The Gospel-24/7

The Ice Yacht B. Carradine

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TOPIC and SUBTOPIC: Cross Of Christ , A Means Of Rapid Spiritual Transport

TITLE: The Ice Yacht

It is a memorable picture in the winter season of the year, to look upon New England from a rushing Express and note in quick and charming succession, the whitened fields, the fences half buried in snow, the windswept hill, the glittering, ice encased clump of trees, the church spire looking down on the silent town, and the frozen river, with its long lines of skaters who are sweeping with graceful poise of body like birds before the wind.

Especially at this time a view of the Hudson River from the car window of a flying train is one not soon to be forgotten. The vast landscape, the big ice houses hard at work saving and gathering in the huge crystal blocks, and last but not least the scudding yachts dotting the surface of the broad frozen river form only part of an ever attractive picture over two hundred miles in length, and from three to twenty in width.

The ice-yacht is made of two transverse beams of wood arranged like a cross, resting flat on steel runners. A sail and rudder complete the outfit, and when the wind strikes the canvas the machine fairly flies. A mile a minute is nothing unusual as to speed, and so it leaves the ordinary methods of running and racing far in the wake and badly distanced. We observed that the man who navigated the craft did not stand, or sit up, but lay perfectly flat on the wooden beam that held mast, sail and rudder. As we looked, we got to thinking of two other transverse beams on which Christ died, and on which we are told by the Bible to stretch ourselves.

We have tried it, and seen others do the same, and known from experience and observation that if we do so, and hoist the sail of faith and prayer, God will send such a breath or wind from heaven in the form of the Spirit, that we will not only haste in the race for heaven, but outsail and outstrip everything sent after us by earth and hell, and finally win by a million leagues of grace, sweep into the port of glory and take the everlasting prize.

But the ice yacht that had preached a sermon to me on the Hudson as it swept past, flung back a closing exhortation or warning, You must have your sail hoisted, and keep yourself prostrate on the wood.

And I said, Bless God, I will do so. Living Illustrations By B. Carradine.