Revised Report of a Lecture given in the Winter Gardens, Harrogate, by J. T. Mawson.
Answering a Lecture by Sir A. Conan Doyle, given in the same town, entitled "Life after Death."
Ladies and Gentlemen, — The first part of my task to-night will be to examine some of the statements made by Sir A. Conan Doyle in his lecture entitled "Life after Death," delivered in this town on Wednesday last. I shall select those statements which appear to me to be of the greatest importance, as the time at my disposal will not permit me to deal with his points seriatim.
Leviticus and Deuteronomy.
1. The lecturer complained that texts from Leviticus and Deuteronomy were used against the practice of communicating with the dead, and more than once in the course of his lecture he endeavoured to discredit these parts of the Bible. In this endeavour he quoted correspondence that had appeared in a Bradford newspaper after a visit of his to that city. Someone had based his objections to necromancy, and other mediumistic practices, upon the stern denunciations against these things in these ancient books. But someone else pointed out, he told us, that the very next verse to one of these denunciations was, "Cursed be he who wears cloth made of two kinds of stuff." The whole trade of Bradford consists of making cloth of two kinds of stuff, he informed his audience; and it was ridiculous to make an objection on one text of the Old Mosaic Law, when all the time they were neglecting other things laid down by that law in their own daily lives. A public lecturer owes it to those who attend his lectures to be as accurate as possible in his quotations, but Sir A. Conan Doyle had evidently taken no trouble to verify this one. He must either be lamentably ignorant of the Scriptures himself or else he presumed upon ignorance of the Scriptures on the part of his hearers, for in repeating this statement he passed on to them a double lie. (1) There is no text in the Bible that says "Cursed be he that wears cloth made of two kinds of stuff"; what is said is, "Thou shalt not wear a garment of divers sorts, as of woollen and linen together," and (2) the texts that forbid the wearing of garments made of linen and wool are not at all in close proximity to those solemn utterances about spiritism and necromancy.
Sir A. Conan Doyle is surely aware that there are major and minor enactments upon every Statute book. It is the law of this land that we attach an appropriate postage stamp to every letter that we commit to the post, it is also the law of the land that a man who wilfully murders another shall hang by the neck until he is dead. So in the "old Mosaic law" there were definite instructions as to what the people should wear and eat, and these were to teach them lessons, and us also if we are ready to learn; but there were also laws forbidding great crimes under terrible penalties, and the very things that Sir A. Conan Doyle is following with such ardour are found in this category. But further, the laws relating to what the people should eat and drink were for Israel alone, while those that forbade consultation with familiar spirits and with the dead were of universal application, for we learn that because the Canaanites practised these abominations God drove them out of the land before the Israelites. Moreover these things are called abominations in the sight of the Lord God, and I ask you if it is conceivable that God would tell His chosen people at one time that certain things were an abomination to Him, and at another urge them to do these very things? If he is a God who acts in that way He is not the God that some of us have learnt to reverence and love; He is not the same from everlasting to everlasting, who changes not, and He is of no use to me, for how do I know that He will not condemn me tomorrow for doing that which He commanded me to do a week ago?
The Lord Jesus and Mediumistic Powers.
2. Sir A. Conan Doyle told us, and may God pardon the repetition of the blasphemy, that our Lord Jesus Christ simply possessed great mediumistic powers, that He was, in short, a great medium. He quoted two incidents in the life of our Lord to back up his statement. 1st. That when the woman with the issue of blood touched His clothes, He said, "Virtue is gone out of me," and he told us that the healing-mediums used practically the self-same words when they undertook to relieve people of their diseases. So they may, but are their patients immediately healed? She would be a very bold and presumptuous medium who would say, as the Lord said to that long-afflicted woman, "Daughter, be of good comfort thy faith has made thee whole: go in peace." Such words could only be spoken by Him who was Lord of all. 2nd. In Nazareth He could do no mighty work because of their unbelief; which thing, said Sir Arthur, constantly happened in spiritist seances. The presence of an unbeliever hampered the medium and often prevented manifestations. But the unbelief of the Nazarenes did not reduce the Lord to impotency, His power was not paralysed by their lack of faith, they were the losers, or what about that other passage referring to Jerusalem. "Though He had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him" He worked on where there was no faith.
