The Wreck of the Grosvenor, Volume 3 of 3: An account of the mutiny of the crew and the loss of the ship when trying to make the BermudasRussell, William Clark
General
The Wreck of the Grosvenor, Volume 3 of 3: An account of the mutiny of the crew and the loss of the ship when trying to make the Bermudas
I read only to the thirty-sixth verse, for what followed that did not
closely apply to our position; but there were passages preceding it
which stirred me to the centre of my heart, knowing how they went home
to the mourner, more especially those pregnant lines--"Martha saith
unto Him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the
last day. Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life: he
that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live," which
made me feel that the words I had formerly addressed to her were not
wholly idle.
I then turned to St. Matthew, and read from the eighth chapter those
few verses wherein it is told that Christ entered a ship with His
disciples, and that there arose a great storm. Only men in a tempest at
sea, their lives in jeopardy, and worn out with anxiety and the fear of
death, know how great is the comfort to be got out of this brief story
of our Lord's power over the elements, and His love of those whom He
died to save; and, taking this as a kind of text, I knelt down, the
others imitating me, and prayed that He who rebuked the sea and the
wind before His doubting disciples, would be with us who believed in
Him in our present danger.
Many things I said (feeling that He whom I addressed was our Father,
and that He alone could save us) which have gone from my mind, and
tears stood in my eyes as I prayed; but I was not ashamed to let the
others see them, even if they had not been as greatly affected as
I, which was not the case. Nor would I conclude my prayer without
entreating God to comfort the heart of the mourner, and to receive in
heaven the soul of him for whom she was weeping.
I then shook Cornish and the steward heartily by the hand, and I am
sure, by the expression in Cornish's face, that he was glad he had
stayed, and that his kneeling in prayer had done him good.
"Now," said I, "you had best get your dinner, and relieve the
boatswain; and you, steward, obtain what food you can, and bring it to
us here, and then you and the bo'sun can dine together."
The two men left the cabin, and I went and seated myself beside Miss
Robertson, and said all that I could to comfort her.
She was very grateful to me for my prayers for herself and her father,
and already, as though she had drawn support from our little service,
spoke with some degree of calmness of his death. It would have made her
happy, she said, could she have kissed him before he died, and have
been awake to attend to any last want.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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