Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1892-06-16

pacitated to pay, and you give me aequit-
tai from that obligation. You say; lean
eel that debt All is right now. Start
again" And the next day come in and
say: you know about that big debt
owed you. have come in to get you TO
let me off. feel so bad about il cannot
rest. Do let me off," You reply with
little impatience: 81 did let you OFF. Don't
bother yourself and bother me with any
more of that discussion"
The following day / come in and say;
'My dear sir, about that debt / can never
| get over the fact that / owed you that
money. 1t is something that weighs on
my mind like milestone. Do forgive me
that debt" This time you clear lose your
patience and say: You are nuisance.
What do you mean by this reiteration of
| that affair? am almost sorry / forgave
you that debt. Do you doubt my veracity
or do you not understand the plain Ian
guage in which / told you that debt was
canceled"
Well, my friends there are many Chris
tians guilty of worse folly than that.
While it is right that they repent of new
sins and OF recent sins, what is the use of
bothering yourself and insulting God by
asking him to forgive sins that long ago
were forgiven? God has forgotten them.
| Why do you not forget them? No; you
drag the load on with you and 1856 times
year, if you pray every day, you ask God
to recall occurrences which he has not only
forgiven but forgotten Quit this folly. 7
do not ask you less to realize the turpi-
tude of sin, but ask you to higher faith
in the promise of God and the full deliv-
erance of his mercy. He does not give
receipt for part payment or so much re-
ceived on account, but receipt in full, God
having for Christ's sake decreed, "your
sins and your iniquities will I remember
no more"
AS far as possible let the disagreeables
of life drop. We have enough things in
the present, and there will be enough in
the future to disturb us, without running
a special train into the great comedy to
fetch us as special freight things left be-
hind. Some ten years ago, when there was
a great railroad strike, l remember seeing
all along the route from Omaha to Chi
cago, and from Chicago to New York,
hundreds and thousands of freight cars
switched on the side tracks, those cars
loaded with all kinds of perishable mate
rial, decaying and wasting After the
strike was over did the railroad companies
bring all that perished material down to
the markets? No, they threw it off where
it was destroyed, and loaded up with some
thing else.
Let the long train of your thoughts
throw off the worse than useless freight of
a corrupt and destroyed past, and load up
with gratitude and faith and holy deter
mination. We do not please God by the
cultivation of the miserable. He would
rather see us happy than to see us de-
pressed. You would rather see your chill
dren laugh than to see them cry, and your
heavenly Father has no fondness for hys-
terics.
DON'T SHOW IGNoBLE SCARS.
Not only forget your pardoned trans
gressions, but allow others to forget them.
The chief stock on hand of many people is
to recount in prayer meetings and pulpits
what big scoundrels they once were. They
not only will not forget their forgiven def
cts, but they seem to be determined that
the church and the world shall not forget
them. If you want to declare that you
have been the chief of sinners and eXtol
the grace that could save such wretch
as you were, do SO, but do not go into par
JiculaTs. Do not tell how many times YOU
got drunk or to what bad places you went,
or how many free rides you had in the
prison van before you were converted.
Lump it, brother; give it to us in bulk.
If you have any scars got in honorable
warfare, show them; but if you have scars
got in ignoble warfare, do not display them.
I know you will quote the Bible reference
to the horrible pit from which you were
digged. Yes, be thankful for that rescue,
but do not make displays of the mud of
that horrible pit, or splash it over other
people. Sometimes Ihave felt in Christian
meetings discounted and unfit for Chris
tian service because had done none of
those things which seem to be in the
estimation OF many necessary for Chris
tian usefulness, for | never swore
word, or ever got drunk or went
to compromising places, or was guilty
of assault and battery. or ever ut
tered a slanderous word, or ever did any
one hurt although knew my heart was
sinful enough, and said to myself, "There
is no use of my trying to do any good, for
never went through those depraved expert
ences;' but afterward saw consolation in
the thought that no one gained any ordi-
nation by the laying on of the hands of
|
ordinary moral life, ending in Christian
life, may not be as dramatic story to tell
about let US be grateful to God rather
than worry about it, if we have never
plunged into outward denominations.
1t may be appropriate in meeting of re-
formed drunkards or reformed debauchees
to quote for those not reformed how des-
perate and nasty you once were, but do not
drive scavenger's cart into assemblages
of people, the most of whom have always
been decent and respectable. But I have
been sometimes in great evangelistic meet
ings where people went into particulars
about the sins that they once committed
so much so that felt like putting my hand
on my pocketbook OR calling for the police
lest these reformed men might fall from
grace and go at their old business of theft
OF drunkenness or cutthroatery. If your
sins have been forgiven and your life puri-
fed, forget the waywardness of the past,
and allow others to forget it.
GODS GREAT MERCY.
But what I most want in the light of
this text to impress upon ny hearers and
readers is that we have q sin forgetting
God. Suppose that on the last day
called the last day because the sun will
never again rise upon our earth, the earth
itself being flung into fiery demolition
supposing that on that last day group of
Internal spirits should somehow get near
enough the gate of heaven, and challenge
our entrance, and say: "How canst thou,
the just Lord, let those souls into the
realm of supernal gladness2 Why, they
said a great many things they never ought
to have said, and they did great many
things they ought never to have done.
Sinners are they; sinners ALL"
And suppose God should deign to an
swer, he might say: ayes, but did not my
only Son die for their ransom? Did he not
pay the price? Not one drop of blood was