Connecticut western news., 1893-08-17
Lord would not forget you and me!

der God does not forget me down here in Antioch, and in the prison, and in the shipwreck. There are so many sailors, so many wayfarers, so many prisoners, so many heartbroken men," says Paul, perhaps God may forget me. And then I am so vile a sinner. How l whipped those Christians With what vengeance mounted that cavalry horse and dashed up to Damascus! Oh, it will take a mighty attorney to plead my cause and get me free" But just at that moment there came in upon Pauls soul some thing msghtier than the surges that dashed his ship into Melita, swifter than the horse he rode to Damascus. It was the swift and overwhelming thought of Christ's intercession.
 My friends, we must have an advocate. A poor lawyer is worse than no lawyer at all. We must have one who is able successfully to present our cause before God. Where is he? Who is he? There is only one advocate in all the universe that can plead our cause in the last judg- ment, that can plead our cause before God in the great tribunal.
 CHRIST AS AN ADVOCATE.
 Sometimes in earthly courts attorneys have specialties, and one man succeeds better in patent cases, another Ill insur- ance cases, another in criminal cases, another in land cases, another in will cases, and his success generally depends upon his sticking to that speciality. l have to tell you that Christ can do many things, but it seems to me that his spe- cialty is to take the bad case of the sin l ,% AC1 l,arr nfo eternal acquittal. Oh, we must have him for our advocate.
 But what plea can he make? Some times an attorney in court will plead the innocence of the prisoner. That would be inappropriate for us. We are all guilty! guilty! Unclean! unclean! Christ, our advocate, will not plead our innocence. Sometimes the attorney in court tries to prove sn allbi. He says: "This prisoner was not at the scene. He was i'll some other place at the time." Such q plea will not do in our case. The Lord found us in all our sins and in the very place of our iniquity. It is impos- sible to prove an alibi. Sometimes an attorney will plead the insanity of the prisoner and say he is irresponsible on that account. That plea will never do in our case. We sinned against light, against knowledge, against the dictates of our own consciences. We knew what we were doing. What, then, shall the plea be?
 The plea for our eternal deliverance will be Christ's own martyrdom. He will say: Look at all these wounds. By all these sufferings demand the rescue @l~ ,e,,, .la i, 1o11 Constable, knock off the shackles-let the prisoner go free" s'Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us"
 But why all this gladness on the faces of these sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty? 1 know what you are think ing of. A Saviour dead; d Saviour risen; Saviour exalted; d Saviour interceding. "What," say you, lis all that for mel" All, all Never let me hear you con- planning about anything again. With your pardoned sin behind you, and 8 successful Christ pleading above you, and glorious heaven before you, how can you be Respondent about anything?
 COME INTO THE KINGDOM.
 s'But," says some man in the audience, 'all that is very good and very true for those who are inside the kingdom, but how about those of us who are outsider" Then I say, Come into the kingdom, come out of the prison house into the glorious sunlight of Gods mercy and pardon, and come now.
 It was in the last days of the reign of terror-the year 17G3. Hundreds and thousands had perished under the French guillotine. France groaned with the tyrannies of Robespierre and the Jaco- bin club. The last group of sufferers had had their locks shorn by Monchotte, the prison barber, so that the neck might be bare to the keen knife of the guillo- tine.
 The carts came up to the prison, the poor wretches were placed in the carts and driven off toward the scaffold, but while they were going toward the scaffold there was an outcry in the street, and then the shock of firearms, and then the cry: "Robespierre has fallen! Down with the Jacobins! Let France be freer' But the armed soldiers rode in upon these rescuers. so that the poor wretches in the carts were taken on to the scaffold and horribly died.
 But that very night these monsters of persecution were seized, and Robespierre perished under. the very guillotine that he had reared for others, all France clap ping their hands with joy as his head rolled into the executioner's basket. Then the axes of the excited populace were heard pounding against the gates of the prison, and the poor prisoners walked out free. My friends, sin is the worst of all Robespierres. It is the ty- rant of tyrants. It has built prison house for our soul. It plots our death. It has shorn us for the sacrifice; but, blessed be God, this morning we hear | the axes of Gods gracious deliverance l pounding against the door of our prison. Deliverance has come. Light breaks through all the wards of the prison Revolution! Revolution Where sin | abounded, grace does much more abound; that whereas sin reigned unto death even so grace may reign unto | eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" Glorious truthl A Saviour dead; Saviour risen; a Saviour exalted; | Saviour interceding!
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