Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1889-09-04

DORTLAND, OREGON, August 25.-The
i Rev. T. De Witt Talmage, ID, who
preached here to LAY to vast audience,
took for his text | Corinthians, tx, 27:
"Lest that by any D.;aus l myself should
be cast away" The preacher said:
In the presence Of you who live On the
Pacific coast, 1 VIII live on the Atlantic
coast may appropr :tely speak on this
marine allusion of rje text, for all who
know about the SEA know about the cast
away. The text inn Les that ministers of
rel gion may help ot;ers into heaven and
vet miss it themselves. The carpenters
that built Noah's ark did not get into it
themselves. Gown AID surplice, and diplo-
mas and canonicals no security. Car
dinal Wolsey, after hlving been petted By
kings, aud having en ertained foreign am,
bassadors at Hampton Court, died in dark
ness. One of the nest eminent ministers
of religion that this o9antry has ever known.
plunged into sin and died; his heart, by
post n,ortem exami;!i5ion, found to have
been, not figurativelg but literally, broken.
We NAV have hands of ordination on the
head, and address coasecrated assemblages,
but that is no reason Why we shall neces-
sarily reach the realm celestial. The clergy.
man must go through the same gate of par
don as the layman. There have been cases
of shipwreck where all on board escaped
excepting the captain. Alas! if, having
"preached to others, | myself should be a
castaway." God forbid it.
have examined some of the commen-
taries to see what they thought about this
word "castaway," and l find they differ IN
regard to the figure used, while they agree
in regard to the meaning. So shall make
my own selection, and take it in nautical
and seafaring sense, and show you that men
may become spiritual castaways, and how
finally they drift into that calamity.
You and l live in seaboard cities. You
have all stood on the beach. Many of you
have crossed the ocean. Some of you have
managed vessels in great stress of weather.
There is a sea captain and there is another,
and yonder is another, and there ale good
| ly number of you who, though once you Gid
not know the difference between brig and
bark, and between diamond knot and a
spirit sheet sail knot, aud although you could
not point out the wea' her cross jack brace,
though you could net man the fore clew
garnets, now you are as familiar with ship
as you are with your right hand and if it
were necessary you could take vessel clear
across to the Mers"y without the loss
of single sail. Well. there is dark night
| in your memory of the sea. The vessel be-
came unmanageable. You saw it was scud-
ding toward the shore. You heard the cry:
sBreakers ahead! Laud on the lee bowl
The vessel struck the rock and you felt the
deck breaking up under your feet, and you
were a castaway, az when the Hercules
drove on the coast of Caffraria, as when the
Portuguese brig went staying, splitting
grinding, crashing on the Goodwins. But
whether YOU have followed the sea or not,
you all understand the figure when;I tell
you that there are meu, who. by their sins
and temptations, are thrown helpless!
Driven before the gale! Wrecked for two
worlds! Castaway! Castaway!
Ry talking with some sea captains, have
found out that there are three or four causes
for such a calamity to vessel. l have
been told that it sometimes comes from
creating false lights on the beach, This
was often so in oldeu times. 1t is rot many
wears ago, indeed, that vagabonds used to
wander up and down the beach, getting
vessels ashore in the night, thro wing up
false lights in their presence and deceiving
them, that they might despoil and ransack
them. All kinds of irfernal arts were used
TO accomplish this. And one night, Cn the
Cornish coast, when the sea was coming in
fearfully, some villains took a lantern and
tied it to horse, and led the horse up and
down the beach, the lantern swinging to the
motion of the horse, and a sea captain IN
the offiug saw it, and made up his mind
| that he was not anywhere near the shore,
| for he said, "There's a vessel-that must
be vessel, for it has movable light" and
he had no apprehension till he heard the
rocks grating on the ships bottom, and it
went to pieces and the villains on shore
gathered up the packages and treasures
that were washed to the land. And l have
to tell you that there are multitude Of
souls ruined by false lights on the beach.
In the dark night of mans danger, false
religion goes up and down the shore, shak
ing its lantern, and men look off and take
that f1ickering and expiring wick as tbs
signal of safety, and tie cry is: "Heave the
main topsail to the mast! All is we'll?
when sudden destruction cometh upon then
and they shall not escape. So there are al
kinds of lanterns swuug on the beach
philosophical lanterns, educational lanterns
humanitarian lanterns. Men look at then
and are deceived, when there is nothing bu
Gods eternal lighthouse of the Gospel thai
can keep them from becoming castaways
Once, on Wolf Crag lighthouse, they triee
to build copper figure of a wolf with it,
mouth open, SO that the storms beating in
to it, the wolf would howl forth the dan
gers to mariners that might be coming any
where near the coast. Of course it was ;
failure. And SO all new inventions for tn
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