The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1889-09-04
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUM-
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "The Strong Swimmer
preached at Seattle, w. IT,

TEXT: 'tHe shall spread forth His hands
in the midst of them, as lie that s1uinln,eth
spreadeth forthhis hands to s'oim. 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 eau
Gously 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
or float or swim. So the text will be very
suggestive: "He shall spread forth His hand
in the midst Of them, rs he that swimmeth
spreadeth forth his hands to SWIM"
The fisherman seeks out unfrequented
hooks. You stand all day OIL the bank
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, mis- face shining and his basket full.
I 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 can
not understand the policy Of the minister
week for thirty years preached from the
Epistle to the Hebrews. 1t is an exhillara-
ion to me when leone across theme which
I feel no one else has treated, and my text is
ono 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 chapter read, they
read chapter that all the other people have
been reading, so that the church to-day IS
ignorant of three-fourths Of the Bible. You
70 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.
brandtf' 'sNo." 'sDid you see that Ru-
bens?' mo" "Did you see that Titan:
No" Ibid you see that Raphael
''thcn you didn't see the Louvre"
Now, my friends, I think we are too much
apt to conine ourselves to one Of the great
corridors Of this Scripture truth, and so
much so that there is not one person out OF
i've and powerful picture in the words OF my
text.
This text represents God as strong swim.
mer, striking out to push down iniguity 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 tc
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 ~o
manhood, 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 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 lido not know anything
more stirring or sublime than to see some man
like Norman Mckenzie leaping from the
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 a man has not enthu-
siasm enough to cheer in 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
deed of daring has oil the particulars
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 worthy thing to
save body from the deep, ask you if it is
not worthier thing to save an immortal
soul? And you shall see this hour the Sonof
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
punge. One man says it is "home," another
saws it is the word mother" another says it
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;
three letters, and yet those three letters de-
scribe the circumference and pierce the
diameter Of everything bad in the universe
Sini it is a sibilant word. You cannot
pronounce it without giving the
siss of the flame or the hiss Of
the serpent Sin! And then If you add
three Letters to that word it describes every
one of us by natrre-sinner. We have out
ragged the law of God. not occasionallv OF
now and then, but perpetually. The Bible
declares it. Hark 1t thunders two claps:
'The heart is deceitful above all things and
desperately wicked" "The soul that sinneth,
it shall die" What the Bible says our own
conscience af1rms. 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
awayl Lady Jane Grey" It was tho voice
of his conscience. And no man ever does
anything wrong, owever great or small, but
his conscience brings that matter before him,
md at every step Of his misbehavior it says:
Wrong, wrong" Sin is leprosy, sin is a
paralysis, sin is consumption, sin is
pollution, sin is death. Give it 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 q patient in the first stages Of typhoid
fever The cheek is somewhat flushed, the
hands somewhat hot, preceded by q slight
chill. "Why, you say. Typhoid fever does
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 SEQ
the full havoc of the disease. Now
sin in this world is an ailment
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 seq 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
our heart would break. If your sins are
unforgiven, they are bearing down on you,
and you are sinking-sinking away from