Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1908-10-24
THE WORLDS BIGGEST PROBLEM
The International sunday-School Les
son for October % is. "The Joy
of Forgiveness" Psalm 80.
BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS.

acutal crosses of their victims at all,
but lying athwart the hill of Calvary
beneath the feet of John and Mary and
the surrounding crowd, appear the
shadows of the three crosses. The
power of the picture lies in what it
suggests rather than what it tells. 1t
implies that the painters brush was
not equal to depicting that supreme
tragedy itself. In a somewhat sim
liar fashion, this Psalm of Pentinence,
which Is assigned for present study,
reveals the shadow of David's great
sin; since it would not be well to con-
centrate the gaze of Sunday school
scholars upon the heinOus offence
itself.
There is no theme in the Holy Writ
upon which it is easier to gather
Illustrations from contemporaneous
life than this one of a great sinner
suffering from deep remorse. The
reader may turn to the other pages of
the present issue of this paper, and
he will find some illustration of the
awfulness of sin. What shame and
sorrow and crime follow in the trail
Of this particular sin of David's.
Every day it hurls victims into sui
cide's graves. 1t puts the black de-
mon Of fear upon the backs Of men. 1t
extinguishes the sun of innocence, and
blots out life's beauty. 1t crowds the
divorce courts of the land. 1t drives
mothers and wives into the shamed Sc
clusion of observation-disclosures. Plainly
we do not have to turn to dusty COM
mentaries to find lessons from the sin
| of David.
1.-THE King can do no Wrong"
David at this time was in the hey
day Of his success. He was eminent
as monarch and as servant Of
Jehovah II he were to fall, it would
be like some of the crashing diaster
of recent American history, wherein
men have toppled from positions of
| highest religious trust. 1t must not
be forgotten that David's desires had
wandered before his feet. He had
given free course to evil negotiations,
and they led him captive He, like
many another man since, thought that
he had right to indulge his evil med
itations and his wandering desires.
What revelation it would be if we
could see the pictures painted on the
chambers of imagery of the people
with whom we touch shoulders every
| day! There is nothing more terrible
in modern life that the occasional
| glimpse we sometimes catch of the
charnel houses that exist in some hui
man minds. The essential fallacy OF
the present popular teaching that life
is all sweetness and beauty, and that
man is as divine as God, is shown by
the actual facts of any neighborhood
| Teachers of this sort of philosophy
need to spend half an hour in intimate
| relation with the life in any shop, or
MILL or club house, or place of free
and informal concourse.
If a person can persuade himself
| that it is right to give rein to his
imagination he finds little difficulty in
believing that it is safe to follow his
dream by his deed. Whether David
convinced himself by any such reason
ing as that "the king can do nc
wrong we cannot know Certainly
ne proved to be an eminent exponent
of the modern fad of the sovereignty
of desire-by which route enter nova
days short-lived "affinities," while wed
ded wives are driven out of the back
door. Our modern kings the rich
men and their sons, who think that
they have a right to ali that theil
eyes desire, constitute one of the
gravest problems Of our western
world Society tolerates and condones
In them conduct which would put
ordinary men into the penitentiary
Would to God that more prophets
would arise to point a finger of per
sonal condemnation at these power
full sinners, who feel themselves above
the moral law.
"Be Sure Your SIM
BY a perversion Of the word of wis
dom, it is popularity taught that sl
will always be found out. Now thi:
is not so, even though it is true tina
sin generally is found out. More i'm
portant is the teaching of the Scrip
ture, which is Be sure your sin vii
find you out" This is a different mat
ter altogether, and far more serious
What a neighbor thinks concernin;
your conduct is of small weight a
compared with what your own con
science will think. Remorse, like ;
srirning fiend, will confront yol
night and day; it will haunt you
feasts and mock your merriment, an,
you will be ready 80 cry with smit
ten David: my sin is ever before
me-" This profound truth has beef
popular theme with some of III,
worlds greatest writer's. 1t run
through Shakespeare, Milton, Dant
and Hawthorne. Most of all is
found in the daily newspaper. Their
is. scarcely a week passes withou
some tragic incident creeping int
: print, of victim of remorse bein
/. driven into confession or the mad
house.
: The Escape From Torment.
. have watched the Sad-faced pi
grims at Benares making that forty
, mile round Of shrines. | have see
} them descend the bathing CHATS am
lave in. filthy pools; and perform rite
l with offerings and oblations. All thi
does not necessarily mean what W
, frequently read into it, but il doe
, mean that for these Hindus e,
, istence is hard and joyless and into
cradle a burden to he escaped q