giving prayer to Almighty God for his providential care during their last voyage. Upwards of 500 were present. N. B. The Captain made the men knock off, two hours before the prayer meeting took place, to range seats around the deck, and to spread an awning over the waist, also over the aft of his vessel. Same company on board the Nimble, Sept. 26, Salthouse dock, opposite the end of Bridge-street-a street inhabited by the lowest and most degraded of women, several of whom stood on the quay alongside of the vessel, and remained with serious attention, although it rained briskly most of the time. A solemn sense of this sacred service appeared to affect all present-200 present. Brig Down, Sunday morning, Oct. 7.-Upwards of 500 persons present. Many seamen deeply affected-a member of the company gave an address-much interest excited. Many inquiries, "Will there be a prayer meeting next Sabbath morning?" Brig Emperor Alexander, Sept. 27.-100 present. A sailor set the tunes also prayed, and made deep and it is hoped a lasting impression on all who heard him. Brig George, Oct. 1.-About 130 present. Evening rather dark when the service commenced. A member of the company, who is blind, was called upon to begin;-this blind brother, an old sailor, repeated the 6th chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, which was correctly done, and produced an impressive effect. Marine School Room, Sunday, Sept. 30.-At 5, P. M. unfurled the Bethel Flag from the window, being the first time for Sabbath evening service. Upwards of 200 seamen, flattmen, &c. assembled, without any previous notice, except from seeing the Bethel Flag. Previous to the service commencing, a flattman from an adjoining dock, observing the flag waving in the air, inquired of a friend entering the door, "what's to be done in the room aloft there?" was answered, "religious service. "Ha, but by whoam?" "Some friends belonging to the Bethel Companies." "There be an Methodies, beant them?" "We have no names among us but followers of them who inherit the promises." "Nea, beant thea Methodies?" "My good fellow, there happens to be a local preacher among them." He said no more, but took to his heels and was out of sight in an instant. About 15 or 20 minutes had elapsed, when he entered the room with about 20 seamen, flattmen, and a few poor Irishmen, with their sickles in their hands, picked up in the scramble. They all were very attentive. When it was announced that some brethren of the Bethel Companies would be in attendance the next Sabbath evening, much pleasure was felt at the intelligence by their hearty expression of "thank God." Lowland Lass, George's dock, Sept. 28. A sailor, never at a prayer meeting before, said to one of the brethren-"I say, shipmate, my dear fellow, I have got much good under these prayers-going to sea on Sunday morning-pray for me." "Pray for yourself; retire oft as possible, read the Bible, pray for the ship's company, and God will answer your prayers. We will pray for you also." Ship Blucher, Sept. 17.-About 200 present, most of them seamen. Many were much affected, especially when a poor black sailor prayed. Brig George, Sept. 18. A numerous company present. A Captain, lately arrived from the whale fishery, gave a short exhortation. A very serious and attentive auditory. Brig Druro, Sept. 29. The deck was crowded, and many stood on shore. Two seamen implored the blessing and protection of Almighty God on their voyage about to be undertaken, and acknowledged former mercies. The day had been unfavourable, and the evening was boisterous-on that account we had much attention paid to our comfort, by having a covering over the greater part of the deck; and on the conclusion of the service, the captain very handsomely offered his vessel for another meeting on the next morning at 7 o'clock, which was thankfully accepted and notice given accordingly. Waterloo, Sept. 21. Capt. Thompson very politely not only offered the deck of his vessel, but the use of his cabin, if necessary. He was present with part of his crew, who conducted themselves orderly and very serious. Monday, Sept. 24.-The Bethel Flag was flying from the fore-top-gallant-mast of the Greenock, of Greenock. The captain kindly rigged a stage, and prepared every thing snug for the prayer meeting in the evening. Before the hour for prayer, a note came from the agents or owners, addressed to the captain, expressing their disapprobation of his proceeding, ordered the flag to be hauled down, and the stage to be unshipped. The Bethel signal was removed to the Baffin a goodly number of seamen covered the deck during prayer. One sailor, a spectator on board, said he never felt so happy on the deck of a vessel before thought it (a) very strange (thing,) but would go again. Brig George, Oct. 1.