re not mere landsmen like the Jews, but the finest seamen the world has
ever seen. And yet they were not ashamed in storm and danger to cry like
the Jews unto the Lord, that He might make the storm to cease, and bring
them to the haven where they would be. Yes! faith in God did not make
them the less brave, skilful, cautious, scientific; and it need not make
us so. Skill and science need not take away our faith in God. I trust
it will not take it away, and I believe it will not take it away, as long
as we can hear what I once heard, on board of one of the finest men of
war {80a} in the British Navy--the ship in which and from which, all
British sailors may learn their duty--when I saw some six or eight
hundred men mustered on the deck for daily morning prayer, and heard the
noble old prayer, which our forefathers have handed down to us, to be
said every day in Her Majesty's navy: {80b}

"O eternal God who alone spreadest out the heavens, and rulest the raging
of the sea; who hast compassed the waters with bounds, until day and
night come to an end; be pleased to receive into Thy Almighty and most
gracious protection, the persons of us Thy servants, and the fleet in
which we serve. Preserve us from the dangers of the sea, and from the
violence of the enemy, that we may be a safeguard unto our most gracious
Sovereign Lady Queen Victoria and her dominions, and a security for such
as pass on the seas upon their lawful occasions; that the inhabitants of
our island may in peace and quietness serve Thee our God, and that we may
return in safety to enjoy the blessings of the land, with the fruits of
our labours, and with a thankful remembrance of Thy mercies, to praise
and glorify Thy holy name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."

Then, as I stood upon that deck, and heard that solemn appeal to God,
before each man went about his appointed duty for the day, said I to
myself, "The ancient spirit is not dead. It may be that it is sleeping
in these prosperous times. But it is not dead, as long as this nation by
those prayers confesses that we ought at least to believe in a God who
hears our prayers, by land and sea. Those grand words were perhaps
nothing but a form to most of the men who heard them. But they were a
form which bore witness to a truth which was true, even if they forgot
it--a truth which they might need some day, and feel the need of, and
cling to, as the sailors of old time clung to it. Those words wou