The Iola register., 1902-03-14

though l knew my heart was sinful
enough and 1 said to myself: "There
is no use of my trying to do any good,
for | never went through those de-
PRAYED experiences" But afterward l
saw consolation in the thought that
no one gained any ordination by the
laying on of the hands of dissoluteness
and infamy.
And though an ordinary moral life,
ending in a Christian life, may not be
as dramatic a story to tell about, let us
be grateful to God rather than worry
about it if we have never plunged into
outward denominations. 1t may be APP
propriate in a 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 n 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 1 felt like putting my
hand on my pocketboolS or calling for
the police lest these reformed men
might fall from grace and go at their
old business of theft or drunkenness
or cutthroatery. If your sins have
been forgiven and your life purified,
forget the waywardness 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 will never again rise up
on our earth, the earth itself being
flung into fiery demolition-supposing
that on that last day group of in
fernal spirits should somehow get
near enough the gate of heaven and
challenge our entrance and say: How
canst Thou, the just Lord let those
souls into the realm of supernal glad
ness? Why, they said 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 all
There are certain names so magnetic
that their pronunciation thrills all who
hear them. Such is the name of the
Italian soldier and liberator, Carl
baldi. Marching with his troops, he
met n shepherd who was in great dis
tress because he had lost q .aaTrhp
GariDaldi said to his troops: "Let us
help this poor shepherd find his lamb. "
And so, with lanterns and torches, they
explored the mountains, but did not
find the lamb, and after an unsuccess-
full search late at night they went to
their encampment. The next morn
ing Garibaldi was found asleep far on
into the day, and they wakened him
for some purpose and found that he
had not given up the search when the
soldiers did, but had kept on still fur
ther into the night and had found it,
and he pulled down the blankets from
his couch, and there lay the lamb,
which Garibaldi ordered Immediately
taken to it's owner. So the Commander
of all the hosts of heaven turned aside
from His glorious and victorious march
through the centuries of heaven and
said: 81 will go and recover that lost
world and that race of whom Adam wa
the progenitor, and let all who will ac-
company me-" And through the night
they came, but do not see that the
angelic escort came any farther than
the clouds, but their most illustrious
Leader came all the way down, and by
the time His errand is done our little
world, our wandering and lost world
our world fleecy with the light, will be
found in the bosom of the Great Shep.
herd, and then all Heaven will take up
the cantata and sing: "The lost sheep
| foundl"
So l set open the wide gate Of my
text, inviting you all to come into the
mercy and pardon of God-yea, still
further, into the ruins of the place
where once was kept the knowledge of
your iniquities. The place has been
torn down and the records destroyed
and you will find the ruins more dilapi.
dated and broken and PROSTATE than
the ruins of Melrose or Kenilworth, for
from these last ruins you can pick up
some fragment of a sculptured stone
or you can see the curve of some
broken arch, but after your repent.
ance and your forgiveness you cannot
find in all the memory of God frag'
ment of your pardoned sins so large
as needles point. "Their sins and
their iniquities will 1 remember nc
more"
Six different kinds of sounds were
heard on that night which was inter
iected into the daylight of Christ's as
sassination. The neighing of the
warhorses-for some of the soldiers
were in the saddle-was one sound
the bang of the hammers was a second
sound, the jeer of malignants was q
third sound, the weeping of friends and
followers was fourth sound, the
plash of blood on the rocks was a fifth
sound, and the groan of the expiring
Lord was a sixth sound. And they al
commingled into one sadness. Over @
place in Russia where wolves were pur
euino n load OF travellers and to save