His CAPTORS. 273 



The Captain Sounding. Spiritual Lesson learned. 



make his way safely to port, may teach a les- 

 son, I have thought, of the way in which we 

 should all study and watch the answers of God's 

 word and prayer as we prosecute the voyage of 

 life, having to steer by a thousand rocks, and 

 shoals, and quicksands before we can make the 

 port of peace. He would himself carefully put 

 the tallow or soap into the hollowed end of the 

 lead, then heave it himself, or hold the line, and 

 carefully ascertain when it reached the bottom ; 

 then he would scrutinize it closely when hauled 

 up, to see what report it brought from the bot- 

 tom, whether it were sand, or gravel, or mud, 

 or ooze adhering to the end, or whether it were 

 dented, as if it had fallen on rocks. 



Then he would go and sit down to his chart, 

 with compass, and slate, and slide, to compare 

 what he had found with what he was told there, 

 in order to fix, if possible, upon his position on 

 the great shoal, and shape his course accord- 

 ingly for the next hour. Then he would lay 

 down on the transom, in his great watch-coat, 

 to catch half an hour's sleep, with the chart un- 

 rolled before him on the cabin table, and a lan- 

 tern swinging over it with a sperm candle, a 

 thing we had not had before for the voyage. 

 S 



