AUTUMN SUNSET.
Across the wheatflelds o'er the western hi’l,
The blood-red sun is sinking s crimsen
bright :
Along the valley floods the sunset light,
And then reflected from below, until
The whole wide sky the sunset colors fill—
And on old woodlands far along the right
Steals down the deeper giades the ap-
proaching night,
And down the vale where glides the glim-
mering rill.
Along the west the fleids of ripening grain
Stretch over dale and upland, hill and plain,
And, tossing plumed heads of golden
green,
Drink the rich pure nectar drops that run
From the upturned goblet of the sun,
And mix their golden with its crimson
sheen.
—James T. Shotwell, in Toronto Week.
Closer Than a Brother.
BY BURT JOHNSON.
» ERCIVAL WAR-
RB cley seemed to
exist only to en-
joy life and to
make life en-
joyable to oth-
ers, and by all
who knew him
it was admitted
that he succeed-
ed wonderfully
at his chosen
duties. He
never was seen
without a cheer- |
ful
expression
{
kept bachelor’s hall together, and no for my sake, that I'm going to merry
amount of contriving sufficed to get
Drock out of the way while Percival
should be ‘let into” some grand
money-making scheme ‘“on the ground
floor.”
Ladies fared rather better, for Per-
cival’s bosom friend was not an eves-
dropper, yet the women who were
longest headed had no faith in ever
resuming their blandishments just
where they had dropped them at the
end of a chat, for they felt sure that
Percival unbosomed himself to his
friend, snd that Drock’s counsel would
go a long way with a young man so
impressionable and so entirely desti-
tute of obstinacy.
Desperate cases require desperate
remedies, 50 a couple of experienced
and businesslike belles one day formed
an alliance for the purpase of securing
Percival and his money; one of them
was to marry Drock, who himself, ac-
cording to the younger man, was well
off, and thento bring her bosom friend
and her husband’s together at her own
house. It was a well laid plan, and
neither woman doubted that it would
succeed for each, just for fun, had
brought dozens of men to her feet; it
failed, however, through Drock’s utter
inability to perceive that a handsome
woman was making love to him—he
was so stupid about it as to spare her
the mortification of thinking herself
deliberately rejected.
It was a great disappointment, aside
from the financial loss, for the belle
had been in society long enough to
have learned that a matter-of-fact fel- |
low without any vices was the most
satisfactory material from which to
| make a model husband, especially if
on his face, and, although he was not | he had the virtue of constancy to the
at all brilliant, his conversation was
go thoroughly in keeping with his
countenance that almost any one was
glad to exchange a few words with
him.
heard Percival’s praises sounded by
young women, insisted that they could
be quite as agreeable and light-hearted
as the popular youth had they noth-
ing to do but enjoy life and spend the
money that a busy father had saved
for an only son. Probably they were
mistaken, for Percival was not the only
young man in New York who had
plenty of money and no business oc-
cupation, yet some of the otherslooked
quite as dull and unhappy as the poor-
est people they met on the street.
Nothing, though, in this imperfect
world seems quite as it should be, so
there was a drawback to the entire en-
joyment of any one who sought Per-
cival Wareley’s society, and who were
willing to help him spend his money.
It was the young man’s closest friend,
Mr. Henry Drock. This person was |
at least fifteen year’s the senior of
young Wareley, who was only twenty-
four, and he took all the pleasures of
the rich so calmly that pzople won-
dered if he enjoyed them at all.
Yet Percival seemed fonder of him
than of any other man and took him
wherever he went, introducing him
into society and proposing him at clubs
as if there was ho doubt that- others
would enjoy Mr. Drock’s society quite
as much as Percival himself. People
will stand a great deal from young
men who are rich as well as agreeable,
so Drock was endured politely, some
middle-aged people remarking that
there was 100 times as much to him as
to Percival himself, for the fellow
seemed entirely sensible, and could
talk fairly well upon the affairs of the
day, whereas Percival’s interest in any-
thing which did not produce amuse-
ment in large quantities were limited.
Meanwhile, that Drock reciprocated
his young friend’s regard could not be
doubted for an instant. No matter
how uninteresting anything might
seem to the older man, his eye never
rested upon Percival without display-
ing an active and honest fondness.
Some people were mean enough to
suggest that Droek’s regard was that
of a well-kept dog, and for the same |
Some young men, when they |
i
{
degree which Drock manifested in his
regard for Percival.
A month or two later all the m:n
raged, for Drock and his young friend
went into business together as part- |
The theory that Drock intended |
ners,
himself to get all of Percival’s money
was spoiled by the new firm securing
as confidential cffice manager a man
who occupied a similar position for
many years with Percival’s father.
