The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1889-11-27
CHRISTIANS ALWAYS SAFE.

CHRISTIANS ALWAYS SAFE.
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
shipwreck, did there2 They had not,
in those days, rockets with which tc
throw ropes over laundering vessels,
Their lifeboats were of but little worth.
And yet, Notwithstanding all the dan.
ger, my text says that Paul escaped
safe to land. And 50 it viii always
be with Gods children. They may
be plunged into darkness and trouble,
but by the throne of the eternal God,
assert it, they shall all escape safe
to land"
Sometimes there comes a storm
of commercial disaster. The cables
break. The masts fall. The cargoes
are scattered over the sea. Oh! what
struggling and leaping on kegs and
hogsheads and cornbins and store
shelves! 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; and on the streets of our great
cities there is many wreck. Mainsail
slit with bankers pen. Hulks abeam's 5
end on insurance counters. Mastered
its sinking, having suddenly sprung
a leak. Yet all of them who are Gods
children shall at last, through his good
ness and mercy, escape safe to land.
The Scandinavian 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-
tons, in your own life, of how God
delivers his people ! have had illus
trations in my own life of the same
truth. I was once in what on your
Mediterranean you call a 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
Ghad. op1 boa,Rseven hundred, crew
and passengers. We came together
strangers-Italians, Irishmen, Eng
kshmen, Swedes, Norwegians, Ameri-.
cans. Two flags foated from the
masts-British and American en-
signs. We had a new vessel, or one
so Thoroughly remodeled that the voy-
age had around it all the uncertain
ties of a trial trip. The great steam
er felt its way cautiously out into
the sea. The pilot was discharged;
and, committing ourselves to the care
Of. 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 pu. out, cyclone
"a wind just made to tear ships to
pieces-caught US in its clutches. It
came down so suddenly that we had
not time to TAKEN the sails or to fasten
the matches. You may know that the
bottom of the Atlantic is strewn with
the ghastly work cf cyclones. Oh!
they are crnel winds. They have hot
bre2.tt,.s, as though they came up from
clferaal furnaces. Their merriment
IS the~cry Of afrighted passengers
Their play is the foundering of steam
ers. And, when ship goes down,
they laugh until both continents hear
them. They so in circles, or, as |
describe them with my hand-roll-
ing on! rolling on. with finger of
terror writing on the white sheet of
the wave this sentence of doom: LET
all that come within this circle perish!
Brigantines, go down! Clippers, 60
down. Steamships, 60 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. thousands of
feet down, farther and farther, until
at last it strikes the bottom; and all is
peace, for they have landed. Helms
nan, dead at the wheel! Engineer,
dead amidst the extinguished furnaces!
Captain, dead in the gangway. Pas
sengers, 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-
ing for the archangel's trumpet to split
up the decks, and wrench open the
cabin doors, and unfasten the matches.
A NIGHT TO TURN ONES HAIR WHITE
I 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 disap-
pointed. The most Of US expected
then and there to die. There were none
who made light Of the, peril, save two.
One was an Englishman, and he was
drunk, and the other was an Ameri-
can, and he was fool. Oh. what a
time it was! \ night to make ones
hair turn white. We came out Of the
berths, and stood in the gangway, and
looked into the steerage, and sat IN the
cabin. While seated there, we heard
overhead something like minute guns.
It 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
gashed. Cups and glasses were dashed
to fragments; pieces of the table get
ting loo-e, swung across the saloon: 1t
seemed as if the hurricane took that
great ship Of thousands of tons and
stood it Oh emo, and said: Shall sink
it, or let it go this oncct" And then it
came down with such force that the
hillows tramplcd over it, each mounted
of a fury. Ne felt that everything
depended on the p:opeiiing screw. If
that stopped for an instant we knew
the vessel would fall off into the trough
of the sea and sink, and SO we prayed