True Words for Brave Men Part 10

Another use of the sea, again, is the vast quant.i.ty of food which it gives. Labouring men who live inland have no notion of the wonderful fruitfulness of those seemingly barren wastes of water, or how many millions of human beings live mostly on fish. When we consider those great banks of Newfoundland, where fish enough perhaps to feed all England are caught every season, and sent over the whole world; our own herring fisheries, where thousands of millions of fish are caught yearly--and all the treasures of food and the creeping things innumerable, both small and great beasts, of which the Psalmist speaks; when we consider all this, we shall begin to bless G.o.d for the sea, as much as for the land.

"There go the ships," too, says the Psalmist, in this 104th Psalm, "and there goeth that leviathan, whom Thou hast made to take his pastime therein." This leviathan is no doubt the whale--the largest of all living things--often a hundred feet long, and as thick as a house. And yet even of him, the monster of all monsters, does G.o.d's Word stand true, that He has put all things under man's feet, that all things are in subjection to man--the fish of the sea, and whatsoever walketh through the paths of the sea. For even the great whale cannot stand before the cunning of man--G.o.d has taught man the means of killing even it, and turning it to his own use. The whalebone which we use, the oil which we burn in lamps, comes from the bodies of those enormous creatures which wander in the far seas like floating houses, ten thousand miles away.

But again, it is promised in the Bible, that in the new heavens and new earth there shall be no more sea. When the sea has done its work, G.o.d will have done with it--and then there will be no more division between nation and nation--no more long dangerous voyages from one country to another.

And strange to say--the sea is even now at work bringing about this very thing--destroying itself--filling itself up. Day by day the sea eats away its own sh.o.r.e, and banks, and carries down their remains to make its own bed shallower and shallower, till shoals and new lands arise where there was deep sea before. So that if the world lasts long enough, the sea by its own laws will be filled up, and dry land appear everywhere.

The bottom of the sea is full, too, of countless millions of strange insects--and yet even in these strange insects there is use; for not only do they give food to countless millions of fishes, but after a time they turn into stone, and form fruitful soil. There are now in many parts of the world great beds of rock and earth, many feet thick, and miles long, made up entirely out of the skeletons and sh.e.l.ls of little insects which lived at the bottom of the sea thousands of years ago.

Are not these things wonderful? Well, then, remember who made these wonders? who keeps them working? Your Father--and the Son of G.o.d, and the Spirit of G.o.d. The Son of G.o.d--ay, think of Him--He by whom all things were made--He by whom all things consist--He to whom all power is given in heaven and earth. He came down and died on the cross for you.

He calls to you to come and serve Him loyally and gratefully--dare you refuse Him--The Maker and King of this glorious world? He died for you.

He loves you. He condescends to beseech you to come to Him that you may have life. Alas! what can you expect if you will not come to Him? How will you escape if you turn your back on your Maker, and despise your own Creator when He stoops to entreat you? Oh folly--Oh madness--Oh utter shame and ruin!

There are some people who do not like science and philosophy, because they say, If you try to explain to people, and make them understand the wonderful things around them, they will stop thinking them wonderful, and so you will spoil their reverence, and "familiarity will breed contempt."

Now, no doubt a little learning is a dangerous thing, when it makes some shallow conceited fellow fancy he knows all about everything. But I can truly say, that the more you really do know about this earth, the more your astonishment at it will grow--for the _more_ you understand about trees and animals, clouds and seas, the _less_ you will find you understand about them. The more you read about them and watch them, the more infinitely and inexpressibly wonderful you find them, and the more you get humbled and awestruck at the boundless wisdom and love of Our Father in Heaven, and Christ the Word of G.o.d who planned and made this wondrous world, and the Holy Spirit of G.o.d who is working this wondrous world. I tell you, my friends, that as St. Paul says, "If a man will be wise, let him become a fool that he may be wise." Let him go about feeling how short-sighted, and stupid, and ignorant he is--and how infinitely wise Christ the Word of G.o.d is, by whom all things were made, to whom all belong. Let him go about wondering day and night, always astonished more and more, as everything he sees gives him some fresh proof of the glory of G.o.d; till he falls down on his knees and cries out with the Psalmist, "Lord, what is man that Thou art mindful of him, or the son of man, that Thou so regardest him?" When I consider Thy Heavens, even the work of Thine hands, I say, What is man? and yet Thou madest man to have dominion over the works of Thine hands, and hast put all things in subjection under his feet--the fowl of the air and the fishes of the sea, and whatsoever walketh through the paths of the seas.