-A man who keeps a lodging house for seamen, who is also a boatman on the river, attracted by the singing, attended the prayer meetings, and was much affected; attended again at the saine vessel on the 3d. Afterwards came forward and made an offer of his house for the winter months, being contiguous to the docks, which offer was gladly accepted, and a prayer meeting under the Bethel Flag was held at his house on Monday evening the 8th inst. (N. B. This man was a Roman Catholic.) Committee Room, October 11. One of the representatives of the Welsh Company reported that Mrs. Griffiths, who keeps the Derbyshire tavern, Strand-street, offers the use of her house on the Sabbath evening for the Bethel Prayer Meeting. Messrs. J. Hurry, & Co's. Ware-House, Oct. 10. After the Prayer Meeting, a sailor just arrived from America, a poor Scotchman, as he calls himself, addressed himself to the brethren, desirous of being directed to some lodging house, where he could be among serious people. He was desired to wait upon one of the Secretaries. The following letter is copied to show how much seamen value prayer. Addressed to Mr. Jones, a member of one of the Bethel Companies. Sir:-I am sorry to inform you I am going to sea this day, and I hope you will remember me in your prayers. I know that I may, and am sure that I will, meet with many people that endeavour to draw me into many snares. I hope you will excuse my trembling hand, as I have not five minutes to spare. I know that the prayers of the righteous will avail. May God bless you and all your endeavours. I know you are a seaman's friend. I cannot say no more at present, but remain your sincere well-wisher, &c. ALEXANDER F. Sept. 22. A youth about 17 or 18 years of age waited upon one of the secretaries of the Bethel Companies to purchase a Tract. He was asked, "have you attended any of the Bethel Prayer Meetings on board ships?" "Yes, the last evening. Only yesterday I landed from my voyage-this afternoon I am bound to Scotland to see my friends. Although that visit to the Bethel Meeting was accidental, it has been the means of great consolation to my mind." "I am glad you found it so; was you unhappy?" "Sir, I will relate what took place during my late voyage. I sailed from London in a Scotch vessel for the West Indies, second mate, the most profligate and abandoned wretch that ever sailed salt-water, particularly for profane swearing. Our captain, though a good seaman and kind to his ship's company, cared not either for his own soul or for the souls of his ship's crew. We had been at sea about 16 days. It came on night, and it was my watch on deck. The night was dark and lowering, and but little wind at the time. We had most of our lower sails set. I was walking fore and aft on the leeward side of the ship, when a sudden puff of wind caused the vessel to give a heavy lurch: not prepared to meet it, I was capsized and came head on against one of the stanchions. Feeling much hurt I gave vent to my anger by a dreadful, tremendous oath, cursing the wind, the ship, the sea, and, awful to say, the Being who made them. Scarce had this horrid oath escaped my lips, when it appeared to roll back upon my mind with so frightful an image, that I ran aft, and for a moment or two, thought I saw the sea parting and the vessel going down. I took the helm from the man who was at it, and put the ship's head close to the wind; all that night my awful oath was passing before my eyes like a spectre, and its consequences my certain damnation. For several days I was miserable, ashamed to say the cause. I asked one of the men if he had any book to lend me to read, he offered me a French novel by Rousseau. I asked if he had a Testament or Bible. He answered, was I going to die he never troubled his head about Bible or Prayer book, he left all these notions to the Priest, to whom he left part of his pay to pray for him. If I had done so I should not be so squeamish. The captain I knew had a Bible, but I was unwilling to ask the loan of it. Several days thus passed in the greatest torment, this dreadful oath always before me, and the Devil (I thought) speaking so loud I could hear him say-1 shall be damned! I shall be damned!-I could not pray-indeed I thought it of no use. On the fifth day, as I was turning over some things in my chest, I found some trifles I had purchased for sea stock, wrapped in paper-this piece of paper-(putting his hand at the same time into his jacket pocket, and from a small red case pulling out the paper-a leaf of the Bible, containing nearly the whole of the first chapter of Isaiah.) Oh how my heart throbbed when I found it a piece of the Bible." At that moment the big tear fell from his eye-he pressed the leaf to his bosom and cast his glistening eyes to Heaven. "But, Sir, conceive what I felt when I read these words: Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool," Here he paused to wipe the tears away: indeed my eyes needed wiping too. "O, Sir; like a drowning man I clung to this life buoy; on this I laid my soul, while the billows were going over me. I then prayed, and the Lord was graciously pleased to remove in some measure the great guilt from my conscience-though I continued mournful and bowed down until last evening, on board the Mayflower, I stowed away with the Bethel Company-there the Lord spoke my pardon and peace. I am now like poor Legion, going home to my friends and neighbours to tell them what great things the Lord has done for me. Farewell, sir." "Farewell, my lad, the Lord go with you." Oct. 7.