Union Jack to serve me as a pulpit. Then the men were marched
up and formed into three sides of a square, of which the preacher
and my choir formed the fourth side. The centre of the square was
occupied by the officers.

'It was the most memorable service of my life. We opened with the
hymn,--

"Stand up, stand up for Jesus,"

and the strains of that hymn from hundreds of manly voices was
carried far out upon the waters. Then we had the Liturgy, and the
responses came clear and strong in true military style. The singing
of the grand old Te Deum was most impressive. We sang an Easter
hymn with great feeling and earnestness, and before the sermon,

"Jesu, Lover of my soul."

Oh! how those men joined in the singing. It seemed to become a
prayer on every lip, and the fitting expression of the thought of
every heart. Its meaning was clearer than it had ever been before.

"While the nearer waters roll,
While the tempest still is high."

Then came the sermon, which was no sermon at all. True, I took a
text, Isa. lxiii. 1, and I had a sermon in my mind. But when I
looked round at those men, and thought how we were all standing on
the very brink of eternity, and how few, perhaps, would ever see
the dawn of another Easter morn, I knew it was not the place for an
elaborate sermon. The time was precious and my words must be few
and straight. I had a good time. It was impossible to miss it.
Looking round upon those men as they came pressing closer and
closer, with their hungry souls shining forth through their eyes,
as they listened to the old, old story of the Saviour's everlasting
love, and of His mighty conquest over sin and death, why, it seemed
to me that if I did not preach to them the very _masts_ would cry
out and proclaim the glad tidings. I forgot self, and time, and
place, and remembered nothing but my hearers and my message. And
although I had been warned not to keep them long, as they would
never listen, such was the sympathy between us, and so great the
fascination of the old story of Christ's love and power to save,
that they listened spellbound to the end.

'Then came the last hymn "Rock of Ages," and, oh! how it rolled
out, clear and strong and triumphant, vibrating through the ship
and echoing over the wa