Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1899-10-26

want. The case is urgent. imminent,
! instantaneous. See that soul sinking.
Son of God lay hold of him. Be quick.
be quick. Oh. | wish you all under
stood how urgent this gospel is
There was man in the navy 1T sea
who had been severely whipped for
bad behavior, and he was maddenel
by 1t and leaped into the sea. and no
! sooner had he leaped into the Sea
than, quick as lightning. an albatross
] swooped upon him. The drowning
man. brought TO his senses, seized hold
OF the albatross and held on. The f1ut-
| tering of the bird kept him on the
! wave until relief could come. Would
! now that the dove of Gods convict
ing. converting and saving spirit might
fash from the throne upon your soul
and that you, taking hold of its potent
wing. might live and live forever
The world has had strong swimmers
besides the one of the text, perhaps the
| greatest among them Matthew Webb
| of the British mercantile marine serv-
| ice. He leaped from the deck of the
Russia, the Cunard steamer, to save
the life of a sailor who had fallen over
board. No wonder the passengers sub
scribed for him large reward and the
Royal Humane Society of London dec
Grated him with honors. A mighty
swimmer was he. by the strength of his
own arm and foot pushing through the
| waters from Blackwall pier to Graves
end pier. Is miles. and from Dover to
| Calais. 80 miles. where he crossed, vet
he was drowned at last in our Nj
agara's whirlpool. But the strong
swimmer of my text put out alone to
swim wrathier sea and for 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 hellw
| Not a New Invention.
| New modes have been invented for
rescuing a drowning body. but there
has been no new invention for rescuing
a drowning soul. In 1855 Lionel Lukin,
| London coach builder, fitted up a
Norway yawl as a lifeboat and called
it the Insubmergible. and that has
been improved upon until from all the
coasts of the round world perfect life
boats are ready to put out for the relief
of marine disasters In 16 years the
French Society For Saving Life From
Shipwreck, by their lifeboats and gun
apparatus saved 2.129 lives. The Ger
man Association For the Rescue Of
Life From Shipwreck. the Royal Ma
tional Lifeboat institution and our
United States life saving service
have done Il work beyond the power
Of statistics to commemorate. What
rocket lines and sling life buoys and
tally boards and mOrtars and ham,
mocks and cork mattresses and life
saving stations filed 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 in
vented for the moral and eternal res
cue of a struggling soul. Five hundred
attempts at such contrivance have been
made, but all of them dead failures.
Hear it! There is none other name
under heaven given among men where
by we must be saved" than the name
Of Jesus. The mighty swimmer of my
text comes down off the beach of heav-
en- and through the breakers, comes
buffeted and bruised. and. reddening
the waves from his own decorations, he
scries: Lay hold of my arm! Put your
,,hn,rfI,r' = h, irry
of my loving heart, BE We saved, for
am God. and there is no other."'
want TO persuade you to lay hold
of this strong swimmer No you
say; ''it is always disastrous for q
drowning man to lay hold of a swim
mer." There is not a river or lake but |
has a calamity resultant from the fact |
that when strong swimmer went out |
to save Il sinking 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 water,
you do not want TO come up by his
face. You want to come up by his
back. YOE do not want him to hold |
you while you take hold of him. Bat
blessed hS God. Jesus Christ is so
strong swimmer 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 10 take us 10
the beach. and be 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 olden times when he cried out:
None but Christi None but Christw
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 re-
deemed spirit,
Don't Struggle.
have sometimes thought what a
spectacle the ocean bed will present
when in the last day the water is all
drawn off. 1t will be line Of wrecks
from beach to beach. There Is where
the harpoOners went down. There is
where the line of battle ships went
down. There is where the merchant
men went down. There is where the
steamers went down, long line Of
wrecks from beach to beach What q
spectacle in the last day, when the
water is drawn off! BUT. oh, how
much more solemn If we had an eve
to sn, fhn Sr,ii;tnnl r,-,.noI-,. and tho |