The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1889-06-12


off from the bridge and says: "What do you
want." reply: Il come to take some Of
your passengers across to the othervessel;I
think they will be safer and happier there"
The Captain would look down with indigna-
ton and say: 'Get out of the way, or /
will run you down. And then l would
back oars, amidst the ieering of two or
three hundred people looking over the
taffrail. But the Umbria and the City of
Paris meet under different circumstances
after a while The City of Paris is coming
out of cyclone; the life boats are smashed,
the bulwarks gone, the vessel rapidly going
down. The boatswain gives his last whistle
of despairine command. The passengers rue
up and down the deck, and some pray, and
all make great outcry The captain says:
"You have about fifteen minutes now to
prepare for the next worldn "No hopeW
sounds from stem to stern, and from the rat
lines down to the cabin. see the distress.
am let down by the side Of the Umbria.
push off as fast as can toward the sink
ing City Of Paris. Before come up people
are leaping into the water in their anxiety
to get to the boat, and when / have
swung up under the side of the City
Of Paris, the frenzied passengers rush
through the gangway until the Off
GERS, with axe and clubs and pistols, try to
keep back the crowd, each wanting his turn
to come next. There is but one lifeboat
and they all want to get into it, and the cry
is: "Me next! me next'' You see the ap
plication before / make it. AS long as a
man going on in his sin feels that all is well,
that he is coming out at beautiful port,
and has all sail set, he wants no Christ, he
wants no help, he wants no rescue; but, il
under the flash of Gods convicting spirit
he shall see that by reason of sin he is dis
masted and waterlogged, and going down
into the trough of the sea where he can not
live, how soon he puts the sea glass to his
eye and sweeps the horizon, and at the first
sign of help cries out: "Iwant to be saved
l want to be saved now. Iwant to be saved
forever" No sense of danger, no applica-
ton for rescue.
O, that Gods eternal spirit would flash
upon us sense of our sinfulness! The Bible
tells the story in letters of fire. but we get
used to it. We joke about sin. We make
merry over it. What is SIM Is it trifiing
thingl Sin is vampire that is sucking out
the life blood of your immortal nature. Sin!
1t is Bastile that no earthly key ever I'M
locked. Sins 1t is expatriation from God
and Heaven. Sin! 1t is grand larceny
againstthe Almighty, for the Bible asks the
question:; "Will man rob Coda" answer.
ing it in the affirmative. This gospel is a
writ of replevin to recover property unlaw-
fully detained from God.
In the Shetland Islands there is a man
L., ~n1I faN l.
swollen until it is fat on the ground. The
joints begin to fall away The ankle thick
ems until it looks like the foot Of wild
beast. A stare unnatural comes to the eye.
The nostril is CONSTRUCTED The voice drops
to an almost inaudible hoarseness. Tuber-
cles blotch the whole body and from them
there comes an emulation that is unbeara-
BILE to the beholder. That is leprosy, and
we have all got it unless cieansed by the
grace of God. See Leviticus. See ii. Kings.
See Mark. See Luke. See fifty Bible al
lusions and confirmations.
The Bible is not complimentary in its Ian
guage. 1t does not speak mincingly about
our sins. 1t does not talk apologetically.
There is noIvermillion in its STYLE 1t does not
cover up our transgressions with blooming
metaphor. 1t does not sing about them in
weak falsetto; but it thunders out: ''The
Imagination of mans heart is evil from his
Youth" Every one has gone back He has
IHtogether become filthy. He is abominable
and filthy, and drinketh Id iniquity like
water" And then the Lord Jesus Christ
filings down at our feet this humiliat-
ing catalogue: "Out of the heart of men
proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornica-
ton, murders, thefts, blasphemy." There
is text for your rationalists to preach
from. o, the dignity of human nature!
There is an element of your science Of man
that the anthropologist never has had the
courage yet to touch; and the Bible, in all
the ms and outs of the most forceful style,
sets forth our natural pollution, and repre-
sents iniquity as frightful thing, as an ex-
hausting thing, as a loathsome thing. 1t is
not mere bemiring Of the feet, it is not a
mere befouling of the hands; it is going
down, head and ears under, in ditch, until
our clothes abhor us.
My brethren, shall we stay down where
sin thrusts us l shall not if you do. Wecan
not afford to. / have to-day to tell you that
there is something purer than snow water,
something more pungent than alkali, and
that is the blood of Jeaus Christ that cleans
eth from all sin. Ay, the river of salvation,
bright, crystalline, and heaven-born rushes
through this audience with billowy tide
strong enough to wash your completely and
forever away. o, Jesus, let the dam that
holds it back now break, and the floods Of
salvation roll over us.
Let the water and the blood,
From Thy side healing food,
Be Of sin the double cure,
Save from wrath and make me pure.
Let us get down on both knees and battle
in that flood of mercy Ay, strike out with
both hands and try to swing to the other
shore of this river of Gods grace. To you is
the word Of this salvation sent. Take this
largess of the divine bounty. Though you
have gone down into the deepest ditch OF
libidinous desire and corrupt behavior
though you have sworn all blasphemies un
til there is not sinful word left for you tc
speak, though you have been submerged by
the transgressions of lifetime, though YOU
are so far down in your sin that no earthly
help can touch your case-the Lord Jesus
Christ bends over you to-day, and offers YOU
His right hand, proposing to lift you up, frs
making you whittier than snow, and ther
raising you to glories that never die
"Billy," said Christian bootblack t.
another, ''when we come up to HEAVIER
it won't make any difference tina
we've been bootblacks here, for W,
shall get in, not somehow or other, bu
Billy, weshall getstraight through the gate.
o, if you only knew how full and free ant
tender is the offer Of Christ, this day, yoI
would all take Him without one single ex
ception; and if all the doors Of this hous,
were locked save one and you were com
PEELED to make egress by only one door, an,
l stood there and questioned you, and tn
gospel of Christ had made the right impress
sion upon your heart to-day, you would an
sWer me as You went out, one and all; "Jesu!