overcome, and evil worldly thoughts, and I had a hard fight for about three months, and then I began to arrive at the port of peace.

When I first began to feel that good peace, I then wished to die, for fear the enemy should get the advantage of me, but when God became my teacher himself, I hung on to that good promise of our blessed Lord Jesus, "Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out." I grew very anxious to help others, for a man when he once sees his own lost estate will endeavor to help others; he will pity every one that he sees out of the way, and speak a word to every one as the Lord moves him to do. I was locked up for the first five months in a room by myself; I had no teacher but the Lord Jesus, but I found Him to be the only true teacher. There were persons came in every Sunday to read and sing and pray with the prisoners; there was one man I found to be a Christian. The Lord has opened my eyes to see that to be a Christian requires a man to be born again. Jesus has said, except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.

I hope my readers will remember what Jesus says, "he cannot see the kingdom of God." It is useless for any one to think to get to heaven without entering through the straight gate of repentance.

I take my imprisonment to be the greatest blessing ever bestowed on me, for then I found out my greatest enemy and that it was myself. The heart is deceitful above all things. Satan is on watch night and day to drown our hearts in worldly thoughts, but if we keep our minds on Jesus He is ever ready to defend us, He holds Satan with a chain. Before this I always thought that if I wronged no one and dealt honest with every one, I should do well enough, but when it pleased God to open my eyes to see lost condition, I could see that I was quite out of the

my

way and that I must start new in life. I have read that people have become Christians all of a sudden, but I found I had a great deal to do. There are too many call themselves Christians when they are not; they must be born of the Spirit, and this they will not be, while they go into the fashions of the world. And Christ says, "my kingdom is not of this world."

The way of the transgressor is hard, and any man, either sailor or soldier or any other man, will never know peace if he lets his heart depart from God and lives prayerless.

Brother sailors; if any of you are living prayerless I warn you solemnly that you are in a position of fearful danger; if you die in your present state you are lost souls; you will be eternally miserable. You are utterly without excuse, there is not a single good reason that you can show for living without prayer; it is useless to say you know not how t pray-prayer is the simplest act in all religion; it is speng to God. It needs neither learning, nor wisdom, nor book knowledge, to begin it; it needs nothing but heart and will. There must be the first step in every journey. If desire for the saving of your you have any soul and want to know what to do, I advise you to go this very day to the Lord Jesus Christ, in the first private place you can find, and earnestly and heartily entreat Him in prayer to save your soul; tell Him in your own way and in your own words; doubt not his willingness to save you because you are a sinner; wait not because you feel unworthy, you will never mend yourself by staying away. When I threw away all other prayers that I had learned out of books which were made by man, and depended on the Lord alone, I found that He gave me plenty of words to pray with. I abandoned all prayers but the Lord's prayer, for by it we are taught to pray for our daily bread, not a week's, or a month's, or a year's. We are taught to

pray only for the day we are in; we may see by that, the Lord looks for us to depend on Him for all our wants.

Now to all you that forget God, hear what He says: "Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord and He will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon."—Isaiah lv. 7. “The soul that sinneth it shall die, but if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die; all his transgressions that he hath committed they shall not be mentioned unto him; in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live."-Ezekiel xviii. 21, 22. "The Lord is nigh unto all that call upon Him, to all that call upon Him in truth. He will fulfil the desire of them that fear Him, He also will hear their cry and will save them. The Lord preserveth all them that love Him; but all the wicked will He destroy."-Psalms cxlv. 18, 19, 20.

Shipmates! I thought I would show you some of God's precious promises; I will not leave you on a lee shore, I will show a way to escape.

Did ever any of you take a good look at eternity and consider the length of it. Now suppose one drop of water was taken out of the sea in a year, there would be a day when the sea would be empty and dry; but this great eternity will never end. The great and merciful God has made a way for our escape. Hear what He says in the 18th chapter of Ezekiel, "turn and live," for why will you forever die. I want you to understand what this meansturn and live-it is not to patch up the old house, it is to pull all down and build all anew on the sure foundation, that sure and solid rock that the devil can never shake. You may paint and putty up an old ship and make her look good to the eye while she lies in dock, but with all

your paint and putty it will not prevent her going down in the first gale of wind she gets in at sea. So shipmates, while you carry about with you an old treacherous hard heart, that is full of envy, hatred, and malice, both against God and man, you will find you will never be at peace either with God, with yourselves, or any one else; but if you look to your true and free teacher Christ Jesus, and follow his teaching, you will never run aground. God has given every man an inward witness to guide him, that will bear witness to him when he does evil and give him praise when he does well, but if he refuses that light and hates it, that same light will be his condemner. Jesus has said, "I am the light of the world, he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life."-John viii. 12. God has said, "this is my well beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, hear ye Him." He did not say you are to hear from vain man, but to hear Him within your own hearts. I doubt not some of you have heard Him speaking to your own hearts when you have been going into a rum shop, or a bad place of resort; heard Him say, "stop, that leads to eternal death." Hear what Moses said about the light within, long before Christ came in the flesh: is not in Heaven, that thou shouldest say, who shall go up for us to Heaven and bring it unto us that we may hear it and do it; neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest

It

who shall go over the sea for us and bring it unto us, that we may hear it and do it, but the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it."-Deuteronomy xxx. 12, 13, 14.

a way

The Good Shepherd says: "I will bring the blind by that they knew not, I will lead them in paths that they have not known, I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight; these things will I do unto them and not forsake them."

If we will follow the light that the Lord has given us it will never lead us astray, but will lead us into all truth. If we cease from man and follow Jesus, He will teach us to do unto all men as we would that they should do to us.

We must resist all evil thoughts and set a watch over them to resist the first springing of them, for the only way to be free is by keeping a strict watch over them. The enemy never lets one chance slip to draw our minds down from heavenly things to earthly; he could never lead the greater part of the world to destruction if they would consider when they are led by him and that they must give an account for every idle word. Therefore set a watch over your thoughts and the door of your lips, and of all things don't let your lips take the Lord's name in vain. Every man has got enough light given him if he will Paul says the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal, 1 Cor. xii. 7; so that leaves every man without excuse.

only be guided by it.

Do you know that "Cursed be the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm and whose heart departeth from the Lord."-Jer. xvii. 5. I hope, my reader, you are not that one. Take one good look at eternity every day and see the length of it, and then take a look at your little life here.

I think there are no men have a better chance than sailors for meditation and thinking of the world to come. When on the lookout or standing at the helm at night, see what an excellent chance you have if you would only use it, in thinking of your never dying soul. One hour spent on things for the benefit of your never dying soul, would be worth more than all the vain thoughts you ever allowed yourselves to indulge in. To be real happy you must get it by staying on the Lord Jesus. He thought it worth his life to die for us to give us life, and is it not worth our