His CAPTORS. 279 



Faith illustrated by the Experience of a Young Ship-master. 



a lull, brooding meanwhile upon one's trouble, 

 and anxiously casting eyes over what seems to 

 be a great, heaving waste of impending advers- 

 ity, 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 voy- 

 age, 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 productive- 

 ness. 



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 Almanao, he is uneasy, doubtful, 

 anxious, and will work his longitude over and 

 over again, though sure there is no mistake, so 

 hard is it practically to live on faith that which 

 is unseen, and for which we have no evidence 

 of the senses, until a habit is formed : so strange 

 is it to be steering one's way straight over the 

 trackless ocean, without any way-marks, or 

 sign-posts, or mile-stones, or any thing by which 



