r far we may have gone into sin. God
forgave him when he repented, but there was one thing that his
repentance could not do. It could not undo the past. It could not put
him again in the light of the morning of life. It could not place in
his hands the opportunities of yesterday. The good that he might have
done and the service that he might have rendered and the crowns that he
might have won had passed beyond the reach of his hand forever.
Repentance saved his soul but it did not save his life.

And what a startling chapter is the story of the sin of David. David
was a whole-hearted man. He never did anything by halves. When he
sinned he sinned with a horrible abandon. Few men have dirtier pages
in their life's history than that of David's sin against the house of
Uriah. But as his sin was whole-hearted so also was his repentance.
We can hear his heart-broken cry for pardon across the centuries: "Have
mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness. According unto
the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash
me from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin; for I acknowledge my
transgression and my sin is ever before me." It is the heart-broken
cry of the penitent who has not one good word to say for himself. And
God heard his prayer and washed him and made him whiter than snow.

But beyond that God with all His love and tenderness could not go. He
could not save David from the consequences of his sin. His bloody and
lustful deed became possessed of a power beyond his control. "Down!"
he cries to it in helpless horror. But it will not down. "Then where
are you going?" he asks, all a-tremble with dread. And the fiendish
deed answers, "I am going to steal the purity of your daughter Tamar.
I am going to make your son Ammon into a rapist. I am going to make
your handsome boy Absalom into a murderer."

When I was a boy there was a family living neighbors to us, all of whom
were outside the Church. But when the children were almost all grown
and the father was an old man he became a Christian. But instead of
being influential in bringing his children to Christ they seemed only
to be ashamed of him. He did not seem to have the slightest power to
influence a single one of them for good. I would not say that he was
not saved, I think he was, but I think his years spent in sin cost him
the salvation of his children.

E. J. Bulgin said that he was holding a meeting some ye