The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1902-11-20

there for 200 years. and many of us have
/ allowed sins to enter our hearts in the
i DAYS of our youth which have pursued us
until old age and caused our wreck. II
women are not exempt from sin God pity
the men.
But this mob that hurried this poor
woman into the presence of Jesus was not
an honest company OF men. / know it be-
cause in the seventh chapter | read they
called Him deceiver, while in the eighth
| they addressed Him as Master and Teach
er. In the sixth verse of this eighth chap.
ter we also read that they brought this
woman. tempting Him, for they wanted
points. first. if He accepted Moses law
then they would turn the Roman citizens
against Him and condemn Him because
He would put another to death. Jf He re.
| rndiated the law Of Moses the Jewish rop
ulace would have been His enemies. but
| nevertheless it Ia true picture of the
| world Have nothing to do with it. there
| fore: as you love your own souls, beware
of it. 1t has slain its thousands and tens
| of thousands. What ruined Lots wife F!
| the world; what ruined Achan until he de-
feated the whole camp of Israel! the
world: what ruined Judas until he sold
his very soul for greed of wealth? the
world; what has ruined ten thousand souls
| that are to-day shut away from God and
i
it profit a man if he gain the whole world
| and lose his own soul"
| First. the world is critical Tt will find
| every flaw that exists in YOUR nature; i'm
perfections to which your loved ones would
be blind. and which you yourself were
hardly, aware of will be pointed out and
vulgarly displayed.
! Second. it is merciless. 1t has positively
no excuse for the man that fails and while
never offering to help him over his difficul-
ties when the tide is against him it laughs
at his despair and mocks at his hopeless
! ness.
Third, it is heartless There is no for
| time disposition to overlook but not to
| forgive, and this sort of forgiveness has
| nothing in it of helpful nature to poor
| lost SHINING humanity You who belong
! to the world, may / say to you in all Sc
robustness, don't cast a stone at man
that is a sinner for the reason that you
are, or have been, or may be, just what YOU
condemn in others. No one of us except
we are linked to the Son of God by faith
and walking heartily in fellowship with
Him nav hope to escape from the awful
grip of Satan. Don't be unforgiving. He
that cannot forgive others breaks down the
bridge over which he must pass himself,
and he who is unwilling to forgive Others
makes it impossible for God to forgive him;
world. There is an open door before us to
that which is infinitely better than any,
thing the world has ever seen.
The laws treatment. "Now. Moses in
the law commanded us that such should be
stoned, but what sayest Thou?" Verse 5.
This statement is perfectly true, that is the
law. It was written by Moses and written
to him OF God. There are only Two forces
in operation To-Day in the moral world,
law and grace. Through one or the other
OF these forces we have submitted our
selves and by one or the other we must
hope to stand before God. By the way of
the law the case would seem to be hope
less. One act of sin is sufficient to incur
law; if man takes one false step In the
mountains he lands himself at the bottom
of the abyss; there is no mercy shown by
the law. DIR. Parkhurst gives the descrip-
ton of his climbing the mountains in
Switzerland with a rope around his waist,
held bv two guides, one leading and the
other following after him, when he stood
broad and looked down into the depth,
which measures 5000 feet. If he had bro
ken the law of gravitation and stepped out
from the narrow ledge nothing could have
saved him from a horrible death. We can
quite understand this in nature; the same
thlng appieS III morals. II you SIN agalnsI
your health YOU suffer. Law is a shrewd
detective, and is ever on the watch. One
wheel broken in the machinery and the
whole is inefficient; one piece of rail dis
placed means fearful disaster. just one
transgression of one law of God the pen
altv must be paid "He that offends in one
point is guilty of ALL" the Scriptures de-
clare, which simply means that the least
ofTense of the law means breaking away
from God. [ repeat my statement that
there are but two forces in operation to-
day in the moral world law and grace. If
you have rejected Christ then your only
hope is in the law. and / should think
every man here must see that that IS hope
less. First, you must suffer, for every bro
transgresson of Gods plan brings down
upon you a burden YOU canrot well bear.
Second you will be found out No man
has sufficient ingenuity to cover up his sin,
and no grave has yet ever been deep
enough to save the sinner from the search
ing eye of God. Be sure your sin will find
you out. A truer text was never written.
Third, you must die The wages of sin is
death beg you. therefore. that YOU will
not allow yourself to be controlled by the
law. It is like the world. merciless and
heartless. and presents to you an oDportu-
nifty of escape from sin. but. thank God.
you are not shut up to it. There is way
opening up WHICH IeaQS TO heaven SHINING
brighter and brighter until the perfect day.
To this way I now commend you.
III.
Christ's treatment of a sinner. "But
Jesus stopped down and with His finger
wrote on the ground. as though He heard |
them not So when they continued asking
Him, He lifted up Himself and said unto
them, He that is without sin among you
let him first cast stone at her. And again
He stopped down and wrote on the ground.
And they which heard it, being convicted
by their own conscience. went out one by
one, beginning at the eldest even unto the
last, and Jesus was left alone and the wom-
an standing in the midst. When Jesus had
lifted up Himself, and saw none but the
woman, He said unto her, Woman, where
are those thine accusers? Hath no man
condemned thee9 She said, No man, Lord.
And Jesus said unto her, Neither do con-
denim thee; go, and sin no more" From
verse to IL. You have great picture
presented to you in this story.
First, the angry crowd.
Second, the infinite Saviour. If / were
an artist should paint it, and yet no man
could ever paint the picture of Christ.
know Of one who attempted it and then de-
termined that he would never paint again,
because after working upon the face of
Christ no other face could be worthy of his