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MEMORIAL DAY.
t
EX will much wit
droopm eeasers,
March with arms re-
veneato-eay;
Wet aa konu sad
busies caUtax;
All will eease along
the way.
While the drum-
corps
O'er sad o'er
Beats tke dead-march
up aad down.
Throat a the streets eX
every tbva.
Ob! wen may tbesesd
arck touad today
Vvr the comrades who oaee were brave for the
fray.
Who once wonld hare led la the fiercest charge.
With hearts that were tn sad with hopes that
were large:
But they rest from strife.
They have givea laelr life,
Aad the Nation to-day will inarch to their
graves
As the ocean-tides march with their sotmdlBC
waves,
At God's command:
As the cloud-billows starch, in silence grand.
So the graves to-day through the breadth of
the land.
As In by-goae years.
Shall be rich with showers
Of the Nation's tears
And the Nation's flowers.
Comrades! sooa our forms must slumber
Underneath the sod.
For our souls are swiftly marching
To the bivouac of (Jo J,
But tho day shall still be honored
At its worth,
"By the soldiers' sens aad daughters
Through the earth.
They shall carry drooping banners,
They shall march in silence all
With no bugle call.
I
While the drum-corps
O'er and o'er
As before.
Beats tho dead-march up and down,
Through the streets of every town.
For this day is set apart
By the grateful Katioa's heart.
Rev. Charles S. Newhall, in Chicago Advance.
SERGEANT SAM'S STORY.
How He "Was Saved by a Wom
an's Love and Devotion.
Written for This Paper.
I ALT! Front! Bight
Dress! Salute!" and
the click of heels
followed aa I
looked up. The
man I knew at
once, but who was
tho boy? In line
they stood. Im
movable as graven
images, with right
hands, palm out
ward, at the visors
of their forage
caps.
"Why, 8aml"
"Colonel! shake!
It does me as much
goodtoseeyonas it did when we run up
theeldflagatVicksburg. Thirty-eight, come
here and shake hands with your ColoneL
He knows you, sir, and all about
.you, except some things you used to say
-when the tight was hot; and when I see
you coming, I cays: Thirty-eight, get into
line, mind your drill and salute your
-Colonel like a man and soldier. And
didn't he Just do it. eh?"
I took the hand of the great-eyed, brave
boy in my own and watched him while he
Intently studied my face.
"Now, Thirty-eight, run on ahead and
tell-them I'm coming back with our
ColoneL You got to ration with me this
one time, sir, if I carry you to my quarters.
Fve wanted long to see you and I cant and
-won't let you go."
It was on the evening of Memorial Day
that this meeting occurred. I had visited
the town by invitation of the Q. A. R, and
certain matter I had written for the occa
sion was road during the ccremonle& After
dinner I had again stolled toward the
-church-yard and it was Just outside the
.gate that I encountered Sergeant Sam and
the boy.
8am Shingle was about the bravest, most
reckless man in tho old Thirty-eighth reg
iment volunteers, which for three
years of the late war I had the honor to
command.
Brave they all were, but 8am waa the
leader, and color-sergeant also, but he was
likewise the most troublesome man; in the
discharge of his duty none excelled him,
but his profanity was fearful, he would
drink to excess, and when drunk waa a
demon.
During one of our assaults upon Ticks
burg, Lieutenant Sidney Foster, a slight,
delicate young officer, was left in front of
-the enemy's works when we were driven
back, and the gigantic color-sergeant had.
resigning his flag for a time, rushed be
tween cross-fires, picked Foster up and car
ried him, as a mother would a child, back
Into safety. The act was so noble, so dar
ing, that even the gallant foe, those who
could see it, cheered for the brave fellow
.and exulted in seeing him succeed.
But he was terribly wounded before
be did reach our lines, and shortly after re
ceived his discharge for disability resulting
from wounds received in action. Together
with Foster, mustered out for the same rea
son, he had gone to the Western home of
.the Lieutenant, and hero it was I met him
WOULD A CHILD.
the occasiom meattoaed for the lest
aime since.
Ike boy bad started ahead, as ordered,
theugh it was evident as would have glad
Jy remained.
"He's thoroughbred, Colonel trae blood
through aad through, that boy is-aad I'm
tramiBghim for a soldier, I am. 8eehow
me obeys orders? I tell you when Uncle
,tomgeto Thirty-eight Foster for s soldier.
ld glory wont wave ever a better or
Thea that is the sob of your greet frlead,
lieutenant Foster, to it?"
