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Themes: Sin's Power - both control and habits R.D. Come aboard with me on a French Galley. I hope you are strong and brave. You may hold your nose as we descend under the deck of this ship, but do not cry out. If you make a noise, you will feel the lash from a whip.
Smell the stale damp air as we descend into the dimness of the galley. The heavy breathing of the slaves keeps time with the slap of the oars on the waves. Stay close by me.
There are five slaves to every oar. There are three hundred slaves. Sit down here beside me, and we will row with these other men. I said SIT DOWN!
Grab that oar and start rowing. You must rise to draw the stroke and then fall back again so you are almost laying down. You cannot stop to rest. The motion must be smooth and continuous. Are you starting to sweat yet? You cannot stop to wipe your face because you must keep the rhythm. Even if your arms are ready to fall off and your legs ache with piercing pain, you must keep on rowing.
The officers are out on the gang boards watching to see that all oars are pulling with the same speed. You must pull your weight, or you will be whipped. The whips are so long that they will cut you as well as the men beside you. You must not cry out or you will be whipped again. You are a slave, remember? Keep on rowing!
Here come the lice. They live in the folds of the light clothing and attack day and night. Tonight we sleep on boards that are eighteen inches wide. If you sleep near an officer you cannot even scratch away the biting lice because your chains will awaken the officer and he will beat you. His beating will be worse than the biting.
You must be quiet no matter how much you hurt, no matter how tired you are, no matter how angry you are. You have no rights and you have no comforts. Your food is only a biscuit at eight in the morning and, at ten in the evening, a porridge of oil and rotten peas or beans. It tastes and smells musty but you must eat it, or you will not live. Sometimes your meal is thrown overboard, but you dare not complain.
When we dock, the officers will go ashore to enjoy their entertainment and folly. The distant music drifts across the water. The clink of our chains and the growling of our stomachs is our only music. Our bodies give in to sleep, but our minds keep on rowing.
Hey! Where are you going? Had enough? We have only been down here for a couple of hours. Don't you like being a slave? Don't you like it down here? Wait! I didn't even tell you about the rats, and the snow in the winter, and the thirst that comes with the blistering heat of the summer. You haven't heard about how slaves get sick while rowing but have to keep on pulling. I didn't tell you about the tears that come when remembering families back home. You haven't heard about the smell of the sick room.
Slavery is awful. Slavery is a picture of sin. Sin is awful. Sin is a picture of you. If you are not born again you are a slave to sin. There was no relief for the slaves on the French Galley but there is freedom from sin and death for you. The Lord Jesus Christ died for sinners (Romans 5:8).
"Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin....If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." John 8: 34.
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