On September 3, 1878, the pleasure steamship Princess Alice, returning from an outing loaded with about 700 passengers and crew, was hit by the coal ship Bywell Castle which weighed over three times more than the steamer, and sliced it in two. The middle of the boat immediately sank, dooming all passengers below deck in their cabins. The ends raised up in the air, plummeting the rest of the people into England's Thames River, a heavily polluted waterway, near the point where raw sewage poured out, and not far from several factories which dumped toxic waste into it. The smaller boat should have stayed closer to the southern shore as was the practice, but tides and currents had gradually moved it to the middle of the river where the larger ship came plowing through.
No one knows the exact casualty count because there was no passenger list. Bodies floated to shore for days, and that count stood at around 650 by the time it stopped. Many drowned because only a few people could swim and even those who could were weighed down by their heavy Victorian clothing, but the coroner stated that the water itself killed the others. Of those who were rescued or managed to swim to safety, many more died as weeks passed. While in the river they swallowed enough of its putrid water that they died of serious waterborne diseases—typhoid, cholera, and polio among them. They may not have died as a direct result of the collision, but they died from simply being in the water.
I know some brothers and sisters who seem to think that they can swim in putridity and not be effected. They can go to bars and not drink. They can go clubbing and not take drugs or participate in sexual immorality. I know some young ladies who think they can dress however they want to and still lay claim to holiness. I know some young men who think that as long as they don't do anything with anyone but their wives, they can look at pornography and it won't cause them problems. All of these people are living in poisonous atmospheres that will gradually seep into their hearts and minds and take them down as surely as those doomed passengers. Even the ones who thought they were safe died from their brief swim in what amounted to the venom of the serpent.
What you surround yourself with is important. If you want to be pure, poison is not going to make you so. You will wind up not only tainted, contaminated, and infected, you will wind up even worse than dead.
Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret (Eph 5:11-12).
Dene Ward
No one knows the exact casualty count because there was no passenger list. Bodies floated to shore for days, and that count stood at around 650 by the time it stopped. Many drowned because only a few people could swim and even those who could were weighed down by their heavy Victorian clothing, but the coroner stated that the water itself killed the others. Of those who were rescued or managed to swim to safety, many more died as weeks passed. While in the river they swallowed enough of its putrid water that they died of serious waterborne diseases—typhoid, cholera, and polio among them. They may not have died as a direct result of the collision, but they died from simply being in the water.
I know some brothers and sisters who seem to think that they can swim in putridity and not be effected. They can go to bars and not drink. They can go clubbing and not take drugs or participate in sexual immorality. I know some young ladies who think they can dress however they want to and still lay claim to holiness. I know some young men who think that as long as they don't do anything with anyone but their wives, they can look at pornography and it won't cause them problems. All of these people are living in poisonous atmospheres that will gradually seep into their hearts and minds and take them down as surely as those doomed passengers. Even the ones who thought they were safe died from their brief swim in what amounted to the venom of the serpent.
What you surround yourself with is important. If you want to be pure, poison is not going to make you so. You will wind up not only tainted, contaminated, and infected, you will wind up even worse than dead.
Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret (Eph 5:11-12).
Dene Ward
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