The partners in the new firm took
business cares lightly, but while at the
office or on the street they still were
almost inseparable, going downtown
together and lunching together.
Then society and every one else who
wanted anything from Percival would
have given up had not the young man
still spent his money freely; he gave
yachting parties and coaching parties
in good style, and seemed to delight
in seeing people enjoy themselves;
but one condition of the enjoyment
remained, that Drock should be one
of the party. Still, this slowly became
less a penalty than apleasure to people
who regarded the younger partner as
anything but a gold mine to be worked
by any one who could get at it, for
Drock slowly but surely took to city
ways and manners, until he became
quite as good company as most of the
men of leisure who helped women to
kill time.
Suddenly, however, the fateful day
that awaits any young man was reached
by Percival Wareley, the fate taking
the form of a young woman whom
Percival thought far prettier and
sweeter than any other. So quickly
did the affair take shape that scciety
did not have an inkling of it until the
engagement was announced, for the
lady, although well born and well-to-
do, was of a retiring disposition and
out of the rather lively set into which
the accident of birth and of a gayety
loving mother had placed Percival.
The society that had known and
enjoyed Percival did not intend to be
robbed of him, for if the young man
had done so much entertaining while
a bachelor, what could he not dowhen
he had an establishment of his own?
The young lady who was to become
Mrs. Wareley was suddenly loaded
with attentions and overwhelmed with
calls from ladies who knew her yet had
reason; but Percival had insisted at |
one time, when conversation chanced |
to be about his friend, that Drock was i
one of the hardest men in the world |
to do a favor to, for his tastes were |
few and his means ample.
Young women of the class that says |
anything that comes to mind had ex- |
pended much curiosity and some ques- |
tions upon the couple, but zll they |
learned was that Drock had known his |
nd from early boyhood, and |
zed him; he had first met!
town where Percivals |
d az wife, and where the |
h or two of every |
never had met a
open-hearted
es being |
pected them
gas Drock) 2 lot |
of good to rson enjoy
life so hes id persistently, in-
stead of z 2 TRInE t on bein
gstizted with pleasure, i ght
it did men good, any ‘
times in the society
$hzn themselves,
Drock evidently meant zl] he said,
but his fondness for Percival did not
meet the approval of some men and
women who wanted Percival to become
fond of them. Young and impression-
sble men who are rich in their own
right and searce in any society, so
there were handsome women some
years older and a hundred times
gmerter than Percival Wareley who matter how strangers might object.
would gladly have married the young | “But,” said Percival’s fiance one
man for his money. | evening, in tones which sounded as if
Likewise there were scores of men, | there was a flood of tears impending,
voung and old, who would have given | ‘some of the girls insist that you
their very souls to coax the youth and | won't be sble to live without him,
his money into business with them, | even after we're married. I don’t
even if their highest ideal of business | want any other man beside my hus-
was to get ahead of the bookmakers at | band in the honse all the while.”
the race tracks, or to try some *‘sys-| “The girls don’t know anything
tem” on the proprietors of other gam- | about it, my dear,” the young man re-
bling establishments. But Drock was | plied assuringly. ‘“You shall be ruler
always in the way; he never talked | of the Louse and no one shall come
business himsclf and seemed to have | into it, not even my dearest friend,
no business fraining. | except when you like. Drock thinks
To see Percival without Drock was | too much of me to offend any one
pext to impossible, for the two men | whomI love. Besides. he’s verv havo
rather ignored her in earlier days as
being dreadfully uninteresting and
spiritless.
Sad to relate—but the truth must
be told—several determined efforts
were made to break the match on the
principle that a young man who has
broken with one girl is easier than
any other to snap up. Then, how-
ever, Drock, who had become rather
an old story, resumed his original
prominence, and some spiteful
maidens wondered whether he was
present during all the formalities and
delights of courting.
There was one place where he could
not be, women thanked their stars,
and that was at the house of the young
man’s intended during the hours in
which women exchanged calls; all of
the fair sex, therefore, who owed him
grudges did their best, in their own
skilful manner, to excite curiosity and
suspicion in the mind of the young
lady who had secured the great catch
of the season, and they succeeded far
enongh to prompt her to make many
{inquiries which seemed to annoy
| Percival, whose general answer was
only that when he liked any one he
liked with 2ll his might, and never
changed, as the bride would find out
to her own satisfaction. Me also said
that Drock had long been known and
trusted by the elder Wareley, and a
son ought to be &llowed to be fond of
2 man whom his father had liked, no
ot
rr eT
nen younger
he
such a love of a girl, and I've heard
him say, over and over again, that the
| happiest husbands and wives are gen-
| erally those who see least of other peo-
| ple.
| “But how is he going to get accus-
| tomed to the change, after heving been
| closer than a brother to you for sev-
| eral years?”
