Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1902-03-13

them. The chief stock on hand of
some people is to recount in prayer
meetings and pulpits what big scoun-
drels they once were. They not only
will not forget their forgiven deficits.
but they seem to be determined that
the church and the world shall not for
you have been the chief OF sinners and
extol the grace that could save such
wretch as you were, do SO, but do not
go into particulars. II you have any
scars got in honorable warfare, show
them. but IL you have scars got in igno-
BILE warfare do not display them.
know you will quote the Bible rerer-
ence to the horrible pit from which
you were digged. Yes, be thankful for
chat rescue. but do not make displays
of the mud of that horrible pit or
splash 1t over other people. Some
times have felt in Christian meetings
discounted and unfit for Christian
service because / had done none OF
those things which seemed to be, in
the estimation of many, necessary for
Christian usefulness. for l never swore
a word or ever got drunk or went to
compromising places or was guilty of
assault and battery or ever uttered
slanderous word or ever did any one a
hurt. although I knew my heart was
sinful enough, and l said to myself,
There is no use of my trying to do
any good. for l never went through
those depraved experiences" But
afterward | saw consolation in the
thought that no one gained any ordi-
nation by the laying on of the hands
of dissoluteness and infamy.
And though an ordinary moral life,
ending in Christian life, may not be
as dramatic story to tell about, let us
be grateful to God rather than worry
about 1t IL we have never plunged into
outward denominations. 1t may be ap-
propriate in q meeting OF reformed
drunkards or reformed debauchees to
quote for those not reformed how des-
perate and nasty you once were. but do
not drive a scavenger's cart into as
semblages Of people the most Of whom
have always been decent and respect
able. But l have been sometimes in
great evangelical meetings where peo-
pie went into particulars about the sins
that they once committed. so much so
that felt like putting my hand on my
pocketbook or calling for the police
lest these reformed men might fall
from grace and go at their old business
of theft or drunkenness or cut-throat-
cry. II your sins have been forgiven
and your life purified. forget the way
wardness 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 viii never again rise up
on our earth. the earth itself being
flung into fiery demolition-supposin
that on that last day group Of in
fernal spirits should somehow get near
enough the gate of heaven and chal-
lenge our entrance and say: How
canst thou, the just Lord, let those
souls into the realm of supernal glad
ness? Why, they said a great many
things they never ought to have said,
and they did great many things they
ought never to have done. Sinners
are they-sinners al"
And suppose God should deign to an
swer. He might say: Yes. but did not
nv only Son die for their ransom? Did
he not pay 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 toek In his
own body and soul all the suffering
that those sinners deserve. They plead
ed that sacrifice: they took the full
pardon that | promised to all who,
through my Son, earnestly applied for
n. and II passed out of my mind that
they were offenders. forgot all tbout
II. Yes, forgot all about It. Their
sins and their iniquities do remem-
Der no more" A sin-forgetting God!
That is clear beyond and far above a
-pardoning Cod. How often we
hear 1t said, Il can forgive. but can
not forget" That Is equal to saying,
II verbally admit It is all right, but
will keep the old grudge good" There
is something in the demeanor that
seems to say: II 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 GOODNESS re-
mains. But God lets our pardoned Of
lenses 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 out in a CABIN
a few cattle to market. Before he
started his little child asked him to
buy for her a doll, and he promised.
He could after the sale of the cattle
purchase household necessities and GER
tainly would not forget the doll he had
promised. In the village to which he
went he sold the cattle and obtained
the groceries for his household and the
doll for his little darling. He started
home along the dismal road at night
fall. As he went along on horseback
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 1t was known that this herdsman
had money with him. the price OF the
cattle sold. The herdsman first thought
1t was a stratagem to have him halt
and be despoiled of his treasures, but