340. Hard Rowing

Hard Rowing

Jon_1:13-14 : ’93The men rowed hard to bring it to the land; but they could not… wherefore they cried unto the Lord.’94

Navigation in the Mediterranean Sea always was perilous, especially so in early times. Vessels were propelled partly by sail and partly by oar. When, by reason of great stress of weather, it was necessary to reef the canvas or haul it in, then the vessel was entirely dependent upon the oars, sometimes twenty or thirty of them on each side of the vessel. You would not venture outside Sandy Hook with such a craft as my text finds Jonah sailing in; but he had not much choice of vessels. He was running away from the Lord; and when a man is running away from the Lord, he has to take risks.

God had told Jonah to go to Nineveh to preach about the destruction of that city. Jonah disobeyed. That always makes rough water, whether in the Mediterranean or the Atlantic or the Pacific or the Caspian Sea or in the Hudson or the East River. It is a very hard thing to scare sailors. I have seen them, when the prow of the vessel was almost under water, and they were walking the deck ankle deep in the surf, and the small boats by the side of the vessel had been crushed as small as kindling-wood, whistling as though nothing had happened; but the Bible says that these mariners of whom I speak were frightened. That which sailors call ’93a lump of a sea’94 had become a blinding, deafening, swamping fury. How mad the wind can get at the water, and the water can get at the wind, you do not know unless you have been spectators. I have in my house a piece of the sail of a ship, no larger than the palm of my hand: that piece of canvas was all that was left of the largest sail of the ship Greece, that went into the storm five hundred miles off Newfoundland one September day. Oh, what a night that was! I suppose that it was in some such storm as this that Jonah was caught.

He knew that the tempest was on his account, and he asked the sailors to throw him overboard. Sailors are a generous-hearted race, and they resolved to make their escape, if possible, without resorting to such extreme measures. The sails are of no use, and so they lay hold on their oars. I see the long bank of shining blades on each side the vessel. Oh, how they did pull, the bronzed seamen, as they laid back on the oars. But rowing on the sea is very different from rowing upon a river; and as the vessel hoists, the oars skip the wave and miss the stroke, and the tempest laughs to scorn the flying paddles. It is of no use, no use. There comes a wave that crashes the last mast, and sweeps the oarsmen from their places and tumbles everything in the confusion of impending shipwreck, or, as my text has it, ’93The men rowed hard to bring it to the land; but they could not: wherefore they cried unto the Lord.’94

This scene is very suggestive to me, and I pray God I may have grace and strength enough to represent it before this immortal auditory. Two years ago I preached you a sermon on another phase of this very subject, and I got a letter some weeks ago from Houston, Texas, the writer saying that the reading of that sermon in London had led him to God. And last night I received another letter from South Australia, saying that the reading of that sermon in Australia had brought several souls to Christ. And then, I thought, why not now take another phase of the same subject, for perhaps that God who can raise in power that which is sown in weakness may this day, through another phase of the same subject, bring salvation to the people who shall hear and salvation to the people who shall read. Men and women who know how to pray, lay hold of the Lord God Almighty now, and wrestle for the blessing.

Bishop Latimer would stop sometime’92s in his sermon, in the midst of his argument, and say, ’93Now, I will tell you a fable;’94 and to-night I would like to bring the scene of the text as an illustration of a most important religious truth. As those Mediterranean oarsmen trying to bring Jonah ashore were discomfited, I have to tell you that they were not the only men who have broken down on their paddles, and have been obliged to call on the Lord for help.

I want to say that the unavailing efforts of those Mediterranean oarsmen have a counterpart in the efforts we are making to bring souls to the shore of safety and set their feet on the Rock of Ages. You have a father or mother or husband or wife or child or near friend who is not a Christian. There have been times when you have been in agony about their salvation. A minister of Christ, whose wife was dying without any hope in Jesus, walked the floor, wrung his hands, cried bitterly, and said, ’93I believe I shall go insane, for I know she is not prepared to meet God.’94 And there may have been days of sickness in your household, when you feared it would be a fatal sickness; and how closely you examined the face of the doctor as he came in and scrutinized the patient, and felt the pulse, and you followed him into the next room and said, ’93There isn’92t any danger, is there, doctor?’94 And the hesitation and the uncertainty of the reply made two eternities flash before your vision. And then you went and talked to the sick one about the great future. Oh, there are those here who have tried to bring their friends to God! They have been unable to bring them to the shore of safety. They are no nearer that point than they were twenty years ago. You think you have got them almost to the shore, when you are swept back again. What shall you do? Put down the oar? Oh, no! I do not advise that; but I do advise that you appeal to that God to whom the Mediterranean oarsmen appealed’97the God who could silence the tempest and bring the ship in safety to the port. I tell you, my friends, that there has got to be a good deal of praying before our families are brought to Christ.