That's bis sou, sir, aad Aer's."
I looked more closely thaa ever at 8am
:fcow his voice trembled as be spoke the last
-arerd, How chaagsd he was, There was
Ks
-av ay
a3l MlJbiIs flh rfk"
isrSSsi-aA
i21flKP
ta H " I?r"Er d "ma
AS AXOTHKB
ao traos of the old riotoBs living, bo touch
erhSBeararermrftytB Ms toagaage; aeta
taint of the beast about hlra.
I watted patiently for developments.
"Way 6V yoa call that fine little fellow
Tairsy-efeht?' " I asked.
8am laughed. "Well, ye see. Colonel,
right after he came here I took tfie old fig
ures off my old cap and polishes 'era up and
put 'era onto a little blue cap that the
mother made for aim. You never see any
thing or anybody so tickled in your life as
be was, aad be uster cry for that cap, and
thea put his hand ap to make folks see them
figures and so we got to calling him
Thirty-eight,' and be knows that aame
best and is best known by that name, aad,
doat yoa fear, ColoneL be don't nowise,
noway disgrace the old Thirty-eight, he
dont; he never picks a fight, but he fights
any thing, and there aint no squealing
when he gets licked. I'm first sergeant over
that boy, I am, and I known him all
through.
I had promised to go to supper with Sam,
and as he approached his home, which he
pointed out in advance, I noticed a tavern
one sight we webs sxttixo biobt here.
near by; this gave me the chance to ask a
question:
"I suppose over there is your headquar
ters most of the time, Sam?"
"No, sir! There's just where you don't
hit it There has not been a drop of that go
into my mouth since the day I promised
her."
It was a neat house, with a good, old col
ored servant, I was taken to and I enjoyed
my supper with the old sergeant and the
boy, and then, in the moonlight, on that
Memorial Day, he and I sitting alone.
enjoying our pipes, old Color-Sergeant Sam
told me his story:
"When we left the service, ColoneL I
having neither kith nor kin, came out here
with Leftenant Foster, he needed mo to
help hold him up in one wny, and I surely
needed him to hold me off from some of my
ways.
KWeU. he'd been married, as you may re
member, on his leave of absenco about a
year before we left, so we both went to
work to fix np this place for the wife and
little one, and I worked square and honest,
though I still took my grog mighty regular,
and was mighty fond of it, too,
"When we got all things here ready for
inspection and review, then the Leftenant
he starts down to St Louis to get his
back pay and final settlements and to bring
the wife and baby home. He had some
money of mine, and before he started he
gave it to me, and all that money and most
of my time I spent at that tavern you see
over there.
"You know what I am, ColoneL when rm
on the loose, and I guess I got that time
worse than ever, having no commanding
officer whatever, and I kept it up, day and
night, until I was crazy as a hoss in a barn
afire.
"ldldnt have any idea just when the
Leftenant was coming home, and so one
night as I came rolling back here, full
as I could hold to my back teeth, I spied
through the window a man moving about
in the front room: 'twasn't an instant be
fore I was in there and had him in my
grip. I raLsed him up and was just shout
to bring him in one smash on the floor
when something somebody all in white
kind of floated to my side and laid a hand
on my arm.
" 'Sam, Sam, it Is your Leftenant r that is
what I heard, and a child could have fla
ished me then.
"You've heard men say, sir, bow they
sometimes wished the earth could swallow
them -that's how I felt So little, so brave,
so quiet I didn't dare to look at her. I
just laid the Leftenant down and turned to
go away forever.
" 'Sam, come here with me-come to your
room,' she said. I obeyed better than ever I
did even your orders, sir; but I didn't dare
to look at her. You see she knew me from
what he had told her, and her grand heart
could forgive all that
"I went to my bed aad she brought me
my tea, and soup, made by her own hands,
and she sat by me and talked to me as no
one else ever talked, nor could talk to me
neither preach nor scold it wasn't honest,
friendly, loving talk and she told me how
I had saved her husband for her, and how
he loved me and she loved me and,
Colonel, it fetched me bad, fetched me ev
ery way, and she went and brought in a
wee bit of a babby, and she says: 'Sam, I
want you to look after and care for this lit
tle Sidney as you did for his father, and you
must promise me that you will, for I trust
you. Sam.'
"And, sir, I did promise her then and
there, and 1 put myself on special duty to
carry the colors before that boy, to carry
them up and square to the front and
that promise I have kept, and will keep to
the end of my life, so help me, God!
