Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1889-11-21

I
can know how to splinter q fracture.
And We who stand in the pulpit and In
the Office of a Christian teacher, know
that there are certain styles of belief
and certain kinds of behavior that will
lead to destruction as certainly as Paul
knew that If the ship went out OF Fair
Haven it would go to destruction. "Re-
1otce, o young man, In thy youth; and
let thy heart cheer thee in the days of
thy youth; but know thou that for all
these things God will bring thee into
judgment. We may not know much, but
we know that.
Another lesson from the subject is
that Christians are always safe.
There did not seem to be much chance
for Paul getting out of that shipwTeck,
did there? They had not, in those days,
rockets with which to throw ropes over
foundering vessels. Their lifeboats
were of but little worth. And yet, not
withstanding all the danger, my text
says that Paul escaped safe to land.
And so it will always be with Gods
children. They may be plunged into
darkness and trouble, but by the throne
of the eternal God, 1 assert it, they
shall all escape safe to land
Sometimes there comes 4 storm Of
commercial disaster. The cables break.
The masts fall. The cargoes are scat
tered over the sea. Oil whststruggling
and leaping on kegs and hogsheads and
cornbins and store shelyesl And yet,
though they may have it SO very hard in
commercial circles, the good, trusting
in God, all come safe to land.
Wreckers go out on the oceans beach
and find the shattered hulks Of vessels;
ha "a oka .R osk
there is many wreck. Mainsail slit
with bankers pen. Hulks abeam's end
on insurance counters. Vast credits
sinking, having suddenly sprung leak.
Yet all of them who are Gods children
shall at last, through his goodness and
mercy, escape safe to land. The Scan
dinavian warriors used to drink wine
out of the skulls of the enemies they
had slain. Even SO God will help us,
out of the conquered ills and disasters
of life, to drink sweetness and strength
for our souls.
You have, my friends, had illustra-
tions, in your life, of how God delivers
his people. l have had many illustra-
tions in my own life of the same truth.
was once in what on your Mediterra-
mean you call Euroclydon, but what on
the Atlantic We call a cyclone, but the
same storm. The steamer Greece of the
National line, swung out into the river
Mersey at Liverpool, bound for New
York. We had on board seven hun.
dred, crew and passengers. We came
together strangers-Italians, Irishmen,
Englishmen, Swedes, Norwegians,
Americans. Two flags foated from the
masts-British and American ensigns.
We had new vessel, or one so thor
oughly remodeled that the voyage had
around it all the uncertainties of trial
trip. The great steamer felt its way eau
tiously out into the sea. The pilot was
discharged; and, committing ourselves
to Him who holdeth the winds in His
fist, we were fairly started on our voy-
age of three thousand miles. It was
rough nearly all the way-the sea with
strong buffeting disputing our path.
But one night, at eleven o'clock, after
the lights had been put out, cyclone
a wind just made to tear ships to pieces
caught us in its clutches. II came
down so suddenly that We had not time
to take in the sails or fasten the matches.
You may know that the bottom of the
Atlantic is strewn with the ghastly work
of cyclones. Oh! they are cruel winds.
They have hot breath, as though they
came up from internal furnaces. Their
merriment is the cry of affrighted pas
sengers. Their play is the laundering
of steamers. And, when ship
goes down, they laugh until both
continents hear them. They go
in circles, or. as | describe them
with my hand-rolling on! rolling
on! with finger of terror writing on the
the white sheet of the wave this sentence
0F 1oopo. al a II that a,,n az xusfhiv Ah 10
circle perish! Brigantines, go down!
Clippers, go down! Steamships, go
down." And the vessel, hearing the
terrible voice, crouches in the surf, and as
the waters gurgle through the matches
! and port holes, it lowers away, thou
sands of feet down, farther and farther,
until at last it strikes the bottom; and
all is peace, for they have landed.
Helmsman, dead at the wheel! Engin-
eer, dead amidst the extinguished fur
naces! Captain, dcad in the gangwayl
Passengers, dead in the cabin! buried
IN the great cemetery of dead steamers,
beside the City of Boston, the Lexing-
ton, the President, the Cambria-wait-
i ing for the archangePs trumpet to
split up the decks, and wrench open
the cabin doors, and unfasten the
matches.
Thought that had seen storms on
the sea before; but all of them together
might have come under one wing of that
cyclone. We were only eight or nine
hundred miles from home, and in high
expectation of soon seeing our friends,
for there was no one on board SO poor
as not to have friend. But it seemed
as if we were to be disappointed. The
most of us expected then and there to
die. There were none who made light
of the peril, save two. One was an En-
glishman, and he was drunk, and the
other was an American, and he was a
fool! Oh! what time it was! night
to make ones hair turn white. We came
out of the berths, and stood in the gang
way, and looked into the steerage, and
sat in the cabin. While seated there we
heard overhead something like minute
guns. 1t was the bursting Of the sails.
We held on with both hands to keep our
places. Those who attempted to cross
the floor came back bruised and gasned.
Cups and glasses were dashed to frag-
ments; pieces of the table getting loose,
swung across the saloon. 1t seemed As
if the hurricane took that great ship Of
thousands of tons and stood ii on end,
and said: Shall ] sink it, or let IL go
this oncef" And then it came down
with such force that the billows trampled
over it, each mounted of fury. We
felt that everything depended on the
propelling screw. II that stopped for
an instant we Fnew thevessel would fall
off into the trough of the sea and sink,
and so we prayed that the screw, which
three times since leaving Liverpool had