280 THE WHALE AND 



Life Lines to Mariners what the Promises are to Christians. 



we can see that we are right or wrong. It is 

 not until a captain has made three or four good 

 land-falls, at wide intervals, and just according 

 to his calculations, that living by faith in his 

 chronometer and observations, and the results 

 upon his slate begins to come easy. 



Even so, I have thought, in the very nature 

 of things, it is the experienced Christian only 

 that can live perfectly the life of faith. Use 

 must have practically convinced him of the re- 

 liability of things unseen and eternal, before it 

 can become the habit of his mind to navigate 

 confidently the ocean of life, independent of 

 sense. 



While thinking much, lately, of life as a voy- 

 age, and every Christian the voyager that will 

 soon be as close to the port of heaven as, I 

 trust, we now are to our desired haven in Mas- 

 sachusetts Bay, it has seemed to my mind that 

 the promises are to the Christian voyager what 

 " life-lines" are to the sailor, for him to hold by 

 to the yard when reefing or taking in sail, and 

 to keep him from falling off. Yet, strange to 

 say, many ships' yards are left without this 

 protection for the exposed sailor, by reason of 

 which many a poor fellow in a storm is shaken 



