A LESSON DRAWN FROM THE 'SCHILLER' DISASTER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XII, Issue 4271, 22 July 1875, Page 2 (Supplement)

A LESSON DRAWN FROM THE 'SCHILLER' DISASTER.

As interesting sermon was preached recently to the congregation of the Church of the Messiah, Thirty-fourth street aud I'ark avenue, New York' l>y their pastor. I'.ev. \V. I!. Alger. The text was Kcv. xxi., 1: "And there was no more sea." The sail catastrophe of the steamship ' Schiller ' was employed to illustrate a beautiful allegory founded upon the storms and struggles of life. The preacher ' said that there are two vast oceans whose unknown mysteries anil fathomless deaths must ever claim the admiration and wonder of mankind—the ocean of waters and the ocean of life. The mighty sterins of an enraged sea that snap asunder like pipe stums tall masU of the greatest ships are not more dangerous or destructive of life than the hurricanes of passion which engulf it-* victim, who is heaved ami t<,ssed athwart the rough sea of troubled thought without knowing: what blessing or calamity it may briny foitli. The elements of our terrestrial globe and those of the human heart do not act of themselves. It is Cod alone who, to fullil the ends of His own inscrutable ways, directs the tempest tliatcarrieseatastrophe, calamity, and destruction upon its sable wings. Such catastrophes are the expression of Cods omnipotent will: otherwise, they--.-.mid not have happ.'iied. Behind THE l-llir.VIN UK STOH.M 11.010 it is His liat which directs the whole. If man be immortal, death should have no terrors for him. If immortality exists not, then Hod is not Cod ; and it would be impiety t<. think that calamities came from Hi* hand. The will of Cod must be good, and it is omnipotent on the sea as on the land : in the affairs of life as in the workings of our mind*. The murmurs of hope and fear that arc 1 blended together in the wreck which strews t the sand and the eternal waves that sweep over men's cherished things give clear music of Heaven and typify the voice of Cod. In all a"cs the sea has been a bar and barrier, a trial°ind mystery to the pride of man. When his toiliii" hand reached its briny shore it slid to him : "Thus far shalt thou go. and no further."' It said: " You may subdue the plain, mountain and forest, but I will break and scatter your hardy barques like bubbles, and swallow them up like pebbles." It was natural that John, wandering on tlie r,,ekl.ound shore of his lonely i'almos, should I liken the workings of the .sea to the u.s-in-s of our human passions, and exclaim in the words of the text, that when life is over, " there shall be no more sea." This figure implies the killing of worldly passions and prejudices, the gathering of Hod's creatures in

A HAItBOOI OK UEFl'liK, even a haven of rest. As we gaze upon that meeting place of mysteries anil loveliness— the horizon line—and think upon the innumerable worlds of life which creep under it, the millions of fishes aud insects, the marine plants and (lowers teeming with their thousands of wonders of the deep ; so, too, looking into our own lives, may we behold in them thousands of unexplored mental mysteries and hidden secrets whose very existence has not before been dreamed of. Life is an abyss full of marvels—a problem solved but by the grave. We dip into its margin here and there, now and then, wondering at its profound depths ; but bolder minds seek its lower soundings as if in a diving-bell, bringing up to the surface from time to time a few solemn suggestions of the mighty unknown world whither we are all journeying. The moon-divided tides ebb and How ; the waters twinkle to the breeze, or surge and swell to the dirge of the tempest, swallowing up frail baruuesin the rage of its lluctuatingtide. Our passions too, are always on the move, always on the watch to get our better thoughts unguarded, anil to swallow them up in a sea uf mental troubles. All in this world is restlessness anil unpeacefulueas ; but remember that soon you shall have rest and peace in heaven, for after death there shall be no more sea. Death shall swallow it up in immortality. The time must soon come when men will not sermonize on immortality ; they shall see and know it. One cannot look upon the ocean without thinking of death. In its depths great ships have foundered, «d kvki:y mi.low is a tomiistoNK, to commemorate the loss of tlm.se who lie beneath its glassy surface. It is the subliuiest of sepuleh'res, ami littest emblem of death. All other graveyards show siun.i distinction between the rich and poor who repose beneath the grassy sward : but not .so the sea. The same storm drifts and the same sun shines alike on the waters that enclose the bones of princes or of paupers, undistiiiguishable from each other in their watery resting place. The earth and its contents are not our own. We are dwellers in them, but possess them not. They but foretell to us an endless world to come, the fulness whereof shall be man's beyond the grave. If this is not so why de we behold the starry wonders of heaven, with innumerable revolving worlds'; Does Oml show us these myriads of worlds, and say, "These things are mine, but you shall not share theinV This cannot be. It would jiakk con a iikni.. Who can contemplate the scene of a dead mother stretched by the sands of the sea with her babv oil her arms, inseparably wrapt in the'embrace of death, and not exclaim, "Surely there shall be another, happier fate in store for her and it beyond the strand of life:'' The great Columbus, judging from a strange piece of wood picked up by the seaside, predicted the existence of a far oil' — then unknown -continent : so we. too, looking on the .strands of life, must also know- that by the signs and tokens seen lure below, around us there is another and a better world above, where there shall be Mi \ioi;i: si:a. The apocalyptic allegory does not convey the idea of oceans annihilated, but the ol>. literation of sorrows and calamities, the troubles ami burdens of life. The evils of catastrophes, calamities, collisions and sudden deaths are the sum and results of ignorance, jjreed, carelessness, rivalry between sordid men who are struggling for worldly gains The progress <>!' science, dis.seiuiiiuti.ui of knowledge and increase of carefulness will, in time yet to co;ne, avert the dangers that now send men to sudden and prematura death. Then, indeed, when the dill'crcnecsof creed aud nationality that now divide men shall be forgotton, thareshall be no more :.ea. If, then, the individual be called upon to pass behind the veil before his natural time, let friends be comforted by the thought that he will rest aud rejoice in the haven provided for him. In tint lirisihi world i,> ulii.-li I -.. Ti-iii|K>»is *li:ill for.-ct i.. Mow, and there shall be no more sea.