ANOTHER SAILORS' FRIEND GONE HOME. heavenly rest some months ago, was a dear friend of the least will miss him very much this year when he goes there on his annual visit. He was always ready to make arrangements and help forward the good cause, I have no doubt but that he is now enjoying to the fullest extent the rest that remaineth for the people of God. Many a good work in Penrith and elsewhere will feel the loss of this gentle and kind minister of Christ. May the Lord raise someone up to fill his place. W. Lyons. THE BRAVE NEWFOUNDLAND. A STORM arose-tremendous blasts of And tied it firmly to another stick, wind Then threw it towards the dog-he saw Swept everything before them on the sea: at once In spite of all the efforts of her crew, His duty was to take it to his master. A hapless bark was driven on the beach, Dragging the rope through all the Eight mariners were desperately clinging heavy surge, To broken spars and masts, and crying He brought it safe to land, and thus "Help!” secur'd In agony, on shore, the watchers gaz'd, Communication with the distant wreck, But nothing could they do the rolling And all were rescu'd from a watery surf grave: Forbade th' attempt to reach the The faithful animal was warmly prais'd, drowning men ; And, with his master's commendation, No boat could live in such a furious sea. made In this extremity, there came at length, Supremely happy. The owner of a fine Newfoundland dog, Can we not, too, attempt to succour Which closely followed him, and those, watch'd his eye; Exposed to peril on the sea of life? Sagacious, strong and docile as a lanıb. Assailed by fierce temptation-nearly It needed but a word – the master w reck'd spoke A helping hand may save them from (Directing his attention to the ship), despair. And quickly put a short stick in his Direct them to the Bible—there they'll mouth: find Delighted to obey, brave Neptune sprang Both chart and compass, ropes, and Into the raging sea, and fought his way, life-belt too; Though many opposing billows tried Precepts to guide them in the way of his power. truth, With all his energy he fail'd to reach Warnings to teach the evil way to shun, The vessel, and deliver up his charge; And promises to cheer when dangers But when the crew beheld the effort press. made, We must not be discouraged if we fail And hope of succour rose within their To gain our object by a first essay; breasts, But persevere and pray, our Master then They joyfully responded, took a rope, Willaid us with His own Almighty arm New Cross. I. A. DRINKING; OR, I HAD RATHER DIE. Alon N inquest has been held at Middleton, near Darlington, in HA which it was shown that a lady 'had died from excessive Map drinking, inducing epileptic convulsions, in one of which seizures she would appear to have been suffocated in her chair. From the evidence given, it was clear that she had been addicted to excessive drinking for about three years, and during that time she hạd drunk from two to three pints of whisky daily. We knew a lady, who, when young, was married from a poor family by a well-to-dọ widower. We are not sure quite whether the one little girl was born of this marriage. In any case, the father died, leaving his wife and little girl well provided for. She, however, took to drink, but retaining her respectable position. Her family joined our church. She : gave several gifts, and so well did she carry off her drinking that we have been at the tea table over which she presided, and the only thing we noticed was that she neither ate nor drank. She sipped her tea, but at the close the cup seemed to be as full as when she began. But even now the doctors had given her up some two years! And afterwards it was reported she drank three bottles of whisky during the night. She was no doubt a wonderfully strong woman, as she lived some months after this. She died like thousands of others—of drink. Her eldest brother gave up his nice little business, entered her house with his family, and drank the remainder of the property. Well might the great philosopher (Thomas Carlyle) offer this lamentation : “Here is a thrift of money if you want money! The money saving would pay your National Debt for you, bridge the ocean for you, wipe away your smoky nuisances, your muddy ditto, your miscellaneous ditto, and make the face of England clean again,--and all this I reckon as mere zero in comparison with the 264 OUR SAILORS IN THE MEDITERRANEAN. accompanying improvement to your poor souls—now dead in trespasses and sins, drowned in beer-butts, in gluttonies, slaveries, quackeries ; but re-called then, to blessed life again and the sight of heaven and earth, instead of pay-day and Meux and Co.'s Entire. Oh, my bewildered brothers, what foul infernal Circe has come over you and changed you from men, once really rather noble of their kind, into beavers, into hogs and asses and beasts of the field or the slums? I declare I had rather die." she inhabitants we of immorality Divine, web OUR SAILORS IN THE MEDITERRANEAN. from Miss Weston, our distant Bethels and Missions plan are able to reach them. This is true also of seamen in other Royal navies. Malta is a mighty centre for these ships. Captain Stephen's in his “William Tyler” steam mission launch, has a splendid opportunity, as also Mr. Burrows, in his floating Bethel at Naples. Our valued helper, Mrs. Guerritore, writes :" We have ourselves been absent at Capri, that very lovely island you must have seen from afar. Whilst God's judgments were active in Ischia, Capri remained unmoved, later on whilst cholera was raging in Naples, the sea-girt shores of this beautiful Island were unscathed and free, yet the inhabitants were brought no nearer to God. As there is an immense amount of immorality in this otherwise lovely spot, where all save the spirit of man is Divine, we have had a time of refreshing in the Bethel. I was privileged to go on board H.M.S. • Dreadnought, one of our splendid men of war, if she had not been all guns. Met there a young Lieutenant who had but lately taken arms in the King's service, as well as in the Queen's. He seemed extremely happy for that reason. He invited me below into his cabin, which was a picture of comfort, and contained many little records of family affections, and our Eternal life. He told me that we were twenty feet under water, which would account for a lamp at noon-day and the rather excessive heat of the cabin, which reminded one of being in a diving bell; but the spirit of this young Christian was by no means under water. He had soared far above the lower world itself, as he beautifully described it in a short address given by him at the Bethel on Sunday evening from the text. Passed from death unto life.' He said he was very young, meaning in the Christian life, but he seemed a bright and noble specimen, and we wished him God speed with all our heart, thankful that there are such gems in our hearts of oak. “The · Helicon' furnished us a goodly compliment of men for a Tea meeting next evening, they were very cheerful and sang OUR SAILORS IN THE MEDITERRANEAN. 