CHAPTER VI.
“He commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind ... their soul is melted because of trouble.”
T
THAT night the storm raged with terrible fury, and many were the anxious hearts in the valley, many the eyes that saw no sleep, but watched and prayed till morning light, “for those in peril on the sea.”
Daisy and her little companion lay awake all night listening to the waves lashing up against the shore, and to the hurricane which swept round the farmhouse. At times it seemed to them as if the house itself swayed to and fro, and they clung tremblingly to one another; but the old dwelling was built high up on the rock, and was protected by the hill behind, and when the light of day broke over it, it stood secure.
Farmer Morris was up before dawn, and calling his men together, assembled them for prayer in the old kitchen; and then telling them to lose no time in following him to the shore, he made his way down to the bay as speedily as possible. A sad sight greeted him there, a fine ship lying on her beam-ends, about a hundred yards from the shore, utterly dismasted, and going to pieces as fast as possible. Some groups of fishermen were busily engaged in trying to rescue portions of the cargo, which were being continually washed up on the shore; while others with their wives were intent on ministering to the half-drowned crew, all of whom by aid of the lifeboat had been rescued from a watery grave.
Mrs. Morris was not long in following her husband to the shore. She was well known in the fishermen’s huts, and was at all times a welcome visitor, for all knew that in trouble or trial of whatever kind,they had only to turn to the old farm under the shadow of the hill, and be sure of ready help and sympathy. As she stepped out of one of the cottages, a poor woman, the wife of one of the fishermen, came out of another close by, and said:
Crew in a lifeboat
“Maybe you’ll be so good as to step into our house next, mistress. There’s apoor man, one of the crew that was saved last night, but I doubt he’s bound for a better shore; he was longer coming to than any of the others, and it seems, from what some of them say, he’s been ill a long time.”
Mrs. Morris went with her at once into the cottage, and on opening the door of the inner room stepped softly to the poor man’s bedside, and sat down by him. He was asleep; but one glance at his thin face and emaciated hands told only too plainly that the woman’s words were true, and that he was, as she expressed it, soon bound for a better shore.
After some time he awoke; and on seeing Mrs. Morris, he asked her if she would be so good as to read to him, pointing to a little well-worn Bible which lay on his pillow. Mrs. Morris turned to the thirty-second Psalm; and when she had finished reading it, and had spoken to him of Jesus as the sure refuge and only hiding-placefor poor sinners, he looked up at her earnestly, and said:
“Blessed be God, I have found that refuge, through His grace and goodness, for never did any poor sinner have greater need of such a refuge and such a hiding-place.”
He spoke with difficulty, and the effort to say this seemed almost too much for him, for he sank back exhausted. Mrs. Morris did not press him to talk any more; but with a few soothing words, and an earnest prayer that Jesus would light for him the dark valley, the shadows of which were now gathering around him, she took leave of the poor man, desiring the woman in whose cottage he was to see that he wanted for nothing, and promising to return later in the day.
The other sufferers occupied much of her time and care; and it was not until late in the afternoon that she was able to see the poor dying sailor again. Shefound on reaching the cottage that he had rallied a little since the morning, and was able to talk with much less difficulty. As she sat down by him he looked up with an earnest expression, and said, “I want you to tell me once again the glad news that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. I have heard it again and again, but I am never tired of hearing the same sweet sound.
“The voice that first told me of my need of a Saviour, that first bid me look to Jesus, is silent now. It was a young cabin-boy on board the ship I first sailed in from England. We had a rough voyage, and out in the Atlantic met with such a storm as made my coward heart quail. I remembered how, in days gone by, as a little child my mother had taught me of God, and told me I need not fear in the dark because He would be near and take care of me; but now this thought did not quiet my heart. I felt that God wasnear, and that it was His voice speaking in the storm; but I could not look up to Him as a friend, and the thought of His being near only made me tremble with fear. I had lived so long in sin and without God in the world, that surely He would not listen to me now, or take care of me in the storm. All my past life seemed in a moment to stand out before me, and the thought of what a dark picture it was filled me well-nigh with despair. As I heard the wind and the waves roaring, and looked out into the thick darkness, I felt there was not a glimmer of hope for me. Just then this young cabin-boy, who had often spoken to me of the Saviour, but whom I and another man on board had never lost an opportunity of jeering at, came past me. He had been with a message from the captain to the mate; and as he passed me in the dark, I thought I caught sound of the words, ‘I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me.’ At anyother time I should probably have laughed at him; but I was in no mood for jesting now; and something forced me to call out, as he went by, ‘Aren’t you afeared, Charlie?’ for I was trembling myself from head to foot. The boy stopped and said, ‘No, master, I’m not afeared. When the storm in the heart’s once been stilled, the outside storms can’t alarm one; if one’s heart is only in the harbour, there’s no room for fear.
