ever rich. Those who can afford to pay the mere cost of printing and binding, may purchase of the Marine Bible Society, for less than a dollar, a property which will, if rightly improved, make them kings and princes for ever. And those who feel for their poor careless shipmates and comrades, may come and be members of this excellent Society; and even if they can give no more than seventy-five cents a year, may send them a blessing, which is better than to save them from starving on a wreck, or sinking in the sea; which shall bring many of their weatherbeaten and shipwrecked comrades, safe to the Port of Heaven at last. Extract of a Letter from the Rev. JOSEPH EASTBURN, to the Philadelphia, May 25, 1821. DEAR SIR, I rejoice to have all the information you can afford respecting the mariners, as I am engaged in trying to promote their spiritual benefit, as the Lord may be pleased to enable me, and humbly hope it has not been altogether in vain. They have been too long neglected, but I hope the set time to favour them is now coming, when Europe and America unite in promoting their best interest; and may the Lord crown every attempt with his special blessing for their salvation. I rejoice to learn that so much is doing for them with you, and that you have a good place of worship for them, and that so many do seriously attend. We have to lament the want of such a place, nor do I see any prospect of obtaining one soon, but would not forget the favour of having an humble place, which we hope the Lord has owned as his house and the gate of heaven. It is a large sail-loft, which those who have counted do say holds seven hundred, and commonly crowded. It is near the shore. We have a flag to denote the place, with "Mariners' Church" on it, and have constant worship morning and afternoon every Lord's day. The seamen are pleased with calling it their church, and when going to sea, they send their requests to be remembered in prayer by their church all their voyage out. Many masters and whole crews sign their names, which are publicly read in the meeting; and they write many interesting letters, showing their attachment to the church, and thankfulness for the attention that has been paid to them. I have six parts of the Boatswain's Mate, of which I often read a part at the close of speaking, and make remarks upon it, which has greatly interested the audience. I understand a seventh has been published in London, and perhaps more, which I should be glad to receive. It being in the true seaman's style pleases them much, as any thing of that kind does. I would now mention what has been partly published here, but little known; that a seaman came to my house one evening in an humble manner to ask for a Bible. He said he had been cast away and lost all he had, or he would not ask it as a gift, but if the Lord would preserve him to return, and he should have it in his power, he would return sevenfold for it; and said, "I have brought a shipmate with me, in the same circumstances, that wishes also to have one." Being told they should both be supplied, he then said, "I have attended the Mariners' Church ever since I came into port, and you gave me a tract about one Jack Covey, who had his legs shot away while he was swearing. It brought to my mind my own wicked conduct, which I will now confess to you. I was handing sail in a gale of wind; the sail flapped much; when I, in a wicked passion, called upon God to damn my eyes. At that instant the end of a rope struck the ball of my right eye, and blasted it, and I never could see out of it since"-showing his eye at the same time. "Now I think how easily the Lord could have sent my soul to hell; but I never considered it until I came to the Mariners' Church." They both received Bibles, and I have not heard of them since. While writing this, a poor sailor came to give me a dollar, as his minister. I told him I did not choose to receive any money for my services among them. He then said, "let it go to the good of the Mariners' Church." I offered him a large type Bible, but he said he could not accept it until he could pay for it. In conversing with him he was deeply affected, and wept much. He was sober and sensible. We have had a prayer meeting on board a brig, since the one you have mentioned in your magazine, which was very interesting. A captain, that had hid in a corner of the cabin, just as we were dismissing, said, "my heart has been warmed with this meeting," and then gave an account of his experience, and prayed fervently. Another captain said he was sorry he could not invite us to hold a meeting in his ship on account of the sentiments of his owner; but if we would please to accept of his house instead of the ship, he would invite his fellow seamen to attend; which we intend to do before he sails. The captain on board of whose vessel we had the last prayer meeting, writes from the Capes, " I am now discharging my pilot, and may the great Pilot conduct us over the great sea, and may every seaman be directed by the compass of God's holy word, and every sailor's heart be touched by the loadstone of his grace. Pray for us all. Every man on board has signed his name below." Another master sends his "request to be remembered, and all his crew, in the Mariners' Church, all their voyage, hoping that immortal praise may be sung for the opening of that place, and that it