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on which I gazed. The shaft of the ship's screw had broken loose while she was labouring in a heavy sea; the screw, thus loosened, beat in the stern-post, and the water poured into the doomed vessel. Doomed, indeed. In vain did the sailors work at the pumps and throw over cargo, that the labouring ship might be lightened and the leak stopped. Soon there were ten feet of water in the hold, and a voice called out that the ship was sinking fast. Then a rush was made towards the boats, and the confusion which ensued was awful. Three boats out of the four were speedily crowded and pushed off from the sinking ship; but their struggle for life was a brief one. A huge wave capsized all three, and their living loads sank beneath the waves. One boat yet remained, and but three men, the captain, Jamieson, and myself. All the rest had perished. Incapable of rendering assistance, I stood trembling and terror-stricken while the others lowered the boat. ready, Jamieson motioned me to enter with a calm serenity of look which I shall never forget. His trust was placed in Him who holdeth the sea in the hollow of his hand. 'God grant you may be spared to repent,' he whispered, as I descended in safety. These were the last words he ever uttered. Just when about to follow me, a wave struck the ship; the sudden shock caused Jamieson to reel back, and lose his hold on the rope. Ere he could recover himself, she went down stern foremost, and he and the captain perished with her.

When

"The boat drifted helplessly away over the stormy waste of waters. Alone-a castaway-at the mercy of the elements, I was borne onwards, whither I could not tell. Only this I knew; that of all the passengers and crew I alone survived. And what a fearful fate was in store for me! Agonized at the thought, I sank down at the bottom of the boat and covered my face with my hands. Through gloom and tempest I was drifting onward to death. And after death! I groaned in agony of spirit as remembrance of the guilty past rose up before me. The past, that had blighted my parents' happiness, ruined me for time, and -oh, awful thought!-for the eternity now so close at hand. 'It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God,' rang ever in my ears. Then I seemed to hear poor Jamieson's voice calling on me to repent; but, as of old, I moaned forth, 'Too late! too late!' and cowered down yet lower in the boat, as though to hide myself from

God. Wave after wave broke over me, threatening every instant to swamp the boat: still she drifted onward. length I slept.

At

"With a start and a cry of terror I awoke, having in my dreams once more experienced shipwreck. Was I really awake, or had my senses deceived me? Could it be that I had survived that night of horror? I rubbed my eyes, and gazed wildly round. Oh, blessed sight! the boat drifted almost imperceptibly over a calm sea, and the sun was rising majestically out of the waves. Hunger and cold, dangers past and present, were alike forgotten in the thought that I yet lived.

"And I had been spared while all else had perished. It might be that I was not yet to die. A ship might pick me up, and convey me back to my parents. Here an agonized pang pierced my heart at thoughts of those loved ones. Although saved in the shipwreck, I was alone in a slender bark on the open sea, without provisions of any kind, and no sail was visible in the horizon. Still there was hope. Tempest, darkness, and shipwreck were behind me, and I was being borne gently onward in sunshine and in calm.

"Hours passed away, and my keen eyes eagerly swept the horizon, but in vain. The cravings of hunger and thirst became almost intolerable. No sail appeared. Then I began to despair, and to call frantically on my parents' names. To perish alone on the sea was horrible. I felt, too, that I was unfit to die; that I, a wretched, guilty sinner, could not, dared not, meet my Maker face to face. Oh! could my parents but know that I longed for their forgiveness! But they would never know it. They might come to learn that I had sailed in the ill-fated vessel, and that all hands on board had perished; but not theirs the consolation to know that my thoughts were with them at the last, and that I yearned to see them once again.

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Gradually my thoughts reverted to Jamieson, and his deep anxiety to see me a penitent. His last look of peace crossed my memory, and I wondered what it was that supported his courage when in the midst of such awful danger. Suddenly there flashed across my brain a text I had heard my father preach from: He being dead, yet speaketh.' And I felt as though Jamieson were yet calling on me to repent. Texts of Scripture, verses of hymns, passages of sermons, heard, committed to memory, and forgotten years ago, began to rise up from some mysterious

treasury of the past. Warnings, expostulations, invitations, promises, came back with a vividness as though I heard them now for the first time. And they brought peace. It seemed as if a sunbeam from the Almighty had suddenly dispelled the gloom and darkness which had hitherto enshrouded my soul. I felt that my sins were remembered no more against me; that my Saviour's blood had for ever blotted them out. I realized the joyful truth that a deep, humble, trusting faith had been given me unsought for, a gift from God; and on my knees I repented, and believed in his saving mercy with tears of gratitude and joy. Oh, how strong is the gush of love and happiness in the first moments of conversion! When a man who has sinned much turns to his Maker, and it becomes first clear that there is love even for him, there is a luxury of emotion in the moment of first love to God which stands alone in life--nothing before and nothing after like it.

