The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1899-10-25

leaped from the deck Of the Russia, the
Cunard steamer, to save the life OF
sailor who had fallen overheard. NO
wonder the passengers subscribed for him
a large reward and the Royal Humane
Society of London decorated him with
honors. A mighty swimmer was he, by
the strength of his own arm and foot
pushing through the waters from Black
wall pier to Gravesend pier, eighteen
miles, and from Dover to Calais, thirty
nine miles, where he crossed, vet he was
drowned at last in our Niagara's whirl-
pool But the strong swimmer or my
text put out alone to swim wrathier sea
and far vaster distance, even from world
to world. to save us who were swamped
in guilt and woe, and brought us to the
shore of safety, although he at last went
down into the whirlpool of human and
satanic rage. "He descended into hell!
Rescuing a Drowning Soul.
New modes have been invented for res
ching a drowning body, but there has
been no new invention for rescuing
drowning soul. In 1855 Lionel Lukin, a
London coach builder, fitted up Norway
yawl as a lifeboat and called it the In
submergible, and that has been improved
upon until from all the coasts or the
round world perfect lifeboats are ready
to put out for the relief Of marine DIS
asters. In sixteen years the French 80
ciety for Saving Life from Shlpwreck, oy
their lifeboats and gun apparatus, saved
2 100 lives. The German Association Tor
the Rescue of Life from ShlpWreck, the
Royal National Lifeboat institution ana
our United States ife-saving service nave
dore a work beyond the power OF status
tics to commemorate. What rocket lines
and sling life buoys and tally boards and
mortars and hammocks and cork mat
tresses and life-saving stations filled with
machinery for saving the bodies OF the
drowning! But let me here and now
make it plain that there has been no new
way invented for the moral and eternal
rescue of a struggling soul. Five hundred
attempts at such contrivance have Deeh
made, but all Of them dead failures. Hear
It! ss,Ihere is none other name under
heave given among men whereby we
must be saved" than the name OF Jesus.
The mighty swimmer Of my text comes
down off the beach Of heaven and through
the breakers, comes buffeted and bruised
and reddening the waves from his own
lacerations, he cries: Lay hold or my
arm! Put your head on my shoulder!
Hear the beating of my loving heart! be
We saved. for l am God, and there is no
other!'
l want to persuade you to lay hold OF
this strong swimmer. NO" you say;
lit is always disastrous for drowning
man to lay hold of q swimmer" There
is not a river OF lake but has calamity
resultant from the fact that when
strong swimmer went out to save a sink
ing man the drowning man clutched him,
threw his arms around him, pinioned his
arms. and they both went down together.
When YOU are saving a man in the wat
or. YOU do not want to come up by his
face. You want to come up by his back.
You do not want him to hold you while
YOU take hold Of him. But blessed be
God, Jesus Christ is so strong swim
mer he comes not to our back, but to our
face. and he asks us to throw around him
the arms Of our love and then promises
to take us to the beach, and he will do it.
Do not trust that plank of good works.
Do not trust that shivered spar of your
own Righteousness. Christ only can give
YOU safe transportation. Turn your face
upon him. as the dying martyr did in
Christ. None but Christi Jesus has
taken millions TO the land, and he is
willing to take you there. Oh. what
hardness to thrust him back when he has
been swimming all the way from the
throne of God, where you are now, and
is ready to swim all the way back again.
taking your redeemed spirit!
Dependence Upon Christ.
hear many saying: well, | would
like to be a Christian. ] am going to
work to become Christian" My broth
err. you begin wrong. When man is
drowning, and a strong swimmer comes
out to help him, he says to him: Now
be quiet. Put your arm on my arm or
on my shoulder, but don't struggle, don't
try to help yourself, and I'll take you
ashore. The more you struggle and the
more you try to help yourself the more
YOU impede me. Now, be quiet, and I'll
take you ashore" When Christ, the
strong swimmer, comes out to save a
soul, the sinner says: That's right. 1
am glad to see Christ, and / am going
to help him in the work of my redemp-
ton. I am going to pray more, and that
will help him, and | am going to weep
extravagantly over my sins, and that will
help him. No, it will not. Stop your
doing. Christ will do all or none. You
cannot lift an ounce, you cannot move an
inch, in this matter of your redemption.
This is the difficulty which keeps thou
sands of souls out of the kingdom Of
heaven 1t is because they cannot con-
sent to let Jesus Christ begin and COM
plete the work Of their redemption.
"Why," you say. ''then is there nothing
for me to do?" Only one thing have you
to do, and that is to lay hold of Christ
and let him achieve your salvation and
achieve it all. I do not know whether I
make the matter plain or not. | simply
want to show you that a man cannot
save himself, but that the Almighty Son
of God can do it and will do it if you ask
him. Oh, fling your two arms. the arm
of your trust and the arm Of your love,
around this omnipotent swimmer of the
cross! May the living Christ this moment
put out for your rescue, spreading his
hands iii the midst Of you, as swimmer
spreadeth his hands to SWIM
Out of Sight.
Boss-I don't know whether to dis