to me a remarkable instance of faith on the one side and a guiding Providence on the other.  After they were taken on board the pilot-boat that brought them into Plymouth, at noon, when they for the last time joined together in prayer, Mr. Cook read to them the account of Paul’s shipwreck, showing the similarity of their experience. ’What made that captain change his course against his will?’ but the ever present Spirit of God".

THE STORM MADE CALM.

At a Sunday morning meeting at Repository Hall, January 25, 1874, a Christian brother, in illustration of the power and faithfulness of God, and his willingness to hear and answer prayer, related these facts in his own experience.  An account of them was subsequently published in the Christian: 

“In 1839 I was a sailor on board the brig Pandora, Captain G——­, bound from Savannah to Boston, with a cargo of cotton.  When off the coast of Virginia, some twenty-five miles distant from Chesapeake Bay, we encountered a heavy gale.  Saturday evening, December 21st, the wind blew gently from the south.  On sounding, we found ourselves in thirty fathoms of water.  At midnight the wind veered to the eastward, gradually increasing until four o’clock Sunday morning, by which time the brig was under close-reefed topsails and foresail.  The wind still increasing, every stitch of canvas was taken in, and now the vessel lay helpless and unmanageable in the trough of the sea, not minding her helm at all, while the wind blew a perfect hurricane.  The vessel being very light, loaded with cotton, made much leeway, and though we had worn ship four times during the preceding night, hoping, if possible, to weather some shoals which the captain judged were near, and to make Chesapeake Bay, where we might have a clear beach before us in case the vessel should strand, yet at eight o’clock Sunday morning we were in but seventeen fathoms of water.

“The gale now increased with fearful violence, waves rising like mountains, and rain and sleet pouring from the dismal clouds.  At ten, A.M., being then in fifteen fathoms of water, and drifting rapidly towards the shore, the captain summoned all hands into the cabin to consult about throwing our deck-load overboard, in order to leave us a better chance to secure ourselves to the rigging, and thus save our lives when the vessel should strike, which he judged would be in about half an hour.  Not a gleam of hope appeared, and here our distress was increased by observing that the captain seemed under the influence of liquor, to which he had probably resorted in order to stifle his fears of approaching death.

“The order was given, and we went to work to throw the cotton over, while the captain, frightened and despairing, went into the cabin to drown his fears in drink.  Seeing the state of things, and believing that shipwreck was imminent, I found two of my shipmates who were Christians, and who had prayed daily with me in the forecastle, and I asked them if they had any faith in God now, that he would hear our prayers and deliver us?  They both said they had; and I told them to pray, then, that the Lord might rebuke the winds and calm the waves.