Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1864-07-15
From the Phoenix.
The Sailors Superstition.
htIy the south wind kissed the sea,

And the crescent moon Is DatuGu III igult
Like a silver loop of the curtalned night
And the stars were twinkling bright and high,
Like human eyes in the ample sky"
A shipmate lay dying with fever. He
had given his last message to the living
and was waiting, be said, for the "angeI
of the watch to strike ''eight bells."-
The watch is always called at sea, by
time regulated by chronometers, and in
dicated by eight bells, struck at the mo-
ment when the watch is to be called
The dying sailor who had so often been
summoned on deck by their sound, was
now awaiting the mystic bells that should
remove bis soul to the quarterback of the
Great Captain of all. Slowly and ST.
lently we moved about his hammock and
watched as the damp, chill sweat of death
gathered in beaded drops upon his brow.
Suddenly from out the still air of Eight,
there came deep, solemn chime OF bells.
[ heard it as distinctly as ever heard
anything in my life. 1t sounded exactly
as though from the usual ships bell the
watch stroke had sounded. Every one
listened, and most of US could count
one, two, three, four, five, six, seven
eight, when the sound died away in a
mournful echo, and the soul of our ship
mate had departed. There was some
thing awful in the solemnity of the sound.
To be so near eternity that its summons
could be heard by mortal ears, was like
seeing the hand of Jehovah reaching
down through the clouds to take home
some worn out child. do not suppose
there was a sailor there who did not fully
believe the summons was supernatural
one. / have often heard these mystic
bells, and once saw the cause. 1t was a
lone bird floating on the ocean, making
with wing and voice a peculiar sound,
which, an expectant imagination, might
readily work up into the sound of bells.
There is one thing about this superstition
that is pleasing to the thoughtful Chris
tian. 1t is the rebuke it gives to infdel-
ity. Trusting in the never failing justice
of an Eternal God, patiently this grim
sea warrior awaited b e summons,
expecting to be Scaled aft and made to
give an account of all bis voyages, and
through all, showed a more clear appre-
citation of the entire trust and confidence
in the mercy of our Father, than many
theologian shows in sounding discour-
ses, adorned with graces of rhetoric to
catch the ear, and polished style to charm
the taste of the cultivated and fastidious.
never saw but one infdel sailor, and be
was the first TO cry out. 80, God save Us"
as our vessel dashed upon the rocks of
Sberia's coast. The man who floats up
on a plank and sees eternity only four
inches below, is not likely to disown the
existence of the only arm that can save
him.
Wicked and profane the sailor may be,
but never blasphem9us. Reckless Of life
and property be is; but never unmindful
of the claims of humanity, nor Of the
reverence due to the Great Commander
of all. Seldom educated, but never igno-
rant. Untaught by the schoolmaster or
the preacher, be yet obtains a fund Of
knowledge, both human and divine, and
often brings to naught the curiously wro't
arguments and fue spun theories of the
learned skeptic. | remember one day,
in Oahu, Sandwich Islands, of hearing a
German traveller explaining b DIV all
things were formed by certain laws, and
how absurd it was to imagine such be-
ipe as God, aud make Him the Creator,
when the known laws Of nature account
ed for all. Jack hitched up his trowsers
and threw aside his quid, and said: "Look
here, messmate, just tell us how those
laws came rugged to ship shape"
There was no reply to such an argu-
ment. Honest faith had met shallow re-
search-and skepticism stood rebuked.
TRAxUs.