Amid the howling wintry seaWe are in port if we have Thee.’
Amid the howling wintry seaWe are in port if we have Thee.’
Amid the howling wintry sea
We are in port if we have Thee.’
“Ah, mistress, I would have given the world at that moment to have felt as that young lad did; though many a time when he had spoken to me before of the sure haven for storm-tossed souls, I had laughed at him, and told him there would be time enough to seek the harbour when the storm came, that we didn’t want it in smooth sailing. Ah, how well I recollectthe sad look which came over his face when I spoke so, and how gravely he would say, ‘Ah, Master Smith, you should put into that port in bright weather, if you’d know how to find it in the storm.’
“He had hardly passed by when a tremendous wave broke over the ship, and it was hard work for the men to stand at the pumps.
“In the roar of the wind and sea I heard the young boy’s voice: ‘Call upon God, Master Smith, call upon God! He says, “Call upon Me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee.”’ And then and there in the darkest night I have ever spent in my life, and yet not quite the darkest, for before it had ended a gleam of light had shone across my heart, I did call on God, as I clung for my life to the side of the ship, and prayed Him to have mercy on my poor benighted soul, as I had never before prayed in my life. But the lad’s voice I have never heard again; the wavethat washed over the ship had borne away with it the soul that was the most ready of all on board to meet its God. Those words, ‘Call upon God, Master Smith, call upon God!’ must have been well-nigh his last on earth. The storm that was my call to the Saviour was his to go home; and surely never was anyone so young more ready for the summons. I never knew a lad so fearless in danger, so ready to witness for the Lord, so little afeared of man. There wasn’t a man on board that didn’t in his heart respect him, even if he didn’t think with him. I found his jacket the next morning; he had taken it off, to be more ready to help the men at the pumps, and there in the pocket was the little Bible I had so often seen him reading. I couldn’t help a tear or two when I opened it, and saw how well worn and used it was.
“Here’s the Bible, mistress; I have kept it ever since; and, blessed be God, throughreading that Book, I have found pardon and peace, and a hope that, poor miserable sinner as I am, I shall one day reach the home that dear lad has most surely gone to, through the love of the Saviour who came into the world to save sinners such as I. That Book has been my constant companion ever since by night and by day; and, thank God, it was made the means of salvation to another man besides myself, the very one who used to join with me in jeering poor Charlie Green; he died in peace through reading this blessed Book. He too, like me, had lived in sin and in forgetfulness of God, and when he fell ill he was afraid of the thought of death. I used to read to him; I had found peace then myself, and I couldn’t do less than try to put him in the way of finding it too. I had seen the beacon light which saved my poor soul from shipwreck, and guided me into the haven of refuge, and wasn’t I bound to do my utmost to point it out tosome other storm-tossed soul? He told me much about his past life, how he had left his poor dying wife and children, and knew nothing of what had become of them; and he made me promise, before he died, that if ever I came back to England, I would try to find out where they were, and tell them how he repented of his past life, and had come as a poor sinner to seek forgiveness at the feet of Jesus. He used often to say he knew that he was the chief of sinners, but that in this blessed Book he had found that there was hope, even for the vilest that came and touched the hem of the Saviour’s garment; and sure enough he found peace in looking to ‘the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.’
