The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-06-11

a story to tell about, let us be CRATE
full to God rather than worry about it if
we have never plunged into outward
denominations. 1t may be appropriate
in meeting of reformed drunkards or
reformed debauchees to quote for those
not reformed how desperate and nasty
you once were, but do not drive
scavenger'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 par
ticulars about the sins that they once
committed SO much that felt like put
ting my hand on my pocket-book or
calling for the police lest these reformed
men might fall from grace and go
at their old business of theft
or drunkenness or cut-throatery. If
your sins have been forgiven
and your life purified, forget the way
wardness 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-for-
getting 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-supposing 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 canst Thou, the just
Lord, let those souls into the realms
of supernal gladness? Why, they
said great many things they never
ought to have said, and they did great
many things they ought never to have
done Sinners are they; sinners all"
And suppose God should deign to an
swer, He might say: eyes, but did not
My only Son die for their ransom? Did
He not pay the price? 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 sin
ners deserve. They pleaded that sacri-
fee. They took the full pardon that l
promised to all who, through My Son,
out of mind that they were offenders. I
forgot all about it. Yes, I forgot all
about it. Their sins and their
iniquities do l remember no more" A
sin-forgetting God! That is clear be-
yond, and far above sin-pardoning
God. How often we hear it said: 81
can forgive, but cannot forget. That
is equal to saying: 81 verbally admit it
is all right but / will keep the old
grudge good" Human forgiveness is
often fiimsy affair. It does not go
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 the good
night" but the old cordiality never re.
turns. The relations always remain
strained. There is something in the de-
meanor ever after that seems to say: 81
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 between them,
but until death breaks in, the same
GOODNESS remains. But God lets our
pardoned offenses 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 family consisting OF
the husband and wife and little girl
of two years, lived far out in cabin on
western prairie. The husband took
Gov, Ia 10 Wiz pofo !, 81 ~
his little girl asked him to buy for her
a little doll, and he promised. He could,
after the sale of the cattle, purchase
household necessities, and certainly
would not forget the doll he had
promised. In the village to which
he went he sold the cattle and
obtained the groceries for his house
hold and the doll for his little darling.
He started home along the dismal
road at nightfall. AS he went along on
horseback, thunderstorm broke, and
in the most lonely part of the road and
in the heaviest part of the storm, he
heard a child cry. Robbers had been
known to do some bad work along that
road and it was known that this herds
man had money with him, the price of
the cattle sold. The herdsman first
thought it was stratagem to have him
halt and be despoiled of his treasures,
but the child's cry became more keen
and rending, and so he dismounted
and felt around in the darkness
and all in vain, until he thought
of a hollow that he remembered
near the road where the child
might be, and for that he started, and
sure enough, found little one tagged
out and drenched of the storm, and
almost dead. He wrapped it up as well
as he could, and mounted his horse and
resumed his journey home. Coming in
sight of his cabin, he saw it all lighted
up, and supposed his wife had kindled
all these lights SO as to guide her
husband through the darkness. But
no. The house was full of ex-
element, and the neighbors were
gathered and stood around the wife
of the house, who was insensible as
from some great calamity. On inquiry