"Night descended on the ocean, and I went to sleep. My trust was in Him who neither slumbers nor sleeps, and in whose eyes the light and the darkness are as one.

"With the morning dawn came the wished-for ship. I was seen, and rescued from the terrible fate which menaced me.

"The rest is soon told. Within six weeks from the day on which I quitted home a mother's arms were round my neck, and a father's lips bestowed forgiveness upon me. He saw that a sincere love of God was planted in my heart; that the guilty past was repented of; and once more, amidst tears of thankfulness, his blessing descended on the wandering sheep that had been almost miraculously restored to its Master's fold."

THE CITY OF PILGRIMS.

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HIS city, which spread itself in every direction before my view, was of great antiquity and vast extent the population was immense. People of all kindreds and tongues dwelt therein these congregated in different quarters of the city, and maintained habits and customs of their own. I naturally watched with greatest interest those with whose appearance and customs I was most familiar. I had not watched long before I found that the peculiarity of the city, and that which gave it its name, was the fact that its population consisted entirely

of pilgrims. There was a large tide of population ever flowing into the city, and a proportionally large tide ever flowing out. Some came in to tarry only for a few minutes; they just cast a wondering look upon the city, and then closed their eyes upon it for ever. Others tarried but for a few months or a few years, and those who tarried longest only remained three or fourscore years. Here and there I could see those who seemed to have overstayed their time; but these looked very weary and feeble, and, if they were prepared for their departure, they always longed to go.

Those who entered this city did not in any case know how long they were to live there. They might have to reside there sixty or seventy years; but then, on the other hand, they might not continue there for a half, or even a tenth part of that time. The period of departure was in every instance absolutely determined by the king himself. When the appointed time arrived, a messenger was sent to the pilgrim with a summons, to which he was obliged to pay immediate attention, however unprepared and unwilling he might be. Very different messengers were sent forth by the king on this errand. The result, however, was in every case the same; the pilgrim passed out of the city, and, except in very rare cases, was speedily forgotten.

It was the evident design of the king that those who tarried in this city for a season should not regard it as their permanent abode, but live while they were there as pilgrims and sojourners, and especially that they should become prepared for that mysterious and solemn journey which awaited them at the close of their residence. This journey, which all were compelled to take sooner or later, appeared to be in many respects a very remarkable one. No one knew anything of its nature or its issue, save as the king himself afforded information. In all quarters of the city a very general impression prevailed that, to take this journey with safety, to reach a state of blessedness at its close, some kind of preparation was needed, though there was much diversity of opinion as to the kind of preparation which was required.

In many parts of the city there was a volume circulated which contained a revelation of the king's will as to this matter, stating plainly what preparation was needed, and how it might be obtained. And that due attention might

be paid to these things, the king kept in his employ heralds, whose business it was to go through the city, and on every possible occasion lift up their voices and urge men to seek that preparation for the journey.

Such, however, was the atmosphere, and such the prevailing influences of this city that, though it was only a city of pilgrims, those who tarried there speedily forgot that it was to be their residence only for a short and uncertain season. They so soon became familiar with the appearances presented by the city, everything around them looked so firm and substantial, they derived so much pleasure from the amusements of the city, and so much profit from its commerce, that though they were ready to confess that all this might come to an end at any moment, the belief exerted scarcely any practical influence. They lived, for the most part, as though these things were to endure for ever. The mass and multitude of those who thronged the streets of this city did not appear to be at all influenced by the fact that the term of their residence was both short and uncertain.

And yet, while there was so much to render the inhabitants careless and insensible, there was much well calculated to remind them that it was not their true home. The king had so ordered it that no one could be perfectly satisfied with his residence in that city. There was a very great difference in the condition and circumstances of the pilgrims. Some dwelt in palaces, and others in hovels; some enjoyed vigorous and unbroken health, others were bowed down with manifold infirmities; some were clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day, and others craved, and often vainly craved, the crumbs which fell from their tables. But all—rich and poor, young and old, learned and ignorant-agreed in this-they were all seeking after something which they had never found, and which, though they knew it not, the city could never afford. They all tried, with manifold devices, to make their lodgings look as much like home as possible; but with all their trying they could not, for any length of time, feel at home.

But besides this feeling of uneasiness and unrest which so remarkably characterized the entire population, the least observant could not help noticing that very wonderful changes were constantly taking place. The entire population changed about every thirty years. The circum

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