A man told me when I was last in London that England had the advantage of America in one respect. I asked how. He said:
"We have more respect for our laws in England than you do in America. You don"t hang half your murderers, but all our murderers are hanged if they can be proved guilty."
I said: "Neither country hangs its worst murderers. If my son wants to murder me, I would rather have him kill me outright than to take five years to do it. A young man who goes home late night after night, and when his mother remonstrates, curses her gray hairs, and kills her by inches, is the worst sort of a murderer."
That is being done all over the country. You may not be guilty of a sin as black and as foul as this, but I tell you, every sin grows, and if you have sin in your heart you cannot tell where it will land you. Nothing separates a son from his mother or a man from his wife like sin. The grace of G.o.d binds men together, but sin tears them apart and separates them.
Come, my friend, what kind of seed are you sowing? What will the harvest be? Will it be a black harvest, or are you going to have a joyful harvest? If you think that, when you have sown tares, wheat will come up, you are greatly mistaken. If you think you can give a loose rein to your pa.s.sions and l.u.s.ts, and yet have eternal life, you are being deceived. For G.o.d says, "He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting."
Choose Carefully.
I beg of you to _choose carefully your path_. The farmer is careful in the choice of seed. He does not want bad seed or inferior seed, because he knows that such will give a poor crop. He looks for the best seed he can buy. If you choose to sow to the flesh, you will have a corrupted harvest. If you commit a sinful deed, it may land you into a dishonored grave.
Choice is a solemn thing. You can make this moment a turning-point in your life. Once during the conquest of Peru, Pizzaro"s followers threatened to desert him. They gathered on the sh.o.r.e to embark for home. Drawing his sword, he traced a line with it in the sand from east to west. Then turning toward the south he said:
"Friends and comrades, on that side are toil, hunger, nakedness, the drenching storm, and death; on this side, ease and pleasure. There lies Peru with all its riches; here Panama and its poverty. Choose each man as becomes a brave Castilian. For my part, I go south."
So saying, he stepped across the line, and one after another his comrades followed him, and the destiny of South America was decided.
Napoleon was once offered a position as officer in the Turkish artillery. He declined it; but had he chosen to accept it, the history of Europe would have been different.
On your choice in spiritual things depends your eternity. On the one side there is Christ; on the other, the world. Between them you must choose. Do not wish to grow both wheat and tares. Oh, choose Christ!
Let there be no half-heartedness. Give Him your whole heart. He died to redeem you from the curse of sin, and He lives to save you from the power of sin.
"No man can serve two masters." You can not belong to two kingdoms at once. Lord Brougham grew to be so fond of Cannes that he sought to be naturalized as a Frenchman, but found it was impossible to be both a peer of England and a citizen of a French town; he must renounce the one to become the other.
Now this is where _the will_ comes in It is easy to follow other people"s lead, to swim with the tide; but it requires character, moral back-bone, to stand against the current of popular opinion and practice. During the late war a deserter came into the Federal lines before Pittsburg. He was asked:
"What did you go into secession for?"
His answer was: "Because they all did."
That reason will account for many a man"s action. He will act according to the saying: "While you are in Rome, do as the Romans do," neglecting to investigate and determine whether or not the Romans do right. If they do wrong, a man should stand against a whole nation, if need be, like another Daniel.
Almighty G.o.d set two sides before the children of Israel, and I set them now before you. Remember, as you choose, that your eternity is in the balance.
"See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; in that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy G.o.d, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, and His statutes, and His judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply; and the Lord thy G.o.d shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.
But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other G.o.ds, and serve them: I denounce unto you this day that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land whither thou pa.s.sest over Jordan to go to possess it.
I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore CHOOSE LIFE that both thou and thy seed may live: that thou mayest love the Lord thy G.o.d, and that thou mayest obey His voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto Him: for He is thy life and the length of thy days."
FORGIVENESS AND RETRIBUTION.
"_Thou renderest to every man according to his work_."--Psalms lxii: 12.
"_For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad_."--II Cor. v: 10.
CHAPTER VII.
Forgiveness and Retribution.
I can imagine some one saying, "I attend church, and have heard that if we confess our sin, G.o.d will forgive us; now I hear that I must reap the same kind of seed that I have sown. How can I harmonize the doctrine of forgiveness with the doctrine of retribution? "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." And yet you say that I must reap what I have sown."
Suppose I send my hired man to sow wheat. When it grows up, there are thistles mixed with the wheat. There wasn"t a thistle a year ago. I say to my man:
"Do you know anything about the thistles in the field?"
He says: "Yes, I do; you sent me to sow that wheat, and I was angry and mixed some thistles with the wheat. But you promised me that if I ever did wrong and confessed it, you would forgive me; now I hold you to that promise, and expect you to forgive me."
"Yes," I say, "you are quite right; I forgive you for sowing the thistles; but I will tell you what you must do--you must reap the thistles along with the wheat when harvest time comes."
Many a Christian man is reaping thistles with his wheat. Twenty years ago you sowed thistles with the wheat and are reaping them now. Perhaps it was an obscene story, the memory of which keeps coming back to distress you, even at the most solemn moments.
Perhaps some hasty word or deed that you have never been able to recall.
I heard John B. Gough say that he would rather cut off his hand than have committed a certain sin. He didn"t say what it was, but I have always supposed it was the way he treated his mother. He was a wretched, drunken sot in the gutter when his mother died; the poor woman couldn"t stand it, and died of a broken heart. G.o.d had forgiven him, but he never forgave himself. A great many have done things that they will never forgive themselves for to their dying day. "At this moment," said one, "from many a harlot"s dishonored grave there arises a mute appeal for righteous retribution. From many a drunkard"s miserable home, from heartbroken wife, from starving children, there rings up a terrible appeal into the ears of G.o.d."
I believe that G.o.d forgives sin fully and freely for Christ"s sake; but He allows certain penalties to remain. If a man has wasted years in riotous living, he can never hope to live them over again. If he has violated his conscience, the scars will remain through life. If he has soiled his reputation, the effect of it can never be washed away. If he shatters his body through indulgence and vice, he must suffer until death. As Talmage says, "The grace of G.o.d gives a new heart, but not a new body."
"John," said a father to his son, "I wish you would get me the hammer."
"Yes, sir."
"Now a nail and a piece of pine board."
"Here they are, sir."
"Will you drive the nail into the board?"
It was done.
"Please pull it out again."
"That"s easy, sir."
"Now, John," and the father"s voice dropped to a lower key, "pull out the nail hole."
Every wrong act leaves a scar. Even if the board be a living tree the scar remains.
For our worst sins there is plenteous redemption. My sin may become white as snow, and pa.s.s away altogether, in so far as it has power to disturb or sadden my relation to G.o.d. Yet our least sins leave in our lives, in our characters, in our memories, in our consciences, sometimes in our weakness, often in our worldly position, in our reputation, in our success, in our health, in a thousand ways leave their traces and consequences. G.o.d will not put out His little finger to remove these, but lets them stop.