A TERRIBLE storm was raging along the coast and two Christian men on the beach were watching a small ship grounded on a sand bank. The life boat was out and not far from the ship but the great breakers, raging and foaming on the sand bank, made it almost impossible to get near it.
“I think the life boat is getting around to the ship,” said one man, but then he added suddenly with dismay, “But look! the ship has gone down!”
The ship had gone down but not before the captain and sixteen sailors had been taken off in the lifeboat.
The next day the two men who had watched the rescue met with some others to read the Bible and five of the rescued sailors came in. They were so interested that the next night they brought all the crew — sixteen men rescued from death, one an old man and one a boy of fifteen. God had allowed them in their desperate plight to come to the point of being nearly drowned so that they might think about the need of their never-dying souls. Now they were in earnest and wanted to hear what God had to say to them.
It was a Norwegian ship that had gone down, and a Norwegian Bible was among the wreckage washed up on the shore. The gospel preacher read the scriptures in English and the mate read them in Norwegian. But the men could understand a little English and the preacher did his best to help them.
The preacher began by asking, “When your ship was stuck on the sand bank and the great waves were rolling over the deck, supposing I had taken a loud speaker and shouted to you, ‘I invite you to come ashore and you will be safe,’ would that have been good news to you?”
“No sir,” they replied, “that would have been no use.”
“Well, when the lifeboat was a hundred yards away from you, suppose the captain of the lifeboat had called out, “There now, we have done our part, you must do yours,’ would that have met your case?”
“No sir,” they said again, “there would have been no hope for us.”
“Just one more question: when the lifeboat reached you at last, did you expect it had lots of tools to repair your ship?”
“No indeed, the ship was a total wreck,” they replied; “you could not mend her. If we had stayed to repair her we should have gone down too.”
The preacher agreed with them, and went on to show the men from God’s Word that they, like all men, were total wrecks, for that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” He told them that the power of Satan and the waves of sin beating upon their souls were greater and far stronger than those hammering against their wrecked vessel. The sailors listened, and we believe it was the beginning of a new day for some of them.
If you are lost, the Lord Jesus will save you but you must send up a signal of distress to Him, and say like Peter, “Lord, save me!” He will come and take you in His arms and forgive you and care for you until you are with Him, safe in His glorious home forever.
Naught that I do
Can my salvation win.
No strivings of my own
Can purge away my sin.
But Jesus only, shed His blood for me To wash away my sin and set me free.
ML-06/03/1973