O Lord, our Governor, how excellent is Thy name in all the world. In comparison of Thee what is man's wisdom? What is man's power? Thou alone art glorious, for by Thee are all things, and for Thee they were made, and are created, that Thou mightest rejoice in the works of Thy own hands, and bless the creatures which Thy love has made!

XXII. THE SAILOR'S G.o.d. PREACHED TO SAILORS AT A LITTLE FISHING VILLAGE IN CORNWALL, 1843.

"They that go down to the sea in ships, and occupy their business in great waters; these men see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep."--Ps. cvii. 23, 24.

My brothers--for though I do not know most of you even by name, yet you are still my brothers, for His sake in whose name you were baptized--my brothers, it has been often said that seamen and fishermen ought to be the most religious men in the country. And why? Because they, more than any set of men, see the works of the Lord, and His wonders in the deep.

The cotton-spinner, who is shut up in a factory all day long, with nothing before his eyes but his loom, and nothing to look at beyond his own house but dingy streets and smoking furnace chimneys--he, poor man, sees very little of the works of the Lord. _Man_ made the world of streets and shops and machinery in which that poor workman lives and dies. What wonder is it if he forgets the G.o.d who made him--the G.o.d who made the round world, and set it so fast that it should not be moved, and has given the sea its bounds that it should not overflow them at any time? How much better off are you seamen than such a man as that!

And you are better off too, even, than most field labourers and farmers.

They are not shut up in towns, it is true; they have G.o.d's beautiful earth to till and keep: but they are _too safe on sh.o.r.e_! Yes; it may seem a strange thing to say; but you ought to thank G.o.d that your trade is a dangerous one--you have more to put you in mind of G.o.d than the labouring man!

And why? In the first place, as I said, fishermen and sailors see more of the wonderful works of G.o.d than any other set of men. Man may cut and change the earth--mining and quarrying and building--till it hardly looks like G.o.d's earth, but he cannot change the sea! There it is, just as G.o.d made it at first. Millions of rivers have run into it, yet it is not over full; cliffs have been wearing away and falling into it for six thousand years, yet is it not filled up. Millions of vessels have been sailing over it, yet they have left no mark upon it; it seems unchangeable, like G.o.d who made it. What is the use of my praising the sea to you? Do you not all know it, and fear it, and love it too? and does it not put you in mind of G.o.d who made it? who made that mighty water for the use of men, and filled it with thousands of different kinds of fishes, and weeds, and wonderful things for your use and comfort; and who has made it so strong that it shall keep you always in awe and fear and watchfulness, looking to G.o.d to save you--and yet so gentle and calm that you can sail upon its bosom, and there find food for your families.

Which of you, who has any G.o.dly heart in him, can help feeling, sometimes at least when at sea, that he is seeing the wonderful works of G.o.d!

I said that you ought to thank G.o.d that your trade was a dangerous one, and I said that the sea should always keep you in fear and watchfulness, and looking to G.o.d to preserve you. Now, do you not see how these two sayings go together, and make each other plain. You seamen and fishermen are in continual danger; your lives are in your hands every moment--the belaying of a sheet, the strength of a bit of canvas, the toughness of a deal board, may settle your fate in a moment, and make all the difference between life and death. If they are sound, you may go back to a happy home, and see wife and children coming to meet you when you run on sh.o.r.e at morning from your honest labour; and if they fail--if that weak cordage, and these planks, and thinner canvas, on which your lives depend, do but give way, what is left for you the next moment? what but a grave in the deep, deep sea, and your wives widows and your children orphans, and your bodies devoured by ugly creeping things, and your souls gone--gone where? My good men--you who sit around me now so strong and full of life and skill and happiness--where would your souls be if you were drowned at sea to-morrow?

What a question! Oh, ask it yourselves honestly! I have been out in gales myself, and I cannot understand how you can go out, in thirty feet of timber, upon that mighty sea, with the wind howling over your heads like a death-bell, and the great hungry waves chasing you for miles, each one able and willing to swallow you up into the deep, and the gulls screaming over you as if they were waiting to feed upon your floating carcases, and you alone, in a tiny boat, upon that waste, howling wilderness of waters!--I cannot understand, I say, how, when a man is in such a case as that, day after day, year after year, he can forget his G.o.d, the only friend who can save him from the sea! the only friend who can send him safe out to his work in the evening, and bring him home safe to his wife at morning. One would think that when you went down to the sh.o.r.e in the morning, you would say, "Oh, G.o.d! without whose help I am no stronger than a piece of sea-weed floating up and down, take care of me!

