Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1892-06-11

ners are they; sinners all" And sup
pose God should deign to answer,
He might say: "Yes, but did not
my only Son die for their ran
som? Did He not pay the price? Not
one drop of blood was retained in his
arteries, not one nerve of his TINT was
not wrung in the torture He took in
his own body and soul all the suffering
that those sinners deserve. They
pleaded that sacrifice. They took tho
full pardon that promised to all who,
through my son, earnestly applied for
it, and it passed out of my mind that
that they were offenders. l forgot all
about it. Their sins and their in
EQUITIES do remember no more" A
sin-forgetting God! That is far beyond
and far above a sin-pardoning God.
How often we hear it said: II can for
give, but l cannot forget" That is
equal to saying: II verbally admit
it is all right, but / will keep
the old grudge good" Human for
givcness is often n fimsy affair. 1t
does not go deep down. 1t does not
reach far up. 1t does not fix things up.
The contestants may shake hands or,
passing each other on the highway,
they may speak the Good morning."
or the Good night" but the old cor
diality never returns. The relations
always remain strained There is some
thing in the demeanor ever after that
seems to say: Il would not do you
harm; indeed, I wish you well, but that
unfortunate affair can never pass out
of my mind. There may no hard words
pass between them, but until death
breaks in the same GOODNESS remains.
But God lets our pardoned offenses go
into oblivion. He never throws them
up to us again. He feels as kindly to-
ward us as though we had been spotless
and positively angelic all along.
Through their own blindness, or the
fault of some rough preaching that has
got abroad in the centuries, many men
and women have an idea that God is q
tyrant, an oppressor, an autocrat, q
Mana Sahib, an Omnipotcnt Herod
Antipas. 1t is libel against the AL
mighty; it is SANDER against the
heavens; it is n defamation of the inf
mites. counted in my Bible 2O4 times
the word mercy" single or COM
pounded with other words. counted
in my Bible 473 times the word love-"
single or compounded with other words
Then, got tired counting.
So set open the wide gate of my text,
inviting you all to come into the mercy
and pardon of God; yea, still further,
into the ruins of the place where once
was kept the knowledge of your ini-
quities. The place has been torn down
and the records destroyed and You will
find the ruins more dilapidated and
broken and PROSTATE than the ruins OF
Melrose or Kenilworth, for from these
last ruins you can pick up fragments OF
sculptured stone, or you can see the
curve of some broken arch, but after
your repentance and your forgiveness
YOU can not find in all the memory OF
God fragment of all your pardoned
sins so large as needles point
''Their sins and their iniquities will re-
member no more" And none of that
will surprise you if you will climb to
the top of bluff back of Jerusalem lit
took us only five or ten minutes to climb
it,, and see what went on when the
plateau of limestone was shaken by
paroxysm that set the rocks, which had
been upright, aslant, and on the trein-
bling crosspieces of the split lumber
hung the quivering form of Him whose
life was thrust out by metallic points
of cruelty that sickened the monday
sun till it tainted and fell back on the
black lounge of the Judean midnight.
Six different kinds of sounds were
heard on that night which were inter-
iected into the daylight of Christs as
sassination: the neighing of the war
horses, for some of the soldiers were in
the saddle, was one sound; the bang OF
the hammers was a second sound; the
ieer of malignants was third sound;
the weeping of friends and coadjutors
was fourth sound the splash OF
blood on the rocks was fifth
sound; the groan of the expiring Lord
was n sixth sound. And they all
commingled into one sadness. Over q
place in Russia where wolves Were pur-
suing load of travellers, and to save
them a servant sprang from the sled
into the mouths of the wild beasts, and
was devoured, and thereby the other
lives were saved, are inscribed the
words. Greater love hath no man than
this, that q man lay down his life for
his friend" Many a surgeon in our own
time has in tracheotomy with
his own lips drawn from the
windpipe of a diphtheritic patient
that which cured the patient and
slew the surgeon, and all have honored
the self-sacrifice. But all other scenes
of sacrifice pale before this most illus
trious martyr of all time and all eter-
nifty. After that agonizing spectacle in
behalf of our fallen race nothing about
the sin-forpetting God is too stupend-