proprietor remembered me, ran home, snatched me up, ran in great haste to the end of the pier, just in time to catch the vessel as she passed, into which he threw me with great violence. I was now placed much in the same situation I had been in some years before—sometimes in a hammock, and sometimes in a chest, according to the fancy of the captain; only on the Sabbath I was always liberated, and allowed to lie, during the forenoon, on the cabin-table. Indeed, my lying in this posture for a few hours, and those on board dressing a little better, was all that distinguished the Sabbath from any other day.
All on board the ship in which I now sailed, considered and called themselves Christians, yet not one of them ever, as I could observe, worshipped God, or in anything made his will their rule; on the contrary, they laughed at sin, and sported about hell, though, from their own aceount, most of them had been wonderfully rescued from the very jaws of death. So true is that saying, which I have repeated a thousand times—‘Bray a fool in a mortar, yet his folly will not depart from him.’
A young man, named Julius, asked the captain for liberty to convcrse with me, which was readily granted. At our first interview, I rclated the history of the prodigal son, Luke, xv. ‘Thou hast found me out,’ said he, ‘for thc history of that young man exactly agrees with mine. I had indulgent parents, and, during my younger years, was happy at home; but, in eonsequenee of a disagreement with my elder brother I went abroad, which was contrary to their wishes. They expended more on me than they could well afford. When I arrived in that country, whieh we lately left, there was none to befriend me, consequently, I was slighted, and eould obtain no situation suited to my expectations. In a few months, everything I had brought with me was sold for my support, and I was obliged to engage in the most menial services; the kind of work in which I was employed, and the people with whom I was constrained to associate, were both extremely disagreeable, which often led me to reflect on the comforts which I had hastily forsaken. Hearing that this vessel was bound for the city where my parents reside, I determined to return; and, should I meet with a reeeption anything resembling that which you have related, I shall be happy.’
When he had finished, he requested mc to favour him with a few good counsels, which might be of use to him in after life; upon which I said, ‘Delight thyself in God—believe in the Lord Jesus—look unto him, and you shall be saved—be content with such things as you have—flee youthful lusts, which war against the soul—walk circumspectly, not as fools,