Ah! it is an awful thing to have half a household on one side the line, and the other part of the household on the other side of the line! Oh, the possibility of an eternal separation! One would think that such a thought would hover over the pillow and hover over the armchair and hover over the table, and that each clatter at the door would cause a shudder as though the last messenger had come. To live together in this world five years or ten years or fifty years, and then afterward to live away from each other millions, millions, millions, millions of years, and to know and feel that between us and eternal separation there is only one heart-beat! When our Christian friends go out of this life into glory, we are comforted. We feel we shall meet them again in the good land. But to have two vessels part on the ocean of eternity, one going to the right and the other to the left’97farther apart and farther apart’97until the signals cease to be recognized, and there are only two specks on the horizon, and then they are lost to sight forever!

I have to tell you that the unavailing efforts of these Mediterranean oarsmen have a counterpart in the efforts some of us are making to bring our children to the shore of safety. There never were so many temptations for young people as there are now. The literary and the social influences seem to be against their spiritual interests. Christ seems to be driven almost entirely from the school and the pleasurable concourse, yet God knows how anxious we are for our children. We can not think of going into heaven without them. We do not want to leave this life while they are tossing on the waves of temptation and away from God. From which of them could we consent to be eternally separated? Would it be the son Would it be the daughter? Would it be eldest? Would it be the youngest? Would it be the one that is well and stout or the one that is sick?

I hear some parent saying, ’93I have tried my best to bring my children to Christ. I have laid hold of the oars until they bent in my grasp and I have braced myself against the ribs of the boat and I have pulled for their eternal rescue; but I can’92t get them to Christ.’94 Then I ask you to imitate the men of the text, and cry mightily unto God. We want more importunate praying for children, such as the father indulged in when he had tried to bring his six sons to Christ, and they had wandered off into dissipation. Then he got down in his prayers, and said, ’93O God! take away my life, if through that means my sons may repent and be brought to Christ;’94 and the Lord startlingly answered the prayer, and in a few weeks the father was taken away, and through the solemnity the six sons fled unto God. Oh, that father could afford to die for the eternal welfare of his children! He rowed hard to bring them to the land, but could not, and then he cried unto the Lord. There are parents here who are almost discouraged about their children. Where is your son today? He has wandered off, perhaps, to the ends of the earth. It seems as if he can not get far enough away from your Christian counsel. What does he care about the furrows that come to your brow; about the quick whitening of the hair; about the fact that your back begins to stoop with the burdens? Why, he would not care much if he heard you were dead! The black-edged letter that brought the tidings he would put in the same package with other letters telling the story of his shame. What are you going to do? Both paddles broken at the middle of the blade, how can you pull him ashore? I throw you one oar to-night with which I believe you can bring him into harbor. It is the glorious promise: ’93I will be a God to thee, and to thy seed after thee.’94 O broken-hearted father and mother, you have tried everything else; now make an appeal for the help and omnipotence of the covenant-keeping God! and perhaps at your next family gathering’97perhaps on Thanksgiving day, perhaps next Christmas day’97the prodigal may be home; and if you crowd on his plate more luxuries than on any other plate at the table, I am sure the brothers will not be jealous, but they will wake up all the music in the house, ’93because the dead is alive again, and because the lost is found.’94

Perhaps your prayers have been answered already. The vessel may be coming homeward, and by the light of this night’92s stars that absent son may be pacing the deck of the ship, anxious for the time to come when he can throw his arm around your neck and ask for forgiveness for that he has been wringing your old heart so long. Glorious reunion! that will be too sacred for outsiders to look upon; but I would just like to look through the window when you have all got together again, and are seated at the banquet.