“He often spoke of his two children, and said he prayed that God would teach them to know a Saviour’s love; and that although their earthly father had forsaken them, the Lord Himself would take them up. I should like to have done whatI could to find out something about them and their mother; but now I fear I shan’t be able. I know I haven’t long to live, and my voyage is almost over. I hardly thought I should have lived through last night. I had no strength to stir hand or foot myself, and if they hadn’t lifted me into the boat I must have been drowned, for the ship was filling fast; but, oh, how different I felt from what I did in the last storm! Now I could say to myself a verse I had many a time heard poor Charlie sing when the wind was against us, and the sea rough:
‘One who has known in storms to sailI have on board;Above the raging of the galeI hear my Lord.’
‘One who has known in storms to sailI have on board;Above the raging of the galeI hear my Lord.’
‘One who has known in storms to sail
I have on board;
Above the raging of the gale
I hear my Lord.’
Ah, mistress, it’s one thing to have to face the storm alone, but quite another to meet it with Christ. I could now understand what Charlie meant when he said, ‘The inner storm was stilled, and so the outsidestorms couldn’t alarm him.’ One had come by and said unto my soul, all tossed with sin and misery, ‘Peace, be still,’ and now ‘there was a great calm.’
‘I came to Jesus as I was,Weary and worn and sad:I found in Him a resting-place,And He has made me glad.’”
‘I came to Jesus as I was,Weary and worn and sad:I found in Him a resting-place,And He has made me glad.’”
‘I came to Jesus as I was,
Weary and worn and sad:
I found in Him a resting-place,
And He has made me glad.’”
Mrs. Morris was deeply touched and interested in the poor man’s story. As she rose to go, she turned once more to look at the little Bible which had been so blessed to him and others, and on opening it her eyes caught sight of the name, “Morley,” written on the fly-leaf. On examining it more closely she was still more astonished at the inscription, which was as follows:
“Given toCharles Green,on leaving the Ragged School,with the best wishes of his sincere friend and teacher,Susan Morley.
‘Oh satisfy us early with Thy mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.’”
Charles Green was an orphan boy in whom Susan Morley had taken great interest. He had attended the ragged school regularly for three years, and during the last part of the time Susan had been much encouraged about him, and had begun to hope that the good seed had taken root in his heart. Still, she had never felt quite sure that the boy had really given his heart to the Saviour, and often after he had left the school, as years passed away without her hearing of him, she had many anxious thoughts about him. Her great hope had been in the Bible which she had given him on parting, and in the promise he had made her that he would read a few verses in it every day. No day had passed since he sailed from England in which Susan Morley did not pray for the sailor boy far away on the sea, and ask that the Word of God might find an entrance into his heart, and make him “wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” And howabundantly her prayers had been answered, beyond all that she had thought or expected, we have already seen.
Nor was this all. On inquiring the name and other particulars respecting the poor man who had died in peace through reading the Bible given by Susan to Charlie Green, Mrs. Morris discovered on her next visit to Robert Smith that it could have been none other than the father of Polly and Lizzie. She took Lizzie with her several times to visit the dying sailor, and he was much interested in seeing the child of his former shipmate. Poor little Lizzie would often read to him out of the Bible her father had learned to love, and was never tired of asking questions about him, and would sometimes say:
“Polly and I used to pray to God to let us see our father again, but now we must pray to meet him in heaven.”
Robert Smith did not live many weeks. He had no friends living, and seemed todesire nothing further, now that he knew that the children of his comrade were alive and well cared for. Mrs. Morris visited him constantly, and saw that he wanted for nothing. Resting on Jesus, he passed away in peace, with the words on his lips of his favourite hymn:
“Hide me, O, my Saviour, hide,Till the storm of life be past;Safe into the haven guide,Oh, receive my soul at last.”
“Hide me, O, my Saviour, hide,Till the storm of life be past;Safe into the haven guide,Oh, receive my soul at last.”
“Hide me, O, my Saviour, hide,
Till the storm of life be past;
Safe into the haven guide,
Oh, receive my soul at last.”
Thus already had much blessed fruit sprung from the patient labours and earnest prayers of one young teacher in a little ragged school; surely only an earnest of further and fuller blessing reserved for the day of harvest by Him who has promised that His word shall not return unto Him void, but shall accomplish that which He pleases, and prosper in the thing whereto He sends it.