Take care of my wife and my children; and forgive me my sins, and do not punish me by calling me away this night to answer for them all!" And when you come home at night, you would say, "Oh, G.o.d! who hast kept me safe all this day, what can I do to show how thankful I am to Thee!" Ay!

what _can_ you do to show how thankful you are to G.o.d for His care? What _ought_ you to do to show your thankfulness to Him? What _must_ you do to show your thankfulness to Him? He has told you. "If you love me, He says, keep my commandments. Do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with thy G.o.d."

These, my friends, are the holy and thankful thoughts which ought to be in your hearts every day and hour. This is the thought which G.o.d meant to put into your hearts when He made sailors of you, and brought you into the world, by the sea-side, to take up your business in great waters. You might have been born in Bristol or Liverpool or London, and never seen anything but streets and houses, and man's clumsy work. But G.o.d has been very good to you. He has brought you up here, in this happy West country, where you may see His wonderful works day and night; where you ought never to forget that you have a Father in heaven who made the sea, and who keeps you safe at sea by night and day. G.o.d has given you a great deal. He has given you two books to read--the book of G.o.d's Word, the Bible, and the book of G.o.d's earth, the sky and sea and land, which is above you and below you and around you day and night. If you can read and understand them properly, you will find in them everything which you want; you may learn from them to be holy in this world and happy in the next. G.o.d has given you, too, fathers, mothers, wives, children, a comfortable home, a holy trade--the same which the apostles followed. G.o.d has given you England for your country, and the West country--the best place in England for your home. G.o.d has given you a good Queen, and good magistrates and landlords. G.o.d has given you health and strength, and seamanship, and clear heads and stout hearts. And G.o.d has made you seamen and fishermen, and given you a business in which you can see G.o.d's mighty power and wisdom day and night, and feel Him taking care of you when you cannot take care of yourselves.

Therefore you ought to thank G.o.d that yours is a dangerous business, because it teaches you to trust in G.o.d alone for safety. And what are you to give Him in return? What does G.o.d require of you? You cannot pay Him back again for all His mercies, for they are past counting, but you must pay Him back all you can. And what must you pay Him back? First, you must trust in G.o.d; for he who comes to G.o.d and wishes to walk with G.o.d through life, as a good man should, must believe that there is a G.o.d, and that He will reward those who look to Him.

I never heard of a sailor who did not _believe_ in G.o.d; for how can a man look at the sea, and not say to himself, _G.o.d_ made the sea! But I have seen a great many sailors who did not _trust_ in G.o.d. As long as it is fine weather, and everything goes right, they will forget G.o.d, and fancy that it is their own seamanship, and not G.o.d alone, which keeps their boats afloat, and their own skill in fishing, and not G.o.d alone, which sends the shoals of fish into their nets; and so they are truly fine-weather sailors--men who are only fit for calm seas and light breezes, when they can take care of themselves without G.o.d's help; but when a squall comes their hearts change, by G.o.d's mercy. For when a man has done all he can to save himself, and all he can do is no use, and his nets are adrift, and his boat on her beam ends, and the foaming rocks are on his lee, then he comes to his senses at last, and prays. Why did he not pray before? Why did he not save himself from all that misery and trouble and danger by thanking G.o.d for taking care of him, and praying to G.o.d to take care of him still. "Foolish men are plagued for their offences, and because of their wickedness. They that go down to the sea in ships, and occupy their business on great waters; these men see the works of the Lord, and His wonders in the deep; for at His word the stormy wind ariseth which lifteth up the waves thereof; they are carried up to heaven, and down again into the deep; their soul melteth away because of the trouble; they reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wit's end." And justly they are punished for forgetting G.o.d. G.o.d made the calm as well as the storm. Could they not remember that? But look at G.o.d's mercy; for when they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, He delivers them out of all their distress. For He makes the storm to cease, so that the waves are still; then are they glad because they are at rest, and so G.o.d brings them to the harbour where they would be.

Is there an old man sitting here who has not had this happen to him? And what did you _do_, my friend, when G.o.d had saved you out of that danger?

