ion.

I can imagine some one saying, "I attend church, and have heard that
if we confess our sin, God 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. God 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
God."

I believe that God 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