Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1893-10-23

text were standing by the only boat,
and that a small boat, and yet two hun
dred and seventy-six passengers. But
what thrilsme through and through Is
the fact that though we are wrecked oy
sin and trouble, and there Is only one
lifeboat, that boat is large enough TO
hold all who are willing to get into 1t.
The Gospel hymn expresses 1t:
All may come, whoever will,
This Man receives poor sinners Still
But must haul in the statement a
little. Room for all In the life-bost,
with Just one exception. Not you; l
do not mean you, but there Is one ex-
ceDtion. There have been cases where
ships were In trouble and the captain
got all the passengers and crew
INTO THE LIFE-BoATs,
But there was not room for the captain.
he, through the sea-trumpet shouted:
"Shove of now and pull for the beach.
Goodbye" aud then the captain with
pathetic and sublime sslf-sacrifice 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 perlshes ut behooved
Christ to suffer-" Was 1t not 80, ye
who witnessed his sgonizing expiration?
Simon OF Cyrene, was it not so? Cav
airy troops, whose horses paved the
dust at the CrucifXion, was it not SOP
Ye Marys who swooned away with
the sun OF the midday heavens, was IL
not so? By his stripes we are healed"
By his death we live. By his sinking
in thu deep sea of suffering we get OIL
in a safe life-boat. Yes. we must put
into this story little Of our own per-
sonaity. 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 blowd
The wind that tossed my laundering bark.
But got luto the Gospel lifeboat and l
got ashore. Ny hearer, without asking
any questions, get into the Gospel life
boat. Room! and vet there is room!
The biggest boat on earth is the Gospel
lfeboat. You must remember the pro-
portion OF things, and that the ship
wrecked craft is the whole earth, and
the lifeboat must be in proportion.
You talk about your Campanlas, and
your Lucanias, and your Majestics, and
your City Of New Yorks, but all OF them
put together are smaller than an In
dams canoe on Schroon 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, know how you
feel. for summer before last, on the sea
OF Finland, l had the same experience.
The ship in which we sailed could not
venture nearer than mile from shore,
where stood the Russian palace OF
Peterhoi, and we had to get into a 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 to
the railing, but in order to get into the
Boat we had at last to let 90. How did
l know that the boat was good aud that
the oars were sufficient? How did l
know that the Finland Sea would not
swallow US with one opening 81 its
crystal jaws? We had to trust, and we
did trust, and our trust was well re-
warded. In the Same way get into this
gospel lifeboat. Let go! AS long as
you hold on to any other hope, you are
imperied and you get no advantage
from the lifeboat. Let go! Does some
one here say, Il guess l will hold on a
little to my Goods orks, or TO pious
parentage, or to something can do in
the way Of achieving my own saliva
ton" No, no, let go! Trust the Cap
tain, who would not put you into a
rickety or uncertain craft.