EXCERPTS | AdventAI

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 3, 1862

EXCERPTS.

A NOBLE ACT.—A noble ship was bearing down on the English coast under a stiff breeze and a lowering sky. It was not many hours before she was in the teeth of a violent storm, rolling and plunging in the angry waters. The wind shrieked through her cordage, and her huge timbers groaned from stem to stern. She at last struck and became unmanageable, and hoisted signals of distress. A crew of brave and hardy men from the shore put out to rescue her living freight. Among those on board was a negro with two orphan children under his charge. The boat was soon filled with the affrighted passengers, and there was room for but one more—room for the negro, or the two little ones. Who should be saved—who left behind to perish? The faithful negro did not hesitate. Over the ship’s sides he lowered the helpless children into the lifeboat, and only called out, “Tell master, Coffee did his duty.”

Hannah More was asked to write a poem on this touching event, but she declined, saying, “No art could embellish so noble an action.”