Washing a Piece of Coal

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A GENTLEMAN once offered a prize to any child who would wash a piece of coal white. Three children tried to win the prize, and each brought a piece of coal which they had tried to wash. One boy had actually tried all the morning. He had used cold water, then hot water, then soda, and lastly monkey brand, but needless to say the coal remained as black as ever.
So the teacher used this simple means to show that sin cannot be washed away by ceremonies, good works, or prayers. Just as the scriptures say, “Though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord” (Jer. 2:2222For though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord God. (Jeremiah 2:22)).
There is only one remedy for sin, and that is Christ’s blood. “The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:77But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1:7)). And “except a man be born again, he cannot, see the kingdom of God.”