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th e appeal, it is an indictm ent of you, and, th ird , if you do n o t heed th e indict ment, th en it is th e g reatest warning you have ever had given to you. Why? Because if th e appeal is no t answered, if th e indictm ent is no t quashe^d, then th e judgm en t and th e penalty for no t filling th e gap will fall upon you. Sup pose Christ had no t come to th a t poor man by th e pool. Suppose Christ had not come, he would have gone on to th e pool for weeks, he would have crawled up on th e porch for months, he would have shuffled his way th rough th a t crowd fo r years, and, then, poor fellow unhelped and unsaved would have gone ou t into th e darkness of etern al torm ent, and in his dying mo ments Said th a t he lay a t th e pool afflicted for th irty -eigh t years, b u t “ no m an,” “ no m an,” “ no m an” would lift him into th e w aters. I say to you th a t th a t “ no m an” whoever he was would have stood before th e b ar of God and been made to suffer th e dam nation of th a t man. I t is an appeal, it is an indictm ent, and if you do no t clear yourself of th e in d ic tm e n t' th en it becomes a w arning of th e execution of th e judgm en t to follow th e crime of neglect you have comm itted. Now le t us see. The same th ing is tru e, my friends, in church work. There are hundreds and thousands of people all around you, who are lying n ear the pool Of God’s grace, b u t no man lifts them up and pu ts them in. W here are you? Where are you? I say th is is the g reatest appeal from an evangelis tic standpoint th a t could be made to an audience. There are people who are today w aiting for you to lift them into th e pool of salvation. You say they ought no t to wait. You say they can accept Christ. You say they ought to find th e ir way into th e pool. You make many excuses, b u t th e fact rem ains they will never tak e th e step un til you offer yourself as th e crutch upon which to lean. I say, w ithou t th e fear of con tradiction, th a t th e re is somebody on
will p u t th e diseased and th e pool to gether. There Is no man standing in th is gap who will close it up. T h at is tru e in business. There are hundreds and thousands of men all over th is country, speaking of them commercially and in a figurative sense, who are suf fering from locomotorataxia. There is a pool of commercial resto ration , h u t "no m an” is th e re to p u t them to gether. I t is tru e politically. There are hundreds and thousands of men in th is country and in o th er countries who m ight be good citizens and who m ight occupy places of power and influence, b u t they are impotent, they are dis eased, they have lo st grip; and power over th e th ing s of life. There is poli tical resto ration , b u t th e re is “ no m an” to bring them together. And it is tru e socially. There are hundreds and thousands of people all over th is country who are valuable people, who were people of power, influence and m ight a t one tim e b u t th e wheel turned, m isfortune came, disease followed. They stepped aside out of th e ir place, and when a man gets ou t of th e place in which he was once standing, it is most difficult for him to get in again. In fact he will never get in unless some man fills th e gap between him and his lo st opportunities. I stood th e o ther day and looked a t a crowd on th e street, and asked God to give me power to make a sermon. I looked around and knew a g reat many of th e people. Many of them were going to waste, many of them were out of line, so many of th em were n o t in th e place God would have them occupy. They were impotent, mentally, morally, socially, physically, financially. There is a pool of resto ration , b u t th e re is “ no m an” to bring them to th e pool while th e God of Mercy disturbs the w aters. My friends, th is is an appeal to you. I say to you th a t th e u tteran ce of th is poor afflicted man is first an appeal to you, and, second, if you do no t heed
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