and eloquently, it has no force or significancy apart from the doctrinal. The doctrines are the reasons of the precepts; they are the great facts upon which the precepts are founded. Without the doctrines the motives of the Gospel have no existence. Its appeals, its promises, its warnings, have no meaning. The Unitarian does away the divinity of Christ, and the fact of an atonement. Hence, in his scheme, there is no ground to trust in Christ as a Saviour, nor any peculiar reason for exalted love to him. The Universalist denies a future retribution to the wicked. Hence threatenings, invitations, commands, conditions, warnings against a doom which has no existence, promises of a state of blessedness as certain without conditions as with ;-all these, as motives, signify nothing. Paul preaching the great doctrines of retribution and an atonement, derives from them the most weighty motives to holy obedience. "For," says he, "we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men." And again, "The love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead; and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again." But how entirely are these motives, "the terror of the Lord," our final Judge, and "the love of Christ," our only Saviour, done away in the systems alluded to: they remove the doctrines of the Gospel and thus destroy its force.

The doctrines of the Gospel too, furnish the only foundation for all right affections of heart. What foundation is there for true christian humility, for instance, in the mind of one who is uninstructed as to the fact and the extent of his own sinfulness; who is not made to know that in him, that is, in his flesh, dwelleth no good thing that the carnal mind is enmity against God, and the heart deceitful above all things and desperately wicked? He never will be a truly penitent and humble man, till he is prepared for it by the doctrine of human depravity, but will be a Pharisee, thanking God that he is not as other men are, or like the young man, asking what he lacks yet. What foundation is there for faith, hope, love, submission, patience, zeal, but in those enlightening, subduing, inspiring truths, which alone can justify or produce such affections? Precepts alone, exhortations alone, “measures" alone, whether new or old, which in late years have been so much the subject of contention, will be wholly destitute of power, unless the preacher gives prominence and force to those great truths which constitute the peculiarity of "the faith once delivered to the saints,"-which respect the sovereignty of God, the unholiness, accountability, and eternal destinies of man, the mediation of Christ, the necessity of regeneration, faith, and repentance, and divine forgiveness through a divine Redeemer.

These truths are "the sword of the Spirit;" they are "the fire and the hammer which breaketh in pieces the flinty rock;" and without them preaching is vain. Without them the eloquence of Chalmers, as he himself so impressively told the world, may expand itself for twelve years, without effect.

His emphatic language upon this subject is, "I could expatiate on the meanness of dishonesty, on the villainy of falsehood, on the despicable arts of calumny, on all those deformities of character which awaken indignation against the pests and disturbers of human society. Now could I upon the strength of these expostulations, have got the thief to give up his stealing, and the liar his deviations from truth,-it never occurred to me that all this might have been done, and yet the soul of every hearer have remained in full alienation from God,-as destitute of the essence of religious principle as ever. But the interesting fact is, that during the whole of that period, in which I made no attempt against the enmity of the carnal mind to God, I certainly did press the reformations of honor, and truth, and integrity, among my people, but I never once heard of any such reformations being effected. I am not sensible that all the vehemence with which I urged the virtues and proprieties of social life, had the weight of a feather on the moral habits of my parishioners." And the experience of this eminent preacher is so distant from novelty that it only goes to support a sentiment which accords with universal facts, that belief affects practice, and consequently doctrinal is the best practical preaching.

The Puritans firmly believed and clearly exhibited the doctrines of grace, and consequently, as President Porter observed, "there was an awful contrast between their morality and that of those who rejected the evangelical system." So obvious is the reforming influence of this system, that even infidel writers do not hesitate to affirm that those who "hold the doctrines of grace" have less apparent conformity to the world, and more of a principle of real religion than the advocates of mere preceptive christianity; and, moreover, that they who, from a principle of religion, ascribe more to God and less to man than others, have the greatest elevation of piety.

BY REV. EDMUND NEVILLE, D.D.,

RECTOR OF ST. THOMAS' CHURCH, NEW-YORK.

A PLEA FOR SEAMEN.*

"They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters."-Psalm cvii, 23.

THESE are the persons in whose behalf I am to speak this evening. Their friends are every where endeavoring to awaken the attention of the public to the claims of seamen on the prayers, the sympathies, and the benevolence of their fellow creatures. They are persuaded, that information upon this subject is all that is required to secure from Christians the same concern about the spiritual and temporal welfare of sailors, that they manifest in regard to all other members of the human family; and it is owing to this desire to spread this information as widely as possible from the pulpit, as well as from the press, that I have been called upon to address you upon the present occasion.

I. You may perhaps think it strange that I should observe in the first place, with respect to sailors, that they are human beings.