He told us, and told us twice, that he had seen with his own eyes nearly every kind of miracle mentioned in the New Testament performed by mediums, except the raising of the dead. Did he tell us the truth? If so, how is it that we have not heard of these marvels? He has an able pen; could he not have written himself of these miracles, and given us a volume or two more enthralling than the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes? Of old, the whole country in which they were done was moved by the report of the works of our Lord Jesus. Would not the world itself be moved by a repetition of such works? Do you think that that popular newspaper The Daily Mail would have been silent on the subject, or The Weekly Despatch? The paper that could give half a page of its valuable space to supposed signals from Mars by wireless, and can give columns to the potentialities of the thyroid gland, would surely have been able to find some space for the record of such wonderful works as these?
Come, Sir A. Conan Doyle, prove the truth of your assertion. If such powers lie in this cult of yours, take with you your miracle-working mediums, and go to Central Europe, where we are told millions of children are starving; take with you also five loaves and two small fishes, and with them feed at least 5,000 of these children who are suffering for the sins of their fathers, and then carefully gather up the fragments that are left to satisfy the remainder. Come with me; I will take you to a leper colony in the West Indies, where I have preached the Saviour's grace to a crowd of pitiable creatures, rotting limb by limb to the grave; let your mediums touch the foul leprosy and restore the mutilated limbs and distorted features to their youthful strength and beauty. Come, weary not in this mission of mercy; there are thousands of men who will never again see the light of day in this land. The great war has robbed them of their precious sight. Have your mediums who can perform these great works no pity? Command them to touch these empty sockets and restore to these brave but sadly stricken men the gift which they have lost!
I beg of you, ladies and gentlemen, to read the Gospels, ponder over the things that are written in those Books. Note the never-wearying mercy of Jesus, the Only-Begotten Son of God, see how all-sufficient He was to meet the needs of every man, woman, and child that came to Him. Behold the great heart of God pouring forth its compassion in human tears as He sees the sins and sorrows of the people, and hear Him say as He stretches forth His hands to men, "Come to Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." He healed the sick, cleansed the leper, opened deaf ears, unloosed dumb tongues, restored sight to the blind, and raised the dead; and all His works were signs that He had a new and a full revelation of God to make to men. Read the story until your heart and knees are bowed in adoration before Him, and then turn to the record of wonders that Sir A. Conan Doyle has to give you; a record of rapping tables; flying tambourines; of stones thrown without hands; of spirits, that, like mischievous boys, delight in playing tricks upon the uninitiated; and then tell me, are you prepared to give up the blessed, glorious revelation that the Bible contains for the drivel of this new revelation?
I am sorry to have to say it, but I do not see what else can be said, when he told us that he had seen with his own eyes nearly every miracle performed that is recorded in the New Testament but the raising of the dead, Sir A. Conan Doyle did not speak the truth.
The Powers of Pentecost.
3. He told us that he had witnessed all the powers of the Pentecost. This happened in the city of Gloucester or was it Glasgow? — the former I believe. There he called upon a journeyman tailor, who would not receive any money in return for the exercise of his mediumistic powers. They went into an upper room, and in this respect, certainly, we have one feature of Pentecost. The room was darkened, and here Sir Arthur took the trouble to explain to us, that for reasons that they had not yet discovered, certain psychic phenomena could not be shown except in the dark. If he would read John 3. 19, he might solve at once the difficulty, for there we read: "Men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil." Here the analogy to Pentecost broke down, for that great event took place at 9 o'clock in the morning of a brilliant Eastern day, and I'll guarantee that the blinds of the upper room were not drawn. Then, said the lecturer, a wind began to blow, so strongly that it blew his hair about, and then there appeared in the darkness egg-shaped flames like — listen, and I will tell you what he said they were like — "like will-o-the-wisps." In his own description of this séance Sir A. Conan Doyle told us twice over that the wind blew his hair about, and he saw flames in the darkness, egg-shaped flames like will-o-the-wisps. What are will-o-the-wisps? They are ignes fatui — foolish fires, lights that flit about over marshy land in the darkness, and lure the benighted travellers from the hard highway with promises of warmth and shelter, only to leave them to struggle and perish in some impassable bog. Sir A. Conan Doyle spoke truer than he knew when he described these lights as being like will-o-the-wisps.
