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The Acts of the Apostles
All night the tempest raged, and notwithstanding the precautions
that had been taken, the vessel leaked. “The next day they lightened the
ship.” Night came again, but the wind did not abate. The storm-beaten
ship, with its shattered mast and rent sails, was tossed hither and thither
by the fury of the gale. Every moment it seemed that the groaning
timbers must give way as the vessel reeled and quivered under the
tempest’s shock. The leak increased rapidly, and passengers and crew
worked continually at the pumps. There was not a moment’s rest for
any on board. “The third day,” writes Luke, “we cast out with our own
hands the tackling of the ship. And when neither sun nor stars in many
days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should
be saved was then taken away.”
For fourteen days they drifted under a sunless and starless heaven.
The apostle, though himself suffering physically, had words of hope
for the darkest hour, a helping hand in every emergency. He grasped
by faith the arm of Infinite Power, and his heart was stayed upon God.
He had no fears for himself; he knew that God would preserve him
to witness at Rome for the truth of Christ. But his heart yearned with
pity for the poor souls around him, sinful, degraded, and unprepared
to die. As he earnestly pleaded with God to spare their lives, it was
revealed to him that his prayer was granted.
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Taking advantage of a lull in the tempest, Paul stood forth on the
deck and, lifting up his voice, said: “Sirs, ye should have hearkened
unto me, and not have loosed from Crete, and to have gained this harm
and loss. And now I exhort you to be of good cheer: for there shall be
no loss of any man’s life among you, but of the ship. For there stood
by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve,
saying, Fear not, Paul; thou must be brought before Caesar: and, lo,
God hath given thee all them that sail with thee. Wherefore, sirs, be of
good cheer: for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me.
Howbeit we must be cast upon a certain island.”
At these words, hope revived. Passengers and crew roused from
their apathy. There was much yet to be done, and every effort within
their power must be put forth to avert destruction.
It was on the fourteenth night of tossing on the black, heaving
billows, that “about midnight” the sailors, hearing the sound of break-
ers, “deemed that they drew near to some country; and sounded, and
found it twenty fathoms: and when they had gone a little further, they