"There is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must
be saved."--_Acts_ 4: 12.
It was down on the beach Max had been telling his story; the evening was
beautiful, warm enough to make the breeze from the sea extremely
enjoyable, and the whole family party were gathered there, some sitting
upon the benches or camp-chairs, others on rugs and shawls spread upon
the sand.
Max seemed to have finished what he had to say about the day's exploits,
and Gracie rose and went to her father's side.
He drew her to his knee with a slight caress. "What has my little girl
been doing all day?"
"Playing in the sand most of the time, papa. I'm so glad those horrid
sharks didn't get a chance to bite you or anybody to-day. Such big,
dreadful-looking creatures Maxie says they were."
"Not half so large as some I have seen in other parts of the world."
"Oh, papa, will you tell us about them? Shall I call Max and Lulu to
hear it?"
"Yes; if they wish to come, they may."
There was scarcely anything the children liked better than to hear the
captain tell of his experiences at sea, and in another moment his own
three. Rosie, Walter, and several of the older people were gathered
around him, expecting quite a treat.
"Quite an audience," he remarked, "and I'm afraid I shall disappoint you
all, for I have no yarn to spin, only a few items of information to give
in regard to other varieties of sharks than are to be found on this
coast.
"The white shark, found in the Mediterranean and the seas of many of the
warmer parts of the world, is the largest and the most feared of any of
the monsters of the deep. One has been caught which was thirty-seven
feet long. It has a hard skin, is grayish-brown above and whitish on the
under side. It has a large head and a big wide mouth armed with a
terrible apparatus of teeth--six rows in the upper jaw, and four in the
lower."
"Did you ever see one, papa?" asked Grace, shuddering.
"Yes, many a one. They will often follow a ship to feed on any animal
matter that may be thrown or fall overboard, and have not unfrequently
followed mine, to the no small disturbance of the sailors, who have a
superstitious belief that it augurs a death on board during the voyage."
"Do you believe it, captain?" queried little Walter.
"No, my boy, certainly not; how should a fish know what is about to
happen? Do you think God would give them a knowledge of the future which
He conceals from men? No, it is a very foolish idea which only an
ignorant, superstitious person could for a moment entertain. Sharks
follow the ships simply because of what is occasionally thrown into the
water. They are voracious creatures, and sometimes swallow articles
which even their stomachs cannot digest. A lady's work-box was found in
one, and the papers of a slave-ship in another."
"Why, how could he get them?" asked Walter.
"They had been thrown overboard," said the captain.
"Do those big sharks bite people?" pursued the child.
"Yes, indeed; they will not only bite off an arm or leg when an
opportunity offers, but have been known to swallow a man whole."
"A worse fate than that of the prophet Jonah," remarked Betty. "Do the
sailors ever attempt to catch them, captain?"
"Sometimes; using a piece of meat as bait, putting it on a very large
hook attached to a chain; for a shark's teeth find no difficulty in
going through a rope. But when they have hooked him and hauled him on
board they have need to be very careful to keep out of reach of both his
teeth and his tail; they usually rid themselves of danger from the
latter by a sailor springing forward and cutting it above the fin with a
hatchet.
"In the South Sea Islands they have a curious way of catching sharks by
setting a log of wood afloat with a rope attached, a noose at the end of
it; the sharks gather round the log, apparently out of curiosity, and
one or another is apt soon to get his head into the noose, and is
finally wearied out by the log."
"I think that's a good plan," said Grace, "because it doesn't put
anybody in danger of being bitten."
No one spoke again for a moment, then the silence was broken by the
sweet voice of Mrs. Elsie Travilla: "To-morrow is Sunday; does any one
know whether any service will be held here?"
"Yes," replied Mr. Dinsmore; "there will be preaching in the parlors of
one of the hotels, and I move that we attend in a body."
The motion was seconded and carried, and when the time came nearly every
one went. The service occupied an hour; after that almost everybody
sought the beach; but though some went into the surf--doubtless looking
upon it as a hygienic measure, therefore lawful even on the Lord's
day--there was not the usual boisterous fun and frolic.
Harold, by some manoeuvring, got his mother to himself for a time,
making a comfortable seat for her in the sand, and shading her from the
sun with an umbrella.
"Mamma," he said, "I want a good talk with you; there are some
questions, quite suitable for Sunday, that I want to ask. And see,"
holding them up to view, "I have brought my Bible and a small
concordance with me, for I know you always refer to the Law and to the
Testimony in deciding matters of faith and practice."
"Yes," she said, "God's Word is the only infallible rule of faith and
practice. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is
profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
righteousness!"
"Yes, mamma, I have the reference here; Second Timothy, third chapter,
and sixteenth verse. And should not the next verse, 'That the man of God
may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works,' stir us up to
much careful study of the Bible?"
"Certainly, my dear boy; and, oh what cause for gratitude that we have
an infallible instructor and guide! But what did you want to ask me?"
"A question that was put to me by one of our fellows at college, and
which I was not prepared to answer. The substance of it was this: 'If
one who has lived for years in the service of God should be suddenly cut
off while committing some sin, would he not be saved, because of his
former good works?'"
