Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 July 1890 — CLOAKS OF SIN. [ARTICLE]

CLOAKS OF SIN.

THE VARIOUS GARBS IN WHICH SIN MASQUER ADES. Evil Cannot Be Made Sacred On a Throne— Meekness of Manner is a Subterfuge of Satan—Dr. Talinage’s Sermon,

Rev. Dr. Talmage preached at Winfield, Kansas, Sunday. Text, John .xv., 22. Hesaid: Sin is always disguised. Decked, and glossed, and perfumed, and masked, it gains admittance in places from which it would otherwise be repelled. As silently as when it glided into Eden, and as plausibly as when it talked to Christ at the top of the temple, it now addresses men. Could peo. pie look upon sin as it always is—an exhalation from the pit, the putrefaction of infinite capacities, the ghastly, loathsome, God-smitten monster that uprooted Eden and killed Christ, and would push the entire race into darkness and pain—the infernal charm would be broken. Before our first parents transgressed sin appeared to them the sweetness of fruit and the becoming as gods. To Absalom it was the pleasure of sitting upon a throne. To men now, sin is laughter, and permission to luxurious gratification. Jesus Christ, in my text, suggests a fact which everybody ought to know, and that is that sin, to hide its deformity and shame is accustomed to wearing a cloak, and the Savior also sets forth the truth that God can see straight through all wrappings and thicknesses. I want now to speak of several kinds of cloaks with which men expect to cover up their iniquities, for the fashion in regard to these garments is constantly changing, and every day beholds some new etyle of wearing them, and, if you will tarry a little while, I will show you five or six of the patterns of cloaks. First, I remark that there are those who, being honored with official power, expect to make that a cloak for their si - There is a sacredness in office. God himself is King, and all who hold authority in the world serve under Him. That community has committed a monstrous wrong, which has elevated to this dignity persons unqualified either by their ignorance or their immorality. Nations who elevate to posts of authority those not qualified to fill them will feel the reaction. While positions of trust may be disgraced by those who fill them, I believe God would have us respectful to the offices, though we may have no admiration for their occupants. Yet this dignity which office confers can be no apology for transgression. Nebuchadnezzar and Ahab and Herod, in the day of judgment, must stand on a level with the herdsmen who kept their flocks, and the fishermen of Galilee. Pope, and King, and President, and Governor, must give an account to God, and be judged by the same law as that which judges the beggar and the slave. Sin is all the more obnoxious when it is imperial and lordly. You can not make pride or injustice or cruelty sacred by giving it a throne. Belshazzar’s decanters could not keep the mysterious finger from writing on the wall, Ahab’s sin literally hurled him from the throne to the dogs. The imperial vestments of wicked Jehoram could not keep Jehu’s arrow from striking through his heart. Jezebel’s queenly pretention could not save her from being thrown over the wall. No barricade of thrones can arrest God’s justice in its unerring march. No splendor or thickness of official robes can be a sufficient cloak of sin. HenryVlll., Louis XV., Catharine of Russia. Mary of England—did their crowns save them? No ruler ever sat so high that the King of Kings was not above him. All victors shall bow before Him who on the white horse goeth forth conquering and to conquer. Again: Elegance of manners can not successfully hide iniquity from the eye of God. That model, gentlemanly apostle, Paul, writes to us: “Be courteous.” That man can neither be a respectable worldling nor a consistent Christian who lacks good manners. He is shut out from refined circles, and he certainly out to be hindered from entering the church. We can not overlook that in a man which we could hardly excuso in a bear. One of tho first effects of the grace of God upon an individual is to make him a gentleman. Gruffness, awkwardness, implacability, clannishness, are fruits of the devil, while gentleness and meekness are fruits of the Spirit But, while these excellences of manner are so important, they can not hide any deformity of moral character. How often it is that we find attractiven of persoQ, suavity of manners, gracefulness of conversation, gallantry of behavior, thrown like wreaths upon moral death. The flowers that grow upon the scoriae of Vesuvius do not make it any less of a volcano. The sepulchers in Christ's time did not exhaust all the whitewash. Some of the biggest scoundrels have been the most fascinating. If there are any depending on outward gracefulness and attractiveness of demeanor, with any hope that because of that God will forgive the sin of their soul, let me assure them that the divine justice can not be satisfied with smiles and elegant gesticulation. Christ looks deeper than the skin, and such a ragged cloak as the one in which you are trying to cover yourself will be no hiding in the day of His power. God will not in the judgement ask how gracefully you walked, nor how politely you bowed, nor how sweetly you smiled, nor how impressively you gestured, the deeds done in the body will be the test, and not the of Lord Chesterfield.

