66 Ministers' Prayer Meetings for Sailors at Penzance and the World. The winter is a season that most especially demands of all ministers and praying men, women, and children, that they should determine to devote themselves to special prayer for them" that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; their soul is melted, because of trouble." Psalm cvii. More particularly at this time, when "they reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wit's end." They are sailors and soldiers, passengers and emigrants, going to and coming from the nations of the earth. The dangers from storms and tempests, rocks and quicksands, shipwreck and general sea casual. ties, render all who embark upon the sea as possessing a demand for special prayer, and especially in the winter season. The first Christian ministers said, 66 we will give ourselves continually unto prayer." Acts vii. And the apostle wrote, by divine inspiration, saying, "I exhort therefore, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men." 1 Timothy ii. When, "there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken. Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man to his God; but Jonah," a distinguished minister, was gone down to the sea, and was fast asleep, "So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, Arise, call upon thy God, if so be that he will think upon us, that we perish not" Jonih i. Thus when the persons on board a ship that had with them other little ships, were embarked on the sea, and there arose a great storm of wind and waves, so that it was like to be broken," and Jesus being with them, they cried unto him, "Master, carest thou not that we perish?" and he arose, and the wind ceased, and they said, " The wind and the sea obey him." Mark iv. Thus the primitive ministers of Christianity "finding a ship sailing over unto Phonecia, went aboard," and after landing at Tyre, and worshipping God with di-ciples, they departed, and all the pious friends of the Christian church there, the minister said concerning them," they brought us on our way with wives and children, till we were out of the city, and we kneeled down on the shore and prayed, and when we had taken our leave, we look ship, and they returned home again." Aets xvi. Now, if Paul so often concluded his excellent and pious letters, saying, Brethren, " pray for us," surely all that are embarked upon the sea may cry aloud to all who live on the shore, with all the comforts of ministers, churches, and congregations, and intreat, say. ing, 'Pray for us," as they have families on the land, as fathers and mothers, wives and children, brothers and sisters, relations and friends. Sailors in particular may also say to this nation, Pray for us;" for they embark in the ships of the navy to detend all the mansions, stores, manufactories, shops, houses, churches and chapels, of the kingdom; and they trade with world-wide commerce for all things imported and exported, for the support, convenience, and comfort of all, and for the revenue, to maintain the Queen, the Government, and also the nation at large; and all the Bible, Missionary, Tract, aud benevolent Societies; and for all the salaries, food, and clothing, of gospel mintsters: for it is written of the greatest commercial country, "Her merehandise and her 66 hire shall be for them that dwell before the Lord, to eat sufficiently and for durable clothing." Isaiah xxii. I have attended our weekly prayer. meetings, by ministers, members, end hearers of all denominations, in this town of Penzance, Cornwall, at the Union Hall, Prince's Street, and at the Guildhall, and at the large assembly room of the Union Hall, and at the noble capacious Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, Penzance, and I heard ministers and friends zealously pray at each meeting, but I have never yet heard prayer specially for sailors and others in ships, although we have had dreadful shipwrecks all round our coasts from the Land's End, and I have therefore written the following ; Preachers and Christian brethren of the Christian Church, you know that David, a landsman, included sailors, with travellers, sick persons, and prisoners, in his prayers, and "they that go down to the sea in ships that do business in great waters,,' saying that all persons thus embarked are in most extraordinary dangers and deaths at sea, and that for their deliverance they are bound to praise the Lord for his goodness, and exalt him in the congregation," when they are preserved in answer to prayer. But, alas, their dangers on shore are greater than at sea, from templers and temptations to drunkenness and vice. Surely, then, they should be specially mentioned in your paayers. Dr. Ashley told Earl Shaftesbury, at a public meeting in London, that he pleaded for wind bound ships and sailors in the Bristol Channel," and a nobleman said, "I have nothing to do with sailors." The doctor enquired who brought him tea and sugar, coffee and cocoa for breakfast, or teas? Thus we are all indebted to sailors, as instruments, for imports and exports; and Christian missions through