SPIRITUAL ILLUSTRATIONS. 283 



Christian to live without a constant clinging to 

 the promises, still less is it for younger and 

 more recent pilgrims : like a young sailor-boy, 

 they must hold fast to the life-line of God's 

 word, or they are sure to fall. 



Sometimes there happens, even to praying, 

 faithful Christians, what is true of large sea- 

 birds. When in the Pacific, we used sometimes, 

 by hook and line thrown astern, to catch that 

 most majestic and beautiful of all birds on the 

 wing, the superb white- winged albatross. I 

 observed that of itself it could never rise from 

 the even surface of the deck and soar aloft, 

 though unconfined and at liberty ; but we must 

 toss the noble bird overboard, and lift him quite 

 clear of the ship's rail, before he could use his 

 glorious pinions and mount aloft into the air. 

 Then he would stretch those ample wings, and 

 sail away through the ocean of space as easily 

 as one breathes, and as if the elastic element 

 of air and the bird were one, making the gazer 

 wonder, and fairly long to be taking the same 

 aerial flight. 



Even so is it, in the economy of grace, now 



