The Red Cloud chief., 1889-05-31

Without Repentanee-Christ Ready
to Cleanse All.
In . late sermon at Brooklyn Rev. I:
De Witt Talmage took for his text: If ]
wash myself with snow water and should
I cleanse my hands in alkali yet shalt
thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine
own clothes shall abhor me."-Job il.
S0.3L The preacher said:
Albert BaTnes-honored be his name on
earth and in Heaven-weut straight back
to the original writing Of INV text, and
translated it a. l 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 a. clean could be; but il the plain
snow water failed to do its work, then
they would take lye OF alkali and mix it
with oil, and under that preparation they
felt that the last impurity would certain
~ be gone. job in my text in most
forceful figures sets forth the idea hat all
his attempts to make himself pure before
God were q dead failure. and that. unless
we are abluted by something better than
earthly liquids and chemical preparations.
We are lOathsoms and in the ditch" iii !
wash myself with snOw wafer, and should l
cleanse my hands in alkali, yet shalt thou
plunge me in the ditch, and mine own
clothes shall abhor me"
You are now sitting for your picture. !
turn b camera Obscura Of Gods word
full upon you. and l pray that the sun.
shine falling through b skylight may
enable me to take you just IS you ara
Shall it be q hattering picture or shall it
be q true one: You say: Let it be q true
One." The first profile that was ever
taken was taken. $50 years before Christ,
OF Antigonus. He had . blind Dye, and
he compelled the artist to take his profile
80 as to hide the defect in his vision. But
since that invention, $50 years before
Christ there has been q great many pro.
fiIea Shall I to-day give you . one.sided
view Of yourselves, q profile. or shall it
be q full length portrait showing you Just
what you are? II God will help me by
His almighty grace. 1 shall give you that
last kind Of . picture
When l first entered the ministry I used
to write my sermons all out and read them.
and run my hand along the line lest I
should lose my place. I have hundreds
OF those manuscripts. Shall ! ever preach
them: Never; for in those days I was
somewhat overmastered with the idea /
heard talked all rOu about, Of the dig.
nifty of human nature and I adopted the
idea, and l evolved it and I illustrated it,
and I argued it; but coming on in life,
and having seen more Of the world. and
studied better my Bible, I find that that
early teaching was faulty, and that there
is NO dignity in human nature until it is
reconstructed by the gracs Of God. Talk
about vessels going to pieces on the Skier.
ries, Of Irelandi There never was sucha
shipwreck As in the Gihon and the Hide.
kel rivers Of Eden, where our first par.
ents foundered. Talk Of . steamer going
down with five hundred passengers on
board! What is that to the shipwreck of
fourteen hundred million souls? We are
by nature . mass Of uncleanness and
putrefaction, from which it takes all the
omnipotence and iniinitude Of Gods grace
to extricate US III I wash myself with
snow water. and should I cleanse my
hands in alkili, yet shalt thou plunge me-
in the ditch, and my own clothes shall
abhor me-"
Iremark, in the 6rst place, that some
people try to cleanse their soul Of sin in
the snow water Of fine apologies. Here is
one man who says: Il am . sinner; I con-.
Tess that; but I inherited this. Ny father
was . sinner. my grandfather. my great.
great.grandfather, and all the way bach
to Adam, and ! couldn't help myself"
Ny brother, have you not every day in
your life aided something to the original
estate Of sin that was b~equeathed to you?
Arc you not brave enough to confess that
You have sometimes surrendered to sin
which you ought to have conquered? I
ask you whether it is fair play to put upon
our ancestry things for which We our.
selves are personally responsible: IL your
nature was askew when you got il, have
you not sometimes given it an additional
twist? Will all tho COMMISSIONERS Of those
who have preceded US make . barricade
high enough for eternal defenses. know
. dev0ut man who had blasphemous par.
! know an honest man whose
was . thief. ! know . pure man
whose mother was . waif of the street.
The hereditary tide may b very strong, |
but there Is such . thing Is stemming il. |
The fact that ! have . corrupt nature is |
no reason Why I should yield to it The
deep stains Of u soul can never be
out by the snow water Of such in.
sufficient apology.
Still further. lays some one III Ihave
gone into sin, it has been through my |
my comrades and associates;
they ruined me. They taught me to drink. |
They o me to the gambling hell They |
plunged mo into the house of sin. They |
my SOUL" / do not believe it |
God gave to no ono the power to destroy
you or me II q man 10 destroyed he il
self destroyed. and that IL always so
Why did you not break away from them,
II they had tried to steal your purse you
would have knocked them down; II they
had tried to purloin your gold watch you
would rave riddled them with shot; but
whom they tried to steal your immortal
soul you placidly submitted { il. Those
bad fellows havea cup Of fire to drink;
DO not pour your cup into it In this mat
ter OF soul every man for himself
That those psrsons ara not fully RESPONSE.
bio for your sin, ! prove BY the fact that
you still consort with them. You can not
get on by blaming them. Though you
mn al thaaA a~uoln~iaas thom~h |