Deliverance from the Sea.
A WRITER in the London Times recently says: “A Norwegian paper is relating a tale of an almost miraculous preservation. The captain of the schooner Amazon, of Stavanger, recently arrived at Bergen with a cargo of salt, reports that in passing the British Channel he had the opportunity of saving a British lad of fifteen under very peculiar circumstances. The Amazon was about twelve geographical miles from the British shore, when the captain thought he observed through his telescope something floating on the water. He altered his course so as to get nearer, and soon discovered that it was a small boat, in which a lad was lying, fast asleep. The shouting from the schooner did not awake him, but when a small log was thrown over into the boat he awoke with a sudden start; an end of a line was thrown to him, and he was just able to fasten it when he swooned, and had to be carried on board the vessel. In the boat nothing was found but a pair of oars and a Bible. The lad, when brought back to life and strength by the tender care shown to him, gave the following account: He was sitting on the shore reading his Bible, when some of his companions came down to him and teased him with the manner in which he spent his leisure time. To escape from their banter he got into a boat, and kept on reading, when suddenly he discovered, to his great dismay, that his persecutors had cut the line and left his frail boat to the power of the quick-running ebb. He tried to use the oars, but struggled in vain against wind and water, and, as a dense fog set in, he lost sight of land. After several hours of alternate struggle and powerless despair, he fell asleep, and sleep remained, in fact, his only comfort against hunger, cold, and the deep pangs of his isolation, during the three days and two nights which he had spent in his frail boat, when he was at last seen and saved.” Verily, the Lord has a care for them that love him, and delivers such as hope in his mercy.