Easy but Unsafe | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Sep 3, 1885

FromThe Signs of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 34

Easy but Unsafe.

No SHIP drifts into harbor. The ocean of life has many a hidden current, many a sudden storm; and he who would win port at last must stand to his helm, while his ship drives on through opposing currents and against contrary winds. The perils of the voyage are very real; the sailor sails on a sea that is strewn with wrecks. Here drifts a battered hulk which was once a gallant ship; but now, helm and compass lost, she is driven on by wind and waves to the terrible shores, from whose cruel rocks and savage breakers she shall not escape. There float the spars and cordage of a richly laden bark—too richly laden—which has sunk into the depths in the very midst of her course. In this sea, nothing drifts except to the shores of destruction; and few ships come into port which have not battled long with angry head winds. Pleasant weather there may be in the voyage of life, but never weather so pleasant that the hand may leave the helm, or the eye the compass. Where there is least peril of storm, there may be most peril of being carried away from the right course by an unnoticed current. Keep, then, the eye upon the compass, the hand upon the rudder. That is the only sure way of arriving at the desired haven. To let go the helm and to allow the ship to drift before the winds and the waves, may seem to be the easiest, the most natural, even the most enjoyable, thing to do; but a voyage which is conducted on that mistaken principle is sure, sooner or later, to end on the cruel rocks, on the treacherous sands, or in the devouring sea.—S. S. Times.