It is easy to tell what you _ought_ to have done; you ought to have gone home and fallen on your knees, and prayed to G.o.d; you ought to have said, Oh, Lord, I am a miserable, foolish sinner, who can only remember Thee when Thou art angry; an ungrateful son, who only thinks of his father when he beats him! Oh, G.o.d, forgive me, I ought to have trusted in Thee before! I deserved all my danger and punishment and more. I did not deserve to be pardoned and saved from it! I deserve to be at the bottom of the sea at this moment. But forgive me, forgive me, loving and merciful Father, for the sake of Thy dear Son Jesus Christ, who died on the cross that I might be saved from death!

And when you had prayed thus, the next thing you ought to have asked yourself was--What does G.o.d require of me? how can I try to pay Him back--how can I show that I am thankful? My good friends, what does G.o.d require of you? "To do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your G.o.d." I told you He required of you first to trust in Him at all hours, in all weathers. This is the next thing which He requires of you--To do justly, to cheat no man, not in the price of a pilchard; to love mercy; to love your neighbours, as Christ loved you; to help your neighbours, as Christ helped you and all mankind, by dying to save you; and as Christ has helped you, night after night, when you might have been buried in the waves, if Christ had not prayed for you that you might have time to repent, and bring forth fruits fit for repentance. To love mercy; to forgive every man who hurts you, for they are all Christian men and your brothers. Christ loved every one! Why should not you? If your wife or friend loved anything, you would be kind to it for their sakes; and so, if you really love G.o.d, and are thankful to Him for all His mercy and kindness, you will love every man you meet, for G.o.d's sake, who loved them and gave His Son for them.

"To walk humbly with your G.o.d." That is the beginning and end of all--you must be humble; you must confess that you are foolish, and G.o.d alone is wise; that you are weak, and G.o.d alone is strong; that you are poor fishermen, whom any squall may drown, and that G.o.d is the Great, Loving, Almighty G.o.d, who made heaven and earth, and the sea and all that is therein, and who helps all those who put their trust in Him. This is what G.o.d asks you to do in return for all He has done for you! To pray to Him, to praise Him, to put your trust in Him, to keep His commandments like thankful, humble, obedient, loving children. They who do these things, and only they, shall never fail. By night and day, in summer and winter, in storm and calm, in health and sickness, in richness and poverty, G.o.d will be with them. Christ will be with them. He sat in a fisherman's boat once, on the sea of Tiberias, and He will sit in your boats if you will but ask Him. He will steer you, He will save you, He will take care of your wives and children when you are far away, and He will bring you through the troublesome waves of this mortal life, so that, having faith for your anchor, and hope for your sail, and charity for your crew, you may at last land on the happy sh.o.r.e of everlasting life, there to live with G.o.d, world without end. G.o.d grant it may be so!

My good brothers--for I am a Christian like you, and an Englishman like you, and a west countryman like you--I thank our Father in heaven that He has brought me from the other end of England, and put this message into my mouth, to remind you of who you are--that _you_ are the men who see the works of the Lord, and His wonders in the deep; and that G.o.d will say to every one of you at the day of judgment,--I taught you all this, I gave you all this, I did all this for _you_, what have you done for _Me_ in return?

Go home--read over these verses in 107th Psalm, and think over what I have said. Do it to-night, for the weather has broken up--there are gales coming. Which of you can say that he will be alive next Sunday?

XXIII. THE GOOD SOLDIER OF JESUS CHRIST.

"Thou therefore endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ."--2 TIMOTHY ii. 3.

Suppose a young man went of his own will for a soldier; was regularly sworn in to serve the Queen; took his bounty; wore the Queen's uniform; ate her bread; learnt his drill; and all that a soldier need learn, as long as peace lasted. But suppose that, as soon as war came, and his regiment was ordered on active service, he deserted at once, and went off and hid himself. What should you call such a man? You would call him a base and ungrateful coward, and you would have no pity on him, if he was taken and justly punished.

But suppose that he did a worse thing still. Suppose that the enemy, the Russians say, invaded England, and the army was called out to fight them; and suppose this man of whom I speak, be he soldier or sailor, instead of fighting the enemy, deserted over to them, and fought on their side against his own country, and his own comrades, and his own father and brothers, what would you call that man? No name would be bad enough for him. If he was taken, he would be hanged without mercy, as not only a deserter but a traitor. And who would pity him or say that he had not got his just deserts?

Now, for G.o.d's sake and your own sakes consider. Are not all young people, when they are old enough to choose between right and wrong, if they choose what is wrong and live bad lives instead of good ones, very like this same deserter and traitor?

