Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1895-08-08


So men sleep soundly now and amid per-
lis infinite. In almost every place, sup
pose, the Mediterranean might be sounded,
but no limo is long enough to fathom the
profound beneath every impenitcnt man.
Pmnging thousand fathoms down, you
cannot touch bottom. Eternity beneath
him, before him, around him Rocks close
by and whirlpools and hot breathed Lee
vanters yet sound asleep We try to wake
him up, but fail. The great surges of
warning break over the hurricane deck
the gong of warning sounds through the
cabin--the bell rings. "Awake" cry n
hundred voices; yet sound asleep in the
cabin.
In the year 1875 the captain of a Green
land whaling vessel found himself at night
surrounded by icebergs and "lay to- un-
til morning, expecting every moment to be
ground to pieces. In the morning he
looked about and saw n ship near by. He
hailed it, No answer. Getting into a boat
with some of the crew, he pushed out for
the mysterious craft. Getting near by, he
SAW through the portfolio man at stand,
as though keeping logbook. He hailed
him. No answer. He wont on board the
vessel and found tho man sitting at the
logbook frozen to death. The logbools
had been wandering for 10 years among
the ice. The sailors were found frozen
among the hammocks and others in the
cabin. For 10 years this ship had been
carrying its burden of corpsos.
So from this gospel craft today descry
voyagcrs for eternity l cry: ship ahoyl
Ship ahoyr' No answer. Thoy float
about, tossed and ground by the iccbcrgs
of sin, hosting no sail for heaven. l go
on board. l find all asleep. 1t is u frozen
sleep Oh, that my Lord Jesus would
come aboard and lay hold of the wheel,
and steer tho craft down into the warm
gulf stream of his mercy! Awake, thou
that secpestl Arise from the dead, and
Christ shall give thee life
Again, notice that men are aroused by
the most unexpected means. If Jonah had
been told one year before that n heather
sea captain would ever awaken him to u
sense of danger, he would have scoffcd At
the idea, but here it is done SO now men
in strangest ways are aroused from spirit
ual stupor. A profanc man is brought
to conviction by the shocking blasphemy
of q comradc A man attending church
and hearing a sermon from the text, 1.-The
OK knowoth his owner, etc, goes homo
unimpressed; but, crossing his barnyard
an OK comes up and ticks his hand, and he
says, There it is now--'the OK knoweth
his owner, and the ass his masters crib
but do not know God" The careless re-
mark of teamster has led man to
thoughtfulness and heaven. The child's
remark, Father, they have prayers ut
uncle's house--why don't we have them"
has brought salvation to the dwelling.
BY strangest way and in the most un-
expected manner men are awakened. The
gardener of the Countess of Huntington
was convicted of sin by hearing the count
ess on tho opposite side Of the wall talk
about Jesus John Hnrdoak was aroused
by q dream in which he saw the last day,
and the judge sitting, and heard his own
name called with terrible emphasis, John
Hardoak, come to Judgments The Lord
has a thousand ways Of waking up Jonah.
Would that the messengers Of mercy might
now find their way down into the sides Of
tho ship, and that many who are uncon-
sciously rocking in tho awful tempest of
their sin might hear the warning: What
meanest thou, o sleeper? Arise and call
upon thy God"
Again, learn that a man may wake up
too late. IT, instead of sleeping, Jonah
had been on his knees confessing his sins
from the time he went on board the craft,
think that God would have saved him
from being thrown overheard. But he
woke up too late. The tempest is in full
blast, and the sea, in convulsion, is lash
ing itself, and nothing will stop it now
but the overthrow of Jonah.
Too Late.
So men sometimes wake up too late.
Tho last hour has come The man has no
more idea Of dying than have of dropping
down this moment. The rigging is all
white with the foam of death. How chill
the night is ~ must die, - he says, "yet
not ready | must push out upon this
awful sea, but have nothing with which
to pay my fare. The white caps! The
darkness The hurricanol How long have
been sleeping? Whole days and months
and years. / am quite awake now. | see
every thing but it is too late. ~ Invisible
hands take him up. He struggles to get
loose. In vain. They bring his soul to
the verge. They let it down over the side.
The winds howl. The sea opens its froth-
ing jaws to swallow. He has gone forever.
And while the canvas cracked, and the
yards ratified, and the ropes thumped the
sea took up the funeral dirge, playing with
open diapasoD of midnight storm: Be-
cause / have called, and We refused, / have
stretched out my hand and no man regard
Gu, Dut le nave Seu bt HduBHl All my CUM
sci and would none of my reproof l also
will laugh at your calamity, l will mock
when your fear cometh.
Now, lest any of you should make this
mistake. 1 address you in the words Of the
Mediterranean sea captain: "What mean
est thou, o sleeperS Arise, call upon thu
God, if so be that God will think upon us,
that we perish not" If you have God,
you had better call upon him DO you
say, Il have no Godr' Then you had bet
ter call upon your fathers God. When
your father was in trouble, whom did he fly
to? You heard him. in his old days, tell
about some terrible exposure in IL snow
storm, or at sea, or in battle, or among mid
night garroters, and how he escaped. Per
haps 20 years before you were born your
father made sweet acquaintance with God.
There is something in the worn pages of
the Bible he used to read which makes you
think your father had u God. In the old
religious books lying around the house
there are passages marked with a lead pen
cil--passages that make you think your
father was not godless man, but that, on
that dark day when he lay in the back
room dying, he was ready-all ready. But
perhaps your father was bad man-pray-
erless and u blasphemcr, and you never
think of him now without u shudder. He
worshiped the world or his own apDettes
Do not then, beg of you call upon your
fathers God, but call on your mother s
EAd hit,lr no.