The Seaman's Magazine.

They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; these see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep. They cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.-Psalms.

NEW-YORK BETHEL UNION.—General Meeting.

(Continued from page 511.)

The Rev. Dr. MILNOR rose to second the motion of his respected fellow citizen who had preceded him. After the excellent report, to which the meeting had listened, and the interesting address of the gentleman who made the motion for its acceptance, and with the expectation of being followed by abler speakers than himself, he should be brief in the observations he had to offer. He congratulated christians, the immediate civil community, of which we are a part, and our country at large, on the establishment and success of the BETHEL UNION. He had frequently (he said) had the pleasure of meeting the worthy presiding officer, whom he now addressed, at many cheering anniversaries of Bible Societies, Sunday School Associations, and other benevolent institutions; but he had never met him with greater satisfaction than on the present occasion. He considered the report which had been read as one of the most interesting documents he had ever heard. It was indeed a glorious sight to behold a class of men, hitherto almost entirely excluded from a participation of the means of grace, and the opportunities for moral improvement enjoyed by others, invited to a sanctuary of God specially provided for their use, and to orderly and well-conducted meetings for social worship on shipboard; to see them furnished with the sacred Scriptures, and many auxiliary means of instruction, conducted to the altar of their Redeemer, and affectionately called upon to devote themselves to his service. Sir, said Dr. M., the situation of this portion of our fellow men has of necessity been, and must be, peculiar. The sailor's home is on the deep. Seldom does he there enjoy the privileges of social worship, of religious reading, of virtuous association. Every thing at sea is calculated to demoralize his feelings, vitiate his habits, and estrange him from his God, When arrived in port, where have hitherto been his opportunities for improvement, if inclined to be religiously instructed? Should he be desirous of attending the duties of public worship, where could he go? The arrangements of most of our churches admit of but small accommodation for strangers, and the dress and manners of the common sailor are not very likely to obtain for him other than a cold reception, perhaps an unkind repulse. It appeared, indeed, till lately, as if, by common consent, seamen were considered as destined to remain for ever without the pale of the christian church. If the whole christian community had not passed upon them a sentence of proscription, they seemed to agree in considering them as utterly incorrigible. As there was little encouragement for seamen to make advances towards an association with the religious world, so none were made towards them. As soon as they arrived in port, temptations to debauchery and vice at once proposed themselves, in forms well adapted to their previous inclinations and habits, and no friendly counsellor was at hand to interpose a word of christian caution and advice. Is it surprising, under such circumstances, that so great a portion of seamen were proverbially vicious? can we wonder that, for the most part, they were sunk in the depths of ignorance and sin? With none around them but profligate advisers and drunken companions of their own sex, and the most infamous of the other, their deplorable situation at sea was followed by an enormous mass of positive evil on shore. At sea, or on shore, there was little motive or opportunity for serious reflection-an almost entire destitution of every thing calculated to awaken and reclaim. But, Sir, it is honourable to the times in which we live, that, among the many benevolent enterprises in which christians are so harmoniously and zealously engaged, this unfortunate class of men have not been overlooked. Sailors are no longer to be strangers to the Bible, or to the voice of the faithful minister unfolding its precious truths, or to the consolations of christian conversation and communion. The Bethel

