Milford chronicle., 1893-10-27
A rRIRrrE TO sAunRs

utes.
A TRIBUTE TO SAILORS.
NV subject is Unsafe Lifeboats" W,
cannot exaggerate the Importance Of the
lifeboat. All honor to the memory o.
Lionel Lukin, the coach builder of Ions
Acre, London, who invented the first life
boat, and do not blame him for ordering
put upon his tombstone in Kent the in
scription that you may still read there;
"This Lionel Lukin was the first who
built a lifeboat, and was the original in
ventor of that principle of safety by which
many lives and much property have been
preserved from shipwreck, and he obtained
for it the kings patent in the year 17S5."
All honor to the memory to Sir William
Hillary, who, living in the isle Of Man, and
after assisting with his own hand in the
rescue of 3O5 lives Of the shipwrecked,
stirred the English parliament tOquick ac-
ton in the construction of hfeboats.
Thanks to God for the sublime and pa
thetic and divine mission 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 reefs of the gulf of Mexico, OF 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 hfeboat, remember there are at least
100000 men following the sea, to say moth
Ar. a.
ment ocean passengers. We "land lub-
bers," as sailors call us, may not know the
difference between a marlinespike and a
ring bolt, or anything about heaving log,
or rigging out a flying jibboom, or furling
a topsail, but we all realize to greater or
less extent the Importance Of a hfeboat in
every marine equipment.
THE SOULS LIFEBOAT.
But do we feel the Importance ola lifehoat
in the matter of the souls rescue? There
are times when we all feel that we are out
at sea, and as many disturbing and anxious
questions strike us as waves struck that
vessel against the sides Of which the life
boat of 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 pro-
portion as they are thinking people do
these questions arise. There is no wrong
in thinking If God had not intended us
to think and keep on thinking, he would
not have built under this wheelhouse Of
the skull this thinking machine, which
halts not in its revolution 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 accustomed to think
ing want to reach some solid shore of safety
and satisfaction, and if any one has a good
lifeboat thatw may honorably take / wish
he would unswing it from the davits aud
let us get into it and put for shore. But /
give YOU fair notice I must first examine
the lifeboat before risk my soul in it or
advise you to risk your soul in it. All
the splendid Ramsgate lifeboats, and Mar
gate lifeboats, and South Shields lifeboats,
and American lifeboats were tested before
being put into practical use as to their
buoyancy and speed and stowage and self
capacity. And when you offer my
rOul a lifebOat I must first test it.
There is a splendid new lifeboat called
Theosophy. It 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 fatal
ism and pantheism of olden time. But we
must forget that and call them Theosophy.
The Grace Darling of this lifeboat was an
oarswonan by the name Of Nine. Blavat-
sky, but the oarswoman now is Annie Be
SAINT. So many are getting aboard the boat
It is worthy Of examination, both because
Of the safety Of those who have entered it
and because we ourselves are invited TO
get in.
It's theory is that everything is Cod
and star and tree and man are parts
AZ God We have. three s0uls-an animal
NJ anzei, Der