I am a sailor—have been one for years—just an average, careless sort of a fellow. But my last trip out really woke me up. I got a horrid feeling of being unsafe, of some unseen danger very near me, and I couldn’t shake it off. I didn’t speak of it to anyone. I kept it secret, and it bothered me more and more. Through all our outward passage it clung to me and I could not shake it off. At last we were on our way home again. It was my midnight watch. The sea was rolling in mountainous waves in the pitchy darkness, and I was alone on the head of the ship looking out.
Suddenly, a huge wave swept me from the deck and far out on the rolling waters. I could feel that I was being carried forward on the crest of a great wave as helplessly as a straw. I knew that I would not be missed from my station for a short time or seen if I was missed. The roar of the wind and waves drowned out my attempt to cry out, and I knew that there was no hope for me.
Oh, the horrible, heart-shaking agony! My wife a widow! My children fatherless! Only a great void where I had been! The awful upspringing of unknown horrors arose within me—my life flashing at once in a blaze of strong blinding light upon me! I thought of the sermons I had heard, of my lost chances and my death close at hand, all the while struggling fiercely with the dashing water and the wave that was blinding and choking me.
No hope! No hope! A grave in the black, unfathomable, raging sea, and then from the black water to the scarlet fire of the unforgiven—and it was near me, close upon me. A matter of a few seconds, and then eternal darkness and sorrow! Oh, how I struggled with the choking waters. I was going fast; my strength was failing me; a little struggling, and it would all be over.
Then my heart went up in a mighty cry for pardon. All that there was in me of life and sense and feeling was in that cry. I had given up all hope of being saved, but I struggled on that I might cry and pray. Prayer after prayer, as swift as lightning, went from my heart as I strove more and more feebly with the raging wave that was killing me.
My senses were fast going; all hope of life had left me, when I suddenly felt something near my hands, and I clutched it in desperation. It was one of the ropes of our ship trailing behind in the water. She had forged ahead while I was in the crest of the wave. I climbed the rope and again reached the deck. Except for the fright I had passed through, I was safe and uninjured.
I had not been missed, but when my watch was out and I could go below, the first thing I did in the presence of all the watch was to fall on my knees and humbly and heartily thank God that my life was brought again from the dead. No one mocked; the men all stood in respectful silence, feeling that I was doing that which it was right to do. The Lord had said, “Call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me” (Psalm 50:1515And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. (Psalm 50:15)).
And since then I have always prayed; my prayers have been to the One who was out upon the wild waters that night with me and whose loving, pitying hand snatched me from water and from fire and has led me safely home. I was not saved only from the sea that night; I was saved from going into the “blackness of darkness forever,” and death has no more terrors for me. I know my Saviour!
“Out of the depths
have I cried unto Thee, O Lord.”
“They called upon the Lord, and
He answered them.”