"We were very happy and well-content
here all but me. I see that she was wearing
her life out for her boy and husband, but
what could I do? It was not for me to speak.
Love her? I did love her but not in the
way that men talk of loving women. What
could I be to her, but Sara? I never touched
even the skirt of her drees. 'Love' was not
the aame for it
"She was fading and fading away; ao oae
but me seemed to notice it, but I could see
it every day aad hour, and I did not know
if I'd feel glad or sorry. She did not be
long here, she was kin to God aad to His,
aad her place was above.
"Oae aight we were sitting right here,
where we are bow, aad she heard little Sid
give a whimper from bis cot
"Tb called,' she said, aad got up aad
weatta.
"Aa boar after I beard the Leftenant cry,
aad jumped; ws fouad her white aad love
ly as ever, with the baby in her arms,
stretched epos her bed; bat she had gone
home to the God that loved her-to the Ood
she loved.
"It wasnt long before he went, too; be
didn't seem to care to want to live after
that and Bothlag could rally him, not evea
the tricks of little Sid, that was the peart
ess baby you ever see, just as he's the
brightest boy lathe world now.
"One night, the Uttle chap was lathe cot
with me, aad I beard the Lofteaaat call la
his weak voice:
" Sergeaat, the boy. quick!'
"I bad just time to raise the child se his
father could pat bis Uasagalast the baby
cheek wheal see it was all ever with my
Iff8 r
n
Leftenant he'd got bis discharge -a detail
as assise artere where' he aad she wtmeT
meet and know no more sorrow, or pala, or
trouble,
"And since then, so far as in me lays, rve
been a father to Thirty-eight I meaa HU
tie Sid. He loves me, I know he does, and
there is no use os earth for me but for him.
I'm strict as I ought to be with him, orders
is orders, and I see that hs obeys 'em; but
he knows how old Sam loves him.
'Out wL.ire you were to-day. Colonel
out at that graveyard, they are both buried.
I dug his rrave, and I dug iter's. No
hands but mine would I let make ready the
last home on earth of these two, and there
is where I found you. aad there and here
is where any one can find me. The Leften
ant left enough for the boy. and I have my
pension from Uncle 8am, and I live happy,
content and a clean man."
"Do you go to church, Sam?" I asked. .
"WelLno. sir, I don't," be replied. "To tell
the truth, I don't take kindly to their arti
cles of war; there's two of 'em here and each
talks directly opposite to the other and
Z&2R",! EJlSLrLES
booked for eternal and everlasting roast
ing. 'Tain't that way she talked, there was
nothing but tho late of God in all she ever
told me. and I'm more than willing to risk
all my chances on her teaching. The boy i
goes to the church and Sunday-school, I
tain t for me to keep him from them, but
rm
they
men grinned at the idea of old Sam being
there, and the women smiled, and
the girls sniggered, and that kind of
told me that I had to keep away from
there er get into a fight, and so. when
little Sid goes there, I just sit nut by the
graven yonder, by his grave and hv and I
hear enough to do me all the good that can
be done me here on earth.
"Younever expected to hear this talk from
old Sam, did you, Colonel Well, I wouldn't
say the same to any other man on earth,
but I have just been aching for years to ask
some one that I could trust if I am right or
not, and you 're the man I most wanted to
see. I want to know if I am wrong in doing
as I try to do. What do you think?
"She left me her boy, he left the boy in
my care. I know I try to do the best
for him, and I believe she sees how honest
ly I work to do it
"1 could no more do what would shame
me before her than I could have deserted
my colors. I am not crazy or one of your
Spiritualists, but I do seem to hear her. do
feel that she is always near me and satis
fied with what I do or try to da Do you
think I am right, or do you think I am a
fool?"
"This is Memorial Day for alL and all
hearts are tender-but it is 'Memorial Day
me for every day of my Ufa Memory of i
my duty to her boy, of my gone Leftenant '
and of her who saved me, whose words
made a real man of me and who went
home to God and left me something to live
and hope for am I a fool for all this.
Colonel?"
1 answered him "No" and in my soul I
believe that the sweet spirit of the gentle
wife and mother must hover over, control
and guide the glorious efforts of the old
soldier, so strangely changed in nature,
who continually strives to do as she would
have him do, to bring her boy into all the
paths of manly truth and nobility of life,
who has so far subdued his own nature as
to kill all the savage within him, and who,
from a loving, beautiful reverence, keeps
and will keep while he lives one unend
ing, sacred and ever-remembered "Me
morial Day." Alex. Duke Bailie.
