Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1893-11-03

| you leave this life you may become a prima
donna, or robin, or gazelle, or a sot, or
| a prize fighter, or Herod, Jezebel, and
so bc enabled to have great variety OF
experience, rotating through the uni
| verse, now rising. now falling now
| SHOT out in straight line and now describ-
| ing a plrabo.a. and on and on. and ua and
| up, and down and down. and round and
| round. Don't you see? Now. that theosophis
| ieboat has been launched. 1t proposes to
| tax" yOu off the rough sea Of doubt into ever
| lasting quietude. How 10 YOU like the life
| boat! Ny opinion is you Lad better Initiate
| the mariners of my text and cut off the ropes
| Of that boat and let her fall off
Another ifeboat tempting US to enter is
| made OF many planks of good works It is
| really a beautiful Notwithstanding. practi-
| cal symp3thies for human suffering. right
| eOus words and righteous deeds / must
| admit like the looks Of the PROV and of
| the rOwlOoks 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 it leaks.
| never knew a man yet good enough to earn
| heaven by his virtues or generosities.
| If 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 if al
| ready standing let him lift his hand, and [
| will know that he lies. Paul had it about
|
| shall flesh living be justified" David had
| 1t about right when he said, ''There is none
! that doeth good, no not one"
| The old book had 1t about right when it
| said. ''AlI have sinned and come short Of the
glory Of God" Let man get off that little
steamer called The Maid of the Mist, which
| sails up to the foot Of Niagara Falls, and then
| climb to thetop OF the falls onthe descending
| foods, for he can do it easier than any man
| ever will be able to climb to heaven by his
| good works.
Ifyour thoughts have always been exactly
| right. and your words exactly right. and
| your deeds always exactly right, you can
| 90 up to the gate OF heaven, and you need
| not even knock tor admittance. but open it
| yourself and push the angels out of your way
and 30 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 n curiosity in heaven and more fit for Il
heavenly museum than for place where the
inhabitants could look ut you free of charge.
No. sir, Iadmire your good works. and tina
lifebOat you are thinking of trusting in is
handsomer chan any yawl or pinnace or
yacht or cutter that ever sped out ola boat
house or hoisted sail for a race. But she leaks.
Trust your soul in that. and you will go to
the bottom. She leaks. So L initiate the
mariners of the text. and with cutlass strike
the ropes of the boat and let her fall of.
Another life3oat is Christian Incon-
sistencies. The plGnIs of this boat
composed of the split plan&s of shipwrecks
That PROV is made out Of hypocrisy from
the life of a man who professed one thing
and really was another. One oar of this
lifcboat was the falsehood of d church mem
Der. and the other oar was the wlckedneSS
OF some minister OF the Gospel whose in
EQUITIES were nct for a long while found out.
Not one plank from the oak OF Gods
eternal truth in all that lifeboat. All the
planks. by universal! admission. are decayed
ana crumbling and fallen apart and rotten
AMI ready to sink.
"Well. we'll, you say. mo one will want
to get into that 5ife5oat." Oh my friend.
YOU are mistaken. That is the most popular
lifcboat ever constructed. That is the most
popular Ifeboat 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
at the gunwales with a club, as on our ship
Greece in n hurricane. and the SteerdGe pas
saugers were determined to come up on deck
where they would have been washed off. 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 lifebOat made
Of church member Inconsistencies.
In times OF revival when sinners flock into
the inquiry room the most of them are kept
from decidin" Alright because they know 50
many Christians who are bad. The inquiry
room becomes a Worlds Fair for exhibition
Of all tho frailtiGs OF church members, so that
if you believe all is there told you you would
hy afraid to enter Il church lest you get your
pockets picked or get Knocked down
This is the way thev talk: 81 was cheated
out of $500 by q leader of a Bible class. "a
Sunday-school teacher gossiped about mo
and did her best to destroy my good name.
Il had n partner in business who sWamped
our buv;1eSs concern by his trickery and then
rolled up his eyes in Friday night prayer
meeting, as though he were looking for
Eiijah'S chariot to make a second trip and
take up another passenger.
But what a cracked and water logged and
gaping scanned lifeboat the Inconsistencies
Of others! Put me on shingle mid-Atlantic
and leave me there rather than in such a
vawl of spiritual confidence. God forbid that
[ should get aboard it, and lest some of you
mako the mistake of getting into it L 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 off.
We'll" says somo one, "this subject is
very discouraging, for we must have life
boat if we are ever to get ashore, and you
have already condemned three" Ah. it IS
because | wantto persuade you to take the
only safe lifeboat. 1 will not allow you to be
deceived and get on to the wild waves and
then capsIze or sink. Thank God, there is a
Iifeboat that will take you ashore in safety,
AS sure as God is God and heaven is heaven.
The keel and ribs Of this boat are made out
of tree that was set up on bluff back
of Jerusalem q 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 blanks of it were hammered to-
get her by the hammers of executioners VINO
thought they We're only killing Christ, but
were really pounding together an escape Tor
all !mperiled souls of all ages.
It is an old boat. but good as new, tnough
it 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 it is dawning upon them
what mean. The fact Is that IN TINS way
years ago they got off wreck themselves,
and do not wonder they smile 1t is not a
senseless giggle that means frlvollty, but IL
is a smile like that on the face OF Christians
the moment they .eave 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 peacn
ut East Hampton met the captain OF the
life saving station and said, Captain, do
you think a lfeboat could live in sea like
1hat?" Although the worst of it was over,
the captain replied mo, do not thlnE II
could But this iifeboat Of which L speak
can live in anv sea and defies all breakers,
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 As, 900 of the snip
wrecked, but this lffeboat that L commend
has saved in twenty years hundreds OF mill
ions of the shipwrecked. Like those newly
invented English hfepoats, 1t is unsuoInerS-
ibe self righting and self bailinS.
All along our rocky American coast Things
We're left TO chance for centuries, and the
shipwrecl1ed crawled up on the beach to die
unless some one happened to walk along or
some fishernan's hut might be near. But
after the ship Ayrshire was wrecked at
Squan Beach, and the Powhattan left her 800
dead strewn along our coast, and another
vessel went on the rocks. 400 lives perishing,
the United States Government woke no and
made an appropriation of $4,000 for
life stations, and life lines from fax
ing box are shot over the wild
surf. and hawsers are stretched from
wreck to shore and what with Lyies's gun
and six cared surfboat with cork at the sides
to make it unsinkable. and patrolmen all
night long walking the beach until they meet
each other and exchange metal tickets, so as
S0 cb +bn ont hao has haa ira T-prGpE