The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-03-16

know you will quote the Bible reference to the horrible pit from which you were digged. Yes, be thankful for that rescue, but do not make displays of the mud of that horrible pit or splash It over other people Sometimes l have felt in Chris tian meetings discounted and unit for Christian service because I had done none of those things which seemed to be- in the estimation of many. necessary TOT Christian usefulness, for l never swore a word or ever got drunk or went to compromising places or was guilty or as- sault and battery or ever uttered sian derous word or ever did any one hurt, although I 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 depraved ex- solatlon 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. end ing in a Christian life. may not be as dramatic story to tell about, let us be grateful to God rather than worry about 1t if we have never plunged into out ward abominations. It may be approprl- ate in a meeting of reformed drunkards or reformed debauchees to quote for those not reformed how desperate and nasty you once were, but do not drive n scavenger's cart into assemblages or people the most of whom have always been decent and respectable. But l nave been sometimes in great evangelical meet ings where people went into particulars about the Sins that they once committed. so much so that l felt like putting my hand on my pocketbook or calling Tor the police lest these reformed men might fall from grace and go at their old bus mess of cutthroatery. If your sins nave been forgiven and your life purified, for get the waywardness of the past, and allow others to forget It.
 A Sin Forgetting God.
 T tn, thn 1ieyhf f,f this text to impress is that we have a sin forgetting God. Suppose that on the last day-called the last day because the sun will never again rise upon our earth demoition-supposing that on that last day a group of internal spirits should somehow get near enough the gate or Heaven and challenge our entrance ana let those souls into the realm of supernal gladness? Why. they said great many things they never ought to have said. and they did a great many things they ought never to have done. Sinners are they--siners all"
 And suppose God should deign to an. swer He might say: Yes, but did not My only Son die for their ransom? Did He not pay the price? Not one drop or blood was retained in his arteries: not one nerve of his that was not wrung in the torture. He took in His own body and soul all the suffering that those sinners deserve. They pleaded that sac riiice: they took the full pardon that promised to all who, through My Son; earnestly applied for 1t. and It passed out of my mind that they were oHenders;; I forgot all about it. Yes. l forgot all about it. Their sins and their iniGuities do l remember no more. A sin for getting God, That is clear beyond ana often we hear it said. "I can forgive. but l cannot forget" That is equal to say ing '.I verbally admit it Is all right. but will keep the old grud2e good. seems to say: "T would not do you harm Indeed I wish you well, but that unfor- tunate affair can never pass out of my mind" There may no hard words pass between them, hut until death breaks In the same coolness remains. But God