The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1891-07-03
THE LONDONDERRY SITTER,

strolS ufllN, ana OtnerS OF you iusu out
of Christian association, and you got
astray, o man, that was the last
time when you ought to have forsaken
God.
Standing amid the laundering of
your earthly fortunes, how could you
get along without God to comfort you,
and a God TO deliver you, and a God
to help you, and God to save you'
You tell me you have been through
enough business trouble almost to kill
you. know it. cannot 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 pelt the heavens
with the cry, "God have mercyw
Sinai's batteries have been unlimbered
above your soul and at times you have
heard it thunder, 1.-THE wages of sin is
death" "All have sinned and come
short of the glory of God" ''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 bonn
barded two Russian frigates burned all
night in the harbor, throwing a glare
upon the trembling fortress; and some
of you are standing in the night of
your souls trouble. The cannonade
and the confagration, the multiplied
ton of your sorrows and troubles, /
think, must make the wings of Gods
lowering angels SILVER to the tip.
THE INIQUTTY OF US ALL"
But the last part of my text opens
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 manager, him of
the bloody sweat, him of the resurrec-
ton throne, him of the cruciixion
agony. On him the Lord hath laid
the iniquity of us all. d"
"Oh," says some man, that is not
generous, that is not fair; let every man
carry his own burden and pay his own
debts" That sounds reasonable. If
have an obligation and l have the
means to meet it, and l come to you
and ask you to settle that obligation
you rightly say, PAY your own debts"
If you and l walking down the street,
both hale, hearty and well, l ask you
to carry me, you say, and say rightly,
walk on your feetw But suppose
you and | were in regiment, and l
was wounded in the battle, and I fell
unconscious at your feet with gunshot
fractures and dislocations, what would
you do9 You would call to your com
rades saying, Come and help, this
man is helpless; bring the ambulance;
let us take him to the hospital;" and l
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 Inc to the hospital
and have all kindness shown me-
Would there be anything mean in your
doing that2 Would there be anything
bemeaning in my accepting that kind
ness? Oh, mol You would be mean
not to do it. That is what Christ does.
If we could pay our debts then it
would be better to go up and pay
them, saying, Here, Lord here is my
obligation; here are 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 trans
| gressions, 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
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
immortality. THE Lord hath laid on
him the iniquity Of us all" Why,
then, will no man carry his sins2 You
cannot carry successfully the smallest
sin you ever committed. You might
as well put the Apennines on one Shout
der 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: Il have
come through all the decorations of
these days, and through all the tenn
pests of these nights. have come to
bear your burdens and to pardon your
sins and to pay your debts. Put them
on my shoulder. Put them on my
heart" "On him the Lord hath laid
the iniquity of us ALL"
FROM GODS LAW THERE IS NO ESCAPE.
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 sim 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
of a conscience which proposes to give
no rest here and no rest hereafter; and
yet they do not repent they do not
pray, they do not weep. They do not
realize that just the position they oc-
cupy is the position occupied by scores,
hundreds and thousands of men who