PORT OF NEW YORK SOCIETY.

HAPLAIN MURPHY'S report is always welcome. The Mariners' Church of New York is the centre of life and activities for seamen. Yet in that London of the West the forces against are still mighty, and as the sailors are ever changing, the work demands concentration and continuing in well doing. The report reads:-In the fall of 1875, the church was visited with a most precious work of grace, which has continued, especially among seamen, with but little, if any abatement until the present time. Since this work commenced, now seven years and a half, 935 have united with the church on confession of faith. Most of these thus received have tested the reality of their hope by an experience at sea, from three months to three years. Instruction in the inquiry-room, which has been an important feature of our work for so long a time, has been continued with much interest during the past year. A religious service has been held every evening, after which, until ten o'clock, the nine inquiry-rooms have been occupied with workers and missionaries in trying to lead these men, one by one, to the Saviour of sinners. This mode of work has been greatly blessed of God. Scores of sailors in these rooms, while listening to the earnest, tender, personal appeals from the Word of God, by these Christian workers, have been pricked in their hearts, and have been led to a saving knowledge of Christ. A service has been held every morning during the year, commencing at half-past nine, and continuing one hour. These services have been followed in the same way, by inquirymeetings. A meeting for Scandinavians has been held every Monday evening, attended with deep spiritual interest. Rarely has a meeting closed without a number manifesting a desire to be remembered in prayer, and a willingness for personal religious conversation. Nine hundred and thirty-eight public religious services have been held with these sailors during the year.

Our large and well furnished reading-room is open every day from eight o'clock in the morning until ten at night, and is well patronized by seamen, engaged in conversation, reading, writing letters to their friends, &c.

The male missionaries spend their time during the day visiting the ships; and the lady missionaries, most of their time in the inquiry-room.

ONE half the power that fills the world with sorrow,
One half the wealth bestowed on camps and courts,

Given to redeem the human mind from error,

There were no need for arsenals or forts.

The warriors' name would be a name abhorred;
And every nation that would lift again

Its hand against a brother, on its forehead
Would bear for evermore the curse of Cain.

YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION, SYDNEY. [Glad to hear from the good Secretary, Mr. Walker, of work for seamen in Sydney. May God raise up such workers in all our ports.—ED.]

EV. AND DEAR SIR,-I have the pleasure to acknowledge the receipt of your very kind note, and thank you for your generous gift of tracts for the sailors, which we will hail with great delight. At present our stock is quite out, and no suitable tracts for this work can be got in the city.

The monthly notes sent you give some account of the special work on Sunday nights in the Opera House (theatre) for men not attending any place of worship. These services are principally attended by seamen from the shipping in the harbour. We distribute a great number of tracts in this way.

Since I have heard from my dear friend, Mr. Arundel, I was pleased to learn he had started with Mrs. A- and hope soon to have the pleasure of seeing them both while in Sydney. Praying the Lord to abundantly bless you in your truly noble work. With kindest Christian regards, I am, my dear Mr. Matthews, yours in the Lord's work, DAVID WALKER.

Rev. E. W. Matthews.

Dec. 18th, 1882.

General Secretary.

P.S.-We have subscribed £10,600 in aid of the new building. 1883 will see something done.

A GRAND OLD MAN.

EAR MR. MATTHEWS,-Please find within Postal Order (5s.), with brotherly love and sincere good wishes for the good work in which the Lord allows you to serve Him. I am somewhat out of health, and have been for some time now-just holding on, that's all. Mr. Müller Mr. Müller is now, we suppose, at Warsaw, as he was to leave St. Petersburgh the beginning of this week. We look for his return in May, and are led to expect he will remain with us until September, when he purposes (God willing) to proceed to India. He will complete seventy-eight years of earthly pilgrimage on his next birthday. Still bearing fruit in old age, to show that the Lord is upright, &c. Mr. Müller is kept in remarkably good health, and unaffected by the intense cold of Russia. Trusting this will find you in health and full of the blessing of the Lord, I remain, yours very sincerely,

New Orphan Houses, Bristol.

DANIEL FRENCH.

BITTEN BY A SERPENT.

BY THE REV. C. H. SPURGEON.

HAT an awful thing it is to be bitten by a serpent! A sad case occurred in London, in October, 1852. It was that of Gurling, one of the keepers of the reptiles in the Zoological Gardens. This unhappy man was about to part with a friend who was going to Australia, and according to the wont of many he must needs drink with him. He drank considerable quantities of gin; and though he would probably have been in a great passion if any one had called him drunk, yet reason and common sense had evidently become overpowered.

He went back to his post at the gardens in an excited state. He had some months before seen an exhibition of snake-charming, and this was on his poor muddled brain. He must emulate the Egyptians, and play with serpents. First he took out of its cage a Marocco venom-snake. The assistant keeper cried out, "For God's sake put back the snake!" but the foolish man replied, “I am inspired."