the world. Surely we should pray for them. The dreadful shipwreck of the Royal Charter, when some hundreds have perished, men, women, and children, teach us also that fathers and inothers, wives and families, on shore, are also deeply concerned in dangers and shipwrecks at sea, and on all seacoasts; and our defence, as a na. tion, with all the trade and commerce and intercourse with alt countries is connected with sailors who are so endangered at sea, and so many ruined on shore. Therefore compassion, sympathy, prayer, and hope, are duties with us,-and this is Lord's-day, December 4th, It blows a storm at sea; sailors on the ocean and in windbound ships on our sea coast, cannot attend the house of God, but you and your families and friends will have this privilege. O, then, think of your enjoyments and your obligations to sailors (under God); for it is said of a great commercial country, "Her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before the Lord, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing." Coals, necessaries, comforts, incomes, salaries, ships, collonies, trade, and commerce, and world-wide navigation intelligence, render you the greatest of all the nations; so that, as Moses said of Zebulon, the sailors' tribe, " They shall suck of the abundance of the sea, and of treasurns hid in the sand.' Deat. xxxiii. And you know it is the promise of God to the church of Jesus Christ:-"Then thou shalt see and flow together, and be enlarged. Because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee." Isai. And it was promised by Almighty God, of Zebulon, the sailors' tribe, 24 Penzance Prayer Meetings, and Temperance Invitations. by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee, of the nations that "the people who sat in darkness " would see 66 a Lord Jesus Christ has set us all an example; for leaving Nazareth, he great light" and the came and dwelt in Capernaum, upon the seacoast, in the borders of Zebulon, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaius the prophet, the land of Zebulon, by the way of the sea, the people who sat in darkness saw great light; and it follows," From that time began to preach; and Jesus walking by the sea of Galilee, saw Peter and An drew; and he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men; and straightway they left their nets and followed him." Matt. Here, then, is the bright and glorious example of Jesus Christ, that we should, in Penzance and through the British empire and the world, de vote special attention to sailors, and all at sea with them, by our prayers and our exertions to do good to them and their families, that they may do good to the nation and the world, by the grace of God. Penzance Prayer Meetings and Temperance Invitations. The worthy, respectable Dissenting and Wesleyan Methodist ministers of three chapels in Penzance, have piously and fervently held their united prayer meeting this week, December 8th, but as they decline to invite or conduct a glorious temperance meeting, the National Temperance League, and the United Kingdom Alliance, must consider that they do not think total abstinence from all intoxicating drinks is an impe. rative duty, to practise personally, and to promote generally, by their example and advocacy. Therefore they do not invite Dr. Mudge, of Bodmin, or any advocate of temperance, to come forward in their Baptist, Independent, or Wesleyan Chapels, to urge abstaining from strong drink, and the liquor traffic prohibition. Should all the evangelical ministers of Cornwall decline also to promote the Temperance Moral Reform, this county may be published through the world as objecting to the operations and agencies of the League and the Alliance. It will thus be for the nation and the world, and the church, to consider that it is supposed religion and morals, ministers, churches, congregations, and cities, towns, and villages, do not require total abstinence from all intoxicating drinks, to prevent vice and immorality, and to do good to men, women, and children, and to glorify God. Therefore the non-appearance of the dissenting and methodist ministers of Penzance publicly and zealously to advocate, practise, and promote total abstinent temperance, may encourage all who object to this temperance movement, except in what is called moderation. Importers, merchants, distillers, brewers, buyers, and sellers, may thus be stimulated to practise the national drinking customs moderately, with English and foreign persons and families. It remains now to be seen whether teetotallers in Penzance will still advocafe total abstinence from conviction, experieuce, and general usefulness. Christmas is coming. How many souls will now be ruined by intemperance. Let, then, the public invitation that has been printed and distributed around to the numerous shops of Penzance, be repeated once more. Perhaps the ministers will come forward. December 12, 1859. The following is the Invitation above referred to : Penzance Temperance Prayer Meeting Union Blessings now. The minister of Clarence Street Baptist Chapel, and the minister of Market jew