Milford chronicle., 1896-07-17

There is so much GOSPEL in this quaint
| incident that am embarrassed to know
where to begin. Whom do Mephibosheth
and David lid Jonathan make you think
of?
Mephibosheth in the first Place, stands
for the disabled human soul Lord Byron
describes sin as Il charming recklessness,
as a gallantry, as Il Don Juan. George
Sand describes sin as triumphant in many
intricate plots Gavarni, with his engrav-
er's knife always shows sin as a great
joeularity But the Book presents it as a
Mephibosheth, lame on both feet. Sin,
like the nurse in the context attempted to
carry us and let us fall and we have been
disabled, and in our whole moral nature
we are decrepit. Sometimes theologians
haggle about u technicality. They use the
words total deprayity," and some people
believe in the doctrine, and some reject it.
What do you mean by total dcprayity? Do
you mean that every man is as bad as he
can be? Then do not believe it either
But do you mean that sin has let us fall;
that it has scarifled and disabled and Grip
pied our entire moral nature until we can
not walk straight and arc lame in both
feet? Then l admit your proposition.
There is not so much difference in an Afri- |
can jungle, with barking bowling, hiss
ing, fighting quadruped and reptile, and /
paradise, with its animals coming before |
Adam, when he pattcd them and stroked /
them and gave them names, so that the |
panther was as tame as the COW, and the |
condor as tame as the dove, as there is be-
tween the human soul disabled and that |
soul as God originally constructed it. do
not care what the sentimentalists or the
poets say in regard to sin. In the name of
God, declare to you today that sin is dis
organization, disintegration, CHASTITY dis
fguration, hobbling deformity.
Your modern theolOgian tells you that
man is little out of sorts He sometimes
thinks wrong He sometimes does wrong
indeed his nature needs a little moral
surgery, an outside splint, slight COM
press, little rectidcation. Religion is a
good thing to have; it might some day
come into use Man is partially wrong,
not all wrong He is lame in one foot.
Bring the salve of divine grace, and the
and the pain extractor, and we
will have his one foot cured Man Is only
half wrong, notaltogether wrong. In what
is mans nature right? In his will, his af-
fections, his judgment? No There is an
old book that says, The whole head is
sick and the whole heart faint. Mephib-
osheth lame in both feetl Our belief of the
fact that sin has scariiied and deformed
our souls increases as we go on in years
When you started life, you thought that
man was a little married by sin, and he
was about onc-tenth wrong BY the time
you had gone through the carly experience
IF your trade or occupation or profession ;
YOu believed that man was about half {
wrong. by the time you came to midlife T
bnlfnvnd hat fItrson- fonrfhc ,
wrong. But within these past few years, /
since you have been so lied about and I
gwindled and cheated, you have come to ,
he conclusion that man is altogether I
wrong, a.4d now you can say with the Z
prayer book and with the Bible, There is {
10 health In u.s. Now you believe with 7
he prophet, 1.-THE heart is deceitful above {
III things aid desperately wicked. What S
yer you may have believed before, now t
1ou believe that Mephibosheth Is lame on f
10Th feet. v
Humbled, but Restored. j
Again, Mephibosheth in the text stands
or the disabled human soul hunbled and +
estored When this invalid of my text got I
command to come to King David's pal t
&c, he trembled The fact was that the t
randfather of Mephibosheth had treated i
)avid most shockingly, and now Mephib- t
sheth says to himself: ''What does the K
ing want Of me? Isn't it enough that o
m lamo9 Is he going to destroy my life e
5 he going to wreak on me the vengeance S
which he holds toward my grandfather ii
,aul? It's too bad - But 60 to the pal :
&c Mephibosheth must, since the king has 4
it. With staff and crutches 4
nd helped BY his friends, see Mephibo- \
beth going up the stairs Of the palace. "
ear his staff and crutchcs rafting on the 7
floor of the thrancrocm. No soon
r have these two persons confronted each