This cloquent discourse was first preached in the city of Philadelphia, January 25, 1846, in behalf of the Pennsylvania Seamen's Friend Society. It was repeated about three years ago, in the city of New York. In both cities numerous auditors gave most hearty responses to its excellence by large donations to the Seamen's cause. The Editor of this work takes great pleasure in being able to present to his readers, both in America and Europe, so excellent a Sermon on this subject; and hopes its publication will still more extensively and deeply interest the minds of the Christian public in the welfare of Seamen, and result in increased contributions for their benefit.

But the neglect which they have met with from their fellow creatures seems to make that observation necessary. Obliged from the nature of their calling to be wanderers on the face of the earth, and to spend a large proportion of their lives on the solitary deep-never staying long in one place, and separated from landsmen by the uncongeniality existing between their pursuits and habits, they have been forgotten-being out of sight, they have been out of mind. A few years ago you could scarcely find in the catalogue of Christian charities one of them devoted to seamen's interests, and even now those interests are only beginning to attract attention. I observe, therefore, that they are human beings, of the same flesh and blood as ourselves, and on that ground alone entitled to our sympathies. It is a spurious benevolence that limits its regards to peculiar objects. Connected by the link of a common brotherhood, we should feel for all who are comprehended in the fraternal chain. The orphan, the widow, the aged, the sick, the blind, the poor, and the ignorant, should not be allowed to engross our sympathies. It is not only the necessities of this or of that class of men that should awaken our compassion, but the necessities of all. The benevolence of God, which as being perfect, should regulate the benevolence of his creatures, is expansive. It shines like the sun upon the good and upon the evil; it descends like the rain upon the just and upon the unjust. And redeeming love is equally comprehensive" Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,"-not sinners of any particular class, but sinners of all classes; and as every sinner in distress excites his compassion, so every fellow creature in distress should excite ours. Sailors are human beings.

II. I observe again that they are Immortal beings.

This gives them their highest claim to our compassion. To clothe the naked, to feed the hungry, to console the miserable and to relieve the indigent, are charitable objects, but they are not the most exalted objects of human charity; and for this reason they are not the most important-the highest object of charity is that which has absorbed the solicitudes of Heaven; which has excited in the bosom of every angel and archangel about the throne the deepest interest; which has awakened the sympathies of the Son of God to such a pitch as to make him willing to die for its relief. The sonl is the highest object of charity. What comparison is there between the worth of the soul and that of the body? The soul, with its vast powers, and the body, with its feeble capacities; the soul, with its endless existence, and the body, with its brief duration; the soul, with its untold destinies, and the body, with its paltry interests. The salvation of a single soul would be a higher act of benevolence than to abolish all the physical suffering and to dispel all the mental darkness that exists in the world; because the salvation of that soul would secure its

happiness, not only for the brief space allotted to us in this life, but forever and ever. And the noblest Christian charities of the day are founded upon this principle. The societies for furnishing every nation under heaven with the word of God in its own tongue, the societies for the propagation of the gospel in foreign parts, the societies for sending missionary heralds into heathen landsthey are all founded upon the principle that the value of the soul gives it a claim upon our sympathies, and exertions, and prayers, far exceeding that of any other charitable object whatever. And if so, whence this neglect of those who go down to the sea in ships? Is one soul more valuable than another, that we charter vessels to send preachers and Bibles into distant countries, whilst we make no effort for the conversion of those by whom they are navigated? Are the souls of Hottentots and Caffres of more esteem than the souls of seamen? The truth is, my brethren, that the benevolence of many is too much regulated by fancy and too little by principle. The conversion of cannibals and barbarians, who celebrate their detestable orgies before hideous idols is an enterprise so fraught with romance and heroism, so full of sentiment and adventure, that in comparison, the claim of seamen appears to be an insipid subject. But fancy is no fit umpire in this cause. The principle is the thing by which we should be governed, and that teaches us that a soul ready to perish, whether it be the soul of the barbarian or the Greek, the Jew or the Gentile, the bond or the free, is equally precious. With the strangest inconsistency men have associated for the prevention of cruelty to animals, whilst the souls of seamen were allowed to perish. They have forgotten altogether that seamen have souls, and leaving those souls to die, they have busied themselves in relieving the sufferings of the horse and the dog. I am far from insinuating any thing to the disparagement of other charities. Benevolence, as has been already observed, cannot be too extensive. We only complain that it has not been extensive enough, that whilst it has groaned over the degradation of the idolater, and has even condescended to weep over the sufferings of the brute, it has scarcely so much as cast its eye upon the distress of the seaman. Are his numbers then so small as to have caused the oversight? On the contrary, there are two millions of sailors in the worldthere are one hundred and fifty thousana in your own land. Are numbers like these so insignificant as to escape notice or deserve neglect? Deserve neglect! I recall that expression. If there were but one soul in danger of perdition, if, excepting one soul, the entire population of the globe were converted to Christ-it would be an achievement worthy of the ambition of all the rest -it would be a deed honorable to their benevolence--it would be an exploit that would cover them with glory and make heaven ring with the songs and acclamations of angels to snatch that one soul from destruction. Sailors are immortal beings.