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THE K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
was among those who were told to-sw im ashore.—Lumby. C ast themselves in. I t does not so much m atter how we get to heaven as th a t we get there. Some who tru st mostly in ritu al and ceremonies may possibly get there on broken pieces of the ship, b u t happier are they who can east themselves directly upon the favor of God in Christ Jesus.—Meyer. v. 44. Some on broken pieces. This is th e way Christians come out of storms th a t they have been in through th eir own choosing.-—Sel. They escaped. A true child of God w ill always find something placed a t hand to save him.—Parsons. Safe to land. According to the Divine pledge and P a u l’s confident assurance giv en them, every soul got safe to land, yet w ithout miracle.—Jam ieson. No m atter how much the outward church may fail, the elect w ill get safe to land.—Cook. a k m Subject Illustration.—An elderly sailor was converted a few years ago and .one of the chapters th a t interested him most in the Bible was this 27th chapter of Acts. He said: “ I have sailed the M editerranean Sea for years. I know its every port. P a u l’s description of it is as accurate as if I had given it m yself.” P aul witnessed for LESSON Jesus as much on ILLUSTRATIONS ship-board as on the W . H . P ik e land. A young sailor once rose and said: “ I n ’a thunderstorm fa r out a t sea, I was struck by th e lightning and tak en up for dead. As they were carrying me along the deck, I heard the m ate say, ‘Poor fel low; he is gone.’ I was conscious, and knew all th a t was said and done. I said to myself, ‘Where w ill I go to ? ’ In a moment it seemed as if all the aets of my wicked life passed in review before me. I t was an aw ful sight. I thought hell was not fa r off, and g o ' there I must. They revived me; bu t I had been too near etern ity to' be any longer indifferent. I fled for refuge to Christ. T hat was five years ago. I have stood up for Jesus ever since, both on land and sea.” Bible Illustration.—Psa. 83:15, Nah. 1:3, Psa. 107:23-32, God controls the w aters of the deep. Ex. 14, God delivered
H is people in the sea. Prov. 30:18-19, the wise man, Solomon, acknowledged th a t he did not know the way of a ship in the sea. M att. 8:23-27, Jesus and P eter walked upon the sea. Jonah, Chapters 1-3, Jonah was delivered from the sea. God controls th e Sea.—W hat an example of the weakness of man are his attem pts to calm the sea. God alone is m aster of it. “ He m aketh th e storm a calm .” Man thought he was m aster of the -sea, when he made th e ’ Titanic, a supposedly non-sinkable ship. But the sad story of its sinking is still fresh in Our memories. Xerxes gave the Hellespont 10,000 lashes because it destroyed his pontoon bridge, bu t in his defiant act, he proved his folly. Paul put his tru st in the One who alone can control th is restless sea. P a u l’s T rust g reater th a n his Fear.— When my sis,ter sailed for China, tw enty years ago, the ship was overtaken w ith a heavy storm. While she was sittin g in the' saloon of th e boat reading, a large wave came over and smashed off a corner of the cabin above. Some of the w ater came dashing into the parlor. A young traveling man, sittin g opposite her, jumped to his feet a t the crash, and w ith face as pale as death, said, “ We shall be a t-th e bottom ot the ocean in less than five m inutes.” “ No, we will n o t,” said my sister, “ God w ants me in C hina.” When the monks gathered round Wy- clifife’s tied, which they hoped was his death-bed, and adjured him to recant, he replied, ‘ ‘I shall not die, bu t live and declare th e works of the Friars. ’’ And he seemed to gain new inspiration, his health greatly reviving; and his words were ultim ately fulfilled to the very letter. F a ith Triumphs.—Paul said, “ And now I exhort you to be of good cheer; for there shall be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship.” “ On a grey sum mer dawn, lying between Dundee and St. A ndrew ’s, John Knox, being so ex tremely sick th a t few hoped fo r his life, M aster Jam es Balfour willed him to look
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