Harry and Dickey were always ready to support him, and the men, without murmuring, agreed to do as he advised.
The crew having been divided into watches, old Tom taking charge of one and Harry of the other, and all other arrangements being made, old Tom lay down to rest, saying that he would keep the first night-watch.
They had a few candles for their lanterns, which had been carefully husbanded; these were kept to be used should any night prove particularly dark and cloudy, and the compass be required, for when the stars were shining they were sufficient to steer by.
For several days the boat sailed on over the tranquil ocean. Sometimes it fell calm, when the men took to their oars. The rest of the day they spent lying along the thwarts. Morning and evening, however, Tom offered up prayer, and Harry read some chapters in the Bible, to which most of the men listened attentively.
“What we should have done without your Bible, Mr Harry, I do not know,” observed old Tom. “I believe it has mainly contributed to keep the men contented and happy; I only hope that they will remain in the same temper.”
“I at all events will read the Bible to them,” said Harry. Harry kept to his resolution. Dickey was one of the most attentive of the listeners.
“Harry,” he said, one day, “I confess that I did not before know what was in the Bible when I used to sneer at old Tom for being religious, and was afraid that he would make you so. I wish that he would make me like himself or like you.”
“God’s Holy Spirit can alone make you, Mr Bass, what you ought to be,” observed old Tom, who had been listening to the boys’ conversation. “But you have to seek His grace, and to trust in Jesus, according to the teaching of His word; for we are there told that faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. I never yet met an infidel or careless, bad fellow who really had read the Bible with prayer. It is only thus that we can benefit by it. Many complain that they have no faith, and that it is no fault of theirs—and yet they will not do the very thing that God tells us to do; so you see that it is not God’s fault if a man does not believe, but the man’s own fault. Do you read and pray earnestly and faithfully, and depend upon it God’s Holy Spirit will do His part and help you.”
“I will try, Tom, indeed I will,” said Dickey; “and will you and Harry pray for me?”
“That we will, Mr Bass, because God has said that earnest, believing prayer availeth much; but you must pray for yourself—you must not trust to others praying instead of you. God will hear your prayers, though they may be very weak and imperfect, just as He heard the prayer of the poor publican who smote on his breast and said, ‘God be merciful to me a sinner.’”