Then, as an awful hush fell upon the company, a voice, not the medium's, spoke to each sitter there. And this, to Sir A. Conan Doyle, was a manifestation of all the wonderful phenomena of Pentecost. Let us read from Acts 2, and see what really happened then.
1. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
2. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
3. And there appeared to them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.
4. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
5. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.
6. And when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.
7. And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galileans?
8. And now hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?
9. Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia,
10. Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes,
11. Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.
But the greatness of Pentecost did not stop there; 3,000 from out of that wondering multitude were turned from their sins to the Saviour, from darkness to light, and death to life. 3,000 souls were swept into the circle of eternal blessing, owning Jesus Christ as their Lord. Compare the glory and the power and the blessing of that wonderful event with the puerile imitation of it that so marvellously affected Sir A. Conan Doyle, and then say whether, since he is an honest and intelligent man, anything else can account for his folly but "a strong delusion."
Is Spiritualism Opposed to Christianity?
4. The one thing that Sir Arthur seemed most anxious to impress upon his audience was, that Spiritism does not oppose Christianity but strengthens it; that it is not to supplant it but to fill up the blanks in it. He told us that the materialism of the Victorian era had shaken it to its foundations, and that Spiritism had become an absolute necessity to its preservation. The only conclusion that I can come to is that he does not know what Christianity is. I speak now of "the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints" and for which I stand upon this platform to contend. Its foundations stand sure, the gates of hell cannot prevail against it; it is founded upon Christ Himself, and He is the Rock of Ages. Sir A. Conan Doyle has no need to fear for the true faith, it will stand every shock; but what we fear is that many will be led away from the faith by his activities, led away from the rock and the light into the bog and the night, where shine the fitful and false lights of the will-o-the-wisps of which he has spoken; hence this gathering tonight. Spiritism is not Christianity; there is not a single point of contact between the two; if Spiritism is true, Christianity is false.
The Christian faith rests upon the two great facts, (1) Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, (2) and rose again from the dead according to the Scriptures. Spiritism denies these two great facts. The very life of Christianity is the knowledge of God, for "This is life eternal, to know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent." And Sir A. Conan Doyle tells us that the spirits say that they do not know God. The eternal Deity of Christ, His perfect, sinless humanity, His sacrificial death, glorious resurrection, and return to judge the quick and the dead, are the great articles of our Christian faith, not mere dogmas, but great realities, profoundly affecting every life that comes under the power of them; but Spiritism and Sir A. Conan Doyle deny all these. No, you cannot hold the Gospel according to Conan Doyle, and the Gospel of the Lamb that was slain, at the same time. They belong to opposite camps, they are in deadly conflict; the one is from the pit, the other from God. Spiritism is the last great attack on the faith before the end of this age.
Does the Devil know his job?
5. He told us that if Spiritism were Satanic, if the messages that had come through from the other side were of the devil, then the devil does not know his job. But what is the devil's job? Two passages from the Bible will be enough to answer the question. Our Lord likened the preaching of the Gospel to the sowing of seed, and in explaining the parable to his disciples He said, "Now the parable is this: the seed is the Word of God. Those by the wayside are they that hear; then comes the devil, and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved."
And again, St. Paul, speaking of those who did not believe the Gospel that he preached, said, "The god of this world [the devil] has blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ should shine to them." Evidently the devil's job is to hinder men from being saved if he can, and in order to do this he takes away the Word that is sown in their hearts and blinds their minds to the truth. He is the great destroyer of souls, but he is also called "that old serpent," and what can that name mean but that he is full of subtlety? has Sir A. Conan Doyle never read, is it not plainly writ in the Word, that Satan transforms himself into an angel of light? Does that mean that he changes his purpose? Certainly not; it is his methods that he changes, and this change of method has deceived Sir A. Conan Doyle.
By what more effectual way could the devil destroy the souls of men than by sending them such a gospel as was preached last Wednesday evening. There are no "miserable sinners" now, the average citizen is a good man, and whatever his religion is — Catholic, Protestant, Mohammedan, or Buddhist — it matters not, so long as he is climbing some ladder. There is no judgment, no death, really, for the old Edenic lie "Ye shall not surely die," rang clearly throughout the lecture. What we call death is a pleasant experience, a passage into another region where everything is very much alike what it is here, except more beautiful, and where we shall know nothing more about God than we do here, which according to the spirits is practically nothing. That is not the gospel that Paul preached! That is not the Gospel of Calvary! There is no divine and all-conquering love told out in suffering on the cross in that gospel; there is no solace in it for souls that are sin-sick and weary. It is an accursed gospel! St. Paul, inspired by the Holy Ghost, wrote, "If any man preach any other gospel to you, let him be accursed," and with God-given pre-vision he saw that not only men would do this, but that it would be attempted by spirits also, so that he joined in that curse angels as well as men. The fact of the matter is that Sir A. Conan Doyle does not know the devil's job.
Do the Dead Communicate with the Living?
I turn now to the question, "Do the dead ever communicate with the living" There is one instance of this given in the Old Testament Scriptures. It is the notorious case of King Saul and the witch of Endor. You may read the story in 1 Samuel 28. Notice, First, that God refused to speak to the King because of his persistent disobedience to His will. It was a God-abandoned man who sought out the poor medium of Endor. Second, the woman expected one of her familiar spirits to appear; instead, to her astonishment and terror, Samuel himself appeared, permitted of God for special reasons. Third, Samuel complains of being disquieted, by being called up. Some of you mourn your beloved dead, whom you believe are with Christ. Supposing it were possible for you to communicate with them, which it is not, would you care to disquiet them? Fourth, Samuel appeared merely to pronounce upon Saul the solemn doom that was to come upon him; and, finally, in Chronicles 10 we read that because of this crowning crime of a disobedient life, God slew him. "So Saul died for his transgression which he committed against the Lord … and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, and enquired not of the Lord; therefore He slew him." Study that story and tell me if there is any encouragement in it for you to visit a medium?
The New Testament also contains one instance of the dead appearing to the living. When upon the Mount of transfiguration, Moses and Elias talked with Jesus about His death. Sir A. Conan Doyle has likened that wonderful scene to a modern séance, showing plainly how blinded he is to the glory of Christ, and the teaching of the Scriptures.
In the story of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16), the Lord draws aside the curtain and teaches us the condition of those who have died. Lazarus was in the place of supreme blessedness, and he was not permitted to go and communicate with the five brethren of the rich man, and the rich man was in the place of misery and could not go; hence we conclude, and rightly, that the spirits of dead men do not communicate with the living.
Consider what it is that Spiritism proposes to you, whose hearts are sorely bereaved. In order to communicate with your beloved dead you must go to a medium, a woman, perhaps of doubtful character, and pay her a fee, and sit in the dark until she passes into a state of trance; then you may receive some communication purporting to come from the one whose voice you wish to hear; but, even if it were not the abomination that I believe God says it is, you have no guarantee that you are not being grossly deceived, either by the medium herself or the so-called spirit-control, or both. Is that like God, the God of all comfort, of whom the Scriptures speak? Do you not think that if it were possible and permissible, mother, for your boy to communicate with you, God would allow him to do it directly to you? The more I consider the cruelty of this awful system the more I am appalled at it. Sir A. Conan Doyle says, "If this is of the devil, then the devil does not know his job." I reply that the devil's character is written so large across every part of this system that only those who are blinded by him fail to see it.
