Scarlet Rags

MY DEAR YOUNG FRIENDS: I suppose you all have heard the cry of a certain man who goes through the streets calling out “rags, bones and old iron.” After this man has passed through the various streets, and his large sack is well filled with what he has gathered from street to street, he takes them all to his home, and eventually, when he has collected a large pile of rags, they are made up into great bales and sent off to the factories, where they are made into paper.

But before the factory man can use them, the rags of different colors must all be separated. The white rags are placed on one pile, and the colored rags upon another. The white rags are then taken and manufactured into white paper, oftentimes into writing paper, such as you and I use when we write letters to our friends.

The colored rags, which are made of cotton, are washed and bleached, and then, by the aid of salts and in various other ways, they take out the dark colors, until at last the rags are left white, when they also are manufactured into paper. But when they are sorting and separating them, they oftentimes come upon some rags which are the color of these which I now hold in my hand.

This lighter color is called scarlet, and this one of darker color is called crimson. Now, the man who makes the paper can use the rags of various colors, but when he comes to these rags which are colored with scarlet and crimson, he is not able to use them at all in manufacturing white paper.

He cannot bleach them, for these colors cannot be removed in any manner. So, after the manufacturer has a large collection of these crimson and scarlet rags, they are all ground up, the same as the white rags, but instead of making them into writing paper, they are manufactured into this red blotting paper.

And this is the only service which can be made of them. When the prophet Isaiah was upon earth, hundreds of years ago, and when the people of Israel were very wicked and God was greatly displeased with them, the prophet called upon them to repent of their sins and turn to God, and in order that they might not be too much discouraged because of their sins and guilt, the prophet said to them, “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” (Isaiah I: 18.)

The prophet sought to show them that though their sins were so grievous that no hope could be expected from any human power, yet if they would turn to God in true repentance He would give them pardon and salvation. There is not a boy or girl here this morning who has not often disobeyed God. Oftentimes we do not realize what great sinners we are in the sight of God, but at other times the Holy Spirit reveals to us our sins, and when we see our sins as they really are, we are apt to feel that God might not be willing to forgive such great sinners, and then it is that this passage of Scripture comes to us and gives us great comfort, by the assurance that “though our sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”

One time John, one of the disciples of Jesus, when he had grown old and had been banished by a wicked ruler to the island of Patmos, when God would comfort Him, He gave him a view of heaven, and when he looked into heaven he saw many wonderful and very beautiful things. Among the other things, he saw a great many people who had on white robes, and he asked the angel who these were, and the angel replied and said, “These are they who have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” (Rev.

7: 14.) So you and I may come to the Lord Jesus Christ, and He will place upon us the robes of His own righteousness, take away our sins and our guilt, and make us pure, and holy and right, and then when you and I die we also may enter into heaven above, and be one of that throng who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

I pray that you all may desire to be clothed with the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Give your heart to Him, and give to Him your whole lives in humble service.