Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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THE LEDGER: GAFFNEY, S. C., FEBRUARY 25, 1897. 5 F0^ THE SKEPTICAL. REV. DR. TALIVACL T 6HATTPR' D :.CACHCS CM “A FAITH.” An Old Missionary T . (' ai-t! of the (Ship—Thcolocicul Viic-ji itii 'inJ ConunoD Ken.e Faete—.Seizing < :i tho First Tliin; That ODers Tn Tir; '■ o' Peril. De Fcmak Sratra;?, Fla., Fob. 21.— After many year.; < f invitation Dr. Tal- mage preachc-; t?-dayat thin groatChau- tauqna. From all parts of tlie Kouth the people are a^semblqjl. Tlie sermon is mightily helpful for those who find it hard to believe everything. Dr. Tal- mage retnniK this vv< -k to Washington. The subject cf this sermon is “A Shat tered Faith” and the text Acts xxvii, 44, “And some on broken pieces of the ship.” Never off Gcoowin sands or the Sker ries or Cape Katteras was a ship in worse predicament than, in the Mediter ranean hurricane, was the grain ship on which 276 pn-‘ ngers were driven on the coast of Malta, live miles from the metropolis of that island, called Citta Veochia. After a two weeks’ temiiest, when the ship was entirely disabled and captain and crew had become complete ly demoralis'd, an old missionary took command of the vessel He was small, crooked backed and sore eyed, accord ing to tradition. It was Paul, the only onscarcd man aboard. He was no more afraid of a Euroelydon tossing the Med iterranean sea, now up to the gates of heaven and now sinking it to the gates of hell, than hn v. a afraid of a kitten playing with a si nun. He ordered them all down to take their rations, first ask ing for them a bit - ■■iig. Then he insur ed all their liv ., t -lliug them they would l)C rescued, d. so far from los ing their heath’, thev would not lose so much of their hair a '/on could cut off with one click cf thb is issors—nay, not a thread of it, wlit ther it were gray with ago or golden with youth. “There shall not a hair fall ficau the head of any of you.” Paul la Comraand. Knowing that they can never get to the desired port, they make the sea on the fourteenth night black with over thrown cargo, so that whoa the ship strikes it will net st i il:o so heavily. At daybreak they saw a creek and in their exigency resolved to make for it. And ao they cut ll“' cables, took in the two paddles they had on those old boats and hoisted the mainsail so that they might come with such force as to be driven high np on the b- ;u h by some fortunate billow. There she goes, tumbling to ward the rocks, now prow foremost,, now stern fen-most, now rolling over to the starboard, i o\v ever to the lar board; now a wave dashes clear over *the deck, and it .- ms us if the old craft has gone forever. Hut up she comes again- Paul’s nn.:.» around a mast, he Gian: “All is well <hxl has given mo 7^11 those that s d with mo.” Crash went the prow, v ith : ucli force that it broke O ' in; Paul to cue. epar, ” says that image “Take that a smooth voyage, forofttimes it will tie tempestuous < v a chopped sea, but I could promise r/fi took passage on t! culled by me 1 > r cume out of th rad :» badge of hi- Bat a vast mul‘ alar passage. ■ ']>. in pieces, and the pieces, and their pieces, and rival for all who (/real Eastern, fo ■ i's courmunder the star of the ity. i ude do not take reg- Crash went the timbers till the i«-as ruslud through from side to side of the vessel. She parts amidships, and into a thousand fragments tlx: vt ‘ l g: aud into the wave* 276 imiuorlais are pn cipitated. Some of th'-m lain b. j; bronglit up on the seashore and bad learned to swim, and with their chins just above the waves and by the trokes of both arms and propulsion < f loth foot they put out for the beech and reached it But alas for those other ! They have never learned to swim, or they were wounded by the falling cf the mast, or the nerv ous shock was too great for them. And others hud Ix'en weakened by long sea sickness. Oh, what will become of them? “Take that piece of a rudder," says “Take that fragment of a Paul to another. “Take of Castor and Pollux.” plunk from the lifeboat.” “Take anything and head for the beach.” Avkut a struggle for life in the breakers! Oh, the merciless waters, how they sweep over the heads of men, women and children! Hold on there! Almost ashore. K< - p up your courage. Remember what Paul told you.' There the receding wave on the beach leaves in the sand a whole family. There crawls up cut cf the surf the centurion. There another plank comes in, with u life clinging fast to it. There another piece of the shattered vessel, with its freightage of an immortal soul. They must by this time all be saved. Yes; there comes in lust of all, for he had been overseeing