The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1892-03-26

:
/ truths. Horace Mann says, obey, II you
will, the law OF the baser passions Ape
j lite, pride, selishness-out know they
VIII scourge you into realms where the
air IS hot with fiery-tongped scorpions
/ thaG will sting and torment your soul with
nnutterable agonies." Byron walls out
this truth in bitterness Of soul when he
saws, and it's his own experience he IS
! telling
The thorns which have reaped are of the
tree planted.
/ they have torn me and bleed.
| might have known what fruit
! would spring from such seed
He sowed to the flesh and of the flesh
reaped corruption. Young men, listen.
AS certainly as you SOW wild oats, so
surely viii you reap the harvest of sor-
row and shame and want. The harvest
ing OF your evil deeds will come, either in
this world or in the next. When that
day comes it will be day of grief. 1t
may be an eternity Of grief. In
that day Of bitterest, blacllest sorrow, the
templer who deceived you will taunt
you with your folly. lie will stand grim
ming by your side and say: GOD did not
4 inlet this punishment on you: did not;
/ you did it yourself. 'Ye blew the fire
that burns you' You sowed the wind.
now reap the whirlwind-eat the fruit OF
! your own doings. Thou hast destroyed
I thysels'
Listen to the strong, manly words of
one OF the manifest of men, the author of
/ Tom Brown at Rugby: ''In all the
wide range Of British maxims there is
none that, take it all in all. is more
! thoroughly abominahle than this one as
to the sowing Of wild oats. Look at it on
what side you VIII, l defy YOU to make
anything of it but devii's maxim all
through. What man, bo he young or
/ o!d or middle aged, soWS, that, and moth
ing else than that, Will he reap. The only
way 10 do with wild oats is to put them
carefully into the hottest part OF the fire
and get them burned to dust, every seed
OF them. Young men, put this good
counsel into practice. Burn your wild
oats, or your wild oats Will one dav make
a bonfire that will burn you.''
The history OF men and nations afford
! abundant confirmation and illustration
OF the principle of my text: People are
forever discussing future punishment. |
wish they would think oitener OF pun
lshment right here and now in this
world. Every guilty deed holds within
Itself the seed of retribution. Men on
this side OF the grave, as truly as OH the
other slGe, reap what they SOW. Jacob
| deceived his father He reaned the bitter
| fruit OF that deception all his life. His
uncle deceived him, his wife deceived him
his children deceived him as he before had
| deceived his father. Hannah. Prime Min
| lister of the Court of Persia hated Nor
| decai and plotted his death. He built a
! gallows fifty cubits high and waited the
| coming OF the day when he could see the
hated Jew hanging there. The day came
round, but the scene was changed. Thew
hanged Hannah on the gallows he had
! built for Mordecai. He reaped what he
had sown. The bitter was bit. That
cruel fiend, Agog, had for years been
dabDhng his hands in the red blood of
innocent men. But though the mills of
God grind slowly, yet the day
arrested and, brought before Sam
uel. the Judge, and the Judge
pronounced on him this death sentence;
| las thy sword hath made women child
less so shall thy mother be childless
! among Women," and Samuel hewed
! Agog to pieces before the Lord. 1t was a
judicial sentence on murderer iudicially
executed. The murderer reaped what he
| had sown.
! Some men criticise and some men apol-
ogIze for the imprecatory psalms. / do
neither. As l read them they are simpIy
a different way of expressing the princi-
| pie OF the text. For example, Psalms
dOS:lIl AS ne loved cursing, SO let it
| come upon him, as he delighted not in
blessing. so let it be far from him." That
! Is the text put in other words
sometimes man reaps the harvest of
ms sin In his own family. Hereditary
diseases, IN many cases, are nothing more
than the working out Of this principle.
| BY indulgence in low vices men contract
| diseases which they transmit to their
! offspring. Some children are not born
! but damned into life
! David violated the sacred law of mar
! rage by taking another mans wife. In
has own family he reaped the bitter bar
vest OF violated marriage vows. 1.-The
| word nf tho ord 10 Il
will raise up evil against thee out of thine
own house" His beautiful dauphter
Iamor was disgraced and ruined by her
half-brother Ammon, heir to the throne.
Ammon for his fiendish deed was struck
to the death by his brother Absalom.
Later on ADsaiom fell into grave of
dishonor.
Add to this the downward career Of
solomon, and what a startling illustra-
ton of the text we have. The father went
so far and stopped. But the son of that
illicit marriage went further and deeper
into the pit of sensual shame. The father
sowed the wind, the son reaped the whirI-
wind. God did not suspend the law even
for David, but let it 60 crashing on. break
ing up and almost destroying his entire
family. They enslave their children's
children, who make compromise with
sin" In my own short life [ have seen that
same sin of David's reproduce itself i'm
the children's children. Sexual sins take
II bitter revenge on their victims. The
Nemesis of evil often overtakes men this
side of the grave. 1t is not of sins con-
sequences in the other world alone that I
| fear. W hat l trembie for are sins conse-
quences here and now in this world.
Consider Tor a moment the application
OF this principle to our life beyond the
grave. Sit down one hour and think of
the hereafter of sin. The teaching of the
Bible concerning mems future is that
they Will reap beyond the grave what we
have sown this side. What we weave
IN time we wear in eternity. As men suf-
fer Tor sin III this world, il Is reasonable
TO believe they viii suffer for sin in the
world to come. 1t is not according TO
| reason or revelation that he who lives a
| life of vice here will reap the rewards of
virtue yonder. God does not arbitrarily
determine mems destiny. He does not
send one to heaven and ten 10 he'll be-
cause He can. Men make their own
heaven or hell. They fit themselves for
one or the other place. AS it is the nature
OF strychnlne TO produce physical suffer-
ing and death, so it IS the nature Of sin to
produce moral suffering and death. "As
| righteousness tendeth to life, so he that
pursueth evil pursueth it to his own
ueath.'
You ask will men suffer eternally for
their sins in the other world. | do
not know. This know, as long as men
sin so long viii men suffer. Sin and
suffering are yoked as eternally as cause
and effect. Crime and punishment
grow out OF one stem.'
/ " hat is prison? 1t is consequences.
! The men there suffer the consequences of
/ their own deeds. What is hell? He'll is
/ consequences. One OF the most terrific
passages of revelation is that verse in the
! last chapter of the last book of the Bible !;
''He that is unrighteous. let him do I'M
righteousness still; and he that is filthy.
let him be made filthy still" The
| enYinilS increase in enyy Nicn in,crc.,Sor