Owingsville outlook. [volume] (Owingsville, Ky.) 1879-192?, 1893-10-26
UNSAFE LIFE-BOATS.
There is a Fine New Boat Called The.
o.ophy

o.ophy
which Only Proves the Truth Of the state.
ment That No Religion Is Too silly to
Win Disciples sail safeIy Take
the Gospel Craft.
Sunday forenoon DR. Talnage chose
for his subject Unsafe Lifcboats, the
text being Acts xvii S2-''Then the
soldiers cut off the ropes of the boat
and let her fall Off
While your faces are yet somewhat
bronzed by attendance on the interna
tional boat contest between the Vigil
liant and Nalkyris, l address you. Good
things when there is no betting or
dissipation. those outdoor sports We
want more fresh air and breeziness in
our tempcraments and our religion. A
stale and slow and lugubrious religion
may have done for other times, yet will
not do for these. But my text calls our
attention to- a boat Of different sort,
and instead of the Atlantic il is the
Mediterranean, and instead Of not wind
enough, as the crews of the Nigilant
and Nallyrie the other day complained,
there is too much wind about the swoop
of Euroclydon.
am not calling your attention Sd
much to the famous ship on which
Paul was the distinguished passenger.
hut to the lifc-boat of that ship,
which no one seems to notice.
For fortnight the main
vessel had been tossed and driven
h,t t,,.., h.,
the passengers had continued fasting"
] suppose the salt wateB. dashing over.
had spoiled the sea-biscuit, and the
passengers were seasick anyhow. The
sailors said, 1T is no use; this ship
must go down." and they proposed
among themselves to lower the life
boat and get into 1t, and take the
| chances for resehlng shore, although
they pretended they were going to get
over the sides of the big ship and down
| into the life-beat only to do sailors
| duty. That was not sailor-like. for the
| sailors that | have known were all in
| trepid follows. and would rather go
down with the ship than do such mean
thing as those Jack Tars Of my text at
| tempted
| W non on INC hcultcTTdntdn itSt JUNG
the Victoria sank under the ram of the
Camperdown the u.ost majestic thing
about that awful scene was that all the
sailors staid at their posts doing
| their duty. Az class all over the
world sailors are valorous, but these
sailors of the text were exceptional and
pretended to do duty while they were
really preparing for flight in the life
| boat. But these marines on board
sea ,oldicr.-had in special charge a
little missionary who was turning the
world upside down. and when these
mariners saw the trick the sailors were
about to play, they lifted the cutlass
| from the xir,llc and chop, chop, went
those cutlasses into the ropes that held
the life-boat, md splash, it dropped in
to the sea My text Describes it: The
soldiers cut of the ropes Of the boat
and let her fall off" AS that empty
life-boat dropped and was capsizcd on
a sea where for two weeks winds and
pillows had been in battle. | think that
many on board the main vessel felt
their last hope of ever reaching home
had vanished. In that tempestuous sea
a small boat could not have lived five
1
minutes.
NV subject is Unsafe Life-boats."
We can not exaggerate the Importance
of the life-boat All honor to the
memory of Lionel Lukin. the coach
builder of Long Acre. London. who in
vented the first life-boat, and do not
blame him for ordering put upon his
tombstone in Kent the inscription that
yoa may still read there:
This Lionel Luken was the first who
built a ife-boat and was the original
inventor of the principle of safety, by
which many lives and much property
have been preserved from shipwreck;
and he obtained for it the kings patent
in the year 1855"
All honor to the memory of Sir Will
linn Hilla-y,-aShs-l living i'm the Isle of
Man, and after assisting with his own
hand in the rescue of 305 lives of the
shipwrecked, stirred the English par
Lament to quick action in the con-
struction of life-boats Thanks to God
for the sublime and pathetic and divine
mission of the life-boat No one will
doubt its important mission who has
read of the wreck of the Amazon in
the Bay of Biseay; of the Tweed run
ming in the reefs of the Gulf of Mexico,
or of the Ocean Monarch on the coast
of Wales, or of the Birkenhead
on the Cape of Good Hope, or of
the Royal Charter on the coast of
Anglcsca, or of the Exnouth on the
Scotch breakers, or of the Cambria on
the Irish coast, or of the Atlantic on
| Al. 4. e Il q I
ington on Long Island Sound. To add
still further TO the importance of the
boat, remember there are at least
5000. 900 men following the sea, to say
nothing of the uncountcd millions this
moment ocean passengers. We land
tlubbers." as sailors call us, may not
know the difference between a marl;ne
spike and a ring-bolt or anything about
heaving IA log or rigging out a flying
jib-boom. or furling top-sail; but we
all realize to greater or less extent the
Importance of life-boat in every
marine equipment But do we feel
the Importance of life-boat in
the matter of the souls rescue?
There are times when we all feel that
we are out at sea, and as many disturb
ing and anxious questions strike us as
waves struck that vessel, against the
sides of which the lifeboat of my text
dangled Questions about the church.
Questions about the world. Questions
about God. Questions about our eter-
nal destiny. Every thinking man and
woman has these questions, and in pro-
portion rs they are thinking people do
these questions arise. There is no
wrong in thinking. If God had not in
tended us to think and keep on think
ing. he would not have built under the
whcclhousc of the skull this thinking
machine. which halts not in its r,,volu-
tions from cradle to grave. Even the
midnight docs not stop the thinking
machine. for. when we are in dreams.
we are thinking. although we do not
think as well. All of us who are ac-
customed to thinking want to reach
some solid shore of safety and satisfac-
ton, AND if any one has "a good life
boat that we may honorably take |
wish we would unswing it from the
davits and let us get into it and put for
shore. But | give you fair notice.
must first examine the lifc-boat before
risk my soul in it, or advise you to
risk your soul in it. All the splendid
Ramsgate life-boats. the Margate life
boats. and South Shields life-boats, and
American life-boats were tested before
being put into practical use as to their
buoyancy and speed and stowage and
self-righting capacity. And when YOU
offer my soul lifc-boat must first
test it.
Here is splendid new life-boat
called Theosophy. 1t has only a little
while been launched, although some of
the planks are really several thousand
wears old and from worm-eatcn ship