Search -
A Memoir of Captain W. Thornton Bate, R.n.
A Memoir of Captain W Thornton Bate Rn Author:John Baillie General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1859 Original Publisher: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, and Roberts Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Mi... more »llion-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER HI. An Instinct and a Grace. -- Nelson, Leonidas, Havelock. -- Pleasing God -- Growing in Grace. -- The Survey. -- " Natures" and " Vocations." -- The War. -- An Adventure. -- Critical Position. -- An old Fellowship. -- A Blue-button Mandarin. -- Hand- to-hand Fight. -- Capture. -- Gallant Feat. -- Generosity. -- " Charmed Life." -- Flag of Truce. -- Close of the War. Teach me, my God and King, In all things Thee to see; And what I do in anything, To do it as for Thee." No two things more essentially differ than an instinct and a grace. Nelson could proclaim the watchword, " England expects every man to do his duty; " Leonidas could point his heroic hand at Thermopylae to " the eyes of all Greece;" but Havelock, after a series of victories, whose recital thrilled England's great heart after a fashion it had never known before, could write -- " Away with vain-glory! Thanks to Almighty God, who gave me the victory!" Even without grace, Bate would have been an earnest, steady officer; but, in the hard and often thankless task which awaited him in coming years, he manfully faced all duty, counting it his joy to please Him who had " called him unto the fellowship of His Son." A shipmate, on his return home, wrote: -- " Our dear friend, Bate, was quite well shortly before I left, and, thank God, growing in grace." Before the affair of Canton, he had volunteered to Captain Collinson to be his assistant for the survey of the Chinese waters. The latter, having now obtained the command of the "Plover," at once secured Bate's services. ...« less