The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-06-06

AFFAIR." l am almost sorry | forgave you
that debt. Do you doubt my veracity, OF
do you not understand the plain language
in which told you that debt WAS canceIedF
Well, my friends. there are many Christians
guilty Of worse folly than that. While it /:
right that they repent of new sins and OF
recent sins, what is the use Of botherine
yourself and insulting God by asking him tC
forgive sins that long ago were forgiveni
GOD has forgiven them. Why do you
not forget them No; you drag the load on
with you and three hundred and sixty-fve
times year, if you pray every day, asE
/ God 10 recall occurrences which he has not
only forgiven but forgotten. Quit this folly.
l do not ask youless to realize the turpitude
| of sin, but | ask you TO a higher faith in
! the promise of God and the full deliverance
of bis mercy. He does not give receipt for
| part payment, or SO much received on &C
! count, but receipt in full, God having for
Chrsts sake decreed, "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 pres
ent and there will be enough in the future
| to disturb US without running a special
train into the great Comedy to fetch US as
special freight things left behind. Some
ten years ago when there was a great rail-
road 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, decaying and vast
ing. After the strike was over did the rail-
road companies bring all that persisted
material down to the markets! No, they
threw It off where it was destroyed aud
loaded up with something else. Let the
long train of your thoughts throw off the
worse than useless 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 depressed. You would rather
see your children laugh than to see them
cry, and your heavenly father has no fond
ness for Mysteries.
Not only forget your pardoned transgres-
sionH, but allow Others to forget them. The
chief stock on hand OF many people Is to re-
count in prayer meetings and puIpits what
big scoundrels they once were. They not
only will not forget their forgiven deficits.
but they seem to be determined that the
church aud 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 a 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. Lump
it, brother; give it to US in bulk. II you
have any scars got IN honorable warfare,
show them; but il you have scars got in
ignoble warfare, do not display them. |
know you will quote the Bible reference to
the horrible pit from which you were
dlgged. Yes, be thankful for that rescue,
but do not make displays of the mud of that
horrible pit, or splash 1t 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
never swore 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 l knew my heart was
sinful enough; and | said to myself: There
is no use OF my trying TO 90 any good for l
never went through those depraved expe-
riences,n but afterward l saw consolation
In the thought that no one gained any ordi-
nation by the laying on of the hands of
dissoluteness and infamy. And though an
ordinary moral life, ending in Christian
life, mey not be as dramatic a 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 meet
INK VI IOlOEIl6u uTuukdTuS OF re-
formed debauchees to quote for those not
reformed how desperate aud nasty you
once were, but do not drive scavanger's
cart into assemblages of people, the most of
whom have always been decent and
respectable. But have been sometimes in
great evangelistic meetings where people
went into particulars about the sins that
they once committed so much so that felt
like putting my hand on my pocket book
or calling for the police lest these reformed
might fall from grace and go at their old
business of theft or drunkenness or cut
throatery. IL your sins have been forgiven
and your life purified, forget the hayward
ness OF the past, and allow others to for
get it.
But. what most want in the light of
this text to impress upon my hearers aud
readers is that we have a sin-forgetting
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 demolition-suppos-
ing that on that last day group of Internal
spirits should somehow get near enough the
gate Of heaven and challenge our entrance
and say: How caust thou. the just Lord
let those souls into the realm of supernai
gladness! Why then said a great many
things they never ought to have said,
and they did a great many things they
they; sinners ALL" And suppose God
should deign to answer, he might say
YES, but did not my only Son die for their
rausomf Did he not pay the pricel Not
one drop of blood was retained in his
arteries, not one nerve of his that was not
wrung in the torture. He took in his own
body and soul all the suffering that those
sinners deserve. They pleaded that sacri-
flee. They took the full pardon that prom
ised to ali who, through my Son, earnestly
applied for it, and it passed out OF nv mind
that they were offenders. i forgot all about
it. Yes, forgot all about it. Their sins
and their iniquities do | remember no
more" A sin-forgetting God That is
clear beyond, and far above asin-pardoning
God. How often we hear it said: II can
forgive, but cannot forget" That is equal
to saying: II verbally admit it is all right,
but 1 will keep the old grudgs good. y
Human forgiveness is often flimsy
affair. 1t does not go deep down. 1t does
not reach far up. IL does not fix things up.
The contestants may shake hands, or, pass
ing each other on the highway. they may
speak the Good morning or the 'Good
| night" but the old cordiality never returns.
The relations always remained 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
J that unfor tunate affair eau never pass out
of my mind" There may be no hard words
| pass between them, but until death breaks
| i'll the same GOODNESS remains. But God lets
! our pardoned offences go into oblivion. He
never throws them up TO US again. He feels
! kindly toward he vya baJ haa,