News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1893-07-06


that have ever distinguished you. Add
them all up into the tremendous aggre-
gate of good words and works, and then
you will see Paul sharpen his knife as he
cuts that spirit of self satisfaction as he
cries, ''By the deeds of the law there
shall no flesh be justified"
Well say thousand men in this au-
dieuce. if l am not to get anything in
the way of peace from God in good
works, how am to be saved? By mercy.
Here | stand to tell the story; mercy,
mercy, long suffering mercy; sovereign
mercy, infinite mercy, omnipotent
mercy, everlasting mercy. Why, it
seems in the Bible as if all language were
exhausted, as if it were stretched until 1t
broke, as if all expression were struck
dead at the feet of prophet and apostle
and evangelist when it tries to describe
Gods mercy.
HOPE FOR THE REPENTANT.
Oh, says some one, that is only adding
to my crime if | come and confess before
God and seek his mercy. No, no! The
murderer has come, and while he was
washing the blood of his victim from
his hands, looked into the face of God
and cried for mercy, and his soul has
been white in Gods pardoning love!
And the soul that has wandered off in
the streets and down to the very gates of
hell has come back to her fathers house,
throwing her arms around his neck, and
been saved by the mercy that saved Mary
Magdalen.
But, says some one, you are throwing
open that door of mercy too wide. No,
l will throw it open wider. l will take
the responsibility of saying that if all
this audience, instead of being gathered
in semicircle, were placed side by side,
in one long line, they could all march
right through that wide open gate of
mercy. "Whoseover, whatsoever" Oh,
this mercy of God-there is no line long
enough to fathom it; there is no ladder
long enough to scale it; there is no arith-
metic facile enough to calculate it; no
angels wing can fly across it.
Heavenly harpers, aided by cholrs
with feet like the sun, cannot compass
that harmony of mercy, mercy. 1t
sounds in the rumbling of the celestial
gate. l hear it in the Ginning of the &C.
lestial towers. | see it flashing in the
uplifted and downcast coronets of the
saved. [ hear it in the laundering tread
of the hammered hosts around about the
throne, and then it comes from the
harps and crowns and thrones and pro
cessions to sit down, unexpressed, on a
throne overlapping all heaven-the
throne of mercy.
THE GOSPEL LIFEBOAT.
How | was affected when some one
told me in regard to that accident on
Long Island sound, when one poor wom-
an came and got her hand on a raft as
she tried to save herself, but those who
were on the raft thought there was no
room for her, and one man came and
most cruelty beat and bruised her hands
until she fell off. Oh, bless God that
this lifeboat of the gospel has room
enough for the sixteen hundred millions
of the race-room for one, room for all,
and yet there is room!
push this analysis of the publican's
prayer a step further and find that he
Md not expect any mercy except by
pleading for it, He did not fold his
hands together as some do, saying: eff
I'm to be saved, I'll be saved. If I'm to be
lost, I'll be lost, and there is nothing for
me to do" He knew what was worth
having was worth asking for; hence this
earnest cry of the text, "God be merciful
to me, sinnerp
1t was an earnest prayer, and it is
of all Bible prayers that
they were answered-the blind man,
Lord, that may receive my sight," the
leper, "Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst
make me clean;" sinking Peter, Lord,
save me;' the publican, "God, be merci-
full to me, a sinner!' But if you come
up with the tip of your finger and tap at
the gate of mercy, it will not open. You
have got to have the earnestness of the
warrior who, defeated and pursued, dis
mounts from his lathered steed and with
xauntleted fist pounds at the palace gate.
You have got to have the earnestness
of the man who, at midnight, in the
fourth story, has a sense of suffOcatiOn,
with the house in flames, goes to the
window and shouts to the fremen,
"Helpw o unforgiven soul, if you were
in full earnest might have to command
silence in the auditory, for your prayers
would drown the voice of the speaker
and we would have to pause in the great
service. It is because you do not real
ize your sin before God that you are not
this moment crying, "Mercy, mercy,
L