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The Blessedness of Forgiveness The following sermon was preached in the Milner Memorial Presbyterian church by Rev. J. Il Clarke, of Lafayette, at the in stallation of Rev. J. C. Hardin. “Blessed is he whose transgres sion is forgiven, whose sin is cov ered ’Psalms 32:1. It is generally admitted that a person can speak more clearly am powerfully when he speaks con cerning those things which have entered into his own life and expe rienee. It takes an old soldier to thrill you with tales of the bat’ tiefield; it takes one who has. nimself, passed through the dark valley, to speak the true word of comfort to the sorrowing heart; it takes one whose own brow is furrowed with care to truly voice the burden of the care-laden soul it takes a man whose own sins have been forgiven to tell men about the joys of that forgiveness- If this be so, the words of David should come to us with peculiar earnestness and power. In the life of David there was no lack of sin. Selfishness, revenge, adul tcry, murder—these and many other sins had cast their black shadows over his life. This 32nd Psalm was written soon after the prophet Nathan had come and told the king of his great sin in taking the wife of Uriah. David had been crushed to the earth with his burden; he had gone to his Father with the pentitent con session. “I have sinned.” In this Psalm David tells of the forgive ness he obtained, and of the con scious blessedness of his position as a son restored to his Father’s house. “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.” David here cov ers the entire range of unright eousness. Transgression includes all acts contrary to the law of trod, the doing of what we ought net to do—sins of commission. The word “sin” here used means to “miss the mark,” that is to fail to do what we ought to do sins of omission. David also covers the whole range of pardon. The word “for give” means to take away, just as a burden is rolled from a man' aching shoulders. The term “cov ered’ indicates that the person’s sin ha.s been hidden, that it will not meet the pure eyes and judg ment of God. David’s message may be expressed thus: “Bless ed is the man whose sins both of commission and omission have beta"rolled away and hidden, so that he stands in God’s sight as one who has done no sin.” Dr. Mac Loren says, “One must have a dull ear not to hear the voice of personal experience in this Psalm. It tlirobs with emotion, and is a burst of rapture from a heart boasting the sweetness of the new joy of forgiveness.” I would remind you that this message was not written for any certain age, but for all time. St. Augustine used often to read these words with weeping heart and eyes, and before his death, he had them written on the wall over against his sick bed. Across the dim waste of years these words came to us, we hear this man speaking, our sins, our pen itence, our joy, and the ancient words are as fresh and fit as close to our experiences as if they had been welled up from a living heart today. “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiv en. whose sin is covered.” This text leads us to consider the I Suffering Ladies 1 k are urged to follow the example of thousands of I “1 their sisters and take Cardui. Cardui is a non- 1 Ik mineral, non-intoxicating medicine for women. It K is for sick, weak ladies, with sick female organs. | « CARDUI J 27 J* I It Will Help You I It is a genuine, curative medicine, that builds B Hup the female system and relieves female pain. J g| Mrs. M. A. St. Clair, of Eskdale, W. Va., writes: K I “Before taking Cardui, I had given up all hope of® ■ getting well. I had suffered for 3 years with my gj ■ left side and was confined to my bed, so I took Cardui, F ry and now Cardui has about cured my female trouble.” ® all drug stores blessedness of the man whose | sins are forgiven. First of all, this man is bless ed because of the greatness of the sin that has been forgiven. Men have differed, and still dif fer, as to the greatness of sin. Some have striven to show that sin was only selfishness, or some, kind of moral sickness of which a man could cure himself. We can prove that sin is a far great er evil. Sin is a great evil because it is the breaking of a perfect law. This law tells us plainly every duty which God requires. It is so plain indeed, that a wayfar ing man, though a fool, need not err therein. This law has been proclaimed since the early days of human history. It has been written for us upon tablets of stone, it has been enforced by the words of prophets, by the voice of the writings of inspired mne, by the voice of the son of God. This law is proclaimed week af ter week, month after month, year after year from our pulpit and from the lives of Christians men and women. This law is per fect in its plainness and revela tion. We have pity for the. man who, in his groping, falls into the ditch, we feel sorry for a person whose ignorance leads him into n -stakes, but surely that man is a great sinner who. knowingly, stumbles into a pit that he has prepared for himself, and wanders into error while the truth lies open before his eyes. This law is perfect in its author ity. We may doubt the ability of our human rulers, ami the wisdom of their laws. We know that upon our earthly statute books are many laws that are dead, laws that are never enforc ed. Now every sinner breaks a law