You have all heard of the great rolling waste of waters, called the sea, which surrounds the land in which we dwell. You may perhaps have seen it, when taken by your kind parents to Brighton, Margate, Scarborough, or some other place on the coast. The story I am about to tell you was told to me by a pilot, one whose business it is to guide ships safely past the dangerous rocks and sands, on which they might strike and be dashed to pieces. This pilot went out one day, in his boat, to a ship about to anchor in St. Helen’s Roads. Hailing the captain, he told him of some dangerous ground thereabouts, and gave him some friendly advice as to the course he had best pursue. The captain thanked him for his kindness and invited him to breakfast on board. Accepting this invitation and fastening his boat to the side of the great ship, the pilot climbed on deck, and followed the captain and his mate to breakfast in the cabin. One circumstance he noticed much, that the captain, unlike many on shipboard, gave thanks, on sitting down to table, to the great Giver of all good. His attention was also attracted by a plate, or board, hung on the cabin side, on which were painted in large letters those solemn words―
“PREPARE TO MEET THY GOD.”
The captain, observing his visitor’s attention fixed on this inscription, asked him whether he knew God. A solemn question this, and one to which. I hope my readers can reply as the pilot replied, “I trust I do.” “Well,” said the captain, as soon as he was left alone with the pilot, “since you know and love God, you will be glad to hear how it was given to me to know Him. You see that mark,” pointing to a line scored in the cabin floor from side to side; “on that very spot, two years ago, I was brought to Christ.” He then rehearsed to my friend, the pilot, a narrative, of which the following is the substance.
For many years he had been a very great sinner. Given up to the fearful habit of drunkenness, spending all he earned on drink, and leaving his wife and children without sufficient clothing and food. How shocking this must have been to his poor wife; and how sad for the children, that the money which ought to have procured them food, should be wasted by their hard-hearted father on drink. How thankful should any of my dear readers be, to whom God has given kind, Christian parents, who care both for their bodies and their souls.
This man was, as you may suppose, wretched enough. “The way of transgressors is hard.” “There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.” One of his children, a daughter, about thirteen years old, had found a friend in a kind lady, who took her to a Sunday School, clothed her, and taught her about Jesus, who came into this world to make known God’s love to sinful man. This lady’s heart was cheered by finding that her instructions were used of God to bring this poor girl to know Jesus as her Lord and Saviour.
It was by the third chapter of John that God had spoken to her heart; and on returning from school in the evening, she told her mother of this great mercy, and persuaded her father to let her read the same chapter to him. Poor child! She hoped that the Word which had been such a blessing to her, would prove as useful to her father; but it was not so at that time.
Shortly after her conversion this child became very ill, and gradually grew worse and worse, until, at last, the doctor gave up all hope of her recovery. When told that her case was hopeless, she cheerfully replied, “If it is a lost case with the body, it is not so with the soul.”
Her parents, still anxious for her recovery, consulted a physician, by whom her father was advised to take her with him to sea. The mother was quite afraid to trust her girl to the care of her drunken father, but at last consented to let her go, as the voyage seemed to afford the only remaining hope of her life being spared.
Before sailing, the captain took on board a quantity of the very articles which had brought so much misery on his wife and children—namely, brandy, rum, and so forth.
When they had been a few weeks away from England, the ship sailing at a rapid rate, it struck just before midnight on a reef of rocks. The captain and his men were in liquor at the time, but the sudden shock startled them all into a measure of sobriety, for they well knew, unless saved by a miracle, what a sad fate immediately awaited them. The first shock made the vessel creak and tremble from stem to stern; and instantly the captain cried, “Hoist the boat out, or we shall all perish!” How must such words have alarmed those wicked men! To perish in the deep, deep sea, far from home and friends, beneath the midnight sky, and with all their sins upon their heads!
The boat was being hoisted out; the captain, who had forgotten his poor child, ran into the cabin to get his watch; and while in the act of unhooking it from the wall, he heard, through all the din and tumult of that fearful scene, a low, sweet voice in prayer. Turning round, he saw his child upon her knees, and heard her say, “Lord, save us, or we perish!” At that very moment, as if in instant answer to the prayer, the mate called out from above, “The wind has changed! The ship is off the reef! Lend a hand to take in sail!”
The captain was overwhelmed. His own long course of sin; the wonderful goodness of God, in answering so instantly the prayer of his child; the sudden change from expected destruction to comparative safety; all these things so completely overcame him, that he sunk down upon his knees where he afterward drew the mark on the cabin floor; and of him for the first time in his life it could be said, “Behold, he prayeth.” The same gracious God, who had heard his child’s prayer, and saved the ship, with the lives of all on board, now heard the cry of the broken-hearted sinner, and received him through the precious blood of Jesus, on whom he was enabled to cast himself for eternity. Next morning, he had all the rum and brandy thrown overboard, that it might no longer tempt him or his men.