The Iola register., 1889-11-29

me out! l will help you! Do let me
ort! l can not die herew Some got
down and prayed to the Virgin Mary,
saying: SO, blessed mother! keep US!
Have mercy on us!' Some stood with
white lips and fixed gaze, silent in their
terror. Some wrung their hands and
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 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 its wing, cry
ing: "This ship is mine! have capt
ured it! Ha! ha! 1 will command it!
If God will permit, will sink it here
and now! BY a thousand shipwrecks,
swear the doom of this vessel" There
was lull in the storm; but only that it
might gain additional fury. Crash
went the lifebost on one side.
Crash! went the lifeboat on
the other side. The great booms
got loose, and, as with the heft of a
thunderbolt, pounded the deck and beat
the mast-the jib boom, studding sail
boom and square sail boom, with their
strong arms, beating time to the awful
march and music of the hurricane.
Meanwhile the ocean became phosphor-
escent The whole scene looked like
fire. The water dripping from the rig.
ging, there were ropes of fire:and there
were masts Of fire; and there was a
deck of fire. A ship of fire, sailing on
a sea of fire, through night of fire.
May l never see any thing like it againl
Every body pray ed. A lad of TIVE I've
years of age got down and prayed for his
mother. ''If L should give up" he said,
Il do not know what would become Of
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 very busy night. All of our
sins and shortcomings passed through
our minds. My own life seemed
utterly unsatisfactory. 1 could only
say: Here. Lord; take me as
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
done, and upon Thy infinite mercy l cast
myself and in this hour of shipwrecl1
and darkness commit myself and her
whom l hold by the hand to Toe, o
short struggle in the water, and that at
the same instant we may both arrive in
glory!" Oh! / tell you 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 cheek.
The night was long. AT last we saw
the dawn looking through the port holes.
As in the olden time, in the fourth watch
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. He 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: 1.-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, or the last morning
| out, the sun threw round about us a
glory such as / never witnessed before.
| God made pavement of mosaic, reach
| ing from horizon to horizon, for all the
| splendors 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 a
| parent embraces a child and kisses away
| its grief, so over that sea, that had been
writhir +: in agony in the tempest, the
morning threw its arms of beauty and OF
benediction, and the lips of earth and
Heaven met.
As came on deck-it was very early,
few sails against the sky. They seemed
like the spirits of the night walking the
billows. 1 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 were
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
a 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 taffrail again, and said, with
more emotion than before: Thy way,
o God, is in the sea, and thy path in the
| great waters!'
So, 1 thought, will be the going off OF
the storm and night of the Christian
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 billows
of the worlds woe break into the splen.
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 il
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