Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1893-11-03
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUM-
DAY SERMON
Subject: "Unsafe LifeI7oats."

TEXT: "Thon the soIdters c,t off the rope
| of the boat and let her fnH Cf:'-Acts xvii
| 80.
While your faces are yet somewhat brOnzed
| by attendance on the international boat con-
| test between the Vigilant and the VaIkyrie
| address you. Good things when there is nc
! betting or dissipation, those outdoor sports
| We want more fresh air and hreeziness il
! our tempcraments and our religion. \ stale
! and slow and lugubriOus religion may have
| done Tor otner times. yet will not DO for
| these. But my text calls our attention to a
| boat Of different sort and instead OF the
| Atlantic it is the Mediterranean, and instead
| OF not wind enough, as the crews of theViGi-
| liant and tho Vaikyre the other day com
| plalned, there is too much wind and the
| swOop Of EurOclydon.
am not calling your attention so much
| 10 the famous ship on which Paul was the
! distinguished passenger. but to the lifebOat
OF that ship which no one seems to notice
For fortnight the main vessel had been
tossed and driven. For that two weeks, the
account says. the passengers had "coutin-
ued fasting" / suppose the salt water,
| dashing over, had spoiled the sea biscuit,
and the passengers were seasick anyhow.
The sailors gaid, ''It is no use this ship
must go down" and they proposed among
themselves to lower the lifeboat and get into
1t and take the chances for reaching Shore
although they pretended they were going to
get over the sides Of the big ship and down
into the lifebOat only to do sailors duty.
That was not sailorlike. for the sailors that
have known were all intrepid fellows and
would rather go down with the ship than do
such a mean thing as those Jack Tars of my
text attempted.
When On the Mediterranean last June the
Nictoria,sank under the ram of the Camper
down, the most majestic thing about that
I'm hat or,
their posts doing their duty. As a class all
over the world sailors are valOrous, but these
sailors Of the text were exceptional and pre-
tended to do duty while they were really pre-
pairing for flight in the lifeboat. But these
'marines" on hoard-sea sOldierS-had in
especial charge a little missionary who was
turning the world upside down. and when
these marines saw the trick the sailors were
about to play they lifted the cutlasscs from
the girdle and chop! chop! went those cut
lasses into the ropes that held the lifeboat,
and splash it dropped into tho sea.
My text describes it, "The soldiers cut Off
the ropes of the boat and let her fall off.
AS that empty lifehOat dropped and was cap
sized on sea where for two weeks winds
and bilIOw5 had been in battle think that
many on board the main vessel felt their
last hope Of everreachjng home had vanished
In that tempestuOus sea small boat could
not have lived five minutes.
My subject is ''Unsafe LifehOats." We
cannot exaggerate the Importance of the
lifebOat All honor to the memory of Lionel
Lukin. the coach builder of Long Acre. Lon
don, who invented the first iifeDO4t and do
not blame him for ordering put on his tomb
stone il Kent the inscription that YOU may
still read there:
This Lionel Lunkin was the first who
built lifebOat and was the original inventor
of that principle OF safety by which many
lives and much property nave been pre-
served from shipWreck, and he obtained for
it the kings patent in the year 17s5.
All honor to the memory OF Sir William
Hillary. who. living in the Isle Of Man. and
after assisting with his own hand in the res
cue Of 305 lives of the shipwreaked, stirred
the English Parliament to quick action in
the construction of lifebOats. Thanks 10 God
for the sublime and pathetic and divine mis-
sion OF the lifeboat. No ono will doubt its
important mission who has read of the wreck
Cf the Amazon in the Bay Of Bisaay. of the
Tweed running on the reefs Of the Gulf Of
Mexico, or of the Ocean Monarch on the
coast Of Wales. or of the BirlouhCai on the
Cane of Good Hope. or of the Royal Charter
en- the coast of Angl"S@a, or OF the EXmOuth
on the Scotch breakers OF OF the Cambria on
the Irish coast, or of the Atianticon the rocks
Ct Nova Scotia, or Of the LeXins stOn on Long
Island Sound.
