Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1889-06-06
DIR. TALMAGE.
POWER OF GOOD RESOLUTIONS
Fine Apologies offered by Men in
Excuse for Their Sins

TEXT: ''If I rash myself tvith snoss
ScdteT, and should cleanse my hands ti
dlkdR yet shalt thou plunge me IN the ditch,
and mine otUn clothes shall dbhor nie."-
Job tx, 80, 81.
Albert Barnes-honored be his name on
earth andi in heaven-wentstraig back TO the
original writing Of my text, and translated
1t as have now quoted it giving substantaaI
reasons for so doing. Although we know
better, the ancients had an idea that in snow
water there was a special power to cleanse,
and that a garment washed and rinsed in II
would be as clean as clean could be; but il
the plain snow water failed to do its work,
then they would take lye or albali and
mixed It with oil, and under that
would certainly be gone. Job, in my text,
in most forceful 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
preparations, we are loathsome and in the
ditch. "If 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
j turn the camera obscura of Gods
word full upon you, and l pray that
the sunshine falling through the skylight
may enable me to take you just as you
are. Shall it be flattering picture, OF
shall it be true one2 You say: "Let it be
q true one." The first profile that was ever
taken was taken three hundred and thirty
years before Christ, Of Antigonus. He had
q blind eye, and he compelled the art
ist to take his profile so as to hide the
defect in his vision. But since that inven.
ton, three hundred and thirty years before
Christ, there have been great many pro
files. Shall I to-day give you a one-sided
view of yourselves, aprofle, or shall it be
tulllength portrait, showing you just what
you areP If God will help me by His al
mighty grace, shall give you that last kind
Of picture.
When first entered the ministry used to
write my sermons all out and read them, and
run my hand along the line lest / should lose
my place. have hundreds of those manu-.
scripts. Shall I ever preach them? Never;
Tor in those days was somewhat over-mas-
tered with the idea heard talked all around
about, of the dignity of human nature, and !
adopted the idea, and evolved it, and l illus
rated it, and I argued it; but coming on in
life and having seen more of the world, and
jtudied better my Bible, l find that that early
eaching was faulty, and that there is no dig
atty in human nature, until tits reconstructed
BY the grace of God Talk about vessels going
10 pieces on the Skerries, off Irelandl There
never was such shipwreck as in the Gihon
and the Hiddekel, rivers of Eden, where
our first parents foundered. Talk of a
Fteamer going down with five hundred
passengers on board! What is that to the
Ihipwreck Of fourteen hundred million souls?
We are by nature mass of uncleanness and
putrefaction, from which it takes all the om-
Impotence and infnitude of Gods grace to
txtricate us. "If wash myself with snow
water, and should I cleanse my hands in al
kali yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch.
and my own clothes shall abhor me-"
remark, in the first place, that sone peo-
pie try to cleanse their soul Of sin in the snow
water of fine apologies. Here is oAe man who
gays: II am sinner; I confess thss; but I
Inherited this. My father was a sinner, my
grandfather, my great-great-grandfather,
:. Ind all the way back to Adam, and i
Souldn't help myself" My brother, have
you not every day in your life, add.
I'd something to the original estate of
you not brave enough to confess
that you have sometimes surrendered to sin,
which you ought to have conquered? I ask
you whether it is fair play to put upon our
ancestry things for which we ourselves are
personally responsible? If your nature was
iskew when you got it, have you not some
times given it an additional twist? Will all
US make a barricade high enough
Tor eternal defenses? I know a devout
man who had blasphemous parentage.
know an honest man whose father was q
thief. know pure man whose mother was
waif of the street. The hereditary tide
may be very strong, but there is such thing
Is stemming it. The fact that have cor
rupt nature is no reason why I should yield
10 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 have
gone into sin, it has been through my COM
panions my comrades and my associates;
they ruined me. They taught me to drink.
They took me to the gambling hell. They
ruined my SOUL" I do not believe it. God
gave to no one the power to destroy you or
me. If man is destroyed he is self destroyed,
and that is salways So Why did younot break
away from them? If they had tried to steal
your purse, you would have knocked them
hown; if they had tried to purloin your gold
watch, you would have riddled them
immortal soul, you pacidly submitted to it.
Those bad fellowsh have cup of fire to drink;
do not pour your cup into it. In this matter
Of the soul, every man for himself. That
those persons are not fully responsible for
your sin, prove by the fact that you still
sonsort with them. You cannot get Off hv
blaming them. Though you gather I'D all
these apologies; though there were great
hood 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 immortal soul
Still further, some persons apologize for
their sins by saying: 1--WE are a great deal
better than some people. You see people all
around about us that are great deal worse
chan we." You stand up columnar in your
integrity, and look down upon those who are
prostrate in their habits and crimes. What
0f that, my brotherP If failed through reck.
lessness and wicked imprudence for ten thou
SAND dollars, is the matter alleviated at all
by the fact that somebody else has
Jailed for one hundred thousand dollars
and somebody else for two hundred
thousand dollars? Oh, no. II I have
the neuralgia, shall refuse medical attend
ance because my neighbor has rirulent
typhoid fever? The fact that his disease
y worse than mine-does that cure ,aipe
III, through my foolhardiness, leap Off into
ruin, does it break the fall to know
that others leap off higher cliff int<
deeper darkness When the Hudson river
rail train went through the bridge at Spuyter
Duyvil, did it alleviate the matter at all that
instead of two or three people being hurt
there were seventy-fve mangled and crushed
Because others are depraved, is that any ex
cuse for my depravity? Am I better
than theys Perhaps they had worsl
temptations than / have had. Per
haps their surroundings in life were
more overpowering. Perhaps, o man
Il you had been under the same stress Of
temrtation. instead Of sitting here, to-iav
you would have been looking through the
bars of penitentiary. Perhaps o woman.