Ceredo advance. [volume] (Ceredo, W. Va.) 1885-1939, 1904-05-11

81 "Forg etters OF
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ooeoeHl X God" On the one
I\/EI<IZiNNS> hand we have those
I/NHnN\ who are indiffer-
|HEN\ ent to God. uncon-
scious OF their peril
and ignorant of the
blessing to be found
In fellowship with
God, and on the other we behold God in
HIS Infinite mercy and love addressing
the one who has forgotten Him, plead
ing with him and warning him Of his
aWiul peril, and then pointing him to the
way of salvation. 1t is marvellous dis
play of the Divine grace that God should
go after those who have spurned and
forgotten Him. And it is a mystery of
mysteries how the undying soul of man
can be Indifferent to it's Creator and God
how 1t can forget Him and pay no heed
10 the Divine warning Of peril and the
oiier OF salvation. But there are those
who forget God and perish. The people
OF Noahs time forgot God. and treated
His warnings of judgment and destruc-
ZION with Indifference and contempt.
and they persisted. Sodom and Gomor-
ran forgot God and God licked them
with His scourge of fire from the face of
the earth. Nations and individuals
throughout the ages have forgotten God
aid persisted miserably And to-day
there are multitudes of precious souls
that have forgotten God They have
turned their backs upon Him, they have
thrust their fingers in their ears that
they may not hear His warning mes
sage. and they are facing the world and
destruction. Forgetters of God, but not
forgetters of self. Forgetters of God
but not forgetters of the world and all it's
attractions and distractions. Forget
tiers of God and His claims. but not for
getters of the fieshly desires and appe-
titles. Forgetters of God,
NOU may draw your own portrait of
i the Forgotten of God. You probably
would be able to fill in a good many OF
the lines and features. You probably
would picture the dissolute or the Grim
inal, and say there is your Forgotten of
God. And ii would be true sadly true
out do the law breaker and the moral
outcast represent the sum total of this
I'od-forgetting class? Shall we say that
when you have pointed out those who
are known and read Of all men as posi-
lively wicked and bad in their purposes
and habits. you have told all the story?
Mans moral census would be sure to in
clude all those who were SCARED and
tnarred by sin, but il is equally certain
that many, many who are known to God
as Forgetters of Him would be left out.
do not need to go to the drunkard and
tell him that he is Forgotten of God.
He knows it. The consciousness of il
haunts him day and night | do not
need to go into the slums of the city.
into the gambling dens and places OF
iniquity and tell the poor victims there
that they have forgotten God They
know it, and try to drown the troubling
thoughts of their condition by more
madly plunging into the giddy whirl of
sin. | do not need to go to that way
ward boy or girl, to that man or woman
who is travelling the pathway Of sin, and
tell them they are among those who
have forgotten God They will admit it.
and declare they want to forget Who
are the Forgetters of Cod? Not these
alone. then, who need no badge to dis
tinguish them, but multitudes whom
God sees as Indifferent to Him. as for
getful of His claims upon them. For
getters Of God may be well and favorably
known to each other. they may stand
high in the estimation of the world. they
may be socially and financially among
the four hundred, but in Gods sight they
are classed with the Forgetters
IT HE Psalmist takes pains to describe
4 as Forgetters Of God those whom
perhaps you or | would be last to in
clude as such. God Is represented as
speaking. and He declares: Thou
latest instruction Cor correction. as it is
in the marginal reading), and easiest My
words behind thee When thou sawest
thief, thou consentedst with him and
hast been partaker with adulterers
Thou givest thy mouth to evil. and thy
tongue fra meth deceit. Thou sittest and
speakest against thy brother; thou
slanderest thine own mothers eor
Thou thoughtest that | was al
together such a one as myself" As
we examine carefully and critically this
portrayal we find that the positively
wicked and bad are not mentioned. The
Psalmist did not go fishing around IA
cesspools Of sin for his specimens. he
did not trot off to the corrupt heather
nations about to find his man who hac
forgotten God. He found him right
near at hand. and among those who per
haps stood highest in the community.
He was the man who recognized the au-
thority Of the law, who took a pride
and satisfaction in his moral rectitude
and his clean citizenship who held his
head high and was ready to preach
moral standards unto others Tue
Psalmisf sneaks of his rninp so far %