On a dangerous sea
coast where shipwrecks often occur, there was once a crude little life-saving
station. The building was just a hut, and there was only one boat, but the few
devoted members kept a constant watch over the sea and with no thought for themselves
went out day and night tirelessly searching for the lost. Some of those who
were saved, and various others in the surrounding area, wanted to become
associated with the station and give of their time and money and effort for the
support of its work. New boats were bought and new crews trained. The little
lifesaving station grew.
Some members of the lifesaving station were unhappy that the building was so
crude and poorly equipped. They felt that a more comfortable place should be
provided as the first refuge of those saved from the sea. They replaced the
emergency cots with beds and put better furniture in the enlarged building. Now
the lifesaving station became a popular gathering place for its members, and
they decorated it beautifully and furnished it exquisitely, because they used
it as sort of a club.
Fewer members were now interested in going to sea on lifesaving missions, so
they hired lifeboat crews to do this work. The lifesaving motif still prevailed
in this club’s decorations, and there was a miniature lifeboat in the room
where the club initiations were held.
About this time a large ship was wrecked off the coast, and the hired crews
brought in boatloads of cold, wet, and half-drowned people. They were dirty and
sick. The beautiful new club was in chaos. So the property committee
immediately had a shower house built outside the club where victims of
shipwreck could be cleaned up before coming inside.
At the next meeting, there was a split in the club membership. Most of the
members wanted to stop the club’s lifesaving activities, since they were
unpleasant and a hindrance to the normal social life of the club. Some members
insisted upon lifesaving as their primary purpose and pointed out that they
were still called a lifesaving station. But they were finally voted down and
told that if they wanted to save the lives of all the various kinds of people
who were shipwrecked in those waters, they could begin their own lifesaving station
down the coast. They did.
As the years went by, the new station experienced the same changes that had
occurred in the old. It evolved into a club, and yet another lifesaving station
was founded. History continued to repeat itself, and if you visit that sea
coast today you will find a number of exclusive clubs along the shore.
Shipwrecks are frequent in those waters, but most of the people drown.
The history of some churches resembles that of the lifesaving station.