Rensselaer Republican, Volume 28, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 September 1895 — THE SAIL IN A STORM. [ARTICLE]

THE SAIL IN A STORM.

REV. DR. TALMAGE’S LESSON ON THE SEA OF GALILEE. * ■ - i*?? • ~ ■ • & .. Christ Hushing the Tempest—Necea- ' sity for Christ on the Rough Voyage of I.ife —Nothing- to Re Frightened About —The World Moves. Necessity of Faith. In his sermon Sunday Rev._Dr. Talmage discoursed on' a dramatic incident during the Savior's life among the Galilean fishermen and draws from it a stinking lesson for tile men and women of the _ present dayr~ The" subject was “liough Sailing,” and the text Mark iv., 3(5, 37, “Anti there wore also with him other little ships, and there aro3e a great storm of ' -wind/ 1 _ _ . ■— Tiberias, Galilee and Gannesaret were three names for the same lake. It lay in a scene of great luxuriance. The surrounding—hills,—high, terraced, sloping, gorged, were so many hanging gardens of beauty. The streams rumbled down and flashing from the hillside bounded to the sea. In the time of our Lord the valleys, -headlands and ridges were covered thickly with vegetation, and so great was the variety of climate that the palm tree of the torrid and the walnut tree of rigorous climate were only- a little way apart. Men in vineyards and olive gardens were gathering up the riches for the oil press. The hills and valleys were starred and crimsoned with flowers, front which Christ took his text, and the disciples learned lessons of patience and trust. It seemed as if God had dashed a wave of beauty on all the scene until it hung dripping from the rocks, the hills, the oleanders. On the back of the Lebanon range the glory of ~the earthly scene was'carried up as if to set it in range with the hills of lieav&n. A Smooth Sea. No other gem ever had so exquisite a Setting, as -beautiful GennesuVet. The waters were clear and sweet, and thickly inhabited, tempting innumerable nets and affording a livelihood for great populations. Betlisnidn, Chorazin and Capernaum -stood on the bank, roaring with wheels of trnflic and flashing with splen- _ their vesselsacross the lake, bringing merchandise for Damascus . and passing-great cargoes of wealthy product. Pleasure boats of Homan gentlemen and fishing smacks of the country people who had come down to cast a net there passed etch other with npd and shout of welcome, or side by side swung idly at the mooring. Palace and luxuriant bath and vineyard, tower and shadowy arbor, looked off upon the calm sweet scene as the evening shadows began to drop, and Hermon, with its head covered with perpetual snow, in the glow of the setting sun looked like a white bearded prophet ready to ascend in a chariot of fire. I think we shall have n quiet night! Not a leaf winks in the air or a ripple disturbs the surface of Gennesaret. The shadows of- the great headlands stalk clear across the Water. The voices of eveningt'de, how drowsily they strike the car —the splnsh of the boatman’s oar and the thumping of the captured fish on the boat’s bottom, and those indescribable sounds which fill the air at nightfall. You hasten to the beach of the lake a little ,way,.jmd. there yau find au excitemcnt-as of nn embarkation/ A flotilla is pushingout from the western shore of the lake—vffifft- a asqaadeefi iritL Heady arnwiv^'jA, - not a clipper to ply with valuable mernot piratic vessels with grappling hook to hug to death whatever they could seize, but a flotilla laden with messengers of light and mercy and peace. Jesus is in the front ship; his friends and admirers are in the small boats following after. Christ, by the rocking of the boat and the fa:igues of the preaching (xer, ises of the day, is induced to slumber, and I see him in the stern of the boat, with a pillow perhaps extemporized out of a fisherman’s coat, sound asleep. The breezes of the lake run their fingers through the locks of the wornout sleeper, and on its surface there riseth and falleth the light ship, like a child on the bosom of its sleeping mother. Calm night. Starry night. Beautiful night. Hun up all the sails and ply all the oars and let the boats, the big boat and the small boats, go gliding over gentle Gennesaret. Calming .the Sen. The sailors prophesy a change in the weather. Clouds begin to travel up the sky and congregate. After awhile, even the passengers bear the inoan of the storm, which comes on with rapid strides s and with all the terrors of hurricane and darkness. The bout,'caught in the sudden fury, trembles like a deer at bay, amid the wild clangor of the hounds. Groat patches of foam are,flung through the air. The loosened sails, flapping in the wind, crack like pistols. The small boats poised on the white cliff of the driven sea tremble like ocean petrels, and then plunge into the trough with terrific swoop until a wave strikes them with thunder crack, and overboard go the cordage, the tackling, and the masts, and the drenched disciples rush into the stern of • the boat and shout amid the hurricane, “Master, carest thou not that we perish?” That great Personage lifted his head from the fisherman's coat and wniked but to the prow of the vessel and looked upon the storm. On nil sides were the small boats tossing in helplessness and from them came tls* cries of drowning men. By the flash of lightning I see the calmness of the uncovered hrow pf Jesus nud the spray of the sea dripping from his beard. He has two words of command—one for the wind, the other for the sea. Ho looks into the tempestuous heavens and he cries, “Pence!” and then he looks down into the infuriate waters and he says, “Be still!” The thunders bent a retreat. The waves fall flat on their faces. The extinguished stars rekindle their torches. The fonin melts. The storm Is dead. And while the crew are untangling the cordage and the cables and hailing out the water from the hold of the ship, the disciples stand wonder struck, now gazing into the calm sky, now gazing into the calm sea, now gazing into the calm face of Jesus and whispering one to another, “JVhat manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sen obey him?” Christ on the Ship. I learn, first from this subject that when you ure going to take a voyage of any kind you ought to have Christ in the ship. The fact is, that those boats wonld ail have gone to the bottom if Christ had not been there. Now, you are about to voyage out into some new enterprise—into some new business relation. Yon are going to plan some grent matter of profit. I hope it is so. If yon are content to go along io the treadmill

