The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1904-05-01

sermon the preacher announces the III
vine amnesty to all who repent, and
sinners OF every degree are urged to
accept the offer which is made with Il
royal magnanimity and completeness
that put human forgiveness to shame
by comparison. The text is Psalm
H. I, Wash me, and l shall be whittier
than SNOW
absurd smile" you say; that state
ment cannot be scientifically true.
There is nothing whittier than the snow,
any more than there is anything deader
than death, or hlacker than black, or
redder than arterial blood, or emptier
than vacuum"
Snow, from chemists standpoint,
has a superlatlve Wilderness. The pur-
est Of all yapors is that found far up
in the heavens. Along comes a sudden
cold wave and it freezes that v0por in
10 snowllakes, just as that cold wave
can freeze falling raindrops into hail
stones which patter upon the pave
ment Then as that snowflake slowly
drops through the air it comes to us
us white rs it is possible for anything
TO be- And yet there is Il sense in
which the psamiSt is right in saying
that God can wash away our sins TN
Ill we become whittier than snow the
pure snow, the spotless, wind driven
SNOW.
The Poets License.
What you state about the snow is
literally true Scientifically, there can
be nothing "Whiter than snow" But
you must interpret these words Of my
text with the iiguratiye license of the
poet When you see through poetic
eyes and hear through poetic ears you
can see sights and hear sounds never
analysed in any laboratory or ClasSi-
fled by any earthly acoustician. re-
member that some years ago in a ser
mon | described myself rs walking
through an orchard and lying down
under the branches of an old apple
tree and listening TO long CONVERSE
ton between two apples on the tree
overhead one apple wanted TO live
only for self. 1t wanted to hold on to
that tree branch until its flush Of
health died away and it became
wrinkled and brown and docayed and
fell 10 the ground to be trampled under
foot by the SWINE. The other apple
was willing TO die in order that Others
might live. This second apple wanted
TO be pulled off to adorn tile Thanks
giving banquet table, or to be carried
as a gift to the inyalid's room, or to be
slowed away in the ships hull for an
arctic explorer, or to be crushed in
the press that the cider might sparkle
and glow with life As | described
those two apples talking together |
saw one Of my dearest friends in the
audience with ycXed look upon his
face. He was a hard headed business
man, without an atom of poetry in his
makeup. After the service he came
up to me and said: "Why did you
speak all that nonsense about those
two apples? You never heard two
apples talking. Apples can't talk |
looked mt him for a moment and then
said: sDidn't you over hear the flow
crs talk and the birds talk and apples
talk? have | have heard them
often talking to NE. If Isaiah could
mako mountains and the hills break
forth into singing and all the trees of
the fields clap their hands for JOY,
surely | can hear two apples talk |
know those apples talked, for | heard
them"
The Drunlanrd's Sins.
We do not bind the imagination Of
the poet with the rigid bonds of scien-
tlilc accuracy. He IS accorded n IL
censc to see and hear with his spirit
ual eyes and cars scenes and sounds
not scientifically true. Though these
words of my text may not be literally
true in the figuratiyc language Of the
psalmist they are POLITICALLY SO. They
may mean IN the common language
this Though your past lives show
scarlet. though you have committed
sins which have not only corrupted
your own soul, but have laid the souls
Of others. like the human sacrifice of
the Aztec sun worshrcrs. on the fiery
affairs. yet even for you there are par
don and cleansing, if you will accept
them Like the prodigal in his rags
and tattcrs. there is home for you In
the Fathers house. Though, like Paul,
you have 10 acknowledge yourself the
chief Of sinners, like him you may find
grace and have the honor Of tOiling in
Christian service.
Christ is ready to cleanse the drunk
ards sins. These are neither few nor
small, for the drunkard's sins can drag
man down SO low that he VIII lose
all sense OF dcccncy and respect. They
can change man into n condition
more imbruted than that Of n wild
beast. The drunkard after awhile
seems TO become as unqucnchable in
his passions as the patient whose yo-
raclous appetite is Unsuitable after
long attack Of typhoid fever. The
drunkard's craving viii make a man
lie and steal and destroy his home and
his business. The drunkard's sins will
cat ont a mans heart as well as his
brain. The drunkard's sins are like
the legion Of demons which took pos
session Of the poor maniac who. naked
and alone, haunted the tombs Of the