I Again: Let me say that the mere profession of religion is but a poor wrapping of a naked soul. The importance of making a public profession of religion if the heart be renewed can not be exaggerated. Christ positively and with the earnestness of the night before His crucifixon commanded it. But it is the insult of Christian char* acter, not the cause'of it. Our church certificate is a poor title to heaven. We may have the name and not the reality. There are those who seem to shrow themselves back with complacency upon their public confession of Christ, although they give no sign of renewal. If Satan can induce a man to build on such a rotten foundation as that he has accomplished his object. Furthermore: Outward morality will be no covering for the hidden iniquity of the spirit. The Gospel of Christ makes no assault upon good works. They are as beautiful in God's eye as in ours. Punctuality, truthfulness, alms-giving, affection and many other excellences of life that might be mentioned will always be admired of God and man, but we take the position that good works can not be the ground of our salvation. What we do right can not pay for what we do wrong. Admit that you have all these traits oT character which give merely worldly respectability and influence, you must at the same time acknowledge that during iiie course of your life you have done many things you ought not to have done. How Are these" difficult matters to be settled? Ah, my friends, we must pay an atonement. No Christ, no salvation. The great Redeemer comes and says, “I will pay your indebtedness.” So that which was dark enough before, is bright enough now.”

The Btripes that we deserve are fallen upon Christ. On His scourged and bleeding shoulders. He carries up over the mountain of our sins and the hills of our iniquities. Christ's good works accepted are sufficient for us but they who reject them, depending upon their own, must perish. Traits of character that may make us influential on earth will not necessarily open to us the gate of heaven. Again: Exalted social position will be no cloak for sin. Men look through the wicket door of prisons and seeing the , incarcerated wretches, exclaim: ‘ ‘Oh, how much vice there is in the world!” And they pass through the degraded streets of a city, and looking into the doors of hovels and the dens of corruption they call them godforsaken abodes. But you might- walk along the avenues through which the opulent roll in their flourishing pomp and into mansions elegantly adorned, and find that, even in the admired walks of life Satan works mischief and death. The first temptation Satan wrought in a garden, and he understands yet moro thoroughly how to insinuate himself into any door of ease and splendor. Men frequently judge of sin by the places in which it is committed; but iniquity in satin is as loathsome to God as iniquity in rags, and in the Day of Judgment the sins of Madison avenue and Elm street will be driven in one herd. Men can not escape at last for being respectably sinful. You know Dives was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day; but his fine clothes and good dinners did not save him. He might on earth have drank something as rich as champagne and cognac, but at last he asked for one drop of water. You can not trade off your attractTve abodes here for a house of many mansions on high and your elegant shade groves here will not warrant you a seat under the tree of life. When God drove Adam and Eve out of Eden He showed that merely living in a garden of delights and comforts will never save a man or a woman. By giving you so much earthly luxury and refinement He intimated that He would have you enjoy yourselves, but He would not have you wrap yourselves up in them as a cloak to hide your sins. God now walks in your garden as He did in Eden, even in the cool of the day, and He stands by your well as He did by a well in Samaria, and He would make your comforts on earth a type of your rapture in heaven. Furthermore, mere soundness of religious belief will not hide our iniquities. There are men whose heads are as sound as Jonathan Edward's or John Wesley's, whose hearts are as rotten as Tom Paine’s or Charles Guiteau’s. It is important that we be theoretical Christians.