Putting back the venom-snake, he exclaimed, "Now for the cobra." He took it up by the body, about a foot from the head, and then seized it lower down by the other hand, intending to hold it by the tail and swing it round his head. He held it for an instant opposite to his face, and, like a flash of lightning, the serpent struck him between the eyes. He called for help, but his companion fled in horror; and, as he told the jury, he did not know how long he was gone, for he was " in a maze.”

When assistance arrived Gurling was sitting on a chair, having restored the cobra to its place. He said, "I am a dead man." They put him in a cab, and took him to the hospital. First his speech went he could only point to his poor throat and moan

then his vision failed him, and lastly his hearing. His pulse gradually sank, and in one hour from the time at which he had been struck he was a corpse. There was only a little mark upon the bridge of his nose, but the poison spread over the body, and he was a dead man.

I tell you that story that you may use it as a parable, and never learn to play with sin; and also in order to bring vividly before you what it is to be bitten by a serpent. There was no remedy for that poor infatuated creature, but there is a remedy for you. For men who have been bitten by the fiery serpent of sin, Jesus Christ is lifted up; not for you only who are as yet playing with the serpent, not for you only who have warmed it in your bosom and felt it creeping over your flesh, but for you who are actually bitten and are mortally wounded. If any man be bitten so that he has become diseased with sin, and feels the deadly venom in his blood, it is for him that Jesus is set forth. Though he think himself to be an extreme case, it is for such that sovereign grace provides a remedy.

"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life."-John iii. 14, 15.

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GENOA HARBOUR MISSION.

EV. AND DEAR SIR,-This mission has been in existence 14 years. Of printed annual reports, its tenth, up to 30th April last, is not the least interesting. Our good ship O Caledonia" is considered about the finest Bethel afloat. References to it and to its inauguration services appeared in the Chart and Compass last year, and again kindly noticed by you in your annual report this year, and I hope the same readers will be still more pleased to know something of the work that has been done since then. At present I do not touch upon the large and important field of our devoted Italian missionary colporteur, who, during the twelve months paid 2,567 visits to ships, and offered the Scriptures to nearly 25,000 emigrants, and who laboured amongst seamen, boatmen, labourers, and passengers, whose large number cannot be given even approximately. Coming to the statistics of Mr. Jones, our earnest and active English missionary, namely, meetings on board, 171; attendance, 4,929; meetings on shore, 41; attendance, 284; visits to ships, 2,292; and to sailors in hospital, 45. It is well to mention that these figures and, unfortunately, our income also, are smaller than those of the previous year, owing to exceptionally stormy weather throughout the winter

GENOA HARBOUR MISSION.

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and spring, which greatly interfered with meetings and moving about in the harbour. Owing to those storms, alas! we shall see no more here below many who had made themselves familiar to us by frequently coming to this port and attending our meetings; but we trust that not a few of them are in the sanctuary above, praising Him who brought them salvation-it may be on board of our Bethel. Mr. Jones's journal of work and experiences is intensely interesting, but as it would make this letter too long to give extracts from it, I purpose sending these separately for insertion in one or two future numbers of your paper. They will show your readers that amid all hindrances and disappointments, Mr. Jones has very often abundant reason to bless God and take courage. Besides the preaching of the Gospel on Sundays, morning and evening, there were always meetings during the week, including a Temperance meeting each Tuesday evening. The reading-room on board is a comfortable resort for the sailors, and many take advantage of its conveniences, also for writing to the dear ones at home. Not seldom it has happened that going there simply to read and write the men have united in praise and prayer, on their own proposal, or in ready response to that of Mr. Jones. The vastness and importance of this mission field are strikingly brought home to us when we think of 18,110 British and American seamen having come to Genoa in one year-18,110 precious immortal souls! How inadequate at its best is the agency employed; and how much need for faith and faithfulness on the part of those who pray and work, and for the sympathy, prayers, and gifts of all who desire the conversion of the men of the sea. The opening of the St. Gothard Railway has necessitated the making of an additional line from Genoa to the interior. This and the harbour enlargement and improvements once completed, the already increasing trade of Genoa will bring a far larger number of steamers. This means that the requirements of the mission will likewise become greater, and to meet these properly, additional efforts and contributions will be necessary. Meanwhile, and for the first time in its 14 years' history, the mission has, unfortunately, got into debtabout £65-through the smaller receipts and some extra unavoidable expenses. A new and gratifying feature of the work is that the Rev. M. Miller, founder and director, has lately begun to preach on board the Bethel every Sunday evening, when members of his congregation are also present. All who have had the privilege of listening to Mr. Miller's preaching of the Gospel will perceive how this arrangement must greatly help and encourage Mr. Jones in his daily labours. May both these faithful men have many souls given to them for their hire, and as trophies of the Redeemer's omnipotent grace. Yours very faithfully, J. R. YOUNG.