The Captain and the Jew.
By Sel.
A PIOUS sailor went as one of the crew of a passenger steamer down the river to the sea. Over the ocean hung a heavy, threatening fog. They went forward into it. Near the chimney, a youth was shivering, evidently in great anxiety. After a while he asked a sailor: “Do not allow yourself to be anxious, since the Lord knows in what condition we are, and ‘like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.’” With these words he turned away to work. Years passed, and the sailor had become a captain. On one of his voyages, a well-dressed gentleman drew near him with the question, “Shall we have a good voyage, captain?” “That no captain can tell but He who holds the waters in the hollow of his hand, and measures the heaven with a span.” “Thanks, captain; it delights me to hear you come quickly to the main point. You remind me of a sailor who spoke encouragingly to me on my first voyage.” “I was terrified at the rough water, and he told me, ‘Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.’ I was then a Jew, so the text was not unknown to me, but I could not call God my Father. Yet the sailor was, I plainly felt, quiet and happy as a child on his father’s knee. First, I wondered what could give a man such confidence; and then I prayed and sought for it, and am now a Christian, and a missionary to my own people. Let me give you my card.” “How long is it since you were on the high seas?” “Would you know the sailor if you saw him?” “Oh! certainly; I have thought of him so often.” “He stands before you now.” “Impossible, captain. He was a common sailor.” “Is not yours a more remarkable change? You were a Jew, and are now a Christian and a missionary. Why, then, in seventeen years’ time should not a sailor become a captain?”—Sel.