:

THE WHALEMEN.

In a late number we published a letter from our worthy correspondent at Nantucket, relative to the religious condition of the great number of men employed in the whale fishery. We have received some further information respecting them, and at present shall add the following extract.

"A revival has taken place on board one of our whale ships, immediately after sailing on a three years voyage. The Scriptures are read and prayers attended night and morning by the crew-among whom are three Heathen youth, who had previously belonged to our Sabbath School, and given evidence of capacity to learn and do good. One of the mates had engaged to teach them during the voyage; and I hope they will be safely returned, educated in the Cornwall School, and sent to carry the Gospel to their countrymen of the islands of the Pacific Ocean.

"I have been anxious for the establishment of a Bethel Union here, but it seems utterly impossible at present: yet, perhaps it might be effected, if your Society would forward us a Bethel Flag. Had I a little help, I could preach to hundreds at our wharfs who will not enter a church, and perhaps never have.

"If there is a missionary ground on earth it is here."

REMARKS, If the friends of seamen in Nantucket will form a Bethel Union, we are authorised to say, the Bethel Union here will present them with a Flag if they then desire it. We feel confident that such an institution might be formed in every sea-port town on our coast. Let a meeting of the friends to the cause be called at some convenient, central place. Let Seamen and Captains be invited-have a plan of the intended unión ready, and we doubt not it would be adopted at once. And further, in almost every such place twenty-four persons will be found ready to contribute, each fifty cents, and this sum would furnish them with a Flag, which is the principal expense of such a Society. There should be no delay in this business, for

fire!

DESTRUCTION COMETH UPON SEAMEN.

See what horror attends the life of the Sailor! If he is a child of God, he is ready to meet the summons-if he is out of Christ, God is to him a consuming "We have had," says our London correspondent, " dreadful gales here for a long time-numbers of ships lost, and all hands perished. A captain of one of the Packets says, 'about eight hundred dead bodies were picked up on the coast of Jutland!' These are loud calls to activity on the part of Christians, all over the world, to promote religion among seamen."

GREENOCK BETHEL UNION.

To the Editor of the Seaman's Magazine.

Greenock, Scotland, Jan. 8, 1822.

THE Committee of the Society having requested that I would write you in reply, I beg to convey to you, in their name, our best thanks for your communication, and the assurance that its contents afford us unfeigned pleasure. It is very encouraging to those who are engaged in promoting the Kingdom and cause of God, that he is not permitting them to work alone. He is raising up labourers in every quarter of his vineyard-men who are actuated by the same spirit, and aiming at the same object, and bound together in the same fellowship and hope of the Gospel, though far separated from each other on earth. In the exertions of your respected societies to extend the religion of our common Lord among seamen, it is our earnest desire, in as far as He enables us, to strengthen their hands and encourage their hearts. With this view, we send them the assurance of our cordial interest in their proceedings, and of our fervent prayers for their success. At a time that the out-pouring of the Holy Spirit is cheering your favoured country, and causing the wilderness and solitary place to rejoice, it is our hearts' desire and prayer that your seamen, through your instrumentality, may be made rich partakers of the same inestimable blessing.

I have pleasure in being able to inform you, that of late there has been a little revival in our Society of a pleasing nature. I trust the interest which has been awakened may be permanent, and be productive of good. We are not desirous of saying much with regard to any success which may have attended our exertions; but we trust the Lord has acknowledged them, and that by his grace some poor sailors have, through them, been brought to the knowledge of the truth.

Sir, very truly yours,

JOHN DENNISTON, President of the
Seamen's Friend Society, Greenock.

SUMMARY.

The Union Prayer Meeting was held on the 20th of last month in the Rev. Mr. Phillips' church. It was well attended, and the exercises were conducted in the usual manner. The sixteenth monthly U. P. M. was held last Tuesday in the Mariner's Church in the afternoon. The Rev. JOHN TRUAIR, minister of that church, presided. The Rev. Messrs. Chace, (of the Baptist Church,) M'Murray, Williams, and Patton, engaged in prayer. The presiding minister read Psalm cxxxiv., and made a short address. The next meeting was appointed to be held in the Methodist Church in John-street on Wednesday evening, the 17th instant.

