Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-08-26

/ " I0dt GOO WOulO nave lutrCy upOu buOSe
upon whom there comes the sudden swoop OF
| temptation, lest they perish, becoming cast,
awaysl castawaysl
BY talking with sea captains. i have found
out also that some vessels come to this calam.
| ity through sheer recklessness. There are
| 5000, 900 men who follow the sea for living.
1t is simple fact that the average OF human
| life on the sea is less than II 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 someone was awiully to blame. So
have to tell you that men are morally ship
wrecked 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 grap-
pie them with hooks of steel and blindtold
! them, and make them "waik the plank. "
They do not know 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 anticipations of eternal felicity; but
all the time coming nearer and nearer to a
dangerous coast. Some of them are on fire
with evil habit, 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. They do not steer Tor the lightship
that dances in gladness at the mouth OF
HEAVENS HARBoR;
reckless as to where they come out, drifting
further from God, further from early relig-
ious 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 they
will all go. Yet no anxiety. As uncon-
scious of danger as the passengers aboard
the Arctic one moment before the Vista
crushed into her. Wrapped up in the bus
iness of the store, not remembering that
soon they must Quit all their earthly pos
sessions. Absorbed in their social position,
not knowing that very soon they will have
attended the last levee, and whirled in the
last schottische. They do not deliberately
choose to be ruined; neither did the French
frigate Medusa aim for the Arguin banks,
but there it went to pieces. L wish i 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 become q castaway?s 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
wonder is a long line of foam bounding the
horizon, and you will be pushed on toward
it, and thousands have perished there, and
you are driving in the same direction.
Ready about Down helm! Hard down!
Man the life boatl Pull, my lads, pull!
HE that being often reproved hardeneth
his neck, shall be suddenly destroyed and
that without remedy"
But some of you are saying within your
selves: "What shall do?" Do? Do? Why,
my brother, do what any ship does when it
is in trouble. Lift a distress signal. On
the sea there is fash and boom. You
listen and YOU look. A vessel is in trouble.
The distress gun is sounded, or rocket is
sent up, or a blanket is lifted, or bundle
of rags-anything to catch the eye of the
passing craft. So il you want to be taken
of the wreck of your sin, you must lift
distress signal. The publican lifted the
distress signal when he cried: "God, be mer-
ciful to me a sinner!' Peter lifted
THE DISTRESS SIGNAL
when he said: "Lord, save me, perish'
The blind man lifted the distress signal
when he said: Lord, that my eyes may be
opened" The jailer lifted the distress sig
nal 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 demonstration, give some sign,
make some heaven piercing outcry for help,
lifting the distress signal for the church's
prayer, lifting the distress signal for heav-
ems pardon. Pray! Pray! The voice of
the Lord now sounds in your ears: "In Me
is thy help" Too proud to raise such
signal, too proud to be saved.
There was an old sailor humping about
in a small boat in a tempest The larger
vessel had gone down. He felt he must die.
The surf was breaking over the boat, and
he said: 81 took off my life belt that it
might soon be over. and 1 thought some
what indistinctly about my friends on shore
and then bid them goodby like, and was
about sinking back and giving it up, when
l saw a bright star. The clouds were
breaking away, and there that blessed star
shone down on me, and it seemed to take
right hold of me; and somehow, 1 cannot
tell how it was but somehow, while i was
trying to watch that star, it seemed to help
me and seemed to lift me-" o, sinking soul,
see YOU not the glimmer between the riffs of
the storm cloud? That is the star of hope.
Deathstruck, ceased the tide to stem,
When suddenly a star arose,
1t was the star Of Bethlehem
Ii there are any here who consider them
selves castaways, let me say God is doing
everything to save you. Did you ever hear
of Lionel Luken? He was the inventor of
the insubmergible lifeboat All honor is
due TO his memory by seafaring men, as we'll
as by landsmen. How manv lives he saved
by his invention. In after days that inven-
ton was improved, and one day there was
perfect lifeboat the Northumberland, ready
at Ramsgate. The lifeboat being ready, to
test it the crew came out and leaped on the
gunwale on one side to see if the boat would
upset; it was impossible to upset it. Then,
amid the huzzas of excited thousands. .that
boat was launched, and it has gone and come
picking up great many of the shipwrecked.
But have to tell you now OF a grander launch
ing, and from the dry docks of heaven. Word
came up that a world was beating on the rocks.
In the presence of the potentates of heaven
the lifeboat of the worlds redemption was
launched. 1t showed off the golden sands amid
angelic hosanna. The surges of darkness beat
against its bow. but it sailed on, and it comes
comes for me. Soul soul (, get into it. Make
one leap for heaven. Detthat boat go past and
YOUR OPPORTUNITY IS GONE
lam expecting that there will be whole fam
II les here who will get into that lifeboat. In
1888. the Isabella came ashore off Hastings,
England. The air was filed with sounds-the
hoarse sea trumpet, the crash of the axes, and
the.bellowIng of the tornado. A boat from
the shore came under the stern of the disabled
vessel. There were women and children on
board that vessel. Some of the sailors jumped
into tha small boat and said: Now give us
took his first born and threw him to the boat
The sailors caught him safely, and the next,
and the next, to the last. Still the sea rocking
the storm bowling. Now" said the sailors
'snow the mother; and she leaped and was
saved. The boat went to the shore; but before
it got to the shore. the landsmen were so i'm
patient to help the suffering people that they
waded clear down into the surf with blankets
and M hpl nd