The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1902-03-19

There is no use Uf ny trying to do
any good. for never went through
those dcpravcd EXPERIENCES. :. kut
afterward | saw consolation in the
thought that 10 one gained any ordina-
ton 10y the laying on of the hand OF
disSoiGtenesS and intamy.
And though an ordinary moral life,
ending in L Christian life. may not be
as dramatic a story to tellabout. let us
be grateful to God rather than worry
about it if we have never plunged into
outward denominations. 1t may be ap-
propriate in meeting Of reformed
drunkardS CT reformed debauchees TO
quote for those not reformed now des-
pcrate and nasty you once were. but
GO not drive a ScavengerS cart into as
semblages Of people the most of whom
have always been decent and respecta-
BILE. But | have been sometimes in
great evangelical meetings where peo-
pie went into particulars about the
sins that they once committed, so
much so that l felt like putting my
hand on my pocketbock or calling for
the police lest these reformed men
might fail from grace and go at their
old business Of theft Or drunkenness
or cutthrOatery. If your sins have
been forgiven and your life purified.
forget the waywardness Of the past,
and allow others to forget it.
| But what / most want in the light
OF this text to impress is that we have
sin forgetting God. Suppose that on
the last day-called the last day be-
cause the sun will never again rise up
on our earth. the earth itself being
flung into fiery demolition- SuppoSing
that on that last day a group of in
ferual spirits should somehow get near
enough the gate Of heaven and chal-
}enge our entrance and say: How
canst thou, the just Lord, let those
souls into the realm Of supernai glad
ness? Why. they said great many
things they never ought to have said,
and they did a great many things they
ought never to have done. Sinners
are they-Sinners all"
And suppose God should deign to
answer. He might say: Yes, but
did not my only Son die for their ran
som? Did he net paE the price? Not
one drop of blood was retained in his
arteries: not one nerve Of his that was
not wrung in the torture. He took in
| his own body and soul all the suffering
that those sinners deserve. They
pleaded that sacrifice: they took the
| full pardon that I promised to all who,
through my Son, earnestly applied for
it, and it passed out OF my mind that
they were offenders. l forgot all
about it. Yes, forgot all about it..
Their sins and their iniQuitieS do l
remember no more 4 sin forget
ting God. That is clear beyond and
far above a sin pardoning God. How
often we hear it said, Il can forgive,
but I cannot forget" That is equal
to saying, L verbally admit it is all
right. but will keep the old grudge
good" There is something in the
demeanor that seems to say: /
would not do you harm. Indeed /
wish YOU well, but that unfortunate
affair can never pass out Of my mind" "
There may no hard words pass between
| them, but until death breaks in the
same coolneSs remain. But God lets
our pardoned otfenseS go into oblivion.
He never throws them up to us again.
He feels as kindly toward us as though
we had been spotless and positively
angelic all along.
Many years ago a family consisting
Of the husband and wife and little girl
of two years lived far outln a cabin on
a western prairie. The husband took
a few cattle to market. Before he
started his little child asked him tC
buy for her a doll, and he promised.
He could after the sale of the cattle
purchase household necessities and
certainly would not for get the doll he
had promised. In the village tc Which
he went he sold the cattle and obtain
ed the groceries for his household and
the doll for his little darling. He start
ed home along the dismal road at night
fall. AS he went along on horseback
a thunderstorm broke, and in the
most lonely part OF the road and in
the heaviest part Of the storm he
heard a child's cry. Robbers had
been known to do some bad work
along that road. and it was known
that this herdsman had money with
him, the price Of the cattle sold. The
herdsman first thought it was a STRAIT
agem to have him halt and be deS-
poiled of his treasures. but the child;S
CRY became more keen and rending.
and 50 he dismounted and felt around
in the darkness and ali in vain until
he thought of a hollow that he remem-
bered near the road where the child
might be, and for that he started and,
sure enough, found a little one tagged
cut and drenchcd Of the storm and al
most dead. He wrapped itup as well
as he could and mounted his horse
and resumed his journey home. Com
ing in sight of his cabin, he saw it all
lighted up and supposed his wife had
kindled all these lights so as to guide
her husband through the darknaSs.
Butno. The house was full Of excite
ment. and the neighborS were gather
ed and stood around the wife Of the
house, who was insensible as from
some great calamity. On inquiry
the returned husband found that the
little child of that cabin was gone.
She had wandered out to meet her
father and get the present he had
promised, and the child was lost. Then
the father unrolled from the blanket
the child he had found in the fields,
and. 10, it was his own child and the
lost one of the prairie home. and the
cabin quaked with the shout over the
lost one found. How suggestive OF
the fact that once we were lost in the
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