Connecticut western news., 1895-09-05
FOUR SAFE ANCHORS.
THE POWER OF DUTY, HOPE, CHRIST
 AND GOD.

Preached at Plymouth Church, Brooklyn.
 TExT.-And now cxhcrt you to be of good cheer.-Acts xvii, 22.
 It is not very difficult probably for most of us this morning to be of good cheer. The day is bright; the air is full of sunshine; it is a cool summer day, without the depressing heats that some times come at this season; most of our friends are about us, our homes are in- tact, and our city unvisited with pesti- | lence; the hardest of the hard times is apparently behind us; there is fair promise at least of better times coming on. It is not very difficult for most of us to be cheerful today. But this ex- | hortation of Paul was uttered under very different circumstances to men un- der very different circumstances. Let us consider the circumstances a moment. Paurs Courage.
 Paul had started out with the deter imitation to carry the gospel to pagan
 lands. He was almost absolutely alone
 in that determination. The people who do not believe in foreign missions have very good apostolic authority if they will only go back far enough and stay
 
 believe in foreign missions. Paul did,
 and he went to preach the gospel to the gentiles and to all Christians. He preached, gathered converts, founded churches, but they were poor material,
 and he had continually to be writing
 back to correct their heresies, counsel them in their perplexities, tell them
 what to do. When he gave the account
 of all his burdens, emergencies, perils,
 he put as the climax "the care of the
 churches which cometh on me daily"
 Some one has said the Lord has to
 have more patience with saints than
 with sinners. That was a sentiment
 Paul could appreciate. He finally set
 his face to 20 up to Jerusalem. As he
 neared Jerusalem men tried to dissuade
 him. He had many enemies in Jerusa-
 lem among the Pharisees and some in
 the Christian church. One prophet in
 particular came with message that he
 should not go, that he would be bound
 and put in prison if he did, but Paul
 said, am going; it does not make any
 difference if I am bound, if I am put ! in prison, if I am killed am going to
 Jerusalem. And he went. When he got
 to Jerusalem, James advised him to be
 diplomatic, counseled him to take four
 men with him that had VOW which they were sworn to fulfill and go with them into the temple and there per form certain ceremonies kept with such
 vow. James reasoned in this way ::
 He said, if Paul goes into the temple , the Pharisees will see that he is not so
 radical as they thought he was. It was diplomatic, but it was not wise. It is never wise for a radical to pretend to be
 more conservative than he really is. Putting on the mask of conservatism al
 ways arouses more prejudice than frank radicalism. And Paul found this out,
 for no sooner had he entered the tenn , pie to fulfill this vow than mob was raised against him. The mob would
 have destroyed his life if the Roman guard had not appeared and carried him off. Finally he was carried away and ! put in prison for two years. And during |. those two years he was unable to do
 anything for the churches, the care of 5 which came upon him daily. I wonder ! what he thought would become of the Corinthians, and the Colossians, and the Ephesians, and the Philippians, and the rest of them. Unless he was a great deal more than human he thought those
 churches depended on him, and if he
 was taken out of life the churches would
 go to pieces.
 The Shipwreck.
 At last the two years were over, and
 he was brought up for trial, and when
 he was brought before the court he said, T l r Nod -,,,l,t a Z : Roman citizen to appeal to Caesar. The z appeal took the case out of the jurisdio- tion of the court; he had to be sent tc , Rome to be tried there. Still the court Q wanted to hear what he had to say, and l when he got through the judge said, If q you had not appealed to Caesar we a would have let you go, but now we will r have to send you to Rome. He was put 7 on shipboard as prisoner. It was ir e the autumn. The ship reached the is :, land of Crete and there came to harbor. l But it was not very good barbor, and - in spite of Paul's advice to the contra # " they started out to make better e one and had scarcely got out from un der the protecting headlands before {
 northeasterly storm swept down or | UU6Iu duu lucIl Oub bO SSd hs :, ship creaked and shook in every part : so that they took great chains they ha6 2 on deck and dropped them down under
 meath and brought them on the othel a side to hold the ship together, under s girding it, it is said, and then, running n under the lee of land, they got th' if storm sail and brought the ships heaC V around, with her face to the gale, anC
 thus she drifted, beaten steadily back t Thirteen days and thirteen nights thu :, wind blew and the rain fell and the fos " gathered, and they knew not where the, D were. They were utterly panic stricken
 How panic stricken they were is indi
 cated by two circumstances-one, tha
 when they came within sight of lanC
 the sailors tried to get into the smal r. boat and make off and leave the ship tt
 go to pieces; the other, that the sol J. diers proposed to kill all the prisoner
 lest they should escape. When the, d came within the sound of the breakers 't that did not lessen their panic. Ther
 they threw out four anchors and waitet 6 for day. 1t was in these circumstance that Paul went to the soldiers and tn u sailors and his fellow prisoners anC n said, I exhort you to be cheerful l I was rather hard to be cheerful unde a those circumstances. It was then, witt
 the ship half on on her beams end, fo ia her cargo had shifted, the waves roll |. ing over her, and her sailors and sol T. diers clinging to the bulwarks-it wa IS then that Paul worked his way around
 and carried them something to eat, say ,i ing, Eat; you will need all you strength before you get free. Itwas thel
 he said, My God, whom serve day an'
 night, has sent his angel, and he ha
 told me we are safe. This message