Milford chronicle., 1893-10-27
AT THE TABERNACLE.
DR.. TALMAGE FINDS MANY LESSONS
IN THE LlFEBOAT.

A Touch of Sarcasm ON nTheosophy-A Good
Word For sIoraIism, but It Is Not sufi-
cient - The only Ark of Safety - Get
/ Aboardi
BROOKLYN, Oct. 22.-After preaching on
/ nearly 1900 different subjects and being
/ closely followed by the printing press for
about 25 hears Rev. DR.. Talmage still seems
/ to find new subjects that have never been
preached on. This forenoon he chose for
| his subject "Unsafe Lifeboats," the text
I being Acts xvii, 80, Then the soldiers cut
off the ropes of the boat and let her fall
I off"
While your faces are yet somewhat
bronzed by attendance on the international
boat contest between the Nigilant and the
Valkyrie, l 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, vet will not do for these But my
text calls our attention to a boat of a diff
ferent sort, and instead Of the Atlantic it
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
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
account says, the passengers had con
tinued fasting" 1 suppose the salt water,
dashing over, had spoiled the sea biscuit.
and the passengers were seasick anyhow.
The sailors said, SIT is no use; this ship
must 90 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 l have known were all intrepid
fellows and would rather go down with
the ship than do such a mean thing as
those Jack Tars of my text attempted.
When on the Mediterranean last June the
Victoria sank under the ram of the Cam
perdown, the most ma jestic 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 a little mis-
sionary 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 chopl went those cutlasses into the
ropes that held the lifeboat, and splash it
dropped into the sea.
My text describes 1.-THE soldiers cut
off the ropes of the boat and let her fall
of" As that empty lifeboat dropped and
was capsi2ed 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 five min
utes.