Daily Yellowstone journal., 1889-06-02
OUR NEED OF CLEANSING.
SUBJECT OF DR.. TALMAGE's TABeRNA-
GLE SERMON ON SUNDAY. MAY 20.

Make Itself Clean Before God Are Not
sacces.ful-Ihe Lord Himself Must See
% the Cleansing.
Brooklyn, May 26.-The Rev. T.
De Witt Talmage, d. D., preached at
the Tabernacle today TO an overflow
ing congregation. He selected as the
opening hymn that one beginning;
Salvation. o the joyful sound.
It's pleasure 10 our ears;
sovereign balm for every wound.
A cordial 70 our fears
The text was: 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."-Job tx, 80,
81. The eloquent preacher said:
Albert Barnes-honored be ms name
on earth and in heaven-went straight
back TO the original writing of my
text and translated il as | have now
quoted il giving substantial reasons
for so doing. Although we know
better, the ancienls had an idea that
In snow water there was a special
power 10 cleanse, and that a garment
washed and rinsed in il would be as
cleel as clean could be; but II the
plain snow water failed TO do its work,
then they would take I've or alkali and
mix il with oil, and under that
preparation they felt hat the last
impurity would certainly be gone.
Job, in my text, in most forceful
figure sets forth the idea that all
his attempts 10 make himself pure
before God were a dead failure, and
that, unless we are abluted by some
thing better than earthly liquids and
chemical preparations, We are loath-
some 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 pict-
ure. / turn the camera obscura of
Gods word full upon YOU, and | pray
that the sunshine falling through the
skylight may enable me- 70 take You
Just as youfare. Shall II be a hatter-
ing picture, pr shall it be a trd6 onei
You say: "Let il be a true one" The
FIRST profile that was ever taken was
taken, three hundred and thirty Years
hefore Christ, Of Ambiguous. He had
blind eve, and he compelled the art
list TO take his profile so as to hide the
defect in his vision. But since that
invention, three hundred and thirty
years before Christ, there have been a
great many profles. Shall | today
give you a one sided view Of your
selves, a profile, or shall it be a full
length portrait, showing you Just
what you arel If God will help me
by his almighty grace, ! shall give
you that last kind Of a picture.
FAULTY EARLY TEACHING.
When / first entered the ministry l
used TO write my sermons all out and
read them, and run my hand along
the line lest | should lose my place. l
have hundreds of those manuscripts.
Shall ! ever preach themi Never; for
in those days | was somehow over
mastered with the idea | heard talked
all around about, of the dignity of hui
man nature, and | adopted the idea,
and | evolved il, and | illustrated il,
and / argued it; but coming on in
life, and having seen more of the
world, and studied better my Bible, /
find that hat early teaching was
faulty, and that there is no dignity in
human nature. until il is recon-
structed by the grace Of God. Talk
about vessels going 10 pieces on the
Skerries, of Irelandl There never was
such a shipwreck as in the Gihon and
the Hiddekel, riversof Eden, where our
first parents foundered. Talk of a
steamer going down with five hundred
passengers OH boardl What is that TO
the shipwreck of fourteen hundred
million soulsl We are by nature a
Of ~uncleanness and putrefaction,
from which il takes all the omnipo-
tence and ininitude Of Gods grace 70
extricate us. IF | wash myself with
SNOW water, and should | cleanse my
hands in alkali, yet shalt thou plunge
re>in the ditch, and my own clothes
shall abhor me-"
TIE SNOW WATER OF FINE APOLOGIES.
remark, in the first place, that some
people try 10 cleanse their soul of sin
in the snow water Of fine apologies.
Here is one man who says: II ain a
sinner: | confess that; but | inherited
this. My father was a%sinner, my grand
father, my great-great-grandfather,
and all the way back 10 Adam, and i
couldn't help myself" My brother,
have you not, every day in your life,
added something TO the original estate
Of sin that was ~bequeathed 10 youi
Are you not brave enough TO confess
that you have sometimes surren-
dered 10 sin, which you ought 10
have conquered2 | ask you whether
II is fair play 70 put upon our
ancestry things for which we
ourselves are personally rcsponsiblei
II your nature was askew when you
got il, have you not sometimes given
Il an additional twistl Will all the
tombstones Of those who have proceed,
ed US make a barricade high enough
for eternal defenses2 l know a devout
nan who had blasphemous p~arentage
know an honest man whose father
was a thief. know a pure nan who's
mother was q waif Of the street The
hereditary tide may be very strong,
but there is such a thing as stemming
il The fact that / have a corrupt ma,
tnre is no reason why / should yield
toit. 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 ]