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 DEAN'S 
 
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 WILL-TIMED WORDS. 
 
 LONDON : DEAN & SON, 
 11, Ludgate Hill. 
 
 18 
 
 
Well-timed words. 
 
 A sea-captain, of a profligate character, 
 who commanded a vessel trading between 
 
WELL-TIMED WORDS- 8 
 
 Liverpool and America, during the last 
 war, once took on board a man as a com- 
 mon sailor, to serve during the voyage, 
 just as he was leaving port. The new 
 comer was soon found to be of a most 
 quarrelsome, untractable disposition, a 
 furious blasphemer, and, when an oppor- 
 tunity offered, a drunkard. Besides all 
 these disqualifications, he was wholly 
 ignorant of nautical affairs, or counterfeited 
 ignorance to escape duty. In short, he 
 was the bane and plague of the vessel, 
 and refused obstinately to give any account 
 of himself, or his family, or past life. 
 
 At length, a violent storm arose, all 
 hands were piped upon deck, and all, as 
 the captain thought, were too few to save 
 the ship. When the men were mustered 
 to their quarters, the sturdy blasphemer 
 was missing, and my friend went below 
 to seek for him ; great was his surprise at 
 finding him on his knees, repeating the 
 Lord's prayer with wonderful rapidity, 
 over and over again, as if he had bound 
 himself to countless reiterations. Vexed 
 at what he deemed hyprocrisy or cowar- 
 
4 WELL-TIMED WORDS. 
 
 dice, he shook him roughly by the collar, 
 exclaiming, " Say your prayers in fair 
 weather r The man rose up, observing, 
 in a low voice, " God grant I may ever 
 see fair weather to say them." 
 
 In a few hours, the storm happily 
 abated; a week more brought them to 
 harbour, and an incident so trivial passed 
 quickly away from the memory of the 
 captain ; the more easily, as the man in 
 question was paid off the day after landing, 
 and appeared not again. 
 
 Four years more had elapsed, during 
 which, though the captain had twice been 
 shipwrecked, and was grievously hurt by 
 the falling of a spar, he pursued without 
 amendment a life of profligacy and con- 
 tempt of God. At the end of this period, 
 he arrived in the port of New York, after 
 a very tedious and dangerous voyage from 
 England. 
 
 It was on a Sabbath morning, and the 
 streets were thronged with persons pro- 
 ceeding to the several houses of worship 
 with which that city abounds— but the 
 captain was bent on for other occupation, 
 
WELL-TIMED WORDS, 
 
 5 
 
 designing to drown the recollection of 
 perils and deliverances in a celebrated 
 tavern which he had too long and too often 
 
 frequented. 
 
 As he walked leisurely towards this 
 goal, he encountered a very dear friend, a 
 quondam associate of many a thoughtless 
 
 hour. Salutations over, the captain seized 
 his arm, declaring that he should accom- 
 pany him to the hotel. " I will do so," 
 
6 WELL-TIMED WORDS- 
 
 replied the other, with great calmness, 
 " on condition that you come with me first 
 for a single hour into this house (a church), 
 and thank God for His mercies to you on 
 the deep." The captain was ashamed to 
 refuse, so the two friends entered the 
 temple together. Already were all the 
 seats occupied, and a dense crowd filled 
 the aisle ; and, by dint of personal exer- 
 tion, they succeeded in reaching a position 
 right in front of the pulpit, at about five 
 yards distance. The preacher, one of 
 the most popular of the day, riveted 
 the attention of the entire congre- 
 gation, including the captain, whom 
 his features and voice, though he could 
 not assign any time or place of previous 
 meeting, seemed not wholly unknown, 
 particularly when he spoke with anima- 
 tion. At length, the preacher's eye fell 
 upon the spot where the two friends stood. 
 He suddenly paused — still gazing upon 
 the captain, as if to make himself sure 
 that he laboured under no optical delusion 
 ■ — and, after a silence of more than a 
 minute, pronounced with a voice that 
 
WELL-TIMED WORDS. 7 
 
 shook the building, " Say your prayers in 
 fair weather." 
 
 The audience were lost in amazement, 
 nor was it until a considerable time had 
 elapsed, that the preacher recovered suffi- 
 cient self-possession to recount the inci- 
 dent with which the reader is already- 
 acquainted, adding, with deep emotion, 
 that the words which his captain uttered 
 in the storm, had clung to him by day and 
 by night after his landing, as if an angel 
 had been charged with the duty of repeat- 
 ing them in his ears— that he felt the holy 
 call as coming direct from above, to do the 
 work of his crucified Master — that he had 
 studied at college for the ministry, and 
 was now, through grace, such as they saw 
 and heard. 
 
 At the conclusion of this affecting 
 address, he called on the audience to join 
 in prayer with himself, that the same 
 words might be blessed in turn to him who 
 had first used them. But God had outrun 
 their petitions— the captain was already 
 His child, before his former shipmate had 
 ceased to tell his story. The power of the 
 
8 
 
 WELL-TIMED WORDS. 
 
 Spirit had wrought effectually upon him, 
 and subdued every lofty imagination. 
 And so, when the people dispersed, he 
 exchanged the hotel for the house of the 
 preacher, with whom he tarried six weeks, 
 and parted with him to pursue his profes- 
 sion, with a heart devoted to the service 
 of the Saviour, and with holy and happy 
 assurances, which advancing years hallowed 
 and strengthened, and sanctified. 
 
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