always may be the house of God. The benefit I have received there makes such a change in my mind, I cannot describe. There my burden was removed." Another said he "would not part with what he had received there for all Philadelphia." Some of the seamen's wives have become very serious, and often weep much in time of worship. Commodore Dale attends with us almost every Lord's day, and says, when he sees them and the sailors weeping, he cannot refrain weeping himself. We have a weekly prayer meeting near the shore for them, which is well attended, beside other places where they find I go to society. I should be pleased, if I could leave my flock, and my infirmity of age would permit, to visit your place, and see your order; but I must content myself at home. And may the Lord make me faithful unto the end, and useful to those to whom he is pleased to send me. I shall be much obliged to you to send me any accounts that may be useful, of your progress. And do pray for a poor, almost worn-out labourer, and for the changing congregation that he has often to address. And may he bless and prosper your endeavours, and all others who are trying to promote the Redeemer's kingdom, and the salvation of poor sinners.. With sincere respect, yours in the best bonds, JOSEPH EASTBURN. From the London Sailors' Magazine. "We had the meeting last Friday in the Jubilee's hold. The sailors had taken a great deal of pains and trouble (with much pleasure the Captain said) in fitting up a Chapel. They were taking in the cargo, and to accommodate us, they had stowed hogsheads up in the wings, and covered them over with sails, that it looked like a little amphitheatre. Many sailors were there, and we generally now have female friends. Captain B. told me, that he had eight passengers from Plymouth this voyage. One was a sailor, belonging to a man of war brig, that put into Plymouth from India, and sailed from thence to Deptford to be paid off, leaving Jack behind. The other seven were prostitutes of the most depraved sort, following the brig, to be present when paid off. Captain B. said they were no sooner under weigh, than he was so annoyed with their horrid blasphemies and obscenity, that he told them if they did not desist, he would put into the next port, and reland them. They laughed at him, and proceeded in the old way-he at last asked if any of them would read, and finding they would, he said if they would be quiet, he would lend them a little book or two to amuse them. He handed out the Swearer's Prayer, Young Cottager, and two or three other Tracts, which they read while seated round the cabouse, and they had the desired effect: he did not hear a single oath or obscene word all the voyage afterwards, and one of the women was melted down so, that she declared she would give over the abandoned life she had been going on in for many years, as soon as she arrived in London. She was frequently in tears, and, Captain B. says, there was every sign of real repentance. The whole party were reading the Tracts for hours every morning and evening, and at morning and evening worship in the cabin, they used to listen at the head of the companion ladder. Who can tell the good that may arise from this!-many will be found in Heaven through religious Tracts being given in this casual way. May not this bread cast upon the waters be found after many days?" THE elegant "Bethel Flag," presented by the. Bethel Union of London to the Port Society here, will be hoisted on the Mariner's Church, Roosevelt-street, TOMORROW MORNING, as a signal for divine worship. Three sermons, it is expected, will be preached on the occasion, and collections taken up in aid of the Society's funds. We have room for but one remark-the utmost extent of liberality which the friends of seamen can show on this occasion will only be commensurate with their ebligation, and the wants of the Society. TO READERS AND CORRESPONDENTS. THE obituary of "Mrs. S." in our next. We are again obliged to apologize for the further delay of several articles which have been received, and others prepared for this number. We have devoted a larger number of pages to the Seaman's Magazine than we intend generally to do, but the intelligence which occupies it is such as was formerly published in the Herald, and such as we feel sure will be interesting to the friends of the Redeemer's cause. WHEN Moses went out, according to the command of the Lord, and gathered seventy men of the elders of the people, and set them round about the tabernacle, the Lord took the spirit that was upon Moses and gave it unto the seventy elders, and when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied and did not cease. But Eldad and Medad, although "they were of them that were written," did not go up unto the tabernacle, but they remained, and prophesied in the camp. "And there ran a young man, and told Moses, and said, Eldad and Medad do prophesy in the camp," and Joshua, a servant of Moses, said, "My lord Moses, forbid them." And Moses said unto him, "Enviest thou for my sake? Would God that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them!" The conduct of this servant of Moses was not unlike that of many professing Christians, and even ministers of the Gospel too, of the present day. To the minds and hearts of such men there is nothing which gives more pain and fear than a knowledge of the