280 THE WHALEMAN'S ADVENTURES. 



So with the religious mind in the great 

 waves of affliction, when the waters roar and are 

 troubled mens' hearts failing them for fear and 

 for looking after those things which are coming 

 it is often not so well and safe to lie to and wait 

 for a lull, brooding meanwhile upon one's 

 trouble, and anxiously casting eyes over what 

 seems to be a great, heaving waste of impending 

 adversity, as to keep busy, if possible, with 

 carrying sail, and trying to scud before the 

 gale. 



I have learned, too, in the course of this 

 voyage, that a ship's sails or rigging wear out 

 more in a calm than in a gale. So the mind 

 wears out faster in indolence or inglorious rest, 

 than in well-braced nervous activity and produc- 

 tiveness. 



Here also is an illustration of the workings 

 of faith gathered from the experience of a young 

 shipmaster. In first navigating a ship by chro- 

 nometer and lunars, until he has learned to live 

 by faith in his observations, and the few figures 

 he makes daily on his slate, with the tables of 

 the Nautical Almanac, he is uneasy, doubtful, 