THE CHIVALROUS COLONEL.
How Be Aided an Unfalthfal WIT
to
Elope from Her Hushaad.
HE Memphis &
Charleston railroad
crosses the Louisville
ft Nashville at De
catur, Ala., and as
the train approached
the place a woman
who had been very
nervous for some
time past suddenly
began to weep. The
ColoneL who is big of heart as well as of
stature, asked the cause of her trouble, and
after a bit she explained :
"I I have a presentiment of trouble. A
man who has vowed to make me trouble
comes to Decatur very often, and I feel that
I shall meet him here."
"But he wont'tdare speak to you!"
'Ob, yes, he will. He dares do any
thing."
"Well, I'll seo you over to the other train,
and if he's around he'd better look out for
himself."
"Thank you ever so much. I'm really
afraid of my Ufa"
The other train was waiting for us, and
the Colonel took the lady and started across
the platform. They were suddenly con
fronted by a man who made a grab at her,
and as she screamed the Colonel shot out
with his right and knocked him clean over a
baggage-truck. He put the woman into a
car, dropped off as the bell rang, and got
back to the truck just as his victim was get
ting up.
"Who struck me!" asked tho man as he
looked around him.
"I did," replied the ColoneL "No man
can insult a lady under my protection."
"Do you know her!"
" Never spoke to her until a quarter of an
hour ago."
"Read this."
And he handed out a telegram sent to him
at Huntsville from Nashville. It read :
"George Blank Your wife is running
away with John Doe. They will change for
Memphis at Decatur."
He had come down to intercept them,
been knocked out by tho ColoneL and the
tram was ten miles away before he opened
his eyes. We bad not noticed John Doe,
but he was probably in one of the other
cars. Detroit Free Pressi
The Way of Insurance Mow.
"John," said tho accident agent, "be sure
anddropinatoIdCurmudge's as you pass
this morning and express your sympathy
over the loss of bis brother in the railway
accident recently. Express mine to him
"But old Curmudge had ao brother ia the
accident," said the patient solicitor.
"WeU, what in all that's unholy has that
got to do with it!" said the ageat, cheerily,
"all he can do is to tell you so."
"Bat it might unnecessarily alarm him,"
persisted the solicitor.
That's the point; that's exactly the
point," returned the accident agent, cheeri
ly. "Alarm him as much as possibto. His
owb policy mas out aext Bftath, and it is
oae of our duties to remind our patreas
that ia the midst of life we are surrounded
byaecideBts." 3
"Aad John," he added, as the pattest
soucitor departed oa hto erraad, "take this
banana peel aad put it carefully oathe
f rout steps. It is by attendee to details
that tab symmetry of perfect basiaess ia
built up." Insurance Herald.
Wkmita. Kan., boasts of a Mohawk de.
toctive bureau. Every detective ia s
hawkshaw.
sot stove Hd to Irs proof.
too old a dog to learn new tricks whea J "" -'"'J' " ..
try to whip 'em into me. wun ol ana unuer preparation iney
I dtd im tn Minn.li nnm or Mm linfcthn ' """ "" ""I " "
. Q, -W .. V WW V -.--, W - -
HUMAN UNCLEANNES3.
Dr. Talmas; Discourses on Original
Sin in Man.
Natural Foulness of the World No Good
Apeleales For Mia Titer to No Panto
Without Repentance Christ Ready
to Cleanse All.
la a late sermon at Brooklyn Rev. T.
De Witt Talmage took for his text: "If I
wash myself with snow water and should
I cleaase my hands in alkali, yet shalt
thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine
own clothes shall abhor me." Job ix.
30-3L The preacher said :
Albert Barnes honored be bis noma on
earth and in Heaven went straight back
to the original writing; of mv text, and
I ing.abstaatial reason, for so doing? AN
though we know better, the ancients had
an idea that in snow water there was a
special power to cleanse and that a gar
ment washed and rinsed in it would be as
clean as clean could be; but if the plain
snow water failed to do its work, then
It be gone. Job, in ray text, in most
forceful figures sets forth the idea that all
his attempts to make himself pure before
God were a dead failure, and that, unless
we are abluted by something better than
earthly liquids and chemical preparations,
we are loathsome and in the ditch." "If I
wash myself with snow water, and should I
I cleanse my hands in alkali, yet shalt thou
plunge me in the ditch, and mine own
clothes shall abhor me."