which is based upon the au thority of God. The laws of Moses were not gathered from the follies of Egyptian learnings, the apostles of Christ have not writ ten in the simple wisdom of Jew ish, peasants, Christ hlas told us only of those things that were made known to him by the Fath er. In many ways God has prov ed to us that this law is from him Every sinner is breaking a law which he knows is from God, a law which he knows is just, a law which he knows will some day be carried out. This law is perfect also in its purpose. The purpose of God’s law is to turn men from darkness into light, from the bondage of sin into the perfect liberty of the children of God, to turn men from the pathway of death unto the'road of eternal life. The pur pose of this law is to show men the misery of sin and the joy of holiness. This law strives to cleanse our hearts, to purify our affections, to fit us for the king dom of God. We may sum it all up by saying that the pur pose of this law is to make men perfect. We may have some sym pathy for the man who disre gards a law that destroys his proper advancement and happi ness, but what shall we say of the man who tramples upon a law which seeks to lead him to perfection and eternal glory? In these and many other respects we may see that the law of God is perfect, and one of the ele ments that enters into the great ness of sin is the fact that it is the transgression of a perfect law. Every sin is great in its nature and results. We too often look upon the sinful act alone, and THE SUMMERVILLE NEWS, THURSDAY, MAY 20. 1909. do not consider the motives and character that lie behind the act. In looking upon the pale face of the dead, we may forget the dread disease that has stolen the bit oni of life from the bloodless cheek. Behind every sinful act lic.s that cancer which has first . eaten into the thought and heart of its victim. If you will show me a man who has committed au open sin, I will show you a man whose state of mind and heart had been a preparation for that sin. Every act of sin has written behind it a history of sinful de sires and affections, and these things must be ineluded in the greatness of the sin. Every sin is great in its effect upon the sinner. Every sin, how ever small, separates us from God and mars the image of God in which we were created. Every sin serves to strengthen in us the habit, of sin, and make it easier for us to travel the down ward road. Every sin. however small, piles up for us a greater weight of shame and remorse in this world, and a greater dan ger of eternal punishment in the ■world to come. Every man’s sin is great also in its outward influ ence. It is a familiar fact that the evil that men do lives after them. In this respect every sin is au eternal sin, a sin that lives through the ages, and makes its influence felt in the lives of suc ceeding generations. The greatness of sin is seen most of all in the fact that, every sin is condemned against a perfect God. a God who is perfectly wise, perfectly holy, perfectly just, per fectly good, perfectly true. We have time to mention only a few points in regard to this subject. God is perfect in his wisdom. “And there is no creature that is not manifest in his sight; but all things are naked and laid open before the eyes of him with whom we have to do.” God knows the past in all its magni tude. he knows the present in ev ery particular, he knows the fut ure and all its possibilities. Ev ery man who sins, is thereby re fusing to have his life guided by the perfect wisdom of God. Ev ery sin is a reflection upon the wisdom or God, for it shows that men prefer to make their own plans rather follow the plans that God has made. God is perfect in his goodness The story of this perfection is written in every human life. Our lives are crowned with loving kindness and tender mercies, our mouths are satisfied with good things. God’s goodness shines most brightly through the fact that he so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eter nal life. lie shows his perfect goodness, by allowing us to live on day after day, and enjoy fresh opportunities to repent and be saved. iGod is perfect also in his ti tle to every man’s services, lie has created us, preserved us, and given to us the hope of everlast ing life. Every good gift ami every perfect gift cometh down from the Father of Lights. Our length of days, our talents, our every earthly possession, our on ly hope of future glory, all come as the gifts of God. This gives God a perfect title to our servi ces, and the man who commits sin is not only showing ingrati tude but he is violating the right? of God. In such ways as these, we see that sin is against a per fect God, and is therefore a great evil. If you were to see a man kick a harmless dog, you would doubtless say that he has com mitted an act of cruelty, should you see a man kick a harmless beggar you would doubtless call him a brutal man, should you see a man kick the mother who had suffered and toiled for him, you would say that that man was beneath contempt. Yet, my friends, may we not say, with all reverence, that every sinner is kicking God. kicking a God who is perfect in love and goodness and compassion, a God who has a perfect title to our services? Thus I believe we can see to some extent what a great evil is sin. Every sin is the breaking of a perfect law; every sin leads man to his own destruction and sets in