Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1889-09-05
THE STRONG SWIMMER.
SUBJECT OF DIR fALMAGE's SERMON
AT SEATTLE. W. T.
"He Shall Spread Forth His Hands In the
Midst OF Them, rs He That Swimmeth
Spreadeth Forth His Hands to Swim"
the Words Of His Text

| 10 ou1u SprooO Oftn MS h8008 IN Tn
Midst OF Them, rs He That swimmetl
sPreadesh. Forth His Hands to Swim.
the Words Of His Text
The Rev. T. De Witt Talmape, D. D,
of Brooklyn. preached at Seattle, W. T.
Aug. IL. His text was Isaiah XIV, IL
He shall spread forth bis hands in tn
miost of them. as he that swimmetl
spr sdeth forth his hands to swim,
The preacher said:
At this season of the year multitude
OF people wade into the ponds and lake
and rivers and seas. At first putting on
cautiously from the shore, but havin,
learned the right stroke of arm and foot
they let the waters roll over them, an,
in wild glee dive or float or swim. S,
the text will be very suggestive: H,
shall spread forth his hand in the mids
OF them, as he that swimmeth spreadetl
forth his hands to SWIM"
The fisherman seeks ont unfrequentei
hooks. You stand all day on the banl
OF river in the broiling sun, and fins
out your line, and catch nothing, while
the expert angler breaks through the
Jungle and goes by the shadow of the
solitary rock, and in a place where nj
fisherman has been for ten years, throws
out nis line and comes home Mt night
his face shining and his basket full.
do not know why We ministers of the
Gospel need always be fishing in the
same stream, and preaching from the
same text that other people preach from
l cannot understand the policy of the
minister who, in Blackfriars, London
England, every week for thirty years
preached from the Epistle to the He
brews. 1t is an exhilarationt to me when
l come across a theme which 1 feel nc
one else has treated. and my text is one
of that kind. There are paths in Gods
Word that are we'll beaten by Christian
feet. When men want to quote Scrip
ture, they quote the old passages that
every one has heard. When they want
o chapter read, they read a chapter that
all the other people have been reading,
SO that the church to- day is ignorant OF
three-fourths of the Bible. You 60 into
the Louvre at Paris. You confine your
self to one corridor of that opulent gal
lery of paintings. As you come out your
friend says to you, Did you see that
Bembrandt?" NO" Did YOU see that
Rubens?" NO" Did you see that
Raphael?" No." Well" says your
friend, then you didn't see the Louvre.
Now, my friends, think We are too
much apt to confine ourselves to one of
the great corridors of this Scripture
truth, and SO much SO that there is not
one person out of o million who has
ever noticed the all suggestive and
powerful picture in the words of my
text.
This text represents God as a strong
swimmer, striking out to push down in
EQUITY and save the souls of men. He
shall spread forth his hands in the
midst of them, as he that swimeth
spreadeth forth his hands to swim. :"
The figure is bold and many sided.
Most of you know how to swim. Some
IF you learned it in the city school,
where this art is taught; some of you in
in the river near your fathers
house; some of you since you came to
or womanhOod, while summer
ing on the beach of the sea. You step
down in the wave, you throw your head
back, you bring your elbows to your
chest, you put the palms of your hands
downward and the soles of your feet
outward, and you push through the wa
ter as though you had been born aquatic.
1t is a grand thing to know how to swim,
not only for yourself, but because you
will after while, perhaps, nave to help
others. I do not know anything more
stirring or sublime than to see some man
like Norman Mckenzie leaping from
the ship Madras into the sea to save
Charles Turner, who had dropped from
the royal yard while trying to loosen
the sail, bringing him back to the deck
amid the huzzas of passengers and crew.
If man has not enthusiasm enough to
cheer in such circumstances he deserves
to drop into the sea and have
no one to help him. The Royal HUI
maj Society of England was estab-
lisf d in IVA. its object to applaud and
reward those who should pluck up life
from the deep. Any one who has per-
formed such deed of daring has all the
particulars of that bravery recorded in
. public record, and on his breast a
, medal done in blue, and gold, and
bronze; anchor, and monogram, and
telling to future genera
lions the bravery of the man or woman
who saved some one from drowning.
But. my friends, if it is such o worthy
hing to save a body from the deep, I
ssk you if it is not q worthier thing to
save an immortal soul? And you shall
zee this hour the Son of God step forth
FOR this achievement. He shall spread
forth his hand in the midst of them, as
he that swimmeth spreadeth forth his
hands to swim"
In order to understand the full force
If this figure, you need to realize, first
If all, that our race is in sinking con-
1ition. You sometimes hear people
alking of what they consider the most
beautiful words in our language. One
nan says it is "home," another man SAYS
t is the word mother" another says it is
he word Jesus" but l will tell you
he bitterest word in all our language,
he word most angry and baleful, the
vord saturated with the most
rOuble, the word that accounts for all
he loathsomeness, and the pang, and
he outrage, and the narrowing; and that
vord is Sin" You spell it with three
etters, and yet those three letters de-
cribe the circumference and pierce the
of everything bad in the uni
'erse. Sin! it is q sibilant word. You
annot pronounce it without giving the
ISIS of the flame or the hiss of the SER
'ent. Sin! And then if you add three |
etters to that word it describes every |
me OF us by nature-slnner. We have |
outraged the law of God, not occasion
lily, or now and then, but perpetually.
The Bible declares it. Hark! 1t thun- |
ers two claps: The heart is deceitful
bove all things and desperately wicked"
The soul that sinneth, it shall die"
What the Bible says our own conscience |
firms. After Judge Morgan has SEN
enced Lady Jane Grey to death his con-
cience troubled him SO much for the |
eed that he became insane, and all |
trough his insanity he kept saying:
Take her away from me! Lady Jane !
Trey. Take her away! Lady Jane Grey"
was the voice of his conscience. And
% man ever does anything wrong, how
yer great or small. but his cons cience
rings that matter before him, and at
very step of his misbehavior it says,
wrong" Sin is q leprosy, sin
} . paralysis, sin is a consumption. sin
, pollution, sin is death. Give it a fair
nance and it will swamp you, body,
lind, and soul forever. In this world
only gives a faint intimation of its
irulence. You see patient in the frs.
lagos of typhoid fever. The cheek is