Union, with the other excellent institutions mentioned in your report, will, to no inconsiderable extent, here, and wherever else they are established, remedy these evils. Recently as public attention has been aroused to this interesting subject, in various commercial cities of Great Britain, and of this country, much has been achieved. The manifest benefits that have been derived from the general distribution of the sacred volume aniong seamen, the erection of churches for their accommodation, and the provision of ministers for their justruction, and now, through the medium of Bethel Societies assembling them often when in port, for the worship of God on the decks of their vessels, encourage us to renewed and more animated exertion for their improvement. Sir, said Dr. M., I will candidly acknowledge to you that if I had been consulted but a few years ago on the project of christianizing common seamen, I should have been inclined to consider it a vain attempt. I should have said, they are utterly inaccessible. Their characters, their prejudices, their habits, their inclinations are altogether opposed to your attempts. If you invite them to join with you in religious duties, none will come, and if you go after them they will fly from you. Talk to them of the Bible and of prayer, they will mock and deride you. But that God who overrules the destinies of nations and of men, and who will infallibly accomplish all the declared purposes of his word, in the success with which he has crowned the past efforts of the friends of seamen, has removed all ground for scepticism, and afforded an inspiring pledge of his blessing on their earnest prosecution. What a most enlivening exhibition does your report present of the quiet, orderly, attentive conduct of the seamen, who have crowded the decks of vessels at your Bethel meetings, and of the salutary impressions there made upon their minds. For myself I can declare, that I never preached in any church to a more silent and respectful audience, than the one which, on board the Panthea, it was my happiness to address. And with such a manifestation of the favour of God towards this philanthropic work, can christians feel indifferent? will any who regard the precepts of their Master tranquilly fold their hands, and look, without one effort to prevent it, at so large a portion of their fellow beings hastening to the gulf of everlasting ruin? will they not, now that the plan is shown to be feasible, unite in one common united attempt to reform the lives and save the souls of seamen? Sir, it is a debt of gratitude we owe them. Christianity is under great obligations to sailors. What would this country have been but for them? a waste, howling wilderness-the residence of wild beasts, and of men wild and savage as themselves. What would have been the country of our forefathers? a land of pagan ignorance and idolatry. It is sailors who have been, and must be, indispensable instruments in carrying into effect the promised designs of Heaven in evangelizing the world, in giving to the Lord Jesus the Heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession. They must convey the heralds of the cross to the distant regions of the earth; and shall they not themselves partake of the blessings of that great charter of salvation, which these missionaries of divine mercy are sent to proclaim to the heathen world? But what duty requires of us, policy and self-interest conspire to recommend. Sir, all classes of society are interested in supporting the benevolent and useful objects of the Bethel Union. Besides the principal design you have in view, much collateral good will grow out of its measures. Our cities and maritime ports will be essentially benefited by the reformation of seamen. Our youth will be saved from the effects of their evil example. The number of those sinks of pollution that infest the purlieus of every large town, will be diminished. Merchants will feel more safe in committing their vessels to their management. There will be no resistance to authority, no mutinies, no piracies on the part of a christian crew. Drunkenness will become disgraceful, and profane swearing be banished from amongst them. In the forecastle of every ship christian hymns will occupy the place of lewd ballads, religious tracts that of profane jest-books, and no honest-hearted tar will be ashamed to be seen with the Bible in his hands. Their topics of conversation will be changed. Instead of relating to each other the revelries and debaucheries in which they had spent their hard earnings at the last port, and looking forward with delight to the new scenes of profligacy and vice in which they are to be engaged at the next, they will be found descanting on the happy Bethel meetings they have attended, on the pious addresses to which they have listened, on the earnest and devout supplications to Heaven in which they have united, and contemplating with delight a fresh engagement in these exercises at the port to which, under God's blessing, they will soon be wafted. I am not so fanciful as to imagine that all these benefits are about to be realized in a day. But whenever these laudable associations shall have but in part accomplished their benign objects, the character of the profession of seamanship will present itself in a new aspect before the public. Heretofore it

has been deservedly considered as an occupation of all others the most dangerous to the morals of youth. What agony has seized the breast of a fond and affectionate mother, on hearing from her child the first intimation of his disposition towards a seafaring life! how immediate her impression of its being the offspring of bad propensities in him, and how distressing her fears of the dreadful consequences of gratifying his wishes! If she possess a pious heart, how afflicting the thought of being the agent in placing a beloved son out of the ordinary means of grace, of sending him into associations where the only use he will make of his knowledge of God, will be to blaspheme his holy name, and where he will be sure to forget, though surrounded with danger, all the interests that lie beyond this transitory state. Your measures are calculated to remove these apprehensions, and to make the necessary and useful occupation of the seaman as unobjectionable as any other. There is no better method to make any pursuit respectable than to inspire its functionaries with self-respect. Let seamen no longer be considered as outcasts from society. Let them be taken by the hand as friends. Remove the deplorable ignorance of spiritual things under which so many of them labour. Let them know they have a common interest with you in the great scheme of Gospel mercy. Make them sensible that they are accountable beings-that there is a Heaven and a Hell-that they have souls which are to be for ever happy in the one, or miserable in the other, and that there is a glorious Saviour to whom they may look for life and salvation. Then objections to put children to this employment will cease, and pious parents will commit them to the care and guardianship of a merciful Providence, feeling but little more apprehension for them when tossing on the billows, than when resting beneath the domestic roof. But great as are the incidental advantages likely to follow the success of your institution, and others of a like character, they are but secondary to the principal design. I rejoice that while other charitable societies are engaged in relieving the sufferings of the body, the exalted aim of yours is to save the soul. I pray God to continue his blessing on your exertions, and with pleasure second the resolution for the adoption of the report.

PETER HAWES, Esq. then offered the following resolution, viz. Resolved, That this society entertain a grateful sense of the cordial co-operation of the owners and masters of vessels in promoting meetings for prayer on board of vessels in this port.

On presenting this resolution, Mr. HAWES remarked, that after the eloquent and appropriate addresses to which we had just listened, and which were fully supported by the report on your table, very little remained for him to offer.

