Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1893-11-09


we can put our hand on its top anc
swing into it. is this gospel lifeboat- Il
will not take you more than a second
to get into it,
But while in my text we stand
watching the mariners with their emit
lasses, preparing to sever the lifeboai
and let her fall off notice the poor
equipment. Only one lifeboat Two
hundred and seyenty-six passengers.
as Paul counted them, and only one
lifeboat. My text uses the singular
and not the plural. "Cut off the ropes
of the boat. /" do not suppose it would
have held more than thirty 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 mariners of
my text We're standing by the only
boat. and that small boat, and yet
two hundred and seventy-six passen-
gers. 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, that
boat is large en- Aigh 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
little Room for all in that lifeboat.
with just one exception. Not you; J
do not mean You but there is one ex-
eeption. There have been eases 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. lie, through the sea
trumpet. shouted: "Shove of now and
pull for the beach. Goodbye" And
then the captain with pathetic and
sublime self-sacrifice went down with
the ship So the captain of our saliva
ton, Christ the Lord, launches the gos-
pei lifeboat and tells Us all to get in.
but He perishes. 1T behooved Christ
to suffer, Was ii not so, We who wit
messed his agonizing expirationa Simon
of Cyrene, was it not SO? Cavalry
troops whose horses paved the dust at
the Crucifixion was IL not so? We
Marys who swooned away with the sun
of the midday heavens, was II not so?
by His stripes we are healed" BY
His death we live liy His sinking in
the deep sea of suffering we get off in |
a safe lifeboat. Yes, we must put into |
this story little of our own personal
ity. We had a ride in that very life |
boat from foundered craft to solid |
shore.
Oaee on the raging seas I rowed,
The storm was loud, the nizht was dark,
The ocean vawned ana rudely plogd
The wind that tossed M laundering bark,
But got into the gospel lifeboat and
got ashore. No religious speculation
for me. These higher criticism fellows
10 not bother me bit You may ask
ne fifty questions about the sea and
about the land and about the lifeboat
hat / cannot answer, but one thing !
know: | am ashore and / am going to
,tay ashore, if the Lord by His grace
viii help me. | feel under me some
hing so firm that try it with my
light foot. and try il with my left foot.
md then try it with both feet, and it
5 so solid that think it must be what
he old folks call the Rock OF Ages
IND be my remaining days on earth
many or few. | am going to spend my
ime in recommending the lifeboat
which fetched me here, a poor sinner
aved by grace. and in swinging the cut
asses to sever the ropes of any unsafe !
ifeboat and let her fall off. My nearer,
Without asking any questions, get
nto the gospel lifeboat. Room! and
ct there is rooml The biggest boat on
arth is the gospel lifeboat You must
the proportion of things,
nd that the shipwrecked craft is the
fhole earth, and the lifeboat must be :
q proportion. You talk about your
and your Lucanias and
our Majestics and your City of New
'orl1s, but all of them put together are
mailer than an Indians canoe on q
chroom lake compared with this gos- e
ell lifeboat that is large enough to u
Ike in all nations. Room for one and r
pom for ALL Get in! How? How?'
on ask. Well, know how you feel. 8
,r summer before last, on the sea of !
inland, had the same experience.
he ship in which we sailed could not
anture nearer than mile from shore, r
here stood the Russian Palace
Peterhof and we had to get 2
to small boat and be rowed :
shore. The water was rough, and q
we went down the ladder at the =
de of the ship, we held firmly on to
lie railing, but in order to get into the es
rat. we had at last to let go How n
d | know that the boat was good and &C
lat the oarsmen were sufficient? How n
d / know that the Finland sea would n
IT swallow us with one opening of its e,
ystal jaws? We had to trust, and we 4. Il
d trust, and our trust was well re- e
arded. In the same way get into the ov
1spel lifeboat. Let go. As long as GO
III hold on to any other hope, you are
lperiled and you get no advantage no
ON your lifeboat. Let go. Does some sal
e here say, "I guess / will hold on az as
tie to my good works, or to a pious au
rentape, or to something | can do in