Installation--On Tuesday evening, the 2d inst. the Rev. ROBERT M'CARTEE, late of Philadelphia, was installed Pastor of the Presbyterian Church and congregation in Orange-street, in this city. The Rev. Dr. Romeyn presided, and delivered the charge to the pastor. The Rev. S. N. Rowan preached the Sermon from the following words: "Who is sufficient for these things?" The Rev. Dr. Spring delivered the charge to the people. The exercises were solemn and interesting.

Revival of Religion in this City. We intimated in our last number, that a work of grace was happily begun in several of our churches; and we now rejoice to add, that it still continues. We have reason to believe the Lord has heard the united prayers of his people for the out-pouring of the Holy Spirit on our churches and congregations, and we believe he will increase and extend this greatest of all blessings in proportion as Christians labour and pray for it.

Just as our last sheet was going to press, we received our French and English Magazines. They contain much interesting intelligence from various missionary stations, which we shall notice in our next number.

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II. A second reason for this union for prayer for the general outpouring of the Holy Spirit is, THAT IT IS, IN A SPECIAL MANNER, BY HIS GRACIOUS AND POWERFUL INFLUENCE THAT THE KINGDOM OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST IS TO BE ESTABLISHED.

In the wonderful plan of love and mercy, devised by Almighty God for saving a ruined world, his first great promise was, to give his Son as a sacrifice for sin, that, through the merits of his atonement and perfect righteousness, "God might be just and the justifier of him who believeth in Jesus." His next promise was, for the sake of his Son, to give his Holy Spirit, to make this gift effectual. The first promise has already been fulfilled; God has given his only begotten Son, and he, by his one offering for sin, has obtained eternal redemption for all who believe in his name. For accomplishing his work, the Lord Jesus has every requisite. The divine and human natures are united in His person, and all power in heaven and in earth are given unto Him. The Holy Spirit, also, has the most abundant fulness for performing his gracious part in our salvation: for He is one in essence with the Father and the Son; He is God the Holy Ghost; He is eternal, omnipotent, omnipresent; all hearts are open to Him, and all creatures are subject to His will. When He moved upon the face of the waters, light arose out of darkness, and order out of confusion. Further: as, in the economy of our salvation, the eternal Son of God humbled himself and took upon him the form of a servant, that He might accomplish the will of His heavenly Father-so the Holy Ghost, in this divine economy, has been graciously pleased to undertake various offices for fulfilling the purposes of mercy contained in the Gospel. So that He can not only effect all things by his absolute power, as God, but he has so condescended that He can accomplish whatever is now needful for our salvation, by virtue of His gracious undertaking.

Is it needful, for instance, that a man should be born again before he can see the kingdom of God; it is His gracious office to create the soul anew, to quicken those who are dead in trespasses and sins. Or is it requisite, in order that manking should heartily apply to the Saviour, that VOL. VIII.

3

they should be individually convinced of sin, of righteousness, and of judement; or do they need a Teacher, a Guide, an Assistant in prayer, a Comforter, a Sanctifier: all these, and other offices too numerous to mention, are graciously undertaken by the Holy Spirit. The declaration of our blessed Lord to his disciples was, "If I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when He is come, he will convince the world," not the Jews only, but the Gentiles of all descriptions, " of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment; of sin, because they believe not in me; of righteousness, because I go to the Father, and ye see me no more; of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak; and he wilt show you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall take of mine, and show it unto you." (John, xvi.7-14.) Again when converted to the religion of our Saviour, are love, peace, gentleness, faith, goodness and meekness, essential graces of the Christian character; these are "the fruit of the Spirit;" (Galatians, v. 23.) by Him also "the love of God is shed abroad in the heart." (Romans, v. 5.) In the outward administration of the Church also is it important that ministers should be raised up, properly qualified to instruct mankind. Are wisdom, knowledge, fidelity, order necessary. "All this worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every one severally as he will." (1 Corinth. xii. 11.) Indeed, so extensive are his gracious offices, so great is this gift which our blessed Lord has procured, and which our Heavenly Father freely bestows, for his Son's sake, that the promise of the Holy Spirit includes every blessing. Thus in St. Matthew (vii. 11.) it is said, "If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him." In the corresponding passage of St. Luke, (xi. 13.) the expression is, "give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him;" as if the gift of the Holy Spirit included all good things. When, therefore, our Heavenly Father is pleased to shed forth in an abundant measure the promised blessing, nothing will be impossible. The mountains will flow down at his presence, nations will be born at once, and the earth be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, even as the waters cover the sea.

