The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1889-06-13

run In debt In the future, will forgive
you the five thousand dollars win you do
thati mol Nor will God, We have been
running up long score OF indebtedness with
from sin, that would he no defrayment Of past
indebtedness, Though You should live from
this time forth pure as an archangel before
the throne, that would not redeem the |
past. God, in the Bible distinctly
declares that he twill require that which
Is past"-past opportunities, past neg
lects, past wicked words past impure Inn
aginations, past everything. The past is
great cemetery, and every day Is buried In
IT, And here is a long row Of three hundred |
and sixty-ive graves. They are the |
dead DAYS of 1888, Here Is long row OF |
uiree nunLreu. ANA slxIy-nvc more graves
and they are the dead days OF 1887, And |
here is a long row of three hundred and SIX |
ty-five moro graves, and they are the dead |
days Of 1885. IL is vast cemetery of the |
past. But God will rouse them all up with |
resurrectionary blast and as the prisoner
stands face TO face with juror and judge, so
you and win have 10 come up and look
ing In their smile OF covering In their frown.
Murder will out" Is proverb that
stops too short, Every sin, however small,
as well rs great will out. In bard times
in England, years ago, II Is automatically
stated that manufacturer wason the way,
with bag OF money, to pay of his hands. A
man Infatuated with hunger met him on the
road, and took a rail with y nail In IL from a
palng fence and struck him down, and the
nail entering the skull instantly slew him.
Thirty years after that the murderer
went back to that place. He passed Into the
grave yard, where the sexton was dirGinc a
grave, and while he stood there the spade o.
tho sexton turned up skull, and, 10 ! the
murderer saw nail protruding from the
back part of the skull; and as the sex
ton turned the skull II seemed with hol
low eyes to glare on the murderer;
and he, first petrifed with horror, stood
in silence, but soon cried out. Guilty!
guilty. o Godr' The mystery OF the
crime was over. The man was tried
pardoned sins of our lives though We
may think they are buried out Of sight
and gone into mere skeleton OF
memory, win turn up in the cemetery
Of the past and glover upon US with
their misd9ngs say all o.. our asRrtaonea
thing of supposing that good resolutions Tor
the future will wipe out the past' Good re.
solutions, though they may be pungent and
caustic Us a1kali, have no power to
neutralize sin, have no power to
wash away tr'ansgression. It wants some
this. Yea, yea though az wash myself with
snow water, and should l cleanse my hands
in alkali, yet shalt thou plunge me IN the
ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me"
You see from the last part If this text that
Jop's IDEA or sin was very difrerent FROM thsS
Of Eugene Sue or George Sand, or NJ. ..
Michelet, or of any of the hundreds of writer's
who have done up iniquity in mezzotint
and garlahded the wine cup with eg-
lantine and rosemary, and made the
path Of the libertine end IN bowers OF
ease instead Of on the hot tagging Of eternal
torture. You see that Job thinks that sin is
not Howery parterre; that it is not a table
land Of fine prospects; that 1t is not
music, dulcimer, violoncello, castanet
and Pandean pipes, all making, music
together. No. He says 1t Is a ditch, long,
plunged into it, and there we wallow and sink
and struggle, not able to get out. Our robes
of propriety and robes Of worldly profession
| are saturated in the slime and abomination,
and our SOUL covered over with transgression,
hates its covering, and the covering hates the
soul until we are plunged into the ditch, and
our own clothes abhor us.
| / know that some modern religionists carl
cat,ire sorrow for sin, and they make out an
easier path than the ''pilgrim'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
the university; and I am very. certain
| IlHC IL Will uOU COfllt OuU WutIc couh uu,
under the shining ramparts of the celestial
city. No repentance, no pardon. If you do
not, my brother, feel that you are down in
the ditch, what do you want of Christ TO lift
you out' If you have ITO appreciation Of
the fact that you are astray, what do you
want of him who came to seek and save that
which was lost? 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. l am on
board the Umbria of the Cunard
line. The boat davits are SWING around.
The boat is lowered. get into it with q
Paris is coming and 1 wave the flag. The
captain looks off from the bridge and says /:
"What do you wantp" / reply come
% take some or your passengers across
IN tho other vessel; think they will be safer
and happier there The captain would look
down with indignation and say: "Get out of
the way, or will run you down" And then
would back oars, amidst the jeering Of
two or three hundred people looking
over the taffrail. But the Umbria
and the City of Paris meet under different
circumstances after a while The City OF
Paris is coming out of a cyclone; the life
boats are smashed; the bulwarks gone; the
gives his last whistle of despairing COM
mand. The passengers run up and down the
deck, and some pray, and all make great
cutlery. The captain says: You have
about fifteen minutes now to prepare
for the next world" mo hoper'' sounds
from stem to stern and from
the ratlines down to the cabin. j
see the distress. l am let down by
the side of the Umbria. push
off as fast as / can toward the sink.
ing City of Paris Before come up people
are leaping into the water in their anxiety te
get to the boat, and when | have swung u
under the side of the City of Paris, the
way until the officers, with ak and club
and pistols, try to keep back the crowd
each waiting his turn to come next
There is but one life boat, and they al
want to get into it, and the cry is: "Me
next! me nextr' You see the application
before | make it. As long as a man golne
on in his sin feels that all is well, that he !.
coming out ut a beautiful port. and has al
sail set, he wants no Christ, he wants no help
he wants no rescue; but II under the flash Of
Gods convicting spirit he shall see that By
reason Of sin he is dismasted and water
logged, and going down into the trough O
the sea where. he cannot live, how soon b
horizon, and at the first sign Of hell
cries OUT II want to be saved.
want to be saved now. ] want to be savet
forever No sense Of danger, no applica
ton for rescue.
Oh, that Gods eternal spirit would flasl
upon us sense of our sinfulness The Bibl
tells the story In letters of fire, but weget uset
to it, We joke about sin. Wemake merry owe
it. What is SIM Is it trifing thing? Sin is
vampire that is sucking out the life blood o
your immortal nature. Sin? It Is Bastil
that no earthly key ever unlocked. Sin? 1
is expatriation from God and heaven. Sin
It Is grand larceny against the Al
mighty, for the Bible asks the question
Twill man rob Godg answering it In tn
affirmative. This Gospel is a writ of reple
vim to recover property unlawfully detaine
from God.
LII the Shetland Islands there is a maj
with leprosy. The hollow of the foot ba
swollen until it is fat on the ground Tn
joints begin to fall away. The ankl
thickens until it looks like the foot o
wild beast. A stare Immature
comes to the eye. The nostri
is CONSTRUCTED. The voice drops to a
almost inaudible hoarseness. Tubercles blotcl
the whole body, and from them there come
an oxidation that is unbearable to the bt
holder. That is leprosy, and we have all 60
it unless cleased by the grace of God. Sc
Leviticus See II Kings. See Mark. Sc
Luke. See fifty Bible illusions and confil