Page 9 - How to Be a Victorious Christian - eBook

The Terminal Cancer of Sin

Having said this, let me add to this chapter this thought: Early in his final book, Stay
of Execution, the late eminent journalist Stewart Alsop tells of being a patient at the

National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, suffering from leukemia.
Wandering around one day on his floor, he entered a staff room where he saw a sign
not meant to be seen by patients: ALL PATIENTS MUST HAVE INCURABLE
CANCER. ALL PATIENTS MUST BE FRANKLY INFORMED OF THEIR
CASE.

Reading the sign, Mr. Alsop felt "a dark pit of fear" inside.

Stewart Alsop died of cancer.

Can we face this fact for a moment? We are all suffering from the terminal cancer of
sin. We are all sinners, and "the soul that sinneth, it shall die."

We can be treated with soft, reassuring, don't-get-excited, don't-be-concerned words-
and die in our sins. Or we can be told, without deception, clearly, what our problem
is." 2

In physical cancer it will be recognized that the physician may tell his patient ever so
gently and compassionately of his disease. But the news is still going to be traumatic.
But in spiritual cancer we can be told of the tremendous remedy that is found in the

Lord Jesus, and how that remedy works 100 per cent for us if we will faithfully place
ourselves into the hands of the Great Physician.

So I decided to describe plainly, depending upon the Bible and the Spirit of
Prophecy, what seems to be the difficulty of many of us who are church members. I
do this so that, like the patients in the cancer ward of the National Institutes of

Health, we might understand the gravity of our situation. When we do this it is
possible for us to see the importance of availing ourselves of the glorious remedy
provided.

In a book of this nature, besides the problems already referred to, there is the
problem of what to include. Some readers may feel I have written too much on one
phase of my subject; others, that I have written too little. Some may think I have left

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