The Brookhaven leader., 1891-07-09

You almost become an atheist. You
said: "Where is God, that honest men
go down and thieves prosper?' You were
dogged of creditors, you were doggcd Of
the banks, you were dogged of worldly
disaster, and some of you went
into misanthropy, and some OF you
took to strong drink. and others of you
fed out of Christian association, and
you got astray. o! man, that was the
last time when you ought to have for
saken God. Standing amid the found.
ering of your earthly fortunes, how
could you get along without a God to
comfort you, and God to deliver you,
and a God to help you, and God to
save you? You tell me you have been
through enough businass trouble al
most to kill you. ] know it. ] can not
understand how the boat could live
one hour in that chopped sea.
But do not know by what process you
got astray; some in one way, and some
in another. and if you could really see
the position some of you occupy before
God this morning, your soul would
| burst into an agony of tears, and you
would pclt the heavens with the cry:
God have mercy" Sinai's batteries
| have been unlimbered above your soul
| and at times have heard IL thunder:
| "The wages of sin is death" "Au
| have sinned and come short of the glory
of Cod" BY one man sin entered into
the world, and death by sin; and so
death passed upon all men, for that all
have sinned." "The soul that sinneth,
| it shall die
| When Sebastopol was being lombard
ed two Russian frigates burned all
night in the harbor, throwing q glare
upon the trembling fortress; and some
of YOU are standing in the night of your
souls trouble. The cannonade and the
cOnfiagration, the multiplication of your
sorrows and troubles think must make
the wings of Gods lowering angels
shiver to the tip.
But the last part of my text ope ms a
door wide enough to let us all out and
to let all Heaven in. Sound it on the
organ with all the stops out. Thrum it
on the harps with all the strings atune.
With all the melody possible let the
heavens sound it to the earth and let
the earth tell it to the heavens. THE
Lord hath laid on him the iniquity
of us all" am glad that the prophet
did not stop to explain whom he meant
by Him" Him of the manger, Him
of the bloody sweat, Him of the resur-
rection throne, Him of the crucifxion
agony. "On Him the Lord hath laid
the iniquity of us all"
| "Ohr' SAYS some man, that is not
generous, that is not fair: let every man
carry his own burden and pay his owE
debts" That sc unds reasonable. If |
have an obligation and have the means
| to meet it, and l come to you and ask
YOU to settle that obligation, yOu right
| ly say: PAY your own debts" If you
and | walking down the street. both
hale, hearty and we'll, | ask you to
carry me, you say and say rightly:
''Walk on your own feet. But sup
pose you and / were in 4 regiment and
was wounded in a battle, and l fell
unconscious at your feet with gunshot
fractures and dislocatiOns, what would
YOU do? You would call to your com
rades, saying: "Come and help; this man
is helpless; bring the ambulance; let us
take him to the hospitals" and would be
dead lift in your arms, and you would
lift me from the ground where had
fallen and put me in the ambulance and
take me to the hospital and have all
kindness shown me. Would there be
anything mean in your doing that?
Would there be anything bemeaning
in my accepting that kindness? o! no.
| You would be mean not to do it. That
is what Christ does. If we could pay
our debts then it wonld be better to go
up and pay them, saying: Here, Lord,
here is my obligation; here are the
means with which | mean to settle that
obligation; now give me receipt; cross
it all out" The debt is paid. But the
fact is, we have fallen in the battle; we
have gone down under the hot fire of
our transgressions; we have been
wounded by the sabers of sin, we
are helpless, we are undone." "
Christ comes. The loud clang
heard in the sky on that Christ
mas night was only the bell, the re-
sounding bell of the ambulance. Clear
the way for the Son of God. He comes
down to bind up the wounds, and to
scatter the darkness, and to save the
lost. Clear the way for the Son of God.
Christ comes down to us. and we are n
dead lift. He does not lift us with the
tips of His fingers. He does not lift us
with one arm. He comes down upon
His knee, and then with dead lift He
raises us to honor and glory and inn
mortality. ''The Lord hath laid on
Him the iniquity of us ALL" Why,
then. will no man carry his
sins? You can not carry successfully
the smallest sin you ever committed.
You might as well put the Apennines
on one shoulder and the Alps on the
other-how much less can you carry all
the sins of your lifetime? Christ comes
and looks down in your face and says:
81 have come through all the lacera-
tions of these days, and through all the
tempests of these nights; l have come
to bear your burdens and to par
don your sins and to pay your
debts Put them on my shoulder; put
them on My heart" ION Him the
Lord hath laid the iniquity of us all. "
Sin has almost pestered the life out
of some of you. At times it has made
you cross and unreasonable, and it has
spoiled the brightness of your days and
the peace of your nights. There are
men who have been riddled of sin. The
world gives them no solace. Gossamer
and volatile the world, while eternity,
as they look forward to it, is black as
midnight. They writhe under the stings