Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-06-06
HUMAN UNCLEANNESS.
DR.. Talmage Discourses on Original
Sin in Man.
Natural Foulness of the World-No Good
Apologies For Sin-There is No Pardon
Without Repentance-Christ Ready
to Cleanse All.

| In late sermon at Brooklyn Rev. T.
De Witt Talmage took for his text: If l
wash myself with snow water and should
1 cleanse my hands in alkali yet shalt
thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine
own clothes shall abhor me. Job tx.
S0-3L The preacher said:
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 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 a
special power to cleanse and that a 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 lye or alkali and mix it
with oil, and under that preparation theS
felt that the last impnrity would certain
ly be gone. job, in my text in most
forceful figures sets forth the idea that all
! his attempts to make himself pure before
God were dead failure, and that, unless
we are abluted by something better than
| earthly liquids and chemical preparations.
we are loathsome and in the ditch" III
wash myself with snow water, and should
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. l
turn the camera nbscura of Gods word
full upon you, and pray that the SUM-
shine falling through the skylight may
enable me to take you just as you are.
Shall it be flattering picture or shall it
be true one! You say: Let it be true
one" The first profile that was ever
taken was taken. $50 years before Christ,
of Antigonus- He had a blind eye, and
he compelled the artist to take his profile
so as to hide the defect in his vision. But
since that invention, $50 years before
Christ there has been a great many pro-
files. Shall l to-day give you a one-sided
view of yourselves, profile, or shall it
be full length portrait, showing you just
what you are? If God will help me by
His almighty grace. shall give you that
last kind of picture.
When l first entered the min is.ry used
to write my sermons all out and read them,
and run my hand along the line lest l
should lose my place. l have hundreds
OF those manuscripts. Shall l ever preach
them? Never; for in those days 1 was
somewhat oyermastered with the idea /
heard talked all around about, of the dig
nifty Of human nature and l adopted the
idea, and | evolved it and illustrated it,
and l argued it; but coming on in life,
md having seen more of the world, and
studied better my Bible, l find that that
early teaching was faulty, and that there
is no dignity in human nature until it is
reconstructed by the grace of God. Talk
about vessels going to pieces on the Sker-
ries, off Irelandl There never was such a
shipwreck as in the Gihon and the Hidde
kel, rivers of Eden, where our first par
ents foundered. Talk Of a steamer going
down with five hundred passengers on
board! What is that to the shipwreck of
fourteen hundred million souls? We are
by nature a mass OF uncleanness and
putrefaction, from which it takes all the
omnpotenee and infinitude of Gods grace
to extricate US. If / wash myself with
snow water. and should l cleanse my
hands in alkili, yet shalt thou plunge me-
in the ditch, and my own clothes shall
abhor me-"
1 remark. 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: 81 am sinner; con-
fess that; but inherited this. My father
was a sinner. my grandfather. my great
great-grandfather, and all the way back
10 Adam, and l couldn't help myself"
My brother, have you not, every day in
your life, aided something to the original
estate of sin that was bequeathed to you?
Are you not brave enough to confess that
you have sometimes surrendered to sin
which you ought to have conquered? l
ask you whether tits fair play to put upon
our ancestry things for which we our
selves are personally responsible? If your
nature was askew when you got it, have
you not sometimes given it an additional
twist! Will all the tombstones of those
who have preceded US make n barricade
high enough for eternal defenses? know
a devout man who had blasphemous par
entage. l know All honest man whose
father was a 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 it.
The fact that / have a corrupt nature is
no reason why l should yield to it The
deep stains of our soul can never be
washed out by the snow water of such in.
sufficient apology.
Still further, says some one: "If Ihave
gone into sin, it has been through my
companions, my comrades and associates;
they ruined me. They taught me 10 drink.
They took me to the gambling hell. They
plunged me into the house of sin. They
ruined nv soul" | do not believe it.
God gave to no one the power to destroy
you or me. If a man is destroyed he is
self destroyed. and that is always so.
Why did you not break away from them!
If they had tried to steal your purse you
would have knocked them down; if they
had tried to purloin your gold watch you
would have riddled them with shot; but
when they tried to steal your immortal
soul you placidly submitted TO it. Those
bad fellows have cup of fire to drink;
do not p our your cup into it. In this mat
ter of the soul, every man for himself.
That those persons are not fully RESPONSE
BILE for your sin, prove by the fact that
you still consort with them. You can not
get 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 i'm
mortal soul.
Still further, some persons apologize for
their sins by saying: I'VE are a great
deal better than some people. You see
people all around about US that are a
great deal worse than We are" You
stand up columuar in your integrity, and
look down upon those who are prostrate
In their habits and crimes. What Of that,
my brother. II failed through reckless
ness and wicked imprudence for $40, 0o0. is
the matter alleviated at all by the fact
that somebody else has failed for 500. 900,
and somebody else fo- 500. 0OJ! o. no. if
have the neuralgia, shall refuse med
ical attendance because my neighbor has
virulent typhoid fever: The fact that his