Again: I remark that the unavailing effort of the Mediterranean oarsmen has a counterpart in the effort which we are making to bring this world back to God, his pardon and safety. If this world could have been saved by human effort, it would have been done long ago. John Howard took hold of one oar and Carey took hold of another oar and Adoniram Judson took hold of another oar and Luther took hold of another oar, and John Knox took hold of another oar, and they pulled until they fell back dead from the exhaustion. Some dropped in the ashes of martyrdom, some on the scalping-knives of savages, and some into the plague-struck room of the lazaretto; and still the chains are not broken and still the despotisms are not demolished and still the world is unsaved. What then? Put down the oars and make no effort? I do not advise that. But I want you, Christian brethren, to understand that the church and the school and the college and the missionary society are only the instrumentalities; and if this work is ever done at all, God must do it, and he will do it, in answer to our prayer. ’93They rowed hard to bring it to the land; but they could not: wherefore they cried unto the Lord.’94

Again: the unavailing effort of those Mediterranean oarsmen has a counterpart in every man that is trying to row his own soul into safety. When the Eternal Spirit flashes upon us our condition, we try to save ourselves. We say, ’93Give me a stout oar for my right hand, give me a stout oar for my left hand, and I will pull myself into safety.’94 No. A wave of sin comes and dashes you one way, and a wave of temptation comes and dashes you in another way, and there are plenty of rocks on which to founder, but seemingly no harbor into which to sail. Sin must be thrown overboard, or we must perish. There are men in this house, in all these galleries, who have tried for ten years to become Christians. They believe all I say in regard to a future world. They believe that religion is the first, the last, the infinite necessity. With it, heaven! Without it, hell! They do everything but trust in Christ. They make sixty strokes in a minute. They bend forward with all earnestness, and they lie back until the muscles are distended, and yet they have not made one inch in ten years toward heaven. What is the reason? That is not the way to go to work. You might as well take a frail skiff and put it down at the foot of Niagara and then head it up toward the churning thunderbolt of waters and expect to work your way up through the lightning of the foam into calm Lake Erie, as for you to try to pull yourself through the surf of your sin into the hope and pardon and placidity of the Gospel. You cannot do it in that way. Sin is a rough sea, and longboat, yawl, pinnace and gondola go down unless the Lord deliver; but if you will cry to Christ and lay hold of divine mercy, you are as safe from eternal condemnation as though you had been twenty years in heaven.

I wish I could put before this audience, unpardoned, their own helplessness. You will be lost as sure as you sit there if you depend upon your own power. You can not do it. No human arm was ever strong enough to unlock the door of heaven. No foot was ever mighty enough to break the shackle of sin. No oarsman swarthy enough to row himself into God’92s harbor. The wind is against you. The tide is against you. The Law is against you. Ten thousand corrupting influences are against you. Helpless and undone. Not so helpless a sailor on a plank, mid-Atlantic. Not so helpless a traveler girded by twenty miles of prairie on fire. Prove it, you say. I will prove it. Joh_6:44 : ’93No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him.’94

But while I have shown your helplessness, I want to put by the side of it the power and willingness of Christ to save you. I think it was in 1686 a vessel was bound for Portugal, but it was driven to pieces on an unfriendly coast. The captain had his son with him, and with the crew they wandered up the beach and started on the long journey to find relief. After a while the son fainted by reason of hunger and the length of the way. The captain said to the crew, ’93Carry my boy for me on your shoulders.’94 They carried him on; but the journey was so long that after a while the crew fainted from hunger and from weariness, and could carry him no longer. Then the father rallied his almost wasted energy, and took up his boy and put him on his own shoulder and carried him on mile after mile, mile after mile, until, overcome himself by hunger and weariness, he too fainted by the way. The boy lay down and died, and the father, just at the time rescue came to him, also perished, living only long enough to tell the story’97sad story, indeed! But glory be to God that Jesus Christ is able to take us up out of our shipwrecked and dying condition, and put us on the shoulder of his strength, and by the omnipotence of his Gospel bear us on through all the journey of this life, and at last through the opening gates of heaven! He is mighty to save.

