Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1889-06-06
SUNDAYS SERMON.
ONE OF REV. DIR. TALMAGE'S
STERLING DISCOURSES.
subject. "our Need orCleansing

natter and should cleanse my hands in
ollnT yet shalt thou plunge me ia the ditch,
ma mine o,Ca clothes shall dblOr me-
job *, 81, 81.
Albert Barnes-honored be his name on
s,rthandin heaven-wentstraight back to the
original writing of my text, and translated
itss have now quoted 1T, giving substantial
seasons for so doing. Although we know
better. the aneients had an idea that in snow
vrafer there was a special power TO cleanse.
ard that a garment washed and rinsed in it
would be as clean as clean could be: but if
he plain snow water failed TO do its work.
,bsp thev would take I've or alkali and
mixed it with oil and under that
preparation they felt that the last impurity
would certainly be gone. Job, in my text,
in most forceful figure sets forth the
idea that all his attempts to make himself
nure before God were a dead failure, and
ibat unless we are abluted by something
hetter than earthly liquids and chemical
nreparations we are loathsome and in the
ditch .'If | wash myself with snow water,
and should cleanse my hands in alkali, vet
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
cord full upon YOU, and | pray that
tbe sunshine falling through the skylight
NAV enable me to take you just as you
are Shall it be a hattering picture. or
shall it be a true one? You say: Let it be
a true one" The first profile that was ever
taken was taken three hundred and thirty
wears before Christ, of Antigonus. He had
blind eve. and he compelled the art
Isl to take his profile so as to hide the
defect in his vision. But since that inven-
tor. three hundred and thirty years before
Christ, there have been great many pro-
Rles. Shall / to-day give you a one-sided
view of yourselves, profile, or shall it be
iull-length portrait, showing you just what
Vou areg Ii God will help me by His al
mighty grace, l shall give you that last kind
Of picture.
When first entered the ministry used to
write nv sermons all out and read them and
run nv hand along the line lest / should lose
nv place. / have hundreds of those manu-
scripts. Shall | ever preach them? Never;
for in those DAYS | was somewhat over-mas-
tered with the idea | heard talked all around
about, of the dignity of human nature, and l
adopted the idea, and ! evolved it, and | illus
trated it, and / argued IT. but coming on in
life and having seen more of the world, and
studied better my Bible, find that that early
teaching was faulty, and that there is no dig
pty in human nature, until il is reconstructed
by the grace OF God. Talk about vessels going
10 pieces ON the Skerries off Ireland There
never was such shipwreck as in the Gihon
and the Hiddekel rivers of Eden, where
our first parents foundered. Talk of
steamer going down with five hundred
passengers ON board What is that 20 the
shpwreck of fourteen hundred million soulss
We are by nature mass of uncleanness and
putrefaction, from which il takes all the ON
Impotence and infinitude of Gods grace to
extricate us. =" If | wash myself with snow
water and should i cleanse my hands in al
kali yet shalt thou plunge me In the ditch,
end my own clothes shall abhor me.n
remark, in the first place, that some peo-
4hnf.s Lee 81.
water of fine apologies. Here is one man who
says; II am q sinner; | confess that; but |
Inherited this. My father was sinner, my
grandfather, my MISREPRESENTATION
and all the way back to Adam, and |
couldn't help myself" My brother, have
you not every day in your life, add
Cd something to the original estate of
dn that was bequeathed to you? Are
you not brave enough TO confess
that you have sometimes surrendered to sin,
which you ought to have conqueredf | ask
you whether it is fair play to put upon our
ancestry things for which we ourselves are
personally responsible. II your nature was
askew when you got it, have you not some
times given it an additional twisty Will all
the tombstones of those who have preceded
Us make barricade high enough
for eternal defenses2 l know a devout
man who had blasphemous parentage.
Iknow an honest man whose father was a
thief. | know 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 cor
upt nature is no reason why | should yield
tOit. 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
panlOns, my comrades and my associates;
they ruined me. They taught me to drink
They took me to the gambling hell. They
plunged me into the house of sin. They
ruined my souln / 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 isalways So Why did younot break
away from themp 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 a 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
consort with them. You cannot get OH 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
heudnOn, Jney could not WISH OUT One Sedih
OF your immortal 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 great deal worse
than We" You stand up columnar in your
integrity, and look down upon those who are
prostrate in their habits and crimes. What
Of that my brotherg If failed through reck-
iessness and wicked imprudence for ten thou
sand dollars, is the matter alleviated at all
oy the fact that somebody else mas
failed for one hundred thousand dollars;
and somebody else for two hundred
thousand dollars? Oh, no. If l have
the neuralgia, shall refuse medical attend
ance because my neighbor has viruient
typhoid fever? The fact that his disease
Is worse than mine-does that cure mlnes
/ through my foolhardiness, leap on into
ruin, does it break the fall to know
that others leap off higher cliff INTO
deeper darknesss When the Hudson river
rail train went through the bridge at Spuyten
Duyvil, did it alleviate the matter at all thar
instead of two or three people being hurt
there were seventy-fve mangled and crusheos
Because others are depraved, is that any ex-
euse for my depravitys Am better