ly fit for calm seas and light
breezes, when they can take care of themselves without God's help; but
when a squall comes their hearts change, by God's mercy. For when a man
has done all he can to save himself, and all he can do is no use, and his
nets are adrift, and his boat on her beam ends, and the foaming rocks are
on his lee, then he comes to his senses at last, and prays. Why did he
not pray before? Why did he not save himself from all that misery and
trouble and danger by thanking God for taking care of him, and praying to
God to take care of him still. "Foolish men are plagued for their
offences, and because of their wickedness. They that go down to the sea
in ships, and occupy their business on great waters; these men see the
works of the Lord, and His wonders in the deep; for at His word the
stormy wind ariseth which lifteth up the waves thereof; they are carried
up to heaven, and down again into the deep; their soul melteth away
because of the trouble; they reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken
man, and are at their wit's end." And justly they are punished for
forgetting God. God made the calm as well as the storm. Could they not
remember that? But look at God's mercy; for when they cry unto the Lord
in their trouble, He delivers them out of all their distress. For He
makes the storm to cease, so that the waves are still; then are they glad
because they are at rest, and so God brings them to the harbour where
they would be.

Is there an old man sitting here who has not had this happen to him? And
what did you _do_, my friend, when God had saved you out of that danger?
It is easy to tell what you _ought_ to have done; you ought to have gone
home and fallen on your knees, and prayed to God; you ought to have said,
Oh, Lord, I am a miserable, foolish sinner, who can only remember Thee
when Thou art angry; an ungrateful son, who only thinks of his father
when he beats him! Oh, God, forgive me, I ought to have trusted in Thee
before! I deserved all my danger and punishment and more. I did not
deserve to be pardoned and saved from it! I deserve to be at the bottom
of the sea at this moment. But forgive me, forgive me, loving and
merciful Father, for the sake of Thy dear Son Jesus Christ, who died on
the cross that I might be saved from death!

And when you had prayed thus, the next thing you ought to have asked
yourself was--What does God require of me? how can I try to pay Him
back--how can