Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1893-10-23

sped out of boathouse or hoisted sail
for race. But she leaks. Trust your
soul in that, and you will go to to the
bottom. She leaks. So I initiate the
mariners of the text, and with cutlass
strike the ropes of the boat and let her
fall off,
Another lifeboat is Christian Incon-
sistencies. The planks of this boat are
composed of the split planks of ship
wrec,,-s. That prov is made out of by
pocrisy from the life of a man who pro-
fessed one thing and really was another.
One oar of this lifeboat was the false
hood of a church member, and the other
oar was the wickedness of some minister
of the gospel, whose iniquities were not
for 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 and
crumbling and fallen apart and rotten
and ready to sink.
'.Well, well" you say, mo one will
want to get into that lifeboat'' Oh, my
friend, you are mistaken That is the
most popular lifeboat ever constructed
That is the most popular lifeboat 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 club, as on our ship
Greece in a hurricane, and the steerage
passengers 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 deciding Alright because
they know so many Christians who are
bad. The inquiry room becomes a
worlds fair for exhibition of all the
frailties of church members, so that if
you believe all is there told you you
would be afraid to enter a church lest
you get your pockets picked or get
knocked down.
This is the way they talk: 81 was
cheated out of $500 by leader of a
Bible class" ga Sunday school teacher
gossiped about me and did her best to
destroy my good name" 81 had a part
ner in business who swamped our bust
ness concern by his trickery and then
rolled up his eyes in Friday night prayer
meeting, as though he were looking for
Elijah's chariot to make a second trip
and cake up another passenger"
But what cracked and water logged
and gaping scanned lifeboat the incon-
sistencies of othersi Put me on a single
mid-Atlantic and leave me there rather
than in such yawl of spiritual conf
dence. God forbid that I should get
aboard it, and lest some of you make the
mistake of getting into it | do as the
mariners did on that Mediterranean ship
when the sailors were about to get into
the unsafe lifeboat 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 CHANCE.
''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 l 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 q
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
Il l,o
same tree The steering gear is made
out Of the same tree. The planlzs Of it
were hammered together by the ham,
mers of executioners who thought they
were only killing a 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 a 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 q wreck themselves, and I
do not wonder they smile. It is not a
senseless giggle that means frivolity.
but it is q 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 a lifeboat
could live in q sea like that?" Although
the worst Of it was over, the captain re-
piled, mo, do not think it could" But
this lifeboat of which I speak can live
in any sea and defes all breakers, and
all cyclones, and all equinoxes, and all
earth, and all hell. In 90 years the life
saving apparatus along our Atlantic
coast saved the lives Of over d. 600 of