But you want comfort in your sorrow; seek it from God and not from the devil; go to the Holy Scriptures and not to the planchette or the medium. In one of the great passages where God forbids these abominations to Israel, Moses says, "The Lord thy God will raise up a Prophet from the midst of thee of thy brethren, like to me; to Him ye shall hearken." That prophet is the LORD JESUS CHRIST. I beseech of you to hear His voice. I am addressing some who are broken-hearted and bewildered. I urge you tenderly to come to Jesus; He who wept with Mary of Bethany knows your sorrow. He says to you, "Come to Me, and I will give you rest." Here everything is certain and sure; here there is no cruel deception; here there are no fees to pay; here there are the mercy and compassion of God, and all for you.
This Thing is Forbidden of God.
I can understand Sir A. Conan Doyle's objection to Leviticus and Deuteronomy, for here are some of the solemn words written therein. "Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God." Leviticus 19:31. A man also or woman that has a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death; they shall stone them with stones; their blood shall be upon them; 20:27. "And the soul that turns after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people." 20:6; and finally, in Deuteronomy 18, Moses says: —
9. When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God gives thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.
10. There shall not be found among you any one that makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that makes divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch.
11. Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
12. For all that do these things are an abomination to the Lord: and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee.
13. Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God.
Some of these are the things that Sir A. Conan Doyle is doing, and he is using his great talents and reputation and influence to induce all that he can to follow in his wake. Turn from it entirely; do not tamper with it; therein lie grave dangers for time and Eternity. You may not discern where and what the evil is, but be sure of this, it is there, or God would not so solemnly and under such penalties have warned His people of it. Along this road lies degradation of mind and body; now Sir A. Conan Doyle denies this, but the evidence is against him, as a remarkable book recently published by Dr. A. T. Schofield, a Harley Street nerve specialist, clearly shows. Along this road lies the damnation of the soul for ever, for it leads away from light and truth and God, and puts those who follow it under the power of a strong delusion, so that they reject the truth in the love of it, and embrace the lie. 2 Thess. 2:10-12.
Who are the Spirits, and what do they want?
This Spiritism is a new revelation from God, we are told, and the rapping tables, dancing crockery and flying tambourines, and all the pranks and fantastic tricks that obtain at the seances, are but signs that the great God is trying to make us understand that He has something to communicate. If these things are of God, then I say that He has descended from His high and glorious wisdom and is doing things unworthy of Himself, and insulting the intelligence of men made in His own image and likeness.
But Sir A. Conan Doyle tells us that these things are only the ringing of the telephone bell; and here I am in full agreement with him. When the telephone bell rings we enquire "Who is it?" And that is the important matter now. Our beloved dead, says the Spiritist, are seeking by these means to attract our attention. But by what means will you make sure of this? Spiritists themselves have confessed that there are millions of malignant spirits of which we must beware. Have you any guarantee that these are not responsible for these apparently foolish and futile phenomena?
Sir A. Conan Doyle urged you to try the spirits, and backed up his plea by quoting Scripture: an old device that; but how shall we try them? By joining in these mediumistic practices? No, for that would be to do what God says is an abomination to Him. We can test them by the doctrines they bring, and 1 John 4 gives us that test as the one and only test, and by that test they are proved to be not the spirits of the departed, but seducing spirits, demons. "Now the Spirit speaks expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils." 1 Tim. 4. We have already considered some of these doctrines; we need not consider more. But whether these doctrines come via Sir Conan Doyle or the Rev. Vale Owen, or whoever else, and however much they disagree in minor points, they all agree in denying the Gospel of the grace of God. They deny the Deity of Christ, His Lordship as Man, and His precious blood that alone can cleanse our sins. There is no need for repentance towards God, nor faith in our Lord Jesus Christ; there is no judge external to us, and it is not true that the name of Jesus is the only name given under heaven by which men can be saved. The whole truth of Jesus Christ coming in flesh and the purpose of His coming are denied. They are not the spirits of the dead that communicate such anti-christian doctrines as these, but they belong to that vast legion of fallen spirits under Satan's leadership, who are the enemies of God and good, and of Christ and men. They are from the bottomless pit, and they have a king over them whose name is Apollyon.
