THE KING’S BUSINESS
971
sin, that there is ho future retribution, that men can go on lying and stealing and mur dering, and yet not be punished, is false. They are going to be punished in just the «me proportion as these men who go out to sow and afterwards reap. If you sow a handful, you will reap a bushel; if you sow the wind, you will reap the whirlwind. I tremble for those young men who laugh and in a scoffing way say, “I’m sowing my wild oats.” Young man, you have got to reap them. There are some right here be fore me now who are already reaping them, who only a few years ago were scoffing in the same way. And remember when the reaping time comes these men who now are scoffing would like to-change places with those at whom they scoffed. Cain would like to change places with Abel tonight. Ahab, that proud monarch who looked down on Elijah the Tishbite dressed in his skins of wild animals and living there by the brook and fed by the ravens—why, how quick Ahab would change places tonight with Elijah if he could. The reaping time has come. One sowed for eternity, and he is reaping now. The other sowed for time, he sowed the flesh, and he is reaping corruption. Herod took the head of John the Baptist, but how glad he would be to change places with John the Baptist tonight. How glad Herod’s unlawful wife and his daughter-in-law would be to change places with John the Baptist tonight. The reaping time has come. The rich man who fared sumptuously while the poor man sat at his gate and the dogs came and licked his sores—the reaping time has come for that rich man now; he would gladly change places with that beggar now. A COMING CHANGE Yes, there will be a change by and by. Men may go on scoffing and making light of the Bible, but you will find it out to be true by and by, you will reap what you are now sowing. I think the passage here you will admit is true, “Whatsoever a man sow- eth, that shall he also reap.” You very often see it in the paper th a t'“Murder will out,” when some terrible crime that has
■been covered up for years has come to light Yes, it will; and there is one passage I would like to get every one here tonight to remember, “Be sure your sin will find you out.” There are a great many things in this world that we are not sure of, but this one thing we can always be sure of, that every sin we commit will find us out I do not care how deep you dig the grave in which you try to bury your sins, they will rise again. Look at those sons of Jacob; they thought they had covered up their sin and that their father would never find out what they had done with Joseph, and the old man mourned him for twenty long years, but at last, after all these years had gone, away down in Egypt, there Joseph stood before them. How they began to tremble! Ah, their sin had found them out. Their sin had overtaken them. Young man, you may have committed some sin many years ago, and come up with it from the country to this city, and you think nothing is known about it. Do not flatter yourself; God knows all about it, and be sure your sin will find you out. Your own conscience will turn witness against you by and by, and you cannot drown your conscience when it turns against you. I was preaching in Chicago a few months ago and a man came into the-inquiry room trembling from head to foot, and he came back again the next night and confessed he had broken into an express company and taken $16,000. A jury had acquitted him, but his own conscience lashed him all the time since, and now God had found him. He went back and called his family together, confessed his sin and prayed their forgive ness, and then gave himself up to the offi cers at Cleveland, Ohio, and went to jail. He wrote us a cheerful letter from the prison and told us how much better it was to go to jail with a clear conscience than to go roaming around the world with a bur dened conscience. BEST TO CONFESS Ah 1 my friends, if we have committed sins, let us confess them. I would rather be over in Charlestown jail with a clear con-
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker