Smyrna times., 1903-07-15
ELOQUENT DISCOURSE ON
1.-THE VOYAGE OF LIFE''
DELIVERED BY REV. o. S. ROCHE SON OF
THE LATE DR.. JOHN A. ROCHE, D. D.
Rev. o. S. Roche is the Rector of st. Peters
Church, West 10th Street, New York City
and is Ranked an Able Preacher.

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Rev. Olin Scott Roche, rector of st.
Peters Church, west goth street, New
York City, recently preached a strong
and able sermon on THE Voyage of
Life" which was given prominent
mention in the New York Herald of
the issue July 5th inst. Rev. Roche
is the son of the late Rev. John A.
Roche d. D., the well-known Metho-
dist divine who spent his early days
in Smyrna, was converted in the great
revival of 1929 and went out from
Smyrna to preach the gospel. Rev.
Olin Roche has much of the vigor and
force of his father and is able to hold
one of the leading churches of New
York City. In his sermon ''The Voy-
age of Life, i" the following is a synop-
sis:
Thy rowers have brought thee into
great waters; the east wind hath
broken thee in the midst of the SEAS
Ezekiel, xvii, 26.
II the chapter from which the text
is taken the pleasure loving city of
Tyre is compared to ship. At first,
splendid, proud, gallant, and then dis
mantled, struggling, lost. Broken
by the seas in the depths of the
waters" There follows the bitter
wailing of those who have suffered loss
or bereavement, and so the story ends.
Contrast No Greater Than Human Life.
The contrast between the two con-
ditiOns of the ship is no greater than
that we often meet in human life.
Multitudes of young men make q
fair start upon their voyage, with
every prospect of success. They have
talent, energy, health and friends; ap-
parently the winds are favorable, the
sea smooth, no clouds feck their ho-
rizon. But as time passes one sees
them drifting from the shore out into
the deep, dark, troubled waters, where
are the tempest, the whirlpool and de-
struction. The talents have been
squandered, the advantages wasted,
the career blasted, the soul all but
wrecked.
1t is a terrible contrast, but one that
is not seldom seen.
What with the Increasing hours
of leisure and the more liberal wages;
what with the laxity of parental over
sight and the Establishments, pre-
tences and tinsel of vice; what with
the prevailing leniency toward wrong
doing and the widespread indifference
to the restraints of religion, we need
not be surprised when we are told that
there has recently been an enormous
growth IN crime, especially among the
young.
We ask whence it arises.
In the text the wreck appears to have
been attributed to ''the rowers?''
Who, then, are these rowers.
We may, in the first place, regard
them as ones companions.
The Influence Of Good and Evil Companions.
Our companions exercise vast in.
huence over us, unconscious though il
be. Our nature is social, we form
friendships, and then we are swayed
by them. 1t is very difficult to stand
out against the current and the tide.
A group of college boys together will
engage in follies and sins which nc
one of their number would think OF
committing alone. The cry is ''Be a
mani" and the poor weakling, with
blinded eyes and his false conception
of manliness, plays ''the fool"
One cunning knave among harG
worked clerks or poverty stricken
laborers will entangle them all in his
mesh of dishonest schemes, clever
hypocricies and ruinous lies.
An idle set of fast young men car
conceive crimes, lay plans, perform
deeds which not one of them could
work out by himself, which yet will
cast humiliation upon a whole com.
munity and wreck the lives of all con.
cerned.
If you make companions of the de-
PRAYED, you will end in being de-
praved. Live with the wolves, SAYS
the Spanish proverb, ''and you will
learn to howl" Mental power is not
proof against such influences. 1t was
the wild smuggler boys of Kirkoswald
who led Burns astray. Call not that
man friend who, while he takes hi,
stand by your side, shoulder to shoul.
der, is tempting you to destruction.
From such false friends may God AL
mighty save us all!
The Fight Against Ones Own Appetltes.
Again, these "rowers" may be re-
garded as mans own appetites.
God has planted certain instincts
and propensities in our nature, and
they have their place in the economy
of our heinC We muat eat and drin 4