Los Angeles herald., 1906-10-01
SIN IS CANCER
Of THE SOUL
REV. DR.. TALMAGE BREACHES
ON LEPR0SY
Sin Is Forerunner Of Eternal Death
and Moral Lspers May Look With
Confidence for Divine
Cure

Rev. Frank Dewitt Talmage preached
on 'Leprous sin" yesterday to his con-
gregation on the text But he was a
leper.'
The reverend speaker said in part;
"Leprosy, humanity speaking, is an
incurable disease. Scientists ever since
history began, have been studying the
onward march Of this fatal destroyer.
although most prevalent in the east,
it Id confined TO no climate and is
peculiar to no age. race or condition.
Nearly 1000 years before Christ was
born III Bethlehem we read that
Miriam, who led the Hebrew maidens
in the triumphant dance, when
Pharaoh's host was submerged In the
Red sea, was afflicted with leprosy, be-
cause she became sinfully jealous.
Miriam was Jealous because her brother
Moses, 80 years OF age, fell In love and
wanted to take a wife.
Clear back in 1916, Holbein, the
artist, painted a picture of Elizabeth
distributing bread to the unclean leperS
of Augsburg.
Lepers Everywhere
"Lepers among the icebergs of the
north! Lepers basking in the torrid
heats about the equator! Lepers in
Europe! Lepers in ASIA Lepers in
Africa! Lepers in America! LeperS i'll
the islands of the seasl
"But though 1eprosy has been found
by the scientists everywhere, yet one
fact is universally recognized about the
disease--it is incurable.
"A man who has the leprous poison
in his system has no hope from medi-
cine; he must grow worse and worse
until ba nnt11oc n tho crave
ut is as incurable as that disease
which we call cancer, and which is only
a little less fatal in its hideous and re-
pulsive results than leprosy.
Gen. Grants Career.
when Gen Grant was suffering from
an affection of the throat the family
physicians feared a cancer. But to be
upon the safe side in their diagnosis.
they took to a specialist small part
of the excrescence from the throat.
Now the doctors said to that special
list, this excrescence is from a man Of
very great national influence We Will
not tell you his name, as 1t might bias
your judgment
"The specialist placed the excrescence
under the microscope. After carefully
examining it he said: 1T Is a fatal
cancer. Who's throat did it come
NreD. ". tIldiI WoS tiiC
answer. Then said the great bac-
teriologist. Gen. Grant is doomed. He
must die
Souls Afflicted, Too
How terrible are these diseases that
physicians confess themselves unable
to cure!
"How startling then is the divine
statement that the soul may be
afflicted with such disease, similarly
beyond human medicament.
"Sin is a leprosy. Sin is the cancer OF
the soul gnawing at its vitals. Sin is
the forerunner of eternal death.
There are men today within the
sound of my voice who, in their own
strength, have been fighting sin for the
last twenty or thirty years.
But as you grow weaker the power
of your sin is growing stronger.
God have pity upon you, Cor you are
a doomed leper-
you are doomed by leprous sin.
"But though from our standpoint
leprosy is incurable, yet the leprous
scales were cleansed by divine power.
Therefore it is to Christ, and to Christ
alone, that we must look for the cure
of sin. The moral leper may go with
confidence to Christ, who cured the
physical lepers by word"