Connecticut western news., 1889-11-20
A SERMON ON SEA AND WIND.
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage Talks of the
 Wrecks of Life.
Earnest Discourse Delivered at Brindisi, Italy-Those Who Lead Into Temptation but Refuse to Help When the Storms Come, Referred to Strongly.

Come, Referred to Strongly.
 Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage, D. D., preached in Brindis, Italy, on the 17th. His subject was "A Mediterranean Voyage" and he took for his text Acts xxvii., A: 'And so it came to pass that they escaped all safe to land." Dr. Talmage said: Having visited your his- torical city, which we desired to see because it was the terminus of the most famous road of the ages, the Roman Appian Way, and for it's mighty fortress overshadowing city which even HannibaPs hosts could not thun- der down, we must tomorrow morning leave your harbor, and, after touching at Athens and COrinth, voyage about the Med- iterranean to Alexandria, Egypt.
 I have been reading in my New Testament of Mediterranean voyage in an Alexandrian ship. It was this very month of November The vessel was lying'in port not very far from here. On board that vessel were two distinguished passengers: One, Josephus, the historian, as we have strong reasons to believe; the other, convict, one Paul by name, who was going to prison for upsetting things. or, as they termed it, Burning tLe world upside down." This convict had gained the confidence of the captain. Indeed, think that Paul knew almost as much about the sea as did the captain. He had been shipwrecked three times already; he had dwelt much of his life amidst capstans, and yardarms, and cables, and storms; and he knew what he was talking about.
 Seeing the Equinoctial storm was coming, and, perhaps noticing something unsea- worthy ill the vessel, he advised the captain to stay in the harbor. But I hear the captain and the first mate talking together. They say: eve cannot afford to take the advice may be able to preach very well, but don't believe he knows marline-spike from luff tackle. All aboard! Cast off! Shift the helm for headway! Who fears the Mediter- ranean" They had gone only little way out when a whirlwind, called Euroclydon, as you would brandish a spear, and tossed the hulk into the heavens. Overheard with the cargo! It is all washed with salt water, and worthless now; and there are no marine insurance companies. All hands ahoy and out with the anchors:
 Great consternation comes on crew and passengers. The sea monsters snort ill the foam, and the pillows clap their hands in glee of destruction. It is the chain of the great apostle as he walks the deck, or holds fast to the spray dripping from his long beard as he cries out to the crew: ''Now, I exhort you to be of good cheer: for there shall be no loss of any mans life among you, but of the ship. For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose l am, and whom I brought before Cesar; and, To, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee'
 Fourteen days have passed and there is no abatement of the storm. It. is midnight. Standing on the lookout the man peers into the darkness, and by flash of lightning, sees the long white line of the breakers and knows they must be coming near to some country and fears that in few mo- ments the vessel will be shiv- cred on the rocks Os The ship flies like chatf and by the light of the lantern they see it is 20 fathoms. Speeding along little farther, they drop the line again and by the light of the lantern they see it is 15 fathoms. Two hundred and seventy-six souls within a few feet of an awful shipwreckl
 The managers of the vessel, pretending they want to look over the side of the ship and undergrad it. get into the small boat, ex- pecting i'll it to escape; but Paul sees through the sham, and he tells them that if they go of vessel strikes! The blanks spring! The timbers crack! The vessel parts in the laundering surge! Oh. what wild struggling for life! Here they leap from plank to plank. Here they go under as if they would never rise, but catching hold of timber, come floating and panting on it to the beach. Here, strong swimmers spread their arms through the waves until their chins blow the sand, and they rise and wiring out their wet locks on the beach. When the roll of the ship is 'sAnd so,' says my text, ''it same to pass that they escaped all safe to land."
 learn from this subject: First, that those who get us into trouble will not stay to help us out. These shipmen got Paul out of Fair Havens into the storm; but as soon as the temptest dropped upon them, they wanted to go of in small boat, caring nothing for what became of Paul and the passengers. Ah me! human nature is the same in all ages. They who get us into trouble never stop to help us out: They who, tempt the young man into life of dissipation will be the first to laugh at his imbeci1ity, and to drop him out of decent society. Gamblers always make fun of the losses of gamblers. They who tempt you into the contest with fists, saying, 'I will back you," will be the first to run. Look over all the predicaments of your life, and count the names of those who have | got you into those predicaments, and tell me the name of one who has ever helped you out. They were glad enough to get you out from Fair Ravens, but when, with damaged rigging, you tried to get into harbor, did they hold for you plank or throw you rope! Satan has got thousands of men into l trouble, but he never got one out. He led them into theft, but he would not hide the goods or bail out the defendant. The spider shows the fly the way over the gossame1 bridge into the cobweb; but it never shows the fly the way out of the cobweb over l the gOssamer bridge. I think that there were plenty of fast young men to help the prodi gal spend his money; but when he had Wasteu HIS suDsLance Ill rlOJouS nVlng, they l let him go to the swine pastures, while they betook themselves to some other new conner They who take Paul out of Fair Ravens vii be of no help to him when he gets into the breakers of Melita.
 remark again, as a lesson learned iron the text, that it is dangerous to refuse ths counsel of competent advisers. Paul tolt them not to go out with that ship. They thought he knew nothing about it. They said: ''He is only ministerv' They went and the ship was destroyed. There are great many people who now say of ministers "They know nothing about the world. The, cannot talk to us" An, my friends it is no | necessary to have the Asiatic cholera befor, you can give it medical treatment in others It is not necessary to have your own arm a fracture. And we who stand in the pulpit and in the office of Christian teacher, know that there are certain styles of belief and cer tain kinds of behaviour that will lead to de struction as certainly as Paul knew that i that ship went out of Fair Ravens it would in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee i, the days of thy youth: but know thou tha for all these things God will bring thee int, Judgment" We may not know much, bu
 we know that.
 Young people refuse the advice of parents
 They say: Father is oversuspicious ant
 mother is getting old." But those parent
 have been on the sea of life. They know
 where the storms sleep, and during thei
 voyage have seen a thousand battered hulk
 marking the place where beauty burned an.
 intellect foundered and morality sunk. The,
 are old sailors, having answered many sig
 nal of distress and endured great stress 0
 weather, and gone scudding under bare poles
 and the old folks know what they are talkin,
 about. Look at that man-in his cheek tn
 glow of internal fires. His eye flashes not a
 one with thought, but with low passion
 His brain is sewer through which impurit,
 floats, and his heart the trough in which Jus wallows and drinks. Men shudder as tn
 leper passes, and parents cry, "Wolf! wolf 1!
 Yet he once said the Lords prayer at hi