The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1889-06-12

If you had been under the same stress OF
temptation, instead Of sitting here to-day,
you would have been looking through the
bars OF a penitentiary. Perhaps, o woman,
if you had been under the same powar OF
temptation, instead of sitting here tc day,
you would have been tramipng the street,
the laughing stock of men and the griaf OF
the angels of God, dungeoned, body, nlibd,
and soul. in the blackness of despair. An,
do not let us solace ourselves with the
thought that other people are worse than
we. Perhaps in the future, when our 1or-
tunes may change, unless God prevents it
we may be worse than they are. Many
man after thirty years, after forty years,
after fifty years, after sixty years, has gone
to pieces on the sand bars. o, instead OF
wasting our time in hypocritlcism about 9th
ers, let us ask ourselves the question:
Where do we stands Whatare our deficitss
What are our perils! What our hopes!
Let each one say to HIMSELF "Where will
be! Shall range in summary fields, or
grind in the mills of great night! Where:
Where!
Some winter morning you go out and see
snow bank in graceful drifts, as though
by some heavenly compass 1t had been
curved and as the sun glints it the lustre
is almost insufferable, and it seems as If God
had wrapped the earth in a shroud with
white plaits woven in looms celestial. And
yeu say: "Was there ever any thing so
pure as the snow, so beautiful as the snow!''
But you brought pail Of that snow and put
it upon the stove and melted it; and you
found that there was sediment at the bot
tom, and every drop of that snow water
was riled; and you found that the snow
bank had gathered up the impurity OF the
field, and after all it was not fit to wash in.
And so say it will be if you try to gather
up these contrasts and comparisons with
others, and with these apologies attempt to
wash out the sins of you heart and life. 1t
will be an unsuccessful ablutioD. Such
snow water will never wash away single
stain of immortal soul.
But hear some one say: 81 will try
something better than that Twill try the
force of a good resolution. Thatwil be more
pungent, more caustic, more extirpating,
more cleansing. The snow water has failed,
and now l will try the alkali of the good,
strong resolution" Ny dear brother, have
you any idea that resolution about the
future will liquidate the past! Suppose |
owed you five thousand dollars and should
come to you tomorrow and say: 'Sir, Twill
never run in debt to you again; If should
live thirty years, will never run in debt to
you again." will you turn to me and say:
''1fyou will not run in debt in the future, l
will forgive you the five thousand dollars"
viii you do that! Mol Nor will God.
We have been running up long
score of indebtedness with God. II for the
future we should abstain from sin, that
would be no defrayment Of past indebted
ness. 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 neglects, past wicked
words, past impure imaginations, past
every thing. The past is great cemetery,
and every day is buried in it. And here is
long row Of three hundred and sixty-tive
graves. They are the dead days of 1888.
Here is long row Of three hundred and
sixty-five more graves, and they are the
dead days of 1887. And here is long row
of three hundred and sixty five more graves,
and they are the dead days of 1887. IT is a
vast cemetery Of the past. But God will
rouse them all up with resHaxctionary
blast, and as the prisoner standS {-t.a,'
with the Juror and Judge, so yprl -
have to come up and look uHpn those de-
parted days face to face, exultlng in their
smile or ",'-'n'ing in their frown.
"Murl W.T. is proverb that stops
too short sin, however small, as well
as great, VII jdt In hard times in En-
gland, years ago, it is automatically stated
that manufacturer was on the way, with a
bag of money, to pay off his hands. A man
Infatuated with hunger met him on the road
and took rail with nail in it from paling
fence and struck him down, and the nail en-
tering the skull instantly slew him. Thirty
years after that the murderer went back to
that place. He passed into the graveyard,
where the sexton was digging grave,
and while he stood there the spade
of the sexton turned up a skull,
and, 10! the murderer saw nail
protruding from the back part of the skull,
it seemed with hollow eyes to glare on the
murderer; and he, first petrified with hor-
ror, stood there in silence, but soon cried
out, "Guilty. guilty! o God!" The mys-
| terry of the crime was over. The man was
tried and executed. My friends, all the I'M
pardoned sins of our lives, though we may
think they are buried out of sight and gone
into a mere skeleton of memory, will turn
up in the cemetery of the past and glover
upon us in their misdoings. l say all our
unpardoned sins. o, have you done the
preposterous thing of surprising that good
resolutions for the future will wipe out the
past! Good resolutions, though they might
be pungent and caustic as alkali, have no
power to neutralize sin, have no power to
wash away transgression. 1t wants
something more than earthly chemistry to
do this Yea, yea, though 81 wash myself
with snow water, and should cleanse my
hands in alkali. yet shalt though plunge me
in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall alb
hor me-"
You see from the last part of this text
that Jobs idea of sin was very different
from that of Eugene Sue, or George Sand
or NJ. J. Michelet, or any of the hundreds OF
writer's who have done up iniquity in mez.
zotint, and garlanded the wine cup with
elegantine and rosemary, and made the path
of the libertine end in bowers of ease in
stead of on the hot tagging of eternal tor.
ture. You see that job thinks that sin is
not flowery parterre; that it is not q table
land of fine prospects; that 1t is not music
dulcimer, violoncello, castanet and Pandean
pipes, all making music together No. He
says it is ditch, long, deep, loathsome
stenchful, and we are all plunged into it
and there we wallow, and sink, and strug
gle, not able to get out. Our robes of pro-
pr:ety 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
cature sorrow for sin and they make oui