Out in the great Northwest about 200,000 men were at work in the lumber camps spread over the vast timberlands. The lumberjacks welcomed the sturdy old missionary who, as hardy as themselves, would bring them a rousing gospel.
One such “sky pilot” had promised the “boys” he would be with them on a certain evening. Getting off the train at the station, as he walked along the railroad tracks about a quarter of a mile from the logging camp, he began to sing.
The clerk heard him, rushed out into the bunkhouse and called out, “He’s coming, boys!” Fifty men made a break for the door and broke into “Three cheers for the chaplain.”
After a little rest the evening gospel service began with one of the favorite hymns of the lumbermen, “Throw out the Life-line Across the Dark Waves.”
The missionary asked the foreman if the roof was good and strong, and being assured that it was, he told the boys “to pull out all the stops.” This they did, and how they joined in the singing of the grand old gospel hymn.
Throw out the life-line across the dark wave,
There is a sinner whom someone should save.
Somebody’s brother! oh who then will dare
To throw out the life-line, his peril to share?
Throw out the life-line, with hands quick and strong:
Why do you tarry, why linger so long?
See, he is sinking; Oh; hasten today
And out with the life-boat! away and away!
Soon will the season of rescue be o’er
Soon will they drift to eternity’s shore.
Haste then, my brother! No time for delay,
But throw out the life-line, and save them today!
ML-04/02/1978