Sermon Central
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A Great Thanksgiving Illustration
Contributed by Dr. Larry Petton on Nov 14, 2021 (message contributor)
Back in 1860, an excursion boat on Lake Michigan collided with a freighter and began to sink less than a mile from the shore.
Hundreds of passengers began screaming as they leaped into the icy water.
Edward Spencer was a student at a nearby seminary, and he ran down to the beach to see what he could do.
A strong swimmer, for six hours Spencer swam out and back, pulling people ashore, battling stormy waves and the powerful undertow. By dawn, he had personally rescued 15 people in as many trips. Exhausted, he sat down until someone spotted two more people still in the water.
Spencer dove in again and found a man and a woman clinging desperately to a piece of wreckage. He brought them in, too, and collapsed on the beach. Out of 393 passengers, only one-quarter were rescued, and 17 of them were saved by Edward Spencer.
His own health, however, was permanently damaged by his act of heroism. He was never able to return to school and ultimately lived out his days as an invalid. Years later, a reporter doing a story on Great Lakes tragedies found Spencer at a nursing home in California and asked for his recollections of that night.
Spencer said bitterly, "The only thing I remember is that not one of the 17 ever thanked me."
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