Lancaster Gazette

INTERESTING TRAIN OF INCIDENTS.

The following account is given by the Rev. Leigh Richmond as having been related by a minister, in a meeting of the British and Foreign Bible Society.

A drunkard was one day staggering in drink on the brink of the sea. His little son by him, three years of age, being very hungry, solicited him for something to eat. The miserable father, being conscious of his poverty and of the criminal cause of it, in a kind of rage, occasioned by his intemperance and despair, hurried the little innocent into the sea, and made off with himself. The poor little sufferer, finding a floating plank by his side on the water, clung to it. The wind soon wafted him with the plank to the open sea. A British man of war passing by, discovered the plank and child; and a sailor, at the risk of his own life, plunged into the sea and brought him on board. He could inform them little more than that his name was Jack. They gave him the name of poor Jack. He grew up on board that man of war, behaved well, and gained the love of all the officers and men. He became an officer of the sick and wounded department. During an action of the late war, an aged man came under his care, nearly in a dying state. He was all attention to the suffering stranger, but could not save his life. The aged stranger was dying, and thus addressed this young officer: "For the great attention you have shown me, I give you this only treasure I am possessed of—" (presenting him with a bible bearing the stamp of the British and Foreign Bible Society.) "It was given me by a lady; has been the means of my conversion; and has been a great comfort to me. Read it, it will lead you in the way you should go." He went on to confess the wickedness and profligacy of his life before the reception of his Bible; and, among other enormities, how he once cast a little son, three years old, into the sea, because he cried to him for needed food! The young officer inquired of him the time and place, and found here was his own history. Reader—judge if you can of his feelings, to recognize in the dying old man, his own father, dying a penitent under his care! And, judge of the feelings of his dying parent, to find that the same young stranger was his own son, the very son whom he had plunged into the sea; and had no idea but he had immediately perished! A description of their mutual feelings will not be attempted. The old man soon expired in the arms of his son. The latter left the service, and became a preacher of the gospel. On closing this story, the minister in the meeting of the Bible Society, bowed to the chairman, and said, "Sir, I am poor Jack!"