After he was gone the captain found his Bible and flung it overboard." I now reflected, with great sadness and self-reproach, on the way in which I had neglected my Bible; and it flashed across me that I was actually in the sight of God a greater sinner than this blood-stained pirate; for, thought I, he tells me that he never read the Bible, and was never brought up to care for it; whereas I was carefully taught to read it by my own mother, and had read it daily as long as I possessed one, yet to so little purpose that I could not now call to mind a single text that would meet this poor man's case, and afford him the consolation he so much required.

I was much distressed, and taxed my memory for a long time.

At last a text did flash into my mind, and I wondered much that I had not thought of it before.
"Bill," said I, in a low voice, "'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.'" "Ay, Ralph, I've heard the missionaries say that before now, but what good can it do me?
It's not for me that.

It's not for the likes o' me." I knew not now what to say, for, although I felt sure that that word was for him as well as for me, I could not remember any other word whereby I could prove it.
After a short pause, Bill raised his eyes to mine and said, "Ralph, I've led a terrible life.

I've been a sailor since I was a boy, and I've gone from bad to worse ever since I left my father's roof.