The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1893-10-25

we chn put our hand on It's top ana
swing into 1t, is this gospel lifeboat. II
will not take you more than second
to get into it
But while in my text we stand
watching the mariners with their cut
lasses, preparing to sever the lifeboat
and let her fall off, notice the poor
equipment Only one lifeboat Two
hundred and seventy-six passengers,
as Paul counted them, and only one
lifeboat My text uses the singular
and not the plural. "Cut off the ropes
OF the boat" l do not suppose 1t would
have held more than thirty people,
though loaded to the waters edge. I
think by marine law all our modern
vessels have enough lifeboats to hold
all the crew and all the passengers in
case OF emergency, but the mariners OF
my text were standing by the only
boat and that small boat, and yet
two hundred and seventy-six passen-
gers. 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
little. Room for all in that lifeboat,
with just one exception. Not you; I
do not mean you, but there is one ex-
ception. There have been cases where
ships were in trouble and the captain
got all the passengers and crew into
the lifeboats but there was not room
for the captain. He, through the sea
trumpet, shouted: "Shove off now and
pull for the beach. Goodbye" And
then the captain with pathetic and
sublime self-sacriflce went down with
the ship. So the captain Of our saliva
ton, Christ the Lord, launches the gos-
pei llfeboat and tells us all to get In,
but He perishes. at behooved Christ
70 suffer" Was II not so, ye who wit.
messed his agonizing expiration Simon
of Cyrene, was II not so? Cavalry
troops. whose horses paved the dust at
the Crucifxion, was it not so? Ye
Marys who swooned away with the sun
Of the midday heavens, was 1t not sof
by His stripes we are healed" BY
His death we live. BY His sinking In
the deep sea OF suffering we get of In
a safe lifeboat Yes, we must put into
this story little of our own PERSONAL
ity. We had ride in that very life.
boat from foundered craft TO solid
shore.
Once on the raging seas rowed,
The storm was loud the night was dark,
The ocean yAwned and rudely blow'd
The wind that tossed nv laundering bark,
But got into the gospel lifeboat and
I got ashore. No religious speculation
for me. These higher criticism fellows
do not bother me bit You may ask
me fifty questions about the sea and
about the land and about the lifeboat
that cannot answer, but one thing
know: am ashore and / am going To
stay ashore, II the Lord by His grace
will help me. feel under me some
thing so Arm that try II with my
right foot, and try It with my left foot
and then try 1t with both feet, and II
is so solid that think 1t must be what
/ the old folks call the Rock Of Ages
And be my remaining days on earth
many or few, am going to spend my
time in recommending the lifeboat
which fetched me here, a poor sinner
saved by grace, and in swinging the cut.
lasses 10 sever the ropes Of any unsafe
lifeboat and let her fall of. My hoarer,
without asking any questions, get
into the gospel lifeboat. Rooml and
yet there is room! The biggest boat on
earth is the gospel lifeboat You mus,
remember the proportion Of things,
and that the shipwrecked craft is the
whole earth, and the lifeboat must be
In proportion. You talk about your
Campanias, and your Lucanias, and
your Majestics, and your City OF New
Yorls, but all Of them put together are
smaller than an Indians canoe on
Schroom lake compared with this gos.
pei lifeboat that is large enough Ia
take in all nations Room for one and
room for all Get in "llow2 How?''
you ask. Well, know how you feel,
for summer before last, on the sea OF
Finland, had the same experience,
The ship In which we sailed could not
venture nearer than mile from shore,
L., D,,aatar
Of Peterhof, and we had 10 gel
into small boat and be rowed
ashore. The water was rough, and
as we went down the ladder at the
side OF the ship, we held firmly on 10
the railing. but in order TO get into the
boat, we had at last 10 let 90. How
did | know that the boat was good and
that the oarsmen were sufficient How
did l know that the Finland sea would
not swallow US with one opening Of Ia
crystal jaws7 We had 70 trust and we
did trust and our trust was well re-
warded. In the Same way get into the
Gospel lifeboat Let gol As long as
you hold on TO any other hope, you are
imperiled and you get no advantage
from your hfebost. Let goi Does some
one here say, ~ guess will hold on q
little 10 my good works, or TO pioui
parentage, or TO something oan do In
the way Of achieving my own saliva
tion." No, no. let gol Trust the Cap
tain, who would not put you into q
rickety or uncertain craft
For the sake Of your present and
everlasting welfare. with all the ur
gency Of an immortal addressing i'm
mortals, cry from the depths Of my
soul and at the top Of my voice, Lei
1 A IIA-