Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1893-10-23

| to sufferer, and surfmen, incased in
Merrirnan life saving dress, and life car
rolling on the ropes, there are many
probabilities of rescue for the unfortu-
nate OF the sea. But the government of
the united heavens has made better pro-
vision for the rescue of our souls. So
close by that this moment we can put
our hand on its top aud swing into it is
this gospel lifeboat. It will not take
| you more than a second to get into it.
A STANCH CRAFT.
But while in my text we stand watch
ing the marines with their cutlasses, pre-
pairing to sever the ropes of the lifeboat
and let her fall off, notice the poor equip
ment. Only one lifeboat. Two hundred
and seventy-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 80 people, though loaded to
the waters edge.
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 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 into it.
The gospel hymn expresses it:
All may come, whoever will;
This Man receives poor sinners still.
But I 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 excep-
ton. There have been cases where ships
were in trouble, and the captain got all
the passengers and crew into the life
boats, but there was not room for the
captain. He, through the sea trumpet,
shouted: 'Shove off now and pull for
the beach. Goodbye And then the
captain, with pathetic and sublime self
sacrifice, went down with the ship. So
tho Captain of our salvation, Christ the
Lord, launches the gospel lifeboat and
tells us all to get in, but he perishes.
''It behooved Christ to suffer-" Was
it not so, we who witnessed his agonizing
expiration? Simon of Cyrene, was it not
SO? Cavalry troops, whose horses paved
the dust at the cruciixion, was it not so?
Ye Marys 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 off in a safe
lifeboat. Yes, we must put into this
story little of our own personality.
We had ride in that very lifeboat from
foundered craft to solid shore.
Once on the raging seas rowed.
The storm was loud; .hc night was dark.
The ocean yawned and rudely blow'd
The wind that tossed my laundering bark.
But got into the gospel lifeboat, and
got ashore. No religious speculation for
me- These higher criticism fellows do
not bother me bit. You may ask me
80 questions about the sea- and about the
land, and about the hfeboat that 1 can
not answer, but one thing know, / am
ashore, and | am going to stay ashore, if
the Lord by his grace will help me.
feel under me something so firm that
try it with my right foot, and try it with
my left foot, and then try it with both
feet, and it is so solid that l think it
must be what the old folks used to call
the Rock of Ages.
And be my remaining days on earth
many or few | am going to spend my
time in recommending the lifeboat which
fetched me here, poor sinner saved by
+ grace, and in swinging the cutlasses
to sever the ropes of any unsafe lifeboat
and let her fall off. My nearer, without
asking any questions, get into the gospel
lifeboat. Room! and yet there is room!
The biggest boat on earth is the gospel
lifeboat. You must remember the pro-
/ portion of things, and that the ship
/ wrecked craft is the whole earth, and the
lifeboat must be in proportion.
You talk about your Campanias, and
! your Lucanias, and your Majestics, and
/ your City of New Yorks, but all of
/ them put together are smaller than an
! Indians canoe on Schroon lake COM
/ pared with this gospel lifeboat that is
! large enough to take in all nations
Room for one and room for all. Get
in! Chow? How?" you ask.
Well, I know how you feel, for sum
mer before last on the sea of Finland
4 had the same experience. The ship in
which we sailed could not venture near
er than mile from shore, where stood
! the Russian palace of Peterhof, and we
! had to get into 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 l know that the boat was
good and that the oarsmen were suffi-
| Gent? How did / know that the Finland
sea would not swallow us with one open
ing of its crystal jaws? We had to trust,
and we did trust, and our trust was well
rewarded. In the same way get into this
gospel lifeboat. Let go! AS long as you
hold on to any other hope you are i'm
\ neriled and You get no ADVANTAGE from