The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1893-11-08
fbint> h1 m rine Jaw all our modern ye9- |

think by marine law all our modern ves-
sells have enough lifeboats to hold oil the
| crew and all the passengers in case OF energ-
| ency but the marines OF my text were stand
| ing by the only boat, and that 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 into It. Inc
| gospel hymn expresses 1t
All may come, whoever will;
This Man receives poor sinners SILL
But must haul in that statement littfe
| Room for all In that lifeboat, with Just one
| exception. Not you-I do not mean you, but
there Is one exception. There have oeen
cases where ships were in trouble, and tne
| 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 of now and pull 1or tne
beach. Good-by!" And then the captain,
with pathetic and sublime self-sacrifice, went
down with the ship. So the Captain of our
| salvation. Christ the Lord. launches the gos-
pel lifeboat and tells us all to get in, but He
ut behooved Christ to suffer-" Was it
not 20. We who witnessed His agonizing ex-
piratfon7 Simon Of Cyrene, was It not sof
| Cavalry troops, whose horses paved the
| dust at the cruoifxion, was II NOT sof 1e
Marys who swooned away with the sun OF
the midday heavens, was It not sof by
His stripes we are healed" By His death
we live. By His sinking in the deep sea Oh
suffering we get off in safe hfeboat. Yes,
we must put into this story little OF our
| own personality. We had ride In tnas
yery iifeboat from foundered craft to Solo
shore.
Once on the raging seas rowed.
The storm was I'D; the night was oark
The ocean yawned and rudely blow'i
| q. The wind that tossed my toundertng bark.
But got into the gospel lifebout and got
ashore. No religious speculation for me-
These higher criticism fellows do not bother
me bit. You may ask me fifty questions
about the sea, and about the land, and about
the lifeboat that cannot answer, but one
thing know, am ashore, and am gong , 10
stay ashore, If the Lord by His grace Will
help me. feel under me something 80 frm
chat try 1t with my right foot, and try It
with nv left foot, and then try it with both
feet. and it Is 80 solid that think 1t must De
what the old folks used to coll the hock OF
Ages.
And be nv remaining days on earth many
or few I am going to spend my tlme IN
recommending the ifeboat which fetched me
here, poor sinner saved py grace, anu ~
swinging the cutlasses to sever the ropes OF
any unsafe lifeboat and let her fall on. NY
nearer. without asking any questions, get,
into the gospel lifeboat. Room! and yet
Stnere is room! The biggest boat on earth Is
the gospel Hfeboat. You must remember the
PROPORTION of things, and that the ship
wrecked craft is the whole earth, and the
ufeboat must be In proportion.
You talk about your Campanias, and your
Iucanias, and your Majestics, and your City
of New Yorks, but all Of them put together
ara smaller than an Indians canoe on soh-
room Lake compared with this gospel hfeboat
that is large enough to take In all Nations:
Room for one and room for all. Get In!
"How2 How2" you ask.
Well, know how, you feel, for summer
before last on the sea OF Finland had the
same experience. The ship In Wnicn We
sailed could not venture nearer than mule
from shore, where stood the Russian Palac,e,
of Peterof, and we had to get into asmali
boat and be- rowed ashore. The water was
rough. and as we went down the ladder at
the side of the ship we held firmly on to 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 sufnclent! low
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 wgs we'll rewarded. In the
tSNoPS&
90! AS long as you hold on to any other
hope you are imperiled. and you get no ad-
vantage from the Hfeboat. Let go! Does
some one here say, ~ guess will hold on
little to my good works, or to pious parent
age, or TO something I can do In the way OF
achieving my own salvation" No, no, let
go! Trust the Captain, who would not put
you into rickety, or uncertain craft.
For the sake Of your present and everlast-
ing welfare, with oil the urgency OF an I'M
mortal addressing immortals, I cry from the
depths of nv soul and at the top OF my voice,
Let 60! Last summer the life saving crew
Mt East Hampton invited me to come up to
tho life station and see the crew practice, for
twice 3 week they are drilled In the lmpor-
tont work assigned them by the United States
Government, and they go through all tns
routine of saving the suipwrecked. But thaI
would give little idea OF what they would
have to do if some midnight next winter, the
wind driving backward, vessel shouIo get
in the grasp OF q hurricane.
SEQ the lights Dare from the ship in the
breakers, and then responding lights faring
from the beach. and hear tho rockets buzz as
they rise, and the lifeboet rumbles out, hnd
the gun booms, end tho life line rises ana
falls across the splintered decks, and the
hawser tightenS, and the li1a car goes 10 anu
fro, carrying the exhausted mariners, and tho
ocean. as II angered by the snatchinS OF the
human prev from the white teeth OF its surf
and the stroke OF its billowiug paw, rises
with increased fury to asssl the land; ..o,a SO
now am engaged in no light drlii, pracsic-
ing for what may come over some OF your
souls. It is with some of you wintry mid
night, and your hopes for this world and the
next are wrecked
But see! See! Tho lights kindled on the
beach! throw out the life line. Haul In.
hand over hand! Ah, there is !iteooat In
thesurt, which all the wrath Of earth and nell heii
hand puts the trumpet to His lips as He
cries, kOh, Israel, thou hast destroyed thy
self, but in Me is thy help" But what is the
usos all this If you decline to ges INTO hf
You might as we'll have been sailor on
board that foundering ship OF the Medl'
terranean when the mariners cut the ropes
of the boat and let her fall of.
A Lesson in Science.