THE RUDDER.
The rudder affords a constant fund of interest when the ship is at her full speed. The parting and closing water makes incessant forms of beauty; you may hang over the counter and look down into the wake for a long time, and not be weary. The swift rush of the water to close up the furrow made by the keel keeps attention awake: the graceful sinking of the stern in alternation with the bows, bringing you down to a level with the waves, then far above them, brings apprehension enough with it to make a novice question why he has never heard people who have seen it describe their pleasure. When night has set in and the phosphoresence happens to be abundant, kaleidoscopes never revealed such wonders to the eye.
RETROSPECT OF RELIGIOUS SERVICES AT SEA.
We had religious services every Sabbath morning, when the weather allowed, at nine o’clock. Almost all hands would attend, it being left optional with them. On the way from the Sandwich Islands to China, in the trade-wind region, we had the service on deck. No preacher ever enjoyed the sight which met his eye in the objects around his pulpit more than those which were seen from that place of worship. Immediately around the speaker were twenty-five sailors, well dressed, wakeful, well behaved; an awning was over them; their singing was animating; the beauty of the ocean scenery, the sight of distant vessels, the sound of the water as the ship went through it, contributed to the enjoyment of the Sabbath stillness, which seemed to have at sea as on land a hush unlike the week-days. While natural scenery cannot inspire the heart with spiritual emotions, yet when these exist they are sometimes assisted in their peaceful, elevating power over us by a contemplation of such a prospect as we had on that deck in those Sabbath hours.—We had in all about seventy men and boys who sailed with us. The most of these placed themselves under religious influences while on board; now they are scattered like the driftweed which went by us; but in the different vessels in which they now sail they may feel the power of some good impressions which they received; for not only on the Sabbath, but in the weekly Bible-class, they were affectionately exhorted by their captain, who added to his spiritual efforts for them kind instruction in morals, useful information on subjects relating to their calling, and to the younger portion of them lessons in navigation and practical seamanship. In the libraries there was a good mixture of secular books.
Most of the sailors showed by contrast the value of early education in furnishing the mind with religious ideas as well as the letter of scriptural knowledge. It is doubtful whether “George,” at his time of life, can succeed in solving that great mystery “how an ‘elephant’ can go through the eye of a needle;” though had he begun in youth he might have received instruction which would have at least reduced the elephant to a camel. Some sailors like him awaken affection for them which it is pleasant to cherish. But the sea-birds are hardly more vagrant now than they.
DROPPING ANCHOR FOR THE LAST TIME.
May 16, at 11, A. M., we took a pilot off New York, and at 9, P. M., dropped anchor, having been gone nearly nineteen months, and, including our excursions from Hong Kong, having sailed forty-two thousand miles. All this time no sickness, accident, loss, nor painful delay had occurred to us. Our only regret was that the voyage had come to an end.
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In looking back upon it and recalling pleasurable seasons, those which most readily recur to me, (and let not the threefold mention of it seem obtrusive,) are, Morning hours on deck alone with a Bible. I only repeat the experience of every one who loves the Word of God. The mind freed from care sees in the Bible at such times meanings which grammars and lexicons never can impart. Nature might reveal things most wonderful at such a place as Singapore; but in a psalm read in the silence of the sea, there would often appear marvellous things in the language of Scripture, in its simple incidents, in the characters portrayed or acting themselves out unconsciously in their trials and joys, which would create an interest never excited by the plumage of East-India birds, or coral branches, or curiously twisted and beautifully enamelled shells, or by the marvellous light on insects and creeping things, or by precious stones, and pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine-wood, and cinamon, and odors, and ointments, and frankincense. I cannot forget the impressions made upon me by reading connectedly all the experiences and the language of the prophet Jeremiah. They were like the strange constellations which rise to view in low latitudes. I have felt among the wonderful things of God the truth of that inspired declaration, “Thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.”
On reaching home, it was deeply interesting to find, at sick-beds, in stricken households, and in circles where the goodness of God had filled pious hearts with thankfulness, that one need not travel to be filled with all the fulness of God. “Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?” I found that some who had not left home for two years but had toiled in shops, and counting-rooms, and laboratories, and domestic life, had been increased with the increase of God.