“I’m sure I don’t know. Perhaps
he'll follow my example and take a
| vife. To tell the truth, I—well, I'll
| tell you some other time.”
| “Ox Percival! A secret!
keeping something from me.”
| “Only for a little while, and I assura
| you there’s nothing dreadful about it
| ——’twill make you laugh when you hear
{ it, I'm sure.”
“When will you tell me?”
“Just as soon as we're married my
| dear ; husbands and wives mustn’t have
any secrets from each other---so Drock
himself says, and I'm sure he knows.”
The young woman would no more
have repeated this conversation to any
one than she would have drowned her-
| self before trying on her wedding
dress, but somehow the impression
was passed from one to another that
there really was some secret behind the
inseparable companionship of Drock
and Percival:
So.male gossips tried at once to ex-
tract it from Drock himself, but that
honest fellow met all the insinuations
by the assertion that Percival was a
real good fellow-—the cleanest hearted
young man he knew—and that no one
was gladder them Drock that he was
| about to get a sweet and trustworthy
| wife, and to be as happy as he de
| served.
| Drock kept close to the young man
richt up to the wedding day, which
| was also the twenty-fifth anniversary
| of Percival’s birth. He even acted as
| “best man” at the ceremony, during
which he looked as happy as if he were
not giving away a friend. When the
| young couple were at last securely
{ bound together for life and had es
caped from the church to the seclusion
of their carriage, Percival’s attempt tc
kiss the bride again was frustrated by
a small but determined hand, as the
young woman said :
‘Not until you've told me the secret
about Drock.”
‘Oh, I don’t want you to langh at
me so soon after marrying me. Do
let me wait a few days.”
“No—not even a few minutes. You
promised to tell me as soon as we were
married.”
“Very well, then; I'll keep my word,
although there’s really nothing to it.
You see, when I came of age myfather
declared that I hadn’t sense enough tc
go in when it rained. Wasn’t that
funny?”
‘No; I think ’twas real horrid.”
*“Well, dear, perhaps he was right.
You see, he was a very matter-of-fact
man, while mother, although as good
as gold, was a gay, thoughtless, care-
less creature, and every one said I was
her right over again. She had died a
year or two before I came of age, and
father failed rapidly a year or two
after, and had lots of money, and 1
was the only child, and he was afraid
I'd go to the bad. He had no rela
tions to leave me toe, but he remem:
bered Drock as a man who had always
seemed very fond of me when I was a
boy up in the country, where mother
came from.
“One day he sent for Drock and had
a long talk with him, and then he told
me he had turned as much as possible
of his property into cash and given it
to Drock to give to me whenI reachec
my twenty-fifth year, if I'd previously
acted according to his advice, and
formed no habits of friendship of
which Drock didn’t approve. Iwas tc
be allowed to spend all th: money 1
liked in any decent way, but not a
cent on any sort of vice or dissipa
tion.”
““Drock has really been your keeper
then,” said the bride, instead of your
friend, as every one has supposed ?”
‘Really, my dear, he has been ¢
big-hearted, sweet-tempered friend, in
spite of his position, and, as I look
back, I suspect that I tried his pa-
tience awfully at times. To tell the
truth, as I got some sense, little by
little, my patience was tried, too—
not by anything he did or say, but be-
cause I really seemed unfit to go about
without a keeper. But Drock did his
best by me, and I—"
“And you turned out so well,” said
the bride, suddenly volunteering a
little shower of kisses, ‘“that I think
all rich young men should be treated
just like you, and not be allowed to
run at large without some sensible
person to take care of them.” —Oncea
Week.
You're
rr Berri
How the Apple Taris Went.
Meyer, the confectioner, stood be-
hind his counter and gazed sadly at
the huge pile of apple tarts which were
beginning to grow stale, for during the
last few days business had been wunac-
countably slack. Suddenly he be-
thought himself of a plan. Sitting
down to his desk he wrote out the fol-
lowing advertisement and sent it to the
newspaper office:
“Genuine Offer of Marriage—A
young man of agreeable exterior and
ample means desires to form the ac-
quaintance of a lady with a view to
making her his partner for life. Beauty
and wealth are not so much an object
as a good character and an amiable
disposition. Young ladies who may
feel inclined to cast in their lot with
him hereby requested to call at Herr
Meyer's confectionery establishment
to-morrow afternoon at three o’clock,
and, as a means of recognition, to eat
an apple tart.”
