News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-08-29
SUNDAYS SERMON.
ONE OF REV. DIR. TALMAGE'S
STERLING DISCOURSES.
Subject: ''The Strong Swimmer"
preached at Seattle, w. T1

>
preached at Seattle, w. T1
TEXT: '.He shall spread forth His hands
il the midst of them, as he that SlUinnleth
spreadeth forth his hands to SuVim. Isaiah
XIV, IL.
At this season of the year multitudes of
people wade into the ponds and lakes and
rivers and seas. At first putting out cau-
tously from the Shore but having learned
the right stroke of arm and foot, they let the
waters roll over them, and in wild glee dive
OF float or swim So the text will be very
suggestive: HE shall spread forth His hand
in the midst of them, as he that swimmeth
spreadeth forth his hands to swim"
The fisherman seeks out unfrequented
hooks. You stand all day on the bank
of a river in 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 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.
l 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. | can
not understand the policy of the minister
who, in Blackfriars London, England, every
week for thirty years preached from the
Epistle to the Hebrews. 1t is an exhiliara-
ton to me when come across a theme which
feel no one else has treated, and my text is
one of that kind. There are paths in Gods
Word that are well beaten by Christian feet.
When men want to quote Scripture, they quote
the old passages that every one has heard
When they want q 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
go into the Louvre at Paris. You confine
yourself to one corridor of that opulent gal
lery of paintings. As you come out your
friend says to you: did you see that Rem
brandtT' No" did you see that Ru-
No" 'Did you see that RaphaelP'
mo" 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 a
million who has ever noticed the all suggest
i've and powerful picture in the words of my
text
This text represents God as strong swim
mer, striking out to push down iniquity and
save the souls of men. He shall spread
forth His hand in the midst of Them as he
that swimmeth spreadeth forth his hands to
swim" The figure 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 wo-
manhood, while summering 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 you
had been born aquatic. 1t is grand thing to
know how to SWIM not only for yourself,
but because you will after WHILE perhaps
have to help Others, 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 dropped from the royal yard
while trying to loosen the sail, bringing him
back to the deck amid the huzzas of the pas
sengers and crew. If man has not enthu-
siasm enough to cheer i'll such circumstances
he deserves himself TO drop into the sea and
have no one to help him. The Royal HUI
name Society of England was established in
1774, its object 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 medal done in
blue, and gold and bronze; anchor, and
monogram, and inscription, telling to future
generations the bravery of the man or woman
who saved some one from drowning. But,
my friends if it is such a worthy thing to
u
not worthier thing to save an immortal
soul? And you shall see 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 of this
figure, you need to realize, first of all that
our race is in a sinking condition. You
sometimes hear people talking of what they
consider the most beautiful words in our Ian
guage. One man says it is ''home," another
says it is the word mother" another says 1t
is the word Jesus" but will tell you the
bittereSt word in all our language, the
word most angry and baleful, the word sat
urated with the most trouble, the word that
accounts for all the loathsomeness, 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 de
scribe the circumference and pierce the
diameter of everything bad in the universe.
Sin! it is a sibilant word. You cannot
pronounce it without giving the
siss of the fame or the hiss of
the serpent SIM And then if you add
three letters to that word it describes every
one of us by nature-sinner. We have out
ragged the law of God, not occasionally, or
now and then, but perpetually. The Bible
declares it, Hank! 1t thmders two claps:
The heart is deceitful above all things and
wicked" 1.-THE soul that sinneth
II
conscience affirms. After Judge Morgan
had sentenced Lady Jane Gray to death his
conscience 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" 1t was the voice
of his conscience. And no man ever does
anything wrong, however great or small. but
his conscience brings that matter before him
and at every step of his misbehavior it saws:
wrong wrong" Sin is Ieprosy, sin is
sin is consumption, sin is
pollution, sin is death. Give it q fair
chance and it will swamp you, body,
mind and soul forever In this world it only
gives faint intimation of its virulence You
see patient in the first stages of typhoid
fever. The cheek is somewhat flushed, the
hands somewhat hot, preceded by slight
not seem to be much of disease" But wait
until the patient has been six weeks under it,
and 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
the full havoc of the disease. Now
which is only in its very first stages; but let
it get under full way and it is an all consum-
ing typhoid. Oh, If we could see our unpar-
doned sins as God sees them our teeth would
chatter, and our knees would knock together
and our respiration would be choked and
unIorglven, they are bearing down ON YOU
and you are sinking sinking away from
happiness sinking way from God, sinking
away from everything that is good and
blessed.
Then what do we want? A swimmer! A
strong swimmer A swift swimmer! And |
blessed be God, in my text we have him an
nounced. He shall spread forth His hands in
the midst of them, as he that swimmeth
spreadeth forth his hands to swim.n You
have noticed that when a swimmar goes out
to rescue any one he puts off his heavy appar-
ell. He must not have any such impairment
about him if he is going to do tins great deed. !
And when Christ stepped forth to save us |
He shook off the sandals of heaven
and His feet were free and then He stepped |
down into the wave of our transgressfons.
and 1t came up over His wounded feet, and it
came above the spear stab in His side--aye, it |
dashed to the lacerated temple, the high |
water mark of His anguish Then, rising |
above the flood, He stretched forth His hands |
in the midst Of them, as he that swimmeth
spreadeth forth his hands to swim"
Ii you have ever watched a swimmer,
you notice that his whole body is brought |
into play. The arms are fexed the hands |
drive the water back, the knees are |
active, the head is thrown back to |
Escape strangulation, the whole body is in |