The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-03-13
GREAT VALUE OF
A CONTRITE HEART
Or. Dickinson Takes His Iext
from the Psalms
HOW GOOD MEN FEEL
The Greatest Offering Man Can Bring
to Gods Temple is contrite
and Repentant
Heart.
HOW GOOD MEN FEEL

PIT at the IliSl 43dHAAcl IAdANAA 9NSAlAAe1
as usual His theme at the morning
service was "A Song of the Sacrifices of
God" His text was "The sacrifices of
God are a broken spirit; broken and a
contrite heart, o God thou wilt not
despises Psalm 51:17.
Dr.. Dickinson said:
AS you came TO worship today did you
consider what Offering you might make
to your Maker which would be most
pleasing in His sight? Did you seek to
lay on His affairs the first fruits of your
Increase, the precious possession of your
household, or the praises of your lips. If
you should give your body to be burned
1t alone. without your love, would profit
you nothing. These things, however much
we may desire them, are not the sacrifices
of God. Did you bring with you your
spirit, your heart, to His house, and In
humble worship lay this on His altar!
If so, 1t matters not how bruised and
blotted and bleeding that heart may be
from the battle with sin, nor how despica-
BILE it may be in your own eyes, you pre-
scented the one offering which is the sac
riice of God that he can never despise.
Sacrifice of Broken Heart.
We have in this text the hymn of the
presentation of the sacrifice of a broken
and contrite spirit. There is every reason
to believe and none to doubt but that
1t was composed by David after Nathan
had pointed the prophets finger In his
face and awakened the consciousness of
his sin In the murder OF Uriah the Hittite
and the seizure of his beautiful Wife.
This broke up the frozen heart and melt
ed the hardened soul so that this flood OF
feeling flowed forth. Yet the hymn was
SO true to the feelings of every con-
vieted heart 1t was caught up by the
hymnody Of Zion and sung by its peni-
tents unto this day. Some poet of the
captivity seeing in it this fitness to voice
the penitent soul added the two last
verses to give it more pertinence as a
national anthem. At every presentation
OF the broken and contrite heart 1t is
peculiarly appropriate, and so 1t is select
ed for you at this hour of worship.
We Should Rejoice Greatly.
I'VE should rejoice greatly that the
sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and
broken and contrite heart he will not
despise, for 1t is all that many of us may
DI1IlS 10 MS dlldIS. W nat an OlifEiHB Is u
heart But the blessed feature of 1t is
In the kind of heart. The Pharisee
brought a heart into the temple all full
of conceit, pride, good reputation, learn
ing and self righteousness, but It was
only despised In the divine eyes. But the
Publican, with eyes lowered in shame
presented a penitent, contrite, broken
spirit burdened with a sense of sin, and
God had respect unto his offering. send
- Ii. 4. l. k-4.-
that this last. the broken and contrlte
heart is an offering we may all bring. It
is the abundant possession of the sinful
and is within the reach of us all. Come
unto me, all We that labor and are heavy
laden is truly the voice of God to a sin
full world Such are our privileges with
cur God. and we should use them to the
full.
Great Truths Stand Forth.
Let us notice some great truths which
stand forth in this offering of the broken
and eontrite heart.
!. Sin stares us In the face as q we'll
known and ever-present fact. 81 know
my transgression, and my sin Is ever be-
fore me-" is the voice of the offerer OF
such a sacrifice before Gods altar. That
our sin is a fact. I take 1t Is too evident
to each heart. That sin also belongs to
our very nature. for II was born in ini-
guilty. and in sin did my mother conceive
me. There is a great deal of learned nom
sense now current about sin and its
origin. Some gay II is a superimposed
misfortune from a wicked environment
but the facts will not down. Tt Is moth
ing less than a spiritual disease which
infected our race In ages past and has
been inherited In the ages. The pathology
of the moral and spiritual man has its
facts which cannot be overthrown by
fancies and fads Of feverish sentimental
lists. Sin is a well-known, ever-present
fact In the very fiber of the soul. and no
education or discipline can eradicate II.
however much 1t may restrain. Moral and
spiritual hygiene may curtail the rapidity
and severity of its development. but It
still remains true that the soul is prone
TO sin as the sparks are to fly upward
Total depravity, which means the deprav-
ity of the whole race and not the de-
pravity of any one of that race, Is a fact
well-known and ever-present from his
mothers womb. We have all sinned and
come short.
How a Good Man Feels.
2. How a good man in view of this
fact ought to feel as he presents his
heart broken and contrite. on the affairs
OF his Maker is here voiced for us. He
feels that he is tainted, stained, be-
fould.
"Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity
And cleanse me from my sin;
Purify me with hyssop and I shall be
clean.
C.eate within me a clean heart, o God,
And renew right spirit within me-"
Thus sin creates shame, seif-loathing