The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1889-06-07
SPIRITUAL CLEANSING.
Mankind's Need of the Purging
Influences Of Religion.
little Hope for Apologize sinners-The
Depravity OF Others No Excuse for
Us-Retributlon Sure to Fol-
low Wrong-DOing

ing" His text was:
uIwash 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 TX. 3O-S1.
Albert Barnes-hOnOred be his name on
earth and in Heaven-went straight back
to the original writing.Of my text, and
translated it as 1 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
special power to cleanse, and that gar
ment washed and rinsed in it would be as
clean as clean could be; but If the plain
snow-water failed to do its work, then
they would take I've or alkah and mix it
with oil, and under that preparation they
felt that the last impurity-w cert ainly
be gone. Job, in my text, in most force
full figure, sets forth the idea that all his
attempts to make himself pure before God
were a dead failure, and that unless we
are abluted by something better than
earthly liquids and chemical prepara-
tons, we are loathsome and in the ditch.
eff wash myself with snow water, and
should 1 cleanse my hands in alkah, 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 Obscura of GODS word full
upon you, and / pray that the sunshine
falling through the skylight may enable
me to take YOU just as you are. Shall 1t
be fiatteriug picture or shall it be a
true one? You say: ''Let it be true
one" The first profile that was ever
taken was taken three hundred and thirty
years before Christ of Antigonus. He
had blind eye, aud he compelled the art
tst TO take his profile so as to hide the de-
feet in his vision. But since that inven-
ton, three hundred and thirty years be-
fore Christ, there have been great many
profiles.
Shall 1 to-day give you a one-sided
view of yourselves, profile, or shall it
be a full-length portrait showing you
just what you are? If God will help me
by His almighty grace, 1 shall give you
that last kind of a picture. When first
entered the ministry 1 used to write my
sermons out and read them, and run my
hand along the line lest l should lose my
place. have hundreds of those manu-
scripts. Shall / ever preach them2
Never; for in those days l was somehow
over mastered with the idea l heard
talked all around about of the dignity Of
human nature, and L adopted the idea,
and 1 evolved it, aifl 1 illustrated it, and
1 argued it; but coming on in life, aud
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 recon
structed by the grace Of God. Talk about
vessels going to pieces on the Skerries,
off Ireland! There never was such a
shipwreck as in the GhiOn and the Hid
dekel rivers of Eden, where our first par
ents foundered. Talk of a steamer GO
ing down with five hundred passengers
on bOardl What is that to the shipwreck
Of one billion four numbered million
souls? We are by nature mass of I'M
/ cleanneSs and puterfaction, from which
| it takes all the omnipotsnce and infni-
tude of Gods grace to extricate US. aft
/ wash myself with snow water, and
should 1 cleanse my hands in alkaG, yet
shalt Thou plunge me in the ditch, and my
own clothes shall abhor me-"
Iremark, in the first place, that some
| people try to cleanse their soul of sin in
| the snOw-water of fine apologies. Here
is one man who says: II am a sinner;
confess that; but l inherited this. My
father was sinner, my grandfather, my
| great-great- grandfather, and all the way
back to Adam, and l couldn't help my
| self" Ny brother, have you not, every
day in your life, added something to the
/ original estate of sin that was bequeathed
/ to your Are younot brave enough to con-
| Tess that you have sometimes surren-
/ dsred to sin, which you ought to have con-
/ quered? 1 ask you whether it is fair
| play to put upon our ancestry
/ things for which we ourselves are
/ personally responsible? If your nature
was askew when you got it. have you not
sometimes given it an additional twist2
win all the tombstOnes of those who
! have preceded us make a barricade high
! enough for eternal defenses? l know a
devout man who had blasphemous parent
| age, 1 know an honest man whose father
4hi4aa -- u l-gesseSs
father was a waif of the street. The
hereditary tide may be very strong, but
there is such thing as stemming. The
fact that 1 have corrupt nature is nc
reason why should yield to it. 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 1 have
| gone into Sin it has been through my COM
panions, my comrades and associates;
they ruined me. They taught me to drink
They took me to the gambling he'll. They
plunged mo into the house of sin. They
ruined my soul" I do not believe it
God gave to no one the power to destroy
| you or me. Il a man is destroyed lie
| is self-destroys3 and that is always so
| why did you not break away from themi
| If they had tried TO steel your purse, you
| would have knocked them down; If they
had tried to purloin your gold watch, yOt
| would have riddled them with shot; bu
when they tried to steal your immortal sou
you placidly submitted to it. Those bat
! bellows have cup of fire to drink; do no
| pour your cup into il. In this matter o
! the soul, every man for himself. Tina
| those persons are not fully responsible
for your sin / prove by the fact that yOJ
| still consort with them. You can not ge
off by blaming them. Though you gather
| up all these apologies; though there
! were a great food of them; though they
should come down with the force of the
melting SHOWS from Lebanon, they could
not wash out one stain Of your immorta
soul.
Still further, some persons apologize
for their sins by saying; eve are
| great deal better than some people. Yol
see people all around about US that are {
/ great deal worse than we" You stan'
up columnar in your integrity, and lool
down upon those who are PROSTATE il
their habits and crimes. What of that
my brother? II l failed through reck
lessness aud wicked imprudence for tel
thousand dollars, is the matter alleviate,
at all by the fact that somebody else ha
failed for one hundred thousand dollars
and somebody else for two hundred
thousand dollars? oh, no. If 1 have tn
neuralgia, shall 1 refuse medical attend
| ance because my nelghbOr has virulen
typhoid fever, The fact that his diseas
is worse than miue-does not cure mine
/ If l, through my foolhardiness, leap OF
into ruin, does il break the fall to know
that others leap of n higher cliff int
| deeper darkuessy When the Hudson
River rail train went through the bridg
at Spuyten Duyvii, did it alleviate tn
matter att all that instead OF two or thre
people being hurt there were seventy nv
/ mangled and crushedg
Because others are depraved, is tina
any excuse for my depravityg Am l bet
ter than theys Perhaps they had wors
temptations than 1 have had. Perhap
their surroundings in life were NOR