the rest, the old mis sionary, who wrings (he water from his gray beard aud cries cut, ‘‘Thank God, all are here!” How T!.t y Sccapid. father around a fire and call the roll. Paul builds a fire, aud when the bundle of sticks b< gin to crackle, and, standing r.ud sitting around the blaze, the passengers begin to recover from their chill, and the wet clothes begin to dry, and warmth begins to come into all tho shivering passengers, let the purser of the vessel go round and see if any of the peer creatures are missing. Not one of the crowd that were plunged into tho sea. How it relieves our anxiety as wo read: “Seme on broken pieces of the ship. And so it came to pass that they escaped all safe to land. ” Having on previous occasions looked at tho other passengers, I confine myself today to an examination of those who came in on brok. pieces of the ship. There is something about them that ex cites in mo an (nt< nse interest. I am not so much iutorrsted in those that ooold swim. They got ashore, as I ex pected. A mile.cf water is not a very great undertaking for a strong swim mer, or even ifwo miles are not. But I cannot stop thinking about those on broken pieces of the .-’hip. The great goihr 1 ship is the finest of the universe a:il can carry more imik- engers than anyr craft ever constructed, you could : 10 more wreck it than could wm k tlie throne of God Al mighty. I witdi all the people would come aboard of |jcr. I could not promise ji tlx ciopy is broken •ir life is broken in habits are broken in their world and spiritual prospects an- broken in pieces, aud yet i believe they are going to reach the shining shore, and I am encouraged by the experience cf thon- people who are spoken of in the text, ‘‘Some on broken pieces of the ship. ” One object in this sermon is to en courage all those wl o cannot take tho whole system of religion as wo believe it, but who really believe something, to come ashore on that one plank. I do not nml irate the value of a great theological system, but where in all the Bible is there anything that says: Believe in John Calvin and thou shalt be saved? cr, believe in Arminius and thou shalt be saved? or, believe in synod of Dort and thou shalt be saved? or, lx** lieve in tho Thirty nine Articles aud thou shalt lx* saved? A man may be or thodox and go to hell, or heterodox and go to heaven. The man who in the deep affection of ids heart accepts Christ is saved, aud the man who docs not accept him is lost. One Central F»;rt. I believe in lioth the Heidelberg and Westminster catechisms, and I wish you all did, but you may believe in nothing they contain except the one idea, that Christ came to save sinners, and that you are one of t:x m, aud you are in stantly rescued. If yen can come in on the grand old ship, I would rather have you get aboard, but if you can only find a piece of wood as long as the human body, or a pk-ee as wide us the out spread human arms, aud either of them is a piece o? the cross, come in on that piece. Tens of thousands of people arc today kept out of the kingdom of God because they canned believe everything. I am talking with a man thoughtful about bis soul who lias lately traveled through New Exglaud and passed the night at Andover. He says to me, “I cannot believe that in this life the des tiny is irrevocably fixed; I think there will be another opportunity of repent ance after death.” 1 say to him: “My brother, what has that to do with you? Don't you realize that tin man who waits for another chance after death when he h;us u good chime; before d. ath is a stark fool: Had not you better take the plank that is thrown to you now and head for shore rather than wait for a plunk that may by invisible hands be ’thrown to you after yon arc- dead? Do as you please, but as for myself, with pardon fgr all my sins offered me now, and all the joys of time and eternity offered me now, I instantly take them, rather than nin tho risk cf such other chance as wise men think they can peel off or twist ont of a Scripture passage that has ior all the Chri-tlnn centuries been interpreted another v oy. ” You say, “I do not like Princeton theology, or New Haven t heology, or Andover the ology. ” I do not ask you on board eitlx-r of these great men-of-war, their port holes lilh-d with the great siege guns of ecclesiastical battle, ’out I do ask you to take the one plank of the gospel that you do believe in and strike cut for the pearl strung beach of keav< n. Says some other man, “I would at tend to religion if I was quite sure about the doctrine ox election and tree agency, but that mixes mo all up.” Those things used to bother me, but I have no more perplexity about them, fori say to myself, “If I love Christ and live a good, honest, useful life, I am eheted to be saved, and if I do not love Christ and live a bad life I will bo damned, aud all the theological sem inaries of the universe cannot make it any different. ’ ’ I floundered a long while in the sea of sin and doubt, and it was as rough as the Mediterranean on the fourteenth night, when they threw the grain overboard, but I saw there was mercy for a sinner, and that plank I took, and I have Ixcfi warming myself by the bright lire on the shore ever since. Doubt Overrupd. While I am talking to another man about his soul he t< 11s me, ‘ ‘I do not be come a Christian L cause I do not Ixo lievc there is any hell at all.” Ah, don’t you? Do all the people of all lx - liefs and no belief at all, of good morals and bad morels, go straight to a happjy heaven? Do the holy and the debauched have the same destination? At mid night, in a hallway, the owner of a house and a burglar meet. They both fire, and both are wounded, but the burglar dies in five minutes, and rhe owner of the house lives a week after. Will the burglar be at the gate of heav en, waiting, when the house owner comes in? Will the debauchee and tho libertine go right in among the families of heaven? I wonder if Herod is playing on the banks of the river of life with the childre n !x* massacred. I wonder if Charles Guiteau and John Wilkes Booth are? up there si wot ion g at a mark. I do not now controvert it. although I must say that for such a miserable heaven I have no admiration. But tho Bible does not say, “Believe in perdition and be saved.” Because all are saved, accord ing to your theory, that ought not to keep you from loving and serving Christ. Do not refuse to come ashore because all the others, according to your theory, are going to get ashore. Yon may have a different theory about chem istry, about astronomy, about the at mosphere from that which others adopt, but you are not therefore hindered from action. Because t vonr theory of light is differ ent from others do not refuse to open your eyes. Because your theory of air is different you do not refuse to breathe. Because your theory about the stellar system is different you do not refuse to acknowledge tho north star. Why should tho fact that your theological theories arc different hinder you from acting upon what you'know? have not a whole ship fastened in the theological drydtxks to bring you to wharfage, you have at least a plank. "Some on broken pieces of the ship.” “Bnt I don’t believe in revivals!” Then go to your room, and all alone, with your door locked, give your heart to God, and join some church where the thermometer never gets higher than 50 in the shade. “But I do not believe in baptism!” Come in without it aud settle that mat ter afterward. “But there are so many inconsistent Christians!” Then come in and show them by a good example how professors should a<-t. “But I don’t believe in the Old Testament!” Then ccmo in on tho New. “But I don’t like the book of Romans.” Then come in on Matthew or Luke. Refusing to come to Christ, whom you admit to be the Saviour of the lost, because you cannot admit other things, you are like a man out there in that Mediterranean tempest and tossed in the Melita breakers, re fusing to come ashore* until he can mend tho pieces of the broken ship. I hear him say: "I won’t go in on any of these planks until I know in what part of the ship they belong. When I can get the windlass in the right place, and the sails set, and that keel piece where it belongs, and that floor timber right, and these ropes untangled, I will go ashore. I am an old soldier, and know all about ships for 40 years, and as soon as I can get the vessel afloat in good shape I will come in. ” A man drifting by on a piece of wood overhears him and says: “You will drown before you get that ship re constructed. Better do as I am doing. I know’ nothing about ships, and never saw one before I came on board this, aud I cannot swim a stroke, but I am going ashore on this shivered timber. ” The man in the offing, while trying to mend his ship, goes down. The man who trusted to the plank is saved. Oh, my brother, let your smashed up system of theology go to the bottom, while you come In on a splintered spar! ‘ ‘Some on broken piece's of the ship." The Victorious lianuer. You may get all your difficulties set tled as Garibaldi, the magnetic Italian, got hia gardens made. When the war between Austria and Sardinia broke out he was living at Caprera, a very rough and uncultured island home. But he went forth with his sword to achieve the liberation of Naples and Sicily, aud gave 9,000,000 people free government under Victor Emmanuel. Garibaldi, after being absent two years