Let it be remembered also, that this power and grace of the Holy Spirit, to effect great blessings, are not theoretic notions, they have already been witnessed. It is to His divine agency that we are to trace the success of the Gospel in the first ages of the Church. When the Holy Spirit was given on the day of Pentecost, three thousand sinners were converted under one discourse. When His divine grace accompanied the preached Gospel at Antioch, nearly the whole city came together to hear the word of God. (Acts, xiii.) Without His aid the most eloquent discourse of. the Apostle Paul, delivered with the greatest earnestness, and with the most tender affection, had only this effect, "Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian;" (Acts, xxvi. 28.) but when the Holy Spirit acted, "the multitude were of one heart and one soul, and great grace was upon them all." (Acts, iv. 32 and 33.)

And though in later times we have not the same inspired testimony, in proof of this power and grace, yet we are not without credible historical evidence of great revivals of religion, which have evidently arisen from a remarkable effusion of this divine influence. Thus it was, at the time of the Reformation, Luther, and the other great reformers of that day, ascribe the glorious work then performed to this cause; and thus it has been, at subsequent seasons, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. (See Milner's Church History and Gillie's Historical Collections.)

Such being the fact, is not this power and grace of the Holy Spirit a strong reason for a general union for prayer, that the Lord may again favour us with this unspeakable blessing? To trust principally to our own efforts instead of uniting heart and soul to call down the exertion of this Almighty energy, is like attempting to water our fields from our own little cisterns, instead of looking up to Him who "gives the early and the latter rain;" even to Him "who visits the earth and waters it, and greatly enriches it with the river of God, which is full of water."

Ixv. 9.

(Psalm

O, let us entreat the Lord again "to send a plentiful rain, to confirm his inheritance when it is weary." (Psalm lxviii. 9.)

III. A third reason for this union for prayer is, THAT THE SCRIPTURES PREDICT A DAY WHEN THE HOLY SPIRIT SHALL BE GIVEN IN A VERY ABUNDANT MANNER; AND THAT THIS BLESSING WILL BE PRECEDED BY EARNEST PRAYER.

Thus it is written in the Prophet Joel: (ii. 28, 29.) "And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions; and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids, in those days, will I pour out my Spirit." So, in the Prophet Isaiah: (xliv. 2.) "Thus saith the Lord that made thee, and formed thee from the womb, which will help thee; Fear not, O Jacob, my servant; and thou, Jesurun, whom I have chosen. For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring." Again, in the Prophet Zechariah: (xiv. 8.) "And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem: half of them toward the former sea, and half toward the hinder sea: in summer and winter shall it be." The Prophet Ezekiel (xxxvii. xlvii.) also emblematically predicts the same blessings, in the vision of the dry bones, and in the vision of the living waters proceeding from the Sanctuary.

In all these passages of Scripture, expressions are used, which give promise of a very large effusion of divine influence. "I will pour my Spirit upon all flesh," upon every age and station; upon their sons and their daughters; the old men and the youth; the servants and the handmaids. "I will pour floods upon the dry ground;" not sending this living water in a scanty measure, but like the bursting forth of the mountain torrents which spread on every side. "In summer and in winter shall it be" a continued supply; not affected by the heat of summer, or cold of winter. "The breath came into them, and they lived and stood up upon their feet-an exceeding great army:" (Ezek. xxxvii. 10.)