Orange County observer., 1902-03-20
little impatience: IT did let you off. Don't

bother yourself ana DOLner me Win aAy
more of that discussion" The following
that debit can never get over the fact
that / owe you that money. 1t is some
thing that weighs on my mind like mill
stone. Do forgive me that debt. This
time you clear lose your patience and say:
"You are nuisance. What do you mean
by this reiteration Of that affair? 1 am
almost sorry l forgaye you that debt; 10
derstand the plain language in which |
told you that debt was canceledw Well,
my friends, there are many Christians
guilty of worse. folly than that. While IT
IS right that they repent of new sins and
Of recent sins, what is the use OF bother
ing yourself and insulting God by asking
forgiven? God has forgiven them Why
do you not forget them? No; you drag
the load on with you, and 365 times year,
if you pray every day, you ask God to re-
call occurrences which He has not only tor
given, but forgotten.
Quit this folly. do not ask you less to
realize the turpitude Of sin, but ask you
to higher faith in the promise of God
does not give receipt for part payment
or so much received on account, but re-
ceipt IN full, God having for Christ's sake
decreed "your sins and your lnlqultles
will remember no more"
I know you will quote the Bible refer
ence to the horrible pit from which you
were digged.. Yes, be thankful for that
mud of that horrible pit or splash it over
other people, Sometimes I have felt in
Christian meetings discounted and unit
for Christian service because l had done
none of those things which seemed to be,
in the estimation of many, necessary for
Christian usefulness, for l never swore
word or ever got drunk or went to COM
promising places or was guilty Of assault
and battery or ever uttered slanderous
word or ever did any one hurt, although
I knew my heart was sinful enough and
said to myself, "There is no use OF my try
ing to do any good, for never went
through those depraved experiences" But
afterward I saw consolation in the thought
that no one gained any ordination by the
infamy.
And though an ordinary moral life, end
ing in Christian life, may not be as dra-
matte story to tell about, let us be CRATE
full to God rather than worry about it if
we have never plunged into outward abom-
nations.
A sin forgetting God! That is clear be-
How often we hear it said, "I can forgive,
but I cannot forget" That is equal to
saying, II verbally admit it is all right,
but I will keep the old grudge good"
| There is something in the demeanor that
seems to say: II would not do you harm.
Indeed, I wish you well, but that unfortu.
nate affair can never pass out OF my mind"
them, but until death breaks in the same
GOODNESS remains. But God lets our par
doned offenses 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. j..
Many years ago family consisting OF
the husband and wife and little girl of two
| prairie. The husband took few cattle to
market. Before he started his little child
asked him to buy her a doll and he prom
| ised. 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 grocer
little darling. He started home along the
dismal road at nightfall. 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 child's cry. Robbers had been
known to do some bad work along that
road, and it was known that this herds
man had money with him, the price of the
cattle sold. The herdsman first thought
it as stratagem to have him halt and be
despoiled of his treasures, but the child 8
cry became more keen and rending, and SO
he dism ,unted and felt around in the
darkness and all in vain until he thought
the road where the child might be, and
for that he started, and, sure enough,
found little one tagged out and drenched
of the storm and almost dead. He wrapped
it up as well as he could and mounted his
horse and resumed his journey home:
Coming in sight of his cabin he saw it all
lighted up, and supposed his wife bad
husband through the darkness. But no
The house was full of excitement, and the
neighbors were gathered and stood around
the wife of the house, who was insensible
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 gel
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, ano
the cabin quaked with the shout over the
lost one found.
! How suggestive of the fact that once we
were lost in the open fields or among the
. mountain crags, Gods wandering children
! and He found us, dying in the tempest
and wrapped us in the mantle Of His love
and fetched us home, gladness and con
; graduation bidding us welcome. The fac1
? is that the world does not know God OF
J they would all flock to Him.
5 So set open the wide gate of my text
inviting you all to come into the mercy
t and pardon of God-yea, still further, into
: the ruins of the place where once wa!
. kept the knowledge of your iniquities.
2 The place has been torn down and tht
records. destroyed, and yet you will fine
, the. ruins more dilapidated and broker
(. and prostrate than the ruins of Melrose o.
? Kenilworth, for from these last ruins yo,
l can pick up some fragment of sculpturee
!, stone or you can see the curve Of som,
: broken arch, but after your repentanc,
t and your forgiveness you cannot find in al
!, the memory of God fragment of you,
r | pardoned sins so large as a needles point
J ''Their sins and their iniquities will re
;. member no more"
/ Six different kinds of sound were heart
! on that night which was interjected int,
i the daylight of Christ's assassination TIL
s neighing Of the war horses-for some o
;, the soldiers were in the saddle-was on
}; sound; the bang of the hammers was
n / L. ~