The final cause of the many obstacles which we meet with, and the
numerous difficulties in which this journey of life involves us, will
readily appear to a confederate mind, as an excellent contrivance of
Providence to stimulate us to exertion. Without this order of things,
many faculties would lay dormant, the ends of our being would be
frustrated, and this world be no longer a scene of trial. Man is
naturally inclined to indulge himself in ease and inactivity, and were
it not for certain motives, would always remain in a state of rest: But
the fluctuating nature of all human affairs constantly counteracts this
propensity to accommodate ourselves to every situation, and urges
forward on the road in pursuit of something we call happiness, or
hastens our flight from some evil. The long-expected hour of happiness
is perhaps at length arrived, and deluded man sits down to enjoy life,
and hopes at last to find innocent and tranquil pleasures. The storms of
adversity arise and obscure the delightful prospect; his attention is
excited, and some unforeseen emergency demands the exertion of his
talents, and proves that man is made for action.
* * * * *
Account of a WONDERFUL DELIVERANCE at SEA near fifty years ago.
A Dutch seaman being condemned to death, his punishment was changed, and
he was ordered to be left at St. Helen’s Island. This unhappy person
representing to himself the horror of that solitude, fell upon a
resolution to attempt the strangest action that ever was heard of. There
had that day been interred in the same island an officer of the ship:
the seaman took up the body out of the coffin; and having made a rudder
of the upper board, ventured himself to sea in the coffin. It happened
fortunately for him to be so great a calm that the ship lay immoveable
within a league and a half of the island; when his companions seeing so
strange a boat float upon the waters, imagined they saw a spectre, and
at last were not a little startled at the resolution of the man, who
durst hazard himself upon that element in three boards slightly nailed
together, though he had no confidence to find or to be received by those
who lately sentenced him to death. Accordingly it was put to the
question, whether he should be received or not; some would have the
sentence put into execution, but at last mercy prevailed, and he was
taken aboard, and came afterwards to Holland; where he lived in the town
of Horn, and related to many how miraculously God had delivered him.
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