The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-07-26
DIR. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
aY rHE REv. FRANK pE WITr TALMAoE. p D.

4 Italy, art treasures as we'll as expensive l furniture and clothes.
 | Then food must be provided for the passengers and the crew and huge car goes of coal to keep the engines in mo- tion One Is amazed at the thousands l of tons of coal which a ship like the Kaiser Wilhelm II. carries at the begin ming of the passage across the Atlantic l The great stomaehs of the furnaces seem to be unsuitable Their hunger Is never satisfied. Relays of dust begrimed stokers are shove1ing the coal day in and day out. But what about the enormous mass of food which must be provided for | the hungry human passengers and crew. | Those who live above and below great ships deck are not to be numbered by | the scores, but by the hundreds. On the i last voyage I made from England there were nearly 20O0 human beings aboard. There may be millions of dollars worth of bullion aboard. The clear ing houses of the two eonti- nents are continually adjusting claims. l Money from America going to Europe. | Gold and silver from Europe coming to America. The average steamer plying l the Atlantic is not to be despised. It's successful voyage means life to hundreds It's destruction may mean death alike to passengers and crew and destruction to all the freight.
 SafeQuafoS or tne NOyd9Ss
 Does not each human craft carry val uable cargo? What about the money which is entrusted to a mans care2 If 1 the cashier of a bank absconds andsthe bank has to close it's door who suffers? Is it not the poor widow and orphan, the old man who has trustfully placed ' in the bank the savings of lifetime so that he can have something in his old age and money enough to buy him casket and grave when he is dead2 What | happens when a human craft founders and sinks into the great sea of sin? Does it not nearly always destroy human lives which are dependent upon it's exist | ence? What became of nearly all the | ships crews and passengers which were sunlen at sea? What become of those who set sail from Charleston, s. C., In | the boat which carried the beautiful daughter of Aaron Burr, who was never heard of again? Those ships not only went down, but they took most of their | passengers and crews with them. Oh, 1 {, know lifeboats and life preservers are | provided by law on every boat to guard l against accidents. But as a rule, they do but little good. By the time the hur- ricane has completed it's work the life boats are splintered, and by the time the tornado of sin has wrecked a human craft 1t not only destroys a father and | husband, but also all those whose exist ! ences are dependent upon his life. One ! of the bravest scenes ever witnessed was that in Samoa harbor, when a few years 1 ago the famous cyclone destroyed many lives. When an English man-of-war was able to get up enough steam to head out to sea- the American sailors of sink ing ship began to cheer their English cousins. It was brave cheer. When those sailors eheered they knew they were a sinking ship, and therefore most of them would be drowned Let i us, as human crafts, beware how we allow ourselves to sink into the sea of sin and destroy those loved ones who are standing upon our upper decks
 The Signal of Distress.
 The human vessels should be willing to stop and help those sister crafts which are lifting their signals of dis | tress Why? Because distress and need give a man an inalienable claim on the help of his brother. Nowhere is that claim recognized so surely and so promptly as on the high seas. sailor on the ocean will never turn a deaf ear to a booming gun or shut his eyes to an l inverted flag or to a white handkerchief ! or cloth fluttering over a raft or a dere- lict. No sooner does the lookout cry,
 Ship on starboard bow. and I believe 1t ] a wrecki than the captains and the mates and the boatswains and the com mon sailors will turn their anxious faces toward the black object floating upon the ! edge of the horizon. If there should be but one human being aboard that doomed craft, five, ten. fifteen-aye, I believe practically all the members of the crew will be willing to risk their lives to save that one life. never yet read of a ship upon the highways of the sea that would not go. if possible, to rescue the crew of a sinking ship. I never yet heard of any sea captain compelling his sailors to go to the rescue. All that the mates have to do under such conditions is to call for volunteers and every life boat will be manned and every oar held in a firm grip.
 Oh, my dear friends. why is not hu- man being upon the land ready to an- swer signals of distress raised by his fallen brethren as the sailors upon the sea try to help those who are in distress? Do not the whirlwinds of disaster shriels and howl and sweep up the streets of a great city as well among the archi- 1 pelagoes of a Mediterranean? When, some years ago, dark. funnel shaped cloud swiftly approached St. Louis and in an instant broke and destroyed whole streets and buried many a corpse under the debris. did it wreck any more lives than do the cyclones of sin which are | daily destroying the hundreds and thou sands of young men and women? Every city has it's two sides-its light side and dark side; its pure side and it's morally diseased side; its Christian side and it's internal side. Shall we who profess to | love God and are living in health and strength have nothing to do with those who are flying the signals of distress?
 A ProvidentiaI Rescue.
 Be not afraid, my brother. that you will never have an opportunity to save men and women upon the land who are | flying signals of distress. If you will | once conseerate your lives to His ser | vice God will reveal them to you, the same as he led old Captain Pendleton, many years ago to save the passengers | and the crew of a sinking ship. The old captain was neighbor of my fath- | CTS and q friend of my childhood. He | had upon his wall a picture commemora- l tive of this rescue. He again and again told me this wonderful story. He had l been to the far east. After voyage of many months he was nearing New York harbor. He was only two or three days from home. Suddenly, as he lay in his cabin. a strong and even imperative com mand came to him from on high. lie seemed to hear a divine voice saying: ''Go back Go back! About ship and go | backi So forcibly did this second com mand come that Captain Pendeton gave | the command to about ship. The mates and sailors thought he was going crazy. He said nothing, but sailed on for two | bo,re I fhfuk when a sinking si.in