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believe that Rom. 8:28 is still true and in God’s word. Our life-boats all leaked something terrible, we had to bail out the water with buckets continually. The life-boat I was in, at one time had 18 inches of water in it, and we were in danger of being turned over by the waves. It was now getting dark and the wind and the waves were getting furious. Eyery few seconds a large wave would wash over our life-boat. I believed that the Lord would send us help. I did not believe He had called us to Africa, and was now going to let us perish. However, I was willing to give my life right there if it was His will. Our burning ship had been seen from Signal Hill, on shore, and a tug boat was sent out. By the time the tug got near to the place of the accident it was dark and the ship had gone down. She lost all clue of our whereabouts and of course they did not know but what all had gone down with the ship. They searched and finding no trace of any thing were about to put back to shore when they caught sight of the red lights from the different life-boats. There were seven life-boats and they 'were scattered over a Wide area. I could just see the red lights from the other six boats in the distance. The tug came nearer and nearer to us, I’ can assure you it was a welcome sight. She was equipped with a powerful searchlight which they flashed in all directions try ing to keep the lifeboats in view.. When it was about centrally located it drop ped anchor and let the life-boats come to it. The life-boats soon began, to be picked up one by one. Our boat was the fifth to be picked up, which was not until 9:30 o’clock. We had been out in the life-boat for six hours. The sixth boat was soon picked up but they flashed the searchlight for another full hour trying to locate the seventh and last. We began to be quite anxious about the last boat, - especially because two girls of our party were in it. All
were 55 missionaries on board, under the various boards and denominations, going to Africa and India, besides other Christians. Some of the passengers thought the ship was going down imme diately, and of course no one Knew how long she would stay up. The Captain was on the bridge when the accident took place, and immediately he gave three short blasts of the siren as a sig nal for all to appear on deck with life belts on standing by the side of their lifeboat. We did not know but we would go down any minute, but there was no pushing or rushing. I never saw a crowd of people so calm. The women and children were put into the boats first and then the men got in and then the boats were lowered into the water. The explosions brought down the wireless with a crash so no message could be sent for help. The lifeboats were so crowded that the oars could hardly be moved. We had to throw the masts and sails overboard before we could make any progress rowing. We rowed toward shore as best we could. All the lifeboats were a safe distance from the ship when she went down. She went down within an hour after she struck. The forepart of the ship was a mass of flames and smoke; she settled gradually at thé bow and finally stood upright, sliding out of sight, tak ing the entire cargo and all that we mis sionaries possessed in this world’s goods. Three hundred bags of mail were lost. We sat in the life-boats and saw the ship go down taking our outfits, including household effects, clothing, trunks, suit cases, typewriters, books, notes taken in school, money and pass ports. We saved absolutely nothing except the clothes that we had on our backs. We have since learned to say with Paul in Phil. 3:8: “ I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.” We also
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