Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-08-26
AWFUL SHIPWRECKS.
Stout Vessels Dashed Upon the Rocks
and Thousands Perish.
TIE STORY OF THE CASTAWAYS.
Lured Into Danger by False Lights Upon
the ROckbOund Shore.
LIFEBOATS RESCUE WHOLE FAMILIES
ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE D1sPATcu.i

ESPECIAL TELEcRAM TO THE DIsPATCH.i
PORTLAND, ORE, August 26.-The Rev.
7. De Witt Talmage, d. D., who preached
here to-day to vast audience, took for his
text Cor. tx, 81: 'Lest that by any means
1 myself should be a castaway." The preach
er said:
In the presence of you who live on the
Pacific coast, 1 who live on the Atlantic
coast may appropriately speak on this
marine allusion of the text, for all who
know about the sea know about the cast
away. The text implies that ministers OF
religion may help others into heaven and
yet miss it themselves The carpenters that
built Noah's ark did not get into it them
selves Gown and surplice and diplomas
and canonicals are no security. Cardinal
Wolsey, after having been petted by kings,
and having entertained foreign ambassadors
at Hampton Court, died in darkness.
One of the most eminent ministers of
religion that this country has ever
known, plunged into sin and died; his
heart, by post-mortem examination, found
TO have been not figuratively, but literally,
broken. We may have hands of ordination
on the head, and address consecrated assem-
blaSes, but that is no reason why we shall
necessarily reach the realm celestial. The
clergyman must go through the same gate of
pardon as the layman. There have been
cases of shipwreck where all on board es-
capped excepting the captain. Alas! if hav-
ing preached to others, / myself should be
a castaway." God forbid it.
have examined some of the commenta-
ries to see what they thought about this
word ''castaway," and / find they differ in
regard to the figure used while they agree
II e. h., Il LII
my own selection, and take it in a nautical
and seaiaring sense, and show you that men
may become spiritual castaways, and how
finally they drift into that calamity.
BREAKERS AHEAD.
You and 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 are a
goodly number of you who, though once
you did not know the difference between a
brig and a bark, and between diamond
knot and spirit sheet sail knot, and al
though you could not point out the weather
cross jack brace, and though you could not
man the fore clew garnets, now you are as
familiar with a ship as you are with your
right hand, and if it were necessary you
could take a vessel clear across to the
mouth of the Mersey without the loss of
single sail. Well, there is a dark night
in your memory of the sea. The YES
sci became unmanageable. You saw it was
scudding toward the shore. You heard the
cry: Breakers ahead! Land on the lee
bowl The vessel struck the rock and you
felt the deck breaking up under your feet,
and you were castaway, as when the Her
cules drove on the coast of Caffraria, as
when the Portuguese brig went staving
splitting, grinding, crashing on the Good
wins But whether you have followed the
or not, you all understand the figure
when tell you that there are men, who, by
their sins and temptations are thrown
helpless! Driven before the gale! Wrecked
for two worlds! Castawavs! Castaways!
By talking with some captains L have
found out that there are three or four causes
for such a calamity to vessel have been
told that it sometimes comes from creating
false lights on the beach. This was often
so in olden times. 1t is not many years ago.
indeed, that vagabonds used to wander up
and down the beach, getting vessels ashore
in the night,
THROWING UP FALSE LIGHTS
in their presence and deceiving them, that
they may despoil and ransack them. All
kinds of internal arts were used to accom-
plish this And one night, on the Cornish
coast, when the sea was coming in feartully,
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 sea captain in the offiHg
saw it, and made up his mind that he was
not anywhere near the shore, for he said:
There's q vessel-that must be a vessel
for it has a 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
treasures that were washed to the land.
And / have to tell you that there are a
multitude Of souls ruined by false lights on
the beach. In the dark night of mans dam
ger, false religion goes up and down the
shore, shaking its lantern, and men look off
and take that hickering and expiring wick
as the signal of safety, and the cry is:
"Heave the main topsall to the mastl All
is well!''' when sudden destruction cometh
upon them and they shall not escape. So
there are all kinds of lanterns swung on the
beach-philosophica lanterns, educational
lanterns, humanitarian lanterns. Men look
at them and are deceived, when there is
nothing but Gods eternal Lighthouse Of the
gospel that can keep them from becoming
castaways.
Once, on Wolf Crag Lighthouse, they tried
to build a copper figure of wolf with its
mouth open, so that the storms beating into
it, the wolf would howl forth the dangers to |
mariners that might be coming anywhere
near the coast OF course it was a failure I.
And so all new inventions for the saving of
mans soul are unavailing. What the hu- |
man race wants is light bursting forth from
the cross standing on the great headlands- |
the light of pardon, the light of comfort, the !
light of heaven. You might better go to-
night and destroy all the great lighthouses
on the dangerous coasts the Barnegat light |
house, the Fastnet Rock Lighthouse, the |
Sherryvore Lighthouse, the Longship's light |
house, the Hollyhead lighthouse-than to
put out Gods great ocean lamp-the Gospel. |
Woe TO those who swing false lanterns on
the beach till men crash into ruin. Cast
awaysl Castaways
WRECKED IN A CYCLONE.
By talking with sea captains have heard |
also that sometimes ships come to this ca
lamity by the sudden swoop of tempest |
For instance, a vessel is sailing along in the |
East Indies, and there is not a single cloud |
OIL the sky; but suddenly the breeze fresh |
ems and there are swift feet on the ratlines,
and the crv is: "Way, haul away therep' |
but before they can square the booms and |
tarpaulin the hatchways, the vessel is groan- |
ing and crealking in the grip OF a tornado, |
and falls over into the trough of the sea, and |
broadsIde it rolls on to the beach and keels !
over leaving the crew to struggle in the |
merciless surf Castaway! Castawayi And |
so l have to tell you that there are thousands |
OF men DESTROYED through the sudden swoop |