Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1889-09-12
DIR. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
A DISCOURSE ADDRESSED To SEA
CAPTAINS.

Delivered 1t Portland. Oregon, August 25-
His Text is to BE Found I'm Corinthiau
IL. 81: "Lest That by Any Means ny
self Should BE Cast Away"
In the presence of you who live o.
the Pacific coast, who live on the At
iantic coast may appropriately speak OIL
this marine allusiOn of the text, for al
who know about the sea know about tn
castaway. This text implies that minis
tiers of religion may help others int,
Heaven and yet miss it themselves. Tn
carpenters that built Noahs ark did no
| get into it themselves. Gown and sur
| plice, and diplomas, and canonicals AZ,
no security. Cardinal Wolsey, afte
having been petted by kings, and hav
ing entertained foreign ambassadors a
Hampton Court, died in darkness. On,
| of the most eminent ministers of relig
ion that this country has ever known
| plunged into sin and died; his heart, b,
| post mortem examination, found to hay,
| been, not fguratively but literally, bro
ken. We may have hands of ordination
on the head, and address consecratet
| assemblages, but that is no reason whN
| We shall necessarily reach the realm
celestial. The clergyman must &c
through the same gate of pardon as the
| layIn1n. There have been cases of ship
wreck where all on board escaped ex-
cepting the captain. Alas! if, having
preached to others, myself should be
| acasta way" God forbid it.
have examined some of the CON-
mentaries to see what they thought
about this word "castaway," and find
they differ in regard to the figure used,
while they agree in regard to the meaning.
So shall make my own selection, and
and show you that men may become
| spiritual castaways, and how finally they
| drift into that calamity.
You and l 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-cap-
tain ana there is another, and yonder is
another, and there are goodly number
of you who, though once you did not
know the difference between a brig and
bark, and between diamond knot
and a spirit sheet sail knot, and although
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 o ship as you are
with your right hand, and if it were
necessary you could take vessel clear
across to the mouth of the Mersey with
out the loss of a single sail. Well,
there is dark night in your memory of
the sea. The vessel became unmanage-
able. You saw it scudding toward the
shore. You heard the cry: Breakers
ahead Land on the lee bowl" The ves-
Sci 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 stay
ing, splitting, grinding, crashing on
the GOodwins. But whether you have
followed the sea or not, you all under
stand the figure when l tell you that
there are men, who, by their sins and
temptations. are thrown helpless!
two worlds! Castaways! Castawaysi
By talking with some sea captains, I
have found out that there are three or
four causes for such calamity to ves-
sci. 1 am 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 vaga-
bonds 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 We're used to &C
cOmplish this. And one night, on the
Cornish coast, when the sea was coming
in fearfully, some villains took lam
tern and tied it to a horse, and led the
morse up and down the beach, the lam
tern swinging to the motion OF the
morse, and q sea captain IN the ofting
saw H. and made up his mind that he
was not anywhere near the shore, Tor he
SAID: There's vessel-that must be
Vessei, Tor 1t has movable light, and
ne had no apprehension until he heard
the rocks grating on the ships bottom,
ana II went to pieces and the villains on
shore gathered up the packages and
treasures that were washed to the land.
and have to tell you that there are
muitltude OF souls ruined by false lights
on the oeach. In the dark night of
mans danger, false religion goes up
ana down the shore, shaking its lantern,
ana men LOOK OH and take that flicker
ing and expiring WICK as the signal OF
safety. and the cry is: Heave the main
toPsal to the mast! All is well!" when
sudden destruction cometh upon them,
and they shall not escape So there are
all kinds OF lanterns swung on the
6eachIphllosophlcal lanterns, educa-
tionai lanterns, Humanitarian lanterns.
Men look at them and are deceived. when
there is nothing but Gods eternal light
house of the Gospel that can keep them
from becoming castaways. Once, on
wolf Crag lighthouse, they tried to
bulld 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 COM
ing anywhere near the coast. OF course
it was a failure. And SO all new inven-
tions for the saving of mans soul are
What the human race wants
is light bursting forth from the cross
standing on the great headlands-the
light of pardon, thellight OF comfort, the |
light of Heaven. You might better go |
to- might, and DESTROY all the great light |
houses on the dangerous coasts-the |
Barnegat lighthouse, the Fasnet Rock !
lighthouse, the Sherryvore lighthouse. |
the Longships lighthouse. the Holly. /