Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1893-11-03
REV. DR.. TklMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIvISE's sun
DAY SERMON.
SUBJECT: "URsAyE LHrBoATs."

81
While your facesar yet somewhat bronzed
by attendance on the International boat con-
test between the vigilsnt and the Valkyria /
address you. Good things when there is no
batting or dissipation, those outdoor sports.
We want more fresh air and breeziness In
our temperaments and our religion. A stale
and slow and lugubrious religion may have
done for other times, yet will not do for
these But my text calls our attention to
boat OF a different sort, and instead OF the
Atlantic IL is the Mediterranean, and instead
OF not wind enough, rs the crews OF theVigi-
liant and the valkyrie the other day COM
planned, there is too much wind and the
swoop of a Euroclydon.
i am not calling your attention so much
to 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
ued fasting" l suppose the salt water,
dashing over, had spoiled the sea biscuit,
and the passengers were seasick anyhow.
The sailors said, at is no use this ship
must go down." and they proposed among
themselves to lower the lifeboat and get into
II 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 sailors duty.
That was not sailorlike, for the sailors that
have known were all intrepid fellows and
would rather go down with the ship than do
such mean thing as those Jack Tars OF my
text attempted.
When on the Mediterranean last June the
Victoria sank under the ram of the Camper
down, the most majestic 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 pre-
tended to do duty white they were really pre-
pairing for flight in the lifeboat. But these
"mnrines" on board-sea soldiegs-had In
especial charge little missionary 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 chop chop! went those cut
lasses into the ropes that held the lifeboat,
and splash 1t dropped into the sea.
My text describes 1t, "The soldiers cut on
the ropes OF the boat and let her fall off,"
As that empty lifeboat dropped and was cap
sized on a 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 a small boat could
not have lived Ave minutes.
My subject is "Unsafe Lifeboats." We
cannot exaggerate the Importance OF the
! liteboat. All honor to the memory OF Lionel
Lukin, the coach builder OF Long Acre, Lon
don, who invented the first lifebost, and lido
not blame him for ordering put on his tomb
stone In Kent the inscription that you may
still read there:
"This Lionel Lunkin was the first who
built lifeboat and was the original inventor
OF that principle Of safety by which many
lives and much properly have been pre-
served from shipwreck, and he obtained for
1t the kings patent in the year 17e5."
All honor to the memory OF Sir William
| Hillary, who, living in the Isle Of Man, and
after assisting with his own hand In the res
| cue OF 30b lives Of the shipwrecked, stirred
the English Parliament to quick action In
| the construction OF lifeboats. Thanks to God
| for the sublime and pathetic and divine mis-
sion OF tho lifeboat. No one will doubt It's
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, or OF the Ocean Monarch on the
coast OF Wales, or Of the Brkenhesd 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 tie Atlantic on the rocks
OF Nova Scotia, or Of the Lexington on Long
Island Sound.
TO add still further to the importance OF
tho lifeboat remember there are at least
5000, 900 men following the sea. to say moth
ing of the uncounted millions this moment
ocean passengers. We "land-lubbers," as
sailors call IL, may not know the difference
between MARINE spike and ringbolt, or
! anything about heavng log, or rigging out
flying iibboom, or furling topsail, but we
all realize to greater or less extent the inn
portance Of q lifeboat in every marine equip
| ment.
But do we feel the Importance OF lifeboat
In the matter Of thesoul's rescue2 There are
times when we all feel that we are out at soa,
and as many disturbing and anxious ques-
lions strike us as waves struck that vessel
against the sides Of which the lifeboat 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 proportion as they arethink-
Lg people do these questions arise.
There is no wrong in thinking. II God had
not intended us to think and keep on think
ing, He would not have built under this
! wheelhouse OF the skull this thinking ma
chine, which halts not In Its revolutions 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 WE'LL All OF US who are ac-
customed to thinking want to reach some
solid shore OF safety and satisfaction, and II
any one has good lifeboat that we may
honorably take wish he would unswing 1t
| from the davits and let us get into itand put
/ for the shore.
But give you fair notice I must first ex-
! anime the lifeboat before risk my soul in 1t
or advise you to risk your soul in 1t. ALL tho
splendid Ramsgate iifeboats, and Margate
lifeboats, and South Shield hfeboats, and
American lifeboats were tested before being
put into practical use as to their buoyancy
and speed and stowsge and self-righting ca
pacity. And when you offer my soul hfe-
boat must first test 1t.
Here Ia o splendid new lifeboat called
Theosophy. 1t has only little while been
launched, although some Of the planks are
really several thousand years old and from
WORM eaten ship, but they are painted
over and look new. They are really fatalism
and pantheism of olden time. But we must
forget that and call them theosophy. The
Grace Darling OF this hfeboat was an oars
woman by the name OF Nine. Blavatsky,
but the oarswoman now Is Annie Besant. 30
many are getting aboard the boat 1t Is
worthy OF examination, both because Of the
safety of those who have entered 1t and be-
cause we ourselves are invited to get In.
It's theory Is that everything Ia God. Horse
| and star and tree and man are parts oil God.
We have three souls--an animal soul, a hui
man soul, spiritual soul. The animal soul
becomes, after awhile, wandering thing,
trying to express itself through mediums.
/, II enters beasts or enters human being,
and when Jou fnd an effeminate man 1t Is
because a woman's soul has got into the
man, and when you find a masculine woman
II Is because mans soul has taken posses
sion Of woman's body.
II you find Q woman has become platform
speaker and likes politics, she is possessed by
a dead politician, who forty years ago made
the platform quake. The soul keeps wander
ing on and ON, and may have fifty or innu-
merable different forms, and finally Is alb
sorbed Ia God. 1t uas God at the start and
viii be God a. the last. But who gives the
authority for the truth Of such a religionf
Some beings living In a cave In central Asia.
They sSe invisible to the naked eye, but they
GROSS continents and seas In fash
M BaptiSt brother Or. Haldeman says