Sunday at Home

Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 35, 31 March 1894, Page 3

Sunday at Home

SHIPWRECKS. (By Dr. Talmagb.) There are three millions Avho folloiv ! the sea for a living. It is a simple fact that the aA r erage of human life on the sea is less than twelve yearsTliis comes from the fact that men by familiarity Avith danger sometimes become reckless- —the captain, the helmsman, the. stoker, the man on 7 N the lookout, become reckless, and in nine out of ten shipwrecks it is found out that someone Avas awfully to blame. So I haA r e to tell you that

men are morally shipwrecked through sheerrecklessness. There are thousands Avho do not care where they drift in Spiritual things. They don’tknowAvhich A\ ay they are sailing, and the sea is black Avith piratical hulks that would grapple them Avith hooks of steel and blindfold them, and make them Avalk the plank.” They did not know Avhat the next moment may bring forth. Drifting in their theology. Drifting in their habits. Drifting in regard to all their future. No God, no Christ, no settled anticipations of eternal felicity ; but all the time coining nearer and nearer to the dangerous coast. Some of them are oh fire with evil habit, and they shall burn on the sea, the charred hulk tossed on the barren beach. On the sea there a flash and a boom. You listen and you look. A vessel is in trouble. The distress gun is sounded, or a rocket is sent up, or a blanket is lifted, or a bundle of rag’s —anything to catch the eye of the passing So if you Avant to h 3 taken off the Avrjck of your sin, you must lift a distress signal. The publican lifted a distress signal wdien lie cried : “ God be merciful to me, a sinner.” Peter lifted the distress signal when he said ; “ Lord sa\’e me, 1 perish.” The blind man lifted the

j distress signal when ho said : “ Lord, ! that my eyes may' be opened !” The ! jailer lifted his distress signal when he said : Whab must Ido to get saved t” And help will never come to your soul until you lift some signal. Ton must make some demonstration, give some sign, make some Heavenpiercing outcry for help, lifting the distress signal for the Church’s prayer, lifting the distress signal for Heaven’s pardon. Pray ! Pray ! The voice of the Lord now sounds in your ears ; “In Me is thy help ! Too proud to raise such a signal, too proud to be saved ! If there are any who consider themselves castaways, let me say, God is doing everthing to save yon. Pick not out one man here, nor one man there ; I claim you all for Christ. There are some of you who, years ago, were consecrated to Christ "by your parents in baptism. Certainly I am not stepping beyond bounds when I claim yon for Jesus. Then there are many who have been seeking’ God for a good while, and am I not right in claiming you for Christ ? Then there some who have been further away, and you drink, and you swear, and you bring up your families without any God to take care of them when you arc dead. And I claim you, my brother, I claim all of you. Yon will have to pray some time; why not begin now, while all the ripe and purple cluster of divine promise bends over into your cup, rather than postpone prayer until your chance is past, and the night drops, and the sea washes you out, and the appalling fact shall be announced that notwithstanding al! your opportunities, you have become a castaway !