from Ca prera, returned, and when he approach ed it he found that his home had, by Victor Emmanuel, as a surprise, been Edeuized. Trimmed shrubbery had taken the place of thorny thickets, gar dens the place of barrenut ss, and tho old rookery in which he once lived had given way to a pictured mansion. And I tell you if you will come and enlist under the banner of our Victor Emman uel aud follow- him through thick :uid thin and fight his battles and endure his sacrifices you will find after awhile that lie has changed your heart from a jungle of thorny skepticism into a gar den all abloom with luxuriant joy that you have never dreamed of—from a tangled Caprera of sadness into a para dise of God. I do not know’ how’ your theological system went to pieces. It may be that your parents started you with only one plank, and you believe little or noth ing. Or they may have been t<x) rigid aud severe in religious discipline aud cracked yon over the head with a psalm book. It may be that some partner in business who was a member of an evan gelical church played on you a trick that disgusted you with religion. It may be that you have associates who have talked against Christianity in your presence until you are “all at sea, ” aud you dwell more on things that you do not believe than on things you do be lieve. You are in one respect like Lord Nelson, when a signal was lifted that he wished to disregard and he put his sea glass to his blind eye :ind said, ‘‘I really do not see tile signal.” Oh, my hearer, put this ficidglass of the gospel no longer to your blind eye, and say, I cannot see, but put it to your other eye, the eye of faith, and you w ill see Christ, aud he is all vou need to sec. If you can believe nothing else, you certainly believe in vicarious suffering, for yon see it almost every day in some shape. The steamship Knickerbocker of the Cromwell line, running between New Orleans and New York, was in gre at storms, and the captain and crew saw tho schooner Mary D. Cranmtr of Philadelphia in distre ss. The weather cold, the waves mountain high, the first officer of the steamship and four men put out in a lifeboat to save the crew of the schooner, and reached the vessel and towed it out of danger, the wind shift ing so that the schooner was saved. But the five men of the steamship coming back, their l*>at capsized, yet righted again aud came on, the sailors coated with ice. The boat capsized again, ;uid three times upset and was righted, and a line was thrown the p<»or fellows, but their hands were frozen bo they could not grasp it, and a great v. T avo rolled over them, and they went down, never to rise again till tho sea gives up its dead. Appreciate that heroism and self sacrifice of the brave fellows all who can, and can wo not appreciate the Christ who put out into a more biting cold aud into a more overwhelming surge to bring us out of infinite peril into everlasting safety? The wave of hu man hate rolled over him from one side and the wave of hellish fury rolled over him on the other side. Oh, tho thick ness of the night tuid tho thunder of the tempest into which Clirist plunged for our rescue! ( ling te the Cross. Come in on one narrow beam of tho cross. Let all else go and cling to that; put that nnder you, r id with the ear nestness of a swimmer st, uggling for his life put out for shore. There is a great warm fire of welcome already built, and already many, who were as far out us you are, arc standing in its genial and heavenly glow. The angels of God’s rescue are wading out into the surf to dutch your hand, and they know how exhausted you are, and nil the rodof m^d prodigals of heaven are on the beach with new white robes to clothe all those who come in on broken pieces of tho ship. My sympathies are for such all tho more because I was naturally skeptical, disposed to question everything about this life and the next, and was in dan ger of being farther out to sea than any of the 276 in the Mediterranean break ers, and I was sometimes the annoyance of my theological professor because I asked so many questions. But I came in on a plank. I knew Christ was the Saviour of sinners and that I was a sin ner, and I got ashore, and I do not pro pose to go ont on that sea again. I have not for 30 minutes discussed the contro verted points of theology in 30 years, and during the rest of my life I do not propose to discuss them for 30 seconds. I would rather in a mud scow try to weather tho worst cyclone that ever swept np from the Caribbean, than risk my immortal soul in useless and perilous discussions in which some of my brethren in the ministry arc indulg ing. They remind me of a company of sailors shmdiug on tho Ramsgate pier head, from