265 heartily their the smoke of cannounce seeing that the heartily their own songs, entertaining us grandly. There was a slight smell of the smoke of cannons with some of the songs, with which we could, scarcely sympathise, seeing that the olive branch is our emblem. A young 'land lubber' remarked to me, • We can get good music in the opera, and fine songs in the concert, but such songs as these cannot be had for money. We closed feeling that these social meetings are good for us all. “My dear mother is very weak still, but she has written something for you notwithstanding, which I think you will like for Chart and Compass. She joins me in sending affection to all the little family including the new comer. I want to hear more of her attractions, name. &c., &c. “I enclose you the copy of a letter I received from the interesting young Lieutenant on board H.M.S. *Dreadnought,' of whom I spoke to you on a former occasion. I think you will like to read it, as it contains much of the bright and happy spirit in which you yourself rejoice. “I am truly glad to hear that many of Her Majesty's iron-clads contain a few such men as this young friend. I should like to send him a bound copy of your Chart and Compass. I think, if you would not mind the trouble, you could send it on from London inscribed in my name, with kind regards.—To L- PR.N., H.M.S. “Dreadnought,” Malta, or elsewhere.' I enclose 35. 6d., stamps." Copy of a letter from H.M.S. “Dreadnought:"_“Malta, June 30, 1885. My dear Mrs. Guerritore,—Thank you very much indeed for your letter. It is very pleasant to know that one is not forgotten, and most kind of you to have thought of writing. It did seem most unfortunate being ordered away so suddenly and just missing the Tea meeting that you had so kindly arranged, but it must have been for the best, and one can look back and remember that there was no time lost on your part. We have been cruising with the fleet, we touched at the Ionian Islands, and after having been away three weeks returned home to be put in dock. “We have been carrying on our usual meetings in the ship twice a week, but things are at a standstill at present. No more have come out on che Lord's side, that is not quite correct, for a Blue Jacket who was on board the Bethel that night sitting by himself, well in the rear, was a back-slider, and has since found the Lord again; and, going back in the boat that night he opened out his heart a bit to us, and after that the men talked to him and so on, and about a week after he found peace in a coal bunker while he was sitting by himself. People talk of excitement, I do not think there can be much excitement in a case like that. However, 266 MISS SKINNER AND OUR SAILORS. against that we have one or two who seem to outward appearances hardly walking close enough, but I believe that to be one of the Devil's principal weapons against us, in all work to make us think badly of each other. In 1 Cor. i. 8., how confident Paul was that the Corinthian Church would be kept stedfast, and yet there were apparently divisions among them. The Lord sees the heart and we do not, and we must keep in mind that God's way is the best way. If the “Temeraire' ever goes to Naples you must look out for Lieut. Stileman, he is a very dear Christian, and much further advanced than I am." VIVI MISS SKINNER AND OUR SAILORS.* N OY DEAR YOUNG FRIEND,—Some years ago, had you peeped into the vestry of a little country church 618 B in the early morning, you would have seen a lad about your own age sitting at a table covered with books and papers. He has been there all night. As soon as it is light he rises with a sigh, puts up the books in the closet, locks the door, and goes forth to work. But when it grows dark in the evening, he will be there again. Who is he, and what is he doing ? I will tell you. We had just been having a Missionary meeting in our village, and my young friend was so interested in what he heard that he, too, longed to devote his life to the service of God in foreign lands. But what was to be done? He was only a poor lad, and had to work hard all day long for his daily bread, had never been to school, and could neither read nor write! I did what I could to help him, and because he had no quiet place for study in his widowed mother's cottage, I allowed him the use of our vestry, where he gladly sat up night after night when his daily toil was done, in order to learn and to improve himself. “God helps those who help themselves.” That young man, who scarcely even knew his letters when he was your age, is now an ordained clergyman of the Church of England, and has long since gone out as a missionary. But had he been like other idle lads standing about at the corner of the streets, with a pipe in his mouth, or lounging about in a public-house, how very different his after life would have been, perhaps a beggar in rags and poverty, instead of a respected gentleman. “Oh!” perhaps you say, “ but he was fortunate, no such good luck will ever fall to my share !” Perhaps not, but this I can promise you, that if you only try diligently and faithfully to use all those means for self-improve * A Friendly Letter addressed to Young Men, by the Author of "Friendly Letters." |