Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1893-10-26

because want 60 persuade you % take the
only safe lfeboat. viii not allow you TO
be deceived and get on 70 the wild waves
and then capsize or sink. Thank God, there
Is 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 ara
made out of q tree that was set up on a
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 planks Of IL were
hammered together BY the hammers OF ex-
ecutioners who thought they were only
killing a Christ, but wers really pounding
together an escape for all imperiled souls Of
all ages.
1t is an old boat, but good as new, though
1t has been carrying passengers from sink
ing ships to firm shore for ages and has
never lost a passenger. These old Chris
tians begin to smile because it Is dawning
upon them what mean. The fact is that
in this way years ago they got of a wreck
themselves, and do not wonder they
smile. Il 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 met the captain
of the life saving station and said, Gap
tain, do you think lifeboat could live in
sea like thats" Although the worst of 1t
was over, the captain replied, "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 equinox
es, and all earth, and all hell. n20 years the
life saving apparatus along our Atlantic
coast saved the lives of over As, 900 of the
shipwrecked, but this lifeboat that COM
mend has saved in 20 years hundreds of
millions of the shipwrecked.
Like those newly invented English life
boats, it is insubmergible, self righting
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 hap
pened to walk along or some fisherman's
hut might be near. But after the ship
Ayrshire 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 an
appropriation of $500, 900 for life saving sta
tions, and life lines from taking box are shot
over the wild surf, and hawsers are stretch
| ed from wreck to shore, and what with
| I,yIe's gun and six cared surfboat, with
| cork at the sides to make it unsinkable,
| and patrolmen all night long walking the
| beach until they meet each other and ex-
| change metal tickets, so as to show the en-
| tire beach has been traversed, and the Cos
| ton light flashes hope from shore to suf-
ferer, and surfmen, incased in Merriman
| live saving dress and life car rolling on the
ropes, there are many probabilities OF
rescue for the unfortunate OF the sea. But
| the government of the united heavens has
made better provision for the rescue Of our
souls. So close by that this moment we
can put our hand on its top and swing into
| it, is this gospel lifeboat. 1t will not take
you more than second to get into it.
| LIFEBoAT FOR ALL.
But while in my text we stand watching
the marines with their cutlasses, preparing
to sever the ropes of the lifeboat and let
her fall off, notice the poor equipment.
Only one ifeboat. Two hundred and sew
enty-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" I do not suppose it
would have held more than 80 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 a 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, that boat is
large enough to hold all who are willing
to get intoit. 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; do not mean you
but there il one exception. There have
been cases 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. He, through the sea
trumpet, shouted: "Shove off now and pull
for the beach. Goodby," and then the cap
tain with pathetic and sublime self sacrific,
went down with the ship. So the Captain
of our salvation, Christ the Lord, launche:
the gospel lifeboat and tells us all to gel
in, but he perishes. "It behooved Christ tt
suffer-"
Il Was it not SO, ye who witnessed his ago
nizing expirationP Simon of Cyrene, wa.
it not sof Cavalry troops whose horse!
paved the dust at the crucifxion, was il
not soe YeMarys who swooned away will
the sun of the midday heavens, was it no
sos ''By his stripes we are healed" By
| his death we live BY his sinking in tn,
, deep sea of suffering we get off in a saf,
, lifeboat. Yes, we must put into this story
i little of our own personality We had
ride in that very lifeboat from foundereC
, craft to solid shore.
Once on the raging seas rowed.
] The storm was loud; the night was dark;
] The ocean yawned and rudely blow'd
. The wind that tossed my laundering bark
| But got into the gospel lifeboat, and
; got ashore No religious speculation fol
, me. These higher criticism fellows do moi
bother me bit. You may ask me so ques
tions about the sea, and about the land, anC
about the lifeboat that I cannot answer
but one thing know, am ashore and
am going to stay ashore, If the Lord by hi!
/ grace will help me. / feel under me some
| thing SO firm that I try it with my right
/ foot, and try it with my left foot, and ther
, try it with both feet, and it is so solid thai
] think it must be what the old folks uset
, to call the Rock of Ages.
II And be my remaining days on eartl
Q many or few am going to spend my tim
4 in recommending the lifeboat which fetche
me here, poor sinner saved by grace, an
in swinging the cutlasses to sever the rope
: of my unsafe lifeboat and let her fall of
My hearer, without asking any questions
get into the gospel lifeboat. Room! an
yet there is rooml The biggest boat o