The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-11-09

on one knee or the milestone and see
the letters and thank God that We are
365 miles nearer home. We ought not
to go around with morbid feelings
about our health or about anticipated
demise. We ought to be living not ac-
cording to that old maxim which I
used to hear in my boyhood that you
u live as though every day were
the last; you must live as though you
were to live forever, for you will. Do
not be nervous lest you have to move
out of a shanty into an Alhambra.
One Christmas day / witnessed some
thing very thrilling. We had just dis
tributed the family presents Christmas
morning when I heard a great cry of
distress in the hallway. A child from
a neighbours house came to say her ia
Their was e 1t was only three
doors of, and 1 think in two minutes
we were there. There lay the old
Christian sea captain, his face upturn-
ed toward the window, as though he
had suddenly seen the headlands, and
with an Illuminated countenance, as
though he were just going into harbor
The fact was he had already got
through the Narrows. In the adjourn
ing room were the Christmas presents
waiting for his distribution. Long ago.
one night when he had narrowly es-
capped with his ship from being run
down by a. great ocean steamer, he had
1iouC Liz pSoSS Will oo0s olA0 "a AAA
neighbOr or a better man than Captain
Pendleton you would not find this side
of heaven. Without a moments warn
ing the pilot Of the heavenly harbor
had met him just off the lightship.
FAITH IN GOD.
He had often talked to be of the good
ness of God and especially of a time
when he was about to enter New York
harbor with his ship from Liverpool,
and he was suddenly impressed that he
ought to put back to sea. Under the
protest of the crew and under their
very threat he put back to sea, fearing
at the same time he was losing his
mind, for it did seem So unreasonable
hat when they could get into harbor
hat night they should put back to
sea. But they put back to sea, and
Captain Pendleton said to his mate,
You call me at 10 o'clock at night"
AT II o'clock at night the captain was
aroused and laid What does this
mean? I thought 1 told you to call me
at 10 o'clock, and here it is L." Why"
said the mate, Il did call you at 10
o'clock, n you got up, o. around
and told me to keep right on the same
course for two hours, and then to call
you at IL O'clock" Said the captain:
rs it possible? l have no remem-
brance of that"
At 12 o'clock the captain went on
deck, and through the rift Of a cloud
the moonlight fell upon the sea and
showed him a shipwreck with 100
struggling passengers. He helped
them off. Had he been any earlier or
any later at that point of the sea he
would ave been Of no service to those
drowning people. On board the cap
tain's vessel they began to band to-
gether as to what they should pay for
the rescue and HI they should pay
for the provisions. "Ah,' say the
captain, 'my lads, you can't pay me
anything. All 1 have On board is yours.
I feel too greatly hOnored of God in
having saved you to take any pay"
Just like him. He never got any pay
except that of his own ~applauding con-
science.
Oh, that the old sea captains God
might be my God and yours! Amid
the stormy seas of this life ma ywe have
always some one as tenderly to take
care of us as the captain took care of
the drowning crew and the passengers.
And may we come into the harbor with
as bright a hope as he had, and if it
should happen to be a Christmas
morning. when the presents are being
distributed n we are celebrating the
birth of him who came to save our
shipwrecked world, all the better. for
what grander, brighter Christmas
present could we have than heaven?