has now been read, be received and printed under the direction of the Com. mittee; and that the following gentlemen be the office-bearers and Committee for the year ensuing." [Names read.]

I should much have preferred to occupy a less prominent position than the one in which I have been placed this evening, but the secretary would have me up to stand in the position which I now occupy. I confess, in another sense, I am quite willing to take the first place or the last, the head or the tail, when the cause of the British and Foreign Sailors' Society is on board. I am privileged to move the adoption of the report, and it is just the sort of report I like to move. It is not one of your growling, melancholy reports, but a good-natured, honest, jolly sailor-like report. It sets out with telling us that the Society is out of debt; nay, it has not told us the truth in that matter, for it is not merely out of debt, but the only bad news I hear in connexion with that report is, that it has got £100 in hand. We say it has been too economical in spending its funds, or it should tell us that it was at least £100 in debt this evening. But it is one of those pleasing, encouraging reports that is seldom met with at public meetings of this kind. It strikes me, that the work of moving its adoption is a very easy one. I am told that in the Sailors' Church at Wellclosesquare, 10,000 sailors have attended the public worship of God since that house of worship was opened for their spiritual advantage. This meeting surely requires no argument to make it adopt that part of the report. Then, I am told, what I still more love to hear, that at the Bethel meetings on board of ships, upwards of 20,000 sailors have been engaged in solemn prayer to God. I am told, that in many cases, the tears of penitence and contrition have been seen rolling down their weather-beaten cheeks when engaged in this holy exercise. I am told further, that the day and Sabbath-schools. connected with this institution are in an encouraging condition. I am told again, in that report, that sailors are their own chaplains; that, in many cases, they are engaged themselves in prayer to God, in conducting religious exercises. I am told further, that the tracts of this

society-the silent but powerful messengers of mercy-have been circulated the wide world over. These seem to me to be the peculiar and principal features of this report. Then it is a delightful report; and it has struck me with this great truth--this is one of the causes of God that must succeed. It is one of those blessed causes on which the smile of Heaven rests, one of those causes in connexion with which my Bible tells me, that God is pledged to its ultimate prosperity. If I came here to advocate a political cause as a Whig or a Conservative -a political speech I have yet to make, for one I never made in all my clerical life, but if I came on such a political errand, I might not succeed; but I am here in connexion with the cause of the British and Foreign Sailors' Society; and as sure as that the God of the sailor is seated on his throne of mercy this cause must be ultimately successful. Then, remember it is not the cause of man, it is the cause of God; it is the cause of that Saviour who, when on earth, did not despise the sailor, but when choosing his apostles for the conversion and enlightenment of the world, chose them from the shore of Galilee's blue sea, and selected the fishermen, the children of Zebedee, for his apostles to seek the conversion of the world. Now, in advocating the cause of this Society, I take the lowest ground; but yet it is one of vast importance to this great com. mercial country: that is, I take the commercial view of the question. There are but 300,000 sailors, which are the objects of this Society. It has been said that some of the large parishes of England contain as many individuals; but there are not 300,000 working-men in the world who have so much power as these sailors. I know, as an Irishman, 300,000 that have hardly 300,000 pence in their possession; but 300,000 sailors have millions of the property of the world intrusted to their care. When the sailors go to the wide deep they carry valuable cargoes; and the merchants of London should all be the friends of this Society. Their property is at stake in their hands, and it is to them of the greatest importance that the captains and crews of their vessels should be moral men. Now, that is the lowest ground;

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defence of our shores, and have enabled us to live in peace and plenty. I agree with him that this institution, by seeking the conversion of sailors, becomes a peace society. Wherever such a sailor goes he carries with him the blessings of civilizaion, the signs of peace, and the evidence hat that imparts happiness to the world. We may go further and say, that this Society, by the influence which it exercises where our sailors touch, combines in it the elements of a society for the abolition of slavery. They go as free men, they belong to a nation of free men, they are taught to sing, that "Britons never shall be slaves;" and while they carry with them the proofs of their freedom, they are anxious to teach others that that is the condition which God has destined that the whole of his creatures shall enjoy. It combines another element, and one which is the most important of all; namely, the proof of the truth of our common Christianity. have heard from missionaries how often their efforts have been neutralised, and their precepts despised in consequence of the conduct of seamen, when they have penetrated into countries where the missionaries had succeeded instrumentally in the conversion of the heathen to God. Can a clearer demonstration be given of the effect of their evil and debauched habits than in the influence exercised by French sailors in Tahiti. Instead of carrying Bibles and tracts, joining with the natives in prayer, and associating with them in good and holy works, they have carried the vices of the civilized world, and have done much to degrade and pollute the minds of the heathen. If, therefore, missionary societies are necessary, and it is a Christian duty to support them; if we are to obey the injunction, "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature," then ought we especially to care for the souls of sailors, that they may be an apt representation of our common Christianity, and carry with them wherever they go the evidences of the Saviour's love. But there is another idea-the lowest to which the rev. gentleman alluded, and that is one that we should seek to impress on the merchant princes of this city. Look at the cargoes committed to the care of our seamen, We had a case of

