The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-07-01
HANDLEY MEMORIAL PASTOR BREACHES
 ON FORGIVENESS"
Doctrine of Forgiveness Has Great Richness of Mean ing for Convicted Sin
 ner, Says Minister

The Rev. s. o. Cox of Handley Me morial church took as his text Sunday morning a part of Ephesians, fourth chapter and s2d verse Even as God in Christ forgave you"
 His theme was Forgiveness. /" He said in part:
 Every utterance of the gospel, when properly revealed to us at it's true source, IS rich in wondrously good things. but for the convicted sinner this doctrine of forgiveness has an even greater richness of meaning than all others Yet not only is this fact one of glorious import to the newly reclaimed sinner, but it is alike precious to the Christian of deep expe- rlence. The author of the Both Psalm was a man of rich experience in the things of Christ, yet that psaifnist dweH much on this subject Forgiveness He seys, Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee; Lord, hear my voice.
 DOCTRINE OF FORGIVENESS
 And the Apostle John, who has pene- trased the profound depths of the gospel, declares to us that If we confess our sins He will be faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. This doctrine
 
 the sinner and is the first hope of him that has been made aware of his sin.
 There is nothing that you can think upon of truth or knowledge that is so strange as this fact of forgiveness. This is the one place where the laws of cause and effect has been interrupted. This is one place where the usual order of things has been disturbed As a fact, in it's relation to every other fact, it is the strangests If you seek. for the source of this d.y~'ine, you will not find it in nature, bslause in nature cause and ef- feet prevail with never-failing constancy. Since the green hills were created and showers have fallen, the water has all ways coursed downward. There can be no interruption to the law of gravitation AS man soweth, that shall he also reap He cannot SOW corn and reap thistle. There is no break in this nat ural, normal course. Nature knows noth- ing of forgiveness. In all this realm of natural law, anything that comes be- tween cause and effect is inimical.
 LAWS OF CONSCIENCE
 "The laws of conscience work as un- varyingly as the laws of nature, and if we turn to conscience we will also be disappointed. You cannot find peace or forgiveness through your conscience; it absolutely shuts you out of this hope
 "But when forgiveness is found. some- thing in nature, something in your con- science has been interrupted God has bespoken his forgiveness and we must sack elsewhere than in nature or in our conscience for the source of that for giveness. We must look to the super natural Nowhere else in all this uni verse, save in the Lord Jesus Christ is for giveness even possible
 l"The text suggests to us, not only the .l--H u A us something of the measure of this for giveness. There are two phrases in this text that suggest to us this measure, the one phrase fin Christ expresses it's limitation and the other phrase, even as expresses it's extent.
 HAPPINESS IN WORSHIP
 "1n the first phrase we are limited to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is this fact that constitutes the despair of seeking forgiveness in nature or in conscience or in reason. Missionaries state that there is absolutely nothing of happiness in the services Of the heather worshiper. There is not only the mark of detection in his face, but there is tone of despair in his voice as he addresses himself to his god in application. It is because he has the inward sense that nature and conscience can offer him no hope. This forgiveness is not like the for giveness of man to his fellow man, which is often with a degree of reservation but it is the perfect forgiveness of God as manifest in the giving of his only Son. And the degree of this forgive ness is often lost sight of by Christ's followers because they are so in the 1 habit of carrying their own load of sin, they forget that God has put away that sin, and has put it away as completely as the Lord Jesus Christ is infinite, and we stand as clear before God as his angels, who have never known sin"