Connecticut western news., 1893-10-26

and gaping scanned lifeboat the incon- sistencies of others! Put me on a shingle mid-Atlantic and leave me there rather than in sucha yawl of spiritual confi- dence. God forbid that I should get aboard it, and lest some of you make the mistake of getting into it I do as the mariners did on that Mediterranean ship when the sailors were about to get into the unsafe hfeboat of the text and lose their lives in that way. "Then the sol- diers cut off the ropes of the boat and let her fall off"
 NOT LEFT TO CHANGE.
 "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. '" An, it Is because I 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 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 heaven. The keel and ribs of this boat are made out of a tree that was set up on bluff 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 blanks of it were hammered together by the ham mers of executioners who thought they were only killing Christ, but were really pounding together an escape for all imperiled souls of all ages.
 It 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 passenger. These old Christians begin to smile because it is dawning upon them what I mean The fact is that in this way years ago they got off wreck themselves, and l do not wonder they smile. It is not a senseless giggle that means frivolity, but it is 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 At lantic ocean six or seven weeks ago on the beach at East Hampton I met the captain of the life saving station and said, Captain, do you think lifeboat could live in sea like that?" Although the worst of it was over, the captain re- piled, No, do not think it could" But this lifeboat of which speak can live in any sea and defies all breakers, and all cyclones, and all equinoxes, and all earth, and all hell. In 20 years the life saving apparatus along our Atlantic coast saved the lives of over 45,00O of the shipwrecked, but this lifeboat that I commend has saved in 20 years hundreds of millions of the shipwrecked. Like those newly invented English lifeboats, it is insubmergible, self fighting and self bailing.
 All along our rocky American coast things were left to chance for centuries, and the shipwrecked crawled up on the beach to die unless some one happened to walk along or some fsherman's hut might be near. But after the ship Ayr shire was wrecked at Squan beach, and the Powhattan left her 300 dead strewn along our coast, and another vessel went on the rocks, 400 lives perishing, the United States government woke up and made al appropriation of $200,000 for life saving stations, and life lines from fakiny box are shot over the wild surf, and l,awsers are stretched from wreck to shore, and what with Lyle's gun and six pared surfboat, with cork at the sides to make it unsuitable, and patrolmen all night long walking the beach until they meet each other and ,1 ,,lr fo o1,p the entire beach has been traversed, and the Coston light flashes hope from shore to sufferer, and surfmen, incased in Merriman life saving dress, and life car rolling on the ropes, there are many probabilities of rescue for the unfortu- nate of the sea. But the government of the united heavens has made better pro- vision for the rescue of our souls. So close by that this moment we can put our hand on it's top aud swing into it is this gospel lifeboat. It will not take you more than second to get into it.
 sTANCH CRAFT.
 But while in my text we stand watch ing the marines with their cutlasses, pre- pairing to sever the ropes of the lifeboat and let her fall off, notice the poor equip ment. Only one lifeboat. Two hundred and seventy-six passengers, as Paul counted then, and only one lifeboat My text uses the singular and not the plural, "Cut off the ropes of the boat. !" I do not suppose it would have held more than 30 people, though loaded to the waters edge.
 think by marine law all our modern vessels have enough lifeboats to hold all the crew and all the passengers in case of emergency, but the marines of my text were standing by the only boat, and that 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 lifeboat, ,sthat boat is large enough to hold all who are willing to get into it. The gospel hymn expresses it:
 All may come, whoever will:
 This Man receives poor sinners still.
 But must haul in that statement a little, Room for all in that lifeboat, with just one exception. Not you-I do not mean you, but there is one excep- tion. There have been cases where ships were in trouble, and the captain got all the passengers and crew into the life boats, but there was not room for the captain. He, through the sea trumpet, shouted: "Shove off now and pull for the beach. Goodbyp And then the captain, with pathetic 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 to get in, but he perishes.
 "It behooved Christ to suffer-" Was it not so, ye who witnessed his agonizing expiration? Simon of Cyrene, was it not so? Cavalry troops, whose horses paved the dust at the crucifixion, was it not so2 Ye Marys 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