course and plan nothing new, yon are not fulfilling your mission. What you can do by the utmost tension j>f body, mind and soul, that you are bound to do. You have no right to be colonel of a regiment if God calls you to command au army. You have no right to be stoker in a steamer if God commands you to be admiral of the navy. You have no right to engineer a ferryboat, from river bank to river bank if God commands you to engineer a Canarder from New York to Liverpool. But whatever enterprise /on undertake, and upon whatever voyage you start, be sure to take Christ in the ship. Here are men largely prospered. The seed of a small Enterprise grew into an accumulated and overshadowing success. Their cup of prosperity is running over. Every day sees a commercial or a mechanical triumph. Y°t they are not puffed up. They acknowledge the God who grows the harvests and gives them all their prosperity. When disaster comes that destroys others, they are only helped into higher- experiences. The coldest winds that yver blew down from, snowcapped Hermon and tossed Gennesaret -into foam and agony could not hurt them. Let the winds blow until they crack their cheeks. Let the breakers boom —all is we[i, .Christ fa in the ship. Here are other men, the prey of uncertainties. When they succeed, they strut through the world in great vnnity and wipe their feet on the sensitiveness of others. Disaster comes and they are utterly down. They are good sailors on a fair day, when the sky is clear and the sea is smooth, but they cannot outride a storm. After awhile the packet is tossed abeam’s end, and it seems as if she must go down with all the cargo. Push out from the shore with lifeboat, longboat, shallop and pinnace. You cannot save the crew. The storm twists off the masts. The sea rises up to take down the vessel. Down she goes! No Christ in tbatjship. I speak to young people whose voyage in life will tJe'lT mtifgting"of sTTnshine and of darkness, or arctic blast and of tropical 'tornado, You will have many a long, bright day of prosperity. The skies clear, the sea smooth. The crew exhilarant. The lioat, stanch, will bound merrily over the billows. Crowd on all the canvas. ’Heigh, ho! Land ahead! But suppose that sickness puts its bitter cup to your lips; suppose that death overshadows your heart: suppose misfortune with some' quick turn of the wheel hurls you backward; suppose tlmt tlm_ wave -es -trial strikes you athwart ships, and bowsprit skivered, and halliards swept-into the sea, and gangway crowded with piratical disasters, and the wave beneath, and the sky above and.the darkness around are filled with the clamor of the voices of destruction. Oh, then you will want Christ in the ship.

Storms Will Come. I learn, in the next place, that people wiio follow Christ must not always expect smooth sailing. When these disciples got into the small boats, they, said: “What a delightful thing this is! Who would riot be a follower of "Christ when he can ride in one of these small boats after the ship in which Jesus is sailing?” But when the storm came down these disciples found-put that following Jesus, did not always make smooth sailing. So you have found out and so I have found out. If there are any people who you would think ought to have a good time in getting out of this world, the apostles of Jesus Christ ought to have been the men. Have you ever noticed how they got out of the world? St. JamesTost-his head. St. Philip was hung to death against a pillar. St. Matthew was struck to denth by u halberd. St. :Mark»»ais l thraegh streets. St. James the Less had his brains dashed out with u fuller's elub. St. Matthias was stoned to death. St. Thomas was struck through with a spear. John Huss in the fire, the Albigenses, the Wnldenses, the Scotch Covenanters—did they always find smooth sailing? Why go so far?

