An aged sailor, on the coast of Kent, (Eng.,) was recently an object of much solicitude to some pious persons, who were acquainted with his state. He had passed his eightieth year, was so deaf that he could hear no one speak, and was rapidly advancing to the grave, as he could not take food, and would not employ medicine. The opposition he had manifested to divine truth was now diminished, but it was only as, in common with other objects of dislike, he became less sensible of their real character.
The anxiety of those who pitied his spiritual condition was in consequence increased, and a speaking and an ear trumpet were both employed, in the hope of gaining an entrance to his mind. The experiment succeeded; he could now hear what was said, and truths of the first importance were plainly and faithfully stated. So offended, however, was he with the appeal of a Christian minister, that for ten days he would not allow him to be re-admitted to his room. But tracts - so often useful under the blessing of God - were not thus excluded, and he suffered several of them to be read to him, some of which proved both interesting and instructive. Still it was observed that he carefully removed the ear-trumpet whenever any part of a sentence bore hard on his state as a sinner before God.
In his second interview, the minister made more guarded and careful approaches to the conscience of the old sailor, and by gradually exhibiting his state in the use of seafaring allusions, he awakened his attention. Aware of the artifice of his auditor, he held the ear-trumpet fast with his own hand, and by day and night he explained and enforced the great truths of the gospel of God.
At length success crowned his efforts. Animated by the injunction - "In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand; for thou knowest not which shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good;" he had the happiness of seeing that sailor, once so hostile to divine truth, humble, teachable, grateful, and prayerful. He died in the spring of 1839, in the attitude of prayer, leaving behind him satisfactory evidence that the language of devotion was followed by that of praise. His remains were interred before a small place of worship in one of the bays of the Kentish coast; and it is delightful to add, that his widow and three daughters rejoice, it is believed, in a scriptural hope of meeting him in glory.
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