by Rev. Fred V. Dabold Director, Evangelical Mission to Uruguay
M y f r ie n d s , I would like to ask you a question which I know you will think passing strange. Permit me to ask: Do you have innocent hands— lily-white hands; clean, innocent hands? No, I am not thinking of “ pure, gentle Ivory soap, so gentle to a baby’s skin.” Speaking of babies, I well remember when our daughter Donna Glee was but a wee baby in her crib. The little rascal was a regular alarm clock. She would awaken us in the morning by holding aloft her dimpled hands, clapping them together and making patty-cakes. Those were innocent hands. Do you have innocent hands? Charles Hickman was once a baby with inno cent hands — as innocent as those of our baby girl. But one day those hands dismembered the body of little Marian Parker and left the pieces o f the body near the home of that lovely child. The hands of Hickman then were not innocent hands, for those hands were stained with innocent blood. The hands that shed innocent blood are not in nocent hands. But not all killing is murder. As, for instance, when a man goes into the woods with a friend to chop down a tree; while the one man swings the axe to cut down the tree, the axe-head falls from the handle, strikes the friend on the head and kills him: that is not murder. A man may do that and still have lily-white, innocent hands. So a man may kill another man and still have inno cent hands, for all killing is not murder. On the other hand, a man may not kill a person and still be guilty of innocent blood. For instance, a man was sentenced to death by one of our state governments many years ago, and at the last mo ment it was discovered that he was innocent. A messenger was sent on horseback from the capital to take a pardon from the Governor to the place where the man lay awaiting execution on the fol lowing morning. The messenger consulted his wa£ch and decided he had plenty of time to loiter on the way, so he stopped to rest and refresh him
self. He lay down and fell asleep. He slept long and then suddenly awoke and discovered his terrible mistake. He leaped onto his horse and dashed down the road, drove up to the courthouse square with both him and the horse foaming with perspiration, and loudly called out the message of pardon. But it was too late! Just one minute before, the inno cent man had been hurled into eternity. Could he ever forgive himself? That man did not have inno cent hands, for his hands were stained with the blood of an innocent man. We do not have to kill a man to be guilty o f his blood. All we have to do is to neglect to save him from death and we become guilty of innocent blood. Do you have innocent hands? Well, let’s see. God speaks through Ezekiel in chapter 33, verse 8: “When I say to the wicked, 0 wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity. But his blood will I require at thine hands.” What hands are those? Hands stained with human blood. God says the heathen person is condemned to. die in the dames o f perdition, unless the gospel reaches him at once before the day of execution. The gospel is God’s pardon. Christ died for his sins. The gospel is God’s message to every unsaved sinner at home and abroad. At home every unsaved sinner has the message o f pardon. Now we must dash with haste to the ends o f the earth to proclaim God’s pardon to men everywhere. These are the terms of the great commission: “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” That is a command, as much as the command “ Thou shalt not kill.” All we have to do to be guilty of a man’s death, is to stand by when we see him in danger, and refuse to warn him or help him. “ If thou dost not warn the wicked,” God says, “ his blood will I require at thine hand.” Thou shalt
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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