When our thoughts were turned back to the moral and religious condition of seamen, in years that are passed, the heart was pained with the retrospect. Destined like ourselves to a never ending existence, with capacities for increased happiness or misery, they presented objects of no ordinary solicitude. Bold, brave and generous, they were alike prodigal of property and of life, and ready to hazard and even surrender both, when their friend or their country required it. At the same time, they were thoughtless and profligate, "without God, and without hope in the world." Three fourths of their lives were passed upon the ocean, loud and boisterous as themselves, hourly exposed to be swept from the deck, or shook from the giddy topmast, and plunged into the deep, never to rise, "till the sea shall deliver up her dead." While in port, they were exposed to peculiar temptations; to which their hard-earned wages, their health, their lives, and it was much to be feared, their immortal souls were sacrificed. It was matter of astonishment, of regret, and of shame, that with a full knowledge of these facts, the christian world, till within a few years, had exhibited so small a degree of concern for their spiritual welfare. The Priest had passed by on the one side, and the Levite on the other, beheld their wretchedness, and left them to perish. The good Samaritan had not yet arrived.

Blessed be God, said Mr. Hawes, we have lived to behold the day, when the prayers of christians have ascended, and the wants and woes of the long neglected mariner have come up in remembrance at the throne of grace; when christians have been willing to act as well as to pray. The commencement and progress of exertions in behalf of seamen, had been faithfully detailed in your report, accompanied with a brief statement of the manner in which it has pleased God, to own and bless the labours of the Bethel Union. It was believed enough had already been witnessed, to call forth the prayers of every disciple of Christ, and to insure the wishes and exertions of every patriot and philanthropist. Indeed it was difficult to suppose that any person could be indifferent to the success of that association. To the

mariner, it was a matter of the highest concern, both as respected "the life that now is and that which is to come."

If the temporal happiness of seamen were alone consulted, it would well deserve our regard and support. What is so well calculated to insure his health and reputation and provide for the wants of age? And what can furnish present happiness that will bear comparison with confidence in God, and resignation to his divine will? Ask the pious mariner, said Mr. H., how he estimates his present enjoyments, when compared with the past? he will tell you that one year spent in the service of God, is worth fifty wasted in the pleasures of sin. Ask him of his prospects of happiness in another world-he will tell you, "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive, what good things God hath laid up in store for them that love him."

Nor was it a matter of indifference, said Mr. H., to the merchant, to whom he intrusted the navigation of his vessel, or the transportation of his merchandise. Ask the ship owner, what description of seamen he would wish to employ? let his opinion of religion, as a matter of personal concern, be what it may, be he a christian, or be he an infidel, the answer will be the same "give me a pious ship's crew."

To the economist and philanthropist, it presents an aspect of increasing importance. Do you wish to restrain vice and immorality? to correct those houses of impurity and debauchery with which our city is infested and disgraced? do you wish to relieve our streets from beggars, and our Alms House from paupers? do you wish to rescue the dissolute, of both sexes, from loathsome disease, the hospital and premature death? is it indeed your sincere desire, and the object of your incessant labour to prevent increasing pauperism in our city? Unite then with us in the moral and religious reformation of seamen.

But to the sincere disciple of Christ, it presents motives and unfolds results of the highest encouragement to increased exertion. I well remember, said Mr. H., the deep solicitude which was felt by the members of the Bethel Union, for the success of their first meeting. But that God in whom you trusted, went before you, and prepared the hearts of mariners to receive you. He has crowned your exertions with a success far beyond your expectations. The means employed were, under the divine blessing, calculated to produce the desired effect. Men were so constituted, that external objects often produced lasting impressions on their minds. What person, after crossing the cemetery, or spending a day in the sanctuary, or even in the grove, made vocal with the high praises of God, ever entered those hallowed precincts without the deepest solemnity. In like manner the reformation of seamen, under the blessing of heaven, will be a natural consequence upon the means which this society have employed.

When objects of inducement are presented to the mind, it naturally yields to their agency. If Bibles and tracts are put in the hands of seamen, if prayer meetings are continued among them, and christians unite their hearts and voices with them, you are warranted in anticipating the most favourable result. The decks of those vessels which have been consecrated by prayer to God, will not soon be wantonly profaned by blaspheming his holy name.

If this be so, let the use of means be continued; let the owners and commanders of vessels be urged to encourage pious and orderly seamen. Let their characters be rescued from that general odium, into which they have fallen, let it be known that pious seamen will always be preferred, and the happiest consequences may be expected to follow. Sailors have the same affections, the same sympathies; they may be warmed and melted like other men; they feel as sensibly the weight of obligation, and as readily acknowledge it. Of this truth your past experience is the proof. God has encouraged us to persevere, and has put to shame the misgiving of our hearts at the commencement of our work. Another year is just closed; its duties are ended; its misdeeds cannot be recalled: its charities and omissions are sealed up to the retributions of eternity. Let us all begin the new year with new life; let us press forward in the path of duty, and with faith and patience wait the promises.

