The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1889-05-30


make out an easier path than the ''pil- |
grim's progress" that John Bunyan
dreamed Of. The road they travel |
does not stop where Johns did, at the
city of Destruction, but at the gate of |
that it will not come out where Johns |
did, under the shining ramparts of the |
celestial city. No repentance, no par
don If you do not, my brother, feel |
that you are down in the ditch, what |
do you want Of Christ to lift you out2
Ii you have no appreciation of the |
fact that you are astray, what do you
want of him who came to seek and |
save that which was lost2 Yonder is |
the City Of Paris, the swiftest of the |
Inmans, coming across the Atlantic.
The wind is abaft, SO that she
has not only her engines at
work, but all sails up. / am
on board the Umbria of the Cunard
line The boat davits are swung
around. The boat is lowered / get
into it with red flag, and cross over
to where the City of Paris is coming,
and wave the flag. The captain looks
off from the bridge, and says: What
do you want2" | reply: u come to
take some of your passengers across
to the other vessel; think they will
be safer and happier there" The cap
tain would look down with indigna-
ton and say: Get out of the way, or
I viii run you down" And then I
would back oars, amidst the jeering
of two or three hundred people look
ing over the taffrail But the Umbria
and the City of Paris meet un-
der different circumstances after
a while. The City of Paris is
coming out of a. cyclone; the life
boats are smashed; the bulwarks
gone; the vessel rapidly going down.
The boatswain gives his last
whistle of despairing command. The
passengers run up and down the deck.
and some pray, and all make great
outcry. The captain says: "You have
about fifteen minutes now to prepare
for the next world. mo hope!"
sounds from stem to stern and from
the ratlines down to the cabin. 7
see the distress. l am let down by
the side of the Umbria. I push
off as fast as / can toward tho sink
ing City of Paris Before come
up 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 pas
sengers rush through the gangway
until the officers, with AK and clubs
and pistols, try to keep back the crowd,
each wanting his turn to come next.
There IS but one life boat, and they
all want to get into it. and the cry is:
s'Me nextl me next!" You see the
| application before I make it. AS long
as man going on in his sin feels
that all is well, that he is coming out
| at beautiful port, and has ali 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 cannot live, how soon he puts the
sea glass to his eye and sweeps the
horizon, and at the first sign OF help
cries out: II want to be saved. |
want to be saved now. ! want to be
saved forever" No sense Of danger,
no application for rescue.
OH, FOR A SENSE OF sINFULNEssl
Oh, that Gods eternal spirit would
flash upon us q 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 SIM Is it trifing thing9
Sin is q vampire that is sucking out
the life blood of your immortal nature.
SIM 1t is q Bastile that no earthly
key ever unlocked. SIM 1t is expa-
triation from God and heaven. SIM
1t is grand larceny against the Al
mighty, for the Bible asks the ques-
ton: twill man rob Code" answer
ing it in the affirmative. This Gospel
is q writ of replevin to recover prop
erty 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 q wild beast. A stare I'M
natural comes to the eye. The nostril
is CONSTRUCTED The voice drops to an
almost inaudible hoarseness. Tubercles
blotch the whole bodys and from them
there comes an exudation that is un-
bearable to the beholder That is lep-
rosy, and we have all got it unless
cleansed by the grace of God. See Ie-
viticus. See III Kings See Mark. See
Luke. See fifty Bible illusions and
combinations.
The Bible is not complimentary in
its language. 1t does not speak mine
ingly about our sins 1t does not talk
apologetically. There is no vermilion
in its style. 1t does not cover up our
transgressions with blooming meta
phor 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 be-
come filthy. He is abominable and
filthy, and drinketh in iniquity like
water.n And then the Lord Jesus
Christ filings down at our feet this hu-
initiating catalogue: "Out of the heart
of men proceed evil thoughts, adulter-
les, fornication, murders, thefts, bias
phemy." There is a text for your
rationalists to preach from. Oh, the
dignity of human naturel 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 ins and outs of the
most forceful style, sets forth our nat
ural pollution, and represents iniquIty
rs frightful thing, as an exhaustlng
thing, as a loathsome thing. 1t is not
a mere bemiring of the feet, it is not
a mere befouling of the hands; it is
going down, head and ears under, in
/ a ditch, until our clothes abhor us.
WE MUST RISE ABOVE SIN.
My brethren, shall we stay down
where sin thrusts usl | shall not II
, YOU do. We cannot afford to. / have
! today to tell you that there is some
! thing purer than snow water, some.
thing more pungent than all1ali, and
| that is the blood of Jesus Christ that
! cleanseth from all sin. Ay, tho river
, of salvation, bright, crystalline and
! heaven born, rushes through thi.
audience with billowy tide strong
/ enough TO wash your sins completely
i | and forever away q Jesus, let the
dam that holds it back now break, ano
the floods of salvation roll over us.
y let the water and the blood,
From thy side healing food
Be of sin the double cure,
S Save from wrath and mako me pure
Let us get down on both knees and
bathe in that flood of mercy. Ay
: strike out with both hands and try tc
swim to the other shore of this river
; of Gods grace. To you is the word oi
/ this salvation sent Take this larges:
!. Of the divine bounty. Though you
= have gona down in the deepest ditcl
Z of hbidinous desire and corrupt be
: havior, though you have sworn 81
blasphemics until there is not one sin
! ful word left for you to speak, though
YOU have been submerged by th'
transgresSions of a lifetime, though