ich to do what he will. Conscience--which, I think, is well named the
voice of God in man--tells him to do _right_, and forbids him to do
_wrong_; his heart glows with a certain degree of pleasure when he does
well, and sinks, more or less, when he does ill; his reason tells him,
more or less correctly, _what_ is right, and _what_ is wrong. The Word
of God is the great chart given to enlighten our understandings and
guide us heavenward. As my reason tells me to go to my charts for safe
direction at sea, so every man's reason will tell him to go to God's
revealed Word, when he believes he has got it. There he will find that
Jesus Christ is the centre of the Word, the sum and substance of it,
that he cannot believe in or accept the Saviour except by the power of
the Holy Spirit. He will also find the blessed truth that God has
promised the Spirit to those who simply `ask' for Him. There is no
difficulty in all this. The great and numberless difficulties by which
we are undoubtedly surrounded are difficulties of detail, which we may
be more or less successful in solving, according to our powers of mind,
coupled with our submission to the revealed will of God. To some extent
we fail and get into trouble because we lazily, or carelessly, let other
men think for us, instead of making use of other men's thoughts to help
us to think for ourselves. Depend upon it, Watty, we won't be able to
justify ourselves at the judgment day by saying that things were too
deep for us, that things seemed to be in such a muddle that it was of no
use trying to clear 'em up. Why, what would you say of the mainspring
of a watch if it were suddenly to exclaim, `I'll give up trying! Here
am I--so powerful and energetic, and so well able to spin round--
checked, and hindered, and harassed by wheels and pinions and levers,
some going this way, and some going that way, all at sixes and sevens,
and all for no good end that I can see, buried as I am in this dark hole
and scarcely allowed to move at all?' Would it be right or reasonable
to charge the watchmaker with having made the watch in vain, or made it
wrong? Of this I at least am convinced, that God is _perfect_, and that
all things are working towards a _good_ end, God's sovereignty, our
mysterious free-will and personal responsibility being among these `all
things.'"

While Captain Samson was discoursing on these important subjects, the
look-out on the forecastle reported a sail on the