The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1893-11-08
Think by marine law all our modern ves-

think by marine law all our modern ves-
sells have enough lifeboats to hold oil the
crew and oil the passengers in case OF emerS-
ency, but the marines OF my text were stand
ing by the only boat, and that small boat,
and vet 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 into 1t. Inc
gospel hymn expresses 1t:
AL may come, whoever will
This Man receives poor sinners STILL
But must haul in that statement little.
Room for all in that lifeboat, with just one
exception. Not you'll 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 INTO
the lifeboats, but there was not room Tor the
captain. He, through the sea trumpet,
shouted: "Shove of now and pun 1or the
beach. Good-byr' And then the captain,
with pathetic and sublime self-sacrihce, went
down with the ship. So the Captain OF our
salvation. Christ the Lord. launches the gos-
pel Iteboat and tells US all to get in, but He
SIT behooved Christ to suffer-" Was it
not 80, ye who witnessed His agonizinS ex-
piration? Simon OF Cyrene, was 1t not sof
Cavalry troops, whose horses paved the
dust at the crucifxion, was 1t not sop Ye
Marys who swooned away with the sun OF
the midday heavens, was It not sof by
His stripes we are healed" BY bis deatn
we live. BY His sinking in the deep sea OF
suffering we get OIL In safe h1e4oat. iss,
own personality. We had o ride In that
yery iifeboat from foundered craft to solid
shore.
Once ON the raring seas rowed.
The ocean yawned and rudely blow'i
The wino that tossed my foundertng oark-
But got into the gospel nfebout and got
ashore. No religious speculation for me.
These higher criticism fellows do not bother
me bit. You may ask me fifty questions
about the sea, and about the land, and about
the nfeboat that cannot answer, but one
thing know, am ashore, and am going to
stay ashore, If the Lord by His grace Will
help me. I feel under me something so hrm
that try 1t with my right foot, and try It
with my left foot, and then try 1t with ootn
feet. and it Is 80 solid that think 1t must be
what the old folks used to coll the hocK Oh
Ages.
And be my remaining days on earth many
mr. few I am going to spend my time In
recommending the ltfeboat Whlcn letcnea me-
here. a poor sinner saved by grace, and N
SWINGING the cutlasses to sever the ropes OF
any unsafe lifeboat and let her fall OF. MY
hearer, without asking any questions, ger
into the gospel hfeooat. Room! ana yer
ltnere ia room! The biggest boat on earth Is
the qospel Iifeboat. You must remember the
proportion of things, and that the snip
wrecked craft Is the whole earth, ana the
ufeboat must be In proportion.
You talk about your Campanias, ana your
I,ucanias, and your Msjestics, and your CITY
of New Yorks, but all of them put together
are smaller than an Indians canoe on Sch
room Lake compared with this gospe! Meooat
that Is large enough to take in all Nations;
Room for one and room for all. Gee III
"How2 How2" you ask.
Well, know how you feel, Tor summer
before last on the sea OF Finland I had the
same experience. The ship in which we
sailed could not venture nearer than mile
from shore. where stood the Russian palace
of Peterof. and we had to get into q small
boat and be rowed ashore. The water was
rough, and as we went down the ladder at
the side of the ship We held firmly on to the
railing, but in order to get into the boat we
had at last to let go.
How did I know that the boat was good
and that the oarsmen were suficientf HOW
did know that the Finland Sea would not
swallow us with one opening Of its crystal
laws? We had to trust, and we did trust,
and our trust was we'll rewarded. In the
same wav get into this gospel lifeboat. Let
90! AS long as you hold on to any other
hone you are imperiled. and you get no ad-
vantage from the Hfeboat. Let go Does
some one here say, 'I guess will hold on
little to my good works, or to pious parent
Ege, TO something can do in the way OF
achieving my own salvation" No, no, let
eoI Trust the Captain, who would not put
you into 3 rickety or uncertain crat.
Z klo ofu nrocppf avPTIRSts
Ing welfare, with oil the urgency OF an I'm
mortal addressing immortals, I cry from the
depths of my soul and at the top Of my voice,
Let 60! Last summer the life saving crew
Mt East Hampton invited me to come up to
tho life station and see the crew practice, for
twice week they are drilled In the 1mpor-
tont work assigned them by the United states
Government, and they go through all ths
routine of saving the sdipwrecked. But that
would give little idea OF what they would
have to do if some midnight next winter, the
wind driving backward, vessel should get
in the grasp OF hurricane.
SEQ the lights Dare from the ship IN the
breakers, and then responding lights naring
from the beach. and hear tho rockets buzz as
they rise, and the ifeboet rumbles out, end
the gun booms, end tho life line rises ana
falls across the spintered decks, and the
hawser tightens, and the life csr goes TO anu
fro, carrying the exhausted mariners, ane @ tho
ocean, as II angered by the snatchinS OF the
human prey from the white teeth OF its SURF
and the stroke Of its billowius paw, rises
with increased fury to assail the land. So
now I am engaged in no light drill, practlc-
ing for what may come over some OF your
souls. It is with some Of you wintry mid
night, and your hopes for this world and the
next are wrecked.
But see! See! Tho lights kindled on the
beach! throw out the life line. Haul In.
hand over hand! Ah, therc is lifebont In
thesurf, which all the wrath Of earth and hell
cannot swamp, and its Captain with SCARED
hand puts the trumpet to His lips as He
cries, "Oh, Israel, thou hast Destroyed thy
sell, but in Me is thy help" But what is tns
usosSf all this if you decline to ges into it1
You%might as we'll have been sal!0r on
board that laundering ship OF the Med1-
terranean when the mariners cut the ropes
of the boat and let her fall of.