240 THE WHALE AND 



Experience of a pious Sailor. Godliness the Devil wants. 



turned from a two years' voyage, says that 

 thirty whales were taken by his ship's crew 

 during their absence. Three of these, to his 

 sorrow, were taken on the Sabbath. But in 

 taking these three, five boats were destroyed 

 and five men were seriously wounded, two hav- 

 ing their limbs broken, and one his skull frac- 

 tured. In taking the remaining twenty-seven 

 whales on the other days of the week, only four 

 boats were injured, and one man slightly hurt. 



Now it needs not that we say positively of 

 so easy a professor and loose a conscience as 

 that of the New Bedford captain just now re- 

 ferred to, that such a man can not be a Chris- 

 tian, or to deny that he may be saved so as by 

 fire. But certain it is, it were a pity for the 

 world if the goodness in it, and fear of God, 

 and practical regard to principle and duty, were 

 no stronger than this man's. The devil might 

 keep it for all such Christians a thousand years 

 longer, and we don't know that he would want 

 any better agents than such pliable professors, 

 that seem to take gain for godliness, and make 

 a " gospel of their maw." 



Such men will do well to read and ponder 

 the following extract from the Narrative of an 