Tou are now sitting for your picture. I
turn the camera nbscura of God's word
full upon you. and I pray that the sun
shine falling through the skylight may
enable me to take you just as you are.
I Shall it be a flattering picture or shall it
be a true one? You say: "Let it be a true
one." The first profile that was ever
. taken was taken. 330 years before Christ,
I of Antigonus. He had a blind eye, and
he compelled the artist to take his profile
so as to bide the defect in bis vision. But
since that invention, 331 years before
Christ; there has been a great many pro
files. Shall I to-day give you a one-sided
view of yourselves, a profile, or shall it
j be a full length portrait, showing you just
' what you are? If God will help me by
His almighty grace. I shall givo you that
last kind of a picture.
When I first entered the ministry I used
to write mysermonsall outand read them,
and run my hand along the line lest I
should lose my place. I have hundreds
of those manuscripts. Shall I ever preach
i them? Never; for in those days I was
somewhat overmastered with the idea I
heard talked all around about of the dig
nity of human nature, and I adopted the
idea, and I evolved it and I illustrated it,
and I argued it; but coming oa in life,
and having seen more of the world, and
studied better my Bible, I find that that
early teaching was faulty, and that there
is no dignity in human nature until it is
reconstructed by the gracs of God. Talk
about vessels going to pieces on the Sker
ries, off Ireland ! There never was such a
shipwreck as in the Gibon and the Hidde-
keL rivers of Eden, where our first par
ents foundered. Talk of a steamer going
down with five hundred passengers on
board! What is that to the shipwreck of
fourteen hundred million souls? We are
by nature a mass of uncleanness and
putrefaction, from which it takes all the
omnipotence and infinitude of God's grace
to extricate us. "If I wash myself with
snow water, and should I cleanse my
hands in alkili, yet shalt thou plunge me
in the ditch, and my own clothes shall
abhor me."
I remark, in the first place, that some
people try to cleanse their soul of sin in
the snow water of fine apologies. Here is
one man who says: "I am a sinner; I con
fess that; but I inherited this. My father
was a sinner, my grandfather, my great-great-grandfather,
and all the way back
to Adam, and I couldn't help myself."
My brother, bave you not, every day in
your life, aided something to the original
estate of sin that was bequeathed to you?
Are you not brave enough to confess that
yoa have sometimes surrendered to sin
which you ought to have conquered? I
ask you whether it is fair play to put upon
our ancestry thing for which we our
selves are personally responsible? If your
nature was askew when you got it, bave
you not sometimes given it an additional
twist? Will all the tombstones of those
who have preceded us make a barricade
high enough for eternal defenses? I know
a devout man who bad blasphemous par
entage. I know au honest man whose
father was a thief. I know a pore man
whose mother was a waif of the street.
The hereditary tide may be very strong,
but there is such a thing as stemming it.
The fact that I have a corrupt nature Is
no reason why I should yield to it The
deep stains of our soul can never be
washed out by the snow water of such in
sufficient apology.
Still further, says some one: "If Ihave
gone into sin, it has been through my
companions, my comrades and associates;
they ruined me. They taught me to drink.
They took me to the gambling helL They
plunged me into the house of sin. They
ruined my soul." I do not believe it
God gave to no one the power to destroy
you or me. If a man is destroyed he is
self destroyed, and that is always so.
Why did you not break away from them?
If they had tried to steal your purse you
would have knocked them down; if they
had tried to purloia your gold watch you
would have riddled them with shot; but
whea they tried to steal yoar immortal
soul you placidly submitted to it. Tuose
bad fellows have a cup of fire to drink;
do not pour your cup into it la this mat
ter of the souL every maa for himself.
That those persons are aot fully responsi
ble for your sia, I prove by the fact that
you still consort with them. You caa not
get off by blaming them. Though you
gather ap all these apologies; though
there were a great food of them; though
they should come dowa with the force of
the meltiag snows from Lebanon, they
could aot wash out one staia of your im
mortal souL
Still further, some persons apologise for
their sias by saylag: "We are a great
deal better tbaa some people. You see
people all around about as that are a
great deal worse thaa we are." Yoa
stand ap columnar ia your integrity, and
look dowa upon those who are prostrate
ia their habits aad crimes. What or that,
my brother? IX I failed through reckless
ness and wicked imprudeace for 10,O0, Is
the autter alleviated at all by the fast
that somebody else has failed for tfOO.MS,
aad somebody else for 1900,000? O. ao. if
I have the aearalgia, shall I refuse med
ical attendance because my aelghbor has
virulent typhoid fever? The fact that his
disease is worse thaa mias does that
miael If L through my f eelhardi-
WBA AI. . & . .- . Ma
Bess, leap off late rata, does it break the
fall to kaow that others leap off a higher
cliff iato deeper darkness? When the
Hudson rail train went through the bridge
at Spaytea DayviL did it alleviate the
matter at all that instead of two or three
people being hurt there were seventy-five
mangled and crushed? Because others
are depraved, is that aay excuse for my
depravity? Am I better tbaa they? Per
haps they had worse temptations thaa I
have had. Perhaps their surroundings
ia life were more overpowering. Per
haps, O man, if you had been under the
same stress of temptation, Instead of be
ing here to-day yoa would have been
looking through the bars of a penitentiary.
