The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-08-05

ing, following the sea. The merchants on
board. I suppose were going down 10
Iarshish 10 barter; but Jonah. notwlth-
standing his Christian profession. was
flying from duty. He was sound asleep
In tho cabin. He has been motionless for
hours-his arms and feet In the same pos
ture as when he lay down-his breast
heaving with deep respiration. oh, how
could he sleep What II the ship struck
"a rock, What If 10 sprang aieaH, What II
the clumsy oriental craft should capsize!
What would become Of Jonah?
80 men sleep soUndly now amid perils
infinite In almost every place. I sup
pose. the Mediterranean might be sound
ed. but no line is long enough 20 fathOm
The profound beneath every impenitent
man. Plunging a thousand fathoms down
you cannot touch bottom. Eternity be-
meath him, before him, around him Rocks
close by, and whirlpOols, and hot-breath-
ed Levanters; yet sound asleep. We try
10 wake him up. but fail. The great
surges Of warning break over the hurri-
cane deck-the gong Of warning sounds
through the cabin-tne bell rings.
Awake cry a hundred voices: yet
sound asleep in the cabin.
In the year 100. the captain OF a Green
land whaling vessel found himself at
night surrounded by icebergs, and lay
to- until morning. expecting every mo-
ment 10 be ground 10 pieces. In the
morning he looked about. and saw ship
near by. He hailed IL. No answer. Get
ting into a boat with some Of the crew,
he pushed out for the mysterious craft
Getting near by, he saw through the port
hole man at a stand. as though keppin
d log book. He hailed him. No answer.
He went on board the vessel and found
the man sitting al the log book, frozen to
death. The log book was dated in 1862,
showing that the vessel had been wan
lerirF for thirteen ha too
The sailors were found frozen among
the hammocks, and others in the cabin.
For thirteen years this ship had been
carrying its burden of corpses.
So from this gospel craft to-day, des-
cry voyagers for eternity. l cry, ship
ahoy! ship ahoyH No answer. They
float about, tossed and ground by the ice
bergs of sin. hosting no sail for heaven.
l go on board. find all asleep. 1t is
frozen sleep. O that my Lord Jesus
would come aboard, and lay hold Of the
wheel, and steer the craft down into the
warm gulf stream Of his mercy! Awake.
thou that sleepest, 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 heather
sea-captain would ever awaken him 10 a
sense OF danger, he would have scoffed at
the idea; but here il is done. So now. men
in strangest ways are aroused from spir-
itual stupor. a profane man is brought
TO conviction by the shocking basphemy
of a comrade. A man attending church,
and hearing sermon from the text, The
OK knOweth his owner" etc. goes home
unimpressed; but. crossing his barn-yard
an OK comes up and licks his hand. and ne
says There it is now-'the OK knoweth
his owner, and the ass his masters crib
but / do not know Cod" The careless
riF Of "a hag IoT
thoughtfulness and heaven. The child's
remark, Father. they have prayers at
uncle house-why don't we have them?"
has brought salvation to the dwelling.
BY strangest way and in the most unex-
pected manner men are awakened. The
gardener Of the Countess of Huntingdon
was convicted OF sin by hearing the coun-
tess on the opposite side Of the wall talk
about Jesus. John Hardoak was aroused
by dream in which he saw the last day,
and the judge sitting, and heard his own
name called with terrible emphasis:
John Har1oak come to Judgment 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 the ship and that many
who are unconseiously rocking in the aw-
ful tempest Of their sin might hear the
warning. "What meanest thou. o sleep
er? Arise. and call upon thy Godl"
Again. Learn that a man may wake
up TOO late. IT, instead Of sleeping. Jonah
had been on his knees confessing his sins
49, 90" time he went on board the craft.
I think thar UUI ~ ,,,..,; ....-s --=-. 49,.
from being thrown overheard. But he
woke up TOO late. The tempest is in fun
blast. and the sea. IN CONFUSION. is flashing
itself. and nothing viii stop il now but the
overthrow OF Jonah.
So men sometimes wake up too late.
The 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, l must die" he SAYS,
yet not ready. must push out upon this
awful sea, but have nothing with which 10
pay my fare. The white caps The dark
ness! The hurricane! How long have I
been sleeping? Whole days, and months.
and years. l am quite awake now. / see
everything, 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 canvass cracked and the
yards ratified, and the ropes thumped, the
sea took up the funeral dirge, playing with
open diapason of midnight storm, Be
cause have called, and We refused; have
stretched out my hand and no man re-
garded; but We have set at naught all nv
counsel, and would none of my reproof. l
also will laugh at your calamity; l win
mock when your fear cometh
Now, lest any OF you should make this
mistake, l address you in the words of
the Mediterranean sea-captain: what
meanest thou. o sleeper? Arise, call IN
on thy 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 God?" Then You
had better call upon you fathers God.
When your father was in trouble. who
did he fly to? You heard him, in his old
days, tell about some terrible exposure
in snow-storm. or at sea, or in battle
or among midnight garroters, and how he
escaped. Perhaps twenty years before
you we're born, your father made sweet
acquaintance with God. There is some
thing in the worn pages of the Bible he
used to read which makes you think your
father had a God IN the old religious
books lying around the house, there are
passages marked with a lead pencil
passages that make you think your ia
ther was not a goddess 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 a bad man-pray-
erless, and a blasphemer. and you never