e
went over. It was bitter cold, the sleet sharp and the swells ugly. A
strong swim in the trough of the seas and over the crests and the
officer might reach the seaman. It was his only chance.

He had no more than touched the spume before the waves hurled him
against the side of the steamer again and again, bruising his ankle and
knee, but he struck out bravely and gradually drew nearer the sailor.
For fifteen minutes the second officer struggled. During one of his
brave spurts in the direction of the struggling man he looked up to the
rail. The practiced eye of the seafaring man saw something that caused
him suddenly to turn and breast his way back to the ship. The line was
too short. The seaman holding the line attached to the officer had in
his hands the mere end of it, and there was not another bit to pay out.
It was a sixty fathom line, "all gone," and the officer yet only half
way to the drowning man. It was too late to splice another. Had it
been thought of in time the man might have been saved. A longer
struggle was useless, and the officer allowed himself to be hauled
aboard, leaving the helpless man to go to his last account. That is
always the difficulty with man's effort to save the lost. It does not
reach far enough and fails just when it ought to hold.

2. God's way. "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all
sin," that is God's message. "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the
unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he
will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly
pardon." This is God's invitation. "I even I, am he that blotteth out
thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins."
This is God's pledge, and he has never failed to keep it.

In the old days, when England and Scotland were at war, the English
came up against Bruce. They drove him from his castle and as he fled
away from them they let loose his own bloodhounds and set them upon his
trail. His case seemed hopeless. He could hear the bay of the hounds
in the distance, and those who were with him had just about given up in
despair; but not so with Bruce. He came to a stream, flowing through
the forest, he plunged in, waded three bow-shots up the stream and then
out upon the other side. The hounds came up to the stream, stopped and
sniffed; they had lost the track. They turned back defeated, and Bruce
in time won the day. Is it not like this