IF YOU look at the map of Scotland you will find to the north the Shetland Islands, lying between the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea.
It was from Grutness Harbor in the largest of these islands that a small vessel the Columbine set sail on January 30th, 1886 intending to make the voyage, which was rough at all times, along the coast to the chief town of Lerwick. There was only one passenger on board the ship, a Christian lady named Elizabeth Mouat, who was going to Lerwick to see a doctor as she had been ill for several months.
The vessel had traveled only about four miles when the captain was knocked overboard by a sudden jerk of the sail. The two men who formed the crew of the Columbine quickly lowered a smaller boat and rowed hard to save their captain, but sad to say, all their efforts were in vain and they had to give up the attempt as hopeless. They were about to return to the ship, when to their dismay, they saw that she had drifted out to sea with the helpless passenger on board and was now far beyond their reach. The men pulled on the oars with all their strength but the sea was so heavy and the Columbine drifted so fast, that the distance between them rapidly increased and at last they had to turn and make for the shore.
And what became of Elizabeth Mouat, the sick and lonely passenger, who shared the fate of the abandoned ship?
Below in the little cabin, weak from ill-health and very seasick from the rolling of the vessel, Elizabeth heard the alarm on deck caused by the accident to the captain, but didn't know what had happened. She heard the smaller boat suddenly lowered and a terrible fear took possession of her.
"I am deserted!" she said. "The men have gone off and left me alone in the ship."
She left her berth and tried to get on deck, but just as she was about to mount the ladder, it fell down and she was too weak to lift it and put it back again. She was just tall enough to look out of the open hatchway, and as she looked this way and that, and saw only the little boat which the Columbine was fast leaving behind, she knew that her worst fears were realized: she was indeed left alone.
As night came on, the vessel still drifted, and if Elizabeth had not known how to "cry unto the Lord" in her trouble, how terrible her feelings would have been! She stood with her head just above the hatchway, ever keeping her anxious watch and searching the horizon in vain for a sail. The wild seas dashing over the vessel often drenched her through and through. She knew that her cries could not reach any mortal ear but Elizabeth had a strong Refuge. She quietly committed herself and the ship to the Lord, who is "the confidence of all the ends of the earth, and of them that are afar off upon the sea." Psalm 65:55By terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us, O God of our salvation; who art the confidence of all the ends of the earth, and of them that are afar off upon the sea: (Psalm 65:5).
(To be continued May 25, 1958)
Messages of the Love of God 5/18/1958