The ship _St. Thomas_, Captain, Robert Williams, was bound from New
York to Liverpool, in the month of June. Favored by a fresh westerly
wind, she soon cleared the land, and on the first Sunday out was going
along finely with all drawing sail set. The chief mate, Mr. Wm.
Briggs, after the crew had breakfasted, and the watch had been set,
asked the captain if he had any objections to calling the men aft to
prayers.
"No objection whatever, Mr. Briggs, provided you do the preaching and
praying yourself; for you know well enough that I have but little
faith in such exercises."
Captain Williams was between forty and fifty years of age, a plain,
blunt seaman, who was more ambitious of being considered an
enterprising shipmaster than a Christian. His mate was not quite
thirty, and was indebted to him for his promotion from before the mast
to second mate, and then to that of chief mate; they had sailed
together many years, and each had boundless confidence in the other.
Appreciating the motives of his mate, he always permitted him to have
prayers on board when the state of the weather was favorable, although
he took no interest in religious matters himself.
Mr. Briggs ordered the watch to arrange some seats on the
quarter-deck, while he went forward himself and invited the watch
below to come aft, and listen to the reading of the Scriptures, and
such other religious exercises as the occasion might suggest,
remarking at the same time, that it was not his desire to force any
man against his will. Without a murmur the watch below, as well as
that on deck, repaired to the quarter-deck, and were soon seated
around the capstan. The captain took charge of the deck himself, that
is, looked out for the proper steerage of the ship, and relieved the
second mate, whose watch it was, to join the men at prayers. These
arrangements completed, the chief mate placed a Bible on the capstan,
read a chapter from the New Testament, made some remarks upon it, and
then prayed; after which he read a sermon, and closed with prayer. The
whole exercise occupied about an hour, and seemed to produce a good
effect upon the men, who, during the rest of the day in their
intercourse with one another, talked about religion.
That afternoon, when it was the mate's watch on deck, Captain Williams
entered into conversation with him as follows:--
"I say, Briggs, what does all your preaching and praying amount to in
the long run? I have managed to get along very well thus far without
either, and if I were to die to-day, I could safely say that I never
injured any man knowingly, and have always endeavored to do my duty to
my family and to all. What more can a man do, even if he has all the
religion in the world?"
"Captain Williams," replied the mate, "this world, sir, is not our
home; we are here only for a few short years, and then we go to the
place for which we have prepared ourselves."
"Place!" interrupted the captain, "place--what do you or I or any one
else know about any other place than this world? Place, indeed! you do
not suppose that I am silly enough to believe the Bible, with its
strange fish-stories, and unaccountable yarns about miracles, etc.?"
"Yet," replied the mate, "you believe Bowditch's Navigator, and rely
upon its statements."
"Of course I do, because I have tested their correctness by actual
experience."
"And for the same reason I believe the Bible, and so will you, sir,
when you come to Christ and learn of him the truth."
"I have heard that statement before, Briggs. But how would you propose
for me to come to Christ?"
"By retiring to your stateroom alone, sir, and throwing yourself upon
your knees, and imploring him with your whole soul to enlighten you.
Continue this process every moment you can spare from the ship's duty,
and I will be answerable that you will not pray long in vain, if you
pray sincerely."
"But you must first convince me, Briggs, that the Bible is true before
I make a fool of myself in my stateroom."
"My dear captain," replied the mate, "I cannot convince you, that is
the work of the Holy Spirit; but I can, and often do pray for you. Yet
let us recur to Bowditch's Navigator again, and see if we cannot make
out a case from it in favor of the Bible. Both of us believe the
Navigator, yet neither of us knows thoroughly the principles by which
all its numerous tables have been calculated, many of which we use
every day without question. If we make a bad landfall, or, at the end
of a day discover that we have made a different course from that which
we projected, we do not attribute the errors to Bowditch, but to our
own miscalculation. It is just so with the humble inquirer after
truth; the Bible is his Navigator; he believes it the fountain of
living truth, endeavors to shape the course of his life by it; and
when he errs, he looks for the error in himself, not in the Bible."
"Still, Briggs," said the captain, "I don't believe the Bible. The
fact is, I have never looked into it since I was a boy."
"The greater your loss, captain; but I have no doubt your mother
believed it, and has often spoken to you about God, and Christ, and
taught you to pray when you were a child. If you will take the trouble
to visit Jim Wood's gin-palace, in Playhouse Square, when we reach
Liverpool, and enter into conversation with the people there about the
Bible, they will laugh at you, and sneeringly tell you it is a humbug;
in short, repeat your own arguments; but if you will leave there and
obtain admission into the best society, you will find that every
person present will speak with reverence of the Bible. Now I know you
love good company here, and that you dislike the low, vulgar
conversation of the profane; therefore, I should like to see you make
some effort to prepare yourself for the society of the redeemed in
heaven."
"What you have said about my mother, Briggs, is true as the needle to
the pole, God bless her; I can't help saying so, for she was good to
me; and if there is a heaven she is sure of it."
"And, of course, captain, you would like to join her there, when you
have run down your reckoning here. You have either to join her, or
such fellows as those who frequent places like Jim Wood's. Which like
you the best--gamblers, drunkards, and thieves, or your mother? This
is the simple question which you must decide for yourself."
Here the ship's duty interrupted the conversation, but that night
Captain Williams thought much of the teachings of his mother, her
earnest prayers to God in his behalf, and the flimsy arguments with
which he had so long deluded himself about the Bible; and the more he
thought the more uneasy he became. He felt that he was a sinner in the
sight of God, unworthy of the many favors he enjoyed, and during the
whole of that passage, whenever an opportunity offered he engaged in
earnest conversation with his mate. He was alarmed at the prospect of
being forever separated from his mother, for he loved her dearly; and
this feeling soon gave birth to others of a more spiritual nature, and
finally he was led to exclaim, "What shall I do to be saved?"