Perhaps, O woman, if you had b)en under
the same power of temptation, instead of
sitting here to-day ycu would be tramp
ing the street the laughing stock of men
and the grief of the angels of God. dun
geoned, body, mind aad soul, in the black
ness of despair.
Some winter morningyou go out aad see
a snow bank in graceful drifts, as though
by some heavenly compass it bad been
curved; and as the sun glints it the luster
is almost insufferable, and it seems as if
God had wrapped the earth in a shroud
with white plaits woven in looms celestial.
And yoa say : "Was there ever any thing
so pure as the snow, so beautiful as the
snow?" But you brought a pail of that
snow and put it upon tuestove and melted
it; and you found that there was a sedi
ment at the bottom, and every drop of
that snow water was riled; and you found
that the snow bank had gathered up the
impurity of the field, and that after all it
was not fit to wash in. And so I say it
will be if you try to gather up these con
trasts and comparisons with others, and
with the apologies attempt to wash out
the sins of your, heart and Ufa. It will be
an unsuccessful ablution. Such snow
water will never wash away a single
stain of an immortal soul.
But I bear some one say: I will try
something better than that I will try the
force of good resolution. That will be
more pungent, more caustic, more extir
pating, more cleansing. The snow water
has failed and now I will try the alkali of
the good strong resolution." My dear
brother, bave you any idea that a resolu
tion about the future will liquidate the
past? Suppose I owed you 46,C00 and I
should come to you to-morrow and say:
"Sir, I will never run in debt to you again;
if I should live thirty years I will never
ran in debt to you again;" will you turn
to me and sav: "If you will not run in
debt in the future I will give you the
$5,000." Will you do that? No! Norwill
God. We have been running up a long
score of indebtedness with God. If for
the future we should abstain from sin
that would be no defravment of past in
debtedness. Though yoiT should live from
this time forth pure as an archangel be
fore the throne that would aot re
deem the past God, in the Bible,
distinctly declares that He "will
require that which is past" past op
portunities, past neglects, past wicked
words, past impure imaginations, past ev
ery thing. The past is a great cametery,
and every day is buried in it And here
is a long row of 365 days. They are the
dead days of 1SS8. Here is a long row of
S65 more graves, aad they are the dead
days of 1887. And here is a long row of
S6j more craves, and they are the de:id
days of 1886L It is a vast cemetery of the
past But God will rouse them all up with
resurrectioaary blast and as the prisoner
stands face to faca with juror and judge,
so ycu and I will have to come ap and
look upon those departed days face to
face, exulting ia their smile or coweriBg
in their frown.
'Murder will out" is a proverb that
stops too short Every sin, however smalL
as well as great will out In bard times
in England, years ago, it is authentically
stated that a manufacturer was on the
way with a bag of money to pay off his
heads. A maa infuriated with hunger
met him oa the road and took a rail with
a nail ia it fn m a paling fence aad struck
hira down, and the nail entering the skull
instantly slew him. Thirty years after
that the murderer went back to that place.
He passed into the grave yard where the
sextoa was digging a grave aad while be
stood there the sped) of the sexton turned
up a skull, and. lo! the murdeier saw a
nail protruding from the back part of the
skull; it seemed with hollow eyes to glare
oa the murderer, and he, first petrified
with horror, stood ia silence bat sooa cried
out "Guilty! guilty! O God!" The
mystery of the crime was soon over. The
man was tried aad executed. My friends,
all the unpardoned sias of oar lives; hough
we may think they are buried out of
sight and gone into a mere skeleton of
memory, will turn up ia tho cemetery of
the past aad g ower upon us with their
misdoings. I say all of our unpardoned
s ns. O, bave you doae the preposterous
thing of supposing that good resolutions
for the future will wipe out the past?
