Democratic messenger., 1892-09-03

work, so often making missteps, so often
going III the wrong direction. God
knowing every step, the patriarch say
ing, "Thou setteSt a print ON the heels of
nv feet" Crimes of the hand. crimes
of the tongue. crimes of the eye. crimes
of the ear not worse than the crimes of
the foot. Oh. we want the wings of
humility To cover the feet. Ought we
not to go into self abegnation before the
all searching. all scrutinizing, all try
ing eye of God: The seraphs do. How
much more we. with twain he COW
cred the feet"
THE BONDAGE OF SIN.
All this talk about the dignity of hu-
man nature is braggadocio and a sin.
Our nature started at u. hand of God
regal, but it has been pauperized. There
is "A well in Belgium which once had
very pure water. and it was stoutly
masoncd with stone and brick; but that
well aftorward became the center of the
battle of Waterloo. AT the opening of
the battle the soldiers with their sabers
compelled the gardener, William Won
Kylsom. To draw water ont of the well
for them, and ii was very pure water.
But the battle ragged. and three hum
dred dead and half dead were flung into
the well for quick and easy burial, SO
that the well of refreshment became the
well of death. and long after people
looked down into the well, and they saw
tho bleached skulls. but no water. So
the human soul was well of good. but
the armies of sin have fought around it.
and fought across it and been slain, and
il has become well of skeletons. Dead
hopes. dead resolutions, dead opportuni
ties. dead ambitions. An abandoned
well unless Christ shall reopen and pu-
rify and fill it as the we'll of Belgium
never was. Unclean. unclcan!
Another seraphic posture in the text,
with twain he covered the face" That
means reverence Godward. Never SO
much irreverence abroad in the world
as today. You see il in the defaced
statuary, i'll the cutting out of figures
from fine paintings. i'll the chipping of
monuments for memento, in the fact
that military guard must stand ut the
graves of Grant and Garfield. and that
old shade trees must be cut down for
fircwood, though fifty George p. Morrises
beg the woodmen to spare the tree, and
that calls corpse Il cadaver. and that
speaks of death rs going over 10 the ma
jority, and substitutes for the reverent
terms, father and mother, "the old
man" and .'the old woman" and finds
nothing impressive in the ruins of Baal-
bee or the columns Of karnac. and sees
no difference in the Sabbath from any
other days except it allows more dis
sipation. and reads the Bible III what
is called higher criticism, making it
not the Word of God. but Il good book
with some fine things i'll it. Irreverence
never so much abroad. How many take
the name of God i'll vain, how many
trivial things said about the Almighty.
Not willing Ia have God i'll the world,
they roll up an idea of sentimentality
and humanitarianisn and impudence
and imbecility and call il God. No
wings of reverence over the face. no
taking off of shoes on holy ground. You
can tell from the way they talk they
could have made better world than
this. and that the God of the Bible
shocks every sense of propriety. They
talk Of tho love of God in way that
shows you they believe it does not make
any difference how bad man is here,
he will come in at the shining gate.
They talk of the love of God in such a
way which shows you they think it is a
general Jail delivery Cor all the aban-
dohed and the scoundrelism of the uni
verse. Nopunishment hereafter for any
wrong done here.
THE LOVE OF GOD.
The Bible gives us two descriptions of
God. and they are just opposite, and
they are botn true. In one place the
Bible saws God is love In another
place the Bible says God is consuming
fire. The exl lanation is plain as plain
can be. God through Christ is love.
God out of Christ is fire. To win the
one and to escape the other we have
only 10 throw ourselves body, mind and
soul into Christ's keeping. NO." says
lrrevcrence, Il want no atonement,
want no pardon, want no Intervention;
| will 20 up and face God. and will
challenge him, and will defy him, and
| will ask him what he wants to do with
me-" So the finite confronts the inf
mite, SO tack hammer tries to break a
thunderbolt, SO the breath of human
nostrils defies the everlasting God. while
the hierarchs of heaven bow the head
and bend the knee as the Kings chariot
goes by, and the archangel turns away
because he cannot endure the splendor,
and the chorus of all the empires of
heaven comes in with full diapason,
Holy, holy holy
Reverence for sham, reverence for the
old merely because it is old, reverence
for stupidity however learned, rever-
ence for iucapacity, however finely in
augurated. have none. But we want
for the sacraments, more reverence for
the Bible. more reverence for the pure,
more reverence for the good. Rever-
ence n characteristic of all great natures.
You hear it in the roll of the master
oratorios. You see it in the Raphaels
and Titians and GhirlandijoS. You
study it in the architecture of the Aholi.
abs and Christopher Wrens. Do not be
fippant about God. Do not joke about
death. Do not make fun of the Bible.
Do not deride the Eternal. The brightest
and mightieSt scraph cannot look un-
abashed upon him. lnvoluniarily the
wings come up. With twain he Gov
cred his face
Who is this God before whom the ar
rogant and intractable refuse reverence:
There was an engineer of the name of
Strasicrates, who was in the employ of
Alexander the Great and he offered to
hew mountain in the shape of his
master, the emperor. the enormous fig
ure to hold in the left hand city of
10000 inhabitants. while with the
right hand it was To hold basin large
enough to collect all the mountain tor
rents. Alexander applauded him for
his ingenuity. but forbade the enter
prise because of its costliness. Yet |
have to tell you that our King holds in