we had had them aboard with us, and tarried in the Cabin only long enough to take bread, they would have left their marks. Ten to one you would have found holes in our charts, and blank spaces, where there are important signs, and you would have found marks and directions rubbed out, that now to us are as plain as day. They are as bad as rats. John.-You make me think of the saying of a wise man, that infidels show the nature of their investigations on the King's Chart just as snails mark their path over a wall, by the tracks of slime left behind, and the lines of film drawn across it in their progress. Peter. 'Tis worse than that, and sometimes it is hard to detect their progress, and undo the mischief. If you could always see it plain, it would be much less dangerous. They have various ways of casting off God's Word, and hiding from it. Do you remember the beautiful last verse in the 17th Psalm? "As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied, when I awake, in thy likeness. How sweetly David speaks of the time when he shall see God in glory! Well, what should you think of a man telling you that that meant merely getting up early for morning prayers? John.-Why, I think that would be about as wise, as if I should read aloud the chapter where it says, My voice thou shalt hear in the morning,1 and you should tell the crew that that meant, that in the morning aboard ship there would be eight bells. Peter. And yet these villains Explain-away, Pick-flaw, and others like them, are the most credulous of all fools that the sun ever shone upon in the matter of their own speculations, their own wisdom. They will believe that men grew out of monkeys. Indeed, they have the credulity of sharks, that will take down a man's hat, believing it to be his head, or a box of old nails for a junk of salt pork, and yet, the simplest things in God's Word stumble them. They stumble at the Word, being disobedient. A man 2 once said of them that they will swallow a whale any time to avoid believing that a whale swallowed Jonah. John. But I have heard of others, who take another tack. Some there be, who are for casting off the letter of the Word, and relying, as they pretend, wholly upon the Spirit. These may be as bad, in their way, and more deceitful, than your Pick-flaws and Explain-aways. And I have heard a very experienced and holy old Captain say of them that if any pretend that they have the Spirit, and so turn away from the strait rule of the Holy Scriptures, they have a spirit indeed, but it is a fanatical spirit, a spirit of delusion and giddiness; but the Spirit of God, that leads his children in the way of truth, and is for that purpose sent them from heaven to guide them thither, squares their thoughts and ways to that rule whereof it is the Author, and that Word which was inspired by it, and sanctified them to obedience. Can there be any thing better than that? Peter.-Better Why, that is the very source of life and knowledge, the Spirit with the Word. Sanctify them by thy truth; thy Word is truth. An old navigator used to say, Thy words were found, and I did eat them, and they were to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart.2 That is your right stock of provision for a long voyage; it never gets out of order, but is always fresh, pure, and refreshing, John.-Well, you make me think of Ezekiel's description of the Tree of Life; the fruit thereof was for food, and the leaves thereof were for medicine. That is God's Word, both food and medicine. The medicine is to search out and purge away our sins; the food is to nourish and strengthen us in Christ Jesus, and make us grow in grace. Peter. Yes! And all by the Spirit. The Spirit takes of the things that are Christ's, the things of his Word, and shows them to the soul. When the Spirit and the Word go together, then there is safety. We must study the Word by the Spirit, praying for the Spirit, relying upon the Spirit, for it is he who will thus guide us into all truth, and where the Spirit dwells, there the Word dwells. And so another old navigator says, Thy Word have I hid mine heart, 1 1 John, xvii, 17. 2 Jer. xv, 16. 3 Ezek. xlvii, 12. in He does not say that on the figure-head, or into the flag, but hid There in the heart is that I might not sin against thee. he had it merely painted astern, or on the sides of the ship, or wrought away with the Spirit in the heart. where all the sin comes from, and so he says, Hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee. With some men the Word is all paint, but with good Christians it is inside work, work in the heart; life and not paint merely. John.-That is just what I would say. And now let us evermore remember, that there is no safety but in heartfelt reverence of the Word, and reliance upon it. What could we do, if we laid aside the King's Chart, and trusted to the compass only? Or if we had the Chart only, without the compass, what could we do? But the compass shows us where we are upon the Chart, and the Chart shows us whither we are moving by the compass. Then we take our heavenly observations, having the Earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.2 But if we cut loose from these dependencies then we go astray, then we would be sure to make shipwreck of our souls. Did you ever play at flying of kites, when you were a boy? Peter.-What man, that ever was a boy, did not? Why, you bring to mind in that word all the sports of childhood. My boy's kite! How I used to start it on the green, and then, when the wind was high, and the kite had gone almost out of sight into the blue firmament, we would send messengers fluttering along the string after it! John.-Well, did you ever think of its being the confinement by the string, which along with the wind was the only thing that kept your kite soaring, for the moment you let it loose, down it would come, fluttering, waving, tumbling. You had to hold it in, or it would have been ruined. Just so it is with our minds, if they be cut loose from God's Word. It is the Spirit that makes them soar, if they truly rise at all; but only while they keep fast to God's Word. If they cut loose from that, then they go into all imaginable foolish, wicked, and unbelieving fancies, and then go tumbling into utter ruin. I can tell you a fine parable between 1 Psa. cxix, 11. 1 2 2 Cor. i, 22. the kite and our hearts, with their dependence on God. It was written by an old Sea Captain, who is now praising God in heaven; but he was himself as a brand plucked from the burning. Hear his lines. "Tis not a long yarn, but a right good and wise one, and well spun. 'Tis entitled, THE KITE: OR, PRIDE MUST HAVE A FALL. Once on a time a paper kite Was mounted to a wondrous height, "Were I but free, I'd take a flight, And pierce the clouds beyond their sight, It tugged and pulled, while thus it spoke, It fluttered downward through the air; The winds soon plunged it in the tide. My heart replied, O Lord, I see Impatient of thy ruling hand, How oft I've wished to break the lines Thy wisdom for my lot assigns! How oft indulged a vain desire, For something more, or something higher! A fall thus dreadful had been mine. CHAPTER VI. FISHING FOR PEARLS, AND CATCHING ICEBERGS. THE change from the South Pole to the North is hardly greater than that which befell our navigators, soon after all this gracious experience. It seemed almost impossible that such a change could come. The mercy of the Lord was now so great, and they enjoyed so much in Christian communion, conversing by the way, their hearts burning within them in love to the. Redeemer, with bright anticipations of the Celestial City, that sometimes, unless their senses deceived them, they thought they could verily see, far, far away over the ocean, at the point where the horizon was lost in heaven, the gates shining, and the domes and spires rising. Often and long did they gaze towards the appearance, which sometimes they caught at noon, and sometimes in the evening just at sunset; and sometimes a sound as of very distant heavenly melodies would come floating over the waves, entrancing all their sensibilities. On such occasions it seemed to them as if they were not far from the end of their voyage, and had no more perils or difficulties to encounter. But as before the lovely weather had thrown them off their watch, so now these fair-enchanting scenes, and continued prosperous breezes, lulled them in security. A sense of security is always a dangerous and false thing at sea, and the more secure men feel, the less secure they An uninterrupted continuance of blessings sometimes provokes an imagination of permanent safety, which is are. |