send it."* But even the inspired Word of God concerning Jesus Christ and him crucified, derives its saving efficacy from the accompanying influences of the Holy Spirit. The gift of the Holy Spirit is the great promise of God to his church; spiritual illumination, conversion of heart unto God, vital union by faith to Christ Jesus, is his sole and peculiar work.

How impressive is this view of the state and condition of the prisoners in the "Earl Grey!" How impressive and humbling this view of our own agency! How necessary to wrestle without ceasing, in earnest and believing prayer, for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon ourselves, and upon all the people whom we seek to instruct and win to Christ! How much is involved in this work of proclaiming Christ! How much that relates to the glory of God and the eternal welfare of souls! Oh! it is sacred, impressive, and most responsible work, to be in the presence of God, of holy and apostate angels, and on the borders of eternity, engaged with reference to the salvation of our fellow-men! With a heart oppressed with a sense of its own unworthiness, and utter inability to afford saving aid to men, not only helpless, but appallingly indifferent to spiritual deliverance; to visit often the throne of Divine mercy, and im* Isa. lv. 10, 11.

Isa. liv. 13; Jer. xxxi.; Joel ii. 28-32; Ezek. xxxvi. 27, xxxvii. 13, 14; Luke xxiv. 49; John vi. 63, iii. 3-8, xiv.; xvi.; Acts x. 44, ii.; Zech. iv. 6; 1 Cor. iii. 1-17; ii. 4, 5; 2 Cor. iv. 3-7; John iv. 23, 24; Gal. v. 16-25; Rom. viii. 9-16; Phil. i. 19; 1 Thess. i. 5, 6.

plore the outpouring of the Spirit upon these men; devoutly to look up for an answer of peace, and earnestly to watch for indications in their temper and conduct, of their reception or rejection of the gospel; to go again and again to the throne of grace, to pour out the heart to God, and in the dust to indulge either in humiliation and bitter lamentation, or devout praise, according as the Holy Spirit shall appear to be yielded unto or resisted! Oh, it is solemn work to be thus continually approaching God with reference to guilty men, under a deep impression of the nature of sin-the sufferings and death of Christthe agonies inseparable from the eternal consciousness of guilt, that especially of rejecting God's "unspeakable gift," together with the joy, peace, and everlasting bliss which the believing reception of Christ secures! Oh, it is holy and peculiar work, to be continually coming to Jesus for a word of instruction—a message of mercy from his inspired Scriptures to the souls whom he hath made and redeemed ; to be as often returning to the footstool of his throne, in bended lowliness of heart, to tell Jesus, like the disciples of old, what we have done; and to leave the people and his truth in his own hands, imploring him to glorify his name, and magnify the riches of his grace, in their present and everlasting salvation!

Many and fervent, without doubt, were the prayers offered up unto God in behalf of these men in the “Earl Grey,” by his believing people, especially by those who so liberally supplied them with books, and

by pious persons acquainted with individual cases among them. We are assured that the Lord Jesus hath entered into the holiest of all, in heaven, with his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption for us, and that he shall see of the fruit of the travail of his soul, and be satisfied. We know that his grace is omnipotent-that his blood hath power to cleanse from all sin: it is manifest that the redemption which is sufficient to meet the case of any sinner, is fully adequate to meet the condition of the sinners embarked in the "Earl Grey;" and therefore we look and wait for Divine results amongst our isolated and now instructed exiles. Will Jesus illustrate the efficacy of his atonement, and the power of his Word and Spirit, in the conversion and salvation of some, or many, or all of these men? For what great purpose, having been brought together in the "Earl Grey," are they instructed in the way of pardon, holiness, and life? Will not the Lord, in his wisdom and mercy, overrule all their wickedness for good? Would not such a result be in harmony with the history of the Divine dispensations, and the immutable principles of the Divine government? May not God magnify the riches and the freeness of his grace, by plucking these men as brands from the fire; and so remind us, that no flesh shall glory in his presence, but that whosoever glorieth shall glory only in the Lord? Shall there be joy in heaven over some of these prodigals brought to themselves, and returned to their heavenly Father? Jesus is

willing to save them; will they be made willing under the Divine influence of his manifested willingness, and of his everlasting and unchanging love? Oh, the intensity of the interest that is felt by the faithful in these men! How vast their influence on the souls of other immortals! How inconceivable the influence of their decision on the moral universe!

CHAPTER III.

Gratifying behaviour of the prisoners-Conversion to God the only foundation of true reformation-Some manifestations of spiritual change-A thunder-storm-Its influence on the prisoners-Several profess faith in Christ-George Day-John Williams-a Socialist.

THE tenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth chapters of the second part of this volume set forth the principles on which the instruction and discipline of the prisoners in the "Earl Grey" were conducted, and the spirit in which they were carried out. Placing the reader upon our decks, in the character of an observer of all our proceedings, and of the system of management and instruction which was at work there, we now proceed to record the effects produced, under the Divine blessing, by that system, in the character, the tempers, and the general conduct of the prisoners during the voyage. In the "Earl Grey," not only did the number of instances of individual reformation and apparent conversion to God exceed those which occurred in any of my former ships, but the behaviour of the people, as a body, surpassed anything I had ever witnessed in any class of men at sea. From the day of their embarkation—indeed, from the hour of our first interview in the hulks, these men were manifestly