A few minutes after three the whole
stock of apple tarts was cleared out.—
Sheffield (England) Telegraph.
ee —— ree
14 is estimated that last year 1,285,
000.000 bananas were consumed in the
Taited States alone.
KEV. DR. TALMAGEY SERMON
ONLY ONE LIFEBOAT
That Will Safely Carry Your Soul From |
This World’s Wreck.
TIEXT:
of the boat and let her fall off.” —Acts xxvii.
32.
While your facesare yet somewhat bronzed
by attendance on the international boat con-
test between the Vigilant and the Valkyrie I
Good things when there is no
betting or dissipation, thoss outdoor sports.
We want more fresh air and breeziness in
A stale
and slow and lugubrious religion may have
done for other times, yet will not do for
But my text calls our attention to a
boat of a different sort, and instead of the
Atlantic it is the Mediterranean, and instead
of not wind enough, as the crews of theVigi-
day com-
plained, there is too much wind and the
address you.
our temperaments and our religion.
these,
lant and the Valkyrie the other
swoop of a Euroclydon.
I am not calling your attention so much
to the famous ship on which Paul was the
distinguished passenger, but to the lifeboat
of that ship which no one seems to notice.
For a fortnight the main vessel had been
For that two weeks, the
the passengers had ‘‘contin-
I suppose the salt water,
dashing over, had spoiled the sea biscuit,
tossed and driven.
account’ says,
ued fasting.”
and the passengers were s2asick anyhow.
The sailors sai
must go down,”
it and take ths chances for reaching shore,
although they pretended they were going to
get over the sides of the big ship ahd down
into the lifeboat only to do sailors’ duty.
That was not sailoriike, for the sailors that I
have known were all
would rather go down with the ship than do
such a mean thing as those Jack Tars of my
text attempted.
Vhen on the Mediterranean last June the
Victoria sank under the ram of the Camper-
down, the most majestic thing about that
awiul scene was that all the sailors staid at
their posts doing their duty. Asa class all
over the world sailors are valorous, but thess
sailors of the text were exceptional anid pre-
tended to do dpty while they were really pre-
par.ng for flight in the lifeboat. But these
“marines” on hoard —sea soldiers—had in
especial charge a little missionary who was
turning the world upside down, and when
these marines saw the trick the sailors were
about to play they lifted the cutlasses from
the girdle and chop! chop! went those cut-
lasses into the ropes that held the lifeboat,
and splash! it dropped into the sea.
My text describes it, ‘“The soldiers cut off
the ropes of the boat and let her fall off.”
As that empty lifeboat dropped and was cap-
gized on a sea where for two weeks winds
and billows had been in battle I think that
many on board the main vessel felt their
last hope of everreaching home had vanished.
In that tempestuous sea a small boat could
not have lived flve minutes.
My subject is “Unsafe Lifeboats. We
cannot exaggerate the importance of the
lifeboat. All honor to the memory of Lionel
Lukin, the coach builder of Long Acre, Log-
don, who invented the flrst lifeboat, and Ido
not biame him for ordering put on his tomb-
stonein Kent the inscription that you may
still read there:
“This Lionel Lunkin was the first who
built a lifeboat and was the original inventor
of that principle of satety by which many
lives and much property have been pre-
served from shipwreck, and he obtained for
it the king's patent in the year 1785.”
All honor to the memory of Sir William
Hillary, who, living in the Isle of Man, and
after assisting with his own hand in the res-
cue of 305 lives of the shipwrecked, stirred
the English Pariiament to quick action in
the construction of lifeboats. 1'hanks to God
for the sublime and pathetic and divine mis-
sion of the lifeboat. No one will doubt its
important mission who hasread of the wreck
of the Amazon in the Bay of Biscay, of the
Tweed running on the reefs of the Gulf of
Mexico, or of the Ocean Monarch on the
coast of Wales, or of the Birkenhead on the
Cape of Good Hope, or of the Royal Charter
on the coast of Anglesea, or of the Exmouth
on the Scotch breakers,.or of the Cambria on
the Irish coast, or of the Atlanticon the rocks
of Nova Scotia, or of the Lexington on Long
Island Sound.
To add still further to the importance of
the lifeboat, remember there are at least
3,000,000 men following the sea, to say noth-
ing of the uncounted millions this moment
ocean passengers. We ‘‘land-lubbers.” as
sailors call us, may not know the difference
between a marline spike and a ringbolt, or
anything about heaving a log, or rigging out
a flying jibboom, or furling a topsail, but we
all realize to greater or less extent the im-
portance of a lifeboat in every marine equip-
ment,
But do we feel the importanceof a lifeboat
in the matter of thesoul’s rescue? Thereare
times when we all feel that we are out atsea,
and as many disturbing and anxious ques-
tions strike us as waves struck that vessel
against the sides of which the lifeboat of my
text dangled. Questions about the church.
