look to your best and constant friend Christ Jesus: he is about your paths to watch your course, and always at hand to support and deliver you. Be faithful unto death, and console yourselves with the gracious assurance that if you suffer with him, you will also reign with him in glory. "Fear thou not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed, for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness."* Treasure up this glorious promise, and may God give you grace thus to sing

"Jesus! lover of my soul,
Let me to thy bosom fly,
While the raging billows roll,
While the tempest still is high!

* Isa. xli. 10.

Hide me, O my Saviour! hide
Till the storm of life is past,
Safe into the haven guide;
Oh, receive my soul at last!"

CHAPTER IV.

THE SPIRITUAL CONDITION OF

SAILORS.

"Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes and see not; which have ears, and hear not. Fear ye not me? saith the Lord; will ye not tremble at my presence, which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea, by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet they cannot prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it? But this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart, they are revolted and gone. Neither say they in their hearts, Let us now fear the Lord our God.JER. v. 21-24.

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Arise, my tenderest thoughts arise;
To torrents melt my streaming eyes;
And thou, my heart, with anguish feel
Those evils which thou canst not heal.
My God! I feel the mournful scene,
My bowels yearn over dying men !"

THERE is a great deal in the moral and spiritual condition of sailors, painfully

distressing to the mind of every sincere Christian; and it calls for the most generous and devoted exertions on their behalf.

The passage which I have quoted, is strikingly applicable to them. It represents them as blind, deaf, and unconcerned. They see much of the power and greatness of God, but they regard him not;-a warning voice calls to them frequently in the most solemn manner, but they hear it not;—the goodness of God surrounds them every moment, and follows them every step, but they understand it not;-they experience the delivering mercies of God, in times and ways without number, but they seek him not; neither say they in their hearts, "Let us now fear the Lord our God." This is their sad condition, and one more dreadful can

not be imagined. Whoever has had opportunities to become fully acquainted with it, and has contemplated it with seriousness, must acknowledge that it is strictly true.

For years, the Christian world seemed quite insensible to the claims our own, and other seamen had upon their pious exertions; for, very few manifested proper concern for the vast numbers, quite ignorant of the ways of salvation. As regarded the seamen of our own highly favoured land, they were viewed as beings of a different race to other men; and we passed them by as unworthy of our notice, further than as brave tars, fighting for the glory of" Old England." We thought more of their political, than spiritual condition, and dwelt more on battles, than the poor fellows who