motion an eternal influ ence; every sin is opposition to a perfect God. When we see how great sin is. then we can realize the blessedness of the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. In the second place, the bless edness of the man whose sins are forgiven is shown by the great ness of the penalty that is re moved. When our sins are par doned the penalty is taken away. Men differ in their ideas about the punishment of sin. Some say that sin receives its punishment in this life, others say that if there be any future punishment for sin, that punishment will not be eternal. The teaching of our church is that every sin deserves God’s wrath and curse both in this life and in that which is to conn 1 . Every sinner must suffer the penalty of lost happiness. For longer any communion with God, longer has heany true fellowship with God’s people. To every sin ner there must come the realiza tion that he no longer has any portion in the great blessings promised to the children of God. lie must wander as an exile from God’s country, having the brand of Cain upon his brow. Every sinner must realize that he is “without God in the world,” and he must be made unhappy by the burden of God’s wrath and curse. The sinner comes to know that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unright eousness and ungodliness of men; he comes to know that “he who believes not is condemned already and the wrath of God abideth on him.” For every sin there is the pen alty of misery. 1 suppose there is no sorrow or pain or hard ship in this world that does not come as a penalty for sin. The jail the pehtitentiary, the gallows and oftentimes the asylums for the lunatic and pauper, are but monuments that speak to us of the misery of sin. The suffering that is written upon human coun tenances, the bowed figures and tottering limbs, all tell their sto ry of the misery of sin. We pass beyond these outward signs ami find that the misery of sin lies deeper still. The- sinner carries with him a. mind that has be come blind to the truth and to goodness and to purity; he car ries with him a heart that should be heavy because it has become as hard as stone. The sinner is burdened with a judgment that is not trustworthy, and with af fections that are vile and impure and hateful. Every sinner has a guilty conscience as his con stant companion. The voice of this conscience is never silent, and the pain of its last is never eased. To every sinner there must come the haunting fear of death, and when at last they pass into the dark valley, they go witl out hope. They go realizing that for them the grave has its victo ry, iind death has its sting. But the larger part of the pen alty of sin lies beyond the grave. When the sinner goes into eter nity and into the future, he goes that he may meet the punishment for his sins, lie goes where he shall no longer hear the gospel and where he shall never more have communion with God, but shall dwell always with the devil and his angels. The future pun ishment of the sinner is terrible beyond description. If the sin ner knows not the meaning of the word eternal, he will learn it well in the school of future punishmnet. lie will be cast in to a fire that is everlasting and that will never be quenched. He will go away into a punishment that is everlasting. He will be punished with a destruction that is everlasting. He will go into a mist of darkness that is reserv ed for him forever. He will go to be tormented day and night for ever and ever. The smoke of their torment aseendeth up for ever and ever. We sec, them that this future punishment will be terrible in its destruction. Thiis punishment will be terri rible also in its intensity. Every sinner faces an Immortality of pain and tear s an infinity of wretelideness and despair; the blackness of dark ness across which conscience will forever shoot her (dear, lightning flashes. We cannot say that hell is to be a place of real fire and smoke and biimstorc, a real burn ing lake, but as far as the sinner is concerned it will be just as bad. No matter what form or place of punishment he goes to, he will suffer just as much as the bible says he shall suffer. In some form he shall suffer eternal death. In some form there shall feed upon him a worm that nev er dies. He shall suffer the pangs of everlasting shame and contempt. In some place every unrepented sinner shall find his| hell* at some time he shall bet eternally lost; in some way he shall feel the flames of an eter nal fire; in some way he shall take his part in the Jake that burnetii with fire and brimstone, and be tormented day and night. This, my friends, is a faint con ception of the great penalty that. God has placed upon sin. There IB I II ■ U ill ft kwAXffiiii/ANitJR’ I p or infants and Children* CASTJM l The Kind You Have •*** ; jy wa y S guugfo AVfcgetable Preparation for As n S » simflating the Food andllcgula -| # ling the Stomachs ami Bowels of | BOcUfS CIIG f t ■ Signature //I y Promotes DigeslioiiChecdul- 1 ffl J vv ness and ResLContains neither ! j j f Q ■ Opium. Morphine nor Mineral. M JI Not Nahc otic . | A U« M 'il I Air orrwu-SAMuanrc/a/i ■ . Seed' * Si U Mi * Jlx. Senna * | / 1 ■ Xtx&efle Satlf - I I fife ytnixe ’ ij ] Aa Jkynentwit - ) 11 A (1 $ 111 jit * I ,'I; 11 ■ f ■ Mitty-Seed - I '| ||‘ 1 % H Ctei/ied Stgar 1 w Wjilrsywn'Fnriw: ’ F El fl Aperfecl Hcmedy forConslipa IM O' WvU Hon, Sour Stomach, Diarrhoea