The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-10-25

time in recommending the lifeboat which
fetched me here, a poor sinner saved by
grace, and in swinging the eutlasses to
sever the ropes of my unsafe hfeboat
and let her fall of. My nearer, without
asking any questions. get into the gospel
lifeboat. Roomi 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 ca nth, and
the lifeboat must be in proportion. You
talk about your Campaniars, and your
Lucanias. and your Majestics. and your
City of New Yorks, but all of them put
together are smaller than an Indians
canoe Of Schroon lake compared with
this gospel lifeboat, that is large enough
to take in all nations. Room for one and
room for all. Get in! How? How?'
you ask.
Well know how you feel. for summer
before last, on the sea OF Finland, had
the same experience. The ship in which
we sailed could not venture nearer than
mile from shore. where stood the Rus
sian palace of Peterhof, and we had TO
get into a 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 know that
the boat was good and that the oarsmen
were sufficient? How did 1 know that
the Finland sea would not swallow US
with one opening of its crystal jaws
We had to trust, and we did trust, and
our trust was we'll rewarded In the
same way get into this gospel lifeboat.
Let gol As long as you hold on to any
other hope you are Imperfect, and you
get no advantage from the lifeboat. Let
goi Does some one here say, Il guess
will hold on little to my good works.
or to pious parentage, or TO something
/ can do in the way of achieving my own
salvation. No, no. let gol Trust the
Captain, who would not put you into a
rickety or uncertain craft.
The Only Sure Resource.
For the sake of your present and ever
lasting welfare, with all the urgency Of
an immortal addressing immortals, 1 cry
from the depths of my soul and at the
top or my voice, LET gop' Last sum-
mer the life saving crew at East Hamp-
ton invited me to come up to the life
station and see the crew practice, for
twice week they are drilled in the
important work assigned them by the
United States government, and they go
through all the routine OF saving the
shipwrecked. But that would give lit
tie idea of what they would have 80 do
if some midnight next winter, the wind
driving backward, a vessel should get
in the grasp OF hurricane.
See the lights flare from the ship in
the breakers, and then responding lights
flaring from the beach, and hear the
rockets buzz as they rise, and the life
boat rumbles out. and the gun booms,
and the lifeline rises and falls across
the splintered decks, and the hawser
tightens, and the life car goes to and
fro, carrying the exhausted mariners,
and the ocean. as II angered by the
snatching of the human prey from the
white teeth Of its surf and the stroke
of its billowing paw rises with increased
fury to assail the land. So now l am
engaged I'm no light drill. practicing for
what may come over some OF your souls.
1t is with some of you wintry midnights,
and your hopes for this world and the
next are wrecked.
But seel Seel The lights kindled on
the beach. I throw out the life line.
Haul in, hand over hand! All. there is
a lifeboat i'm the surf 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 thyself. but
in me is thy help" But what is the use
of all this If you decline to get into It.
You might as we'll have been a sailor on
board that laundering ship of the Medi-
terranean when the mariners cut the
ropes of the boat and let her fall off.