Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1893-10-27
TABERNACLE PULPIT.
TALMAGE'S FUND OF THOUGHT
is INExHAUSTIBLE
Unsafe Life Boats" the Subject OF n
Stirring Sermon Preached Las5 sun
day-'Then the Soldiers Cut ON the
Ropes" etc, In Acts.

/ nearly 4,OOO Inherent SUBJECTS, ana Lem
closely followed by The printing press for
about twenty five years, Rev. Dr. Talmage
still seems to find new subjects that have
never been preached on. This afternoon
he chose for his subject: "Unsafe Life
| boats" The text being: Acts 21:N3,
Then the soldiers cut Off the ropes OF the
boat, and let her fall Off"
VIII lie your faces are yet somew hat
! bronZed by attendance on the inter
national boat contest between the
Vigilant and the Nalkyrie, | address
you. Good things when there is no
betting or dissipation those outdoor
sports We want more fresh air and
| breeziness in our temperaments and
our re,igi n. A sJale and ow
lugu brious relig on may have done for
other times, YET will not do for these.
But my text calls our attention to
boat of different sort, and ms cad of
the Atlantic, it is the Mediterranean,
and instead OF not wind enough, as
the crews of the Nigilant and Val
| kyrie the other day complained, tn re
| is too much wind and the swoop
Of Eur, clydon. / am not cali
/ ing your attention so much TO the
! famous ship on which Paul was the
distinguished passenger, but TO the
| lifehoat Of that ship which no one
seems to notice. For fortnight the
main v, ssel had been tossed and
driven. For that two weeks, the &C
count says, t e passengers had CON
tinued fas ing" ] suppose the salt
water, dashing over, had spoiled the
sea biscuit, ald he pas engers were
seasicll anyhow The sail, rs said. at
is no use this ship must go down"
and they roposed among themselves
to low err the lifeboat and get into t,
and take the oh noes for reaching
shore, although they pretended they
were going to get over tn sides OF the
big ship and down into the lifeboaJ
only, to do sailors duty. That was
not sal like. for the sailors that l
have known W re all intre I'D fe lows,
and woutl rather go down with the
ship than do such n m an thing as
those Jack airs OF my text attemple ed.
" hen on the Medite ranean last
June the v, torIa sank under
ram f the tamperdown, the
most MAZE tic thing about that awful
scene was that al the sailors staid ct
their T. SITS q ing their duty. As n
class all over the world sailors are vala
orous. but these sailors Of the text wero
exceptional and pretended b. do outy
while they we're really preparing for
fight in the Ii eb at. But the ina.
rines ON DO rd-sea solGicrs-had in
espe ial arge little miss. onary who
was turn Dg the world upside down,
and when these marines saw the trick
the sailors were about TO lay, they
lifted tue cutlas,e e. from be 81 die and
chup, chop. went those cutlasScs into
the ropes that held the lifebo { and
SO all it dropped into the SCI. My
text descl ibes it: The so.die c1t OF
the ropes of he boat and let her fa
Off" As that empty liteboat dropped
and was capsized on q sea where for
two weeks W nds and pillows had been
IN battle, think that ma y on board
the main vessel felt their last hope OF
ever reaching home had vanished. In
that tempestuous sea small boat
could not have lived five minutes.
Ny subject IS Unsafe i feboats."
We cannot eXaggeratc the Importance
OF the life oat Al honor TO the mem
Org of Lionel Lukin, the coach build r
of l. ng Acre, London, who invented
the first lifebo t, and do not blame
him for ordering put upon his tomb
stone in Kent the inscription that you
may sti read there:
This Lionel Lukin was the first
who built n lifeboat, and was the
original inventor 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 1885"
All Ion to the memory of Sir VIII
liam Hillary, who, living in the Isle of
Man. and af er assisting with his own
hand in the rescue of sos lives OF the
shipwrecked, stirred the English parlia-
ment to quick action in the con true
tion of lifeboats. Thanks to God for
the sublime and pathetic and divine
mission Of the lifeboat No one will
doubt its important mission who has
in the bay of Biscay; of the 1--we. d
gulf 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 Ex-
mouth on the scotch breakers, or OF
the Cambria on the Irish coast, or of
the A lantic on the rocks of Nova
Scotia, or of the Lexington on Long
Island Sound. To add still further TO
the importance of the lifeboat, remem-
Der there ate at least 8, 900, 900 men fol-
lowing the sea, to say nothing of the
amounted millions this moment ocean
passengers. We land-lubbers, as
sailors call us, may not know the diff
ference between n II arlincspilSe and
ring bolt, or any hing about heaving
log, or rigging out flying jib- boom,
or furling a top-sail, but we all realize
TO greater or less extent The import
ance of lifeboat in every marine
equipment But do we feel the M
portance of lifeb at in the matter of
the souls rescue? There are times
when we all feel that we are out at sea-
and rs many disturbing and anxious
ques ions strike us as waves struck
that vessel against he sides of which
the lifebo t of my text dangled. Ques-
lions about the church. Questions
about the world. Questions about
God. Questions about our eternal
destiny. Every thinking man and
woman have these questions and in
proportion as they are thinking people
do these questions arise. There is no
wrong in thinking. If God had not
int ded us TO think and keep on
thi king, he would not have built
under this wheelhouse of the skull
this thinking machine. which halts
not in Its revolutions from cradle to
a 4