The Rev. JOHN SUMMERFIELD seconded the motion. He said he had but little time to spare to address the audience, as he had other engagements that evening which demanded his attention; but, after what had been said, much could not be expected from him, even would his time permit. He should therefore only seek to gather some of the crumbs which had fallen from the table; and in this there was no difficulty, as it generally happened that after the most plentiful meal the greatest number of fragments remained.

He had felt himself very solemnly impressed by a remark made in the prayer by

Dr. Spring, with which the exercises of the evening commenced, expressive of the great neglect which the Christian world had so long manifested to this useful class of men. The remark induced a train of ideas, which led him up to periods even beyond the Christian era. He recollected that this neglect had been from time immemorial, and that the opinions of the wise and learned sages of antiquity (although in many of them they were but learned ignorance) had tended to foster this practice still more and more. Plato had declared that the sea was the school of vice;" of course, seamen were regarded as scholars of wickedness themselves, and teachers of it to others. But this was not the lowest opinion formed of them by the ancients. When Anacharsis was asked whether he supposed the number of the dead exceeded the number of the living, he replied, "first inform me in which of these classes seamen are to be placed;" implying that, though they had "a name to live," they were considered virtually dead, and, of course, not worthy of any labour which would tend to meliorate their condition.

The opinions of our own Christian ancestors were not much more exalted on this subject. The name of one of them has been mentioned by the gentleman who first addressed the meeting, and a distich given, which marks the characteristic feature of the mind of the great and good John Flavel. This reminded Mr. S. of the sentiment of the good puritan, held in his day, with regard to seamen. He says that the same may be applied to them which was said of an ungodly minister then living, whose pulpit discourses were so superior to his daily practice, that it were a pity he should ever leave the pulpit, for when mounted there, he was as near to heaven as he ever would be. So, says the honest divine, may it be said of seamen: when tossed upon the waves, "they mount up to heaven," as the Psalmist expresses it, that it were a pity' they should ever descend again, for it was as near as ever they would be.

Mr. S. observed, he could not recollect that any favourable notice had been taken of seamen by the Christian world, except that they were included in the prayers of the Church of England, wherein she petitions for all who travel by land or by water, &c.; but then the story of the man who came for the blessing of a Catholic priest, might in some sort apply to this. It is said that the man entreated first for a shilling: he was refused. "Pray then," said he, "do give me sixpence." "I'll give you nothing; begone!" " Well," said he, "I will go if you will give me your blessing." "Kneel down, my son," said the priest, and receive it most devoutly." "No," said the other, "seeing that you would not bestow it if it were worth but sixpence, I will dispense with it altogether." Until the present day, seamen might retort upon the Christian world in language similar. We have prayed, but have not laboured for their welfare; we have talked a good deal, but have done nothing, until the formation of the Bethel Union Society. But now the stigma is removed; and, said Mr. S., I will not hesitate to say it, although I must turn my eyes from the chair to express it, lest a forbidding look should chill the declaration I am proud to make, there are not wanting Christians, who give more than their prayers on every Sabbath day; who give their wealth, their time, their every thing, in this labour of love; and who would not count their own lives too dear to sacrifice in the cause of Him, "whose they are, and whom they serve." Nor has their labour been "in vain in the Lord." Experience has demonstrated that seamen may mount to heaven much higher than the summit of a swelling wave, or even the topmast of a ship.Many have we known, who have departed and gone to Christ,

"Whose happy spirits soar away,

And mingle with the blaze of day."

Mr. S. observed, that the motion in his hand was expressive of thanks to captains and owners of vessels, for their kind co-operation in furthering the interests of the Bethel Union. With regard to captains of vessels, he would add a remark to what had already been said:-One great cause of the degradation of seamen he believed to arise from the improper conduct of captains and commanders of vessels. It had been frequently stated, and no doubt frequently believed, that profanity is necessary on board of vessels; this was a mistake, and the error must be charged to the commanders, for would they speak only truth, their commands would be obeyed without the additional sanction of a profane oath. Seamen do not know whether the commands they receive are given in good faith, unless they are vociferated with an oath, but if captains would speak only as they really intend, the necessity for oaths would be immediately superseded. The disregard which seamen are thought to manifest for the Sabbath, and every religious observation, is generally owing to a similar cause, namely, the disrespect which their captains manifest to these things. The couplet which seamen have learnt, as expressive of the Egyptian rigour of their taskmasters, is in a great measure true:

"Six days shalt thou work and do all that thou art able,

On the seventh thou shalt scour the decks, and after, wash the cable."