Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1904-04-27

"What l hare written have writ
zen" said Poniius Plate to the Jews
who came to ask him TO change the in
scription above the cross. He meant
that it was too late. The writing had
been nailed to the cross. 1t was gone
beyond recall
The first thought which the text
throws into bold relief is the unalter-
ableness of the past.
Who is there who would not, If he
could, blot out many chapters of his
life and forget m;lny scenes the mem
CRY of which gives him the keenest
pain to-day? But they are gone, not
gone from memory would they were
but gone beyond our power to
change them. Thoughtlessiy we did
the deeds. Without ain OF narpose
we drifted into such and such courses
of life thinking little Of what was in
yolved. And now we would give our
fortunes to change the record. 1t can
never be done
And closely allied with this thought
of the unalterableness of the past is
its irreparableness. The harm done
can never be repaired. The sin may
be forgiven, but its consequences re-
main. remember in my boyhood
days to have been much troubled by
the story of the boy who was told by
his father every time he sinned to
drive a nail into the door post. Soon
the door post became studded with
nails. Then the father told him every
time he did good act to pull one out.
The thought touched the boy and he
changed his life, and by and by the
nails were all withdrawn. He called
his father, and there stood the door
post with the history Of his sin. for,
although the nails had been with
drawn, the scars remained. But let
us pass on to a second thought. which
to me is still more momentous--yiz.
the coerciyeness of the past.
The thought of the Preparedness
of the past is certainly one of great
solem 1ity; but what about the irrepar-
ablen sss of the future? What | mean
by that is that the past coerces the fu-
ture, ctnstrains the future, makes the
future To express the truth in the
words of the text would make it read
thus: "What have written / shall
write again
There is a tendency i'll every one of
us TO repeat the past in the future. I'm
less there are other influences of great
power to work we are sure to perform
any act or think out any line of
thought in the same way that we have
done it before. We are ever automat-
ically repeating the past.
These minds of ours are like the
Photographic rolls. There are little
indentations, or channels, or ruts-call
them what you will-which are made
upon them by all our past expert
erce. When you turn the roll for an
other year the song that comes out
from it is the speech of the past.
Hence it is that the present is ever
repeating or reproducing the past.
Yes, my friends, if the past could
stand alone by itself, without any CO.
ercing powe-' over the future, that
would be one thing. 1t owuld make
the whole problem of character and
salvation vastly easier than ii is. But
it cannot stand alone. One of the most
awful momentous truths thai concerns
MS here is the dreadful coerciveness
which the past exercises over the flu
ture.
We know what this experience Is.
af hae, brio -
away from some sin. The power of
that sin lies in the fact that it has be
come more or less habit with u.s. We
know too well. then, what the eoercive-
ness of the past is over the future. The
past has stood over us like tyrant,
forcing us against our will and against
our conscience to do what we would
fain fee from. We have struggled
against the sin. We have cried to
heaven for help, have fought it with
the energy of despair. Often we have
triumphed but ever again the power
of the all constraining past would rise
UP like an invisible army and force us
almost before we knew it to repeat the
past history of the sin in the present.
The thought, then, has not been the
sin and the guilt of the past-that has
perhaps all been forgiven in the mercy
of God-but rather the despotism of
the past. its eoercing tyranny, its wise
like hold, and it's all constituting grip
on the future.
am sure that this thought does not
enter into life computations as it
should. We live careless of its deep
and solemn meaning To me no truth
has greater import What / have
written / have written Nay, inf
nitely more awful than that '<T''' It
have written / shall write again" 1t
seems to me that this truth ought to
throw into conspicuous emphasis the
danger which surrounds men who have
lived for half a century without accept
ing Christ. Is there any chance that
they will ever accept? Humanity speak
ing. no. Their past indifference shall
ever eonstrain and coerce them.
But o. there is one hope. Over and
against the coercions of the past
place the power OF the Holy Ghost.
Against human conservatisms | pit
the power of heaven. Although fifty,
ST y or seventy years have passed OF
rejection of the Sayior. and though
your soul be to all hCman sight erys-
Utilized into obdurate and seemingly
eternal Indifference TO God, yet II you
will let the power OF God work within
your heart it will break to pieces the