extreme cruelty which was judicially inquired into the other day, and in the course of examination it appeared, that in a small vessel the value of the cargo was £80,000. Nearly all the shipwrecks, all the ship burnings and disasters that occur at sea have been occasioned by the vices and intemperance of the captain and crew. What interest therefore, has the merchant of London, apart from the higher and holier considerations of privilege and duty to advance the interests of this Society, and impart to the sailor in charge of his property the true principles of the religion of Christ! Although the sailor is a man of thoughtless habits and character, and though, when he is on shore after a long voyage, enjoyment seems his chief object, yet there was a striking fact mentioned to me by the sheriff while the report was being read, that should be taken in connexion with it; namely, that out of 3,000 prisoners who annually came under the care of the sheriffs, there are, on the average, only three sailors. There is something in their character that forbids them being thieves. They are open-hearted, ready to receive impressions, and are anxious to repay the least obligation. They never forget a friend who has stood by them in difficulty, or the man who has been the means of elevating their character, or of converting them to God. Another point has been alluded to, which I think should weigh with us in giving to these sons of the ocean an opportunity for reading, for prayer, and for the occupation of their leisure hours. How many silent hours do they pass on the mighty deep with nothing but the blue sky above them, and the depths of the sea below them, far away from their native land! How desirable it is that in this period of solitude they should be led to think only of those things which will bear reflection, and to regard that God who formed the ocean and the sky, who guides the wind and directs their course as their Father and their Friend! How cheering to the sailor, in the discharge of his duty, is the thought that that same God to whom he has committed himself, is watching over those that are near and dear to him; and that, though he is unable, from his occupation, to bestow a father's anxiety and

care upon his children, yet that he has left them under the protection of this Society ; and that, when he returns home, instead of finding, as was once frequently the case, his wife an outcast, and his children wandering and wretched, he shall find them gathered into the fold, the children taught, the wife elevated; and that they shall enter the house of God together, to give thanks to Him who has preserved him amidst unnumbered dangers, and allowed him again to worship Him who is the Author and Giver of all his blessings. There are topics and subjects upon which some of the other speakers will dilate; but I confess, the more I reflect upon this Society, and the benefits of its agency, and the necessity there is for the church to rise up and perform its duty, the more strongly do I feel the claims which the institution has upon us. How are we to bring about the conversion of the world? How are the heathen to be taught to throw their idols to the moles and the bats, if we send men to degrade them and pander to their vices, and to add to them the greater and more abominable vices of civilized life? The object we have at heart will never be accomplished until we concentrate our efforts, increase the moral power of the 300,000 sailors who are annually leaving our shores-until we have converted every ship into a Bethel, every meeting of sailors into a meeting for prayer, and every captain into a chaplain, able to direct and control his men. If you wish to send men abroad who are the types of your civilisation-men who are the evidences of your Christianity, and who will endeavour to impart to others a knowledge of Jesus Christ and him crucified, you must seek the salvation of sailors. It is not the dream of the poet, nor the wrapt vision of the prophet, which we behold in the distance, when we say that all flesh shall behold the glory of Godthat many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased-that wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of the times in which we live. These are scenes depicted by the pen of inspiration, and their arrival is guaranteed by the infallible word of the eternal God. It is our honour and our privilege that we are to become co-workers with Christ in bringing about these happy and delightful

changes. What has been the fate and the history of the maritime nations of the world? Where are Tyre and Carthage? or, to come down to later times, the great maritime ports of the Mediterranean? They have become silent. Why? Because they neglected the gift imparted to them, and forgot the duty which God had intrusted to their care. Lest that should hereafter be said of England, lest her candlestick should be removed, and she should lose her prerogative to teach other nations, let us give our hearty, individual support-our contributions and our prayers-our zeal and influence to promote the interests of the British and Foreign Sailors' Society.

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Captain HOGG, in supporting the resolution, said, I feel great pleasure in addressing this assembly on the sailor's behalf. When we take into account his privations, if any man has a claim upon you, it is the sailor. For many months--yea, years, we leave our native land to traverse the world, and hear not the name of Him we love so dearly. Formerly, when we returned, there was no one to meet us, but those who endeavoured to lead us astray. Your labours, however, have not been in vain, but the fruit has sprung up after many days. Thanks be to God, the seed is not sown on stony ground. I have seen in the Baltic the Bethel flag unfurled, and numbers listening to the gospel. sailors are thus missionaries, carrying the glad tidings of salvation to every part of the world. On one occasion, in Dantzic, when a meeting was held on deck, the natives wondered for what purpose we had assembled, and who can tell the effect produced on their minds when they learned that we were worshipping God. I have seen similar effects at Pe.. tersburg. There are many who can say, it was at a Bethel meeting they received their first impressions. It was there I first found peace through the blood of the Lamb! Though trained in a Methodist cradle, it was at such a meeting that I first found liberty from Satan's bondage. It is the character of the sailor, that when he finds the Lord he does not lock him up in the chest, but is anxious "To tell to all poor sinners round What a dear Saviour he has found." The cause of God is thus prospering

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