The Gospel Ship is now republished from an original Chomolithograph print circa 1880s - 1900s. The designer HY. P - Henry Pickering (1858–1941) was a well known Christian publisher and Journalist. And made an ingenious way to apply scripture and Bible texts into a maritime theme. One other similar picture had been designed about the same time and was mentioned in an article in the Herts Advertiser 29th January 1887. Title "Homeward Bound" designed by WCM - William Charles Miles, journalist and designer of the Gospel Compass and Gospel Target. It is not known if any examples of WCMs "Homeward Bound still exist...but if any visitors know of any examples, please contact me. It is not known if Henry Pickering designed other pictures, but one other design is similar - The Gospel Lifeboat, is a similar idea with Biblical texts and scriptures. The source and inspiration for the picture is not clear. But in Rev J H Vincent's 'Curiosities of the Bible' (New York, 1888) gives us an outline to the pictures design, with an explanation of religious quotes and texts to explain teachings from the Bible.

Emigrants for Emmanuel's Land should lose no time in having- their places secured, as only one voyage is made from our shores to that happy country.

Port from which it sails - The City of Destruction. Psalm. cxiii. 4; Isa. xix.18.

Passengers are supplied with everything on the voyage. "My God shall supply all your need."—Phil. iv. 19. "And yet there is room."— Luke v. 22.

A vision of a Gospel ship on dry land was seen by many during the Hebridean Revival...

"Another night, as we left, we saw in the open field, a ship, as if it was a navy ship, all lit up, all lit up between the masts and everything. But we knew it wasn't real...... for it was on dry land, it was on dry land. We couldn't, we couldn't say a word. None of us could even speak. "Be still, and know that I am God" That's all that we could say." Donald John Smith. (Eyewitness)

Alistair Petrie commenting on the Hebridean Revival and vision of a Gospel ship...."Where they see His profound divinity coming as a Gospel ship which a whole lot of them saw at one point, and they all saw this ship which has been seen only a very few times in history so I'm told."

In October, 2007, George Otis, Jr., along with son, Brook, and a small team, returned to the Outer Hebrides in Scotland. Their purpose was to meet people who had experienced the extraordinary revivals that occurred there in the 1920s, '30s, '40s, and early '50s.

The following article was found among the papers of the late A.W. Pollok, B. A., who graduated from Dalhousie College in April 1872, and was drowned at Port Hawkesbury in August of the same year.

"As I lay musing a vision passed before me of a noble ship. She was built in the New Jerusalem, and her builder and maker was God. Her timbers were of the strong oaks of Zion, her masts of the tree of Calvary, and her rigging of the cords of love, her cable of the three-fold cords of faith, hope, and love, which could not easily be broken. Her helm glittered like the star of prophecy. Her anchor was from Immanuel's land. Her figure-head was the emblem of righteousness, and her name was the Word of God. From stem to stem, from deck to keel, she was a goodly ship. Her deck was the broad platform on which Christians stand. Her guns thundered forth the terrors of the law, but her mission was emphatically peace. 'Her weapons were not carnal, but spiritual, mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.' Her painting was beauty. She was streaked with white, and sprinkled with blood. Her ship's crew were the Apostles and Prophets. Her captain the Prince of Peace. Her cargo was truth, and her broad banner love, the inscription 'Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth and good will to men.' She sailed over a tempestuous ocean. The billows of hell drove furiously over her bows, but her bulwarks were impregnable. She carried no boats for her safety, because she never could go down. Her progress was onward, wafted by the breezes of the Eternal. She sailed from the port of heaven, and her destination was to the habitable parts of the globe, and her mission to the ends of the earth. The nations hailed her approach with joy. She scattered blessings in her course, and returned homeward bound, freighted with living souls, and anchored under the throne of God and the Lamb.

*Chromolithograph printing is a method of printing superseded by Offset printing in the 1930s. Even though it was an old method of printing - Chromolithographic prints are highly regarded.

So far, the earliest reference to the Gospel Ship is a booklet of the same name - I placed the text below. There was also a book published some years later - 1870s called "The Gospel Ship - Her Voyage to the Better Country" by John Harvey. A very good book, I will try to put on the website.