t! i fl <7 Worms .Convulsions .Feverish 4 pT ft >• ness nnd Loss OF SLEEP. \ a ,r’ lu! uVul Facsimile Signature of Jif Thirty Years IC ASTORIA bah- - .. . TMF CFN-rnUH COMPANY. NCW YORK CITY. is the penalty of lost happiness, of earthly misery, of hopeless death and future suffering. When we consider the great price that must be paid for sin, can we not say with the psalmist, “Blessed is the man whose transgression forgiven, whose sins are cov ered.” In the last place, I would say that the blessedness of the man whose sin is forgiven is shown by the fact that to every pardon ed sinner there must come the happiness of heaven. Our hu man understanding cannot lead us far into this weird unknown country. We must not be wise above that which is written, for we know that “eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have en tered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” Per haps we all have our ideas of heaven, and these ideas cliange with the changing years. In childhood, heaven seems a place strange and faraway; a place of pearly gates, id’ golden streets and white-robed angels. In old old age. I suppose heaven must become a homeland not very far away; a place where all burdens and trials are laid aside; a place where waits many a. well known face -a place where we shall meet our loved ones again. What ever way be our opinions, there are some points concerning which the bible speaks plairdy. We shall no longer see through a glass darkly, but we shall see our Father face Io face and re joice in his love. All sin and weakness shall be taken away. Our powers shall be enlarged and our services broadened. We shall have fellowship with an innumer able company of angels and just men made perfect. We shall re joice in communion with the lov ed ones who have gone before and those who have followed al ter. The. bible, tells us plainly that every pardoned sinner goes to a place where he shall enjoy el er nal life, a place that needs not the light of sun or moon because it is illuminated by Hie glory ol God. It is a place where the weary shall always find rest, where the tears shall be wiped away from weeping eyes; a place where mourning and crying and pain and wickedness shall not. be able to enter. It is a place never darkened by the shadow of death There are no mournful farewells -no empty places of friends who were once with us no vacant ehairs at the festal board, no lamentation for those who are not, no solitary survivor longing for his own dismissal. In speak ing of the heavenly .Jerusalem and of the new heaven and new earth the apostle John uses th phrase, “and there was no mo va.” Perhaps we cannot be certain as to the meaning of these words, but they may be construed into an expression of great beauty. You will remem ber that John is now an old man banished upon the isle of Patmos, lie passes his days upon this lone ly spot, and all around Idin is the endless, surging sea. As John gazes upon the sea,, he realizes that it is shutting him off from his father’s house ami from his people whom he loves. He real izes that this sea lies between him and the people to whon he would break the bread of lite, and before whom he would hold up Jesus Christ. As John gaz ed upon the battling waves, they were to him a picture of the trial and battles of life. How natural then that Joint should look up on heaven as a place where there was no more sea. No more sea to separate him from his fath er’s house, no more sea. to shut him off from the things and pro pie he loved, no more sea to re mind him of the trials and bat tles of this world. According Io Dr. MeLoren, John saw '‘the quiet of I lie green inland valleys of our bather’s land, where no tempest comes any more, nor the land winds are ever heard, nor Ihe stilt, sea is ever seen ; Iml perpetual ealm and blessedness; all mystery gone, ami all re bellion hushed ami silenced, and all unrest at an end forever. “No more sea,’’ but instead of that wild ami yeasty chaos so turbulent waters, there shall be the river that makes glad the the city of God, the river ot wa ler of life, that, proceeds’’ out of of the throne of God and the Lamb.” Thus my friends, tho’ we sec but through a glass dark ly, we may catch a glorious vis ion of the happim-ss that awaits every pardoned sinner. Truly did David say, “Blessed is he whose transgression is for given, nvliose sin is covered.’’ In conclusion, I would call your attention to three facts. The first is that we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. There is no man that doet' good and sinnetli not. Therefore we all need to have our sins par doned. The second fact is that the pardon of our sins is conditional. It is conditioned upon our ac ceptance of Jesus Christ. There is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. The fact is this, I believe if we will give the matter an hon est trial we will find as Bon Jon son has said, “Many might go to heaven with half the labor they go to lull, if they would venture their industry the right way.” Kills to Stop the Fiend The worst foe for 12 years of John Dye, of Galdwin, Mich., was a. running üb-er. He paid doctors over S4OO without benefit. Then Bitcklen’s Arni-a Salve killed the ulcer and citrul him. Cures Fe ver-Sores, Boils, Felons, Ecze ma Salt Rlict rn. Infallible for Files, Burns, Scalds, Cuts, Corns, 25c at Summerville Drug Co. Bucklen's Arnica Salve The Best Salve In The World.