The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1897-02-26

have not a whole ship fastened in tn
theological drydocl-s to bring you Il
wharfage, you have at least plank
"Some on broken pieces Of the ship
But l don't believe in revivalsP
Then go to your room, and'all alone
with your door locked, give your hear
to God and join some church where
the thermometer never gets higher thar
80 in the shade
''But l 90 not believe in baptismp
Come in without it and settle that mat
ter afterward. But there are so many
inconsistent Christians!" Then come
in and show them by good example
how professors should act. "But dom
believe in the Old TESTAMENT Then
come in on the New. "But don't like
the book of Romans " Then come in
on Matthew or Luke. Refusing to come
to Christ, whom you admit to be the
Saviour of the lost, because you cannot
admit other things, you are like man
out there in that Mediterranean tempest
and tossed in the Melita breakers, re-
fusing to come ashore until he can mend
the pieces Of the broken ship hear
him say: 81 won't go in on any of these
planks until | know in what part of the
ship they belong. When 1 can get the
windlass i'll tES right place, and the sails
set, and that keel piece where it belongs
and that floor timber right, and these
ropes untangled, will go ashore. I am
an old soldier, and know all about ships
for 40 years, and as soon as | can get
the vessel afioat in good shape l will
come in" A man drifting by on piece
of wood ovCrhears him and says: "You
will drown before you get that ship re-
constructed. Better do as | am doing.
know nothing about ships, and never
saw one before | came on board this,
and | cannot swim a stroke, but | am
going ashore Oh this shivGred timber. "
The man in the ofing, while trying to
mend his ship, goes down. The man
who trusted to the plank is saved. Oh,
my brother, let your smashed up system
of theology go to the bottom, while you
come in on a splintered spar! "Some
on broken pieces of the ship"
The Victorious Banner.
You may get all your difficulties set
tied as Garibaldi, the magnetic Italian,
got his gardens made. When the war
between Austria and Sardinia broke out
he was living at Caprera, a very rougl
and uncultured island home. But he
went forth with his sword to achieve the
liberation of Naples and Sicily, and
gave 5000, 900 people free government
under Victor Emmanuel Garibaldi,
after being absent two years from Ca
prera, returned, and when he approach
ed it he found that his home had, by
Victor Emmanuel as surprise, been
Edenized. Trimmed shrubbery had
taken the place of thorny thickets gar
dens the place of barrenness, and the
old rookery i'll which he once lived had
given way to pictured mansion. And
| tell you if you will come and enlist
under the banner of our Victor Emman-
uel and follow him through thick and
thin and fight his battles and endure
his sacrifices you will find after awhile
that he has changed your heart from a
Jungle of thorny skepticism into gar
uGll jill dDlOOIu Will luAllIlGlllU ivy UIluU
you have never dreamed of-from a
tangled Caprera of sadness into para
disc of God.
do not know how your theological
system went to pieces It may be that |
your parents started you with only one
plank, and you believe little or moth
ing. Or they may have been too rigid |
and severe in religious discipline and
cracked you over the head with psalm
book. 1t may be that some partner i'll .
business who was a member of an evan
gelical church played on you a trick
that disguised you with religion. 1t .
may be that you have associates who /
have talked against Christianity in your
until you are "all at sea, and .
you dwell more on things that you do
not believe than on things you do be-
lieve You are in one respect like Lord
Nelson, when a signal was lifted that
he wished to disregard and he put his
sea glass to his blind eye and said, 81
really do not see the signal" Oh, my
nearer, put this fieldglass Of the gospel
40 longer to your blind eye, and say, 1
cannot see, but put 1t TO your other eye,
The eye of faith, and you will see Christ,
and he is all you need to see.
If you can believe nothing else, you
believe in vicarious suffering,
or you see it almost every day i'll some
hape. The steamship Knickerbocker of
he Cromwell line, running between
New Orleans and New York, was in
yreat storms, and the captain and crew
aw the schooner Mary D. Cranmer CT
in distress The weather
old, the waves mountain high, the first
,fficer of the steamship and four men
nut out in lifeboat to save the crew Of
he schooner and reached the vessel and
owed it out Of danger the wind shift
ng so that the schooner was saved. But |
he five men of the steamship coming ,
Jack, their boat capsized, yet righted !
gain and came on, the sailors coated {
With ice. The boat capsized again, and
hree times upset and was righted, and
line was thrown the poor fellows, but ]
heir hands were frozen so they could {
ot grasp it, and a great wave rolled {
yer them, and they went down, never {