Questions about the world. Questions about
God. Questionsabout our eternal destiny.
Every thinking man and woman has these
questions, and in proportion asthey arethink-
ing people de these questions arise,
There is no wrong in thinking. If God had
not intended us to think and keep on think-
ing, He would pot have built under this
wheelhouse of the skull this thinking ma-
chine, which halts not in its revolutions from
cradle to grave. Even the midnight does
not stop the thinking machine, for when we |
are in dreams we are thinking, although we !
do not think as well. All of us who are ac-
customed to thinking want to reach some
solid shore of safety and satisfaction, and if
any one has a good lifeboat that we may
honorably take I wish he would unswing it
from the davits and let us get into itand put
for the shore.
But I give you fair notice I must first ex-
. amine the lifeboat before I risk my soul in it
or advise you to risk your soul in it. All the
splendid Ramsgate lifeboats, and Margate
lifeboats, and South Shield lifebosts, and
American lifeboats wera tested before being
put into practical use as to their buoyancy
and speed and stowage and self-righting ca-
pacity. And when you offer my soul a life-
boat I must first test it.
Here is. a splendid new lifebout called
Theosophy. It has only a little while been
launched, although gome of the planks are
really several thousand years old, and from
a worm eaten ship, but they are painted
over and look new. They are really fatalism
and pantheism of olden time. But we must
forget that and call them theosophy. The
Grace Darling of this lifeboat was an oars-
woman by the name of Mme. Blavatsky.
but the oarswoman now is Annie Besant. So
many are getting aboard the boat it is
worthy of examination, both because of tho
safety of those who have entered it and be-
cause we ourselves are invited to get in.
Its theory is that everythingis God. Horse
and star and tree and man are parts of Cod.
We have three souls—an animal soul, a hu-
man soil, a spiritual soul. The animal soul
becomes, after awhile, a wandering thing,
trying to express itself through mediums.
It enters beasts or enters a humam being,
and when you find an effeminate man it 1s
because a woman's soul has got into the
man, and when you find a masculine woman
jt is because a man's soul has taken posses-
sion of & woman's body.
“Then ihe soldiers cul off the ropes
vid, “It is no use; this ship
and they proposed among
themselves to lower the lifeboat and get into
intrepid fellows and
i by one of thesa mysterious beings irom
| central Asia. The gentleman knew it from
the fact that the mysterious being left his
i pocket handkerchief, embroidered with his
| name and Asiatic residence. The most won-
l derful achievement of the theosophists is
{| that they keep out of the insane asylum.
They prove thetruth of the statement that no
| religion ever announced was so absurd but
|| it gained disciples.
/| Societies in the United States and England
and other lands have been established for
the promulgation of theosophy. Instead of
, | needing the revelation of a Bible you can
havo these spirits from a cave in central Asia
to tell you all you ought to know. and after
you leave this life you may become a prima
donna, or a robin, or a gazelle, or a sot, or
a prize fighter, or a Herod, or a Jezebel, and
so be enabled to have great variety of
experience, rotating through the uni-
verse, now rising. now falling, now
shot out in a straight line and now deserib-
ing a parabola, and on and on. and up and
up, and down and down, and round and
round. Don’t yousee? Now, that theosophic
lifeboat has been launched. It proposes to
take you off the rough sea of doubt into ever-
lasting quietude. How do you like the life-
boat? My opinion is you had better imitate
the mariners of my text and cut cff the ropes
of that boat and let ber fall off.
Another lifeboat tempting us to enter is
made of many planks of good works. Itis
really a beautiful boat—almsgiving, vracti-
cal sympathies for human suffering, right-
eous words and righteous deeds. I must
admit I like the looks of the prow. and of
the rowlocks and of the paddles, and of the
steering gear, and of many who are think-
ing to trust themselves on her benches. But
the trouble about that lifeboat is it leaks. I
never knew a man yet good enough to earn
heaven by his virtues or generosities.
If there be one person here present on this
blessed Sabbath all of whose thoughts have
been always right, all of whose actions have’
always been right,and all of whose words have
always been right, let him stand up, or if al-
ready standing let him lift his hand. and 1
will know that he lies. Paul had it about
right when hesaid, “By the deeds of the law
shall no flesh living be justified.” David had
it about right when he said, ‘‘There is none
that doeth good, no not one.”
