Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1893-10-28

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in safety, us sure as God Is God and
Heaven is Heaven. The keel and ribs
of this boat are made out of % tree that
was set up on bluff back of Jerusa-
lem good many years ago. Both OF
the oars are made ont of the same tree.
The row.locks are made out of the same
tree. The steering gear is made out
of the same tree. The planks of it
were hammered together by the ham
mers of executioners, who thought
they were only killing Christ, hut
were really pounding together an cs-
cape for all imperiled souls of all ages.
1t is an old boat, but good as new,
though it has been carrying passcn-
gers from sinking ships to firm shore
for ages, and has never lost passen-
ger These old Christians begin to
smile because it is dawning upon them
what | mean. The fact is that in this
way years ago they got off wreck
themselves, and do not wonder they
smile 1t is not senseless giggle that
means frivolity, but it is smile like
that on the face of Christians the mo-
ment 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
Atlantic ocean six or seven weeks ago,
on the beach at East Hampton / met
the captain of the life-boat saving sta
ton and said: Captain, do you think
n life boat could live in sea like that?"
Although the worst of it was over, the
captain replied: mo, / do not think it
could.2 But this life-boat of which
speak can live in any sea and defies all
breakers, and all cyclones, and all
equinoxes, and all earth, and all hell.
But while in my text we stand watch
ing the marines with their cutlasses,
preparing to sever the ropes of the
life-boat and let her fall off, notice the
poor equipment Only one life-boat-
Two hundred and seventy-six passen-
gers, as Paul counted them, and only
one life-boat. My text uses the singu-
lar and not the plural. Cut off the
ropes o. 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 life-boats
to hold all the crew and all the pas
sengers in case of emergency, but the
marines of my text were standing by
the only boat, and that small boat,
and yet 276 passengers But what
thrills Inc through and through is the
fact that though we are wrecked by
sin and trouble. and there is only one
life boat, that boat is large enough 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 q
little. Room for all in that life-boat,
with just one exception. Not you; l
do not mean you, but there is one en-
ception There have been cases where
ships were in trouble and the captain
got all the passengers and crew into
the life-boat, but there was not room
for the captain. He, through the sea-
trumpet, shouted: "Shove off now and
pull for the beach. Good-by," and then
the captain, with pathetic and sublime
self-sacrnce, went down with the ship.
So the Captain of our Salvation, Christ
the Lord, launches the gospel life-boat
and tells us all to get in, but he per-
ishes. 1T behooved Christ to suffer"
My nearer, without asking any ques-
tions, get into the Gospel life-boat
Room! and yet there is room. The
biggest boat on earth is the Gospel life
boat. You must remember the proper
ton of things, and that the ship
wrecked craft is the whole earth, and
the life-boat must be in proportion.
You talk about your Campanias, and
your Lucanias, and your Majestics, and
your City of New Yorks, but all of them
put together are c-""ller than an In
dams canoe on Schi N lake compared
with this Gospel life-6oat, that is large
enough to take in all nations Room
for one and room for all Get in.
How? Howe" you ask. Well, know
how YOU feel, for summer before last,
on the Sea of Finland, l had the same
experience. The ship in which we
sailed could not venture nearer than
mile from shore, where stood the Rus
sian palace of Peterhof, and we
had to get into small boat and be
rcwed ashore The water was rough
and as we went down the ladder at the
side of the ship we held firmly onto the
railing, but in order to get into the
boat we had at last to let go. How did
/ know that the boat was good and
that the oarsmen were sufficient? How
did know that the Finland sea would
not swallow us with one opening of its
crystal jaws? We had to trust, and we
did trust, and our trust was well re-
warded In the same way get into
this Gospel life-boat. Let go! AS long
as you hold on to any other hope you
Dire imneriled and Won get no advantage