Do the Dead Live?
We have no need to dabble in this thing to assure ourselves that all survive death; it is plainly told us in the Word of God that they do. This has been a fundamental article of the faith of all who have believed in God from the very beginning. David knew that his dead son could not return to him but that he would go to him, when he said, "I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me." And the New Testament abounds with plain passages which are full of assurance as to this. How definite and comforting to every Christian heart are the words, "For we know that if this earthly house of our tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." And those other words of St. Paul's, "To depart to be with Christ is far better."
Turn to the truth of God's Holy Word, to the clear revelation that He has given of Himself in Christ; there you will find every need of your soul well and truly satisfied. I know that from experience, for,
"I came to Jesus as I was,
Weary, and worn, and sad."
And He made me feel that He was glad to see me; He took the burden from my heart, and put peace into my soul, and gave me a sure and certain hope for the future.
Turn away from this great delusion; it can only deceive you now and destroy you hereafter. The Lord Jesus Christ has peace and salvation for you now, and eternally. His sheep shall never perish, and none shall pluck them out of his hand, either in this life or the next; for all who believe on Him, it is true that, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's.
At a fishing village on the Northumberland coast, one glorious summer day, I handed a Gospel tract to an old Scotch fisherman. He read the title, "A Friend in need is a Friend indeed," and added, as his old face brightened into a smile, "Yes, and the best friend is Jesus." I asked him how long he had known the Lord Jesus Christ as his Saviour. He told me, more than forty years. He said he had passed through stormy seas in that time, but the Lord had never failed him. As the tears began to roll down his rough cheeks I thought he must have a tale to tell, and so he had, and this was it.
He said: We had four sons and we lost them all in two years. They were 28, 26, 24, and 21 years old, but they were all the Lord's, and we shall meet them again.
When the last of them came to die, his mother and I were sorely troubled, and he said to me, "Father, you and mother look very down; what's wrong with you? "
"Why," I said, "my boy, we don't like the thought of losing you; it's that that makes us down."
"But," he replied, "you're not going to lose me, dad. I belong to Jesus, and I'm going home, and you'll come soon, and we'll all be united again; but give me the hymn-book, and I'll sing a hymn to cheer you a bit."
"You're too weak to sing, my boy," I said; but he at once replied, "Give me the book and let me try."
And so the book was given to him, and he opened to that sweet hymn, and began to sing:
"Jesus, Lover of my soul,
Let me to Thy bosom fly."
He got through the first verse of it, and then found that what his father had said was true, he was too weak to sing.
So he pushed the book back again, and said, "You sing the next verse, father, and I'll wave my hand to the tune."
With halting notes the father sang,
"Other refuge have I none,
Hangs my helpless soul on Thee."
And while the father sang, the dying lad, with a glad light upon his wan face, waved his hand to the tune, but ere the father had finished the verse, that feeble hand fell, and the ransomed spirit rose to be with the One who had gilded his bed of death with light.
Your spiritism could not have made that dying boy sing in the presence of death. Your planchettes and flying tambourines could not have given him that triumphant entrance into the presence of the Lord. It was the knowledge of an Almighty Saviour who died and rose again that did that. Neither could these emanations from the prince of darkness, these mediumistic practices and doctrines of demons, have so comforted the bereaved and sorrowing parents as these parents were comforted; such comfort could only come from the living Christ. Oh, every one of you who does not know this Saviour yet, Come to Him now. Come to Jesus, for He can save you; His precious blood can cleanse you from every sin and give you fitness for heaven.
"Though your sins are red like crimson,
Deep in scarlet glow,
Jesus' precious blood can make them
White as snow.
Precious, precious, blood of Jesus,
Shed on Calvary,
Shed for rebels, shed for sinners,
Shed for me."