Bible, in ali the ins and outs of the
most forceful style, sets forth our natural
pollution, and represents iniquity as fright
full thing, as an exhausting thing, as loath-
some thing. 1t is not mere bemiring. OF the
feet it is not a mere befouling of the hands;
it is going down, head and ears under, in
ditch, until our clothes abhor US.
My brethren shall we stay down where sin
thrusts us? shall not if you do. We can
not afford to. Ihave to-day to tell you that
there is something purer than snow water,
something more pungent than alkal1, and
that 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 btN
lowY tide strong enough to wash your 80
completely and forever away. Oh, Jesus, let
the dam that holds it back now break, and
the floods Of salvation roll over us.
Let the water and the blood,
From thy side q healing flood,
Be Of sin the double cnre,
m
Let us get down on both knees and bathe in
that blood 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 salvation sent. Take this
largess of the divine bounty. Though
you have gone down in the deepest ditch
of ibidinous desire and corrupt be-
havior, though You have sworn all blasphem-
les until there is not one sinful word left for
you to speak, though you have been sub
merged by the transgressions 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, pro-
posing 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 or other but Billy, weshall get
straight through the gate" Oh, if you only
knew how full aad free and tender is 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 I
stood there nd questioned you, and the
Gospel of Christ had made the right impress
sion upon your heart to-day, you would an
swer me as you went on, one and all: Jesus
is mine, and am Hisn' Oh, that this might
be the hour when you would receive
Him 1t is not a Gospel merely for
footpads and vagrants and buc-
cancers; it is for the highly polished and the
educated and the refined as well. Except a
man be born again. he cannot see the king
dom of Gods Whatever may be your
associations, and whatever your world
ly refnements, I must tell you, as
before God I 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 sin, in the ditch of sorrow, in the
ditch Of condemnation; ditch that empties
into deeper ditch, the ditch Of the lost.
But blessed be God for the lifting, cleansing,
illustrating power Of His Gospel.
The voice OF free grace cries, Escape to the noun
For all that believe, Christ has opened fountain.
HalleluJah! to the Lamb vino has bought US our
wen PdSa prase him again when we pas, over Jordan