The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1889-11-29

of one of the officers and cried: do let
me out! 1 will help youl Do let me
out! 1 ca n not die here" Some got
| down and prayed to the Virgin Mary,
saying: 80, blessed motherl keep usi
Have mercy on usl" Some stood with
white lips and fixed gaze, silent in their
terror. Some wrung their hands and
cried out: 30, God! what shall 1 do?
4 What shall I do?"
The time came when the crew could
no longer stay on the deck, and the cry
of the officers was: Below! all hands
| belOwl" Our brave and sympathetic
Captain Andrews-whose praise l shall
/ not cease to speak while l live-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 it's wing, cry
ing: ''This ship is mine! have capt
ured it! Ha! ha! 1 will command it!
If God will permit, I will ank it here
and now! BY thousand 4'1ipwrecks, I
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 Efeboat on
the other side. The great booms
got loose, and, as wiSh she heft of a
thUnderbOlt, pounded the 6erck and beat
the mast-the jib boom, st5dding sail
boom and square sail boom, with then
strong arms, beating time to the awful
march and music of the hurricane
| Meanwhile the ocean became pr osphOr-
escent. The whole scene looked like
fire. The water dripping from IRE rig
cling, there were ropes of fire;an6 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 aEain!
E very body pray ed. A lad of tive I've
years of age got down and prayed for his
mother. IF 1 should give up" he said,
4 do not know what would become Of
mother" There were men who, thinR,
had not. prayed for thirty years, who
then got down on their knees. When
man who has neglected God all his life
feels that he has come to his last time,
it makes a very busy night. All of our
, sins and shortcomings passed through
our minds. My own life seemed
utterly unsatisfactory. I could only
say: ''Here, Lord, take me as
am. I can not mend matters
2 now. Lord Jesus, thou didst die for the
chief of sinners. That's me! It seems,
: Lord, as if my work is done, and poorly
done, and upon Thy infinite mercy cast
r myself, and in this hour of shipwreck
and darkness commit myself and her
/ whom I hold by the hand to Thee, o
? Lord Jesusl praying that it may be a
short struggle in the water, and that at
b! the same instant we may both arrive in
i glory!' Oh! 1 tell you a man prays
q straight to the mark when he has a
! | cyclone above him, an ocean beneath
/! him and eternity so close to him that he
D can feel its breath on his cheek.
q The night was long. At last we saw
!. the dawn looking through the port holes.
s AS in the olden time, in the fourth watch
t of the night, Jesus came walking on the
t sea, from wave cliff to wave cliff; and
+ when He puts His foot upon a billow,
J, though it may be tossed up with might,
i it goes down. He cried: ''Hushr' They
e knew His voice. The waves knew His
d foot. They died away. And in the
n 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
s cover the sea-" The ocean Gained. The
h path of the steamer became more anC
e more mild, until, on the last morning
out, the sun threw round about US
n glory such as 1 never witnessed before
,r God made a pavement of mosaic, reach
= ing from horizon to horizon, for all the
% | splendors of earth and Heaven to wall
h upon-a pavement bright enough for the
foot of a seraph-bright enough for the
e wheels of the archangel's chariot. AS
&c parent embraces child and kisses away
# its grief, so over that sea, that had beer
o writhing in agony in the tempest, thu
"a morning threw its arms of beauty and o
n benediction, and the lips of earth ant
N Heaven met.
A. AS I came Oh deck-it was very early
. and we we're nearing the shore--I saw
q few sails against the sky. They SCENE,
n like the spirits of the night walking tn
10 pillows. I leaned over the taffrail o
u the vessel, and said: ''Thy way, o God
$. is in the sea, and Thy path in the grea
70 waters" 1t grew lighter The cloud
1r hung in purple clusters along the sky
g and, as if those purple clusters wer
4 pressed into red wine and poured on
o. upon the sea, every wave turned int
a crimson. YOnder, fire cleft stood op
,s posite to fire cleft; and here, cloud
of rent and tinged with light, seemed lik
4 a palace, with flames burning from tn
70 windows. The whole scene lighted u
II until it seemed as if the angels of Go
"A were ascending a nd descending upo
stairs of fire, and the wave crests
IN changed into jasper, and crystal, an
or crystal, and amethyst, as they wer
Ia flung toward the beach, made me thin
nj ! of the crowns of Heaven cast before tn
w. throne of the great Jehovah, I leane
r. over the taffrail again. and said, wit
- | more emotion than before: ''Thy way
= ~ o God, is in the sea, and thy path in tn
~ great waters!'
d So, I thought, will be the going off {
10 the storm and night of the Christian
u, life. The darkness will fold its tent
~ and away! The golden feet of the ri.
p ing morn viii come skipping upon tn
- mountains, and all the wrathful billoN
'r of the worlds woe break into the sple1
y dor of eternal JOY. And so we com
&c into the harbOr. The cyclone benin
" US. Our friends before US. God, VIII
H. is always good, all around And
no the roll of the crew and tn
"o passengers had been called, seven huI
~ bred souls would have answered
~ their names. And so it came to pas
M that we all escaped safe to land" An
- may God grant that when all our Sal
gu baths on earth are ended, we may fin
4 f..E r,vrI, Al 3 "a