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PREFACE.

HAVING been frequently urged to write a few plain Sermons or Addresses, suited for public reading to the crews of our merchant vessels, and for the private use of seamen in general, the author has so far complied as to offer the following very humble compositions for such purposes.

Should any reader unconnected with seamen, and unacquainted with the nautical character, ever look into this volume, the writer hopes it will be borne in mind for whose more immediate use the discourses were composed. In writing them he endeavoured to consider himself as actually seated in a ship's cabin, surrounded by the crew of the vessel. His object, therefore, has been to bring forth some of the more essential doctrines and duties of the gospel in such a style and manner as he considered most suitable for such an audience, studiously

using great plainness of speech, to the exclusion of every thing of dress and ornamental language.

At the end of the volume will be found a set of short prayers, suited to the foregoing Sermons, each prayer bearing the same number as the discourse to which it applies. The using of or the dispensing with these prayers, and also of the hymns that follow the Sermons, will, of course, depend on the judgment and choice of the captain or person who takes the lead in the service, and as the circumstances of time and weather, &c. may point out.

Should the Lord graciously condescend to own these humble discourses, probably the last efforts of the writer's pen, to the edification of any of our seamen, or to any other individual, he will give all the glory to our Triune Jehovah, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, for ever.

Great Missenden,

April, 1843.

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