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


ship when the sailors were about to get
| into the unsafe lifeboat of the text and
| lose their lives in that way. Then the
soldiers cut the ropes Of the boat and
let her fall off,"
The Only Safe Life Boat.
"well," says some one. "this subject
is very discouraging. for we must have
lifeboat if we are ever to get ashore,
and you have already condemned three"
All, it is because 1 want to 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 lifeboat
that will take you ashore in safety, as
sure as God is God and heaven is heav-
en-. The keel and ribs of this boat
are made out of a tree that was set
up on a bluff back of Jerusalem a good
many years ago. Both of the oars are
made out of the same tree. The row.
locks are made out OF the same tree.
The steering gear is made out Of the
same tree. The planks of it were ham,
.mered together by the hammers of exc
cutioners who thought they were only
| killing a Christ, but were really pound
ing together an escape for all imported
souls of all ages.
1t is an old boat, but good as new,
though 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 be-
cause II is dawning upon them what
mean. The fact is that in this way
| years ago they got off a wreck them
selves and 1 do not wonder they smile.
II is not a senseless CYCLE that means
frivolity, but IL is a 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 COM
| pleted 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, do you think lifeboat
could live in a sea like that?" Although
the worst of 1t was over. the captain re-
piled, mo, do not think it could" But
this lifeboat of which l speak can live
in any 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 5000 of
the shipwrecked, but this lifeboatJ that
l commend has saved in twenty years
hundreds of millions of the shipwrecked.
Like those newly invented English
| lifeboats, it Is insubmergible, self-right-
| ing and self-bailing All along our
rocky American coast things We're left
to chance for centuries, and the ship
wrecked crawled up on the beach to
die unless some one happened to walk
/ along or some fishegman's hut might be
near. But after the ship Ayrshire was
wrecked at Squan beach, and the Pow
! hatan left her 800 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 5000 900 for life
saving 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 Lyle's gun and
/ SiX-Oared Surfboat, with cork at the
sides to make it unsuitable. and patrol
men all night long walking the beach
| until they meet each other and exchange
metal tickets, so as to show the entire
| beach has been traversed. and the Cos
| ton light flashes hope from shore to
| sufferer, and surfmen incased in Merri-
man life saving dress and life car roll
! ing on the ropes, there are many prob
/ abilities of rescue for the unfortunate
of the sea. But the government of the
united heavens has made better provis-
| ion for the rescue of our souls. so close
| by that this moment we can put our hand
! on its top and swing into II. is this gos-
| pei lifeboat. 1t will not take you more
than a second to get into it,
Life Boat for All.
But while in my text we stand watch
| ing the marines with their cutlasses,
| preparing to sever the ropes of the life
boat and let her fall Off, notice the poor
equipment. Only one llfeboat. Two hun
| dred and seventy-six passengers, as
| Paul counted them, and only one life
boat. My text uses the singular and
not the plural. "Cut off the ropes of the
boat" 1 do not suppose it would have
held more than thirty people, though
loaded TO the waters edge. 1 think by
/ marine law all our modern vessels have
| enough lifeboats to hold all the crew
/ and all the passengers in case of emer-
| gency. but the marines OF my text were
| standing by the only boat, and that a
/ 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
| Hfeboat, that boat is large enough to
hold all who are willing to get into it.
| The gospel hymn expresses 1t:
| All may come whoever will;
This Man receives poor sinners still.
| But / must haul i'm that statement a
| little. Room for all in that lifeboat, with
| just one exception. Not you; / do not
mean you, but there Is one exception
| There have been cases 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
"6hove off now and pull for the beach
| Goodby," and then the captain with pa
! thetio and sublime self-sacrifice went
! down with the ship. So the captain Of
| our salvation, Christ the Lord launches
| the gospel lifeboat and tells us all tc
get in, but he perishes. ut behooved
| Christ TO suffer-
Was IL not 30, We who witnessed his
agonizing expiration? Simon Of Cyrene,
was 1T not so? Cavalry troops whose
horses paved the dust at the crucifxion
was II not so? Ye Marys who swooned
away with the sun Of the midday
heavens, was IL not so? by his stripes
| we are healed" BY his death we live
| BY his sinking In the deep sea OF suffer-
! ing we get off IL safe lifeboat Yes
| we must put into this story a little Of
our own personality We had a ride in
that very lifeboat from foundered craft
to solid shore.
once on the raging seas 1 rowed
The storm was loud; the night was dark:
| The ocean yawned and rudely blow'd
The wind that tossed my laundering
| bark.
But got into the gospel lifeboat, and
| I got ashore. No religious speculation
| for me. These higher criticism fellows
| do not bother me a bit. You may ask
| fifty questions about the sea, and about
the land, and about the lifeboat that I
cannot answer, but one thing / know,
am ashore, and / am going to stay
! ashore, IL the Lord by his grace will
help me. i feel under me something SO
| firm that / try IN with my RIGHT fo,f