The Infidel and the Sinking Boat

By Harold Smith

I have another story about a sinking ship today, the Lusitania. This ship was sunk in the first great world war, on May 8, 1915. It was a passenger liner with about 2,000 aboard. It was going around the coast of Ireland and a submarine came within a few yards, and they even saw it. And it shot its torpedos and two of them came right up the hull of the ship. And it blew into the hull and there was a great explosion and parts of the hull started to go everywhere. The captain, Captain Turner, he appeared on the bridge shouting loudly and waving his hands. He said, "Don't lower the lifeboats, don't lower the lifeboats, the ship cannot sink! She's all right, she cannot sink!" And the crew got the people out of the lifeboats and got them back on deck, believing that the ship could not sink. However, some other passengers in another section of the boat, they were getting into the lifeboat. They said, "We're not taking any chances". The captain didn't see them, and they got into the lifeboat, and they were later saved. A man by the name of Harold Bolton was aboard, and there was a mother and a daughter there, they weren't doing anything, and he said, "Get in the lifeboat!". They said, "Oh, no thank you, we're all right, don't get excited. Stay calm, the captain says the boat cannot sink". They both later would drown. Harold Bolton, he put a life jacket on, and he jumped into the water and he started to swim away from the boat as fast as he could and was later picked up on the shore by some fishermen that were there. And the majority of the people in that boat were drowned. They were drowned because they listened to a captain's word, that they could not sink, the boat could not sink. They made a terrible mistake. How sorry he was later about what he told those people. But it was too late. They all perished. And many people today are listening to other men saying, "You're safe, you're safe, don't worry, don't get in the lifeboat, don't trust Christ and be saved". But beloved, there will come a day when people that listen to men will perish. But when you listen to God, God says, "Get in the lifeboat! Get in Christ! Trust Christ and you'll be saved!" Do it, trust Him and you'll be saved. Don't be like the woman and her daughter who said, "Don't worry, everything's all right" and then end up perishing in the angry sea. But trust Christ and be saved today.