But these arguments seemed, to increase Captain Williams’ anxiety, and the ship was steered toward the uninteresting little island.  All eyes and spy-glasses were now fixed upon it, and soon something was perceived on the shore.  “It is white—­it is a flag—­it must be a signal!” And when they neared the shore, it was ascertained that sixteen men, wrecked on the coast many days before, and suffering the extremity of hunger, had set up a signal, though almost without hope of relief.  What made the captain steer his ship in the very opposite direction to what he and his crew wanted to go, but the superhuman Spirit of God.

SAMUEL HARRIS’S LAWSUIT, AND HOW THE LORD SETTLED IT FOR HIM.

“When Samuel Harris, of Virginia, began to preach, his soul was so absorbed in the work, that he neglected to attend to the duties of this life.  Finding, upon a time, that it was absolutely necessary that he should provide more grain for his family than he had raised upon his own farm, he called upon a man who owed him a debt, and told him he would be glad to receive the money.

“The man replied:  ‘I have no money by me, and cannot oblige you.’

“Harris said; ’I want the money to purchase wheat for my family; and as you have raised a good crop of wheat, I will take that of you instead of money, at a current price.’

“The man answered:  ’I have other uses for my wheat, and cannot let you have it.’

“‘How then,’ said Harris, ‘do you intend to pay me?’

“‘I never intend to pay you until you sue me,’ replied the debtor, ’and therefore you may begin your suit as soon as you please.’

“Mr. Harris left him, meditating.  Said he to himself, ’What shall I do?  Must I leave preaching, and attend to a vexatious lawsuit?  Perhaps a thousand souls may perish in the meantime, for want of hearing of Jesus!  No; I will not.  Well, what will you do for yourself?  Why, this will I do; I will sue him at the Court of Heaven.’  Having resolved what he would do, he turned aside into a wood, and on his knees laid the matter before the Lord.  Mr. Harris felt such an evidence of Divine favor,—­he felt, to use his own expressive language, that Jesus would become bondsman for the man, and see that he was paid if he went on preaching.  Mr. Harris arose from prayer, resolved to hold the man no longer a debtor, since Jesus had assumed the payment.  He therefore wrote a receipt in full of all accounts against the man, and dating it in the woods, where he had prayed, signed it with his own name.  Going the next day by the man’s house, on his way to meeting, he gave the receipt to a servant, directing him to give it to his master.  On his return from meeting, the man hailed him, and demanded what he meant by the receipt he had sent him in the morning.

“Mr. Harris replied:  ‘I mean just as I wrote.’

“‘But you know, sir,’ answered the debtor, ‘I have never paid you.’