The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1893-10-27

my left foot, and then try 1t with both
feet, and 1t is so solid that think 1t
must be what the old folks used to call
the Rock of Ages.
And be my remaining days on earth
many or few | am going to spend my
time in recommending the lifeboat which
fetched me here, poor sinner saved by
grace, and in swinging the cutlasses
to sever the ropes Of any unsafe lifeboat
and let her fall of. My hearer, without
asking any questions, get into the gospel
hfeboat. Room! and yet there is rooml
The biggest boat on earth is the gospel
hfeboat. You must remember the pro-
portion Of things, and that the ship
wrecked craft is the whole earth, and the
lifeboat must be in proportion.
You talk about your Campapias, and
your Lucanias, and your Majestics, and
your City of New Yorks, but all of
them put together are smaller than an
Indians canoe on Schroon lake com
pared with this gospel lifeboat that is
large enough to take in all nations.
Room for one and room for all. Get
nl "How? Howy' you ask.
Well, l know how you feel, for sum-
mer before last on the sea of Finland
had the same experience. The ship in
which we sailed could not venture near
er than a mile from shore, where stood
the Russian palace Of Peterhof. and we
had to get into small 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 suffi-
cient? How did know that the Finland
sea would not swallow us with one open
ing of its crystal jaws2 We had to trust
and We did trust. and our trust was well
rewarded. In the came way get into this
gospel lifeboat. Let go! AS long as you
hold on to any other hope you are i'm
periled, and you get no advantage from
the lifeboat. Let gol Does some one
here say, Il guess will hold on little
to my good works, or to % pious parent
age, or to something can do in tie way
of achieving my own salvation" No,
no, let go Trust the Captain, who
would not put you into rickety or I'M
certain craft.
AN ELOQUENT PERoRATloE.
For the sake of your present and cv-
erlasting welfare, with all the uisrlcy
Of an immortal addressing immoTtas
cry from the depths of my soul and a
the top of my voice, Let go! Last sum.
mer the life saving crew at Ea;l IIa.a,.
ton invited me to come up to toe lie
station and see the crew practice, isI'
twice week they are drilled in tilo IL.
portant work assigned them by the Unit
ed States government, and they e
through all the routine Of saving Tie
shipwreckod. But that would give lit
tie idea of what they would have to 30
if some midnight next winter, the wind
driving backward, vessel should get
In the grasp of a hurricane.
See the lights fare from the shin in
the breakers, and then responding lights
faring from the beach, and hear the
rockets buzz as they rise, and the life
boat rumblts out, and the gun booms,
and the life line rises and falls across the
splintered decks, and the hawser tight
ems, and the life car goes to and fro, car
rying the exhausted mariners, and the
ocean, as ifa,gered by the snatching OF
the human prey from the white teeth of
its surf and tho stroke Of its billowing
paw, rises with increased fury to assail
the land So now | am engaged in no
light drill, practicing for. what may
come over some of your sous. 1t is with
some Of you wintry midnight, and your
hopes for this world and the next are
wrecked.
But see See! The lights kindled on
the beach, l throw out the life line.
Haul in, hand over hand! All, there is
lifeboat in the surf, which all the wrath
of earth and hell cannot swamp, and its
Captain with Scared hand puts the
trumpet to his lips as he cries, "Oh,
Israel, thou hast destroyed myself, but
in me is thy help" But what is the use
of all this if you decline to get into it?
You might as well have been sailor on
board that laundering ship of the Medi-
terranean when the mariners cut the
ropes of the boat and let her fall off.