t, for the race between the _Sunbeam_ and the _coper_ was
not yet decided. They were trying which would be first to reach a group
of smacks that were sailing at a considerable distance ahead on the port
bow. At first the _coper_ seemed to have the best of it, but afterwards
the breeze freshened and the _Sunbeam_ soon left it far astern. Seeing
that the race was lost, the floating grog-shop changed her course.

"Ah, she'll steer for other fleets where there's no opposition,"
remarked the skipper.

"To win our first race is a good omen," said John Binning, with much
satisfaction. "May the _copers_ be thus beaten from every fleet until
they are beaten from the North Sea altogether!"

"Amen to that," said Fred Martin heartily. "You feel well enough now,
sir, to think of undertaking service to-morrow, don't you?"

"Think of it, my friend! I have done more than think," exclaimed the
student; "I have been busy while in bed preparing for the Sabbath, and
if the Master sends us calm weather I will surely help in the good work
you have begun so well."

And the Master did send calm weather--so calm and so beautiful that the
glassy sea and fresh air and bright blue sky seemed typical of the quiet
"rest that remaineth for the people of God." Indeed, the young student
was led to choose that very text for his sermon, ignoring all his
previous preparation, so impressed was he with the suitability of the
theme. And when afterwards the boats of the various smacks came
trooping over the sea, and formed a long tail astern of the _Sunbeam_,
and when the capacious hold was cleared, and packed as full as possible
with rugged weather-beaten men, who looked at the tall pale youth with
their earnest inquiring gaze, like hungering men who had come there for
something and would not be content to depart with nothing, the student
still felt convinced that his text was suitable, although not a single
word or idea regarding it had yet struggled in his mind to get free.

In fact the young man's mind was like a pent-up torrent, calm for the
moment, but with tremendous and ever-increasing force behind the
flood-gates, for he had before him men, many of whom had scarcely ever
heard the Gospel in their lives, whose minds were probably free from the
peculiar prejudices of landsmen, whose lives were spent in harsh, hard,
cheerless toil, and who stood sorely in need of spiritual rest and
deliverance from the death of sin. Many of these men had c