Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1897-08-31


been digging their way out through the
bottom of the ship. When the vessel
capsized they had no means of escape.
The captain took his penknife and dug
away through the planks until his
knife broke. Then an old nail was
found, with which they attempted to
scrape their way up out of the dark
ness, each one working until his hand
was well-nigh paralyzed. and he sank
back faint and sick. After long and
tedious work, the light broke through
the bottom of the ship. A handker-
| chief was hoisted. Help came. They
were taken on board the vessel and
saved. Did ever men come so near a
watery grave without dropping into 1t?
How narrowly they escaped-escaped
only with the skin of their teeth"
There are men who have been capsized
! OF evil passions, and caps.zed mid
ocean, and they are thousand miles
away from any shore of help. They
have for years been trying to dig their
way out They have been digging
away, and digging away, but they can
never be delivered unless now they Will
| hoist some signal of distress. However
weak and feeble it may be, Christ will
see it, and bear down upon the helpless
craft, and take them on board; and
1T will be known on earth and in heav-
en- how narrowly they escaped, "es-
capped as with the skin of their teeth
There are others who in attempting
! to come to God, must run between
great many business perplexities. If
man go over to business at ten o'clock
| in the morning, and come away at
three o'clock in the afternoon, he has
some time for religion; but how shall
you find time for religious contempla-
ton when you are driven from sunrise
to sunset, and have been for five years
going behind in business, and are fire.
quently dunned by creditors whom you
cannot pay. and when from Monday
morning until Saturday night. you are
lodging bills that you cannot meet?
You walk day by day in uncertainties
that have kept your brain on fire for
the past three years. Some with less
| business troubles than you have gone
crazy. The clerk has heard noise in
the back counting-room, and gone in,
and found the chief man of the firm
raying manaic; or the wife has heard
the bang of pistol in the back parlor,
and gone in, stumbling over the dead
| body of her husband-a suicide. There
are men pursued, harrassed, trodden
down, and scalped of business perplexi-
ties, and which way to turn next they
do not know. Now God will not be
| hard on you. He knows what obstacles
are in the way of your being a Chris
| tian, and your first effort in the right
direction he will crown with success.
Do not let Satan, with cotton bales,
and kegs, and hogsheads, and counters,
and stocks of unstable goods, block
up your way to heaven. Gather up all
your energies. Tighten the girdle
about your loins. Take an agonizing
look into the face OF God. and then
say, Here goes one grand effort for
life eternal" and then bound away for
heaven. escaping "as with the skin Of
your teeth"
This world is poor portion for your
soul, oh. business man! An Eastern
king had craven on his tomb two fin
| gers, represented as sounding on each
other with snap, and under them the
motto, 'All Is not worth that" Apt
cius Coelius hanged himself because
| his steward informed him that he had
only eighty thousand pounds sterling
left. All of this worlds riches make
but small inheritance for a soul.
Robespierre attempted to win the APP
| plause of the world; but when he was
dying, woman came rushing through
the crowd, crying to him, Murderer OF
my kindred, descend to hell, covered
with the curses of every mother in
! France!" Many who have expected
the plaudits of the world have died un-
der its Anathema Maranatha.
Oh, find your peace IN God. Make
one strong pull for heaven. No half
way work will do it. There sometimes
comes time on shipboard when every
thing must be sacrificed to save the
passengers. The cargo is nothing, the
rigging nothing. The captain puts the
trumpet to his lip and shouts, "Cut
away the mast" Some of you have
been tossed and driven, and you have,
| in your efforts to keep the world well
night lost your soul. Until you have
decided this matter. let everything else
CO. Overheard with all those other
anxieties and burdens. You will have
to drop the sails of your pride, and
cut away the mast. With one earnest
cry for help, put your cause into the
hand of him who helped Paul out OF
the breakers of Melita, and who, above
the shrill blast Of the wrathiest tenn
pest that ever blackened the sky or
shook the ocean, can hear the faintest
| imploration for mercy.
l shall close this sermon feeling that
some Of you, who have considered
your case as hopeless, will take heart
again, and that with blood-red ear
nestness, such as you have never ex-
perienced before, you will start for the
good land of the Gospel-at last to
look back, saying, What great risk
l ran! Almost lost but saved! lust
got through, and no more! Escaped
by the skin of my teeth"
|