does not know that I speak truth? Are there not men here who have
had things happen to them, for good and for evil, beyond all
calculation? who have had good fortune of which they could only say,
The glory be to God, for I had no share therein? or who have been
saved, as by miracle, from dangers of which they could only say, It
was of the Lord's mercies that we were not swallowed up? who must, if
they be honest men, as they are, say with the Psalmist, We cried unto
the Lord in our trouble, and he delivered us out of our distress?

And this it is that I said at first, that no men were so fit as
seamen to solve the question, where science ends and where religion
begins; because no men's calling depends so much on science and
reason, and so much, at the same time, on Providence and God's
merciful will.

Therefore, when men say, as they will,--If this world is governed by
fixed laws, and if we have no right to ask God to alter his laws for
our sakes, then what use in prayer? I will answer,--Go to the
seaman, and ask him what he thinks. The puzzle may seem very great
to a comfortable landsman, sitting safe in his study at home; but it
ought to be no puzzle at all to the master mariner in his cabin, with
his chart and his Bible open before him, side by side. He ought to
know well enough where reason stops and religion begins. He ought to
know when to work, and when to pray. He ought to know the laws of
the sea and of the sky. But he ought to know too how to pray,
without asking God to alter those laws, as presumptuous and
superstitious men are wont to do.

Take as an instance the commonest of all--a storm. We know that
storms are not caused (as folk believed in old time) by evil spirits;