A Broken Anchor Line

A man on the California coast of the Pacific Ocean conceived the idea that a large cask, weighted down and anchored off shore, would serve as a good hiding place from which to shoot ducks, and so he rigged one up. He was rowed out to and deposited in his barrel.

So busy was he shooting at the evening flight of ducks that he failed to notice when the anchor line broke, and soon he was helplessly floating on the tide. A light wind blowing off shore sent him out to sea. A dense fog settled down with the darkness, and he feared he was lost.

When his partner returned to take him from the barrel, he surmised the man's fate and rowed out into the bay, firing his gun and shouting. At last the lost hunter was located and rescued from his perilous situation.

Many a man drifts away form the anchorage of right thinking and right living and is far on the way toward shipwreck and disaster before he appreciates his danger. Many are thus lost in the fog and darkness of doubt and sin, and will be lost eternally unless we go after them with the earnest purpose of rescue.