The other sufferers occupied much of her time and care; and it was not until late in the afternoon that she was able to see the poor dying sailor again. She found on reaching the cottage that he had rallied a little since the morning, and was able to talk with much less difficulty. As she sat down by him he looked up with an earnest expression, and said, “I want you to tell me once again the glad news that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. I have heard it again and again, but I am never tired of hearing the same sweet sound.
“The voice that first told me of my need of a Saviour, that first bid me look to Jesus, is silent now. It was a young cabin-boy on board the ship I first sailed in from England. We had a rough voyage, and out in the Atlantic met with such a storm as made my coward heart quail. I remembered how, in days gone by, as a little child my mother had taught me of God, and told me I need not fear in the dark because He would be near and take care of me; but now this thought did not quiet my heart. I felt that God was near, and that it was His voice speaking in the storm; but I could not look up to Him as a friend, and the thought of His being near only made me tremble with fear. I had lived so long in sin and without God in the world, that surely He would not listen to me now, or take care of me in the storm. All my past life seemed in a moment to stand out before me, and the thought of what a dark picture it was filled me well-nigh with despair. As I heard the wind and the waves roaring, and looked out into the thick darkness, I felt there was not a glimmer of hope for me. Just then this young cabin-boy, who had often spoken to me of the Saviour, but whom I and another man on board had never lost an opportunity of jeering at, came past me. He had been with a message from the captain to the mate; and as he passed me in the dark, I thought I caught sound of the words, ‘I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me.’ At any other time I should probably have laughed at him; but I was in no mood for jesting now; and something forced me to call out, as he went by, ‘Aren’t you afeared, Charlie?’ for I was trembling myself from head to foot. The boy stopped and said, ‘No, master, I’m not afeared. When the storm in the heart’s once been stilled, the outside storms can’t alarm one; if one’s heart is only in the harbour, there’s no room for fear.
Amid the howling wintry sea
We are in port if we have Thee.’
“Ah, mistress, I would have given the world at that moment to have felt as that young lad did; though many a time when he had spoken to me before of the sure haven for storm-tossed souls, I had laughed at him, and told him there would be time enough to seek the harbour when the storm came, that we didn’t want it in smooth sailing. Ah, how well I recollect the sad look which came over his face when I spoke so, and how gravely he would say, ‘Ah, Master Smith, you should put into that port in bright weather, if you’d know how to find it in the storm.’
“He had hardly passed by when a tremendous wave broke over the ship, and it was hard work for the men to stand at the pumps.
“In the roar of the wind and sea I heard the young boy’s voice: ‘Call upon God, Master Smith, call upon God! He says, “Call upon Me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee.”’ And then and there in the darkest night I have ever spent in my life, and yet not quite the darkest, for before it had ended a gleam of light had shone across my heart, I did call on God, as I clung for my life to the side of the ship, and prayed Him to have mercy on my poor benighted soul, as I had never before prayed in my life. But the lad’s voice I have never heard again; the wave that washed over the ship had borne away with it the soul that was the most ready of all on board to meet its God. Those words, ‘Call upon God, Master Smith, call upon God!’ must have been well-nigh his last on earth. The storm that was my call to the Saviour was his to go home; and surely never was anyone so young more ready for the summons. I never knew a lad so fearless in danger, so ready to witness for the Lord, so little afeared of man. There wasn’t a man on board that didn’t in his heart respect him, even if he didn’t think with him. I found his jacket the next morning; he had taken it off, to be more ready to help the men at the pumps, and there in the pocket was the little Bible I had so often seen him reading. I couldn’t help a tear or two when I opened it, and saw how well worn and used it was.
“Here’s the Bible, mistress; I have kept it ever since; and, blessed be God, through reading that Book, I have found pardon and peace, and a hope that, poor miserable sinner as I am, I shall one day reach the home that dear lad has most surely gone to, through the love of the Saviour who came into the world to save sinners such as I. That Book has been my constant companion ever since by night and by day; and, thank God, it was made the means of salvation to another man besides myself, the very one who used to join with me in jeering poor Charlie Green; he died in peace through reading this blessed Book. He too, like me, had lived in sin and in forgetfulness of God, and when he fell ill he was afraid of the thought of death. I used to read to him; I had found peace then myself, and I couldn’t do less than try to put him in the way of finding it too. I had seen the beacon light which saved my poor soul from shipwreck, and guided me into the haven of refuge, and wasn’t I bound to do my utmost to point it out to some other storm-tossed soul? He told me much about his past life, how he had left his poor dying wife and children, and knew nothing of what had become of them; and he made me promise, before he died, that if ever I came back to England, I would try to find out where they were, and tell them how he repented of his past life, and had come as a poor sinner to seek forgiveness at the feet of Jesus. He used often to say he knew that he was the chief of sinners, but that in this blessed Book he had found that there was hope, even for the vilest that came and touched the hem of the Saviour’s garment; and sure enough he found peace in looking to ‘the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.’
“He often spoke of his two children, and said he prayed that God would teach them to know a Saviour’s love; and that although their earthly father had forsaken them, the Lord Himself would take them up. I should like to have done what I could to find out something about them and their mother; but now I fear I shan’t be able. I know I haven’t long to live, and my voyage is almost over. I hardly thought I should have lived through last night. I had no strength to stir hand or foot myself, and if they hadn’t lifted me into the boat I must have been drowned, for the ship was filling fast; but, oh, how different I felt from what I did in the last storm! Now I could say to myself a verse I had many a time heard poor Charlie sing when the wind was against us, and the sea rough:
‘One who has known in storms to sail