Violet Jessop escaped death just by minutes as she got into one of the last lifeboats sent out from the sinking Titanic. When she was interviewed years later, she recalled the total indifference of everyone aboard the sinking ship. Known as “the unsinkable ship,” passengers and crew of the Titanic could not think otherwise, and even Violet herself hardly saw the need of getting into the lifeboat.
Violet, a stewardess, was urged for the second time by a male steward named Stanley to get into the lifeboat. She was straightening up her room and fulfilling her duties when Stanley, his face white with fear, urged her for the second time to go quickly. She remembers the band was playing a waltz to keep the passengers from panic. As she looked at the Titanic from the lifeboat, she relates how she counted the rows of lights on the boat. First there were six, then five, a short time later four, then three and finally two. She was horrified as she finally realized the boat was actually sinking!
As Violet intently watched the Titanic with so many people still on board, she saw the big ship give a lurch forward and then it went down with a thundering roar of underwater explosions!
The good news of God’s grace is still being announced all over the world. But people are the same today as those who were on board the Titanic. They feel the world will go on and on just as it always has, and there will be plenty of time to prepare for their life after death. But this world is a “sinking ship,” and we have the warning: “It is time to seek the Lord” (Hosea 10:1212Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you. (Hosea 10:12)).
People around us are so preoccupied with the fast pace of life, the entertainments, the newest technology and the economy that they have become indifferent to the Biblical warnings that they are on a “sinking ship.” How horrible to forget and neglect this important matter. “God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not” (Job 33:1414For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not. (Job 33:14)).
ML-05/12/2002