To add still further to the Importance OF
the lifebOat remember there are at least
5000 900 men following the sea, to say moth
ing of the amounted millions this momeUt
ocean passengers. We ''laGd-iubbeVs.' as
sailors call us, may not know the difor nee
between marline spike ani a rinSbo,t. or
anything about heaving a los. or rigging out
a dying jibbOom. or furlinG q topsail, but we
all realize to greater or less extent the i'm
pOrtance of lifebolt in every marine equip
meGt.
But do we feel the Importance Of lifeboat
in the matter OF thesouPs rescued? There are
times when we all feel that We are out at sea,
a.
tions strike Us as waves struck that vessel
against the sides Of which the litebOat Of my
text danGled. Questions about the church.
Questions about the world. Questions about
God. Questions about our eternal destiny.
Every thinking man and woman has these
questions. and lin proportion astney are think
ing people do these questions arise
There is no wrong in thinking. If God had
not intended Us to think and keep on think
ing, He would not have built under this
WhceiEouse Of the skull this thinking IGa-
chine, which haIts not in its revolutions from
cradle to grave. Even the midnight does
not stop the thinking machine, for when we
are in dreams we are thinking, although we
do not think as we'll. All of us who are aG-
cust0med to thinking want to reach some
solid shore of safety and satisfaction. and ii
any one has good lifehoat that we may
honorabiv take [ wish lie would unsWing it
from tee davits and let is get into itand put
for the shore.
But give you lair notice I must first eZ-
amino the lifeboat before | risk my soul III it
or advise you TO risk your sOui in it. All tho
splendid Rams sgRte 4ifebcats, and Margate
lifeboats and South Shield hle5olt5, and
American lifeboatS were tested befote being
put into practical use as to their buoElncy
and speed and stowage and s"if-r;ghtns ca
pacity. And when you oifcr NY soul a life
boat [ must first test 1t.
Hero is a splendid now HGeboat called
Theosophy. it has only a little while been
launched, although some OF inc pianks are
really several thousand years old, and rom
Il worm eaten ship, int they are painted
over and look new. They arc really fatali5n
and pGntheism OF Olden time. But we must
forget that and call them theosophy. The
Grace Darling of this liionoat was an oars
woman hv the name OF Mime. Bi2vatsAy,
but tGc oarswOman now Is Annie E3sant. So
many are getting aboard tho boat It Is
worthy OF examination. bOtG because OF tho
sa.etr Of taosc who have enter2d il aud be-
cause n-o ourselves are iEvitoi > got IL.
Its theorr is that everything is Cos. Horse
nnI star HnI tree and nan are parts oE God.
We ha-a thres sGU.S--an animal soul, & hU-
man sool, = spiritual sou!. The animal soul
becomes, aGte- awhile. 4 wandering thing,
trying to express itsGiT through meuiGmS-
1t enters beasts or enters a human being.
and when you find an effeminate man it IS
because Il wOman's soul has got into the
man, and when you find Il masculine woman
sion of q wOmanS body.
If YOU find a woman has become platform
speaker and likes politics, she is possessed by
a dead politician. who forty years ago made
the platform quake. The soul keeps wanier-
ing on and on, and may have fifty or innu-
merable different forms, aud finally is ao-
sorbed in God. 1t was God at the start and
will be God at the last. But who gives the
authority for the truth OF such religion?
Some beings living in cave in central ASIA.
They are invisible to the naked eye. but they
cross continents and seas in a flash.
My Baptist brother DIR. Haldeman says
that a theosophist in New York was visited
by one of these mysterious beings from
centra. Asia The gentleman knew it from
the 1act that the mysterious being left his
pocke- handkerchief. embroidered with his
name and Asiatic residence. The most Won
derfUi achievement of the theosOphistS is
that they keep out of the insane asylum.
They prove thetruth Of the statement that no
religion ever announced was so absurd but
it gained disciples.
Societies in the United States and England
and other lands have been established for
&l,~S ~ .