Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1893-10-27
REV. DR.. 7ALMAGE.
The Eminent Brooklyn Divine'S Sum
day Sermon.
Subject: "Unsafe Lifeboats.

OF me BOAT ana tet her .JdU or -Acts ANVIL
30.
While YOUR faces arey vet somewhat bronzed
by attendance on the International boat con-
test between the Yigilant and the Valkyrie
address you. Good things when there Is no
betting or dissipation, those outdoor sports.
We want more fresh air and breezlness IN
our temperaments and our religion. stale
and slow and lugubrious religion may have
done for other times, vet will not do for
these. But my text calls our attention to
boat OF a different sort, and instead OF the
Atlantic it is the Mediterranean, and instead
of not wind enough, as the crews oil theNlgl-
liant and the yalkyrie the other day COM
planned. there is too much wind and the
swoop of a Euroclydon.
am not calling your attention so much
to the famous ship on which Paul was the
distinguished passenger. but to the hieDoat
Of that ship which no one seems to notice.
For a fortnight the main vessel had been
tossed and driven. For that two weeks the
account SAYS. the passengers had "contln-
ued fasting" l suppose the salt water,
dashinS over, had spoiled the sea biscuit,
| and the passengers were seasicS anyhow.
The sailors said ut is no use this ship
must co down" and they proposed among
/ themselves to lower the lifeboat and get into
il and take the chances for reaching shore,
although they pretended they were gong 10
get over the sides Of the big ship and down
! into the lifeboat only to do sailors duty:
| That was not sailorlike, for the sailors that
/ have known were all intrepid fellows and
would rather 90 down with the ship than do
| such mean thing as those Jack Tars Of my
! text attempted.
When on the Mediterranean last June the
Victoria sank under the ram of the Camper
down. the most majestic thing about that
awful scene was that all the sailors staid at
their posts doing their duty As class all
Ovcrthe world sailors are valorous, butthes9
sailors OF the text were exceptional and pre-
tended to do duty while they were really pre-
parng for flight in the lifeboat. But these
marines on board-sea soldiers-had in
| especial charge a little missionary who was
turning the world upside down. and when
these marines saw the trick the sailors were
about to play they lifted the cutlasses from
the girdle and chop chop went those cut
lasses into the ropes that held the lifeboat.
and splash il dropped into the sea.
Nv text describes it. "The soldiers cut off
, the ropes Of the boat and let her fall off.
As that empty hteboat dropped and was cap
sized on a sea where for two weeks winds
and pillows had been in battle think that
many on board the main vessel felt their
last hope of everreaching home had vanished:
/
not have lived five minutes.
Nv subject is "Unsafe Lifeboats." We
cannot exaggerate the importance OF the
lifebOat. All honor to the memory OF Lionel
Iukin. the coach builder Of Long Acre, Lon
don. who invented the first lifeboat. and lido
not blame him for ordering put on his tomb
stonein Kent the inscription that you may
still read there
This Lionel Lunkin was the first who
built lifeboat and was the original inventor
OF that principle of safety by which many
lives and much property have been pre-
served from shipwreck, and he obtained for
il the kings patent in the year l785.
All honor to the memory Of Sir William
Hillary. who. living in the Isle o. Man, and
after assisting with his own hand in the res
cue Of 305 lives OF the shipwrecked. stirred
the English Parliament 10 quick action IN
the construction OF liteboats. Thanks TO God
for the sublime and pathetic and divine mis-
sion Of the lifebOat No one will doubt Its
important mission who has read OF the wreck
OF the Amazon in the Bay OF Biscay, OF the
Tweed running on the reels OF the Gun OF
Mexico. or Of the Ocean Monarch On the
coast Of Wales. or Of the Birkenhead on the
Cape of Good Hope. or of the Royal Charter
on the coast of Anglesea. or Of the Exmouth
on the Scotch breakers, or OF the Cambria on
the Irish coast or Of the Atlantic on the rocks
OF Nova Scotia, or OF the Lexington on Long
Island Sound.
To add still further to the Importance of
/ the NfebOat. remember there are at least
{ &. 600. 900 men following the sea. to say MOTH
| ing Of the uncounte1 millions this moment
J ocean passengers. We "land-lubbers, as
Z sailors call us. may not know the difference
! between a marline spike and ringOo!t, or
ANYTHING about heaving a log. or rigging out
D al. or ri n
/ all realize to greater or less extent the I'M
portance OF a ife5olt in every marine equip
Inent.
/ But do we feel the importance Of liieboat
! in the matter Ofthesoups rescue? There are
! times when we all feel that we are out at sea.
I and as many disturbing and anxious ques-
| lions strike us as waves struck that vessel
| against the sides Of which the iiieD0at oil my
/ text dangled. Questions about the church.
| Questions about the world. Questions about
/ God. Questions about our eternal destiny.
! Every thinking man and woman has these
/ questions. and in proportion ashley think
| ing people do these questions arise.
There is no wrong IN thinking. II God MAJ
! not intended us to think and keep on think
! ing. He would not have built under this
| wheelhouse OF the skull this thinking ma
/ chime which hats not in its revolutions from
| cradle to grave. Even the midnight does
not stop the thinking machine, for when we
! are in dreams we are thinking. although we
| DO not think as well. All OF us who are ac-
customed TO thinking want to reach some
! solid shore of safety and satisfaction, and il
any one has a good lifebOat that we may
honorably take | wish he would unswing it
from the dayits and let US get into itand put
/ for the shore.
But I give you fair notice 1 must first ex-
anime the lifebOat before | risk my soul In It
or advise you TO risk your soul in 1t. All the
splendid Ramsgate lfeboats, and Margate
lifeboats. and South Shield lfeboats, and
| American lifeboats were tested before being
/ put into practical use as TO their buoyancy
| and speed and stowage and self-righting ca
pacity. And when you offer my soul He
boat must first test it.
Here is a splendid new lifeboat called
heosophy. II has only little while been
| launched. although some OF the planks are
really several thousand years old, and from
a worm eaten ship. but they are painted
| over and look new. They are really iatalism
| and pantheism OF Olden time But we must
forget that and call them theosOphy. The
Grace Darling of this lifeboat was an oars
woman by the name Of Nine. Bavatsky,
! but the oarswoman now is Annie Besant. so
many are getting aboard the boat II IS
worthy Of examination. both because OF the
|
cause we ourselves are invited to get in.
Its theory is that everythingis God Horse
and star and tree and man are parts OF God
We have three sOuls-ln animal soul, hu-
man so j. spiritual soul. The animal soul
becomes. after awhile, a wandering thing,
trying to express itself through mediums.
II enters beasts or enters human being,
and when you find an efieminate man 1t Is
because a woman's soul has got into the
man. and when you find a masculine woman
Il is because a mans soul has taken posses
sion Of a wOman's body.
II YOU find woman has become platform
speaker and likes politics, she is possessed by
a dead politician. who forty years ago made
the platform quake. The soul keeps wander
ing on and on. and may have fifty or innu-
merable different forms. and finally IS alb
sorbed in God. II was God at the start and
will be God at the last. But who gives the
authority for ths truth Of such religionf
Some beings living in a cave in central Asia.
They are invisible to the nakel eye, but they
cross continents and seas in a fash.
My Baptist brother DR.. Halieman says
that a theosophist in New York was visited
by one of these mysterious beings IRON
central Asia. The gentleman knew il fiOm
the fact that the mysterious being left his
pocket handkerchief. embroidered with his
name and Asiatic residence. The most won.