The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1902-06-13

u.-ACROSS THE CLOUD GOD CAST
HIS BOW
To see q bow three things are necessary.
First there must be a cloud we certainly
have that IN the worlds sin Second the
sun must be shining; we have this cond.-
ton met In tho fact that God is light, and
in Him there il no darkness at all Third,
the rain must be falling. We have this in
Isaiah %: 10, ll-"tor AZ the rain cometh
down, and the snow from heaven, and re-
turheth not thither. but watereth the
earth, and maketh il bring forth and bud,
that II may give seed to the sOwer. and
bread TO the eater; so shall My Word be
that goeth forth out of My mouth; it shall
not return unto Me void but it shall ac-
Complish that which / please. and 10 shall
prosper in the thing whereto / sent IT,"
Or, we might put it-hrst, IN order that
we may be saved, we must acknowledge
ourselves to be sinners. This is the cloud
Second, we must have some conception of
Gods hatred Of sin. This is the light.
Third, we must be persuaded that He
loved us and gave Himself for US This Is
the rain With these conditions met. the
bow Of promise spans the cloud of a sinful
life
uI.-THE SEVEN COLORS.
II should hold a prism in my hand and
the light Of day should touch il, there
would be refrected at once seven colors,
as follows: Red, orange, yellow green,
blue, indigo and violet. There never has
/ been q rainbow in this world but these
/ have been seen in more or less prominence.
In my message now, the prism is the cross,
and the light is Gods truth. As it strikes
this long prism it breaks up into seven
colors. The seven together give Us the
| rainbow.
First, forgiveness. Psalm 80: l.-"Bessed
/ is he whose transgression IS forgiven,
/ whose sin is covered"
The word forgiven means taken of.
| What a wonderful thought it is! Oh,
/ what a load Of sin we had to carry How
| It did weigh us down. How day and night
we went crying aloud, saying, ooh,
wretched man that / am, who shall deliver
re" Resolution never lifted it particle.
/ Reformation only seemed to make it heav-
Ter. Then He came. and stopped down, or
whispered to us Just one sweet word,
Forgive and when we realized 1t the
burden taken off. To receive all OF
this we "a, e but to yield to God. Trying
to make ourselves better only adds to the
cloud and deepens our despair.
The second color is cleansing. Psalm 81:
Purge me with hyssop, and | shall be
clean wash me, and | shall be whittier than
snow"
The little bunch of hyssop carries us
back to the Passover night, when the
lamb was slain and its blood collected It
was not said that one should take brush,
brit bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the
blood and sprinkle the posts of the door.
The commohest thing that grew in the
East was hyssop. 1t represents faith. One
had but to step tp the door of the cottage
and stoop down to pluck bunch of hys-
| phn Oh IN, oil
world is faith. We have faith in each
other, whether we express it in this word
or not; and the faith that one has in his
mother, in his father, in wife or husband,
if turned toward Jesus Christ would save
his soul. 1t is one thing to be forgiven, but
the color deepens, and the truth sweetens
when we know that because of the shed
blood of Jesus Christ we may be made
clean "The blood of Jesus Christ His
Son cleanseth us from all sin.
The third color is justification. Ro-
mans 4: 25-"Who was delivered for our
offences, and was raised again for our jus
tifcation."
One might be perfectly sure of his for
giveness, and know that it meant sins
taken off, and might be confident Of his
cleansing, but there is the memory of the
old life of failure which is ever to him like
shackle when he would run to God. JUS
tifcation is sweeter by far than anything
we have yet learned When Christ rose
for our justification He stood before God
as o kind of receipt (as John Robertson
has said), and when God looks upon that
receipt He knows the bill is paid.
"Jesus paid it all. All to Him l owe.
Sin had left bitter stain, He washed it
white as snow"
But justification is even better to me
than fhip for W hon ono 10 iurtitiag hnfDrp
God he actually stands as if he never had
sinned.
The fourth color Is-sins covered by the
: sea- Micah 7: l9-"He will turn again, He
will have compassion upon us; He will sub
due our iniquities and Thou wilt cast all
their sins into the depths Of the sea-"
1t is very comforting tc know that there
are some depths in the ocean so deep that
they can never be sounded. Our sins must
have gone as deep.
There is also another thought Of com.
fort; If body is cast into the ocean where
the waters are not very deep, when the
storms come and the ocean is in a fury
the storm, as if with giant hands, takes the
dead body and casts it upon the shore
But there are depths in the sea so great
that no storm that has ever yet swept across
the face Of the deep has stirred the waters
Thanks be unto God. our sins may be sunk
SO deep in the sea that they win never be
cast up against us again. The color deep.
ems and the truth grows sweeter still.
The fifth color is-sins removed. Psalm
lO3 Pas far as the east is from the
west. so far hath He removed our trans
gressons from us"
1t has been proved that the distance
from east to west could never be meas
ured. This is certainly inspiring. But
there is something better for me than this
in the fifth color, for when I am told that
rny sins are as far from me as the east is
from the west [ know that the east and
the west can never be brought together;
nor can the saved sinner and his pardoneC
sins ever meet again.
The sixth color is Isaiah "a: pr have
blotted out, as thick cloud thy transgres
sions. and as a cloud. thy sins: return un