The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1892-06-22


into onward denominations. II may
be appropriate in a meeting |
OF reformed drunkards or reformed de- |
bauches to quote for those not reformed |
how desperate 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 re-
spectacle. But | have been sometimes
in great evangelistic meetings 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 60 at their old business Of
theft or drunkenness or cut-throatery.
If your sins have been forgiven and your
life purified forget the waywardness OF
the past and allow others to forget it
But what l most want in the light Of
this text to impress upon my hearers
and readers is that we have sin-forget-
ting God. Suppose that on the Last
Day-called the Last Day because the
sunwill never again rise upon our earth,
the earth itself being flung into fiery
demolition-supposing that ON the 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 super
natural gladness?. Why they said
great many things they never ought to
have said, and they did great many
things they never ought to have done.
Sinners 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 ransom? Did He not
pay the price? Not one drop of blood
was retained in His arteries, not one
nerve of His that 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 the full pardon that prom.
Used to all who, through my Son, earn
estly applied for it, and it passed out
of my mind that they were offenders.
forgot all about it. Yes, forgot all
about it. Their sins and their iniqui.
ties do / remember no more" 4
sin-forgetting God! That is clear beyond
and far above sin-pardoning God
How often do we hear it said: II can
forgive, but can not forget" That is
equal to saying: II verbally admit it is
all right, but will keep the old grudge
good" Human forgiveness is often
flimsy affair. 1t does not 60 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 cordiality never returns. The rela.
tions always remain strained. There is
something in the demeanor ever after
that seems to say: II would not do you
harm; indeed, wish you WELL but that
unfortunate affair can never pass out Of
my mind"
There may be no hard words pass be-
tween them, but until death breaks in
the GOODNESS remains. But God let's our
pardoned offenses go into oblivion. He
never throws them up to us again. He
feels as kindly toward us-as though we
had been spotless and positively angelic
all along.
Many years ago family, consisting
of the husband and wife and n little
girl of two years, lived far out in a
cabin in the western prairie. The hus.
band took few cattle to market. Be-
fore he started his little child asked him
to buy her doll, and he promised. He
could, after the sale of the cattle, pur-
chase household necessities, and GER
tainly would not forget the doll he had
promited. In the village TO which he
went he sold the cattle and obtained
the groceries for his household and the
doll for his little darling.
He started home along the dismal
road at nightfall. AS he went along ON
horseback thunderstorm broke, and
in the most lonely part Of the road and
. in the heaviest part of the storm, he
, heard child cry. Robbers had been
, known to do some bad work along the
road, and it was known that this herds
man had money with him, the price Of
, the cattle sold. The herdsman first
thought it was stratagem to have him
halt and be despoiled of his treasures,
: but the child's cry became more
keen and rending, and so he dismounted
and felt around in the darkness, ard
all in vain, until he thought of a hollow
: that he remembered near the road
/ where the child might be, and for that
he started and. sure enough, found a
r little one tagged out and drenched Of
: the storm and almost dead. He wrap
ped it up as we'll as he could and mount.
ed his horse and resumed his journey
/ home. Coming in sight of his cabin, he
saw it all lighted up, and supposed that
/, his wife had kindled all these lights so
J as to guide her husband through the
, darkness.
] citer >nt and the neighbors were gath.
} cred and stood around the wife of the
' house, who was insensible as from some
, great calamity. On inquiry The re.
turned husband found that the little
child of that cabin was gone. She had
E wandered out to meet her father and
e get the present he had promised, and
the child was lost, Then the father
e unrolled from the blanket the child he
t had found in the fields, and 10! IL was
e his own child, and the lost one of the
t prairie home, and the cabin Quaked
: with the shout over the lost one found
J. How suggestive of the fact that once