Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1899-10-27
.Jesus," but I tell you the bitterest

with the most trouble, the word that &C
counts for all the loathscmeness and
the pang and the outrage and the har-
rowing, and that word is sin" You
spell it with three letters, and yet those
three letters describe the circumference
and pierce the diameter of everything
bad in the universe. Sin is a sibiIant
word. You cannot pronounce it with
out giving the siss of the fame or the
hiss of the serpent. Sin! And then if
you add three letters to that word
it describes everyone of us by nature
sinner. Wehave outraged the law of God,
not occasionally, or now and then. but
perpetuaHy. The Bible declares it.
Hark! 1t thunders two clapsi 1.-THE
heart is deceitful above all things and
desperately wicked" ''The soul that
sinneth, it shall die" What the Bible
says our own conscience affirms.
After Judge Morgan had sentenced
Lady Jane Grey 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 me! Lady Jane Greyl Take
her away! Lady Jane Grey!" It was
the voice of conscience. Ard 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 says: Wrong,
wrong!" Sin is leprosy; sin is par
alysis; sin is consumption; sin is
pollution; sin is death. Give it fair
chance, and it will swamp you and me,
body, mind and soul, forever. In this
world it only gives a faint intimation
of its virulence. You see patient in
the first stages of typhoid fever. The
cheek is somewhat flushed, the hands
somewhat hot, pereceded by a slight
chill. Why" you say, typhoid fever
does not seem to be much of a 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
gone, then you see the full havoc of
the disease. Now, sin in this world is
an ailment which is only in its Srst
stages, but let it get under full way
and it is an aH-consuming typhoid. Oh,
if we could see our unpardoned 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 happiness, sinking
away from God, sinking away from
everything that is good and blessed.
Then what do we want? A swimmer
"a strong swimmer, swift swimmer!
And blessed be God, in my text we have
him announced. "He shall spread forth
His hands in the midst Of them, as He
that swimmeth stretcheth forth his
hands to SWIM" You have noticed that
when swimmer goes to rescue anyone
he puts off his heavy apparel. He must
not have any such impeachment about
him if he is going to do this 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
transgressions, and it came 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"
If you have ever watched a swimmer.
you notice that his whole body is
brought into play. The arms are f1eXed,
the hands drive the water back, the
knees are active, the head is thrown
back to escape strangulation. the whole
body is in propulsion. And when Christ
sprang into the deep to save US He
threw His entire nature into it-al1 His
Godhead, His omniscience, His good
ness. His love, His omnipotence, head,
heart, eyes, hands, feet. We were far
out on the sea and so deep down in the
waves and so far out from the shore that
nothing short of an entire God could
save us. Christ leaped out for our res
cue, saying: ''Lo, I come to do thy
Will" and all the surges of human and
satanic hate beat against Him, and
those who watched Him from the gates
of Heaven feared He would 60 down
under the wave, and instead of saving
others would Himself perish, but, put
ting His breast to the foam and shaking
the surf from His locks, He came on
and on until He is now within the reach
of everyone here, eye omniscient, heart
infinite, arm omnipotent. mighty to
save, even unto the uttermost.
Oh, it was not half God that tram
pied down believing Gennesaret; it was
not a quarter of a God that mastered
the demons of Gadara; it was not two
thirds of God that lifted up LAZARUS
into the arms of his overjoyed sisters;
it was not fragment of God who Of
fered pardon and peace to all the race.
No. This mighty swimmer threw His
grandeur, His glory, His might, His wis
dom, His omnipotence and His eternity
into this one act. It took both hands of
God to save us-both feet. How do !
prove it? On the cross were not both
hands nailed? On the cross were not
both feet spiked? His entire nature