The Iron Bridges, Old St. Pancras Road; or, Sunday Afternoons with PAGE 17 The Maid-servant and the Fortune-teller The Master Japanner; or, Drink's Doings and the Gospel's The Message from the Dying Seaman The New Year and The Claims of London The Old Fiddler and his Family SCRIPTURES READERS JOURNAL JULY, 1872. OUR SAILORS, AND THE SAILORS OF ALL NATIONS; OR, GLIMPSES OF LIFE AT SEA AND ON SHORE. CHAPTER VI. "When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn."-PROV. xxix. 2. RITANNIA is the boasted personification of the nation; a maritime figure is our chosen emblem. By the adoption of this symbol we proclaim to the world our naval character. But, it has been truly observed, "might not Britannia be drawn, like the daughter of Zion, disconsolate, and weeping for her neglected children?" That sailors labour under great and peculiar disadvantages to which we on shore should be sorry indeed to submit-some of them necessarily incidental to their peculiar position-is a fact patent to all. It is unreasonable to expect that every merchant-ship should carry a chaplain, or a surgeon; but we can easily imagine how seriously their absence aggravates the position of the seaman. Happy, indeed, is it for "poor Jack," if he finds a man of God in command of his ship. But, alas! how seldom is this the case. How often has the Christian sailor to mourn over the absence of all religious principle and influence in the cabin! One man told our Reader he had been going to sea for thirty years, and during the whole of that time had never sailed with a religious captain. "And so," he added with a sigh, "what good I got on shore I lost at sea. Another man, after an absence of twenty-two months, came up to him, and said, "When I was last here, you took me to church, and to your meetings. I heard the Gospel, and believed it. I رو went away convinced I was a sinner, and determined to give myself to the service of Christ. But, behold, when I got on board, I found the captain, officers, and men the greatest set of swearers I ever met with; and, with the exception of once at Hongkong, I never heard the sound of the Gospel, until last night, when I heard you at prayers. Now, how can a sailor become a religious man? Very few care for him. We touched at six or seven different ports, but, except at Hongkong, not a soul came near us, and the captain would not allow us to go ashore." This, adds our Reader, is by no means a solitary instance. It might be multiplied a hundredfold. On one occasion he came across a Danish seaman-and no doubt he was but a type of thousands—who had been brought up by pious parents, but, entering the English service, had sailed in English ships for years, during the whole of which time he had never read his Bible and had never entered a place of worship. "And you, sir," he said, are the first person who has ever spoken to me pointedly about my soul." Another very promising young man, evidently under good impressions, returned after an absence of eighteen months. But, alas! he had sailed with a captain who, instead of helping him in his Christian course, not only used to drink and swear himself, but actually used to hold him up to ridicule among the men as a " Psalm-singer.” In happy contrast, however, we may mention the case of a native of St. Helena, who had been brought up in ignorance, and who had left home unable to read or write. But some years afterwards he sailed with a pious captain, who kindly took him by the hand, and taught him to read the Bible. For two years he read no other book; but the reading of that Book produced, in God's hands, results which no other book in the world could have produced. It opened his eyes. He was led to look upon himself as a lost and ruined sinner, and to embrace Christ as his all-sufficient Saviour. Here we see the power of the Word brought home, without human instrumentality, to the heart and conscience, and resulting in the conversion of a poor ignorant man, taught to read that Word by a Christian captain. 66 Oh, sir," said a sailor, one day, who had been anxious to serve God, "the forecastle of a British ship is a hard place for a man to serve Jesus. In the ship I came home in were eighteen men and two boys in the forecastle, and the very moment I made an attempt to read my Bible they would swear, whistle, shout, and throw things at me, until I have often had to go out on deck to read. Then if I attempted to kneel down, they would sing indecent songs, and throw things at my head. However, with the help of OUR SAILORS, AND THE SAILORS OF ALL NATIONS. 