Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1892-07-22

about that big debt | owed you. l have come
in 20 get you to let me off. feel so bad
about it cannot rest. Do let me Off" You
reply with little impatieuce: ~ did let you
off. Don't bother yourself and bother me
with any more of that discussion"
The following day l come in and say: ''My
dear sir, about that debt. can never get
| over the fact that l owed you that money.
| 1t is something that weighs On my mind like
a milestone. Do forgive me that debt"
! This time you clear lose your patience and
| say: ''You are a nuisance. What do you
mean by this reiteration of that affair? I
| Do you doubt my veracity, or do you not
understand the plain language In which l
told you that debt was canceiedS'
| Well, my friends, tGere are many Chris
| tians guilty of worse folly than that. While
| it is right that they repent OF new sins and
| of recent sins, what is the Use of bothering
yourself and insulting God by asking him to
| forgive sins that long ago were forglvene
| God has forgotten them. Why do you not
! forget them? No. you drag the load on with
| you and 365 times year, If 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 turpl+-1de of sin, but | ask you to
| higher faith l. the promise of God and the
| full deliverance of his mercy. He does not
| givea receipt for part payment, or 50 much
received on account but receipt in full. God
! having for Christ's sake dec~eed, your sins
! and your iniquities 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 a special
! train into the great gone-by to fetch
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 perishable
material, dec2ying and wasting
After the strike was over did the railroad
companies bring all that persisted material
down to the markets? No, they threw it
off where it was destroyed, and loaded up
with something else. Let the long train of
your thoughts throw off the worse than use
less freight of a corrupt and destroyed past,
and load up with gratitude and faith and
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 pardoned transgres-
sions, but allow others to forget them. The
chief stock on hand of many people is to
recount in prayer meetings and pulplts
what big Scoundrels they once were. They
not only will not forget their forgiven de-
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 drunk, 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 in bulk.
If you have any scars got in honorable
warfare, show them, but it you have scars
got in ignoble warfare, do not display them.
l 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 splash it over other people.
Sometimes [ have felt in Christian meetings
discounted and unfit for Christian service
because l had done none of those things
which seemed to be in the estimation Of
many necessary for Christian usefulness, for
I never swore word, or ever got drunk, or
went to compromising places, or was guilty
of assault or battery, or ever uttered
slanderous word, or ever did any one a
hurt, although L knew my heart was sim
full enough; and | said to myself, There is
no use of my trying to do any good for I
never went through those depraved
perienceS;' 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 -nOF3l lille, endlng IN Chr1SGIan
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 outward denominations.
1t may be appropriate in a meeting Of re-
formed drunkards or reformed debauchees to
qnote for those not reformed how desperate
and nasty you once were, but do not drive a
scavenger'S cart into assemblages of people
the most of whom have always been decent
and respectable. But have been sometimes
in great evangeistic meetings where people
went into particulars bout the sins that they
once committed, so much so that [ felt like
putting my hand on my pocketbook or call
ing the police lest these reformed men might
fall from grace and go at their old business
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 to impress upon my hearers and readers
is that we have sin-forgetting God. Sup
pose that on last day-called the last day
because the will never again rise upon
our earth, the earth itself being flung into
fiery demolition-suppo that on that last
day group of internal spirits should some
how 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 gladness? Why,
they said great many things they never
ought to have said, and they did a great
many things they GU ght never to have done.
Sinners are they: sinners all"
And suppose God should deign to answer,
He might say: Yes but did not Ny 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 wrung in the torture. Hetook
in His own body and soul all the sufferings
Ala%& l1<-o 1ir, ~ol1 H.