The Brookhaven leader., 1889-11-28


down and prayed to tho Virgin Mary,
saying: 90, blessed motheri keep usl
Have mercy on usr Some stood with
white lips and fixed gaze, silent in their
terror. Some wrung their hands and
cried out: 30, Godl what shall / do?
What shall do?"
The time came when the crew could
no longer stay on the deck, and the cry
of the officers was: "Below! all hands
| below" Our brave and sympathetic
Captain Andrcws-whose praise / shall
not cease to speak while / livc-had
| been swept by the hurricane from his
bridge. and had escaped very narrowly
with his life. The cyclone seemed to
stand on the deck, waving its wing, cry
| ing: This ship is mine! i have capt
urcd it! la! ha! l will command it!
If God will permit, | will sink it here
and now! by thousand shipwrecks,
swear the doom of this vessel" There
was a lull in the storm; but only that it
might gain additional fury. Crash
went the lifeboat on one side.
Crash! went the lifeboat on
the other side. Tho great booms
got loose, and, as with the heft of a
thunderbolt, pounded the deck and beat
the mast-the iib boom, studding sail
boom nd square sail boom, with their
strong frms, beating time to the awful
march and music of the hurricane.
Meanwhile the ocean became phosphor-
escent. The whole scene lo1kcd like
fire. Tho water dripping from the rig
ging, there were ropes of firU;and there
were masts of fire; and there was a
deck of fire. a ship of fire, sailing on
a sea of fire, through a night of fire.
May never see any thing like it again!
Evory boly pray ed. a lad of TIVE I've
years of age got down and prayed for his
mother. IF | should give up" he said,
Il do not know what would become of
mother" There were men who think,
had not prayed for thirty years, who
then got down on their knees. When
man who has neglected Tod all his life
feels that he has come to his last time,
it makes very busy night All of our
sins and shortcomings passed through
our minds. My own life seemed
utterly unsatisfactory. l could only
say: Here, Lord, take me as 1
am. l can not mend matters
now. Lord Jesus, thou didst die for the
chief of sinners. That's me! 1t seems,
Lord, as if my work is done, and Poorly
doEe, and upon Thy infinite mercy cast
myself, and IN this hour of shipwreck
and darkness commit myself and her
whom | hold by the hand to Thes, O
Lord Jesus! praying that it may he
short struggle in the water, and that at
the same instant we may both arrive IN
glory" Oh! | tell you a man prays
straight to the mark when he has a
cyclone above him, an ocean beneath
him and eternity so close to him that he
can feel its breath on his check.
The night was long. At last we saw
the dawn looking through the port HOES.
AS in the olden time, in the fourth wa sch
of the night, Jesus came walking on the
sea, from wave cliff to wave cliff; and
when He puts His foot upon a billow,
though it may be tossed up with might,
it goes down. lie cried: Hush" They
knew His voice. The waves knew His
foot. They died away. And in the
shining track of His feet | read these
letters on scrolls of foam and fire: THE
earth shall be filled with the
knowledge of God as the waters
cover the sea- The ocean Gained. The
path of the steamer became more and
more mild, until, on the last morning
out, the sun threw round about us a
glory such as l never witnessed before.
God made pavement of mosaic, reach
ing from horizon to horizon, for all the
splondOrS of earth and Heaven to walk
upOn-a pavement bright enough for the
foot of Seraph-bright enough for the
wheels of the archangel'S chariot. AS
parent embraces a child and kisses away
its grief, so over that sea, that had been
writhing in agony in the tempest, the
morning threw it's arms of beauty and Of
benediction, and the lips of earth and
Heaven met.
AS | came on deck-it was very early,
and we were nearing the shore--I saw a
few sails against the sky. They seemed
like the spirits of the night walking the
pillows. | leaned over the taffrail of
the vessel, and said: THY way, o God,
is in the sea, and Thy path in the great
waters" 1t grew lighter. The clouds
hung in purple clusters along the sky;
and, as If those purple clusters wero
pressed into red wine and poured out
upon the sea, every wave turned into
crimson. Yonder, fire cleft stood op-
posite to fire cleft; and here, cloud,
rent and tinged with light, seemed like
palace, with flames burning from the
windows. The whole scene lighted up
until it seemed as if the angels of God
were ascending and descending upon
stairs of fire. and the wave crests,
changed into Jasper, and crystal, and
crystal, and amethyst, as they were
flung toward the beach, made me think
of the crowns of Heaven cast before the
throne of the great Jehovah. leaned
over the tatfrail again, and said, with
more emotion than before: Thy way,
o God, is in the sea, and thy path in the
great waterS!'
So | thought, will be the going off Of
the storm and night of the Christians
life. The darkness will fold its tents
and away! The golden feet of the ris-
ing morn will come skipping upon the
mountains, and all the wrathful pillows
of the worlds woe break into the SPLEEN
dor of eternal joy. And SO we come
into the harbor. The cyclone behind
us. Our friends before us. God, who
is always good, all around us. And if
the roll of the crew and the
passengers had been called, seven hun
dred souls would have answered to
their names. "And so it came to pass
that we all escaped safe to land" And
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