The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1922-05-01
SIN, LIKE LEPROSY. GRADUALLY SPREADS
UNTIL BEING BECOMES CORRUPT AND FOUL
WITH CHRISTIANITY ASITS ONLY CURE

In his sermon. I"The Moral Leper,"
Saturday night Mr.. Sunday traced in
his style the cure Of Naaman of Iepro-
sy and said:
l have sometimes tried to imagine
| myself IN Damascus on review day,
and have seen man riding, some
what apart from his troops. upon a
horse richly caparisoned with trap
pings of silver and gold, and he him
self clothed in garments Of the finest
| texture, and yet with a face so sad
and melancholy as to be repulsive and
win your sympathy and cause the be-
| holder to turn and look second time.
And man unaccustomed to such
| scenes and events might Shave been
heard, as he stood on the curbstone,
to have made remark similar to this:
How unequally God seems to divide
his favors! There is a man that rides
and the others walk; he is a friend
of the King and the others are for
gotten; he is clothed in the finest gar
ments and they are almost naked and
despised."
oh, If we only knew the secrets In
the hearts and lives of a great many
people we envy today we'd pity them
from the depths of our souls.
Years ago was being driven
through beautiful suburb of Chicago
by man who wanted to SELL me a lot
and who was pointing out, here and
there. how highly l could consider
myself complimented If 1 felt myself
able to purchase home and live in
that neighborhood or this one. Final
ly we went past beautiful home. a
paiatfal home, and he said to me:
That belongs to Mr.. So and So and
SO. and named them, and he said to
me, They have been known to live
for months in that home and never
speak to one another, each their own
equipage."
Prefers One Happy -
Little Home.
My thoughts hurried back to the lit
tie flat we called our home and where
wed lived for twenty years and I'd
paid rent enough to have bought the
whole thing. There wasn't very much
IN 1t. ! could have loaded all the fur
niture in two furniture vans and 1
said:
We'll. Lord, if had to give a little
flat with that peace and happiness
and love that goes with it and have
the palatial home and troubled insom-
nit and tear-stained cheeks and the
worry, why, wouldn't do it." and from
that day to this have had a new Wis
ion of things and have been more con-
tented and satisfied than ever.
But he was leper" That disease
peculiar to the Orient, is exceedingly
loathsome, and as l study its patholo-
gy | am not surprised that God used
1t as type of sin. A man accus-
toned to understand the beginnings
of the ravages of that disease might
have said to one thus afflicted:
Do you see that spot You'd better
go show yourself to the priest for the
cleansing, according to the Mosaic
ceremonial law"
oh" says the man thus addressed,
You are unduly excited and alarmed
and agitated for my welfare. That's
nothing but water blister: nothing
but pimple. tester no larger than
the head of a PIN" and at first the
sores were few, then there were
many.
Leprosy Gradually
Spreads.
At first the hand, then the arm and |
then the body is covered and it laws
hold with its Shiny coils upon every |
nerve and vein and joint and marrow
and cuticle and as the days go by the
scums are large and then the sores, |
until the entire body becomes a mass |
of putrefaction and CORFU tion.
So it Is with sin; and am not sur |
prised that God used 1t as a type Of
sin in its development and growth, |
So ] say to the boy, be careful! Don't |
you go with that gang that sneers
and nocks at the Lord and makes
comments upon everybody that passes |
them on the street and condemns vir- /
tue. Why, | heard you swear lust
now, and take the name of God in /
vain. Why, ! smell liquor on your
breath, you are going down the line
that will end in ruin. Why do YOU
laugh at smutty story, that some
body told as though that was witty
instead of being devilish. He said: al
never expect to go down any further
than that"
said to that girl. be careful, nv
girl! Don't you go with that crowd
of Goddess young men. Don't choose
those young men for your compan-
ions. Don't you go down there to
that ballroom. Three-fourths of all !
the girls in this country that have
been ruined by the excitement of their
Sassions down on the ballroom floor.
am interested in welfare; I've got
to assault some popular institutions i
and don't care three whoops this
side of perdition what may be said