1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



905 



Every child that learns to walk has a good 

 many falls, and bumps its nose a good many 

 times before he learns to be careful. In the 

 same way, say the modern scientists, we 

 commit sin— it is a part of our experience. 

 We can not very well learn better until we 

 have sown our wild oats, and become capa- 

 ble of looking on all sides of the question ; 

 therefore he who commits sin or crime need 

 not feel so terribly bad about it ; it is more or 

 less the habit of every human life, and the 

 world is step by step growing better. In 

 the present age, and with our limited knowl- 

 edge, it could hardly be expected that we 

 should do any better than we do. We shall 

 all get over sinning by and by, even if we 

 do not make such a terrible tirade about it 

 as some of the fanatics and extremists do. 



While he was speaking I remembered 

 that I had again and again heard the same 

 kind of philosophy ; for it is a sad fact, that 

 there are men — yes, even teachers in science 

 —men with fine education and intellects, 

 who seem to seek some relief from a guilty 

 conscience other than repenting of and for- 

 saking their sins. They evidently turn to 

 science for some relief or escape other than 

 the only one ever opened since the begin- 

 ning of the world— the relief through Christ 

 Jesus. Without any personal acquaintance 

 or knowledge of some who stand high as 

 scientists, I have been led to feel from the 

 very tone of their writings that they were 

 guilty at heart— guilty, perhaps, of oft-re- 

 peated and deliberate sin. They try to de- 

 lude themselves by the thoughts that the 

 pastor expressed ; and they seem to find a 

 relief in trying to teach others that we are 

 so constituted that we can not very well 

 get along without more or less deliberate 

 transgression. God says, " The soul that 

 sinneth, it shall die." This class of modern 

 scientists take it up in about the same 

 strain that the serpent spoke to Eve — 

 " Thou shalt not surely die." Of course, the 

 speaker held up the Bible and Christ Jesus 

 as the only relief and the only refuge. Here 

 his eloquence waxed stronger and stronger. 

 He held that great audience spellbound ; 

 and as I heard him plead for the dear Sav- 

 ior, wave after wave passed through my 

 soul until I most fervently thanked God 

 that such an earnest and powerful advocate 

 had been raised up to publicly proclaim 

 against the teachings of infidel scientists. 

 The preacher spoke of sin and crime exactly 

 as if he had been through the horrible miry 

 depths himself. As he recalled some of the 

 experiences of my own life I was fairly 

 startled. He did not say in plain words that 

 the experience he related was his own ; but 

 he made sin in the sight of God, if not in 

 the sight of men, more hideous than I had 

 ever seen it pictured before. As I went out 

 it was with a fervent feeling of thanksgiv- 

 ing and praise that our great cities, with all 

 their corruption and sin, are also provided 

 with such earnest and faithful advocates of 



Eurity and righteousness as the one who 

 ad just delivered the message that God 

 had given him. I had vis'ted only one of 

 the great churches, and their spires reach 

 aloft through every part of the city. Who 

 can count them? "The Sabbath^ Jlay [was 



only a little more than half gone, and I had 

 had two experiences— that of the German 

 Sunday-school, and the sermon I have just 

 mentioned, that was a surprise and a glad 

 surprise to know that God is working with 

 great power, not only in the basements of 

 these grand and beautiful buildings, but 

 even in the audience room ; and 1 feel glad 

 to think that Chicago, with all its great 

 achievements, is scarcely a bit behind in its 

 efforts to glorify God, and to spread the gos- 

 pel of righteousness. 



Now, clear reader, if you have ever been 

 tempted to delude yourself into the idea 

 that sin is not so awful bad, listen to the 

 warning I have tried to carry to you to-day. 

 A man in our jail once confessed to me, in 

 an indifferent manner, a crime he had re- 

 cently committed. I remonstrated, and 

 tried to impress upon him the terrible con- 

 sequences that must follow such an act. 

 He broke out a little vehemently and said, 

 " Why, Mr. Boot, you don't know any thing 

 about what is going on in this world. You 

 are innocent and unsuspecting, and you 

 think everybody else is the same. Why, 

 there is not a man who walks the streets but 

 has at some time or other been guilty of this 

 very thing you make such a fuss about." 

 My friends, his statement is not true ; 

 and even if it were true, it does not 

 help the matter. He had deliberately 

 broken one of God's plain, positive com- 

 mands ; and the bad, wicked, miserable 

 life attested to the fact that he was reaping 

 his reward. Perhaps he deluded himself 

 with the thought that others had done the 

 same thing, and repented and had been for- 

 given. I have even heard men quote the 

 patriarchs of old as an example, that they 

 might transgress and it will finally be over- 

 looked and forgotten. The patriarchs of old 

 were not forgiven unless they were truly 

 penitent. It is true, that Jesus offers par- 

 don as a free gift to all who will accept it. 

 "Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise 

 cast out." But, my dear friend, it is not 

 such an easy thing to come, after a life of 

 deliberate sin and crime. There is a boun- 

 dary line ; and those who deliberately trans- 

 gress until this line is passed, do not, as a 

 rule, turn back or repent. The words of 

 one poor soul still ring in my ears. He was 

 on his dying-bed, and in great agony of 

 mind over his past wicked life. I searched 

 the Bible for promises ; but in answer to 

 them all he said, " It is too late, too late." 

 I was obliged to leave him, but I could not 

 learn after his death that any peace ever 

 came to his poor lost soul. 



In our recent Sunday-school lessons we 

 have learned much of David, and his life 

 has been quoted in the way which I have 

 mentioned. David was a godly man ; but 

 through the temptations of riches and pow- 

 er he became careless. A snare was set for 

 his feet, and he fell. I believe, that from 

 that moment his peace of mind and peace 

 with God was gone. It never came back 

 until he was entirely penitent, and had re- 

 pented in dust and ashes. And even then, 

 what anguish and torture racked his poor 

 soul, even to the last'l'days of [his'life — an- 

 guish and torture that he brought directly 



