-O Bob, what sounds were these-shall I ever hear his beloved voice again! I heard him say in sounds that angels cannot reach," Son, be of good cheer, thy sins, which are many, are all forgiven thee!" My heart burst with joy; I fell prostrate at his feet; I could not utter a word, but glory, glory, glory! The vision vanished, I fell back on my pillow -I opened my eyes-I was covered with perspiration-I said, Oh, this cannot be a dream. No, Bob, this is no vision, now I know my sins are pardoned-I know that Jesus bled and died for me-I can believe the promises, the many precious promises you have read to me out of the Bible, and I feel that the blood of the cross can even cleanse me. I an not now afraid to die; no, Bob, my sins are pardoned through Jesus. I want no more, I am now ready to die, I have no wish to live. I cannot, I feel I cannot, be many days longer on this side of eternity. The extreme agitation of my mind, of late, has increased the fever of my body, and I shall soon breathe my last. (The boy, who had silently shed many tears, now burst into a flood of sorrow, and involuntarily cried, "No, my dear master, don't leave me.") Bob, said he calmly, my dear boy, comfort your mind-I am happy-I am going to be happy for ever. I feel for you, my bowels yearn over you, as if you were my own child. I am sorry to leave you in such a wicked world, and with such wicked men as sailors are in general. O may you ever be kept from those crimes into which I have fallen. Your kindness to me, my dear lad, has been great :-God will reward you for it. To you I owe every thing, as an instrument in the Lord's hands! surely he sent you to me! God bless you, my dear boy; tell my crew to forgive me, as I forgive and pray for them." Thus the day passed in the most pleasing and profitable manner, when Bob, after reading the Bible as usual, retired to his hammock full of mercy and good fruit. Eager the next morning to meet again, Bob arose at daylight, and, opening the state-room door, saw his master had risen from his pillow, and crawled to the corner of his bed-place, where he beheld the cross.

There he appeared kneeling down in the attitude of prayer, his hands clapsed and raised, and his body leaning against the ship-side. The boy paused and waited a few moments, fearful of disturbing his master: at length he called, in a sort of whisper, master: no answer!-Master: no reply! He ventured to creep forward a little, and then said, master: all was silent! Again he cried, captain: silence reigned! He stretched out his hand and touched his leg; it was cold, and stiff, and clammy. He called again, captain: he raised his hand to his shoulder; he tenderly shook it. The position of the body was altered; it declined gently until it rested on the bed; but the spirit fled some hours before, to be with Christ, which is far better.

JOURNAL OF THE BETHEL FLAG.

(Continued from p. 158.)

S.

Monday, July 23.—According to appointment a prayer meeting was held last evening on board brig Hope,

Porter, master; the meeting was well attended-deck covered, and a number on the wharf; people perfectly orderly, solemn, and some much affected. Three pray

ers were offered, in which, mariners generally, and particularly the master, officers, and seamen of the Hope, were affectionately recommended to the providential care and forgiving mercy of the dear Redeemer. Three short addresses were delivered: one by Mr. Fay, a mariner. On the whole a very interesting time; to which it is earnestly hoped that God may add his blessing.

Tuesday evening, 24th July, 1821.-Prayer meeting was this evening on board the sloop Haxall, capt. Samuel Holmes, lying near the head of Coffee-House Slip.

The meeting was attended by a large number of seamen and others, the whole, including those standing on the adjoining wharf, were supposed to be not less than two hundred. The exercises were solemn and impressive-the audience silent and attentive. A number of Tracts were distributed among the seamen in the course of the evening, who received them with thankfulness. One of the seamen exhorted the association to persevere in the good work of praying with and for the seamen, for they did not know how much good they were doing.

The following exercises were performed: the 104th psalm was read; prayer and singing three times each, and four addresses; two of the addresses by members of the committee, and two of them by seamen.— One of the seamen, after reading the reply of our Saviour to Nicodemus, "marvel not," &c. testified his hope, that by the grace of God, since the commencement of this year, while at sea, he had experienced the new birth; that he was formerly a Roman Catholic. He exhorted his brother seamen to seek the Lord while he might be found, and call upon him while he was near.

The other seaman, who declared he was not a professor, very pathetically acknowledged the vanity and emptiness of all earthly pursuits, and commended the service of God, with faith in Christ, as the only solid foundation of comfort and happiness, for time, and for eternity. The exercises were short, but we trust that many experienced it was good to be there.

For the Seaman's Magazine.

A HYMN FOR SEAMEN.

1. SEAMEN, the God of Heaven adore;
Ye see the wonders of his power;
The deep affords a rich supply,
And all the star-bespangled sky.

P. H., Chairman.

2. When swiftly through the waves you glide,
Clothing your ship with naval pride,
Who gives the strong impelling breeze,
That wafts you safely o'er the seas?

3. When storms and hurricanes arise,
And clouds and darkness veil the skies,
Who bids the furious tempests blow?
He who hath power to lay you low.

4. When light returns, and o'er the skies
The sunbeams spread a thousand dies,
Think on that Sun whose mercy brings
Healing and life beneath his wings.

5. Compare the word and works of God,
Reveal'd and manifest abroad,

And you will find their doctrine true,
That makes his favour life to you.

6. The needle points you to the pole,
And yet it trembles, like the soul
That feels its guilt a heavy load,
When looking at a holy God.

7. But, tearful sailor, see the cross,
Where tears of blood made up thy loss;
And mark the flesh of Jesus, torn,
To heal the souls for sin that mourn.

8. And can a sailor's gen'rous heart,
Act the ungrateful, treach'rous part,
To turn his back on such a friend?
From such a course may Heav'n defend !

9. No! rather make his word your guide,
In Him, your pilot, still confide;
He'll lead you to that blissful shore,
Where storms and death are felt no more.

