PUBLISHED UNDER THE PATRONAGE OF THE "PORT OF NEW-YORK SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING THE GOSPEL AMONG SEAMEN. EDITED BY A MEMBER OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS. The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.-Isaiah lii. 16. Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, unto the name, of the Lord thy God, and to the Holy One of Israel.—Isaiah ix. 9. NEW-YORK: FUBLISKED AT THE OFFICE OF BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE, E. B. CLAYTON, PRINTER. 1821. INTRODUCTION. HITHERTO We have not pursued a lucrative employment. Both ourselves and MR. CALDWELL, our excellent predecessor in the Editorial department of the Christian Herald, have had our labour for our pains. We have detailed intelligence, such as many prophets and righteous men of other days have desired to hear, each year surpassing in interest all that we or others had told before, and have done our best to excite the activity and zeal of our cotemporaries, but have trusted in vain to the desire of religious information in this great community. We did believe that among the multitudes of our Israel, an ample support would have been afforded for the Christian Herald at such a day as this, before the seventh volume should close. We are willing to acknowledge that our claims to patronage have not been the most commanding, but our want of it must have some other cause, for we have lived to see the birth, and death, and languishing existence of more than one meritorious work:-and still we live, and, in spite of past discouragements, enter upon another year. This we do partly from the promise of increasing patronage from the most respectable quarters, and partly from our own earnest desire, still, if the public will permit, to execute our interesting office. The humblest of those who are called in these last days to proclaim the approach of Immanuel, and who labour to make his paths straight, have no reason to regret their toils, we had almost said their poverty. And we would rather be thus employed, the same humble instruments, with the most moderate compensation, than to be both great and rich in any other employ ment. Thus much for ourselves: As to the public, our design is to discharge our duty faithfully. The Christian Herald "will still maintain the character which its name imports, and will aim to convey to its readers a regular detail of the progress of religious feeling throughout the community, and of those Christian exertions which are tending with such hopeful prospects to extend the knowledge of the Saviour throughout the world. "That it may proclaim its intelligence to a practical and useful purpose, it will aim, by original Essays, Reviews, and Editorial Remarks, to promote the exercise and exhibition of Christian principles and feelings, and to aniniate its readers, of every denomination, to take their part in the benevolent labours of the present day." It is not designed that the Seaman's Magazine should encroach upon the Christian Herald. In consequence of the change of type, as much general miscellany and intelligence as formerly will still be published; while the ad * Introduction to our last volume. dition proposed will, we believe, be found among the most interesting pages of our work. We could wish to make our readers better acquainted with the character and moral circumstances of seamen; and we could wish to turn the attention of seamen themselves to the efforts that are made on their behalf, to the evident progress of the Gospel among their brotherhood, and to all that God is doing through the world. We are persuaded that the Christian Herald cannot aim at any one single object more noble than the reformation and Christian benefit of seamen, were it only to bless these hitherto neglected thousands:-but it is also, through them to bless mankind. It is, that a class of men who are connected with all the coasts, and islands, and rivers, and cities of our earth, should become so influenced by Christianity, that wherever they go they may show forth its exellence-that the ships of trade may prepare the way for the Gospel by the depth of impression which Christian goodness would make upon base and idolatrous men—that when a ship departs whose crew have been honest, and temperate, and kind, and holy, there might be left such an admiring sense of the divine power as should prepare the way for the ministers of Jesus-that when they return from seeing the wickedness and idolatry of mankind, their hearts should so burn with Christian compassion, that the cities which employed them to bring home the productions of other nations, should be compelled to send back the Gospel. It is that seamen should cheerfully aid the progress of our holy religion, and by their own efforts, as well as their example, help on the conversion of the world--that the ships of Tarshish might be FOREMOST in bringing sons of Zion from far, with their silver and gold, to the name of the Lord our God. Had not our seamen been estranged from our churches-had they not been left to abandonment—had they not been specimens of vice in all the cities and islands of Heathendom, how comparatively easy were now the effort to evangelize the world! THE PORT OF NEW-YORK SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING THE GOSPEL AMONG SEAMEN having proposed the alteration in our work, we felt it our duty to concur, and to engage in the good design with all our hearts; and it shall not, by God's grace, be our fault if the Christian Herald is not the comforting and cheering companion of both landsmen and seamen—if it shall not help on the day when every ship shall bear the BETHEL FLAG as a signal that it is the HOUSE of GOD, and when every port, instead of opening to the seamen who visit it the haunts of vice, shall receive them in Christian fellow ship, as into a CITY OF THE LORD! |