fact that Christians unite together for social worship and prayer in those associations commonly called "Prayer Meetings," and brand those who take a part in them as " enthusiasts," "fanatics," " hypocrites," &c. The sagacious " Squire," whose doleful complaint " to the Editor of the Christian Observer" we here give for the instruction of those who are crying out "Eldad and Medad do prophesy in the camp-my lord, forbid them," has found out that these praying people are addicted to the habit of being more honest and sober than formerly, when they attended church only once a week, or it might be, only once a month. I AM the squire of a country parish, in the north of -shire, where, till within the last twenty years that is, during the incumbency of the present rector and his predecessor-we never had any methodistical doings, but were as honest hearty souls as ever mounted a hunter or cracked a bottle. But during the last twenty years there has been a sad change. I do not mean that there is more poaching, or stealing wood and poultry, or robbing barns and orchards; for in these respects we are better off than before, which I attribute entirely to these things having gone out of fashion, just like hard drinking. But what I lament is the great increase of hypocrisy in the parish. When I was a boy we had service at church only once a fortnight; and not always that, especially when the curate, for we had no resident rector, had the rheumatism; but as soon as Mr. F. the late incumbent came to reside, he performed service every Sunday morning, which, however, I did not much object to; though it was sometimes very inconvenient, for, as I made a point of attending whenever there was a sermon, it prevented my taking physic, or VOL. VIII. 9 settling some affairs at one of my manors, a few miles off, which I had been accustomed punctually to manage on the alternate Sundays once a month. Mr. F. died twelve years ago, and left in his will a considerable legacy for a second service every Sunday, as the smallness of the preferment had hitherto rendered it necessary for the clergyman to serve another parish in the afternoon. To attend a second service I had always considered great hypocrisy, and therefore I have never once darkened the doors of an afternoon since the endowment; but as the new rector, Mr. H., entered with warmth into the design of his predecessor, and the bishop and patron gave their consent, I could do nothing effectual to prevent it. Mr. H. acted very puritanically in the whole of this business : I am certain he only wished to curry favour with the poor, and to spite me; though I never could see what he could get by doing so. His conduct, however, throughout, was so hypocritically amiable and obliging, that he never gave me a fair opportunity to tell him all my mind. I hate such double dealing: a good hearty quarrel clears the air like a thunder storm, and all is sunshine afterwards. Well, sir, hypocrisy, I believe, is as contagious as the plague; for in a few years half the parish began to be infected; and what with schools, and sermons, and bibles, and prayer-books, the Sunday, instead of being a day of rest, became as busy as a market-day. Some of the principal farmers, in imitation of the parson, have had the hypocrisy to take to cold-meat dinners on that day, that all their servants may go to church; and as for Mr. H. himself, when or how he gets his own dinner on these occasions, I cannot conjecture: he seems to me to live like a woodcock. But in order that you may understand more fully the nature of the evils of which I complain, I shall give you the following account of one of my tenants, who has for many years been one of the stanchest hypocrites in the parish. Tim Dobbins was just my own age; and being my foster-brother, he used to be often, when a child, in the servants' hall at the manor-house, where he learned many excellent and diverting tricks. As we grew up, we became constant companions; for my father said, that though Tim was but a poor man's child, he had a good deal of spirit, and promised to be an adventurous sportsman, and might in time, after his death, make me a valuable gamekeeper. In this I was a little disappointed; for though Tim was a good fellow, an exceeding good fellow; yet he took so to drinking, and, what was worse, to poaching in the preserves which he was employed to guard, that I was obliged, at length, to dismiss him. I shall not trouble you with the rest of his adventures; how often he got into prison or sat in the stocks, with similar particulars, &c. What vexed me most was, that in throwing a red-hot poker one day at his wife, he set fire to the new cottage which I had built for him, and, being intoxicated at the time, suffered the flames to spread to one of my barns. I should not, however, have turned him out of his paddock for these offences, if he had not become a hypocrite; for I can forgive many faults, where there is a good heart. His hypocrisy was very cleverly managed. He did not, like some reprobates I have heard of, boast of sudden conversion; indeed, in order the better to keep up the stratagem, he did not boast at all; but to the hour of his death, professed to be a miserable sinner, while all the while, I have no doubt, he thought himself quite a saint. About twenty years ago, when Mr. F. came to the parish, Tim's cottage was next to the par |