The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1894-10-23
JONAH IN THE STORM.
THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER
WITH WORK.

Ancient Mariners Relied at First
Upon Their Oars, hut I'm Their Ex-
tremity Called on God.
Rev. II. De Witt Talmage, ID. D.,
who IL still absent on his tour around
the world, has selected as the subject
OF q sermon through the press 1.-The
Oarsmen Defeated" the text chosen
being Jonah i, -, Ia, Tho men rowed
hard to bring it to the land, but they
could not, wherefore they cried unto
the Lord"
Navigation in the Mediterranean sea
always was perilous, especially SO In
early times. Vessels we're propelled
partly by sail and partly by oar:
When, by reason Of great stress OF
weather, 1t was necessary TO reef the
canvass or haul it in, then the vessel
was entirely dependent upon the oars,
sometimes 20 or 80 of them on either
side the vessel. You would not ven
ture outside your harbor with u q
craft as my text finds Jonah sailing in,
but he had not much chioce OF vessels.
He was running away from the Lord,
and when a man Is running away o
the Lord he has to run very fast.
"FRoM THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD"
God told Jonah to go to Nineyeh TO
preach about the destruction OF that
city. Jonah disobeyed. That always
makes rough water, whether In the
Mediterranean, or tho Atlantic, or the
Pacific, or the Caspian sea-. it is q
very hard thing to scare sailors. |
have seen them when the brow of the
vessel was almost under water, and
they we're walking the deck knee deep
In the surf, and the small boats by the
side of the vessel had been crushed as
small as kindling wood, whistling rs
though nothing had happened, but the
Bible says that these mariners Of whom
I speak were frightened.
That which sailors call ga lumb OF u
sea " md become q binding, deafen'
ing, swamptng fury. How mad the
wind can get at the water, and the wa.
ter can get at the wind; you do no
know unless you have been spectators;
| nave in my house q piece of the sail
OF q ship no larger than the palm OF
my hand. That piece of canvas was
all that was left of the largest sail OF
the ship Greece that went into the
storm 200 miles off Newfoundland. Oh,
what o night that was! I suppose it
was In some such storm as this that
Jonah was caught.
He knew that the tempest was on
his account, and he asked the sailors to
throw him overheard. Sailors are q
generous hearted race, and they re-
solved to make their escape if possible
without resorting to such extreme
measures. The sails are of no use, and
SO they lay hold on their oars. I see
the long bank of shining blades on
either side the vessel. Oh, how they
did pull, The bronzed seamen, as they
laid back unto the oars But rowing
on the sea is very different from row
ing upon q river, and as the vessel
hoists the oars skip the wave and miss
the stroke, and the tempest laughs to
scorn the flying paddles. 1t is Of no
use, no use. There m u wave that
crashes the last mast and sweeps the
oarsmen from their places and tum-
bles everything in the confusion Of i'm
pending shipwrecks, Or as my text
has 1T, The men rowed hard to bring
1T to land, but they could not, where
tore they cried unto the Lord"
SALVATION FROM THE STORM.
n scene Is very suggestive to me,
and l pray God [ may, have grace and
strength enough to represent it intel
ligently to you. Years ago 1 preached
Il sermon on another phase of this very
subject, and | got g letter from Hous-
ton, Tex, the writer saying that the
reading Of that sermon in London had
led him to God. And I received an
other letter from South Australia say
ing that the reading of that sermon in
Australia had brought several souls to
Christ. And then L thought, Why not
take another phase OF the same sub
ject, for perhaps that God who can
raise in power that which is sown in
weakness may new through another
phase of the same subject bring saliva
tion to the people who shall hear and
who shall read? Mon and women who
know how to pray lay hold of the Lord
God Almighty and wrestle for the bles-
sing.
Bishop Latimcr would stop some
times in his sermon in the midst of his
argument and say, Nov l will tell
you q fable" and today L would like to
tratiOn Of a most important religious
truth. AS those Mediterranean oars
men trying to bring Jonah ashore were
discounted, I have to tell you that they
were not the only men who have
broken down on their paddles and have
been obliged to call On the Lord for
help. l want to say that the unavail-
ing efforts Of those Mediterranean
oarsmen have a counterpart in the eff
forts we are making to bring souls to
n shore of safety and set their feet
on the rock Of ages. You have a ia
Their or mother or husband or wife or
child or neal friend who is not q Chris
tian. There have been times when
you have been in agony about their
salvation.
SICKNESS AND SORROW.
A minister of Christ whose wife was
dying without any hope in Jesus walk
cd the floor, wrung his hands, cried
bitterly and said, 81 believe | shall go
insane, for [ know she is not prepared
to meet God !" And there may havo
been days of sickness in, your house
hold when you feared it would be q
fatal sickness, and how closely you cx-
the face Of the doctor as he
came in and scrutinized tho patient
and felt the pulse, and you followed
him n the next room and said,
There isn't any danger, is there, doc
tor ?" And the hesitation and the I'M
certainty Of the reply made two cter-
mites flash before your vision. And
then you went and talked to the sick
one about the great future. Oh, there
are those here who have tried to bring
their friends to God. They have been
unable to bring them 10 the shore of
They are no nearer that point
they were 20 years ago. You
think you have got them almost to the
shore when you are swept back again.
What shall you do? Put down the
Oh, no L do not advise that,
but | do advise that you appeal to that
God to whom tho Mediterranean oars
appealed, the God who could
the tempest and bring the ship