The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-06-06
BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS.

To wake up in the morning wish
ing that one had never been born
happy is the person who has not had
this bitter feeling. Remorse, haunt
ing, ruthless, relentless remorse, is the
price which must be paid for hospital
ity to SIM Even the man who has
given himself over willingly to vice,
and knows that he will do so again
and again, cannot escape this dread
interview with remorse. The depths
of human self-analysis. with all the
bitter consciousness of failure and
degradation and unattained heights,
are sounded by the person in the
clutch of what the world significantly
calls ''the day after" In this hour
the spirit perceives clearly that sin
is too dear at any price.
If simply being sorry could turn
people from evil there would be no
sinners left.
The difference between remorse and
repentance is that the former is
merely a selfish sensation of regret;
the latter is a resolute change of
mind, and a purpose Of betterment.
Remorse loathes the mire-and re-
One of the heart cries of literature
is the fifty-first Psalm. wherein David,
his eyes opened by the fearless
prophet Nathan's Thou are the
man. after the loathsome affair of
BathSheba and Uriah, shows himself
crushed beneath a sense of the awful
ness Of his sin. Many penitent since
has read these lines as if they were
the agonized utterance of his own
spirit. There is no doubt about the
genuineness of David's repentance.
He abhors himself and his foul deed.
He sees how odious he must be in
the sight of a pure God. Out of the
bitterness Of the unacceptable thrall-
dom of secret sin he cries. my sin is
ever before me-" Like Macbeth, he
perceived the spectre of his crime
for him until he found pardon at the
feet of God.
Probably in all the prisons of earth
today there is not an inmate who can
not offer some excuse for his mis-
dedes. The stupidest of offenders
shows skill at the ancient art of self
excusing. The most shameless and
unprovoked crime can be, by some
perverted process of reasoning, JUS
titled in the eyes of the criminal.
Even so sincere penitent as David
ton; modern fashion, he blamed his
awful crime upon heredity. as if his
pure mother and clean-living father
were in some way accountable. He
cried, Behold, 1 was brought forth
in iniquity; and in sin did my mother
unmanly on David's part. He should
have stood up bravely to an
acknowledgment Of his sin, without
Adam-like, trying to shift the re-
sponsibility upon somebody else.
Consists in the hearts being broken
for sin, and broken from SIM
Children quickly learn to say "I'm
sorry if thereby they can avert
punishment. Deep sorrow. however
brings forth fruits meet for re-
pentance. David saw his sin in re-
lation to God and to the world; once
pardoned, he wanted his experience
to count as an equipment for service.
Then will I teach transgressors thy
ways; and sinners shall be converted
unto thee" This is one of the heal
ing balms which God applies to the
wounds left by sin (although even
He does not eradicate the scars); He
permits the dread experience to be-
come a means Of helpfulness to
others. They can best warn against
the way of the wicked who have gone
that road themselves.
There is only one place where sins
may be cast so that they will never
again appear or trouble; that is in
the ocean of the mercy of God. The
penitent can find peace only in divine
pardon. He must cry, with David.
Hide thy face from my sins. and
blot out all mine iniquities. Create in
me a clean heart, o God. and renew
a right spirit within me- That cry
never goes unheard by God. He will
"abundantly pardon" every sincere
seeker after forgiveness. There is no
1;x, III fhot hn FORGIVE
it.; and substitute for the gnawing
tooth of remorse in the heart, the
sweet song-birds Of Joy.
Going through the state penitentiary
at Nashville Tenn, one day. fell into
conversation with convict whose
bright face had attracted me. I asked
him when he expected to get out, and
he told me. with smile Of content
ment on his face, that he was in prison
for life. At once I rejoined, Then
you are Christian" And he assented,
saying that he was being Justly pun
ished for a crime committed in a fit
of drunken fury, but that he had made
his peace with God. Manifestly, no
man could be contented, and even hap
DIV, in those circumstances, except by
the grace of the Lord. Pardoned by
Him, it is possible to live rejoicingly
anywhere.
The man who gets right with God
is made right by God.
Before every wandering, stumbling,
SHINING mortal there always hangs the
lamp of promise. reckoning him back
home. and promising, not only forgive
ness. but what David coveted. the re-
stored Joy, which had been suffocated
by the miasmas of sin. God gives not
only salvation, but salvation and a
song.
SEVEN SENTENCE SERMONS,
In diving to the bottom OF pleasures
we bring up more gravel than pearls
Balzac.
4 X n
What we really are. somehow or 9TH