Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1893-10-26
AT THE TABERNACLE.
tR. TALMAcE FINDS MANY LESSONS
IN THE LlFEeoAT.

IN THE LlFEeoAT.
Touch Of ofsarcasm on nTheosophy-A Good
Word For Moralism. but II Is Not sa1a-
Client The Only Ark Of Safety Set
Aboard
BRooKIyH. Oct. 2. After preaching on
nearly 1000 different subjects and being
closely followed by the printing press for
shout % hears Rev DR.. Talmage still seems
30 find new subjects that have'neyer been
preached on. This forenoon he chose for
bis subject Unsafe Lifeboats," !" the text
being Acts xvii, 50, ''Then the soldiers cut
off the ropes Of the boat and let her fall
off,"
While your faces are yet somewhat
bronzed by attendance on the International
boat contest between the Vigilant and the
Valkyrie, 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 religion. A stale and slow and lugu-
brious religion may have done for other
times, yet viii not do for these. But my
text calls our attention TO boat of diff
ferent sort, and instead of the Atlantic 1t
Is the Mediterranean, and instead Of not
wind enough, as the crews of the Vigilant
and Valkyrie the other day complained,
there Is too much wind and the swoop OF a
Euroclydon.
/ am not calling your attention so much
10 the famous ship on which Paul was the
distinguished passenger, but to the lifeboat
OF that ship which no one seems to notice.
For fortnight the main vessel had been
tossed and driven. For that two weeks, the
account says, the passengers had con
tnued fasting" Isuppose the salt water,
aashing over, had spoiled the sea biscuit,
and the passengers were seasick anyhow.
The sailors said, "It is no use; this ship
must go down." and they proposed among
themselves to lower the lifeboat and get
into it and take the chances for reaching
shore, although they pretended they were
going to get over the sides Of the big ship
and down into the lifeboat only to do sail
ors' duty. That was not sailorlike, for the
sailors that have known were all intrepid
fellows and would rather 60 down with
the ship than do such mean thing as
those Jack Tars of my text attempted.
When on the Mediterraneanlas last June the
Victoria sank under the ram of the Cam
perdown, the most tmajestic thing about that
awful scene was that all the sailors staid at
their posts doing their duty. AS class all
over the world sailors are valorous, but
these sailors of the text were exceptional
and pretended to do duty while they were
really preparing for flight in the lifeboat.
But these marines" on board-sea sol
diers-had in especial charge little mis-
ionary 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
chopi chopiwent those cutlasses into the
ropes that held the lifeboat, and splashi it
dropped into the sea.
NY text describes 1.-THE soldiers cut
off the ropes of the boat and let her fall
off," AS that empty lifeboat dropped and
was capsized on 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 ever reaching home
had vanished. In that tempestuous sea q
small boat could not have lived five min.
utes
A TRIBUTE TO SAILORS.
My subject is ''Unsafe Lifeboats." We
cannot exaggerate the Importance of the
lifeboat. All honor to the memory o
Lionel Lukin, the coach builder of Long
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 Ifeboat. and was the original in
ventor of that principle of safety by which
many lives and much property have beer
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, ant
after assisting with his own hand in tn,
rescue of 305 lives of the shipwrecked
stirred the English parliament to quick &C
tion in the construction of lifeboats
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 Anazor
In the bay of Biscay, of the Tweed runnins
on the reefs of the gulf Of Mexico, or o
the Ocean Monarch on the coast of Wales
or of the Birkenhead on the Cape of Goot
Hope, or of the Royal Charter on the coas
Of Anglesea, or of the Exmouth on tn
Scotch breakers, OF of the Cambria on tn
Irish coast, or of the Atlantic on the rock
ofNova Scotia, or of the Lexington on Lon,
Island sound.
To add still further to the Importance o
the lifeboat, remember there are at Ieas
100000 men following the sea, to say moth
ing of the uncounted millions at this me
nrent ocean passengers We land luL
bers," as sailors call us, may not know tn
difference between marlinespike and
ring bolt, or anything about heaving log
or rigging out flying jibboom, or furlin
q topsail, but we all realize to greater O
less extent the Importance OF lifeboat i
every marine equipment
THE SOULS LIFEBoAT.
But do we feel the Importance of lifeboa
in tt4 matter Of the souls rescuef Their
are lines when we all feel that we are ou
at sea, and as many disturbing and anxiou
questions strike us as waves struck tina
vessel against the sides of which the lift
boat of my text dangled. Questions abou
the church. Questions about the worlG
Questions about God. Questions about ou
eternal destiny. Every thinking man an
woman has these questions, and in prt
portion as they are thinking people
these questions arise. There is no wron
In thinking. II God had not intended U
y to think and keep on thinking, he woul
not have built under this wheelhouse {
the skull this thinking machine, whic
halts not in its revolution from cradle
grave. Even the midnight does not sto
the thinking machine, for when we are
dreams we are thinking, although we d
not think as well.
All Of us who are accustomed to thinl
ing want to reach soms solid shore of safet
and satisfaction, and If any one has a goo
lifeboat that we may honorably take wis
he would unswing it from the davits an
let us get into it and put for shore. But
give you fair notice must first examir
the lifeboat before I risk my soul in it (