Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-09-05

| all my trouble, and the temptation came
upon me so fiercely could not deliberate.
did wrong and having done wrong once
] could not stop" O. it is the first step
that costs; the second is easier; and the
third, and on to the last Once having
| broke loose from the anchor it is not SO
| easy to tie TO parted strands. How often
| Ii is that men are ruined for the reason
| that the temptation comes from some I'M
expected quarter. As vessels lie in Mar
gate Roads, safe from southwest winds;
| but the wind changing to northeast they
are driven helpless and 60 down. o. that
God would have mercy upon those whom
there comes the sudden swoop of tempta-
ton, lest they perish, becoming cast
Always! castaways!
By talking with sea captains l have
found out also that some vessels come 10
this calamity through sheer recklessnesS.
There are three million men who follow
the sea for a living. 1t is simple fact
that the average OF human life on the sea
is less than twelve years. This comes
from the fact that men by familiarity with
danger sometimes become reckless-the
captain, the helmsman, the stoker, the
man on the lookout become reckless, and
in nine out of ten shipwrecks it is found
out that some one was awfully to blame
So l have to tell you that men are morally
shipwrecked through sheer recklessness.
There are thousands who do not care
where they are in spiritual things. They
do not know which way they are sailing,
and the sea is black with piratical hulks
that would grapple them with hooks of
steel and blindfold them and make them
10 MI do l-V,O
what the next moment may bring forth.
Drifting in their theology. Drifting in
their habits. Drifting in regard to all
their future. No God. no Christ, no settled
acceptance of eternal felicity; but all the
time coming nearer and nearer a dangerous
coast. Some of them are on fire with evil
habits and they shall burn on the sea, the
charred hulk tossed up on the barren
beach. Many of them with great troubles,
financial troubles, domestic troubles, social
troubles; but they never pray for comfort.
With an aggravation of sin they pray for
no pardon. -..sp
They do not steer for the lightship that
dances in gladness at the mouth of Heav-
ems harbor; reckless as to where they
come out drifting further from God,
further from early religious influences,
further from happiness; and what is the
worst thing about it is they are taking
their families along with them, and the
way one goes the probability is that they
will all go. Yet no anxiety. As uncon-
scious of danger as the passengers aboard
the Arctic one moment before the Vesta
crashed Into her. Wrapped up in the
business of the store. not remembering
that soon they must quit all their earthly
possessions; absorbed in their social posi-
ton, not knowing that very soon they will
have attended the last levee and whirled
in the last schottische, they do not delib-
erately choose to be ruined. Neither did
the French frigate Medusa aim for the
Arguin banks, but there it went to pieces.
wish l could wake you up. The perils
are so augmented, you will die just as
certainly as you sit there unless you
bestir yourself. Are you willing to be-
come a castaway? You throw out no oar;
you take no surroundings; you watch no
compass. You are not calculating your
bearings while the wind is abaft, and
yonder is long line of foam bounding
the horizon and you will be pushed on to-
ward it, and thousands have persisted
there and you are driving in the same di-
rection. Ready about! Down helm!
Hard down! Man the lifeboat! Pull, my
lads, pull! HE that being often reproved
hardeneth his neck shall be suddenly de-
stroyed and that without remedy" but
some of you are saying within yourselves:
what shall 1 do:" Do? Do? Why, my
brother, do what any ship does when it is
in trouble. Lift distress signal On the
sea there is flash and boom. You listen
and you look. A vessel is in trouble. The
gun is sounded or a rocket sent
up, or blanket is lifted or a bundle of
thing to catch the eye of the
passing craft. So if you want to be
taken off the wreck of your sin you must
lift a distress signal. The publican lifted
the distress signal when he cried: God,
be merciful to me a sinuerw Peter lifted
the distress signal when he said: Lord,
save me, perishw The blind man lifted
the distress signal when he said: Lord,
that my eyes may be opened" The jailer
lifted the distress signal when he said:
What must do to be saved:" And help
will never come to your soul until you lift
some signal. You must make some DEM
give some sign, make some
Heaven piercing outer cry for help, lift
ng the distress signal for the Church's
Heavens pardon. Pray! Pray. The
voice of the Lord now sounds in your
ears: "In Me is thy help" Too proud to
raise such a signal too proud to be saved. |
There was an old sailor humping about
n a small boat in tempest. The larger |
7essel had gone down. He felt he must |
lie. The surf was breaking over the boat |
Ind he said: Il took off my life belt that |
t might soon be over and 1 thought some
what indistinctly about my friends on |
hore and then l bid them good bye like, |
Ind was about sinking back and giving |
t up when I saw a bright star. The |
clouds were breaking away, and there |
hat blessed star shone down on me, and |
I seemed to take right hold of me; and |
somehow, can not tell how it was, but
omehow while was trying to watch that
tar, it seemed to lift me-" o, sinking
oul, see you not the glimmer between the
fits of the storm cloud? That is the star
# hope.
Deathstruck, ceased the tide to stem,
When suddenly star arose,
1t was the star of Bethlehem.
If there are any here who consider
themselves castaways, let me say God is
Icing every thing to save you. Did you
yer hear of Lionel Luken? He was the
INVENTOR of the insubmergible life boat.
AL honor is due to his memory by seafar-
ng men. as well as by landsmen. How
many lives he saved by his invention. In
fter days that invention was improved,
nd one day there was perfect life boat,
he Northumberland, ready at Ramsgate.
he life boat being ready, to test it the
rev came out and leaped on the gunwale
n one side to see if the boat would upset;
was impossible to upset it Then, amid
be huzzas of excited thousands, that boat
Tas launched, and it has gone and come.