Hear it, ye dying men and women! Though your sin be long and black and inexcusable and outrageous, the very moment you believe I will proclaim pardon’97quick, full, grand, unconditional, uncompromising, illimitable, infinite. Oh, the grace of God! I am overwhelmed when I come to think of it. Give me a thousand ladders, lashed fast to each other, that I may scale the height. Let the line run out with the anchor until all the cables of earth are exhausted, that we may touch the depth. Let the archangel fly in circuit of eternal ages in trying to sweep around this theme. Oh, the grace of God! It is so high. It is so broad. It is so deep. Glory be to my God, that where man’92s oar gives out, God’92s arm begins! Why will ye carry your sins and your sorrows any longer when Christ offers to take them? Why will you wrestle down your fears when this moment you might give up and be saved? Do you not know that every thing is ready?

See, Jesus stands with open arms;

He calls, he bids you come.

Sin holds you back, and fear alarms;

But still there yet is room.

O men and women! bought by the blood of Jesus, how can I give you up? Will you turn away this plea, as you have turned away so many? Have you deliberately chosen to die? Do you want to be lost? Do you turn your back on heaven because you do not want to see Christ, nor your own loved ones whom he has taken into his bosom? Can not some of these fathers and mothers hear the voices of their children in glory calling to-night, saying:

Steer this way, father,

Steer straight for me;

Here safe in heaven

I am waiting for thee.

Do you not see the hands of mercy, the hands of loved ones, let down now from the skies, beckoning you to the pardoning Jesus, beckoning you up to heaven and to glory? Can it be that it is all in vain? Calvary in vain? Death-bed warnings in vain? Ministering spirits in vain? The opening gates of heaven in vain? The importuning of God’92s eternal Spirit all in vain? To your knees, O dying soul! before it be too late to pray. I hear the creaking of the closing door of God’92s mercy. To some of you the last chance has come. The tongue in the great bell begins to swing for the death-knell of thy soul immortal! And in an hour in which ye think not your disembodied spirit may go shrieking out toward the throne of an offended God, and’97what then?

Has not God been calling to you, my dear brother, during the past week? In the shaking down of fortunes, has he not shown you the uncertainty of this world’92s treasures? Do you not feel to-night as if you would like to have God and Jesus, and all the precious promises of his Gospel? I remember that after the great crisis of 1857, when the whole land was rocked with commercial sorrow, the Spirit of God descended, and there were two hundred and seventy thousand souls in one year who found the peace of Christ. Oh, I would that the rocking in New York and Brooklyn to-day’97the commercial rocking’97might rouse up men to the consideration of the interests of their immortal souls! As I have asked you before, I ask you now, ’93What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his soul?’94 Come back, O wanderer! I do not ask where you came from to this place. Though you may have come from places of sin, I shall not be partial in my offer of salvation. I offer it to every one who sits before me. ’93Whosoever will, let him come,’94 and let him come now.

Plenty of room at the feast. Jesus has the ring of his love all ready to put upon your hand. Come now and sit down, ye hungry ones, at the banquet. Ye who are in rags of sins, take the robe of Christ. Ye who are swamped by the breakers around you, cry to Christ to pilot you into smooth, still waters. On account of the peculiar phase of the subject, I have drawn my illustrations in this sermon, you see, chiefly from the water. I remember that a vessel went to pieces on the Bermudas a great many years ago. It had a vast treasure on board. But the vessel being sunk, no effort was made to raise it. After many years had passed, a company of adventurers went out from England, and after a long voyage they reached the place where the vessel was said to have sunk. They got into a small boat and hovered over the place. Then the divers went down, and they broke through what looked like a limestone covering, and the treasure rolled out’97what was found afterward to be, in our money, worth one million five hundred thousand dollars, and the foundation of a great business house. At that time the whole world rejoiced over what was called the luck of these adventurers. O ye who have been rowing toward the shore, and have not been able to reach it, I want to tell you to-night that your boat hovers over infinite treasure! All the riches of God are at your feet. Treasures that never fail and crowns that never grow dim. Who will go down now and seek them? Who will dive for the pearl of great price? Who will be prepared for life, for death, for judgment, for the long eternity? Many who hear my voice hear it for the last time, and I shall meet them not again until the heavens be rolled up as a scroll, and the books be open. Flee the wrath to come! The Lord help you! I am clear of the blood of souls. See two hands of blood stretched out toward thy dying soul, as Jesus says, ’93Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’94

Autor: T. De Witt Talmage