A FISHING boat was nearing the English coast early one morning; the crew was on the watch lest the Revenue Cutter should be in sight, for they had a full cargo of tobacco, sewn up in bags and easy to carry. They were smuggling, and if caught, it meant prison for them, the loss of the cargo, and of the ship, too.
Suddenly they saw the cutter bearing down upon them, and they realized that all hope of escape was gone. The captain said, "Well, lads, there is no help for it, that I can see; let them come and find a clean hold and an empty ship." Putting a sail over the side of the ship as a blind, half the crew went below flinging up the bags as fast as they could, the rest slipping them over the side of the ship into the sea. How they worked! "Heave away, lads," said the captain, "as well not do it at all as leave a bag behind; a single one will show us up." Stripped to the waist, from the captain to the cabin boy, they worked hard, and began to think they would do it, though the cutter must be drawing near with the freshening breeze astern.
"A quarter of an hour more, and 'tis clear," said the captain joyfully, and on they worked. Presently the captain saw the cabin boy was done up, so he told him to see how far away the cutter was. He was gone but a second or two, and then he came back. All stopped their work to look at him, his little face white as death, with both hands stretched out he gasped, "Please, sir, it won't sink!” And he fell down in a dead faint.
"It won't sink” They guessed in a moment what had happened, and rushing aft, there—in the track of the rising sun—was the cargo. The line of canvas bags, rising with the swell one after another, reaching to the bow of the cutter itself, every one proclaiming their guilt. They stood as still as death, their eyes on the dreadful evidence against them, and with the words, “It won't sink! " ringing in their ears, they awaited their doom.
"What a thrilling story!” It is a story with a lesson behind it. You are like the boat on the ocean of time, and with a cargo on board—your sins! When you remember that God is holy, and is a righteous Judge, and that you must stand before Him, what can you do with your heavy cargo of sins? You may begin at once to heave them overboard and turn over a new leaf with the hope that with "an empty hold" all will be well; but "some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some they follow after," 1 Tim. 5:2424Some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some men they follow after. (1 Timothy 5:24). You will find that the cargo "won't Link." Turn to God in earnest prayer that He might put them all out of His sight through the precious blood of Christ, and He will remove every one of them forever, for "The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son cleanseth us from all sin," 1 John 1:77But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1:7).
Just as I am—and waiting not
To rid my soul of one dark blot,
To Thee, whose blood can cleanse each spot,
O Lamb of God, I come
J. M.