The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1892-06-23

| it is right that they repent OF new SINS an
| of recent sins, what is the use OF Ootnerlni
yourself and insulting God by asking him t.
| forgive sins that long ago were forgiven
God has forgotten them. Why do you no
forget them? No, you drag the load on witt
YOU and 3S5 times year, il you pray every
| day, YOU ask God to recall occurrences which
| he has not only forgiven but forgotten
| Quit this folly. | do not ask you less to re
| alize the turpitude of sin, but ask you to
/ higher faith in the promise OF God ana I'M
| full deliverance of his mercy. He does no
| give receipt for part payment, or SO mucf
received on account, but receipt in full. Goo
| having for Christ's sake decreed, your SIN
! and your iniouities will | remember no more.
AS far as possible let the disagreeables Of
life drop. We have enough things In the
present and there will be enough in the fu
ture to disturb us without running special
train into the great gone-by TO fetch US as
special freight things left behind. Some ten
years ago, when there was a great railroad
Strike. remember seeing all along the route
from Omaha to Chicago and from Chicago
to New York hundreds and thousands OF
freight cars switched on the side tracks,
those cars loaded with all kinds of perlshable
material decaying and wasting.
After the strike was over did the railroad
companies bring all that persisted material
down to the markets. No, they threw 1t
OH WQeT6 IL was ueoIIOyeI, anu iVhtct vi
with something else. Let the long train OF
your thoughts throw off the worse than use
less freight of corrupt ana destroyed past
and load up with gratitude and faith aud
holy determination We do not please God
by the cultivation of the miserable. he
would rather see US happy than to see us de-
pressed You would rather see your chill
dren laugh than to see them cry, and your
Heavenly Father has no fondness for hys-
tericS.
Not only forget your parjoned tranSgres'
sions, but allow others to forget them. Inc
chief stock on hand of many people is to
recount in prayer meetings and pulpits
what big scoundrels they once were. They
not only will not forget their forgiven de-
ficits. but they seem to be determined that
the church and the world shall not forget
them. If YOU want to declare that you have
been the chief of sinners and extol the grace
that could save such wretch as you were
do so, but do not go into particulars. DO
not tell how many times you got drums, or
to what bad places you went, or how many
free rides you had In the prison van before
YOU were converted. Lumpit, brother; give
it to us in bulk.
If YOU have any scars got in honorable
warfare. show them, but il you have scars
got in ignobe warfare, do not display then.
know you will quote the Bible reference to
the horrible pit from which you were
digged. Yes, be thankful for that rescue,
but do not make displays Of the mud OF that
horrible pit or splash it over other people.
Sometimes have felt in Christian meetings
discounted and unfit for Christian service
because | had done none of those 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 or battery, or ever uttered
word, or ever did any one
hurt, although | knew my heart was sin
tul enough; and | said to myself, There Is
no use of my trying to do any good. for L
never went through those depraved e1-
periences;" but afterward | saw consolation
in the thought that no ons gained any
ordination by the laying on of the hands of
and infamy. And though an
ordinary moral life, ending in a Christian
life. may not BE- as dramatic a story to tell
about, let us be grateful to God rather than
worry about it, il we have never plunged
into outward abonn nations.
1t may be appropriate in meeting OF
formed drunkards or reformed debauchees to
quote for those not reformed how desperate
and nasty you once were, but do not drive
cart into asSemblageS of people,
the most of whom have always been decent
and respectable. But | have Deep sometimes
in great evangelistic meetings where people
went into particulars about the sins that they
once committed, SO mu n so that | felt ike
putting my hand on my pocketbooI or call
ing the police lest these reformed men might
fall from grace and go at their old business
OF theft or drunkenness or cutthroatery. 1t
your sins have been forgiven and your life
purified, forget the waywardnesS OF the past
and allow others to forget it.
But what | most want in the light of this
text 10 impress upon my hearers and readers
is that we have a sin-forgettin2 God. Sup
pose that on the last day-caled 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 group of internal spirits should some
how get near enough the gate of heaven and
our entrance. and say: 'How
canSt thou, the just Lord, let those souls
into the realm of supernal gla iness? Why,
they said great many things they never
ougat to have said, and they did a great
many things they ought never to have done.
Sinners are they; sinners all"
And suppose God should delgn 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 re-
tanned in His arteries, not one nerve of His
that was not wruug i'll the torture. He took
in His own body and soul all the suffsrings
that those sinners deserve. They pleaded
that sacrifice. 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 Offenders.
forgot all about it. Yes l forgot all about
1t. Their sins and their iniquitles do | re-
member no more" A sin-sorgetting God !
That is clear beyond 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. 81 verbally admit it is all right,
but will keep the old gruige good" HUI
man forgiveness is often flimsy affair. 1t
does not 20 deep down. 1t does not reach
far up. 1t does not fix things up. The con-
testants may shake hands, or passing each
other on the highway they may speak the
Good morning" or Good night" out the
old cordiality never returns. The relations
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 no hard words pass be-
tween them but until death breaks in the
same GOODNESS remains. But God let's our
pardoued oHenses 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 a family, consisting of
the husband and wife and little girl of two
years, lived far out in cabin on a western
prairie. The husband took few cattle 10
market. Before he started his little child