The Newtown bee., 1895-08-02
AN UNBEATABLE DEBT

tfsA1' 0ste
 OoTohltai a'G63 .Ia iTI1a 905 eiiua dssW
 AN UNBEATABLE DEBT Tosiis'" -I"D A .soi1q iiRn Jloan ia asniG WsI3a IA gIItat yeGr .iS 4ol iAd 1s .o0l 4of sAl laI A SERMON BFl REV LYMAN ABBOTT, ,p P. D
 gtoEPIYMoUTH CHURCH ,9 Ro0KLYN NaH
 oi ihHH Vod5 ii 20 J d .f l. oJ os oI ono
 Text Luke e.'7@ r 44, There va vas ga acetrtth creditor which had two debtors the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly for gave them both. Tell me, therefore, which of them will love him most. ALA V S< AA
 This is Ghrist's statement Of redempr .tion: Debtors who owe something :; nothing with which to pay it; and then remission Of the debt freely without compensation. " IF 7 The Church has not been willing to believe the teaching of this parable. Some in the church believe it all thestime, and some in the church believeSit part of the time, but 1t has not yet wrought itself really into the theological struc- +ture and fundamental teaching of sthhe church of Christ. We do not want to come to God empty handeds we want to bring something. We bring excuses we areonot, afterjalld such fragrant sin iners; we have rendered some tribute, have done some work We try .ttoe. yF, bal anee the sin of the past, blythe. virtue, ot the past, paying one reckoning with the other. Now, it is not true that man is "totally depraved.' Y The phrase is E. un- pI seriptural , and io false, But, iWeh cannot balance the evil that we, have done, with the good that i've have done!h Wrong I'dofhg is hot a debt which a man pays by an account of good deeds Beaedict Arnold IF cannot compensate for his treaehery by the loyal services he rem
 dered to the Nation before he became traitor, The two things have no vrela Ltion to each other. The good of the sonf does not subtract from the evil of tht other. The sin stands by itself; and nothing a man has done stands to ths credit mark in determining how mucf that sin counts for.z Sometimes we try ito pay somethfng by the setvice' we vii render in the future 2 We have done thu wrong, but now we are going to cont into the church. and we. are going tf render service, are going to- dc owork
 and gbyaaudc by we shall get eqaeeoun
 paid off, No it cannot gan l9 be done p e ln in tha h
 way. No man can put over against tht wrong he has done in the past virtue he is going to do in the future, and bal 1snce the accounts, one agaipst the other
 WE CANNOT DosHoKE THAN DUTY,
 for duty is making the most of every opportunity9 We try ito bring in ou
 experience something in lieu of servic' trendered in the past; or to be rendered in the future. We try to pay for the sii we have committed by our tears, ou
 repentance our | conviction of Sin. .no,W' struggle and strive within, <, ourselves ursely certain experience of repentance, ga geer ittain anguish ofimindY aeertaine darkness I of soul, with the impression that & i much repentance, viii serve in some way ll lIpartlyl at least, to cancel the hdebt. ofps I not remember little boyS12o years old
 whose@mother was-deads> and gwho wal without 8 true home, kindly as he wal cared fors and who always washomesicl in the gloaming of the twilight and Wht fthought he could not be Christian 'un less he broughtsome1tears and penanct with him to the throne of God; and st in the twifight,j while frogs were ocroak
 ing their meIancholy monologue, he usec Ito keep inohis little room, and sit in the 'fdarkenfng twilight. and try to think oi all the wicked things he had done--and there were not great many of them land make himself feel bad, iniorders that he might become a Christian! It was ar endeavor not to come to God empty handed, but to bring something with which to pay. But perhaps we think we have not anything wherewith we cas pay nothing in the past; no service in the1presei,t .Inos penanoea aorqrepsntance; then we think weSean take our punish ment and 30 weYcar square the account. The boy has played truant, and it rests upon his conscience until finally lie can not stand. it any longer ;'or the man has connnittedA some erimes and hasibarn the remoSse followingk kathat .crima until he bear 1t nc Ienger;- and he mants-to.-b be punished for It. and have the account settled, And the boy. goes to bis, father, or the manages to the. cDurtspand says Furnish me, apply the rod put me into State prison, let me pay the penalty, let me, settle the dept, and then let me. go. Notit cannot,be paid in that way.al \
 l PUNIsHMESST P poEs NOT eoMPENsATE
 for a sin. ;Nsyerl There is, not So much penalty to be paid for 50 much trans gressions so that when that weight of penalty is suffered the sin is atoned for !, and the debt is crossed off the aetonnt. Punishment may be- needed to, reform the wrong-doer.91P PunishmenE mavfbe needed to protecs the community from future wrong doing, but punfshnIent ineveropays the debt of the. sinner .,ioSo we goto othersIto pay it forVns. 1.-The charehiin the Middle Ages ataughta that Cod must be satfsfied for the Wrong. doIng, that men had epeTpetratsd ;o and that thesaints had laid up a great treas. ure of virtue dand goodnesa, and the church would dispense this tteasiiress pf virtue and; gaodnsss. Ihe map, could not cpaNhisi debts but the church. would pay itforshin, wand thaoman wouldn 10 free. This waso Teszel's teachflIg, against which Luther protested. Hue Professionalism has revived the teaching in another and snbtler form. We sub- stiEtie ffYf if t1ifx That 3stfsrfsf hhx ns ia