Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-08-22
Standing on the River Bank in
the Hot Sun Catching no Fish.
1t is Grand Thing TO Know How to
Swim, Not Only for Yourself, but
Because You Can Help Others.
When You are Saving a Man in the Water
You Don't Want to Come Up at His Face,
You Want to Come Up at His Back.
THE STRONG SWIMMER .
Special to the Gazette.

Special to the Gazette.
SEATTLE, w T. Aug. 18.-The Rev
T. Dewitt Talmage, d. D., of Brook
Ign, preached here to-day. His text
was Isaiah XIV, IL: HE shall spread
forth His hands in the midst of them, as
he that sYimmeth spreadeth forth his
hands to swim The preacher said:
At this season of the year multitudes
of people wade into the ponds and lakes
and rivers and seas. AT first putting out
cautiously from the shore, but having
learned the right stroke of arm and foot &,
they let the waters roll over them, and
i'll wild glee dive or float or swim. So
the text will be very suggestive; He
shall spread forth His hands in the midst
of them, as he that swimmeth spread6th
forth his hands to swim. -
The fisherman seeks out unfrequented
hooks. You stand all day on the banks
of a wide river III the broiling sun, and
fling 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 no
fisherman has been for ten years, throws
out his line, and comes home at night
his face shining and his basket full. | do
not know whv we ministers of the Gospel
need always be fishing in the same
stream, and preaching from the same
texts 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. It is an eXhilaratiOn to me when
| come across n theme which l feel no one
else has treated, and my text is
one of that kind. There are
paths in God g Word that are
well beaten by Christian feet. When
men want to quote scripture, they quote
the old passages that everybody has
heard. When they want chapter read 4,
they read a chapter that all the other
people have been reading, so that the
sehurch to-day is ignorant of three
fourths of the Bible. You go into the
Louvre at Paris. You Gontne yourself to
one corridor of that opulent gallery OF
paintings AS you come out your friend
says to you, ''DId you see that Rem
brandt?" ono" Did you see that
Rubens?'' "No.' Ibid you see that
Titian?' "No.' "Did you see that
RephaeI?" ono "Weu," says
your 1ElGhu JItA you dttAh SCC LllG
Louvre. - Now, my friends, think we
are too much apt TO cOn6ne ourselves to
one of the great corridors of this gallery
of scripture truth, and so much so that
there is not one person out of million
who has ever noticed the all suggestive
and powerful picture III the words of my
text.
A BOLD FIGURE.
This text represents God as q strong
swimmer, striking out to push down in
iquity and to save the souls of men.
s'He shall spread forth His hands IN the
midst of them, as he that swim meth
spreadeth forth his hands to swim - The
fl gure is bold and many sided. Most of
you know how to swim. Some of you
learned it in the city school, where this
art is taught some of you in boyhood,
in the river near your fathers house;
some of you since you came to manhood
or womanhood, while summering on the
beach of the sea. You step down in the
wave, 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
Won had been born aquatic. 1t is q
grand thing to know how to swim, not
only for yourself, but because you will
after awhile, perhaps, have to help 9TH
ers. l do not know anything more stir
ring 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 the passengers and the crew.
If d 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 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 deed of
daring has all the particulars of that
bravery recorded in q public record, and
on his breast a medal done in blue, and
gold and bronze; aDchor, and mono
gram and inscription, telling to future
generations the bravery of the man or
woman who saved someone from
drowning. But, my friends, if it is
such a worthy thing to save a body
from the deep, / ask you if it is not q
worthier thing to save an immortal
soul? And you shall see this hour the
Sou of God step forth for this achieve
ment. Gle shall spread forth His hands
in the midst of them, as he that swim
meth spreadeth forth his hands TO
swim -
NAKED, IN \ SINKING CONDITION.
In order to understand the full force OF
this figure, you need to realize, first of
all, that orr race is iii a sinking condi-
ton. You sometimes hear people talking
of what they consider the most beautiful
words in our language. One man says
1t Is 'home. - another man says if is the
word ''mother - another says it is the
word FJesus;'' but [ will tell you the
bltterest 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 Ioathsome-
ness, and the pang and the outrage, and
the narrowing; and that word IS 'tsin
You spell it with three letters, and
vet those three letters describe
the circumference and pierce the
diameter of everything b6d in the uni
verse. Sim 1t is a sibilant word You
cannot pronounce it without giving the
siss of the flame or the hiss of the SER
pent. Sin! And then if you add three
letters to that word il describes every one
Of rs bV DafuTe-siDOer We have ont