The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1889-05-29
ABOUT PURIFICATTON.
Sermon by Rev. T. Dewitt Tai
mage, d. D.
How Different People Try to Cleanse Their
Souls from sin--But Little Good in
Humanity Until IL Is Recon-
structed by Gods Grace.

| uIluCdbiOu anu ulS bAJ JOU TX, OU-Ol. IL
! wash myself with snow water, and should
/ cleanse my hands in alkali, yet shalt thor
plunge me in the ditch, and mine own cloths,
shall abhor me- The eloquent divine spok
as follows "
Albert Barnes-honored be his name or
earth and in heaven-went straight back tc
the original writing Of my text, and trans
lated 1t IS have now quoted it, giving sub
stantial reasons for so doing. Although We
know better, the anoients had an idea that
In snow water there was special power tt
cleanse, and that garment washed and
rinsed in IL would be as clean as clean could
be; hut the plain snow water failed to dc
its work, then they would take lye or alkal
and mix IL with oil, and under that prepare
ton they felt that the last impurity would
certainly be gone. Job, In my text, In mosi
forcefuf figure sets forth the idea that ali
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 loathsome and In the, ,ditch. "If
wash myself with snow water, and should
cleanse my hands In allxali, yet shalt thou
plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes
shall abhor me-"
You are now sitting for your picture. ]
turn the camera obscuraof Gods word full
upon you, and pray that the sunshine fall
ing through the skylight may enable me to
take you Just as you are. Shah IL be fiat
tering picture, or shallitbe "a true onei You
say, "Let II be a true one." The first pro-
file that was ever taken was taken three
hundred and thirty years before Christ, Of
Antigonus. He had blind eye, and he COM
PEELED the artist TO take his profile so as To
hide the defect in his vision. But since that
invention, three hundred and thirty years
before Christ, there have been great many
protles. Shall to-day give you one-sided
view Of yourselves, profile, or shall 1t be a
full length portrait, showing you Just what
you arei II God will help me by His al
mighty grace shall give you that last kind
Of picture.
When / first entered the ministry I used
to write my sermons all out and read them,
run my hand along the line lest ] should
lose my place. / have hundreds of those
manuscripts Shall ever preach theml
Never; for in those days | was somehow
overmastered with the idea heard talked
all around about, OF the dignity Of human
nature, aud ] adopted the idea, and evolved
1t, and illustrated it, and argued It; but
coming on in life, and having seen more Of
the world, and studied better my Bible, ]
find that that early teaching was faulty, and
that there Is no dignity in human nature un-
I'll It is reconstructed by the grace Of God.
Talk about vessels going TO pieces on the
Skerries of ireland! There never was such
O shipwreck as in Gihon and the Hiddekel,
rivers Of Eden, where our first parents
foundered. Talk Of steamer going down
with i've hundred passengers on board !
What is that TO the shipwreck Of fourteen
hundred million souls. We arc by natures q
mass Of uncleanness and putrefaction, from
which II takes all the omnipotence and IN
finitude Of Gods grace TO extricate u.s. "If
wash myself with snow water, and should
! cleanse my hands in slkali, yet shalt thou
plunge me in the ditch, and my own clothes
shall abhor me-"
remark, In the first place, that SOME peo-
pie try 10 cleanse their soul Of sin In the
snow water Of fine apologies. Here is one
man who says. a am sinner; confess
that; but ! inherited this. My father was o
sinner, my grandfather, my greatgreat-
grandfather, and all the way back 10 Adam,
and couldn't help myself" My brother,
have you not, every day In your life, added
something TO the original state Of sin that
was bequeathed to youi Are you not brave
enough TO confess that you have sometimes
surrendered TO sin, which you ought tohave
conqueredi Task you whether IL is fair
play TO put upon our ancestry things for.
which we ourselves arc personally respon-
siblei II your nature was askew when you
got II, have you not sometimes given 1t an
additional TWIST VIII all the tombstones
OF those who have preceded US make bar
ricade high enough for eternal defensesi !
know devout man who had blasphemous
parentage. I know an honest man whose
father was thief. know a pure man
whose mother was waif Of the street The
hereditary tide may be very strong, but
there is such thing as stemming IL. The
fact that have corrupt nature Is no rea-
son why should yield TO H. The deep stains
Of our soul can never be washed out by
the snow water Of such insufficient apology.
Still further, says some one: "If have
gone into sin, II has been through my COM
panions, my comrades and associates; they
ruined me. They taught me TO drink. They
took me 10 the gambling hell. They plunged
me into the house Of sin They ruined my
soul" do not believe It God gave to no
one the power TO destroy you or me. II
man is destroyed he is self-destroyed, and
that Is always so. Why did you not break
away from theml II they had tried 10 steal
your purse, you would have knocked them
down; II they had tried 10 purloin your gold
watch, you would have riddled them with
shot, but when they tried TO steal your i'm
mortal soul, you placidly listened TO II.
Those bad fellnwa have n Gun OF fire 10