THE KING’S BUSINESS
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I know the number. It is an error," he adds. “Reflection is one of the greatest parts of my labour.” It was thus he sought to absorb himself in his subject Now while this argument is a terrible arraignment of the theater itself for put ting plays upon the stage whose leading characters make it necessary fr>" -—-"-s to really be, for the time, creatures of pas sion and hate and intrigue and lust, where does it leave the minister who is feigning an emotion he does not feel, and playing a sorrow that is not in his heart! No. brethren, let us be, sincere. The habit of simulating emotion, all shifts aside, is sheer hypocrisy. (To be continued) past is not beyond recall. It does not Wait to be recalled. God keeps a book (Revelation 20:12). No human power can efface our record from it (Revelation 22:11). II. The irreparableness of the past. It cannot be repaired or mended. We may weep over it, be contrite about it, but cannot change it. Regret cannot bring back the bullet after it has left the gun. The wasted, Godless, Christless years are beyond recall and repair. III. The repetition of the past. What I have written I shall write again —such is the power and force of habit. Habit is a synonym of repetition. Paper folded once always folds again in the same groove. Today is the sum of our yester days. The acts of yesterday are the foun dations for the acts of today and tomor row. The past never stands by itself. IV. The penalty of the past. No one can sin and not suffer for it. Sin will surely find us out, Genesis 42:21. . 1. The penalty in this life. 3. Unalterable in God’s book.
melt them to tears, are those who so throw themselves into the characters they repre sent, that for the time being they really are what they seem to be. Instead of being feigned, the action and passion are intensely real. Quintilian says, “I have often seen actors, both in tragedy and com edy, when they laid aside their masks, after going through some distressing scene, quit the stage in tears.” Talma, a great trage dian of former years, is reported as saying, “It has been imagined that, in studying my parts, I place myself before a glass; I ges ticulate^—shake the ceiling of the room with my cries, and in the evening, on the stage, I utter intonations I learned in the morn ing : prepared inflections and sobs of which Theme: “What I Have Written 1 Have Written.” Text: John* 19:22. I ntroduction : The custom of the day for a soldier to carry in front of the condemned man a placard on which was printed the crime for which the man was condemned. This pla card was nailed to the cross. The Jews desired Pilate to change the title written over Christ’s cross. This he refused to do, saying in the language of the text, “What I have written I have written.” The text will be looked at as showing the importance of the past of a person’s life. I. The unalterableness of the past. It stands unalterable, whether good or bad. 1. Unalterable in other lives. The crowds had read the title. What good would it do to change it? So men have seen our lives. 2. Unalterable in memory. Twenty years after their crime, Joseph’s brethren remembered it. “My sin is ever before me.” The
SERMON OUTLINES
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