MEDITATION X.
MEDITATION X.
ON PUMPING THE SHIP.
Spithead, May 11, 1755.
No ship can be so well sealed—but she will draw water, more or less, though where or how we scarce can tell; and though it is only by the assistance of the watery element we sail from shore to shore, yet, if too much water were let in on us, it would sink us to the bottom of the sea, and bury us amidst unfathomable waves. Even so, though a moderate portion of the good things of this life be highly useful to us through the various stages thereof, yet, when the cares of this life, carnal pleasures, and a desire after riches, break in on our souls like mighty billows, we are likely to be drowned in destruction and perdition. Again, on such an ocean of waters, and when water also swells within us, what a wonder that we are not lost! So, in such a world of wickedness (witness the wretches around me) and when corruption so swells within, what a miracle of mercy that the soul is not lost forever!
Whatever way the water comes into the ship, it cannot be sent out the same way—but must be pumped out with care and toil; even so, though death and sin came in by mere man, yet life and salvation must be brought in by him who is both God and man in one. And as this water comes not from a lave of the surging waves, or breaking billows—but as it were, springs up within the vessel, and thus is both dangerous and disagreeable; just so, though we keep from scandalous outbreakings, yet, if we indulge ourselves in secret sin, we both defile and destroy the inner man. The faster the ship makes water, the more we ply the pump; so the more that sin attacks, and is likely to prevail, the more I am to watch and pray against it; and prayer is the Christian's pump, which must be employed, else the soul would perish. Lastly, as the mariner must pump again and again, and never think his labor at an end, while his ship is at sea; so I must watch against sin, keep myself from iniquity, attend well to the state of my soul, and implore the inhabitation of the Divine Spirit, until my vessel arrives at the harbor of eternal rest.