The old book had it about right when it
said, “All hxve sinned and come short of the
glory of God.” Let a man get off that little
steamer called The Maid of the Mist, which
sails up to the foot of Niagara Falls, and then
climb to thetop of the falls onthe descending
floods, for he ean do it easier than any man
ever will be able to climb to heaven by his
good works.
Ii your thoughts have always been exactly
right. and your words exactly right, and
your deeds always exactly right, you can
go up to the gate of heaven, and you need
not even knock tor admittance, but open it
yourself and push the angels out of your way
and go up and take one of the front seats.
But you would be so unlike any one else that
has gone up from this world that you would
be a curiosity in heaven and more fit for a
heavenly museum than for a place whera the
inhabitants could look at you free of charge.
No, sir, Iadmire your good works, and tha
lifeboat you are thinking of trusting in is
handsomer than any yawl or pinnace or
yacht or cutter that ever sped out ofa boat-
house or hoisted sail fora race. But she leaks.
Trust your soul in that, and you willgo to
the bottom. She leaks. So I imitate the
mariners of the text. and with a cutlass strike
the ropes of the boat and let her fall of.
Another lifeboat is Christian Incon-
sistencies. - The planks of this boat are
composed of the split planks of shipwrecks.
That prow is made out of hypocrisy from
the life of a man who professed ons thing
and really was another. One oar of this
lifeboat was the falsehood of a church mem-
yer, and the other oar was the wickedness’
some minister ot the Gospel, whose in-
iquities were not for a long while found out.
Not one plank from the oak of God's
eternal truth in all that lifeboat. All the
| planks, by universal admission, are decayed
| and crumbling and fallen apart and rotten
I and ready to sink.
{ Well, well,” you say, ‘no one will want
to get into that lifeboat.” Oh, my friend,
you are mistaken. That is the most popular
lifeboat ever constructed. That is thos most
popular lifeboat ever launched. Millions of
people want to get into it. They jostle each
other to get the best seat in the boat. You
could not keep them back though you stood
at the gunwales with a club, as on our ship
Greece in a hurricane, and the steerage pas-
sengers were determined to coms up on deck,
where they would have been washed off, and
the officers stood at the top of the stairs
clubbing them back. Even by such violence
as that you could not keep people from
jumping into the most popular lifeboat, made
of church member inconsistencies.
In times of revival when sinners flock into
the inquiry room the most of them are kept
from deciding aright becausa they know so
many Christians who are bad. The inquiry
room becomes a World’s Fair for exhibition
of all the frailties ot church members, so that
if you believe all is there told you you would
be afraid to enter a church lest you get your
pockets picked or get knocked down.
This is the way thev talk: “I was cheated
out of $500 by a leader of a Bible cluss.” ‘A
Sunday-school teacher gossiped about me
and 4id her best to destroy my good name.”
“I had a partner in business who swamped
our business concern by his trickery and then
rolled up his eyes in Friday night prayer
shipwrecked erawied up on the beach to die
unless some one happened to walk along or
some fisherman's hut might be near. But
after the ship Ayrshire was wrecked at
Squan Beach, and the Powhattan leit her 30¢
dead strewn along our coast, and another
vessel went on the rocks, 409 lives perishing,
the United States Government woke up and.
made an appropriation of $200,000 for
life stations, and life lines from fak-
ing box are shot over © the wild
surf, and hawsers ares stretched from
wreck to shore and wkat with Lyles's gun
and six oared surfboat,with cork at the sides
to make it unsinkable, and patrolmen all
night long walking the beach until they meet
each ther and exchange metal tickets, soas
to show the entira beach has been traversed,
and the Coston light flashes hope from shoras
to sufferer, and surfmen, incased in Merri-
man life saving dress, and life car rolling on
the ropes, there are many probabilities o
rescue for the unfortunate of the sea. But
the government of the united heavens has
made better provision for the rescue of our
souls. So close by that this moment wa can
put our hand on its top an1 swing into it. is
this gospsl lifeboat. It will not taks you
more than a second to get into it.
But while in my text w» stand watching
the marines with their cutlasses, preparing
to sever the ropes of the lifeboat and let her
fall off, notice the poor equipment. Oaly
one lifeboat. Two hundred and seventy-six
pussengers, as Paul counted them, and only
onelifeboat. My text uses the singularandnot
the plural, “Cut off the ropes of the boat.”
