The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1899-11-30

ier thing to save an immortal soul. And |
you shall see this hour the Son of God |
step forth for this achievement. He
shall spread forth His hands in tue
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 that
our race is in sinking condition. You
sometimes hear people talking OF what
they consider the most beautiful words
in our language. One man says it is
''home," another man says it is the word
mother" another says it is the word
"Jesus," but I tell you the bitterest
word in all our language, the most an
CRY and baleful, the word saturated
with the most trouble, the word that ac-
counts for all the loathsomeness 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 sibilant
word. You cannot pronounce it with
out 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 everyone of us by nature.
sinner. Wehave outraged the law of God,
not occasionally, or now and then, but
perpetually. The Bible declares it.
Hark! It 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 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 ali through his
insanity he kept saying: take her
away from me! Lady Jane Grey! Take
her away! Lady Jane Grey!" 1t was
the voice of conscience. And 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; sin3is par
alysis; sin is a 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 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 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
gone, then you see the full havoc OF
| the disease. Now, sin in this world il
an ailment which is only in its frs
stages, but let it get under full way
and it is an all-consuming typhoid. Oh
if we could see our unpardoned sins a!
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 YOU
sins are unforgiven, they are bearing
down on you and you are sinking
sinking away from happiness, sinkin.
away from God, sinking away from
everything that is good and blessed.
Then what do we want? A swimme
"a strong swimmer, swift swimmer
And blessed be God, in my text we hav
him announced. ''He shall spread fortl
His hands in the midst of them, as 81
that swimmeth stretcheth forth hi
hands to swim" You have noticed tha
when swimmer goes to rescue anyon
he puts off his heavy apparel. He mus
not have any such impediment abou
him if he is going to do this great deed
And when Christ stepped forth to saw
us He shook off the sandals of Heaver
and His feet were free, and then II
stepped down into the wave Of ou
transgressions, and it came over Hi
wounded feet, and it came above th
spear stab in His side-aye, it dashe
, to the lacerated temple, the high-wate
mark of His anguish. Then, risin
above the food, HE stretched forth H
, hands in the midst of them, as he thu
, swimmeth spreadeth forth his hanG
to SWIM
If YOU have ever watched swimme
E YOU notice that his whole body
, brought into play. The arms are flexe,
j the hands drive the water back, Il
+ knees are active, the, head is throw
4 back to escape strangulation, the who
E body is in propulsion. And when Chri
s sprang into the deep to save us i
t threw His entire nature into it-all II
/ Godhead, His omniscience, His goo
i ness, His love, His omnipotence, hea
heart, eyes, hands, feet. We were Il
2 out on the sea and SO deep down in Il
E waves and so far out from the shore TIL
e nothing short of an entire God cou
S save us. Christ leaped out for our re
: cue, saying: 10, I come to do t
|. will" and all the surges OF human al
e satanic hate beat against Him, al
f those who watched Him from the gat
o of Heaven feared He would go dov
= under the wave, and instead of savil
d Others would Himself perish, but, p,
l. ting HIS breast to the foam and shakil
) the surf from His locks, He came