The Washington herald., 1918-01-24
REPENTANCE FIRST step
TOWARD HEAVEN, BILLY
TELLS TRAIL HITTERS
EVENING SERMON
Nathan and David

Second samuel, twelfth chapter,
thirteenth verse, David said unto
Nathan, ]. have sinned against the
Lord"
That is a part Of one Of the sad
dest statements found upon the pages
of the Old Testament. always
read It with two conflicting emotions.
One is a feeling of assurance and
satisfaction. IN the fact that the Bible
was inspired OF God, for If a man
or a company Of men uninspired OF
God had written or compiled the Bible,
you never would have been told the
story Of mans sin. and shame and
short-co nings. particularly II that
man had been prominent and q king.
But when. God inspires a man to
write It he puts 1t all in black and
white. the good and the bad. God
leaves noRe of 1T out. He does not
do that because be is anxious to pa
rade before the world the short-com-
ings OF human nature and our prone
ness to sin, but God tells you and
me what men and women did in other
ages Of the worlds history, and He
tells us that they repented and He
foregave them their sins, and that
holds out hope for you and me. for
what God did for one, He will do
for all and what God did thousands
OF years ago for the penitent sinner
He will do for the penitent sinner
today.
Broken Vows.
So God has made a record of it in
order that we might take courage
by knowing that God would forgive
our sins if we did what they did
confess our sins.
If a man had been writing the Bible
he never would have told US that
Noah got drunk when he came out
Of the ark. He never would have
told US that David committed adul-
terry with Bathsheba, and that Solo
mon had 400 more wives than old
Brig Yeung, and made him look
Ike 4 pIker; Of Peter denying the
oaths and curses; of Ananias and
Sapphira holding back part Of the
price. and Of Judas betraying. But
when God inspires He puts 1t all In.
II Is a sad thing to tie your hopes
to some man or woman and be dis
appointed,
There Is many q wife amidst the
perfume OF the orange blossoms and
in the wedding ceremony has plighted
her fidelity to that man, and has
turned and broken her vows; or he
pledged his loyalty to her and prom
sled to be true as long as the sky and
the waves were blue, and then turned
from those vows and broke them as
If they were made of spider webs.
There Is many a mother. she has
Brought forth her children in pain and
suffering. she heS builded high her
hopes that when she was aged and
decrepit that young man by his strong
right arm might go out and earn the
bread to keep her from want But he
has turned and he has proven himself
an iconoclast to her prayers and her
hopes. And there is many q girl that
her mother brought forth in pain and
tears and suffering; she has builded
high her hopes. She has gone down
the line of the wine room with a god
less gang and she knows the way she
Is living. the places she goes. 1t won't
be long until the mute effects of dissi-
patton can no longer be hidden.
The mother will be compelled to
withdraw from society and creep up
the back alley, my friends, and never
lift her eyes to look people in the face,
not for anything she has done. 1t Is
a sad thing to tie your hopes to some
man or woman II they prove a traitor
or iconoclast to your prayers and to
your tears.
Work of David.
Think of a man that could write a
psalm like the twenty-third psalm.
Henry Ward Beecher called that the
nightingale psalm, for he said it seemA
the sweetest song in the night time Of
bereavement, and Of affliction. and OF
suffering and that and kindred psalms
Of David seem to lift me 30 close to
Heaven that 1 imagine can hear the
garment of the Son Of God as He
swept by him by faith The man that
the Bible tells me was man Of Gods
own heart.
"Oh," said ap old blatant, buster
ing. whisky-soaked infidel to me out
in Iowa one time, bill, II David was
a man after Gods own heart, I am
frank to tell you that haven't very
much respect for the choice Of God"
I said to him, David was not
man after Gods heart, simply be-
cause he sinned: but David was
man after Gods heart because
when he sinned he was decent and
n,ap apnuOb fn tall God that he had