Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1895-10-11

W. whoa!" to the lath-
cred span. Then leaning over to Jeho-
nadab, Jehu salutes him in the words Of
the text-words not more appropriate
for that hour and that place, than for
this hour and place: rs thine heart
right"
l should like to hear Of your physical
health. Well myself, l like to have
everybody else we'll; and SO might ask,
is your eyesight right, your hearing
right, your nerves right, your lungs
right, your entire body right? But l
am busy to-day taking diagnosis OF the
more important spiritual conditions.
should like to hear of your financial well
fare. l want everybody to have plenty
of money, ample apparel, large store
house, and comfortable residence; and
might ask, is your business right, your
income right, your worldly surround
ings right? But what are these financial
questions compared with the inquiry as
to whether you have been able to pay
your debts to God; as to whether you are
insured for eternity; as to whether you
are running yourself by the long-credit
system Of the soul? / have known men
to have no more than one loaf of bread
at time, and, yet to own a government
bond of heaven worth more than the
whole material universe.
The question l ask you to-day is not
in regard to your habits. l make no
inquiry about your integrity, or your
obs ~ I do
mean to stand on the outside Of the
gate and ring the bell; but coming up
the steps, / open the door and come
to the private apartment of the soul
and with the earnestness of a man that
must give an account for this days
work, / cry out, o man, o woman, i'm
mortal, is thine heart right?
I will not insult you by an argument
to prove that We are by nature all
wrong If there be a factory explosion
and the smokestack be upset, and the
wheels be broken in two, and the en-
CINE unjointed, and the ponderous bars
be twisted, and man should look In
and say that nothing was the matter,
you would pronounce him fool. Well,
1t needs no acumen to discover that our
nature Is all atwist and askew and
-unjointed. The thing doesn't work
right. The biggest trouble We have in
the world is with our souls. Men some
times say that, though their lives may
not be just right. their heart is all
right Impossible. A farmer never puts
the poorest apples on top of his barrel
nor does the merchant place the mean
est goods in his show window. The best
part of us Is our outward life. do not
stop to discuss whether we all fell in
Adam, for We have been our own Adam,
and have all eaten of the forbidden
fruit, and have been turned out of the
paradise of holiness and peace: and
though the flaming sword that stood
at the gate to keep us out has changed
position and comes behind to drive us
in, we will not go.
The Bible account Of us is not ex-
aggerated when it says that we are
poor and wretched and miserable and
blind and naked. Poor the wretch
that stands shivering on our doorstep
on a cold day is not SO much in need Of
bread as we are of spiritual help. Blind
why, the man whose eyes persisted N
the powder blast, and who for these ten
years has gone feeling his way from
street to street. is not in such utter
darkness as we. Naked: why, there is
not one rag Of holiness left to hide the
shame of our sin. Sick: why, the lep-
rosy has eaten into the head and the
heart and the hands and the feet; and
the marasmus of an everlasting wasting
away has aleady seized on some of us.
But the meanest thing for a man to do
is to discourse about an evil without
pointing a way to have it remedied. l
speak of the thirst of your hot tongue,
only that l may show you the living
stream that drops crystalline and spark
ling from the Rock of Ages, and pours
a river of gladness at your feet If I
show you the rents in your coat, it is
only because the door of Gods ward
robe now swings open, and here is a
robe, white with the fleece of the Lamb
of God, and of a cut and make that an
angel would not be ashamed to wear.
If snatch from you the black, mouldy
bread that you are munching, it is only
to give you the bread made out of the
finest wheat that grows on the celestial
hills, and baked in the fires of the Cross;
and one crumb of which would be
enough to make all heaven banquet.
Hear it, one and all. and tell it to your
friends when you go home, that the
Lord Jesus Christ can make the heart
right.
First we need a repenting heart. If
for the last ten, twenty, or forty years
OF life, we have been going on in the
wrong way, it is time that we turned
around and started in the opposite di-
rection. IL We offend our friends we
are glad to apologize. God Is our best
friend, and yet how many of us have
never apo,ogized for the wrongs We
have done him!
There is nothing that we so much
need to get rid of as sin. 1t is a horri-
bic black monster. 1t polluted Eden
1t killed Christ. 1t has blasted the
world. Men keep dogs in kennels, and
rabbits in warren, and cattle in pen