I do not suppose it would have hsld more
than thirty people, thouzla loaded to the
water's edge,
I think by marine law all our modern ves-
sels have enough lifeboats to hold all the
crew and all the passengers in case of emerg-
ency, but the marines of my text were stand-
ing by the only boat, and that a small boat,
and yet 276 passengers. But what thrills me
through and through is the fact that though
we are wrecked by sin and trouble and there
is only one liteboat, that boat is largeenough
to hold all who are willing to get into it. The
gospel hymn expresses it:
All mav come, whoever will;
‘+ his Man-receives poor sinners still.
But I must haulin that statement a little,
Room for all in that lifeboat, With just ons
exception. Not you—I1 do not meun you, but
there is one exception. There have been
cases where ships were in trouble, and the
captain got all the passengers and crew into
the lifeboats. but there was not room for the
captain. He, through the sea trumpet,
shouted : ‘‘Shove off now and pall for the
beach. Good-by!” And then the captaii,
with pathetic and sublime self-sacrifice, went
down with the ship. So the Captain of our
salvation. Christ tne Lord, launches the gos-
pel lifeboat and tells us all to get in, but He
perishes.
“It behoovsd Christ to suffer.” Was it
not so, ye who witnessed His agonizing ex-
piration? Simon of Cyrene, was it not so?
Cavalry troops, wnoss horses pawed the
dust at the crucifixion, was it not'so? Ye
Marys who swooned away with the sun of
the midday heavens, was it not so? “By
His stripes we are healed.” By His death
we live, By His sinking in the deep sea of
suffering we get off in a safe lifeboat. Yes,
we must put into this story a little of our
own personality. We had a ride in that
very lifeboat from foundered craft to solid
shore.
Once on the raging seas I rowed. i
The storm: was 1 ud: the night was dark
The ocean yawned end rudely biow’ ¢
The win 1 toat toss*d my foundering bark.
But I got in‘o the gospel lifebout and I got
ashore. No religious speculation for me.
These higher criticism fellows do not bother
me a bit. You may ask me fifty questions
about the sea, and about the land, and about
the lifeboat that I eannot answer, but one
thing I know, I am ashore, and I am going to
stay ashore, if the Tord by His grace will
help me. I feel under me something so firm
that I try it with my right foot, and try it
with my left foot, and then I try it with both
fest, and it is so solid that I think it must be
what the old folks used to call the Rock of
Ages.
And be my remaining days ou earth many
or few I am .going to spend my time in
recommending the lifeboat which fetched me
here, a poor sinner saved by grace, and in
swinging the eutlasses to sever the ropes of
eny unsafe lifeboat and let her fall off. My
hearer, without asking any questions, get
into the gospel lifeboat. Room! and yet
there is room! The biggest boat on earthis
the gospel lifeboat. You must remember the
proportion of things, and that the ship-
wrecked craft is the whole earth, and the
lifeboat must be in proportion.
You talk about your Campanizs, and your
Lucania, and your Majestivs, and your City
of New Yorks, but all of them put together
are smaller than an Indian's canoe on Sch-
roon Lake compared with this gospellifeboat
that is large enough to take in all Nations.
Room for one and room for ail. Get in!
‘How? How?” you ask.
Well, I know how you feel, for summer
before last on the sea of Ainland [ had the
same experience. The, ship in which we
sailed could not ventures nearer than a mile
from shore, where stood the Russian palace
of Peterof, and we had to get into a small
bout and be rowed ashore. The water was
rough, and as we went down the ladder at
the side of the ship we held firmly on to the
railing, but in order to get into tne boat we
had at last to let go.
How did I know that the boat was good
‘and that thé oarsmen were sufficient? How
did I know that the Finland Sea would not
swallow us with one opening of its erystal
jaws? We had to trust, and we did trust,
and our trust was well rewarded. In the
game way get into this gospel lifeboat. Let
go! As long as you hold on to any other
hope you are imperiled. and you get no ad-
vantage from the lifepoat. Let go! Dces
some one here say, *‘I guess I will hold ona
little to my good works, or to a pious parent-
age, orto something I can do in the way of
achieving my own salvation.” No, no, let
go! Trust the Captain, who would not put
you into a rickety or uncertain craft.
For the sake of your present and everlast-
ing welfare, with all the urgency of an im-
mortal addressing immortals, I ery from the
depths of my soul and at the top of my voice,
Let go! Last summer the life saving crew
at East Hampton invited me to come up to
the life station and see the crew practice, for
twice a week they are drilled in the impor-
tant work assigned them by the United States
Government, and they go through all the
routine of saving the snipwrecked. But that
would give little idea ot what they would
have to do if some midnight next winter, the
wind driving beachward, a vessel should get
in the grasp of a hurricane.
