The Most
Abandoned Man Of Our Crew, One Sunday Morning, Asked One Of The
Boys To Lend Him His Bible.
The boy said he would, but was afraid
he would make sport of it.
"No!" said the man, "I don't make sport
of God Almighty." This is a feeling general among sailors, and is
a good foundation for religious influence.
A still greater gain is made whenever, by means of a captain who
is interested in the eternal welfare of those under his command,
there can be secured the performance of regular religious exercises,
and the exertion, on the side of religion, of that mighty influence which
a captain possesses for good, or for evil. There are occurrences at sea
which he may turn to great account, - a sudden death, the apprehension
of danger, or the escape from it, and the like; and all the calls
for gratitude and faith. Besides, this state of thing alters the
whole current of feeling between the crew and their commander.
His authority assumes more of the parental character; and kinder
feelings exist. Godwin, though an infidel, in one of his novels,
describing the relation in which a tutor stood to his pupil, says
that the conviction the tutor was under, that he and his ward were
both alike awaiting a state of eternal happiness or misery, and that
they must appear together before the same judgment-seat, operated so
upon his naturally morose disposition, as to produce a feeling of
kindness and tenderness toward his ward, which nothing else could
have caused. Such must be the effect upon the relation of master
and common seaman.
There are now many vessels sailing under such auspices, in which
great good is done. Yet I never happened to fall in with one of
them. I did not hear a prayer made, a chapter read in public,
nor see anything approaching to a religious service, for two
years and a quarter. There were, in the course of the voyage,
many incidents which made, for the time, serious impressions upon
our minds, and which might have been turned to our good; but there
being no one to use the opportunity, and no services, the regular
return of which might have kept something of the feeling alive
in us, the advantage of them was lost, to some, perhaps, forever.
The good which a single religious captain may do can hardly be
calculated. In the first place, as I have said, a kinder state
of feeling exists on board the ship. There is no profanity allowed;
and the men are not called by any opprobrious names, which is a great
thing with sailors. The Sabbath is observed. This gives the men a
day of rest, even if they pass it in no other way. Such a captain,
too, will not allow a sailor on board his ship to remain unable to
read his Bible and the books given to him; and will usually instruct
those who need it, in writing, arithmetic, and navigation; since he
has a good deal of time on his hands, which he can easily employ in
such a manner.
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