For are you not all Christ's soldiers, every one of you? Did not Christ enlist every one of you into His army, that, as the baptism service says, you might fight manfully under His banner against sin, the world, and the devil,--in one word, against all that is wrong and bad? And now when you are old enough to know that you are Christ's soldiers, what will you deserve to be called, if instead of fighting on Christ's side against what is good, you forget you are in His service? What are you but deserters from Christ's banner and army, traitors to Christ's cause?

But some may say, "My case is not like that soldier's. I did not enter Christ's service of my own free will. My parents put me into it when I was an infant, without asking my leave. I was not christened of my own will. My parents had me christened before I knew any thing about it! I had no choice!"

Is it so? Do you know what your words mean? If they mean anything, they mean that you had rather _not_ have been christened, because you are now expected to behave as a christened man should. Now is there any one of you who dare say, "I wish I had not been christened?"

Not one! Then if you dare not say that; if you are content to have been christened, why are you not content to do what christened people should?

If you are content to have been christened, you are christened people now of your own free will, and are bound to act accordingly.

But why were you christened? not merely because your parents chose, but because it was their duty. Every child ought to be christened, because every child belongs to Christ. Every child is in debt to Christ,--every child is bound to serve Christ.

In debt to Christ, you say? Certainly, from the moment you are born, and before that too. You are in debt to Him since you were born, for every good thought and feeling which ever came into your hearts and minds, for He put them there. And will any of you answer, "Then I wish He had not put them there, if they are to bring me into debt to Him, and force me to serve Him. I don't wish, of course, that I had been bad; but I wish that I had been neither good nor bad. I wish I had had no immortal soul, which is bound to serve Christ."

Now does any man of you wish that really? Dare any of you wish that you were like the beasts, without conscience, without honour, without shame, without knowing right from wrong, without any life after death, without being able even to _talk_--for mind, without immortal souls men could not _speak_. The beasts cannot talk to each other; reasonable speech belongs to our souls, not to our bodies. Then if you are glad that you have souls, and are better than the dumb beasts, you confess that you feel in debt to Christ, and are bound to serve Him. For who gave you your souls but Christ?

But even if you had had no souls, you would have been in debt to Christ, and bound to serve Him. "What for?" you ask. Why, for life itself. How did you come here? Who gave you life? Who brought you into the world?

Who but Christ, by whom all things were made, and you among the rest? Who gave you food? Who made every atom of food grow which you ate since you were born? Who made the air you breathe, the water which you drink, the wool and cotton which clothes you? Who but Christ? Do you not know that you cannot even breathe a breath of air, unless Christ first makes the air, and then gives your lungs life to breathe the air? and yet you cannot understand that you are in debt to Christ, and have been eating His bread and living on His bounty ever since you were born?

And mind, all this while I have not said one word about the greatest debt of all which you owe to the Lord Jesus Christ, even His own life, which He gave for you! Only think but once that for _your_ sakes the Lord was crucified--for _your_ sakes He died the most horrible, painful, shameful death. And then say, Are you not in debt to Him? "Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." If any mere man had died for your sake, would you not love him--would you not feel yourself in debt to him, a deeper debt than you can ever repay? Then Christ died for you--how can you be more deeply in debt to any one than to Him?

You have now no _right_ to choose between Christ and the devil, because Christ has chosen you already--no right to choose between good and bad, because G.o.d, the good G.o.d Himself, has chosen you already, and has been taking care of you, and heaping you with blessings ever since you were born.

And why did Christ choose you? As I have told you, that you may fight with Him against all that is bad. Jesus Christ's work at which He works for ever in heaven and in earth, is to root out all that is bad, all sin, all misery; and He will reign, and He will fight till all His enemies, even Death itself, are put under His feet and destroyed. And Christ expects you and me to help Him. He has chosen you and me, and all Christian people, to fight against what is bad, and to put it down and root it out as far as we can wherever we find it; and therefore, first, to root it out of our own hearts and lives; for while we are bad ourselves we cannot make others good. But if we go on doing bad and wrong things, are we fighting on Christ's side? No, we are fighting on the devil's side, and helping the devil against G.o.d.

Do you fancy that I am saying too much? I suspect some do. I suspect some say in their hearts, "He is too hard on us. _We_ are not like that traitorous soldier. If an English soldier went over to the enemy, and fought against the English, and killed Englishmen, _that_ of course would be too bad; but we do not wish to harm any one, much less our neighbours.

If we do wrong, it is ourselves at most that we harm. If we do wrong, it is only we that shall suffer for it. Why does he talk as if we were robbers or murderers, or had a spite against our neighbours? We do not wish to hurt any one, we do not want to help the devil."