The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1897-03-05

but am going ashore on this shivered
timber" The man in the offing, while
trying 10 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"
do not know how your theological
System went to pieces. 1t may be that
your parents started you with only ons
plank, and you believe little or moth
ing. Or they may have been too rigid
and severe in religious discipline aud
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 Disguised you with religion. II
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 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, my
nearer. put this fieldglass 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 see.
If you can believe nothing else, yor
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 d. Cranmer, OF
Philadelphia, in distress. The weather
cold, the waves mountain high, the first
officer of the steamship and four men
put out in lifeboat 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.
But the five men of the steamship coin
ing back, their boat capsized, yet righted
again and came OH, the sailors coated
with ice. The boat capsized again, and
three times upset and was rightcd. and |
line was thrown the poor fellows, bat |
their hands were frozen so they could |
not grasp it, and a great wave rolled |
over them, and they went down, neve r |
to rise again till the sea gives up its |
dead. Appreciate that heroism and self |
sacrifice of the brave fellows all who |
can, and can we not appreciate the |
Christ who put out into a more biting |
cold and into more overwhelming |
surge to bring us out of infinite peril |
into everlasting safety? The wave of |
human hate rolled over him from one |
side and the wave of hellish fury rolled |
over him on 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 |
cross. Let all else go and cling to that;
put that under you, and with the ear
nestness of swimmer struggling for
his life put out for shore. There is
great warm fire of welcome already
built, and already many, who were as
far out as you are, are standing in is
genial and heavenly glow. The angels
of Gods rescue are wading out into the
surf to clutch your hand, and they know
how exhausted you are, and all the re-
deemed prodigals of Heaven are on the
beach with new white robes TO clothe
all those who come in on broken pieces
of the ship.
Ny sympathies are for such all the
more because was naturally skeptical,
to question everything about
this life and the next, and was in dam
ger of being farther out to sea than any
of the 276 in the Mediterranean break
|
of my theological professor because
asked SO many questions. But I came
in on a plank. l knew Christ was the
Saviour of sinners and that was sin
ner, and / got ashore, and do not pro-
pose to go out on that sea again.
have not for 30 minutes discussed the
points of theology in 30
years, and during the rest of my life I
DO not propose to discuss them for 80
would rather in mud scow try to
weather the worst cyclone that ever
swept up from the Caribbean, than
risk my immortal soul in useless and
perilous discussions in which some of
my brethren in the ministry are.indulg
ng. They remind me of a company of
sailors standing at the Ramsgate pier
head, from which the Iifeboats are
usually launched, and coolly discussing
The different styles of oarlocks and how
deep boat ought to set in the water
while a hurricane is in full blast and
there are three steamers crowded with
passengers going to pieces in the Off
ing. An old tar. the muscles of his face
with nervous excitement, cries
tut: This is no time to discuss such |
-hings. Man the lifeboat! Who will
volunteer? Out with her into the surf!
Pull, my lads; pull for the wreck! Ha.
IA. Now we have them. Lift them in
md lay them down on the bottom of
he boat. Jack, you try to bring them
o. Put these fannels around their
reads and feet, and will pull for the
shore. God help us! There! Landed!
Iuzza!" When there are SO many strug
Ring in the waves of sin and sorrow
md wretchedness, let all else go but sal
alton, for time and salvation forever.
] bethink myself that there are some
lere whose opportunity or whose life is
mere wreck, and they have only a
mall piece left. You started in youth
With all sails set, and everything prom.
sed a grand voyage, but you have
allied i'll the wrong direction or have
on rock. You have only o
fragment of time left. Then come in OF l
hat one plank. ''Some on broker l
'ieces of the ship"
From many deathbed / have seer I
he hands thrown up in deploration I
like this: My life has been /
wasted. / had good mental faculties s
nd fine social position and great OF b
but through worldliness and t