AMONG the many trading ships sunk during the war by German submarines was the barque, “William T. Lewis,” owned by Messrs Rolph, of London. She was sunk off the Irish coast after having been at sea for one hundred and sixty days.
The “U” boat approached the barque, fired two shots across her bows, and then inquired, by signal, as to her nationality. In reply the ensign of the British mercantile marine was hoisted.
The submarine next ran up another signal, which meant: “Can your damages be put right at sea?”
Whatever could be the intentions of the Germans in signaling such a question? Captain Manning, of the barque, naturally wondered, and hesitated as to the answer he should give. The delay in answering caused the submarine to open shell-fire upon the barque, and the spars were smashed.
Now accidentally, or perhaps through ignorance, the signal had been hoisted upside down! Reversed it would have meant: “Abandon ship,” and this clearly is the message that was intended by the Germans.
The crew, twenty-six men, took to their boats, and after fourteen hours were picked up by a Danish ship, and transferred later to a patrol boat, which landed them in safety.
You will wonder, perhaps, why we speak of this incident to the readers of a magazine like this. The reason is that every reader is in reality a voyager, sailing over life’s ocean, and that many are being trapped and deceived by misleading signals. There are lots of people who profess to be anxious to do good to their fellow-men; their endeavors may be undertaken in all sincerity, yet, alas, how deceptive are their signals!
One will speak to you of your shortcomings, perhaps, and entreat you to make up your mind to live a better life. Such a signal resembles that of the submarine: “Can your damages be put right at sea?” Damaged you most certainly are. Sin has damaged you. But cannot the damage be put right? Cannot you “turn over a new leaf,” and “start afresh? “This is what the misleading signal suggests. You are thereby set to do an impossible task; you are occupied with your hopelessly bad self, under the impression that by persevering effort you may succeed in reforming and improving yourself.
This signal is upside down! The advice that would set you upon this track is all wrong! Let us reverse the signal, and make it read thus:
“ABANDON SHIP.”
Let us compare you to a ship, not only damaged, but irretrievably damaged by sin. You cannot mend yourself. Your only remedy is to abandon yourself in the sense of giving up all hope of safety through any efforts such as I have referred to. The well-known hymn puts it thus: ―
“Leave the poor old stranded wreck,
And pull for the shore!”
Explanatory of what is meant by this is the verse of another hymn: ―
“Man is a total wreck; can never reach the shore,
All who trust in Jesus Christ are saved evermore.”
If “the shore” stands for salvation, that is the direction in which the sinner should set his face, rather than in the direction of self-improvement. But, of ourselves, we can never reach “the shore.” We can never obtain salvation by anything that we can do. But faith in Christ can save.
Turn then from self-effort in every form and phase. In this sense of the word, “Abandon ship!”
Make Christ the sole object of your trust. Claim Him as your Saviour. Then you will not only be delivered from the wrath to come (see 1 Thess. 1:1010And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. (1 Thessalonians 1:10)), but God will give you His Holy Spirit to guide and teach you, and help you in a hundred ways. We learn this from Ephesians 1:13,13In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, (Ephesians 1:13) which tell us that those who trusted in Christ (on receiving the glad tidings of salvation through faith in Him) were “sealed with that holy Spirit of promise.”
H. P. B.