The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1889-08-29

preventing from inc same te1L lndt OJucE
people preach from. l can not UNDER
stand the policy of the minister
who, in Blackfriars, London, En-
gland, every week for thirty years
preached from the Epistle to the He
brews. 1t is an exhilaration to me when
j come across theme which feel no
ono else has treated, and my text is one
OF that kind. There are paths in G od's
word that are we'll beaten by Christian
feet. When men want to quote Script
ure, they quote the old passages that
every one has heard. When they want a
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 gall
lery OF paintings. AS you come out your
friend says to you:
"Did you see that Rembrandtl"
1'NOn
did you see that Rubens"
"Did you see that Titan"
"Did you see that Raphael"
"No."
"well," says your friend, 'then you
didn't see the Louvre"
Now, my friends, l 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 million who has ever
noticed the all-suggestive and powe rful
picture in the words of my text.
This text represents God as strong
swimmer, striking out to push down in
iquity and save the souls Of men.
He shall spread forth His hands in the midst
of them. as he that swimmeth spreadeth forth
his hands to swim.
The figure is bold and many. sided.
Most If you know how to swim. Some
of you learned in the city school, wher 9
this art is taught; some Of you in boy
hood, in the river near your fathers
house; some of you since you came to
manhood or womanhood while summer
ing on the beach of the sea. You step
down in the waves, you throw your head
back, you bring your elbows to the
chest, you put the palms Of your hands
downward and the soles of your feet
outward, and you push through the water
as though you had been born aquatic. 1t
is great thing to know how to swim,
not only for youself, but because you will
save others.
do not know any thing more stirring
or sublime than to see some man like Nor
man Mckenzie leaping from the ship
Madras into the sea to save Charles Tur-
ner, who had dropped from the royal
yard while trying to loosen the sail,
bringing him back to the deck amid the
huZzas of the passengers and crew. If a
man has not enthusiasm enough to cheer
in such circumstances he deserves him.
self to drop into the sea and have no one
help him The Royal Humane Society of
England was established in IVA; its OBJ
ject to applaud and reward those who
should pluck up life from the deep. Any
one who has performed such a 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
aud inscription, telling to future genera
tons the bravery of the man or woman
who saved some one from drowning.
But my friends, If it is such a worthy
thing to save body from the deep, ask
you il it is not a worthier thing to save
an immortal soul? And you shall see this
hour the Son Of God step forth for this
achievement.
lie 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
of this figure, you need to realize, first of
all. that our race is in sinking condi-
ton. You sometimes hear people talk.
lug of what they con slider the most beau
tiful words in our language. One man
says it is "home," another man says 1t is
the word mother" another says it Is
the word Jesus" but will tell you the
Ditterest word in all our language, the
word most angry and baleful, the word
saturated with the most trouble, the
word that accounts for all the loathsome-
ness, and the pang, and the outrage, and
the narrowing, and that word Is ''sin."
You spell it with three letters, and yet
those three letters describe the circum.
ference and pierce the diameter of every
thing bad in the universe. Sini it is
sibilant word. You can not pronounce 1t
without giving the siss Of the fame or
the hiss of the serpent. Sini And then
If you add three letters to that word it
des cribes every one OF us by nature
sinner. We have outraged the law of
God, not occasionally, or now and then,
but perpetually. The Bible declares it.
Har&l 1t thunders two claps: "The heart
is deceitful above all things and desper.
ately wicked" 1.-THE soul that sinneth,
1t shall die"
What the Bible says our own conscience
affirms. After Judge Morgan had sen.
fenced Lady Jane Grey to death his con-
science troubled him SO much for the
deed that he became insane, and all
through his insanity he kept saying:
Take her away from mel Lady Jane
Grey. Take her away; Lady Jane Grey ="
It was the voice Of his conscience. And
no man ever done any thing wrong. how.
ever great or small but his Conscience
brings that matter before him, and at
every step of his misbehavior 1t says:
Wrong, wrongp Sin Is q leprosy, sin
Is paralysis, sin Is a consumption, sin
is pollution, sin is death. Give II q fair
chance, and IL will swamp you, body,
mind and soul, forever. In this world it
only gives faint intimation OF its viru-
lence. You see patient In the first
stages OF typhoid fever; the cheek Is
somewhat flushed. the hands somewhat
hot, preceded by slight chill. s'Why,"
you say, typhoid fever does not seem to
be much of a disease" But wait until
The patient has been six weeks under ii,
aud all his energies have been wrung out
and he is too weak to lift his little finger,
and his intellect is gone; then you see
shs fvsII - he