Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 July 1893 — A PLEA FOR MERCY. [ARTICLE]

A PLEA FOR MERCY.

Two Types ot Supplicants Before the Throne. . The Pharisee and Publican—Arrogance and Humility—Dr. Talmage’s ~~ ~ Dr. Talmage preached at Brooklyn last Sunday. Subject: “Arrogance and Humility.” Text: Luke xviii, 13, “God be merciful to me, a sinner!” No mountain ever had a more brilliant coronet than Mt. Moriah. Glories of the ancient temple blazed there. The, mountain top was not originally large enough to bold the teip- | pie, and so a wall 600 feet high was I erected, and the mountain was built out into that wall. It was at that point that Satan met Christ and tried to persuade Him to cast him--self down the 600 feet. The nine gates of the temple flashed the light of silvet - andgold and Corinthian brass, which Corinthian brass was mere precious stones melted and mixed and crystalized. The temple itself was not so very large a structure, but the courts and the adjuncts of the architecture made it half a mile in circumference. I see two men mounting the steps of the building. They go side by side; they are very unlike; no sympathy between them —the one the pharisee, proud, arrogant, pompous, he goes up the steps of the building. He seems by his ipanner to say: “Clear the track! Never before came up these steps such goodness and consecration.” Beside him was the publican, bent down seemingly with a load on his heart. They reach the inelosure for worship in the midst of the temple. The pharisee goes close up to the gate of the holy of holies. He feels he is worthy to stand there. He says practically, “I am so holy I want to go into the holy of holies. O Lord, I am a very good man., I’m a remarkably good man. Why, twadays in the week I eat absolutely nothing, I'm so good. Tm very generous in my conduct toward the poor. I have no sympathy with the common rabble; especially have I none with this poor, miserable, wretched, commonplace publican who happened to come up the stairs beside me.” The publican went clear to the other side of the inclosure, as far away from the gate of the holy of holies as he could get, for he felt unworthy to stand near the sacred place. And the Bible says he stood afar off. Standing on the opposite side of this inclosure he bows his head, and as orientals when they have any trouble beat their breasts, so he begins to pound his breast as he cries, “God be merciful to me, a sinner!” Now, I put this publican's prayer under analysis, and I discover in the first place that he was persuaded of his sinfulness. He was an honest man, he was a taxgatherer, he was an officer of the government. The publicans were taxgatherers, and Cicero says they were the adornment of the State. Of course they were somewhat unpopular, because people then did not like to pay their taxes any better than people now like to pay their taxes, and there were many who disliked them. Still, I suppose this publican, this taxgatherer, was an honorable man. He had an office of trust. There were many hard things said about him, and yet, standing in that inclosure of the temple amid the demonstrations of God’s holiness and power, he cries out from the very depths of his stricken soul, “God be merciful to me, a sinner!” - I know that our souls are dreadfully lost by the work that God has done to save them. Are you a sinner? Suppose you had a commercial agent in Charleston or San Francisco or Chicago, and you were paying him promptly his salary, and you found out, after awhile, that notwithstanding he had drawn the salary he had given nine-tenths of all the time to some other commercial establishment. Why, your indignation would know no bounds. And yet that is just the way we have treated the Lord. He sent us into this world to serve Him. He has taken good care of us. He has clothed us, He has sheltered us, and He has surrounded us with ten thousand benefactions, and yet many of us have given nine-ten ths of our lives to the service of the world, the-flesh and the devil- Why, my friend, the Bible is full of confession, and I do not find anybody is pardoned until he has confessed. Well, say a thousand men in this audience, if 1 am notto get anything in the way of peace from 6od in good works, how am I to be saved? By mercy. Here I stand to tell the story —mercy, mercy, long-suffering mercy, sovereign mercy, infinite mercy, omnipotent mercy, everlasting mercy. Why, it seems in the Bible as if all language were exhausted, as if it were stretched until it broke, as if all expression were struck dead at the feet, of prophet and apostle and evangelist when it tries to describe God’s mercy. But, says someone, you are throwing open that door" of mefey' too wide. No, I will throw .it open wider. I will take the responsibility of saying that if all this audience, instead of being gathered in a semicircle were placed side by side in one long line they could all march right through that wide open gate of mercy 1 . “Whosoever, z wfiosoevAET Oh, this mercy 6f God- There is no line long enough to fathom it; there is no ladder long enough to scale it; there is no arithmetic facile enough

to calculate it; no angel's wing can fly across it. I push this analysis of the publican’s prayer a step further and fine thaLhe did not expect any mercy except oy pleading for it. He did not fold his hands together as sbme do, saying, “if I am to be saved, I’ll be saved: if I’m to be lost, I’ll be lost, and4Eere is nothing for me to do.” He knew what was worth having was worth asking for: hence this earnest cry of the text, "‘God be merciful to me. a sinner!” It was an earnest prayer, and it is characteristic of all bible prayers that they were answered. The blind man, "Lord, that I may receive ray sight;” the leper, “Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean;” sinking Peter, “Lord save, me;” the publican, “God be merciful to me. a sinner!” But if you come up with the tip of your fingers and tap at the gate of mercy it will not open. You have got to have the earnestness of the warrior who, defeated and pursued. dismounts from his lathered steed and with gauntleted fisls pounds at the-palace gate. Another characteristic of the prayer of the publican was, it had a ring of confidence. It was not a cry of despair. He knew he was going to get what he asked for. He wanted mercy. He asked for it, expecting it. And do you tell me, O man, that God has provided this salvation and is not going to let you have it? If a man builds a bridge across a river, will he not let people go over it? If a physician gives a prescription to a sick man, will he not let him take it? If an architect puts up a building, will he not let people in it? If God provides salvation, will he not let you have it? Oh, if there be a pharisee here, a-man who says: I am all right. My past life has been right. I don’t want the pardon of the gospel, for I have no sin to pardon, let me say that while that man is in that mood there is no peace for him, there is no pardon, no salvation, and the probability is he will go down and spend eternity with the lost pharisee of the text. But if there be here one who says I want to be better; I want to quit my sins: my life has been a very imperfect life; bow many things have I said that I should not have said; how many things I have done I should not have done; I want to change my life; I want to begin novi; let me say to such a soul God is waiting, God is ready, and you are near the kingdom, or rather you have entered it, for no man says I am determined to serve God and surrender the sins of my life; here. now. I consecrate my ‘ self to the Lord Jesus Christ, who died to redeem me—no man from the depth of his soul says that but he is already a Christian. Oh, are there not many who can say this prayer. “God be merciful to me a sinner!” While I halt in the sermon will you all utter it? Ido not say audibly, but utter it down in the" depths of your soul’s consciousness. Yes, the sigh goes ail through the galleries, it goes all through the pews, it goes all through these aisles, sigh after sigh—God be merciful to me, a sinjier! - / , ■ Have you all uttered it? No, there is one soul that has not uttered it — too proud to utter it. O Holy Spirit, descend upon that one heart! Yes, he begins to breathe it now. No I bowing of the head yet, no starting I tear yet, but the prayer is beginning -it is born. God be merciful tome, a sinner! Have all uttered it? Then I utter it myself, for no one fin all the house needs to utter At more than my own soul—God be merciful to me, a sinner!