The intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1887-1891, 1889-11-23

widowed! l am launching now into
eternity! In two minutes | shall meet
my God!"
There were about five hundred and
fifty passengers in the Storage, and as
tho water rushed in and touched the
furnaces and began violently to hiss,
the poor creatures in the steerage i'm
agined that the boilers were giving
away. Those passengers writhed in the
water and in the mud, some praying,
some crying, all terrified. They made a
rush for the deck. An officer stood on
deck and beat them back with blow
after blow. 1t was necessary. They
could not nave stood an instant on the
deck. Oh! how they begged to get out
of the ship! One woman, with a child
in her arms, rushed up and caught hold
of one of the officers and cried: DO let
me out! | will help you'll DO let me
out! l can not die here!' Some got
down and prayed to the Virgin Mary,
saying: so, blessed mother! keep us!
Have mercy on us!' Some stood with
white lips and fixed gaze, silent in their
terror. Some wrung their hands and
cried out: go, Godl what shall | do?
What shall l do?"
The time came hen the crew could
no longer stay on the deck, and the cry
of the officers was: "Below! all hands
below!" Our brave and sympathetic
Captain Andrews-whose praise L shall
not cease to speak while I live-had
been swept by the hurricane from his
bridge, and had escaped very narrowly
with his life. The cyclone seemed to
stand on the deck, waving its wing, cry
ing: '"This ship is mine! 1 have capt
ured It'll Ha! ha! / will command it!
If God will permit, 1 will sink it here
and now! BY a thousand shipwrecks, /
swear the doom of this vesselI" There
was a lull in the storm; but only tina it
might gain additional fury. Crash
went the lifeboat on ono side.
Crash! yer the lifeboat on
the other side. The great booms
got loose, and, as with the heft of a
thunderbolt, pounded the deck and beat
the mast-the jib boom, studding sail
boom and square sail boom, with their
strong arms, beating time to the awful
march and music of the hurricane.
Meanwhile the ocean became phosphor-
escent. The whole scene looked like
fire. The water dripping from the rig
| SihS, ohoio WSIo IOpoS VI uFosdnu Uncfe
were masts of fire; and there was a
deck of fire. A ship of fire, sailing on
a sea of fire, through a night of fire.
May l never see any thing like it again!
E very body pray cd. A lad of tive I've
years of age got down and prayed for his
mother. eff 1 should give up" he said,
81 do not know what would become of
mother" There were men who, / think,
had not prayed for thirty years, who
then got down on their knees. When a
man who has neglected God all his life
feels that he has come to his last time,
1t makes a very busy night. All of our
sins and shortcomings passed throug:.
our minds. My own life seemed
utterly unsatisfactory. I could only
say: Here, Lord, take me as J
am. l can not mend matters
now. Lord Jesus, thou didst die for the
chief of sinners. That's mel 1t seems,
Lord, as If my work is done, and poorly
done, and upon Thy infinite mercy 1 cast
myself, and in this hour of shipwreck
and darkness commit myself and her
whom I hold by the hand to Thee, o
Lord Jesus! praying that it may be a
short struggle in the water, and that at
the same instant we may both arrive in
glory!' Oh! / tell you a man prays
straight to the mark when he has a
cyclone above him, an ocean beneath
him and eternity so close to him that he
can feel it's breath on his cheek.
The night was long. At last we saw
the dawn looking through the port holes.
AS in the olden time, in the fourth watch
of the night, Jesus came walking on the
sea, from wave cliff to wave cliff; and
when He puts His foot upon a billow,
though it may be tossed up with might,
1t goes down. He cried: "Hush!" They
knew His voice. The waves knew His
foot. They died away. And in the
shining track of His feet | read these
letters on scrolls of foam and fire: 1.-THE
earth shall be filled with the
knowledge of God as the waters
cover the sea-" The ocean Gained. The
path of the steamer became more and
more mild, until, on the last morning
out, the sun threw round about us a
glory such as | never witnessed before.
God made a pavement of mosaic, reach
ing from horizon to horizon, for all the
splendors of earth and Heaven to walk
upon-a pavement bright enough for the
foot OF a seraph-bright enough for the
wheels of the archangel's chariot. AS a
parent embraces a child and kisses away |
its grief, so over that sea, that had been
writhing in agony in the tempest, the
morning threw its arms of beauty and of
benediction, and the lips of earth and
Heaven met.
AS | came on deck-it was very early,
and we were nearing the shore--I saw a |
few sails against the sky. They seemed
like the spirits of the night walking the
pillows. / leaned over the ~taffrail of
the vessel, and said: Thy way, o God,
is in the sea, and Thy path in the great |
waters" 1t grew lighter. The clouds |
hung in purple clusters along the sky; |
and, as If those purple clusters were
pressed into red wine and poured out
upon the sea, every wave turned into
crimson. Yonder, fire cleft stood OPP
posite to fire cleft; and here, a cloud, |
rent and tinged with light, seemed like
a palace, with flames burning from the
windows. The whole scene lighted up
until it seemed as if the angels OF God
were ascending and descending upon
stairs OF fire, n the wave crests,
changed into jasper, and crystal, and
crystal, and amethyst, as they were
flung toward the beach, made me think
of the crowns of Heaven cast before the
throne of the great Jehovah. leaned
over the taffrail again, and said, with
more emotion than before: Thy way,
0 God, is in the sea, and thy path in the
great waters!"
So, l thought, will be the going off of
the storm and night of the Christians
life. The darkness will fold it's tents
and away! The golden feet of the ris-
ing morn will come skipping upon the
mountains, and all the wrathful pillows
of the worlds woe break into the splen- |
dor of eternal joy. And so we come
into the harbor. The cyclone behind
us. Our riends before us. God, who
is always good, all around us. And if
the roll of the crew and the
passengers had been called, seven hum
dred souls would have answered to
their names. ''And so it came to pass
That we all escaped safe to land" And
may God grant that, when all our Sab
baths on earth are ended, we may find
that, through h rich mercy of our
Lord Jesus Christ, we all have wealth
cred the gale!
Into the harbor OF Heaven now we glide,
Home ut lastl
Softly we drift on the bright silver tide,
Home mt lasti
Glory to God All our dangers are DER.
We stand secure on the glOrificd shore.
Glory to Godi we will shout eyermore.
HnInn nt InlfI