The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1889-09-05
In OREGON.

He Shows How Ministers Of the Gospel
May Help Others into Heaven and
Yet Miss 1t Themselves,
PORTLAND, Ore, Aug. 25.-The Rev. T. De
Witt Talmage, D. D. who preached here to-
day to a vast audience, took for his text I.
Coz. *, ~: LEST that by any means I my
self should be east away" The preacher
said:
In the presence Of you who lives on the
Pacific coast I who live on the Atlantic coast
may appropriately speak on this marine
allusion OF the text, for all who know about
the sea know about the castway. The text
implies that ministers Of religion may help
others into heaven and miss it themselves.
The carpenters that built Noah's ark did
not get into it themself. Gown and surplice
and diplomas and canonicals are no security.
Cardinal Wolsey, after having been petted
ly kings and having entertained foreign
ambassadors ut Hampton court, died in
darkness. One of the most eminent ministers
of religion that this country has ever known
plunged into sin and died, his heart, by post
norton examination, found to have been
not dguratively but literally broken. We
may have hands of ordination on the head
and address consecrated a~ssemblages, but
that is no reason why We shall necessarily
reach the realm celestial. The clergyman
must 60 through the same gate Of pardon
as the layman. There have been cases OF
shipwreck where all on board escaped ex.
cepting the captain. Alasl if having "preach-
I'd to Others l myself should be a castaway."
God forbid it.
Ihave examined some ofthe commentaries
to see what they thought about this word
"castaway', and I find they differ in regard
to the figure used while they agree in regard
to the meaning, So I shall make my own
selection and take it in q nautical and SEQ
laring sense and show you that lei may be.
come spiritual castaways and how finally
they drift into that calamity.
You and I 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 captain, and there is another,
and yonder is another, and there are a
you did not know the difference between O
brig and q bark and between q diamond
| knot and spritsheet-sailkno and alth ough
you could not point out the weathercross-
jack brace. and although you could hoffman
the foreclsw garfets, now you as familiar
with a ship as you are with your right hand,
n ii it were necessary you could take a
vessel clear across to the mouth of the Mer-
sey without the loss of a single sail. Well,
there is a lark night in your memory of the
sea. The vessel became unmanageable. You
saw it was scudding toward the shore. You
heard the cry: Breakers ahead! Land on
you felt the deck breaking up under your
feet, and you were a castaway, as when the
Hercules drove on the coast of Cafraria, as
when the Portuguese brig went staying,
splitting, grinding, crashing On the Good
wins. But whether you have followed the
sea or not you all understand the figure
when tell you that there are men who by
their sins and temptations are thrown help
lessl Driven before the gate! Wrecked for
two worlds. Castawaysl Castawaysl
By talking with some SEQ captains / have
found out that there are three or four causes
for such q calamity to a vessel: a been
told that it sometimes comes from creating
false lights on the beach. This was often so
III SAuCuJ 1IuC6s ~ 10 " AuCAJ yObte NSof
indeed, that vagabonds used to wander up
and down the beach getting vessels ashore
in the night, throwing up false lights in their
presence and decsiving them that they might
| despoil and ransack them. All kinds OF in
| fernal arts were used to accomplish this.
And one night on the Cornish coast, when
the SEQ was coming in fearfuIy. some villains
took q lantern and tied it to o horse and led
the horse up and down the beach, the Ian
tern swinging TO the motion Of the horse,
and the sea captain in the ofing saw it and
made up his mind that he was not anywhere
near the shore, for he said 'There's q ves-
sel-that must be a vessel, for it has a NOV
able light and he had NO apprehension till
he heard the rocks grating on the ships bot
tom. and it went to pieces and the villains on
shore gathered up the packages and treasures
that were washed to the land. And l have
to tell you that there are O multitude of
souls ruined by false lights on the beach. In
goes up and down the shore, shaking it's
lantern, and men look off and take that
Pickering and expiring wick as the
signal of safety, and the cry is: "Heave the
main topsail to the mast! All is welll' when
sudden destruction cometh upon them and
they shall not escape. So there are all kind OF
lanterns swung o n the beach-philosophical
lanterns, educated lanterns, humanitarian
lanterns. Men look at them and are de-
ceived, when there is nothing but Gods eter-
nal lighthouse of the gospel that can keep
them from becoming c~astaways. Once on
Wolf Crag lighthouse they tried to build q
copper figure of q wolf with It's mouth open,
so that the storms beating into it the wolf
would how forth the dangers to mariners
that might be coming anywhere near the
coast. Of course it was a failure. And SO
all new inventions for the saving of mans
soul are u~navailing. What the human race
wants is . light bursting forth from the
cross standing on the great headlands-the
light of pardon, the light OF comfort, the
light of heaven. You might better go to-
night and destroy all the great lighthouses
on the dangerous coasts-the Barnegat
lighthouse, the Fastnet lighthouse, the
Sherryyore lighthouse, the Longship's light
house, the Hollyhead light-house-than to
put out Gods great ocean lamp--the gosple,
Woe to those who swing false lanterns on the
beach till men crash into ruin. Castaways!
Castawaysl %-- .
BY talking with seq captains 1 have found
out also that some vessels come to this
calamity through sheer reckleseness. There
are 5000, 600 men who follow the sea for q
living. It is q simple fact that the average
of human life on the sea is less than twelve
years. This comes from the fact that men
by familiarity with danger sometimes be-
com reckless-the captain, the helmsman,
the stoker, the man on the lookout become
reckless, and in nine out of ten shipwrecks