The Red Cloud chief., 1892-06-17

that debt. All Is right now. Start
again" And the next day 1 come In
and say: "You know about that big
debt l owed you. l have come in to get
You to let me off. feel so bad about it
I cannot rest. DO let me off," You will
reply with a little impaticncc: ~ did
let you off. Don't bother yourself and
bother me with any more Of that dis
custom" The following day I come in
and say: my dear sir, about that
debt. l can never get owe the fact
that I owed you that money. IL Is
something that weighs OH my mind like
a milestone. Do forgive me that debt"
This time you clearly loose your pa
thence and say: 'You are n nuis-
ance. What do you mean by this
reiteration of that affair? 1 am al
most sorry I forgave you that debt. DO
you doubt my veracity. or do you not
understand the plain language in which
l told you that debt was cancelled?"
Well, my friends, there are many
Christians guilty Of worse folly than
that. While 1t is right that they repent
Of new sins and 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 for
gotten them. Why do you not forget
them? No; you drag the load on with
you, and S65 times u year, IL you pray
every day, you ask God to recall occur
renee which he has not only forgiven
but forgotten. Quit this folly. l do
not ask you less to realize the turpitude
of sin, but I ask you to n higher faith
in the promise of God and the full
~deliverance of His mercy. He does not
give a receipt for part payment, or so
much received OF account, but receipt
in full, God having for Christ's sake
decreed, ''your sins and your iniquities
will l remember no more"
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 scoun-
drels they once were. They not only
will not forget their forgiven deficits,
but they seem to be determined that
the church and the world shall not for
get them. II you want to declare that
you have been the chief of sinners and
extol the grace that could save such a
wretch as you were, do So, but do not
go into particulars. DO not tell how
many times you got dunk, 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 diggcd. Yes, be
thankful for that rescue, but do not
make displays of the mud of that hor-
rible pit, or splash it over other people.
Sometimes l have felt in Christian meet
ings discomfitted and unfit for Christian
service because l had done none of those
things which seemed to be necessary for
Christian usefulness, for / never swore
n word, or ever got drunk, or went to
compromising places, or was guilty of
assault and battery, or ever uttered q
slanderous word, or gel did anyone a
hurt, although I knew my heart was
sinful enough, and / said to myself:
There is no use of my trying to do any
good for I never went through those de-
PRAYED 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, ending in a Christian life, may
not be rs dramatic n story to tell
about, let us be grateful to God rather
than worry about 1t, If we have never
plunged into outward abomination. It
may be appropriate in q meeting Of re-
formed drunkards or reformed de-
bauchees to quote from those not re-
formed how desperate and how nasty
you once were, but do not drive q scav-
enger's cart into a~ssemblages of people,
the most of whom have always been de-
e n and respectable. But l have been
sometimes In great evangelistic meet
ings where people went into particulars
about the sins that they once committed
SO much that l 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
c~utthroatry. II your sins have been
forgiven and your life purified forget
the waywardness Of the past and allow
others to forget it.
But, what I most want in the line of
this text to impress upon my hearers
and readers is that we have q sin-for-
getting God. Suppose that on the last
d~ay-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 q group Of internal spirits
should somehow get near enough the
gate of heaven and challenge en-
trance and say: slow canst Thou, the
just Lord, let those souls into the realm
of supernal ~gladness? Why they said q
great many things they never ought To
have said and did a great many things
they ought neve to have done. Sin
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