Milford chronicle., 1893-10-27

Z EC4AlulclH WHO AANArnt NAEI WElH bltA1
killing a Christ, but were really pounding
| together an escape for all imperiled souls OF
all ages.
/ It is an old boat, but good as new, though
/ it has been carrying passengers from sink
ing ships to firm shore for ages and has
never lost passenger. These old Chris
/ tians begin to smile because it is dawning
upon them what I mean. The fact is that
in this way years ago they got off wreck
themselves, and / do not wonder they
smile. It is not a senseless giggle that
means frivolity, but IL is q smile like that
on the face OF Christians the moment they
leave earth FOR heaver yea, like the smile
of God himself when CHAD completed the
plan for saving the world.
Right after that Dix tumble Of the At
lauuc ocean six or seven weeks ago on the
beach 1t East Hampton l met the captain
Of the life saving station and said, Gap
tain. do you think liiebOat could live in q
sea like that?" Although the worst Of it
was over, the captain replied, ''No, do not
think it could" But this lifeboatof which
/ speak can live in any sea and deties all
breakers, and all cyclones, and all equinox
es, and all earth, and all hell. In20 years the
life saving apparatus along our Atlantic
coast saved the lives Of over 5000 Of the
shipwrecked, but this lifeboat that COM
mend has saved in 20 years hundreds Of
millions of the shipwrec1ed.
Like those newly invented English life
boats, it is insubmergible, self righting
and self bailing. All along our rocky
American coast things were left to chance
for centuries, and the shipwrecked crawled
up on the beach to die unless some one hap
pened to walk along or some fsherman's
hut might be near. But after the ship
Ayrshire was wrecked at Squan beach, and
the Powhattan left her 300 dead strewn
along our coast, and another vessel went
on the rocks 400 lives perishing, the United
States government woke up and made an
appropriation of 100000 for life saving sta
tions, and life lines from taking box are shot
over the wild surf, and hawsers are stretch
ed from wreck to shore, and what with
Lyle's gun and six Dared surfboat, with
cork at the sides to make it unsuitable,
ana patr0lmen all night long walking the
baAh until they meet each other and eX-
Ne metal tickets, so as 10 show the en-
aach has been traversed, and the Cos
toll Nit flashes hope fp6m shore to suf-
ferer,- I'D surfmen, incIsed in Merriman
live say hg dress and liff 4 car rolling on the
ropes. there are many probabilities OF
rescue for the unfortunate of the sea. But
the government OF the united heavens has
made better provision for the rescue of our
souls. So close by that this moment we
can put our hand on its top and -wiNg into
it. is this gospel lifeboat. lt viii mol fake
YOU more than a second to get into it.
ALIFEBOAT FOR ALL
But while in my text we stand watching
the marines with their cutlasses, preparing
to sever the ropes of the hfeboat and ler
her fall oil, notice the poor equipment.
Only one lifeboat Two hundred and sew
euty-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" / do not suppose it
would have held more than 30 people,
though loaded to the waters edge. 1 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 marines Of my text were standing
by the only boat, and that a small boat,
and yet 276 passengers. 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 intoit. The gospel hymn expressesit:
All may come, whoever viii;
This Man receives poor sinners still
But must haul in that statement a little.
Room for all in that lifeboat, with just one
exception. Not you; do not mean you,
but there is one exception. There have
been cases where ships were in trouble and
the captain got all the passengers and crew
q ~
for the captain. He, through the sea-
trumpet, shouted: shove off now and pull
for the beach, Goodby," and then the cap |
tain with pathetic and sublime self sacrifice /
went down with the ship. So the Captain |
Of our salvation, Christ the Lord, launches |
the gospel lifeboat and tells US all to get |
in, but he perishes. 1T behooyed Christ to
suffer"
Was it not so, We who witnessed his ago /
nizing expiration? Simon Of Cyrene, was /
it noo so2 Cavalry troops whose horses I
paved the dust at the crucifxiOn, was it |
not so? YeMarys who swooned away with /
the sun of the midday heavens, was it not /
so? 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 /
2 little of our own personality. We had a
ride in that very lifeboat 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 l got into the gospel lifeboat, and I
got ashore. No religious speculation for
me. These higher criticism fellows do not
lie H. 20
ions about the sea, and about the land, and
about the hfeboat that 1 cannot answer,
lut one thing l know, am ashore, and
I'm going to stay ashore, if the Lord by his
race will help me. l feel under me some
hing so firm that I try it with my right
iOot, and try it with my left foot, and then
try it with both feet, and it is so solid that
think it must be what the old folks used
% call the Rock of Ages.
And be my remaining days on earth
many or lew am going to spend my time
n recommending the lifeboa5 which fetched
ne here, a poor sinner saved by grace, and
n swinging the cutlasses to sever the ropes
f my unsafe lifeboat and let her fall Off
fy hearer, without asking any questions,
et into the gospel lifeboat. Rooml and |
ct there is roomi The biggest boat on
arth is the gospel lifebOat. You must ,
the proportion of things, and
hat the shipwrecked craft is the whole i,
arth, and the lifeboat must be in proper /.
ion. You talk about your Campanias,
nd your Lucanias, and your Majestics and
our City of New Yorks, but all of them
ut together are smaller than an Indians
anoe on Schroon lake compared with this
ospel lifeboat, that is large enough to /,
AXE in all nations. Room for one and /,
oom for all Get inl "How? Howl" !
on ask.
Well, know how you feel, for summer =
efore last, ON the sea Of Finland, / had
he same experience. The ship in which
70 sailed could not venture nearer than a
lille from shore, where stood the Russian
alace Of Peterhof, and we had to get into
small boat and be rowed ashore The
was rough, and as we went down the !
idder at the side Of the ship we held firm
7 on to the railing, but in order to get into
lp boat we had Mt last to let 90 How did