Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1889-06-06

defcitsS What are our perilsf What our
hopes Let each one say to himself: "Where
viii bel Shall / range in summary fields,
or grind in the mills Of great nighti Wherei
Wherei"
snow bank in graceful drifts, as though by
some heavenly compass it had been curved;
and as the sun glints it the luster Is almost
insu1erable, and it seems as II God had
wrapped the earth in shroud with white
plaits woven in looms celestial.
And you say; WAS there ever
anything so pure as the snow, 50
beautiful as the snowi" But you brought
pail Of that snow and put It upon the stove
and melted 1t; and you found that there was
sediment at the bottom, 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 that after
all 1t was not fit to wash in. And 50 say il
Will be II you try to gather up these contrasts
and comparisons with others and with these
apologies attempt to wash out the sins of
your heart and life. 1t will be an unsuccess-
ful ablution. Such snow water will never
wash away single stain of an immortal
soul
But 1 hear some one say: 81 Will try some
thing better than that. I will try the force
OF a good resolution. That will be more
pungent, more caustic, more extirpating.
more cleansing. The snow water has failed,
and now l will try the alkah of the good,
strong resolution" Ny dear brother, have
you any idea that a resolution about
the future will hquidate the past5 Sup
pose l owed you five thousand dollars
and should come to you tomorrow and
say: "Sir, will never run in debt to you
again; If 1 should live thirty years, I will
never run in debt to you again." will you
turn to me and say: "f you will not
you the five thousand dollars" Will 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
Indebtedness. Though you should live from
this time forth pure as an archangel before
the throne, that would not redeem the
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 a
great cemetery, and every day is buried in
It, And here is long row of three hundred
and sixty-fve graves. They are the
Head days of 1888, Here is long row of
three hundred and sfxty-ive more graves,
and they are the dead days of 1887. And
here is long row of three hundred and six.
ty-fve more graves, and they are the dead
days of 1886. It 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 I will have to come up and look
upon those departed days face to face, exult
ing in their smile or covering in their frown.
Murder will out' is a proverb that
stops too short. Every sin, however small,
as well as great, will out. In hard times
In England, years ago, it is automatically
stated that manufacturer was on the way,
with bag Of money, to pay off his hands. A
man infuriated with hunger met him on the
road, and took rail with nail in it from q
paling 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 digging
grave, and while he stood there the spade OF
the sexton turned up a skull, and, 10 the
murderer saw a nail protruding from the
back part Of the skull; and as the sex.
ton turned the skull it seemed with hol
low eyes to glare on the murderer
and he, first petrified with horror, stood
in silence, but soon cried out. "Guilty
guilty! o God" The mystery of the
crime was over. The man Yves triec
and executed. My friends, all the un
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 with
their misdoings. I say all our unpardonec
sins. Oh, have you done the preposterous
thing of supposing that good resolutions fol
the future will wipe out the past? Good re
solutions, though they may be pungent ant
caustic as alkal, have no power tt
neutralize q sin, have no power tx
i wash away transgression. 1t wants some
thing more than earthly chemistry to dt
this. Yea, yea. though II wash myself will
in alkali, yet shalt thou plunge me in tn,
ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me-
You see from the last part of this text that
Jobs idea Of sin was very different from tina,
of Eugene Sue, or George Sand, or NJ. j
Michelet, or of any of the hundreds of writer
who have done up iniquity in mezzotint
and garlanded the wine cup with eg
lantine and rosemary, and made th'
path of the ibertine end in bowers o.
ease instead of on the hot tagging of eterna
torture You see that Job thinks that sin il
/ not a fowery parterre; that it is not table
land of fine prospects; that it is no.
and Pandean pipes, all making musi,
| together. No. He says it is ditch, long
deep, loathsome, stenchful, and we are al
plunged into it, and there we wallow and sinl
and struggle, not able to get out Our robe
| 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 tn
soul until we are plunged into the ditch, ant
our own clothes abhor us.
I know that some modern reigionists carl
cature sorrow for sin, and they make out al
easier path than the ''pilgrim's progress
that John Bunyan dreamed of. The roa,
they travel does not stop where Johns did, a
the city of Destruction, but at the gate o
the university; and am very certain
that it will not come out where Johns did
under the shining ramparts of the celestia
city. No repentance, no pardon. If you d,
the ditch, what do you want Of Christ to lif
you out? If you have no appreciation o
the fact that you are astray, what do 70,
| want of him who came to seek and save tina
which was lost? Yonder Is the City O
Paris, the swiftest of the Inmans, coming
across the Atlantic. The wind is abaft
SO that she has not only her engine
board the Umbria Of the Cunar,
line. The boat davits are swung around
The boat is lowered. I get into it with
red flag and cross over to where the City o
Paris is coming and I wave the flag. TIL
captain looks off from the bridge and says
"What do you want?" I reply: 81 com
to take some of your passengers acros
to the other vessel; think they will be safe
and happier there" The captain would lool
down with indignation and say: "Get out @
the way, or I will run you down" And the
would back oars, amidst the ~ieering Q
two or three hundred people 1eokin
over the taffrail. But the Umbri