THE CABIN BOY'S LETTER. a "A WORD spoken in due season, how good is it!" and " word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures (or a net work) of silver;"* and though the word may be simple and from a humble source, it may on that very account produce a more powerful effect on the mind. An instance of this I have myself experienced, where the brief remark of an uneducated cabin boy made a deeper impression than had ever been by serious treatises on the same subject. I had been suffering a good deal of uneasiness and vexation, which were increased by the consciousness that they were inconsistent with the profession of discipleship to the meek and lowly Jesus, and with the Christian's duty to recommend the truths of God to others by proving the happy effect they produce on his temper and conversation. After a while my rather humbling meditation regarding myself was interrupted by the quick step of one of my servants coming to me with an open letter in her hand. She was a young girl who had lived with me since she was almost a child, and who had reason to think I should sympathise in whatever gave her pleasure or the reverse. On the present occasion her countenance glowed with delight. She and her family were Irish, and among that people the ties that unite the members of a family to each other are often peculiarly strong. ""Tis a letter from Paddy, ma'am,” she exclaimed. "I hope I'm not interrupting you; but I am so happy, and my mother is so happy, and I know you like to see people happy; so I brought it to you to read." "You are quite right," I replied, taking it from her and beginning to read it. It is well to inform the reader that Paddy was her younger brother, a fine boy, who had about a year before been persuaded by one of his companions to run away from home; disappearing, to the great grief of his widowed mother, and his brothers and sisters, without leaving any clue by which they might discover whither he was gone. The anxieties, the fears, and the hopes suffered by his affectionate relatives were partly made known to me by means of the young woman who resided * Prov. xv. 23; and xxv. 5. at my house. Even his favourite cat was said to be pining away since Paddy's departure; and I had so fully entered into the interest of this little history, that my servant judged rightly in supposing I should share in the joy occasioned by the arrival of the young wanderer's letter. It was written with much affection and in a penitent spirit, to inform his friends at home that he had gone on board a trader and had made a long voyage since he left them. He seemed to have been more fortunate than is often the case with such adventurers. His captain was 66 a right good master," as Paddy expressed it, and when they returned to England in November, and laid up the ship, was to care for the boy, and send him safe home. After rather a brief account of the voyage the following passage occurred, which I copy literally, as it was part of it which made the strong impression on my mind already referred to "Our poor steward died on the 18th of this month; he had a tumour in his stomach, and was very light-headed for two or three days before he died. We buried him the same evening, and the captain preached a sermon. The steward was a Protestant, but he got a scapular from a doctor when he was at Naples in the hospital, with a bad leg. The captain is a Protestant, and I think he is right, for he is always happy." These are the words that spoke to my heart with such force as to be indelibly impressed there. Perhaps this was caused by their strange coincidence with the thoughts which occupied my mind when I read them; but, few and simple as they were, they seemed to me to contain a volume of what is of no small importance to the believer. The cabin boy's meaning evidently was that the captain's religion must be a right one, because it made him always happy; and this is an instance of what is often observable, the accurate knowledge which worldly minded, and even uninformed persons seem to possess of what Christians ought to be, and how quickly they discern in the conduct or conversation of such anything inconsistent with their profession. This young Irish sailor, belonging to those from whom the word of God is withheld, had probably never heard that "joy and peace,' ""* even in the trying changes of this world, were the duty and the privilege of real Christians to possess, the precious legacy bequeathed *Rom. xv. 13. to them by their departing Lord when he said, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you.' Yet he would seem to have possessed an instinctive belief that true religion made people happy-" always happy," as he expresses it concerning his master, who was so in the midst of dangers, hardships, and various other trials to which his profession is peculiarly liable; and all the circumstances seem to show that the captain was Christian. a It may hence be seen how important it is that the disciples of Jesus should strenuously endeavour, not only in great matters, but in the trifling concerns of every day life, to let the world see the beauty and excellency of that faith which enables them in reality to "set their affections on things above," so that the things that " perish in the using" have but little power to ruffle the serenity of their course. In this way the simplest, the weakest, the most uninfluential believer may glorify God, and forcibly recommend the gospel of the Saviour to others. But perhaps it may be said, "I know that godliness with contentment is great gain; that this habitual cheerfulness is a blessing to ourselves and those about us: but how is it to be attained, seeing the flesh is weak?" I would answer in the apostle's words, "Watch unto prayer;" and though truly the flesh is weak, in our numerous failures let us find comfort by remembering that gracious assurance, "If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous."+ “IT WILL COME." You may delay the work of repentance, and think the future far off-but it will come; your last unavailing effort to repent far off-but it will come; the deathstruggle, the shroud, the funeral far off-but it will come; the day of judgment, the day of reckoning, far off-but it will come; the sentence, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire," far off-but it will come; eternal banishment from the presence of the Lord, weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth, far off-but it will come.Dr. Chalmers. 66 *John xiv. 27. † 1 Peter iv. 7. 1 John ii. 1. TRIUMPH. "God shall redeem my soul from the power of the grave. I KNOW thy grasp is on me, death, There comes no shadow on the hour: Earth might have held a place for me, Where day remains, without its night; And from the grave, and from its power, This, this is strength: I may not grieve Steal on, ye shadows of the tomb: My heart is nerved to meet the hour, The glowing memories of the earth RICHARD ROSE was going home from his day's work one summer's evening when he met a traveller; and the following conversation passed between them. Traveller. Hallo! friend, will you be kind enough to tell me how far I am from C-? Richard. Surely, sir. A matter of ten miles, a little over or a little under. Traveller. Ten what? Richard. Ten miles, sir. Traveller. You are joking, my good fellow; and you are MARCH, 1863. |