You see from the last part of this text
that Job's idea of sin was very different
from that of Eugene Sue, or George Sand,
or M J. Michelet or aay of the hundreds
of writers who bave done up iniquity in
mezzotint and garlanded .the wine cup
with eclantine and rosemary, aad made
the path of the libertine end in bowers of
ease instead of on the hot flagging of
eternal torture. You see that Job thinks
that sin is not a flowery parterre; that it
is aot a tableland of fine prospects; that
it is not music, dulcimer, violoncello,
castanet and Paucan pipes, all making
music together. No. He says it is a
ditch, long, deep, loathsome, stenebful
and we are all plunged into it aad there
we wallow and sink aad struggle, aot
able to get out. Our robes of propriety
and robes of worldly profession are sat
urated ia the slime and abomination, and
our soul, covered with transgression,
hates its coveriag aad the coveriag hates
the soul until we are planged Into the
ditch aad cur owb clothes abhor us.
I know that some modem religionists
caricature sorrow for sia, aad they make
oat aa easier path thaa the "Pilgrim's
Progress" that Joha Buayaa dreamed of.
The road they travel does aot stop where
John's did. at the city of Destruction, but
at the gate of the aaiversity; aad I am
very certaia that it will not come oat
where Joha's did, aader the shiaiag ram
parts of the celestial city. No repeataaee,
aopardoa. If yoa do aot my brother,
feel that yoa are dowa ia the ditch, what
do you waat of Christ to lift you out? If
you bave ao appreciatiea of the fact that
you are astray, what do yea waat of Him
who comes to seek aad save that which
was lost? Yoader is the City of Paris, the
swiftest of the lamaas, coming across the
Atlantic. Thewiadis abaft so that she
hss aot oaly her eagiaes at work, but all
sails an. I am oa board the TJmbria of
the Caaard line. The boat davits are
swung around. The boat is lowered. I
get iato it with a red flag aad cross aver
to where the City of Paris Is comiag; and
I wave the Hmg.- The Captaia leeks off
from the bridge aad says: "What
do yoa waat?" I reply: "I come
to take some of your passengers
across to the other vessel. I thiak they
will be safer aad happier there." The cap
taia woald look dowa with indignation
and say: 'Get out of the way, or I will
run you down. Aad them I woald back
oars, amidst the jeering of twe er three
nunared people looking over the taffrail.
But the TJmbria and the City of Parle
meet under different circumstances after
awhile. The City of Paris is coming eat
of a cyclone; the lifeboats are smashed;-,
tho bulwarks gene; the vessel rapidly go-
mgdown. The boatswain gives hie last
whistle of despairing command. The
passenger. run up aad dowa the deck,
and some pray, and all make a great out-
cry. The captaia says: "Yoa have about
fifteen minutes now to prepare for the
next worliL" "No hope!" sounds front
stem to stern and from the ratlines down
to the cabin. I see the distress. I am let
down by the side of the TJmbria.
I push
ore as fast as I can
toward the sinkinz
City of Paris. Before I come up the people
are leapiag iato the water in their aaxiety
to get to the beat and whea I have awung
up under the side of the City of Paris, the
f renziad passengers rush through the gang
way until the officer, with axe and club
and pistols, try to keep Lack the crowd,
each wanting his turn to come next Then
is 1 ut one life boat aad they all waat to
get into it. and the cry is: ''Me next! me
next!" You see the application before I
make it As long as a man' going on in
his sins feels that all is well, that be is
coniing cut at a beautiful port and ha
all sail set. ho wants no Christ h wants no
help, he wants no rescue; but if under tho
flash of God's convicting: spirit he shalt
see that by reason of sin he is dismasted ,
and waterlogged, and going down into
the trough of the sea where be can not
live, ho.v soon be puts the sea glass to his
eye and sweeps the hor zoti. and at the
first sign of help cries out: "I want to be
saved. I want to be saved now. I want
to be saved forever." No sense of dancer,
no application for rescue.
O, that God's eternal spirit would flash
upon us a sense of our sinfulness! The
Bible tells tho story in letters of fire, but
we get used to it. We joke about sin. Wo
make merry over it. What in sin? Is it a
trifling: thing! Sin is a vampire that is
sucking out the life Mood of vour im
mortal nature. Sin? It is a Bantile that
no earthly key ever unlocked. Sin? It is
expatriation from God and Heaven. Sin?
