The Jennings daily record., 1902-10-02
'..WHY WILL YOU DIE|s'p ! /
IMPRESSIVE sERMoN sY LYMAN
sEECHER.
The Message Of Ezekiel to the House
Of Israel Furnishes the Text-Re.
form the Lever to Lift the Mountain
Of Sin.
Downright, 1eo2.)

linus We SPEAK saying. Al OuA u
gressions and our sins be upon us, and
we pine away in them, how should we
then live?"-Ezekiel xxxiii, 10.
The house of israel had become very
wicked and were suffering in captivity
the punishment of their sins.
They were like tares sOwn among
good wheat. They were permitted to
ripen. and the husbandman was ready
with his sickle to cut them down and
cast them into the fire to save the
wheat.
They cried out in desaipr. not seeing
any way open for their return to right
eousness. They We're hopeless.
1t never entered their minds that
they could reform. I'VE are too far
gone" they thought within them
selves, and the measure of our iniqui-
ties more than outweighs any full re-
pentance.
The burden had increased until they
felt it crushing them down-down-
down.
How remove it's weight? How could
they release themselves from it? But
again they cried in their despair, de-
spending: Even ii the burden be re-
moved, how should We then live?"
They were simple people, these chill
dren of Israel. Wicked for a long
period. They alternated the evil and
the good, with the evi, in excess, and
only q trace of good in the whole mass.
Thus they lived their lives, but the
time came when a dark specter arose
before them. Repentance they knew
was necessary, but of what use re-
pentance? A mouEtain was pressing
them down, and a spoonful of earth
removed here and there would make
no impression on it's monstrous weight.
A grain weight taken from ton is not
perceptible. They were lost, 80 they
thought.
| But the eye of the Lord was upon
them. Not a sparrow falleth.' So
| he made it the duty of Ezekiel to save
| them from themselves. He was to
show them that reform was the great
| lever that would lift the mountain of
| sin from their hearts. They were to
to remove that load.
Repentance is good and right and
proper, but repentance and relapse are
too often twin brothers, boon COM
panions. Reform was and is the pam
| acea. That means change, return
to gather up the good that is cast away
on the pathway Of life, retracing OF
the steps baca to the forks where the
straight road was rejected and the
crooked one accepted.
Therefore, Ezekiel was commanded
to expostulate with them and to ban
ish their respondent apprehensions.
| The Most High condescended to rea-
son them out of their despair, to reani-
mate their hope.
Say unto them: AS live l have no
pleasure in the death of the wicked,
but that the wicked turn from his
way and live; turn ye, turn ye from
your evil ways; for why will ye die, O
house of Israeli
The Lord was imploring a wicked
| people to turn and live.
| Surely, this means reformation;
grief, sorrow, repentance will come,
but reform first; retrace your steps;
begin again.
"As for the wickedness of the wick
ed, he shall Eot fall thereby in the day
that he .turneth from his wickedness.
Ii he restore the pledge, give again
that he had robbed walk in the stat
utes of life without committing in
iquity, he shall surely live, he shall not
die"
We are forced to the true thought,
| in the commands of Ezekiel, that the
work of reformation, in the time OF
great moral declension, is a difficult
but not an impossible or mpracticable
work.
Take now thy soul. o man, and free
it from the CALLING chains of sin; per
nit it no longer to be the galley slave
of a tyrant 'Tis difficult but not i'm
| possible.
How difficult it is to reform, long
experience demonstrates.
The sons of Belal, in a time OF
moral depression, are numerous and
daring. The spirits of darkness have
their prey almost within their clutch
They are emboldened by impunity
They declare themselves Independent
both of Gcd and man; they arc
leagued by common interests to de
! fend their usurped immunities. They
are watchful and Jealous, and the mo
ment an effort is made to reform every
mouth is open against the work; theil
clamors and threatenings. like the
croakings of the frogs of Egypt, fill
the land
Strange it is, how difficult the lessor
to learn, that sin is infamy and tha
reformation is glory and honor.
Men lament bitterly the prevailin,
evils of, the day, and multiply predic
tions of divine judgment and speed.
ruin. There are signs in the heavens
upon the earth; fiery cross appear
at night: the waves of ocean rise VI
and overflow the land; vast noun
tain eXplodes and destroys tens o