The Alice had weathered the storm and had brought her crew safely to port. A member of the crew had an interested group around him, listening to his account of the voyage.
“You see, mates,” he began, “the captain was always drunk, and such swearing you never heard! When the storm came on he had drunk so much he hardly knew what he was about. The only thing he was up to was to stagger about the deck and swear. I had heard plenty of rough language in my day, but this beat all that I ever had heard. It was so horrible that it frightened me.
“Well, that storm was so bad that he got a bit sobered up and took a turn at the helm. The rest of the men were throwing some of the deck load overboard, and I was at the wheel with the captain. Ah, mates, if a man’s curses could kill anyone, I don’t know where I would have been that day. He swore at me nearly every minute we were at the wheel together.
“Then we saw a tremendous sea coming right aft. It came on like a wall of water, without a break, as far as I could see. I thought it was all up with us, and I sent up a prayer to God to have mercy on my poor soul. The captain only swore at it, just as if he expected God’s sea was going to be frightened by him!
“Well, on it came, and in a moment it swept the decks. I shut my eyes and held on to the wheel with all my might. When that wave was passed, I looked up not knowing what to except. To my surprise, the Alice was holding on, but the captain was gone. He had been carried right away. And his last word was a terrible oath!
“And how about the crew?” asked one of the sailors who had listened intently.
“They were every one safe, lads. They had all held on to something, and not one of them was lost. Only the captain, poor fellow. He was gone. It wasn’t long before the weather settled a bit, and the Alice made port all right even though she was pretty much knocked about.
“Well, mates, I had had enough of cursing and drinking too, for that matter. I made up my mind that day never to swear or drink again.”
“Then I suppose you expect to go to heaven when you die, because you don’t swear or drink?”
“No, I don’t expect anything of the sort, for it is only by turning to the Lord Jesus Christ and taking Him as our Savior that anyone can be saved.”
“Do you mean to say,” asked one of the men, “if a man doesn’t swear and never gets drunk and is honest and does his duty by his ship and all the rest of it, he isn’t safer than a lazy, drunken thief?”
“I mean to say-leastways it isn’t me that says it, but the Bible-that no one is safe unless he trusts only in the Lord Jesus. If you could leave off every wicked thing and never commit another sin from this very minute, that couldn’t save your soul. There would be all your past sins hanging to you still, and unless they were forgiven they would sink you into hell. The only way to be clear of sin-past, present and future-is to be washed in Jesus’ blood.”