Oh, is there no hope? For it would seem from the message thus far as
if nothing but despair was ahead of us. Two ways to escape from the
power of sin have been suggested; one is man's way, the other is God's.
Let us consider them both.
1. Man suggests reformation. But how about the sins of the past? They
are still untouched. Man tells the sinner to do his best; but how
about the will which has been weakened by sinful practices, and which
seems unable to act? Man tells the depraved man to change his
surroundings; but how about the heart that is unclean? The fact is,
man's way will not reach us.
In January, 1904, the American Liner New York left Southampton and came
into the New York harbor with a sad story to tell. A sailor was
suspended over the side of the vessel making repairs when an enormous
wave tore him away, and he was very soon under the forepart of the
ship. The waves began to carry him away, and a life line was thrown to
him with a buoy attached. The sailor, sometimes visible and then
obscured by the rising of a swell, grasped the line, and a cheer went
up. He took a half turn with the line around his waist, was rolling
himself over into the bight of the line and it looked as if he would be
saved. The sailors on deck were just about to haul in. The poor
fellow's hands and fingers must have been numb, for he suddenly rolled
out of the half-formed bight, losing his grip upon the line.
None of the passengers could help the man, none of the crew dared jump
to his rescue, no boat could live in such a maelstrom. The sailor, who
was struggling and being whirled around and bobbing like a cork, his
oilskins partially spreading out and sustaining him, kept drifting
further and further away.
Aroused by the commotion, the second officer came on deck just as the
sailor lost his hold. Tossing aside his cap, overcoat and jacket, he
bade the seamen take a bowline hitch around his body and lower him
away. The volunteer life-saver was cheered by the passengers as he
went over. It was bitter cold, the sleet sharp and the swells ugly. A
strong swim in the trough of the seas and over the crests and the
officer might reach the seaman. It was his only chance.
He had no more than touched the spume before the waves hurled him
against the side of the steamer again and again, bruising his ankle and
knee, but he struck out bravely and gradually drew nearer the sailor.
For fifteen minutes the second officer struggled. During one of his
brave spurts in the direction of the struggling man he looked up to the
rail. The practiced eye of the seafaring man saw something that caused
him suddenly to turn and breast his way back to the ship. The line was
too short. The seaman holding the line attached to the officer had in
his hands the mere end of it, and there was not another bit to pay out.
It was a sixty fathom line, "all gone," and the officer yet only half
way to the drowning man. It was too late to splice another. Had it
been thought of in time the man might have been saved. A longer
struggle was useless, and the officer allowed himself to be hauled
aboard, leaving the helpless man to go to his last account. That is
always the difficulty with man's effort to save the lost. It does not
reach far enough and fails just when it ought to hold.
2. God's way. "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all
sin," that is God's message. "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the
unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he
will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly
pardon." This is God's invitation. "I even I, am he that blotteth out
thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins."
This is God's pledge, and he has never failed to keep it.
In the old days, when England and Scotland were at war, the English
came up against Bruce. They drove him from his castle and as he fled
away from them they let loose his own bloodhounds and set them upon his
trail. His case seemed hopeless. He could hear the bay of the hounds
in the distance, and those who were with him had just about given up in
despair; but not so with Bruce. He came to a stream, flowing through
the forest, he plunged in, waded three bow-shots up the stream and then
out upon the other side. The hounds came up to the stream, stopped and
sniffed; they had lost the track. They turned back defeated, and Bruce
in time won the day. Is it not like this with our sins? Like a pack
of hounds they are after me; wherever I flee they are close upon me.
"The wages of sin is death," I am told, but I have found the way of
escape. Here flows a stream which runs red with the blood of Jesus
Christ, and I plunge in and am free.
"There is a fountain filled with blood,
Drawn from Immanuel's veins;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood
Lose all their guilty stains."