The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1889-05-30
OUR NEED OF CLEANSING.
SUBJECT OF DR.. .TALMAGE'S TABERNA.
GLE SERMON ON SUNDAY, MAY 2e.

BROOKLYN, May 26.-Ihe ReY. L.
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, the Joyful sound,
IT'S pleasure to our ears;
sovereign balm for every wound,
cordial 10 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 his name
on earth and in heaven--wents straight
back to the original writing of my
text, and translated it as | have now
quoted it, giving substantial reasons
for so doing. Although we know
better, the ancienis had an idea that
in snow water there was q special
power 10 cleanse, and that garment
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 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 pure
before God were 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
,,oyveaif MIL, e,,1r, tuotn,, on1 e.hr,,11
cleanse my hands in alkali, yet shalt
thou plunge me in the ditch, aud 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 to take you
just as you are Shall it be n ilatteI~
ing picture, or shall it be n true one?
You say: Let it be true one" The
first profile that was ever taken was
taken, three hundred and thirty years
before Christ, Of Antigonus. He had
blind eye, and he compelled the art
ist 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 n one sided view of your
selves, profile, or shall it be 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 ]
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 manuscripts.
Shall l ever preach them2 Never; for
in those days | was somehow over
mastered with the idea | heard talked
all around about, of tho dignity of hu-
man nature, and I adopted the idea,
and | evolved it, and illustrated 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 dignity in
human nature, until it is recon
structed by the grace of God. Talk
about vessels going to pieces on the
Sberries, off Irelandl There never was
such a shipwreck as in the Gihon and
the Hiddellel, rivers of Eden, where oul
first parents foundered. Talk of {
steamer going down with five hundred
passengers on board What is that tC
the shipwreck of fourteen hundred
million souls2 We are by nature {
mass of uncleanness and putrefaction
from which it takes all the omnipo
tence and inGnitude of Gods grace Il
extricate us. IF l wash p'yself witt
snow water, and should / cleanse my
hands in alllali, yet shalt thou plungl
me in the ditch, and my own clothe
shall abhor me-"
THE SNOW WATER or FINE APOLOGIES
remark, in the first place, that som'
people try to cleanse their soul of sii
in the snow water of fine apologies
Here is one man who says: 81 am ;
sinner; ! confess that; but inherited
this. My father was asinner, my grand
father, my great atgeat-grandfather
and all the way back 10 Adam, and
couldn't help myself" My brother
have you not, every day III your life
added something to the original estat
of sin that was bequeathed to you
Are you not bravo enough to confes
that you have sometimes surren
dered to sin, which you ought {,
have conquered2 / ask you whethe
it is fair play to put upon on
ancestry things for which w
ourselves are personally responsible
If your nature was asllew when yol
got it, have you not sometimes givel
1t an additional twist? VIII all th
tombstones Of those who have preced
ed us make barricade high enough
for eternal defenses} | know n devou
man who had blasphemous parentage
] know an honest man whose fathe
was thief. | know pure man who's
mother was a waif of the street. Th
hereditary tide may be very strong
but there is such thing as stemmlni
1t. Tho fact that ] have a corrupt ma
ture is no reason why | should yiel
10 IT, The deep stains of our soul cal
never be washed out by the snoy
water of such insufficient apology.
Still further, says some one: IF
have gone into sin, it has been throug
my companions, my comrades and a
sociates; they ruined me They taugl
me to drink. They took mo TO th
rambling hell. They plunged me int
the house of sin. They ruined IN
soul" do not believe II. God CAV
60 no one the power to destroy you c
me. IL man is destroyed he is Sc
DESTROYED, and that isnlwnys so. VIII
did YOU not break away from them
If they had tried TO steal your pursi
YOU would have knocked them dowr
If they had tried to purloin your gol
wa$eh, YOU would have riddled thel
with shot; but when they tri'
TO steal your immortal soul, yC
plac:dly submitted TO it. Tho
bad fellows have cup
fire TO drink; do not pour your c.
into il. In this matter of the sol
every man for himself. That tho
persons are not fully responsible +
your sin, ] prove by the fact that "
still consort with them. You cam
get off by blaming them. Though "
gather up all these apologies; thons
there were great flood of ther
though they should come down wi
the force of the melting SHOWS fro
Lebanon, they could not wash out o.
stain Of your immortal soul,
1--WE ARE BETTER THAN OTHER PEOPLE
Still further, some persons apol
gize for their sins by saying: I'VE a
great deal better than some peopl
You see people all around about
that are great deal worse than We
You stand up columnar in your inte
rity. and look down upon those WI
are PROSTATE in their habits al
crimes. What of that, my brothe
II / failed through recklessness ~
wicked imprudence for ten thousu
dollars, is the matter alleviated at I
by the fact that eomebody else h
failed for ono hundred thousand 4,