The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1889-05-29

had. Perhaps their faufcohndings IN Life
were Inors overpoYe1ing. Perhaps, o man,
If you had Seen under the Bkme stress Of
temptation, instead Of sitfiBg here to-day,
you would have been looking through the
bars Of a penitentiary. Perhaps, pwoman,
II you had been under the same power Of
temptation, instead OF sitting here to-day,
you would have been tramipng the street,
the laughing stock of mon and the grief Of
the angelso God. dungeoned, body, mind,
and soul, in the blacifness Of despair. All,
do not let Us solaoes ourselves with the
thought that other people are worse than
we. Perhaps In tho future, when our for
tunes may change, uHiess God prevents i
we may be worse thar they are. Many Q
man after thirty years, after forty years,
i after fifty years, after SIXTY yesra has gone
i tonieces on the sand bars. 0,linstead Of
wssQng onr time In hypocfit itici&,f a1out 9TH
ere, let Us ask oaIrselyesR the question:
Where do we !standt Whatar& Dur deHcitsl
What are our pefiIsl What our hopesl
Let each one sayto himself: Where win
Ibef Shall IraRgein spmmery. fields, or
grind inthe MIN sof a;grest nc h sWhersl
Where2 E ~ W8gl lf A3fAt
apmewinter mdfnng yod 20 Oh and see
|
by some heavenly compass pit had been
curved; and as me sun giints It the lustre
10 almost insufferable, and 1t seems as II God
\ bad wrapped the earth In a shfou5 with
white plaits woven III looms celestial, And
you say: "Was there ever, any thing 80
pure as the snow, so beautifula as the snowin
But you brought a pail Of that snow and put
1t upon the stove and melted It; and you
found that there was sediment at the bot
tom, and every drop Of that snow water
was riled; and you found that the snow
bank had gathered up the impdrity Of the
field, and after aH IL was not ft TO wash In.
And SO 1 say 1t win be IL you try TO gather
up these contrasts and comparisons with
others, and with these apologies attempt to
wash out the sins Of you heart and life. Il
will be an unsuccessful ablutiop. Such
snow water win never wash away single
stain Of immortal soul s Z.
But l hear some one say: 'I win try
something better than that. Twill try the
force Of a good resolution. That will be more
pungent, more 'caustic, more extirpating,
more cleansing The snow water has failed,
and now / will try the alkali Of the good,
strong resolution" Ny dear brother, have
you any idea that resolution about the
future will liquidate the pasti Suppose /
owed you five thousand dollars and should
come to you tomorrow and say "Sir, Twill
never run in debt to you again; II l should
live thirty years, l will never run In debt to
you again." will you turn 10 me and say:
'Ifyou. will not run in debt in the future, I
will forgive you the five thousand dollars"
Will you do thati mol Nor will God.
We have been running sup long
score Of Indebtedness with God, II for the,
future we should abstain from sin. that
would be no defrayment Of past indebted
ness Though you should live from this
time forth pure as an archangel before the
throne, that would not redeem the past
God, In the Bible, distinctly declares that
He twill require that which is pastn-past
opportunities, past heglects, past wicked
words, past impure imaginations, past
every thing. The past is great cemetery,
and every day Is buried in II. And here Is
O long row Of ree-hundred and sixty-five
graves. They are the dead days OF 1888
Here is q long row Of three hundred and
sixty-five more graves, and they are the
dead days Of 1857. And here is q long row
ofthree hundred and sixty five more graves,
and they are the dead days Of 1887. Il is a
vast cemetery Of the past But God will
rouse them all up with resurrectionary
blast and as the prisoner stands face TO face
with the Juror and Judge, so you and / win
have 10 come up and look upon those de-
parted days face 10 face, exulting in their
smile or covering In their frown. 4
Murder win outr is q proverb that stops
too short Every sin, however small, as well
as great, will out In hard times In En-
gland, years ago, IL Is authentically stated
that manufacturer wasou the way, with
bag Of money, to pay OF his hands. A man
infuriated with hunger met him on the road
and took rail with nail in II from a palink
fence and struck him down, and the nail en-
tering the skull instantly slew him. Thirty
years after that the murderer went back To-
that place. He passed into the graveyard,
where the sexton was digging q grave,
and while, he stood there the spade
.pf the sexton turned up a skull,
and, loi the rndrierer saw a nail
protruding from the back part Of the sl1uI,
It seemed with hollow eyes to glare on the
murderer; and he, first petrifed with hor-
ror, stood there In silence, but soon cried
out "Guilty guilty. o Godn The mys-
terry Of the crime was over, The man was
tried and executed. My friends, all the un-
pardoned sins of our lives, though we may
think they are buried out Of sight and gone
into mere skeleton OF memory, will turn
up In the cemetery Of the past and glover
upon us In their misdoings. / say all our
unpardoned sins. o, have you done the
preposterous thing OF supposing that good
resolutions for the future will wipe out the
pasti Good resolutions, though they might