One night during a severe storm a vessel was seen beating about near the entrance to the Golden Gate, making signals of distress and asking by signal for a pilot to guide it through the gate, to the harbor within. It kept on beating about and signaling for some time, but its signals were not answered, and so after a while the imperiled ship turned its prow again towards the stormy sea, from whose perils it was seeking to escape. The ship was never heard from again.
There is many a storm-tossed vessel today seeking guidance through the golden gate into the harbor but many of us who profess to be Christians and know the way into the harbor well will not take the trouble to go out and face the storm and bring the distressed vessel safely into harbor. Thus we leave them to the perils of the deep and they are never heard of again. Oh, that God would arouse us sleeping Christians to a sense of our duty, and that we would hear the cry of God and go out to bring the storm-tossed safely into harbor.