3 God, I have managed to make the voyage, but I must confess I have frequently yielded to sin and temptation." Another man, whom the Reader had induced to read and study his Bible, said to him on his return home, "They call this a Christian country, and sailors Christian men. I assure you, sir, that not in one of the three ships in which I have served during the last eighteen months was I allowed to read my Bible in the forecastle. The men have put me out, and thrown the Bible and other good books after me. Oh, it is hard to lead a godly life on board a British ship!" No wonder that, on their arrival from a long voyage, after being pent up within the limited space of a few hundred feet, it is extremely difficult for a man of God to engage their attention, and induce them to listen. They get so excited with joy and drink, that "they have not time," they say, "to listen, or to talk about religion." Besides," they sometimes add, "after being shut up for twelve months, like birds in a cage, and now being let loose, we mean to have a 'spree.'" 66 On one occasion we find our Reader warning a number of seamen, who were strangers to the Port of London, against the many vile dens and haunts of vice which surrounded them on all sides. But what was the response received ? "It is very kind of you, sir," they said, "to take so much trouble about us; but we have been shut up for eighteen months, and we have made up our minds for a good drink to-night, and mean to have it, let the consequences be what they may." Alas, the proverb did not in their case apply, "Surely, in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird!" At the risk of self-destruction, they were bent on at least one night's excess ! An old man, on another occasion, boasted that he had been forty years at sea, and had "got along very well without religion." He did not think, therefore, that he need trouble himself "about such things now!" The recklessness our Reader meets with in the course of visitation among sailors is something perfectly incredible. Instances, unhappily, might be multiplied to any extent. One man, for example, told him that he had been going to sea for thirty years, and during all that time he had never, to his recollection, read a single chapter of the Bible; "and,” he added, with the recklessness of a hardened sinner, "I think I am rather too old now for you to try your hand on; so you had better go to some of the youngsters." On another occasion, our Reader was speaking to a grey-haired old man, between sixty and seventy years of age, a native of Memel, who had sailed for the last five years in English ships, and could speak English fluently, as well as Russian and German. After giving a brief outline of the most abandoned life it was possible for man to live, the old man turned to the Reader, and said, "Look here, sir; there are some young men. Go and speak to them; you may do them some good. But as for me, I have sold myself to sin and to the devil." Another old man told him he had been going to sea for forty-five years, and that he had sometimes arrived in London with as much as £400 in his pocket, and had never been sober until all was spent! "And now," writes the Reader, "here is this very man without a friend, and without a penny to obtain a meal!" When reasoned with as to the folly of such a life, not to speak of its sinfulness in the sight of God, he answered in an off-hand, careless kind of way, "Oh, I suppose, when I am used up, I shall be sewn up in a hammock, and sent to 'Davey Jones's locker,' to be food for fishes." Some solemn portions of Scripture read by the Scripture Reader, nevertheless, drew a tear from the old man's eye, and he went away in a more thoughtful mood. me. "The only thing that gives me any trouble," said a sailor, one day, to the Reader, "is when I want a ship. As to death, the soul, the future, heaven or hell, they never trouble me. I never think of them, and therefore it is only a waste of time to talk to I am determined to live and die as I please." He confessed he had not been to church or chapel for many years, but immediately added, "Neither do I intend to go." Another said to him in the coolest way, "I may have a soul; I don't know or care ; and if there is a future or a devil, I don't know if it would not be as well for the devil to have my soul as anybody else. But as to the Bible, I look upon it as all bosh,' an invention of the rich to keep down the poor." Another man begged the Reader to speak to him about anything whatever except religion. "He was going to hell," he said, "and he meant to go. He was happy enough now, but when he thought about religion it only made him miserable." He dared not look the future in the face. How often, in this matter, does conscience make cowards of us all! But, thank God, we have also pleasing and interesting incidents to relate, in connection with our Reader's ministrations. On the return home of a number of sailors, he is not unfrequently accosted by a little group, and cordially thanked for the interest he had taken in their welfare when last in London. "And we hope to be able to show by our conduct," they sometimes add, "that your labours among us are not altogether in vain.” Many a man," said an old sailor to our Reader, "who appears to treat you with contempt when you speak to him, often speaks of you very differently when we are far off at sea. Why, sir, I knew you long before I ever saw you, just from hearing the hands in the forecastle |