There is a young man in a store in New Y'ork who has a hard time to maintain his Christian character. AU the clerks laugh at him, the employers in that store laugh at him, and when he loses his patience they say, “You are a pretty Christian.” Not so easy is it for that young man to follow Christ. If.the Lord did not help him hour by hour, he would fail. There are scores of young men to-da.v who would be willing lo testify that in following Christ one does not always find smooth sailing. There is a Christi in girl. Iu her home they do not like Christ. She Ims hard. work to get a silent place in which to say her prayers. Father opposed to religion. Mother opposed to religion. Brothers and sisters opposed to religion The Christian girl does not always find it smooth sailing when slie tries to follow Jesus. But be of good heart. As seafarers, when winds are dead ahead, by setting the ship on starboard tack and bracing the yards, make the winds that oppose the course propel the ship forward, so opposing troubles, through Christ, veering around the bowsprit of faith, will waft you to heaven, whew, if the winds had been abaft, they might have rocked and sung you to sleep, and while dreaming of the destined port of heaven not have heard the cry of warning and would have gone crashing into the breakers. Tlie World Moves. Again, my subject teaches me that good people sometimes get very much frightened. From the tone nnd manner of these disciples ns they rushed into the stern of the vessel and woke Christ up, you know that they are fearfully scared. And so it is now that you often find good people wildly ngitatod. “Oh!" says some Christian man, “the infidel magazines, the bud newspapers, the spiritualistic societies, the importation of so many foreign errors, the church of God is going to be lost, the ship is feeing to founder! The ship is going down!” Whnt are you frightened about? An old lion goes into his cavern to take a sleep, and he lies down until his shaggy mane covers his paws. Meanwhile the spiders outside begin to spin webs river the mouth of his cavern and say, “That lion cannot break out through this web," and they keep on spinning the gossamer threads until they get the mouth of the eavern covered over. “Now,” they say, “the lion’s done, the lion’s done.” After awhile the lion awakes and shakes himself, and he wnlks out from the cavern, never knowing there were any spiders’ webs, and with his voice he shakes the mouhtain. Let the infidels and (he skeptics of this day go on spinning their webs, spinning their infidel gossamer theories, spinning them all over the place where Christ seems to be sleeping. They say: “Christ can never again come out; the work is done. He can never get through this logical web .we have been spinning.” The day will come when the Lion of Judah’s tribe will rouse himself and come forth and shake mightily the nations. What then all your gossamer threads? What is a spider’s web to an

aroused lion? Do not fret, then, about the world’s going backward. It is going forward. Haskins the Tempest. I learn from this subject that Christ can hush the tempest. Some of yon, my hearers, have a heavy load of troubles. Some of you have wept until you can weep no more. Perhaps God took the sweetest child out of your house, the one that asked the most curious questions, ,th© one that hung around you with greatest fondness. The gravedigger's spade cut down through your bleeding heart. Or perhaps it was the only one that you had, and your soul has ever since been like a desolated castle, where the birds of the night hoot amid the failing towers and along the crumbling stairway. Or perhaps it was an aged mother that was called away. Yon Used to send for her when you had any kind of trouble. She was in your home to welcome your children into life, and when they died she was there to pity you. You know that the obi hand wiH never do any more kindness for you, and the lock of white hair that yon beep so well in the casket of the locket does not look so well as it did on the day when she moved It back from the wrinkled forehead under the old-fashioned bonnet in the dntrch in the country. Or perhaps your property has gone. You said, “There, I havb so much in bank stock, so much I have in houses, so much I have in lands, so much I have in securities.” Suddenly it is all gone. Alas! for the the man who once had plenty of money, but who has hardly enough now for the morning marketing. No storm ever swept over Gen- . nesaret like that which has gone trampling its thunders over your quaking soul. But you awoke Christ in the back part of the ship, crying, “Master, carest thon not that I perish? ” And Christ rose up - and quieted you. Jesus hushing the tempest. There is one storm into which we must all run. When a man lets go this life to take hold of the next, I do not care liow much grace ho has, lie will want it all. What is that out wonder? That is a dying Christian rocked on the surges of 4 death. Winds that wrecked magnificent flotillas of pomp and worldly power come down on that Christian soul. All the spirits of darkness seem to be let loose, for it is their last chance. The wailing of kindred seems to mingle with the swirl ofthe waters,, and the scream of the wind, and the thunder of the sky. Deep to deep, -“DlllOW TO UIIIOW. X„Gi no lx emui, no giuuuT, no terror, no sighing for the dying Christian. The fact is that from the back part of the boat a voice sings out, “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee.” By the flash of the storm the dying Christian sees that the harbor is only just nhead. From heavenly castles voices of welcome conic over the waters. Peace drops on the angry wave as the storm sobs itself to rest like a child falling asleep amid tears and trouble. Christ hath hushed the tempest. < o