The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1897-04-01
NO.. 5.

pest and tossed in the Melta breakers,
refusing to come ashore until he can
mend the pieces of the broken ship.
hear him say: II won't go in On any pf
these planks until | know in what part
of the ship they belong. Wicn can get
the windlass in the right place. and tho
sails set, and that keel piece where it
belongs, and that floor timber right,
and these ropes untangled. | will go
ashore. | am an old sailor, and know all
about ships for 40 years, and as soon as
| can get the vessel ahoat in good shape
will come in" \ man drifting by ona
piece of wood overhears him and says:
"Iou will drown before you get that
ship reconstructed. Better do as am
doing. | know nothing about ships.
and never saw one before | came on
board this, and cannot swim stroke,
but am going ashore on this shivered
timber" The man in the otfng, while
trying to mend his ship, goes dowa.
| 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 spintered spar!
ooliiC oii ohS piCtSS VI tlS Sll'p
l do not know how your theological
system went to pieces. 1t may be that
your parents started You with only on,
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 in
business who was member of an evan
gelical church played on you trick
that disgusted you with religion. 1t
may be that you have associates who
have talked against Christianity IN your
presence 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: II
really do not see the signal" Oh. nv
hearer, put this feldglass of the gospel
no longer to your blind eye, and say,
cannot see, but put it to your other eye.
the eye of faith, and you will sea
Christ, and He is all you need to sec.
If you can believe nothing else, you
certainly believe in vicarious suffering,
for you see it almost every day in some
shape. The steamship Knickerbocker. of
the Cromwell line. running between
New Orleans and New York, was in
great storms, and the captain and crew
saw the schooner Mary =. Cranmer, of
Philadelphia, in distress. The weather
cold, the waves mountain high, the first
officer of the steamship and four men
, put out in lifcboat to save the crew Of
the schooner, and reached the vessel
> and towed it out of danger. the wind
, shifting so that the schooner was saved.
, Rut the five men of the steamship COM
, ing back, their boat capsized,yet righted
7 again and came on. the sailors coated
with ice. The boat capsized again, and
+ three times upset and was righted. and
| a line was thrown the poor fellows, but
their hands were frozen so they could
/ rot grasp it, and great wave rolled
over them, and they went down, never
to rise again till the sea gives up its
. dead Appreciate that heroism and self
, sacrifice of the brave fellows all who
o can, and can we not appreciate the
q Christ who put out into more biting
6 cold and into a more overwhelming
| surge to bring us out of infinite peril
E into everlasting safety? The wave OF
= human hate rolled over him from one
side and the wave of hellish fury rolled
:, over him Oh the other side. Oh, the
= thickness of the night and the thunder
of the tempest into which Christ
, plunged for our rescue!
), Come in on one narrow beam Of the
9 cross Let all else go and cling e. =:
Y put that under you. and with H. +
r nestness of a swimmer Struggling tyr
l. his life put out for shore. There is a
y great warm fire of welcome already
h built. and already many, who were rs
e far out as you are, are standing in i:s
70 genial and heavenly glow. The angels
r of Gods rescue are wading out into the
v surf to clutch your hand, and they kno"
.r how exhausted you are, and all the re-
,e deemed prodigals Of Heaven are on the
T. beach with new white robes to clotht
is all those who come in on broken pieces
fe of the ship.
n NV sympathies are for such all th'
rs more because | was naturally skertica'
k. disposed to question everything abou
| this life and the next, and was in dan
lie ger of being farther out to sea than AM
,e of the 276 in the Mediterranean break
IL crs, and was sometimes the annoyance
re of my theological professor because
at asked SO many questions. But | cam
I'd in on plank knew Christ was tn
ne Saviour of sinners and that was IA sin
~ ner. and got ashore, and DO not pro
e. pose to go out on that sea again.
ut have not for 80 minutes discussed tn
he controverted points of theology in ,
rs years, and during the rest of my life
n do not propose to discuss them for )
seconds.
:" From many a deathbed | have sec
lie, the hands thrown up in deporatio
Irt something like this: "My life has bee
re wasted. had good mental facultit
er end fine social position and great q
portunity. but through worldlness an
I" neglect all has gone to waste save thes
a f. foru rar,aipinO hours now aCcPt