The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1889-08-21


The man who went forth to sow, and talked
that brought in fish Of all sorts, and talked
with the vine dresser about the idler
in the vineyard, and talked with those
newly affianced about the marriage supper,
and talked with the man cramped in money
matters about the two debtors, and talked
with the woman about the yeast that leav-
ened the whole lump, and talked with the
about the lost sheep. o, we
might gather even the stars of the sky and
twist them like forget-me-nots in the gar
land of Jesus We must bring every thing
to Him-the wealth of language, the tender
ness of sentiment, the delicacy of morning
dew, the saffron of floating cloud, the
tangled surf of the tossing sea, the bursting
of the storms bombardment.
Yes, every star must point down to Him,
every heliotrope must breathe His praise,
every drop in the summer shower must
flash His glory, all the tree branches of the
forest must thrum their music in the grand
march which shall celebrate a world re.
deemed.
Now, all this being So what is the CON-
man sense thing for you and for me to dol
What we do think will depend upon three
great facts. The first fact that sin has
ruined us. 1t has blasted body, mind and
soul. We want no Bible to prove that we
are sinners. Any man who is not willing to
acknowledge himself an imperfect and sin
full being is simply fool and not to be
argued with. We all feel that sin has dis
organized our entire nature. That is one
fact. Another fact is that Christ came to
reconstruct, to restore, to revise, to correct,
to redeem. That is a second fact. The third
fact is that the only time we are sure Christ
will pardon us is the present. Now, what is
the common sense thing for US to do inview
of these three factss You will agree with
me to quit sin, take Christ, and take
whose skill you had perfect confidence
should tell you that tomorrow (Monday)
morning between eleven and twelve O'Clock
you could by financial transaction make
5000, but that on Tuesday perhaps you
might make it, but there would not be any
positiveness about it, and on Wednesday
there would not be so much, and Thursday
less, Friday less, and so on less and less
when would you attend to the matterl
Why, your common sense would dictate:
Immediately will attend to that matter
between eleven and twelve O'Clock to-mor-
row Monday morning, for then l can
surely accomplish it, but on Tuesday may
not, and on Wednesday there is less pros
pect. will attend to it tomorrow" Now
let US bring our common sense into this
matter of religion. Here are the hopes Of
| the Gospel. We may get them now. To
morrow we may get them and we may not
Next day we may and we may not. The
prospect less and less and less.
The only sure time now-now. I would
not talk to you in this way if did not know
that Christ was able to save the people, an(
save thousands as easily as save one.
would not 20 into a hospital and tear off thu
bandages from the wounds If had no balm
to apply. would not have the face to tel
man he is a sinner unless had at the SAM
time the authority Of saying he may be saved
Suppose in Venice there is Raphael,
faded picture, great in it's time, bearing
some marks of its greatness. History de
scribes that picture. 1t is nearly fade,
away. You say: 20, what pity that s
nearly defaced!" After while man come
up, very unskillful in art, and he propose
to retouch it. You say: "Stand off
would rather have it just as it is; you vii
only make it worse" After while Their
comes an artist who was the equal Q
Raphael. He says II will retouch tina
picture and bring out all its original power.
You have full confidence in his ability. H
touches it here and there. Feature afte
feature comes forth, and when he is don
with the picture it is complete in all ii
original power. Now God impresse
his image on our race, but that image ha
been defaced for hundreds and for thor
sands of years, getting fainter and fainter
Here comes up divine Raphael. He says
II can restore that picture" He has a
power in Heaven and on earth. He is tn
equal of the One who made the picture, tn
image of the One who drew the image of Go
in our soul. He touches this sin and it
gone, that transgression and it disappear.
and all the defacement vanishes, and ''wher
sin abounded grace doth much NOR
abound" Will you have the defacemer
or will you have the restorations am We
persuaded that if l could by touch {
heavenly pathos in two minutes put befor
YOU what has been done to save your sou
there would be an emotional tide overwheln
ing you. Mamma" said little child to he
mother when she was being put to bed {
night, mamma, what makes your hands s
SCARED and twisted and unlike other pei
PIES hands" "Well," said the mothe
my child, when you were younger than 70
are now, years ago, one night after had pl
you to bed heard a cry, a shrek up-stair
. came up and found the bed was on fire, an
you were on fire, and / took hold of you an
tore off the burning garments, and while
was tearing them off and trying to get 70
away l burned my hand, and it has bee
burned and SCARED ever since, and hard
looks any more like hand; but got tina
my child, in trying to save ycu." o maj
0 woman wish to-day could show yc
the burned hand of Christ-burnedin pluc
. ing you out of the fire, burned in snatchir
, you away from the flame. Aye, also Il
i burned foot, and the burned brow, and IL
, burned heart-burned for you. By II
| stripes We are healed