The Forrest City times., 1889-11-23

s%s ' o0A kOtNt0k Out OA tu8N SuiRWIGIh< QiO thcrei They had not in those days, rockets with which to throw ropes ovcr foundering vessels. Their lifeboats were of but little worth. And yet, notwish- standing all the danger, my text says that Paul escaped safe to land. And so 1t will always be with Gods children. They may be plunged into darkness and trouble, but by tho throne of tho eternal God, assert it. "they shall all escape safe to land"
 Sometimes there comes storm of com mercial disaster The cables break Tue masts fall. The cargoes are scattered over the sea Oh! what struggling ana ieaping on kegs aud tpesheads and corn bins and store shelvesl And yet, though they may have 1t so very hard in commercial circles, the good, trusting in God, all come safe to and.
 Wrcckers % 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 end on insurance counters. Vast credits sinking, having suddenly sprung leak. Yet all of them through his goodness and mercy, escape safe to land Tho Scandinavian warriors used to drink wine out of the skulls of the enemies they had slain. Even so God will help us, out of tho conquered ills and disasters of life, to drink sweetness and strength for our souls.
 You have my friends, had illustrations. In your own life of how Gcd delivers his peo- pie. l have had illustrations in my own life of the same truth. l 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 riv- CT Mersey at Liverpool, bound for New York. We had on board seven hundred, crew and passengers. We came together strangers-@Itaiians. Irishmen Enelishmen, Swedes Norwegians, Americans. Two flags 1oated from tho inasts-British and American ensigns. We had new vessel, or enc so thoroughly remodeled that the voyage had around it all the uncertainties of a trial trip. The great steamer felt its way cautiously out into the sea Tho pilot was discharged; and committing ourselves to the care of him who holdeth the winds in his fist, WIG were fairly started on our voyage of three thousand miles. It was rough nearly all the way the sea with strong buffeting disputing our path. But one night, at elev. en o'clock, after the lights had been put out eyclone--a wind just made to tear ships to pieces-caught us in it's clutches It came down so suddenly that we had not time to take in the sails or to fasten the hatches You may know that tho bottom of the Atlantic is strewn with the ghastly work of cyclones Oh :! they arc cruel winds. They have hot breath, as though they came up from internal furna- eos, Their merriment is the cry of affrighted passengers. Their play is the laundering of steamers, And, when a ship goes down, they laugh until both :continents hear them. They go in circles, or, as I describe them with my hand-rolling 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 Brigan- tines so down! Clippers, go down. Steam ships, go downl" And tho vessel, hearing the terrible voice. crouched in tho surf and as the waters gurgle through the hatehes and port holes, it lowers away thousands of feet down. farther and farther, until at last 1t strikes the bottom; and all IS peace, for they have landed. Hclmsman. dead at wheel Engineer. dead amidst the extin guished furnacesl Captain, dead in the gangwayl Passengers dead in the cabin Buried in the cemetery of dead steamers, beside the City Of Boston, the Lexington. the President tho Cambria waiting for tho archangel's trumpet to split up the decks, and wrench open tho cabin doors, and unfasteu tho hatches.
 thought that had seen storms on the sea before; but all of them together might have como under one wing of that cyclone
 We were only eight or nine hundred miles from homo. 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 wore to be disappointed. The most of us expected then and therc to die. There were none who made light of the peril, save two Ono was au English man, and hc was drunk, and the other was an American, and he was fooll Oh what a time 1t was A night 10 make one's 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 getting loose. swung across the saloon. It seemed as if tho hurricane took that great ship of thousands of tons and stood it on end, and said: shall I sink it. or let It go this oncei'' And then l. came down with such force that the pillows trampled over it, each mounted of fury. No felt that everything depended on the nropellng screw, If that stopped for an instant We knew the vessel would fall of into tho trough Of the sea and sipk, aud so we pray cd that the screw, which three times since leaving Liverpool had already stopped, might not stop now Oh how anxiousiy we listened for tho regular thump Of the machinery, upon which our lives seemed to depend, After while some one said "'rhe screw is stoppedm No, its sound had only been overpowered by the uproar of the tempest and wo brea.hed easier again when we heard the regular pulsations Of the over. tasked machinery going thump, thump. thump- At 8 o'clock in the morn. ing tho water covered the ship from brow to stern, and the skylights gave way The deluge rushed in and we felt that one or two more waves like that must swaiup us forever. As tho water rolled back and forward in the cabins, and dashed against tho wall, it sprang half way up to the ceil. ing. Rushing through the skylights as it came in with such terrific roar, there went up from tho cabin shrielS of horror which pray God l may never hear again. l have dreamed tho whole scene over again, but God has merctfully kept me from hearing that one cry. Into 1t seemed to be com pressed tho agony of expected shipwrocg. It seemed to say: "l shall never get home again My children shall be orphaned, aud my wife shall be widowedl l am launch. ing now into etcrnityl In two minutes shall meet my Godl'
 There were about five hundred and fifty passengers in the s.eerare, and as the water rushed in and touched the furnaces, and began violently to hiss the poor creatures m the steerage imagined that the boilers were giving way. Those passengers writh- cd in the water and In tho mud, soma pray. ing, some crying, all terrified They made a rush for the deck. An officer stood on