-7 o'clock, A. M; Prayer Meeting. Several of the brethren connected with the Bethel Companies, met on board a flatt in the canal. They began the service with singing. Immediately the surrounding scenery became truly animating, bordering upon the ludicrous-most of the flattmen, with their families, were below decks in their cabins or their beds. The burst of voices produced a greater momentum than if the shock of an earthquake had been felt. In an instant were seen the aroused and half undressed heads and shoulders of flattmen, flattmen's wives and children, passing through the hatchways of their little cabins, rubbing their eyes, and looking around them with a stare of amazement, to learn what this noise meant. At the same time the inhabitants in the adjacent houses (mostly filled with lodgers) being awakened, the sashes were thrown open, and some dozens of heads covered with night-caps were seen turning in different angles to find the intention of this, to them, so unusual a sound. The brethren embraced this opportunity to explain the object of their visit, and wished the flattmen and their families to attend. Before the Hymn was sung they had put on their clothes, and with their wives and little ones assembled around the flag. The big tear was seen to roll down many of their cheeks, while the brethren were pleading at a throne of grace for their salvation. Many tracts were distributed. The following anecdote may not be exactly in "order," but the circumstance appears so intimately connected with the design of the Seaman's Friend Society and Bethel Union, that we take the liberty of reporting it: A gentleman not in the Bethel Union, witnessed the number of vessels passing through the dock gates on the 10th of October, going to sea, the wind being fair. On these occasions our poor sailors too frequently indulge in an extra glass. With the greatest bustle and exertion, at such times, many oaths are heard mixed with the necessary orders, as also among the men in working the vessels out of dock. When all was over-the vessels in the stream-the men had taken their last adieu of their friends and relations, this gentleman remarked to a Bethel friend, that he had not heard a single oath from a seainan during the whole time. He had heard a boatman swear, who was instantly reproved by a sailor present. N. B. The tracts distributed at the close of each service have been very thankfully received, particularly among the flattmen on the canal. Signed, Liverpool, 17th October, 1821. BENJ. WOOD, Letter from a Gentleman in Bristol, (Eng.) to the Editor. MY DEAR SIR Bristol, 14th Sept. 1821. I AM to thank you for your kind favour of the 13th ult. and the accompanying HERALDS, and while I rejoice with you in the good work it records, which is so delightfully progressing in the United States, I lament I have only the two first volumes of your interesting work: I must now entreat you to send me an entire set (except the two first volumes) by some friendly captain, as I wish to possess it entire; my library seems incomplete without the remaining volumes, having the two first handsomely bound. The American ship Aristomenes, of Newport, R. I. was driven by stress of weather, on her voyage from Sweden (iron-loaded) last winter, into our channel in a leaky state. Thinking they would be unable to keep her up, the captain looked out for a place to run her ashore where they would be able to save their lives: providentially a pilot boat had taken shelter where they were steering for, and came out to their relief, and brought her safe in. Little did they think for what purposes of mercy she and they were preserved by Divine Providence. After landing her cargo she was surveyed, found unseaworthy, and condemned. A few of us, who were under concern for the souls of seamen, bought her, fitted her up as a Floating Chapel, at an expense of about £ 800, £600 of which we have succeeding in begging, (no easy task, these distressing times,) and she is, I think, now as complete, commodious and elegant a place of worship, capable of seating about 800, as ever you would wish to occupy. We have lately opened it, and our seamen are delighted to have a place of their own. On the day the Chapel was opened two excellent sermons were delivered to overflowing audiences, and three the following Sabbath, when the deck was crowded with perhaps 500 more than could be well accomodated. We had provided 48 brevier bibles with " Bristol Seamen's Chapel," in gold letters on the cover, which were laid on the seats, and it would have done your heart good