Text below, from a booklet called the Gospel Ship, its exact date unknown but suggested date was 1855. "Courtesy of Toronto Public Library"

THE GOSPEL SHIP

We lately entered the lowly dwelling of one of the lowliest of God's people. It was that of an aged woman, whose face was furrowed with wrinkles, and whose sunken eye and faltering tongue revealed her to be a traveller in the "dark valley." In a few brief days, she exchanged the cross for the crown; angels were waiting by her pillow to waft her spirit into Abraham's bosom. At the time we went into her cottage, a cloud seemed to be passing over her spirit, such as the children of God are not unfrequently found to experience at the approach of death, and which appeared, for a moment, to disturb the peace which had been reigning in her bosom. "Oh!" she exclaimed, "all would be right with me, if I only were sure that I were safe in the Gospel Ship!" But it was only a cloud. In that ship she was safely carried over the rest of life's stormy sea to her "desired haven," the peaceful, happy shore above, where not one wave of trouble rolls!

THE GOSPEL SHIP! – What is that?

Come, dear children, and we will tell you about it. Many of you, we dare say, have been in a sea-port town, and have liked much to witness the vessels setting out from the harbour. You may have observed, in walking along the pier, large painted boards, giving the names of the different ships, their intended voyage, the hours of sailing, the name of the captain, the fares of the passengers, and other similar directions.

We are going to tell of a harbour where a number of ships are collected. It is the harbour of a city called "The City of Destruction." This city is situated on a river called the "Stream of Time;" and this river again flows into an ocean called the "Ocean of Eternity!" This city, moreover, as its name implies, is doomed to destruction. Its inhabitants are "sinners before the Lord exceedingly," and there is a day coming, when He is "miserably to destroy these wicked men, and burn up their city!"

Dear Reader! do you ever think that in this city you were born, and in this city you must die, "punished with everlasting destruction"—"suffering the vengeance of eternal fire," unless you enter the Gospel Ship, and "flee from the wrath to come?"

Now, we have said that there are a number of vessels to be seen in this harbour. Their decks are crowded with immortal souls! At present we have only room to speak of one.

Not that there is anything remarkable outwardly to distinguish it from the others. Indeed, strange to say, it is generally "despised and rejected." The voyagers to eternity seem "to see no beauty in it"—few that "seek," and fewer still that "find it." And yet it is the only safe vessel—not one other, save this, in all the harbour will stand the tempest of that "great and terrible day," which is to "try every man's vessel, of what sort it is." The others are more pleasing to the carnal eye, more crowded, more fashionable—but what of this, when, regarding them all—THE END IS DESTRUCTION.

Oh, my young friends, our hearts' desire and prayer to God for you all, that you may be SAFE IN THE GOSPEL SHIP! It is a voyage which begins in peace, and ends in glory!

NAME: Gospel Ship

VOYAGE: Immanuel's Land

PASSENGERS: "Whosoever will"

FARES: "Without money and without price"

TIME OF STARTING: "TODAY"

GOSPEL SHIP!—The very name is inviting!—"God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life!"

IMMANUEL'S LAND!—It is heaven itself—the home of Jesus—the land of rest, light, love, peace, purity, and joy—where sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

WHOSOEVER WILL!—All alike welcome. "Him that cometh unto Me, I will in no wise cast out."

WITHOUT MONEY AND WITHOUT PRICE!—The passage has been paid—by the precious blood of Christ.

TODAY—Now is the day of salvation. Delay is dangerous. Tomorrow may be too late.

Dear Children! Jesus, the Captain of salvation, calls: "Forbid them not!" Come to the Gospel Ship—and LIVE!

HYMN

What vessel are you sailing in?
Declare to us the same;
Our vessel is the Ark of God,
And Christ's the Captain's name.

CHORUS
Hoist every sail to catch the gale,
Each sailor ply his oar;
Though storms and tempests may arise,
We soon shall reach the shore.

And are you not afraid some storm
Your bark will overwhelm?
We cannot fear, the Lord is here,
Our Father's at the helm.

THE CROSS IS MY ANCHOR

THE CROSS IS MY ANCHOR,—though wave follow wave,
Though frail be my vessel, this Anchor shall save;
Let Faith in full confidence trust in the Lord;
Midst dangers I rest on His life-giving Word.

THE CROSS IS MY ANCHOR,—'tis steady and sure,
Within the veil holding, all storms I endure;
My Jesus has entered a Priest on His throne,
I trust in His promise, and in Him alone!

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