which the lifeboats are usually launched, and coolly discussing the different styles of oarlocks and how deep a boat ought to set in tho water while a hurricane is in full blast and there are three steamers crowded with passengers going to pieces in the offing. An old tar, tho muscles of his face work ing with nervous excitement, cries ont: ‘ ‘This is no time to discuss such things. Man the lifeboat! Who will volunteer? Out with her into the surf! Pull, my lads; pull for the wreck! Ha, ha! Now we have them. Lift them in and lay them down on the bottom of the boat. Jack, you try to bring them to. Put these flannels around their heads and feet, and I will pull for the shore. God help me! There! Lauded! Huzza!” When there are so many struggling in the waves of sin and sorrow and wretch edness, let all else go bnt salvation for time and salvation forever. A Safe Flank. I bethink myself that there are some here whose opportunity or whose life is a mere wreck, aud they have only a small piece left. You started in youth with all sails set, and everything prem ised a grand voyage, but you have sailed in the wrong direction or have foundered on a reck. You have only a fragment of time left Then come in on that one plank. “ Some on broken pieces of the ship. ” You admit you are all broken up, one decade of yonr life gone by, two decades, three d«*ades, four decades, a half century, perhaps three-quarters of a century gone. The hour hand aud the minute hand of your clock of life are almost parallel, and soon it will be 12 and your day ended. Clear discouraged are you? I admit it is a sad thing to give all of our lives that are worth any thing to sin and tho devil and then at last make God a present of a first rate corpse. But the past you cannot recover. Get on Ixiard that old ship you never will. Have you only one more year left, one mere month, one more week, one more day, one more hour—come in on that. Perhaps if you get to heaven God may let you go out on some great mis sion to some other world, where you can somewhat atone for your lack of service in this. From many a deathbed I have seen the hands thrown np in deploration something like this: “My life has been wasted. 1 had good mental faculties aud tine social position and great oppor tunity, but through worldincss and neg lect all has gone to waste save these few remaining hours. I now accept of Christ and shall enter heaven through his mercy, but alas, alas, that when I iffight have entered the haven of eternal rest with a full cargo, and been greeted by the waving hands of a multitude in whose salvation I had borne a blessed part, I must confess I now enter the harbor of heaven on broken pieces of the ship. ” Six Kentucky Marriage*. At the village of Rolcy one day not long ago there were six couples mar ried In the morning there was a triple wedding in the church. In the after noon Jhrec other couples were wedded within an hour of each other at the homes of the respective brides. All six of the couples were entertained at the home of Uncle Bob Tucker, who, after tho different marriages, was closely re lated to all the principals thereto. Now come some of the singular features of the case. Uncle Bob, before the wed ding, had in the lot of 12 individuals a daughter, a son, three granddaughters, one niece and one nephew. In the 12 there were a brother and sister, two sisters, two brothers, three cousins, two uncles, an aunt, four nieces and two nephews, aud yet no one of tho 12 per sons married any one related to him or herself. Another funny feature is that before the weddings there were two named Hopkins, two Dunbars, two Cholfs, two Tuckers, two McWhorters, one Pendleton aud one Hood. After tho omelet was done, the Dunbars and Hop kinses had gained two, the Pendletons, Cbelfs and McWhorters had been ex terminated, the Hoods had been in creased by one, and the Tuckers had held their ground. Ever since the wed ding day the gossips have been figuring on the probable kinship between the- several brides and grooms and their mu tual relative Uncle Bob Tucker.—Co Iambus (Ky.) Spectator. Dickens* Valet. Jackson Jordan, for some time the valet of Charles Dickens, celebrated his eighty-sixth birthday on Jan. 8. Dick ens picked him up in New Orleans, and ho was in tho service of the author when tho “American Notes” were writ ten, later accompanying him home to England. At present ho is steward of the steamship Coptic, running between San Francisco aud China, aud ho ex pects to sail for many a day yet, though he can remember when there were only two stores in San Francisco and when gold mining had not boon begun. The Greatest Cure on Earth for Pain. 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