nant to himself; and
a blush rose on his own cheeks. "No time shall be lost, though," he
added; and he unfolded in language suited to his comprehension, and in
all its simplicity, the grand scheme of redemption whereby sinning man
can be accepted by a holy and just God as freed from sin, through the
great sacrifice offered once on the Cross.

Orlo listened eagerly and attentively. All ideas of suicide had left
his mind. He longed to know more of this wonderful, this glorious news.

"Then, Orlo, would you not wish to please so merciful and kind a Master,
who has done so much for you?" asked the lieutenant.

"Yes, massa, dat I would," answered the African.

"One way in which you can do so, is to bear patiently and humbly, as He
did, the afflictions the loving God thinks fit to send. He does it in
mercy, depend on that. God's ways are not our ways; but the
all-powerful God who made the world must of necessity know better what
is right and good than we poor frail dying creatures, whom He formed
from the dust of the earth, and who, but for His will, would instantly
return to dust again."

"Me see, me see," answered the negro, in a tone as joyful as if he had
found a pearl of great price; and so he had, for he had found Gospel
truth.

"God knows better than we," was his constant remark after this when he
heard others complaining of the misfortunes and ills of life.

The ship had now been nearly her full time in commission, and her
captain was in daily expectation of receiving orders to return home.
Poor Orlo's heart sank within him. He must either quit his kind master
and his still kinder lieutenant, or, by leaving the coast, abandon all
hopes of ever again seeing his beloved Era. To be sure, he knew that
she might long ere this have been carried off to the Brazils or Cuba;
and faint indeed was the expectation that they ever should meet in this
world. Then, again, another feeling arose: "I am now a Christian and
she is still a heathen. How can God receive her in heaven?" But after
a time he thought--"Ah, but I can pray that she may become a Christian.
God's ways are not our ways. He will hear my prayers--that I know. He
can bring about by some of His ways what I cannot accomplish." And Orlo
prayed as he had never prayed before. Captain Fisher treated Orlo with
unusual kindness, and, under the circumstances, he could not have been
happier on board any ship in the navy.

Captain Fisher was not a man to re