The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-10-23

! Imperfect souls Of all ages. IL IS an ola
! boat, but good as new, though 1t has been
carrying passengers from sinking ships TO
firm shore for ages. and has never lost
| passenger. These old Christians begin TO
! smile because il is dawning upon them
| what l mean The fact is that IN this
way years ago they got off a wreck them
! selves, and ] do not wonder they smile.
! II is not scuseless giggle that means
! frivoity, but it is a smile like that on the
face Of Christians the moment they leave
earth for heaven, yea, Ike the
! smile OF God himself when he
! had completed the plan for saving the
world.
Right after that big tumble of the At
! lantic ocean six or seven weeks ago, on the
! beach at East Hampton, met the captain
! Of the lifesaving station and said: cap
! tain do you think lifebOat could live In
a sea like that" Although the worst Of
! it was over the captain replied NO,
! do not think it could" But this hfeboat
! Of which | speak can live in any sea and
| dete5 all breakers and all cyclones, ana
| all equinOxes, and all earth, and all hell,
| In twenty years the life-saving apparatus
| along our Atlantic coast saved the llFes OF
| over IS, 900 Of the shipwrecked, but this
! lifebOat that / commend, has saved
! in twenty years hundreds of mil
! lions of the shipwrecked. Like
! those newly invented English life
! boats, it is Interchangeable, self-rightlng
! and self -baling All along our rocky
| American coast things were LETT TO
| chance for centuries, and the ship
| wrecked crawled up on the beach to die
unless some one happened to walk along
| or some tisherman's hut might be near.
| But after the ship Ayrshire was wrecked
at Squan Beach, and the Powhatau left
| her 800 dead strewed along our coast, and
| another vessel went on the rocks, 400
IL Cd
| eminent woke up and made an apprOpria-
| ton of 100000 for ife-saving stations,
| and life-lines from faking-boX are shot
| over the wild surf, and hawsers are
| stretched from wreck 10 shore, and what
| with Lyle's gun and siX-Oared surf boat,
with cork at the sides to make
| it unsuitable, and patrolmen all
night long walking the beach until
| they meet each other and exchange
metal tickets, so as to show the en-
! tire beach has been traversed, and the
sufferer, and surfmen, enCased IN Merrl-
man life-saVing dress, and life-car rolling
on the ropes, there are many probabilities
| of rescue for the unfortunate of the sea.
| But the government of the united heavens
has made better provision for the rescue
of our souls. So close by that this
moment we can put our hand on its top
and swing into it. is this gospel lifebOat.
1t will not take you more than a second
TO get into it.
But while in my text we stand watch
ing the marines with their cutlasses, pre-
pairing to sever the ropes of the life boat
and let her fall Off, notice the poor equip
ment Only one life boat. Two hundred
and seventysiX passengers, as Paul
counted them, and only one life boat. My
text uses the singular and not the plural
"Cut off the ropes of the boat" l do
not suppose it would have held more
than thirty people, though loaded to the
waters edge. 1 think by marine law all
our modern vessels have enough life
boats to hold all the crew and all the
passengers in case of emergency, but the
marines of my text were standing by the
only boat, and that a small boat, and yet
two hundred and seventy-six passengers
But what thrills me through and through
is the fact that though we are wrecked
by sin and trouble, and there is only one
lifeboat, that boat is large enough to hold
all who are willing to get into it. The
gospel hymn expresses it:
All may come, whoever will,
This Man receives poor sinners still
But must haul in that statement a little
Room for all in that lfeboat, with just
one exception. Not you; l do not mean
you, but there is one exception. There
have been cases where ships were in
trouble and the captain got all the passsn-
gers and crew into the lifeboats, but
there was not room for the captain. He,
through the sea-trumpet, shouted:
"Shoye or now and pull for the
beach. GOod-by," and then the
captain, with pathetic and sub
lime self-sacrihce, went down with the
ship. So the captain of our salvation,
Christ the Lord, launches the gospel life
boat, and tells us all to get in. but he
perishes. 1T behooved Christ to suffer"
Woo y-b yFriNDncuRl hic
agonizing eXpiration} Simon of Cyrene,
was 1t not so? Cavalry troops, whose
horses paved the dust at the crucifXion,
was it not so3 Ye Marys who swoOned
away with the sun OF the midday heav-
ems, was it not so2 by his stripes we
are healed" BY his death we live BY
his sinking in the deep sea of suffering
we get off in safe lifeboat Yes, we
must put into this story little of our
own personality We had a ride in that
very lifcboat from foundered craft to
solid shore.
Once on the raging seas l rowed,
The storm was loud, the night was dark,
The ocean yawned and rudely blowd
The wind that tossed my laundering bark.
But got into the gospel lifeboat, and
got ashore. No religious speculation for
me. These higher criticism fellows do
not bother me a bit. You may ask me
fifty questions about the sea and about
the lana, ana about the IfeDOat, that
cannot answer but one thing l know:
am ashore, and | am going to stay ashore
! If the Lord, by his grace, viii help me.
! feel under me something so firm that
| try it with my right foot, and try it with
my left foot, and then l try it with both
feet, and it is so solid that l think it must
be what the old folks used to call the
Rock of Ages. And be my remaining
| days on earth many or few, l am going to
| spend my time in recommending the life
boat which fetched me here, poor sin
ner saved by grace, and in swinging the
cutlasses TO sever the ropes of any
unsafe lifeboat and let her fall
off. My hearer, without asking any
| question, get into the gospel lifeboat
] Room! and yet there is room! The big
| gest boat on earth is the gospel lifeboat.
/ You must remember the proportion of
things, and that the shipwrecked craft is
the whole earth, ana the lifeboat must be
in proportion. You talk about your
Cam auias, and your LUcanias and your
Ma estes. and your City of New Yorks,
but all of them put together are smaller
than an Indian canoe on SChroou Lake
compared with this gospel lifeboat, that
is large enough to take in all nations
Room for one, and room for all Get
in! How hOw?' you ask Well, I
know how you feel, for summer before
last, on the sea OF Finland. I had the same
experience. The ship in which we