The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1899-10-23


Beach Of heaven and through tie break
ers, comes bufYefed and bruised. and red
dening the waves from hts own lacera.
tons. he cries: Lay hold Of my arm!
Put your head On my shoulder! Hear
the beating of my loving heart! Be ye
saved. for ! am God, and there IL 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 a swimmer" There
Is not a river or lake but has calamity
resultant from the fact that when q
strong swimmer went out to save 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 wa
ter, 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 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 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 old
en- times when he cried out: "None but
Christ! None but Christi Jesus has
taken millions to the land, and he Is
willing to take you there. Oh, what hard.
ness 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!
/ have sometimes thought what spec
tacle 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 merchantmen went down. There is
where the steamers went down, a long
line of wrecks from beach to beach.
What spectacle in the last day, when
the water Is drawn off! But, oh. how
much more solemn II we had an eye to
see the spiritual wrecks and the places
where they foundered You would find
thousands along our roads and streets.
Christ came down in their awful catas-
trophe, putting out for their souls,
spreading out his hands as swimmer
spreadeth forth his hands to SWIM" but
they thrust him In the sore heart, and
they smote his fair cheek, and the storm
and darkness swallowed them up. ask
you to lay hold of this Christ and lay
hold of him now. You will sink without
him. From horizon to horizon not one
sail In sight. only one strong swimmer,
with head flung back and arms outspread. |
Dependence Upon Christ.
I hear many saying: "Well, l would
like to be Christian. am going to
work to become Christian" My broth
er, you begin wrong. When man Is |
drowning, and strong swimmer comes |
out to help him, he says to him: snow
be quiet. Put your arm on my arm or
on my shoulder, but don't struggle, don't
try to help yourself, and III take you
ashore. The more you struggle and the
more you try to help yourself the more
you impede me. Now, be quiet, and III
take you ashore" When Christ, the
strong swimmer comes out to save a
soul, the sinner says: That's right. |
am glad to see Christ. and am going to
help him in the work of my redemption.
l am going to pray more, and that will
help him, and l am going to weep cxtrav-
agantly over my sins, and that will help
him." No, it will not. Stop your do
ing 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. II 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
Tor me to doT' Only one thing have you
to do, anil that is to lay hold of Christ
md let him achieve your salvation and
achieve it all. do not know whether
make the matter plain or not. l simply
want to show you that man cannot
save himself, but that the Almighty Son
Of God can do it and will do it il you
lsk him. Oh, fling your two arms the
arm of your trust and the arm of your
owe, around this emnipotent swimmer
If the cross!
Have you ever stood by and seen some
me under process of resuscitation after
ong submergence? The strong swim
ner has put him on the beach after
truggle in the waters. To excite breath
ng in the almost ifeless body what
what friction of the cold
limbs, what artificial movement of the
ungs, what breath of the rescuer blown
nto the mouth Of the rescued! And when
reathing begins, and after awhile the
light respiration becomes the deep sigh,
nd the eyes open, and the blue lips take
II smile, what rejoicing, what clapping
t hands all up and down the beach,
What congratulation for the strong swim
ler and for all who helped in the resto-
alton, what shouting of HE lives, he
ves!" Like this is the gladness when
oul that has been submerged in sin and
orrow is coming to-" What desire on
he part of all to help, and, when under
he breath of God and under the ina. .pu-
ltion by the wounded hands of Christ,
he life eternal of the soul begins to show
self, all through the ranks of specta-
ors, terrestrial and celestial, goes the
~: HE lives! Rejoice, for the dead Is
live again" May the living Christ this
loment put out for your rescue, spread
" his hands in the midst of you, as a
wimmer spreadeth his hands to swim"