Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1893-11-03

lasting quietude. How do you like the life
boat7 MY opinion Is you had better initiate
the mariners OF my text and cut Of the ropes
Of that boat and let her fall OF.
Another lifeboat tempting US to enter IL
made OF many planks OF good works. II is
really beautiful boat-slmsgiving, pmcti-
cal sympsthies for human suffering, right
eous words and righteous deeds. must
admit like the looks of the PROV, and of
the rowlocks and OF the paddles, and of the
steering gear, and OF many who are think
Ing to trust themselves on her benches But
the trouble about that lifeboat Is II leaks. I
never knew a man yet good enough to earn
heaven by his virtues or generosities.
III there be one person here present on this
blessed Sabbath all OF whose thoughts have
been always right, all OF whose actions have
always been right and all OF whose words have
always been right, let him stand up, or II al
ready standing let him lift his hand, and
will know that he lies Paul had IL about
right whom hesaid, "By the deeds OF the law
shall no flesh living be justified" David had
II about right when he said, "Thers In none
that doeth good, no not one"
The old book had 1t about right whep II
said, Gan have sinned and come short of the
glory OF God" Let q man get on that little
steamer called The Maid OF the Mist, which
sails up to the foot OF Niagara Falls, and then
floods, for he can do IT easier than any man
ever will be able TO climb to heaven by his
good works.
Uyour thoughts have always been exactly
right, and your words exactly right. and
your deeds always exactly right, you can
go up to the gate OF heaven, and you need
not even knock tor admittance, but open II
yourself and push the angels out OF your way
and go up and take one OF the front seats.
But you would be so unlike any one else that
has gone up from this world that you would
be curiosity In heaven and more fit for
heavenly museum than for place where the
inhabitants could look at you free OF charge.
No, sir, admire your good works, and tina
lifeboat you are thinking OF trusting In is
handsomer than any yawl or pinnace or
yacht or cutter that ever sped out ofe boat
house or hoisted sail for race. But she leaks.
Trust your soul In that, and you will go to
the bottom She leaks. So / initiate the
mariners OF the text and with cutlass strike
the ropes Of the boat and let her fall OF.
Another lifeboat is Christian Incon-
sistencies. The planks OF this boat are
composed OF the split planks OF shipwrecks.
That prov Is made out of hypocrisy from
the life OF q man who professed one thing
and really was another. One oar OF this
lifeboat was the falsehood Of a church MEM
Der, and the other oar was the wickedness
of some minister OF the Gospel whose in
EQUITIES were not for long while found out.
Not one plank from the oak OF Gods
eternal truth In all that nfeboat. All the
planks, by universal admission, are decayed
and crumbling and fallen apart and rotten
and READY TO sink.
"well, well" you say, mo one will want
to get into that lifeboat." Oh, my friend,
you are mistaken. That Is the most popular
lifeboat ever constructed. That is the most
popular lifeboat ever launched. Millions Of
people want to get into it. They jostle each
other to get the best seat in the boat. You
could not keep them back though you stood
Mt the gunwales with a club, as on our ship
Greece in a hurricane, and the steerage pas
sengers were determined to come up on deck,
where they would have been washed of, and
the officers stood at the top Of the stairs
clubbing them back. Even by such violence
as that you could not keep people from
jumping into the most popular llfeboat, made
OF church member Inconsistencies.
In times OF revival when sinners flock into
the inquiry room the most Of them are kept
from deciding Alright because they know SO
many Christians who are bad. The inquiry
room becomes Worlds Fair for exhibition
of all the frailties OF church members, 80 that
IL you believe oil is there told you you would
be afraid to enter q church lest you get your
pockets picked or get knocked down.
This Is the way they talk ~ was cheated
out of $500 by leader OF Bible class." "a
Sunday school teacher gossiped about me
and did her best to destroy my good name" "
az had a partner In business who swamped
our business concern by his trickery and then
rolled up his eyes In Friday night prayer
meeting, as though he were looking for
Elijahs chariot to make second trip and
take up another passenger"
But what cracked and water logged and
gaping scanned lifeboat the Inconsistencies
OF others Put me on single mid-Atlantic
and leave me there rather than in such a
yawl Of spiritual confidence. God forbid that
/ should get aboard 1t, and lest some OF you
make the mistake OF getting into II do as
the mariners did on that Mediterranean ship
W hen the sailors were about to get into the
unsafe lifeboat of the text and lose their
lives In that way. "Then the soldiers cut
off the ropes OF the boat and let her fall of"
"well," says some one, "this subject Is
very discouraging, for we must have a life
boat II we are ever to get ashore, and you
have already condemned three" All, 1t Is
because want to persuade you to take the
only safe lifeboat. will not allow you to be
deceived and get on to the wild waves and
then capslze or sink. Thank God, there Is q
lifeboat that will take you ashore in safety,
as sure as God is God and heaven II heaven.
The keel and ribs OF this boat are made out
of tree that was set up on blum back
of Jerusalem good many years ago. Both
of the oars are made out OF the same tree.
The rowlocks are made out OF the same tree.
The steering gear Is made out OF the same
tree. The planks OF 1t were hammered to-
gether by the hammers OF executioners who
thought they were only killing Christ, but
were really pounding together an escape for
all imnprilnd sOuls of all aQeS
1t is an old boat, but good as new, though
1t has been carrying passengers from sinking
ships to firm shore for ages and has never
lost a passenger. These old Christians begin
to smile because 1t is dawning upon them
what mean. The fact Is that in this way
years ago they got off wreck themselves,
and do not wonder they smile. 1t Is not
senseless giggle that meaus frivolity, but 1t
Ia smile like that on the face OF Christians
the moment they leave earth for heaven
yea, like the smile Of God Himself when He
had completed the plan for saving the world.
Right after that big tumble OF the Atlantic
Ocean SIX or seven weeks ago on the beach
at East Hampton / met the captain OF the
life saving station and said, "Captain, de
you think lfeboat could live In a sea like
that2" Although the worst OF 1t was over,
the captain replied, ''No, do not think u
could" But this iifeboat of which speak
and all cyclones, and all equinoxes, and all
earth, and all hell. In twenty years the life
saving apparatus along our Atlantic coast
saved the lives OF over $4,000 OF the ship.
wrecked, but this lifeboat that l commend
has saved IN twenty years hundreds OF mill
ions Of the shipwrecked. Like those newly
invented English lifebosts, II is unsubmerg
ible, self righting and self bailing.
All along our rocky American coast thing
were left to chance for centuries. and thu
shipwrecke crawled up on the beach to dil
unless some one happened to walk along o.
some f1sherman's hut might be near. Bui
after the ship Ayrshire was wrecked al
squan Beach, and the Powhattan left her sOt
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 1900, 900 for
life stations, and life lines from fax.
ing box are shot over the wild
surf, and hawsers are stretched from
\ 10 n ulaa