See the lights flare from the ship in the
breakers, and then responding lights flaring
from the beach, and hear the rockets buzz as
they rise, and the lifeboat rumbles out, and
the gun booms, and the life line rises and
falls across the splintered decks, and the
hawser tightens, and the life car goes to and
fro, carrying the exhausted mariners, and the
ocean, as if angered by the snatching of the
human prey from the white teeth ot its surf
and the stroke of its billowing paw, rises
with increased fury to assail the land. So
now I am engaged in no light drill, practic-
ing for what may come over some of your
souls. It is with some of you wintry mid-
night, and your hopes for this world and the
next are wrecked.
But see! See! The lights kindled on the
beach! I throw out tha life line, Hsu! in,
hand over hand! Ah, there is a lifeboat in
the surf, which all the wrath of earth an hell
cannot swamp, and its Captain with scarred
| hand puts the trumpet to His lips as He
cries, **Oh, Israel, thou hast destroysd thy-
self, but in Me is thy heip.”’ Bat what is tas
use of all this if you decline to get ingo it?
meeting, as though he were looking for
Elijah's chariot to make a second trip and
take up another passenger.”
But what a cracked and water logged and
gaping semmed lifeboat the inconsistencies
of others! Put me on ashingle mid-Atlantic
and leave me thers rather than in sucha
yaw! of spiritual confidence. God forbid that
I should get aboard it, and lest some of you
make the mistake of getting into it I do as
the mariners did on that Mediterranean ship
w hen the sailors were about to get into the
unsafe lifeboat of the text and lose their
lives in that way. ‘Then the soldiers cut
off the ropes of the boat and let her fall off.”
**Well,” says some one, ‘this subject is
very discouraging, for we must have a life-
boat if we are ever to get ashore, and you
have already condemned three.” Ah, it is
because I wantto persuade you to taks the
only safe lifeboat. I will not allow you to be
deceived and get on to the wild waves and
then capsize or sink. Thank God, there is a
lifeboat that will take you ashore in safety,
as sure as God is God and heaven is heaven.
The keel and ribs of this boat are made out
of a tree that was set up on a bluff back
of Jerusalem a good many years ago. Both
of the oars are made out of the same tree.
The rowlocks are made out of the same tree.
The steering gear is made out of the same
tree. The planks of it were hammered to-
gether hy the hammers of executioners who
thought they were only killing a Christ, but
were really pounding together an escape for
all imperiled souls of all ages.
It is an old boat, but good as new, though
it has been carrying passengers from sinking
ships to firm shore for ages and has never
Jost a passenger. These old Christians begin
to smile becausa it is dawning upon them
what I mean. The fact is that in this way
years ago trey got off a wreck themsslves,
and I do not “yonder they smile. It is not a
senseless giggle that means frivolity, but it
is a smile like that on the face of Christians
the moment they leave earth for heaven—
yea, like the smile of God Himself when He
had completed the plan for saving the world.
Right after that big tumble of the Atlantic
| Ocean six or seven weeks ago on the beach
| at Bast Hampton I met the captain of the
life saving station and said, ‘‘Captain. do
you think a lifeboat could live in a sea like
that?” Although the worst of it was over,
1f you find a woman has become a platiorm
gpeaker and likes politics, she is possassad by
a dead politidian, who forty years ago made
the platform quake. The soul keeps wander-
ing on und on, and may have fiity or innu-
merable different forms. and finally is ab-
sorbed in God. It was Cod at the start and
will be God at the last. But wito gives the
authority for the truth of sucha religion?
Some beings living in & cave in central Asia.
They are i sible to the naked eye, but they
cross continents and seas in a flash.
My Baptist brother Dr. Haldeman says
that a theosophist in New York was visited
the captain replied, “No, I do not think it
gonid ’ But this Benoa of which I speak
can live in any ssa and defies all breakers, SPAT: has >. 2 Lo ie
| and all eyelonss, and all equinoxes, and all | i Whe the maniusrs cus ERG ropes
earth, and all hell. In twenty years the life | ebeat and let her7oll of.
| saving apparatus along our Atlantic coast |
| saved the lives of over 45,000 of the ship- |
| wrecked, but this lifeboat that I commend |
‘has saved in twenty years hundreds of mill- |
| ions of the saipwrecked. Like those newly
| invented English lifeboats, it is unsubmerg-
| ible, self righting and self bailing. :
| All along our rocky American coast things
| were left to chance for centuries, and the
You might as well have been a sailor on
board tbat foundering ship of the Medi
aE i
reservoir was
in Lockport, N. Y., the other
day by workingmen who were excavat-
{ing for a foundation. It belonged fo
a system of water works abandoned
many years ago.
A large forgotten
tapped