Norwich bulletin., 1919-12-13

II
 Friday nights evangeIistic service at the Central Baptist church. under Gypsy Smith Jr. witnessed another great response from a congregation that filled the church.
 When, at the close of a sermon in which the evangelist's theme was taken from the story of the shipwreck of St. Paul one of the most powerful and appealing that MT. Smith has given, the invitation was given. fully 200 came forward to indicate their. purpose to lead Christian life. Prob ably 800 people in all have responded to the invitations given at the meet ings under MT. Smith, making this ain. evangelistic campaign especially nota- ble in the church history of the city,
 A dedication service for young peo- pie was also conducted in which over 100 already members of the churches, responded to the invitation to conse- crate their wills to Jesus Christ. E
 Three pastors of Baptist churches in Hartford, where Mir. Smith is to, con duct a series of meetings in March for five Baptist churches of that city. at tended the service here Friday night and warmly commended the work of the evangelist. The Hartford pastors attending the service were Rev. pr. P. c. Wright, Rev. pr. John Lakey and Rev. pr. H. J. White. A Shipwrecked Life was the sub. ject of the sermon from the text: And when much time was spent and sailing was now dangeroiis.'' It is a very easy thing these days. said Mir. ff, 1,O I of life. Life is a tremendous thing with great opportunities and privileges as well as responsibilities and all we have to do is to give full play. to. our passions and lust to be wrecked on the voyage of life. What you and i itned is q pilot for our lives and so I offer, you Jesus Christ
 1 want to bring to you this evening l kFee1 men, and they are the three men. from our. text and represent the types men a~d women who are. present this eVenin And the first man that comes ' tte the pulpit this evening is. Paul; who stands for. the man of God, waFningi eoaXing, exhertinga pleading 2 with you to take the right step. and very often you have not been fair to the Rreaehers and priests of sNor#ich. They have nothing at stake but yofir life and they are anxious that you should not only make the most of your life, but get the best out of life too.
 Tfie next man brought into the pull. pit in the evangelist's sermon was the. captain of the ship. who stood for the man of the world in the audience, the man who says God has given me req son to use and I will not accept any thing that I cannot understand. He is Vv ar no aTy- cry day things that we cannot under stand. The third man was the cap tain of the guard. He stood between Paul on one side and the captain of the ship, on the other and had the power of decision. He stood for hil- man will. These two refused to take the preachers advice about sailing. but it turned out that the preacher was right.
 Why didn't the storm come at the beginning of the voyage? May I turn that around and Say that isn't the devils way for if he showed us the storm first he would never get us, but he shows us calm waters. the blue sky and the soft south winds and because we think everything is all right we are fooled. If the devil were to show us the end of sin, rather than the be- ginning. he would never get us, but he knows how to fascinate and how to paint beautiful pictures and he never shows the reality. and end. of sin. The man in the gutter tonight never intended to end up there. His brain was just as clear as yours one day and his imagination and ideals just as high as yours, but he was fas- cinated by the pictures that the devil painted for him and now he is down and out.
 l have sometimes imagined, contin- ued MT. Smith, I could see that won derful vessel the Titanic. lying in the docks at Southampton, England, and she was a wonderful vessel. She had everything on board to delight and fascinate the White Star Company for they knew that the star of ascenden- .cy in this age was the star of self in dulgence and pleasure and they had said If we can only put on another thrill we can squeeze out another dime. And they did their best. You could get food at any minute of the day or night. She was a floating ho tel. Every game that was possible to be played aboard a ship was there and l have sometimes thought that I could see her sailing from Southampton on her maiden voyage with the band playing. and have also Imagined that l have been walking around the prom enade decks and heard the click of the wireless on that Hateful night and seen the wireless operator in his shirt sleeves with the receiver to his ears. taking down that warning message.
 There's ice in the vicinity. Look out. And I have thought that I could see him writing it down on paper, and then breathlessly rushing to the bridge he gives the message to the captain and then after the captain read it he hands it over to his subordinate off, cer and said, What do you think of it?s and the officer replies, Well, we VIII VIII Keep sharp lookout, but think that they are mistaken, for if there is any ice We could see it for fifteen miles. What do you think, sir? Do you think we better slacken the speedT And I have imagined that could hear the captain say, "Slaclr nothing" never dreamt that a dav would ever come that I should be