At length I laid my hand on his arm, and said, "Bill, when a
man has done all that he can do, he ought to leave the rest to God."
"O Ralph," said my companion in a faint voice, looking anxiously into
my face, "I wish that I had the feelin's about God that you seem to
have, at this hour. I'm dyin', Ralph; yet I, who have braved death a
hundred times, am afraid to die. I'm afraid to enter the next world.
Something within tells me there will be a reckoning when I go there.
But it's all over with me, Ralph. I feel that there's no chance o' my
bein' saved."
"Don't say that, Bill," said I in deep compassion; "don't say that. I'm
quite sure there's hope even for you, but I can't remember the words of
the Bible that make me think so. Is there not a Bible on board, Bill?"
"No; the last that was in the ship belonged to a poor boy that was
taken aboard against his will. He died, poor lad--I think through
ill-treatment and fear. After he was gone the captain found his Bible
and flung it overboard."
I now reflected, with great sadness and self-reproach, on the way in
which I had neglected my Bible; and it flashed across me that I was
actually in the sight of God a greater sinner than this blood-stained
pirate; for, thought I, he tells me that he never read the Bible, and
was never brought up to care for it; whereas I was carefully taught to
read it by my own mother, and had read it daily as long as I possessed
one, yet to so little purpose that I could not now call to mind a
single text that would meet this poor man's case, and afford him the
consolation he so much required.
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