"My friends, if we had had a lifeboat ready, it might be that we could have welcomed these sailors living, in our midst, instead of only giving them a corner of cold earth for their resting-place.
"Who can say? You all know that cries were heard in the night,—cries for help,—and no help could be given. No boat except a lifeboat could have floated yesterday night.
"And whose fault is it that we had not a lifeboat? It is certain that one ought to have been procured, long long ago. I am not going to reproach you now for the past. That which is done cannot be undone; and that which has been undone in the past must remain undone in that past. In the present and for the future it can be done, and it ought to be done, and till it is done we are one and all blameworthy. How many more poor fellows are to die thus, for want of our brotherly care?"
Then a flush came to the Vicar's face. "It is nobody's business, perhaps," he said. "Nobody's business, in particular; therefore, everybody's business in general. What!—Nobody's business, when we are here, when you and I are here, when God expects us to do what we are able to do!
"Nobody's business! Will that excuse serve, do you think, when we stand face to Face with our Lord, and He searches into our actions and motives and the use that we have made of our time and money and talents?
"Will it do then for us to say, 'It was nobody's business, and so it was not mine!' I think His answer would be, 'The blood of thy brothers crieth unto Me from the ocean.' I think He would ask of us, not, 'Have you bought the lifeboat?' but 'Hast thou done what thou couldst?'
"I cannot judge for one or another of you, whether you have or have not 'done what you could.' But He, your Lord, knows. He never makes a mistake. He never misjudges. He searches into all the underlying motives.
"If you have honestly done your utmost, then you may be at rest in spirit. If you have not, then think of those two poor fellows whom we have laid in the earth: think of all the others who have gone down in the night in an unnamed watery grave. Think of the many more who will yet come to our dangerous coast, and see what you can do, even beyond what you have already done, for their safety."
Tears were in the Vicar's eyes when he stopped, and some of the women present were sobbing aloud. And the Vicar went home and added two more pounds of his own to the collection, resolving to spare them somehow, at the cost of some added self-denial, though he was hardly yet in a condition of health for severe treatment of himself as to food or comforts.