The Penn's Grove record., 1893-10-27
PENIS GROVE. N. j.. FRIDAY. OUTOBER 81. ls9

I nj OlN ASNANt NAI BOpA >AAJ
one Iifebolt. Two hundred and seyenty-six
passengers, as Paul counted them, and only
)ne lfeboat. Mytext uses the singular and not
he plural, ''Cut of the ropes of the boat.
{ do not suppose it would have held moro
han thirty people, though loaded to the
Sater's edge.
think by marine law all our modern ves-
,els have enough lifeboats to hold all the
| rev and all the passengers in case of emerg-
sncy, but the marines of my text were stand
ng by the only boat. and that q small boat,
md yet 276 passengers. But what thrills me
through and through is the fact that though
We are wrecked by sin and trouble and there
S only one lifeboat, that boat is large enough
20 hold all who are willing to get into it. The
gospel hymn expresses it
AL may come, whoever will;
This Man receives poor sinners still.
But I must haul in that statement a littia
| 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
Eases where ships were in trouble, and the
captain got all the passengers and crew into
The lifeboats, but there was not room for the
captain. He, through the sea trumpet
shouted. "Shove off now and pull for the
| peach. Good-by !" And then the captain,
with pathetic and sublime self-sacriflce, went
Town with the ship. SO the Captain OF oui
.alvation, Christ the Lord, launches the Cos
| gel lIbDOaL anu ltllS us VI " RCL LII, puL L
oerishes.
at behooved Christ to suffer" Was /.
1ot SO, ye who witnessed His agonizing ex
oiration? Simon of Cyrene, was it not 50!
Cavalry troops, whose horses paved the
dust at the crucifixion, was it not so? Ye
| N3rys 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 oil
suffering we get of in a safe hfeboat. Yes,
we must put into this story a little OF our
| VI personality. We had a ride in that
cry lifeboat from foundered craft to solid
| bore.
Once on the raging seas l rewed.
The storm was I I'D: the night was dark
The ocean yawned and rudely blow'd
The wind that tossed my laundering bark.
But 1 got into the gospel lifebout and l got
ashore. No religious speculation for me.
These higher criticism fellows do not bother
me a bit. You may ask me fifty questions
lbout the sea, and about the land, and about
The lifeboat that l eannot answer, but one
| thing I know, l am ashore, and l am going to
stay ashore, if the Lord by His grace will
help me. 1 feel under me something so firm
that l try it with my right foot, and try II
with my left foot, aud then [ try it with both
teet, and it is so solid that 1 think it must be
what the old folks used to call the Rock O
ages.
Anu Dt ivy E6uldlulIlE tGyS VI Auh
pr few / am going to spend my time in
recommending the lifeboat which fetched me
here, a poor sinner saved by grace, and in
swinging the cutlasses to sever the ropes OF
any unsafe lfsboat and let her fall of. My
hearer, without asking any questions, get
INTO the gospel lifeboat. Room! and vel
there is room! The biggest boat on earth is
thu gospel lifsboat. You must remember the
proportion of things, and that the ship
wrecked craft is the whole earth, and the
iifeboat must be in proportion.
You talk about your Campanias, and your
Lucanias, and your Maiestics, 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 gospelhfeboa
that is large enough to take in all Nations.
Room for one and room for all. Get In
"How? Howl" you ask.
Well, 1 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 a mile
from shore, where stood the Russian palace
OF Peterof. and we had to get into a small
boat and be rowed ashore. Tn water was
rough. and as we went down the ladder al
the side of the ship we held firmly on to the
railing, but in order to get into the boat VT
lad at last to let 90.
How did | know that the boat was goo
and that the oarsmen were sutic1ent? How
did l know that the Finland SEA- would moi
swallow us with one opening 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. Lei
GO! As long as you hold on to any Other
hope you are imperiled. and you get no ad'
vantage from the lifeboat. Let go! Does
some one here say, 81 guess l will hold on 6
little to my good works, or to a pious parent
age, or to something l can do in the way o
achieving my own salvation" No, no, let
gol Trust the Captain, who would not puI
Tou into q rickety or uncertain craft.
For the sake of your present and everlast
ing welfare, with all the urgency of an i'm.
mortal addressing immortals, l cry from the
depths of my soul and at the top OF my voice,
Let go! Last summer the life saving crew
at East Hampton invited me to come up &c
the life station and see the crew practice, for
twice a week they are drilled in the impor-
tant work assigned them by the United States
Government, and they go through all the
routine of saving the shipwrecked. But that
would give little idea of what they would
nave to do if some midnight next winter, the
wind driving backward, a vessel should get
IN the grasp OF a hurricane.
See the lights fare from the ship in the
breakers, and then responding lights farln9
from the beach. and hear the rockets buzz as
they rise, and the ifeboat rumbles out, and
the gun booms, and the life line rises and
falls across the splintered decks, n the
hawser tightens, and the life car goes to and
fro, carrying the exhausted mariners, n the
ocean, as If angered by the snatching of the
human prey from the white teeth OF its surl
and the stroke Of its billowing paw, rises
with increased fury TO assail the land. So
now 1 am engaged in no light drill, practic-
Ing for what may come over some OF your
souls. 1t is with some of you wintry mid
night, and your hopes for this world and the
lext are wrecked.
But seel Seel The lights kindled on the
beach Throw out the life line. Haul In,
hand over hand! All, there is a lifeboat in
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 thy
self, but in Ne is thy help" But what is tine
use of all this If you decline to get into itT
You might as well have been a sailor on
board that laundering ship of the Medi-
erranean when the mariners cut the ropes
Y the boat and let her fall of.