The Sabbath-Keeping Captain.
I ONCE knew the captain of a sperm whaler in the Pacific, whose name was Morgan. About ten days before sailing on his first cruise, he happened to enter a chapel where a revival service was being held, and the result was eventful. Divine grace now wrought so wondrous a change in him that when he once more went to sea, the old hands among his crew could scarcely recognize him as the man. He who once never gave a command unaccompanied by an oath, was now never heard to swear; and such was the force of his character and the power of his example, that in a few months' time not a man of his crew dared to use a profane expression while within his hearing. The discipline of the ship was not a bit lessened, and every one was happier, from the sobriety and good feeling of which the captain set example. His owner was a Sidney merchant, who had several vessels employed in the sperm fishery. The young captain had actually sailed for the fishing-grounds, when one night, as he was reading his Bible in the cabin, he came upon the commandments, and the question of lowering his boats on the Sabbath, should a whale appear in sight on that day, all at once started up in his mind. The words were not to be evaded: "In it thou shalt do no manner of work;" and he resolved to follow the divine command implicitly, although it was not without a great inward struggle that he did so. But, as he thought of his officers and crew, who were not paid by wages, but by proportionate shares of the oil captured, he felt anxious. They might mutiny and resist him by force. He could only hope that the occasion might not arise; but if so, he would do his duty—the issue was in the hands of God. They reached their selected station, and many weeks passed without a sperm whale coming in sight. At last, one Sabbath afternoon, two hours before sunset, the longed-for cry of "There she spouts! there again!" reached the deck from the lookout at the masthead, and instantly all was activity and bustle. Each crew sprang to lower its respective boat, and for one brief moment the young captain hesitated. It was but for a moment, however. As if spoken actually in his ear, he thought he heard clearly and distinctly the words, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy!" and his own voice rang through the ship, declaring that not a boat should leave her that day. The scene that ensued—the amazement, succeeded by rage, when they understood his motive, the violence and tumult—all may be imagined. But the captain was unmoved, and his courageous, undaunted demeanor at last quelled the riot; but not until he had promised them that he would give up to them from his own share in future captures, an equivalent for their loss on the present occasion. "The owner will think nothing of losing his share, of course!" said his mate, who had been foremost in opposition, as he followed his captain into the cabin. "This will be the first and the last vessel you'll ever command of his, at any rate! I'd like to have that agreement down in black and white, if you please, Captain Morgan, and so would the crew, and at once, too." The captain answered mildly, pointing out to the mate that any agreement executed on the Sabbath would be null in law, and promised to satisfy them on the morrow. There was sadness in his tones as he spoke; for Morgan felt the truth of what the mate had said, that no owner would ever give him a ship to command again. The mate was a rough sailor, who had known his commander from boyhood. He felt touched with pity for one whose motive in thus acting he respected, and in his blunt way he apologized to the captain for what he had said about the shares: "You see, Captain Morgan, I have a wife and five children to keep, and if Providence sends us a whale on the Sabbath, I take it that Providence means us to catch that whale—" The words were arrested on his lips, and he stood still and motionless, his eyes fixed intently on an object before him. Morgan had thrown himself down listlessly after the fierce and turbulent scene he had just passed through, and he sat for some minutes brooding over the probable effect on his future prospects of that day's incident, and trying in the strength of his newly-found hopes to say, "Thy will be done." He had continued for some minutes thus, when a sudden exclamation aroused him: "Captain Morgan! Come here quick, sir, please! Look!" And the mate pointed at what had arrested his attention, while an expression of alarm, mingled with astonishment and incredulity, overspread his features as he actually saw the mercury of the barometer falling lower and lower as he stood. Morgan jumped up and looked and both bounded to the deck to summon the crew. Well was it for that crew that none of them had left the ship in her boats, for in half an hour all were engaged in a desperate life-and-death struggle which taxed every energy, and demanded the utmost efforts of every individual on board. For three days they scudded before the hurricane, and when it had passed by they found they had been driven some hundreds of miles beyond the bounds they had set to their cruising grounds; but to their intense delight, they discovered that part of the ocean to be in reality one of the best fishing grounds possible. Scarcely had the weather moderated, when they found themselves in the midst of a whole "school" of sperm whales, and two were secured. Hardly had these been tried out, i. e., rendered into oil, when more were seen; and, in short, so fortunate were they, that instead of two or even three years, (the usual time taken to fill a good-sized ship) Captain Morgan's vessel returned to Sydney in ten months! Thus the captain's firmness in acting up to his convictions of duty, instead of causing him loss, actually had a contrary effect; and his owner was so much pleased at his speedy return with so rich a cargo, that he told him he might lower or not when he pleased.—Christian Weekly.