It is utter folly in this day for a man to have no preference for any one form of faith when it is so easy to become conversant with the faith of the different sects. But there are those who never become Christians because their obstinacy prevents them from ever taking a fair view of what religion is. They are like a brute boast in the fact that their greatest strength lies in their horns. They are combatant, and all they are ever willing to do for their souls is to enter an ecclesiastical fight. I have met men who would talk all day upon the ninth chapter of Romans, who wpre thoroughly helpless before the fourteenth chapter of John. .But there are those who, having escaped from this condition, are now depending entirely upon their fondness of religious theory. The doctrine of man’s depravity and Christ’s atonement aud God’s sovereignty are theoretically received by them. But, alas! there they stop. -? It is only the shell of Christianity, containing no evangelical life. They stand looking over into heaven and admire its beauty and its song, and are so pleased with the looks from the outside that they can not be induced to enter. They could make a better argument for the. truth than 10.000 Christians who have in their hearts received it If syllogisms and dilemmas and -cound propositions and logical deductions could save their souls they wduld be among the best of Christiana They correctly define repentance and faith and the atonement.

while they have never felt-one sorrow for sin nor exercised a moment’s confix deuce in the great sacrifice. They are almost immovable In their position. We can not present anything about the religion of Christ that they do not know. The Savior described the fate of such a one in HU (parable: “And that servant which know his Lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did acto His will, shall be beaten with many stripes.” Theories in religion have a beauty of their own, but if they result in no warmth of Christian life it U the beauty of hornblende and feldspar. Do mot call such coldness and hardness religion. The River of Life never freezes over. Icicles never hang on the eaves of heaven. Soundness of intellectual belief as a beautiful cloak, well woven and well cut, but in the hour when God shall demand our souls it will not of itself be sufficient to hide our ini* quities. ..

My friends, can it be that I have been unkind, and torn from you some hope upon which you were resting for time and enteruity? Verily, I would be unkind if, having taking away our cloak, I did not offer you something better. This is a cold world and you want somethhig ta wrap around your spirit. Christ offers you a robe today. He wove it Himself and He will now with His own hand prepare it just to fit your soul. The righteousness He offers it like the coat He used to wear about Juda, without seam from top to bottom. There is a day of doom. Coward would Ibeif I did not dare tell you this. It shall be a day of unuiterablo disappointment to those who have trusted in their official dignity, in their elegant manners, in their outward morality, in their soundness of in-* telctuai belief. But I see a soul standing before God who once wac thoroughly defiled. Yut look at him and you can not And a single transgression any where about him. How is this? you ask. Was b 9 not once a Sabbath breaker, a blasphemer, a robber, a perjurer, a thief, a murderer? Yes, but Christ hath cleansed him. Christ hath lifted him up. Christ hath rent off his rags. Christ hath clothed him in a spotless robe of righteousness, That is the reason why you can not see his former degradation. This glorious hope in Christ’s name is proffered to-day. Wandering and wayward soul, is not salvation worth coming for, worth striving for? Do you wonder that'so many with bitter weeping have besought it, and with a very enthusiasm of sorrow for Divine compassion? Do you wonder at the earnestness of those who stand in pul-’ pits beseeching men to be reconciled to God? Nay, do you wonder at the importunity ntbe Holy Ghost who now striveth with thy soul? In many of these palaces of Europe the walls are mosaic. Fragments of shells and glass are arranged by artists and aggregated into a pictorial 'splendor. What! made out of broken shells and glass! Oh, yes; God grant that the transforming power of His Spirit we may all be made a part of the etarnal palaces, our broken and fragmentary natures polished and shaped and lifted up to make a part of the everlasting splendors of the heavenly temple!