"Is any son or daughter of Adam saved by good works?" she asked, with a
look and tone of surprise.
"No, mother, certainly not; how strange that I did not think of
answering him with that query. But he maintained that God was too just
to overlook--make no account of--years of holy living because of perhaps
a momentary fall into sin."
"We have nothing to hope from God's justice," she replied, "for it
wholly condemns us. 'There is none righteous, no, not one.... Therefore
by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight.'
"But your friend's question is very plainly answered by the prophet
Ezekiel," opening her Bible as she spoke. "Here it is, in the eighteenth
chapter, twenty-fourth verse.
"'But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness and
committeth iniquity, and doeth according to all the abominations that
the wicked man doeth, shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath
done shall not be mentioned: in his trespass that he hath trespassed,
and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die.'"
"Nothing could be plainer," Harold said. "I shall refer my friend to
that passage for his answer, and also remind him that no one can be
saved by works.
"Now, mamma, there is something else. I have become acquainted with a
young Jew who interests me greatly. He is gentlemanly, refined,
educated, very intelligent and devout, studying the Hebrew Scriptures
constantly, and looking for a Saviour yet to come.
"I have felt so sorry for him that I could not refrain from talking to
him of Jesus of Nazareth, and trying to convince him that He was and is
the true Messiah."
Elsie looked deeply interested. "And what was the result of your
efforts?" she asked.
"I have not succeeded in convincing him yet, mamma, but I think I have
raised doubts in his mind. I have called his attention to the prophecies
in his own Hebrew Scriptures in regard to both the character of the
Messiah and the time of His appearing, and shown him how exactly they
were all fulfilled in our Saviour. I think he cannot help seeing that it
is so, yet tries hard to shut his eyes to the truth.
"He tells me he believes Jesus was a good man and a great prophet, but
not the Messiah; only a human creature. To that I answer, 'He claimed
to be God, saying, "I and My Father are One;" "Verily, verily, I say
unto you, before Abraham was I am;" and allowed himself to be worshipped
as God; therefore either He was God or He was a wretched impostor, not
even a good man.'
"But, mamma, I have been asked by another, a professed Christian, 'Why
do you trouble yourself about the belief of a devout Jew? he is not
seeking salvation by works, but by faith; then is he not safe, even
though he looks for a Saviour yet to come?' How should you answer that
question, mamma?"
"With the eleventh and twelfth verses of the fourth chapter of Acts:
'This is the stone which was set at naught of you builders, which is
become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other;
for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we
must be saved.'
"That name is the name of Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified One. He is
the only Saviour. We speak--the Bible speaks of being saved by faith,
but faith is only the hand with which we lay hold on Christ.
"'A Saviour yet to come?' There is none; and will faith in a myth save
the soul? No; nor in any other than Him who is the Door, the Way, the
Truth, the Life.
"'He is mighty to save,' and He alone; He Himself said, 'No man cometh
unto the Father, but by Me.'
"And is it not for the very sin of rejecting their true Messiah, killing
Him and imprecating His blood upon them and on their children, that they
have been scattered among the nations and have become a hissing and a
byword to all people?"
"True, mamma, and yet are they not still God's own chosen people? Are
there not promises of their future restoration?"
"Yes, many, in both the Old Testament and the New. Zechariah tells us,
'They shall look upon Me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn
for Him as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for
him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born;' and Paul speaks of
a time when the veil that is upon their hearts shall be taken away, and
it shall turn to the Lord.
"Let me read you the first five verses of the sixty-second chapter of
Isaiah--they are so beautiful.
"'For Zion's sake will I not hold My peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I
will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness,
and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth.
"'And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy
glory; and thou shalt be called by a new name which the mouth of the
Lord shall name.
"'Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a
royal diadem in the hand of thy God.
"'Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more
be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzibah, and thy land
Beulah: for the Lord delighted in thee, and thy land shall be married.
"'For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee:
and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice
over thee.'"
Mr. and Mrs. Dinsmore sat together not many paces distant, each with a
book; but hers was half closed while she gazed out over the sea.
"I am charmed with the quiet of this place," she remarked presently;
"never a scream of a locomotive to break it, no pavements to echo to the
footsteps of the passer-by, no sound of factory or mill, or rumble of
wheels, scarcely anything to be heard, even on week-days, but the
thunder of the surf and occasionally a human voice."
"Except the blast of Captain Baxter's tin horn announcing his arrival
with the mail, or warning you that he will be off for Nantucket in
precisely five minutes, so that if you have letters or errands for him
you must make all haste to hand them over," Mr. Dinsmore said, with a
smile.
"Ah, yes," she assented; "but with all that, is it not the quietest
place you ever were in?"
"I think it is; there is a delightful Sabbath stillness to-day. I cannot
say that I should desire to pass my life here, but a sojourn of some
weeks is a very pleasant and restful variety."
"I find it so," said his wife, "and feel a strong inclination to be down
here, close by the waves, almost all the time. If agreeable to the rest
of our party, let us pass the evening here in singing hymns."
"A very good suggestion," he responded, and Elsie and the others being
of the same opinion, it was duly carried out.