The life and work of St. Paul

THE VOYAGE AJTD SHIPWRECK. 571
tenacity, which, indeed, was the solo circumstance between them and hopeless
wreck.
Gradually through the murky atmosphere of rain and tempest, the grim
day began to dawn upon the miserable crew. Almost as soon as they could see
the dim outlines of their own faces, haggard and ghastly with so much privation
and so many fears, they observed that they were anchored off a low point,
over which the eea was curling with a huge and most furious eurf. Ignorant
that this was Point Koura, on the north-east sido of Malta, 1 and not recognising
a single landmark on the featureless shore, the only thought of the
selfish heathen sailors was to abandon the hulk and crew to their fate, while
they saved themselves in the boat which they had with such trouble and
danger hoisted on board. Pretending, therefore, that they could steady the
pitching of the ship, and therefore make her hold together for a longer time,
if they used more anchors, and laid them out at full length of the cables 1
instead of merely dropping them from the prow, they began to unlash the boat
and lower her into the sea. Had they succeeded in their plot, they would
probably have been swamped in the surf upon the point, and all on board
would inevitably have perished from inability to handle the sinking vessel.
From this danger alike the crew and the sailors were once more saved by the
prompt energy and courage of St. Paul. Seeing through the base design, he
quietly observed to Julius, who was the person of most authority on board,
" If these sailors do not stay in the ship, ye cannot be saved." He says " ye,"
not " we." Strong in God s promise, he had no shadow of doubt respecting
his own preservation, but the promise of safety to all the crew was conditional
on their own performance of duty. The soldiers, crowded together in the
vessel with their prisoners, heard the remark of Paul, and since he alone at
that wild moment of peril had kept calm, and was therefore the virtual captain
without the smallest scruple drew their swords and cut through the boat's
ropes, letting her fall away in the trough of the sea. It is not likely that the
sailors felt much resentment. Their plan was distinctly base, and it offered at
the best a very forlorn and dubious hope of safety. But the daylight had now
increased, and the hour was approaching in which everything would depend
upon their skill and promptitude, and on the presence of mind of all on board.
Once more, therefore, the Apostle encouraged them, and nrged them all to
take some
"
food. This is the fourteenth day," he said, " on which you are
continuing foodless, in constant anxiety and vigilance, without taking anything.
I entreat you, then, all to join in a meal, which is indeed essential
to that preservation, of which I assure you with confidence, for not a
hair of the head of any one of you shall perish." And having given
them this encouragement, he himself set the example. Making of the
simplest necessity of life a religious and eucharistic act, he took bread,
gave thanks to God in the presence of them all, broke it, and began to
eat. Catching the contagion of his cheerful trust, the drenched, miserable
1 Where the English frigate Lively waa wrecked in 1810,
8 xsvii. 30, irichttr, not "to cast out." as in E.V.