Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1892-06-06
Il and nnlt for Christinn rervice becanse

ed and unfit for Christian service because
had done mono Of hose things which
seemed to be in the estimation Of many
necessary for Christian usefulness, for
never swore a word, or ever got drunk,
or went to compromising places, or was
guilty Of assault and battery. or ever
uttered 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 de-
praved experiences" but afterward saw
consolation in the thought that no one
gained any ordination by the laying on
of the hands of dissOluteness and infamy.
| And though an ordinary moral life, end
ing in a 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 out
I ward denominations.
IL may be appropriate in a meeting OF
reformed drunkards or reformed de.
bnuchees 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 respect
able. But | have been sometimes in
great eyangelistic meetings where peo-
pie 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 or drunkenness or cutthroatery.
If your sins have been forgiven and your
! life purified, forget the waywardness Of
the past and allow others to forget 1t.
But what 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 sun
will never again rise upon our earth,
the earth itself being flung into fiery de-
molition-supposing that on chat last
day u 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 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: eyes, but did not
my only Son die for their ransom2 Did
he not pay the price? Not one drop Of
blood was retained in his arteries, not
% a. ,cf ~
the torture. He took in his own body
and soul all the suffering that those sin
ners deserve. They pleaded that sac
rifice. They took the full pardon that l
promised to all who, through my Son,
earnestly applied for it, and it passed
out of my mind that they were Offend
ers forgot all about it. Yes, forgot
| all about it. Their sins and their in
iquities do | remember no more." A
sin-forgetting Godl That is clear be-
yond and far above a sin pardoning God
How often we hear it said, 81 can for
give, but | cannot forget" That is
equal to saying, II verbally admit it is
all right, but | will keep the old grudge
good" Human forgiveness is often a
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 cordiality never returns
The relations always remain strained.
There is something in the demeanor
ever after that seems to say, 81 would
not do you harm; indeed, wish you
we'll, 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 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.
AN ANECDOTE.
Many years ago a family, consisting
Of the husband and wife and little girl
Of two years, lived far out in a cabin ON
a western prairie. The husband took a
few cattle to market. Before he started
his little child asked him to buy for her
doll and he promised. He could after
the sale of the cattle purchase house
hold necessities, and certainly would not
forget the doll he had promised. 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 dis
NAL road ut nightfall.
As he went along on horseback a
thunderstorm broke, and in the most
lonely part of the road, and in the
heaviest part of the storm, he heard n
child cry. Robbers had been known to
do some bad work along that road, and
it was known that this herdsman had
money with him, the price of the cattle
sold. The herdsman first thought it was
stratagem to have him halt and be de-
spoiled of his treasures, but the child's
cry became more keen and rending, and
so he dismounted and folt around in the
darkness and all in vain, until he
thought of hollow that he remember
ed near the road where the child might
be, and for that he started, and sure
enough found a little one tagged out
and drenched of the storm and almost
| dead.
He wrapped it up as well as he could
and mounted his horse and resumed his
journey home, Coming in sight of his
cabin he saw it all lighted up and sup
posed his wife had kindled all these
lights so as to guide her husband through
the darkness. But, no. The house was
L H--h q - 1. 4.