New-York, 31st July, 1821.

*NOTES.

Ver. 2-Psalm 1xxviii. 26.

Ver. 1-Psalm cvii. 23 to 32. Ver. 3-Jonah i. 4 to 17. Ver. 4-Malachi iv. 1, 2. Ver. 5-Psalm xxx. 5. lxiii. 3. Ver. 6-Isaiah lxvi. 1, 2. Luke xviii. 13. Ver. 7-Isaiah liii. 5, 6. Mark xv. 2 to end. Hebrews v. 7, 8, 9. Ver. 8-John vi. 66 to the end. Hebrews x. 29. Ver. 9-Luke viii. 24, 25. Matthew xiv. 24 to 34. Rev. vii. 16, 17.

NOTICE.-The United General Prayer Meeting will be held in the Mariners' Church, in Roosevelt-street, on Tuesday Afternoon, the 7th of August, at 4 o'clock. The object of this meeting is, to unite Christians of all denominations in supplicating the Throne of Grace for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit on this city.

Ministers of the Gospel particularly, and Christians generally, are invited to attend.

A CASE THAT MAY HAPPEN AGAIN.

THERE is a professing Christian in my neighbourhood, whom I have highly esteemed for her simplicity and pious example. Her condition in life is, indeed, far from being enviable. She is more than a widow, because deserted by her husband, who, but for his habits of intemperance, might have proved the friend and support of his large and helpless family. It is moreover her affliction to be left, like most other wives of intemperate husbands, under the pressure of disheartening poverty. Amidst these trials, however, she wears the cheerful countenance of one who finds not only her labours, but even her afflictions supportable, and a blessing to her. Indeed, I seldom meet with any person, who has been more uniformly contented and happy than she, except in the single instance which I am to relate.

Mrs. C., as I shall call her, is, by her education as well as her multiplied cares, excluded from an extensive intercourse with the world and knowledge of the christian operations, which, in our day, distinguish so many religious sects and individuals. Some persons of her acquaintance, to whom she is under personal obligations, but who were not altogether pleased with her religious creed, perhaps not with her being religious at all, lately took advantage of her want of information, to interrupt her mental tranquillity. They furnished her with several numbers, and finally with a volume, of a periodical work, whose object appears to be, to decry all true religion, under the ostensible design of reforming it. The editor pursues his object in a manner which is well calculated to entrap the ignorant and unwary. He professes himself most decidedly attached to pure religion; but then he is, on that very account the more shocked and grieved at its many counterfeits and corruptions; and he considers the general state of the church about as deplorable now, as it was during the middle ages. He labours to substantiate this opinion, by collecting the abuses which deform christianity on both sides of the Atlantic ;-confounds established with non-established religions; tells us of the venality or luxury of European Archbishops and American Presbyters ;-places the benevolent operations of Protestant Bible and Missionary Societies, on a level with the enterprises of the Jesuits; and discards Theological Seminaries and all other associations to educate pious young men for the christian ministry, as so many devices of interested Pharisees to fill the pulpit with learned and graceless_preachers. In preparing this medley, he artfully confounds VOL. VIII.

25

things of the most opposite characters; uncharitably magnifies and exposes whatever has the appearance of being faulty in different religious sects and individuals; and increases the mass by as many doubtful statements, dark surmises, and false assertions, as his object happens to demand. It could not be supposed that a person of Mrs. C.'s advantages, would be able to answer the calumnies and uncharitable conclusions of such a work. She was well persuaded, that such gross abuses and hypocrisy, did not exist in the particular congregation of which she was a member. She placed full confidence in the honest intentions of her own minister and of the other officers of the church. But neither could she suspect that a book, abounding with direct or implied professions of being devoted to pure christianity, and having for its object to reform almost every religious sect, was not both good and profitable. Her acquaintance too, who furnished her with it, being more conversant with the world, used their influence to complete the deception. Every new number received the sanction of their belief, and served to deepen the impression already made.

Well has the Saviour observed, that "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." There were in Mrs. C. a conscientious regard for the truth and a christian frankness, which would not permit her to conceal her sentiments on religious subjects. She providentially disclosed her recent views and feelings, at the moment when she was near losing her confidence, both in the christian exertions of this day of benevolence, and in the influences of the Holy Spirit, by which they are graciously accompanied; and renouncing "college learned" ministers, as being, in general, no better than gospel mechanics, who follow preaching as a trade and for hire. Her feet had even begun to turn aside from that house of God, in which she had found sweet peace, and been regularly instructed in her religious privileges and duties, for another, upon whose occupants, as a sect, the periodical work had bestowed few or no censures. Information of her case was immediately conveyed to the writer, who lost no time in paying her a friendly visit. I discovered upon entering the house the book, which had been principally instrumental in effecting the mischief, lying on the shelf over the fire-place, and perceived, or thought that I perceived, an unusual coldness in her manner of welcoming my visit. I however made known the occasion of my call, in as gentle and friendly a manner as possible; and proceeded immediately to discuss the cause of her recent perplexity. The process was simply to read a sufficient number of passages from the periodical work, and follow them with such strictures as they seemed to merit. I first noticed the spirit of the editor, which betrayed, throughout the book, a total want of that christian candour and humility, so highly becoming in all men, and especially in those, who assume the office of reformers of their brethren; and it presently appeared, that the author had offered his services to pull the mote out of another's eye, with a beam full in his own. I then proceeded to compare his statements and assertions with such facts as came within the circle of her knowledge; and to confront them with others, of whose truth she could indulge no rational doubt. The pleasing result was, that she was led to perceive the mistake into which she had been nearly betrayed, and returned, in a good measure, to her former quietness of mind, and charitable feelings towards the people of God, with whom she had connected herself. I could not,