to have seen the veteran tars find the chapters, read after the ministers, and then search for the text; their cheeks running down with tears while they were addressed on the momentous concerns of eternity! We have now preaching morning and evenings; the afternoons are devoted to teaching seamen and sea boys to read the holy scriptures; knowing that the term school might prove offensive to these dear high spirited fellows, we call it a "Reading Society for perfecting Seamen, and teaching Sea Boys to read the Holy Scriptures;" this obviates their prejudice. Our five Bethel Companies have been itinerating from ship to ship every evening except Saturdays for about twelve months, thus preparing these poor fellows to hear the joyful sound. I had the pleasure on Wednesday to read on board, in commitee, six letters from, I trust, converted seamen, giving a detail of their religious experience, dating their conversion to these humble efforts, and the preaching of the Rev. G. C. Smith while here: "Are not these brands plucked from the burning?" Rejoice with us, and pray the God of the harvest that these may prove not the gleanings, but the first fruits of a harvest of souls which no one can number: one of them is (since writing his dying testimony) called into the joy of his Lord. You would have been delighted to have seen the promptitude with which tradesmen contributed, each in his own line, to supply our wants. COTTLE, the Christian poet, presented us with an elegant Pulpit Bible and Hymn book, new, in excellent binding, and covered with Morocco blue envelopes-Christian females made and presented an elegant purple velvet pulpit cushion-the Bible Society, the 48 Bibles a patriotic cooper, with a large new suit of colours-a mast-maker made the mast and tops gratis-Captains gave the poles an anchor-smith the chain cables to moor her and few have withheld what we have asked. Is not the good hand of God upon us, to touch all hearts with Christian sympathy for our poor neglected seamen, who feel that they are now no longer numbered either among the dead or living but among those who, "though dead in trespasses and sins," are to live for ever. It is important to remark, that though God in mercy saved the lives of the crew and the ship herself, from the great deep-yet, in his inscrutible providence, the greater part of her cargo of iron, which was transhipped into the Tom Hazard, was lost in the deep waters of the great Atlantic, she having foundered about midway to America! Well may we exclaim, "What hath God wrought?" ** See Notices on the cover. The Christian herald. VOL. VIII. SATURDAY, JANUARY 5, 1822. No. XVI. Miscellany. For the Christian Herald. EFFECTS OF SPECIAL PRAYER AND CHRISTIAN CONVERSATION. DURING a short journey to - I enjoyed the happiness of associating with a Christian of no common order. Her early life had been devoted to the instruction and improvement of the minds of youth, and her declining years were consecrated to the service of her Heavenly Father. She was blessed with the spirit of a "Pilgrim and stranger on the earth," and gave no more attention to worldly concerns than was requisite to the strict performance of her duty, and by her deep devotedness evidenced to all around, that she was sincercely "seeking a better country, that is an heavenly." Her conversation was not of this world, and it was impossible to be long in her society without really becoming better, and feeling the soul elevated above this "little sphere of things," to the contemplation of scenes holy and sublime. She appeared to me like one "walking thoughtfully along the shore of eternity," -glancing an eye of faith over its depths unknown, and returning to earth with a heart feeling its vanity, and a mind expanded by its heavenly employment. One day, while conversing on the subject of an appearance of a revival among the people with whom she resides, she gave me the following relation respecting one of her neighbours.-He was formerly a very worldly man, much engrossed by the cares of life, and particularly distinguished for his hostility to religion-seldom entered the sanctuary of the Lord, and ridiculed those who did. Some time since there was considerable attention to religion in the school which his children attended-they were impressed-he withdrew them immediately, saying, "he would prefer that the plague should enter his dwelling to having his children spoiled by religion." His wife was a plain sincere Christian, and had long mourned in secret over the hardness of heart which he manifested. In a small female prayer meeting, which she attended, the heads of families were particularly remembered. The husband of one of the members had repeatedly conversed with him respecting the concerns of his soul, but apparently with no effect. Soon after one of these conversations, two brethren, from New-Haven, attended a meeting in the place, and gave an account of the animating state of religion among that VOL. VIII. 61 |