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The Fundamentals
tapering yards, her swelling sails—the white wave curling at her fore-foot, and the green wake winding astern. From our new view-point items that had grown familiar were in vested with fresh interest. There was the wheel to which we had seen six seamen lashed in time of storm, and there the binnacle, whose sheltered compass had been so constantly studied since the start, and there the chart-house with its treasures of wisdom, and yonder the huge-fluked anchors, and over all the network of ropes—a tangle to the uninitiated. Even the smoke from the galley fire inspired respect, as we remembered the many meals that appetites, sharpened by the keen air of the Southern Seas, had demolished. And yonder is the port of one’s own cabin! What marvelous things had been viewed through that narrow peephole, and-what sweet sleep had been enjoyed beneath it, “rocked in the cradle of the deep.” Oh! it was a brave sight, that full-rigged ship,so long our ocean home, which, despite contrary winds and cross-currents, and terrifying gales and tantalizing calms, had half compassed the globe, and had brought her numerous passengers and val uable freight across the trackless leagues in safety. Do you wonder that we cheered the staunch vessel, and her skilful commander, and the ship’s company again and again? I can hear the echoes of those hurrahs today. Do you wonder that we gave thanks for a prosperous voyage by the will of God, and presently stepped back from the tug-boat to the ship with out question that what remained of the journey would be soon and successfully accomplished? Let me apply this incident. The good ship is FREE GRACE, and I have taken my readers aboard my tug-boat to give them opportunity to view the means by which they have already come so near — (how near we know not)—to the Haven under the hill. We have sailed around about her, and told the towering masts thereof, and marked well her bul warks. We have seen the breath of God filling her sails
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