It is grand larceny against the Almighty,
for the Bible asks the question: "Will a
man rob God?" answering it in the affirm
ative. This gotpel is a writ of replevin to
recover property unlawfully detained
from God.
In the Shetland islands there is a man
with leprosy. The hollow of the foot has
swollen until it is tl it on the ground. The
joints begin to full away. Tho ankle)
thickens until it looks like the foot of a
wild beast A stare unnatural comes to
the eye. The nostril is constricted. Tho
voice drops to an almost inaudable hoarse
ness. Tubercles blotch the whole body,
and from them there comes an exudatioa
that is unbearable to the beholder. That
is leprosy, and we have all got it unless
cleansed by the grace of God. See Levi
ticus. So Second Kings. See Mark. See
Luke. See fifty Bible allusions and con
firmations. The Bible is not complimentary in its
language. It does not speak mincingly
about our sins. It does not talk apologet-
ically. There is no vermilion in its style.
It does not cover up our trangressions
with blooming metaphor. It does not
sing about them in weak falsetto; but it
thunders out: '"The imagination of man's
heart is evil from his youth" "Every --r
one has goae beck. He has altogether Jar
become filthy. He is abominable and
filthy, and "drinketh in iniquity like
water." Aad then the Lord Jesus Christ
flings dowa at our feet this humiliatinf-,
catalogue: "Out of the heart of men pro
ceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornication.
murders, thefts, blasphemy." There Isa
text for your rationalists to preach front
O, the dignity of human nature! There Is
an element of your science of man that
the anthropologist never has had the
ecu age yet to tcuch. and the Bible, in all
the ins and cuts of the rco.t forceful atyle,
sets forth our natural pollution, and rep
resents iniquity as a frightful thing, as aa
exhausting thing, as a loathsome thing.
It is aot a mere befculing of the hands;
it is going down, head and ears under, ia
a di'ch. until our clothes abhor us.
My brethren, shall we stay down where
sia thrusts us? I shall not if yoa da We
can not afford to. I bave to-day to tell
you that there is something more paegeat
thaa alkali, and that it is the blood of Jesas
Christ that cleanseth from all sia. Ay,
the river of salvation, bright crystallna
and Heaven born, rushes through this
audience with billowey tiie strong enough
to wash your sins completely and forever
away. O. Jesus, let the dam that holds it
back now break and the floods of salva
tion roll over us.
Let the water and the Mood.
From thy side a healing flood,
Be or sin the double cure.
Save from wrath and make me pure.
Let us get down oa both knees ana
bathe in that flood of mercy. Ay. strike
out with both hands and try to swim to
the other shore of this river of God's
grace. To you is the word of this salva
tion seat Take this largest of the diviae
bounty. Though you have grown down
in the deepest ditch of libidinous desire
and corrupt behavior, though you have
sworn all blasphemies until there is not
one sinful word for you to speak, thoagb
you have been submerged by the trans
gressions of a lifetime, though you are
so far down in year sin that bo earthly
help can touch yoar cose the Lord Jesus
Christ bends over you to-day and offers
you His right hand proposing to lift yoa
up. first making you whiter tban snow,
and then raising you to glories that never
die. "Billy," said a Christian bootblack
to another, "whea we come up to Heaven
it won't make aay difference that we've
beea bootblacks here, for we shall get ia.
not somehow or other, but Bil v, we shall
get straight through the gate.' O, if yoa
oaly knew how fall and free and tender
is the offer of Christ this day yoa would
all take Him without oae single exceptioa;
and if all the doors of this house were
locked save oae and yoa were comeelled
to make egress by oaly oae door aad I
stood there aad questioned yoa aad the
gospel of Christ bad made the right im
pressioa apoa year heart to-day yoa
would aaswer me as yoa went out on
aad all: "Jesus is mine aad I am His!"
O, that this might be the hour whea yoa
woald receive him! It is aot a gos
pel merely for footpads aad va
graats aad buccaneers; it is for
the highly polished aad the
educated aad the refined aa welL "Ex
cept a man be bora agaia he caa not see
the kiagdom of God." Whatever may be
your associations, aad whatever yoar
worldly refinements I mast toll y as fcf
fere God 1 expect to aaswer iarrhe test
day, that it you are aot changed by the
grace of Gcd yoa are still dowa ia the
ditch of sorrow, the ditch of coademaa
tiea; a ditch that empties late a deeper
ditch, the ditch of the lost Bat blessed
be God for the lif tiag; cleaasiag, lastratiag
fewer of His gospel.
O
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