The Brookhaven leader., 1889-06-06


board the Umbria, of the Cunard Line.
| The boat-davits are swung around. The
boat is lowered. get into it with red
| flag, and cross over to where the City OF
| Paris is coming, and wave the flag.
The captain looks off from the bridge
an says: "What do you want"i | re-
| ply: 81 come to take some Of your pas
sengers across 20 the other vessel:
think they will be safer and happier
there" The captain would look down
with indignation and say: "Get out OF
| the way or | will run you DOWN" And
| then I would back oars, amidst the jeer-
| ing OF two hundred or three hundred peV-
| pie looking over the taff-ail. But the
Umbria and the City Of Paris meet under
different circumstances after awhile.
| The City of Paris is coming out of a cy'
clone; the life boats are smashed: the
bulwarks gone; the vessel rapidly going
down. The boatswain gives his last whis-
tie Of despairing command. The passen-
! gers run up and down the deck, and some
! pray, and all make a great outcry.
| The captain says: You have
about fifteen minutes now to pre-
| pare for the next world" ono hope"
| sounds from stem to stern and from the
! ratlines down to the cabin. | see the dis
tress. am let down by the Umbria.
/ push off as fast as | can toward the sink
/ ing City of Paris. Before come up peo-
BILE are leaping into the water in their
| anxiety to get to the boat, and when
swing up under the side Of the City OF
| Paris, the frenzied passengers rush
through the gangway, until the officers,
with axe, and clubs, and pistols, try to
keep back the crowd. each wanting his
! turn TO come next. There is but one life
| boat and they all want to get into it,
| and the cry is: 'Me next! Me next?"
! You see the application before | make 1t.
! As long as a man going on in his sin feels
/ that all is we'll, and he is coming out at a
beautiful port, and has all sail set, he
| wants no Christ, he wants no help, he
wants no rescue; but if, under the flash Of
Gods convicting spirit he shall see that
! by reason of sin he is dismasted and
| waterlogged, and going down into tho
! trough of the sea where he can not live,
how soon he puts the sea glass to his
eyes and sweeps the horizon, and at the
first sign of help cries out: II want to be
saved l want to be saved now. l want
to be saved forever" No sense of dan
| ger, no application for rescue.
! The Bible is not comp limentary in its
! language. 1t does not speak mincingly
| about our sins. 1t does not talk apollo
getically. There is no vermilion in its
! style. 1t does not cover up our trans
gressions with blooming metaphor. 1t
! does not sing about them in weak fall
| setto; but it thunders out: "The ima@-
| ination of mans heart is evil from his
! youth" Every one has gone back. He
has altogether become filthy. He Is
abominable and flthy,a drinketh in in
| iquity like water" And then the Lord
Jesus Christ filings down at our feet this
! b11,n int ipr ~ "a nf
of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries,
fornication, murders, tEefts, blasphe
N.Y." There is q text for your RATIONAL
| lists to preach from. Oh, the dignity OF
human nature! There Is an element OF
Jour science Of man that the anthropolo-
gist never has had the courage yet to
touch; and the Bible, in all the ins and
outs of the most forceful style, sets forth
our natural pollution, and represents in
| iquity as a frightful thing. as an exhaust
ing thing, a loathsome thing. 1t is not
a mere bemiring of the feet, it is not
mere befouling of the hands; it is going
down, head and ears under i'll a ditch,
until our clothes abdOr us.
Ny brethren, shall we stay down where
sin thrusts us? / shall not if you do. We
can not afford to. have to-day TO tell
you that there is something purer than
| snow water, something more pungent
than alkali, and that is the blood of Jesus
Christ that cleauseth from all sin. Aye,
the river of salvation, bright, crystalline
and Heaven born, .rushes through this
audience with billowy tide strong
enough to wash your sins completely and
forever away. Oh, Jesus, let the dam
that holds it back now break, and the
foods Of salvation roll over us.
| Let the water and the blood
| From Thy side a healing flood,
| Be of sin the double cure,
| Save from wrath and make me pure.
Let us get down on both knees and bathe
in that food of mercy. Ay, strike cut
with both hands and try to swim to the
! other shore Of this river of Gods grace.
| To you is the word of this salvation sent.
| Take this largess of the Divine bounty.
Though you have gone down in the deep
est ditch of libidinous desire and corrupt
behavior; though you have sworn all
blasphemies until there is not one single
word left for you to speak; though you
have been submerged by the transgres-
sious of lifetime; though you are SO far
down i'll your sin that no earthly help can
| touch your case, the Lori Jesus Christ
bends over you to-day and offers you
! His right hand, proposing to lift
you up, first making you whittier
than snow, and then raising you to
| glOries that never die. "Billy," said
a Christian ootblack to another, "When
we come up to Heaven it won't make any
difference that we've been bootblacks
here for we shall get in, not somehow or
other, but, Billy, we shall get straight
| through the gate" Oh if you only knew
how full and free and tender is the offer
of Christ this day you would all take Him
without one single exception; and if all
| tie doors of this house were locked save
one, and you were compelled to make
egress by only one door, and l stood there
and questioned you, and the Gospel of
Christ had made the right impression
upon your heart to-day, you would answer
me as you went cut, one and all: Jesus
| is mine, and / am His.' Oh, that this
might be the hour when you would receive
/ Him.
1t is not Gospel merely for footpads
and vagrants and buccaneers; it is for
the highly polished and the educated and
the refined as we'll. Except man be
born again, he can not see the Kingdom
of God" Whatever may be your asso-
Citations, and whatever your worldly re
finements, must tell you, as before God,
expect to answer in the last day, that i.
you are not changed by the grace of God
you are still down in the ditch of sin, in
the ditch of sorrow, in the ditch of con-
demnation; a ditch that empties into
deeper ditch, the ditch of the los.. But