GOD sometimes has to speak very loudly to make people attend, for many are so occupied with their own affairs that they do not hear His voice unless it is an exceedingly loud one. This story will show you how God made some shipwrecked sailors hear His voice.
One very stormy day two gentlemen stood on the beach of a town on the West Coast of England, watching a small ship trying to make for safety. The lifeboat was out and not very far from the ship, which seemed to be a foreign one, but the great breakers, raging and foaming on a sandbank nearby, made it almost impossible to get near it.
“I think," said one of the gentlemen, that the lifeboat is getting round to the ship, but, oh, look! the vessel has gone down.”
This was indeed true, but not before the captain of the ship and sixteen sailors had been taken off in the lifeboat.
The two gentlemen, who saw this happen, met the day after to read the Bible with some others, when five of the rescued sailors came in, and were so interested that the next night they brought all the crew. Sixteen men rescued from death, one quite an old man and one a boy of fifteen! God had allowed them to be in desperate plight, and on the point of being drowned, so that they might think about their precious souls. Now they were in earnest and wanted to hear what God had to say to them.
I wonder if you are, or if you will have to be in great danger before you ask, "What must I do to be saved?”
The wrecked ship was Norwegian, and a Bible in that language had been washed ashore, so that the preacher read the Scriptures in English and the mate read them in Norwegian. The men could understand a little English, and no doubt the preacher did his best to help them.
He began by asking the question, " When your vessel had struck the sandbank and immense waves were rolling over the deck, suppose I had taken a loudspeaker and shouted to you, ' I invite you to come to the shore and you will be safe,' would that have been good news to you?”
“Oh, no, sir, "they said," that would have been useless.”
"Well, when the lifeboat was a hundred yards from you, suppose its captain had said, There, we have done our part, now you must do yours,' would that have met the case?" Oh, no, sir, "they said again," that would have been quite impossible.”
"One more question: when the lifeboat came up to you, did you expect that it had brought some tools to repair your ship?”
“The vessel was a total wreck," they said, “you could not mend her. Two of her masts had gone, and if we had stayed for repairs we should have gone down in her.”
The preacher agreed with this, and went on to show the sailors from God's word that they 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 of far greater strength than those hammering their wrecked vessel. The sailors listened, and no doubt it was the beginning of a new day for some of them.
When a boy, or a girl, wakes up and finds out that he, or she, is a sinner, lost and without strength, then they begin to realize that, like the sailors, they cannot save themselves and that they are dependent on some outside power to lay hold on them and rescue them.
Most of you know that Jesus is the only One who can save your souls. He came to earth to save those children and grown-up people who want to be saved. He, the Lord Jesus, told Zacchæus that, “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost."
If you are in need, the Lord Jesus will save you, but you must send up a signal of distress to Him, and say, like Peter, “Lord, save me!" Then He will come and take you in His embrace and forgive you and care for you until you are with Him, safe in His glorious home for ever.
Nought 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.