Street, Independent Chapel, and the ministers of Chapel Street, Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, are earnestly and respectfully entreated to advocate and personally promote at the Union Hall, Prince's Street, next week, after the Prayer Meeting, a blessed and glorious Temperance Meeting, as an example to all the church, dissent, and methodist ministers of Cornwall, for the blessing of Almighty God, and the good of mankind, by the National Temperance League, in London, and the United Kingdom Alliance, at Manchester. The zealous and worthy medical advocate, Dr. Mudge, of Bodmin, can be most anxiously invited to preside. Then will the ministers of Cornwall be like John the Baptist, of whom the Angel said to Zacharias-" He shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink, and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, and many shall he turn to the Lord; and he shall go before him, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." Luke i. Messrs. Barnett. Allen and Lord, and their brethren, will thus proclaim glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, and good-will toward men. The town missionaries, as evangelical temperance advocates, will also thus greatly add to their "hopeful conversions," and be faithful unto death, in prospect of the crown of life, by grace. Shall this be? December 4th, 1859. The Wine Temperance Command of God for all. "Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel, Go and tell the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Will ye not receive instruction to hearken to my words? saith the Lord. The words of Jonadab, the son of Rechab, that he commanded his sons not to drink wine are performed: for unto this day they drink none;" saying, "Thus have we obeyed the voice of our father to drink no wine all our days, we, our wives, our sons, nor our daughters." "Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Because ye have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab, your father, therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel, Jonadab, the son of Rehab, shall not want a man to stand before me for ever." Jeremiah xxxv. What a suitable and blessed prohibition was this of Jonadab, a most eminent man, at the head of a great body of people, who, three hundred years before this, considered it an essential positive duty, for the good of all these families, that they should drink no wine; and this must have been respecting an intoxicating wine; for Noah, after all the wonderful mercies to him and his family at the deluge, yet he fell! "He drank of the wine, and was drunken." Gen. xix. And Lot, also, after the amazing deliverance of him and his daughters from the flames of Sodom and Gomorrah, yet when" he dwelt in a cave he and his two daughters, and the firstborn said unto the younger, Come and let us make our father drink wine; and they made their father drink wine that night," and he fell also, after all his mercies, and his posterity suffered by his alarming wine drinking sins. Moses, on the brink of eternity, near the swellings of Jordan,"called unto all Israel, and said unto them, Ye have seen all D 26 The Wine Temperance Command of God for all. that the Lord did before your eyes; and I have led you forty years in the Wilderness: neither have ye drank wine or strong drink." Deut. xxix. Now, after reading those scriptures, and having spent 55 years in the ministry, accustomed to all the associations of gospel ministers, families, churches, and congregations, in England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, and having read Isaiah xxviii., I knew, by experience and observation, that concerning many worthy and excellent ministers and members there have been, and are now, many painful cases respecting which it may be said of some, that "they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink; and it has been manifest of otherwise worthy men, that "The priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink: They are out of the way through strong drink. They err in vision; they stumble in judgment." I have therefore had it powerfully impressed upon my mind this morning, December 2nd, 1859, that I might adopt the language of Paul, and say to each minister of the gospel and member of the church of Christ, that "though I might be much bold in Christ to enjoin thee that which is convenient, yet, for love's sake, I rather beseech thee being such an one as Paul the aged." "Philemon," I beseech thee, therefore, to consider the impressions now upon my mind, that it is the solemn duty of us all, as ministers and professors of religion, to hear and consider that God Almighty says, in the case of Jonadab's decision and advice and admonition, "Will ye not receive instruction?" The very eminent, learned, and pious commentator of the sacred scriptures, wrote and published in his "Exposition; with practical observations of the book of the prophet Jeremiah, published July, 1712, nearly one hundred and fifty years ago, "That Jonadab was a man famous for his wisdom and piety. He flourished in the days of Jehu, king of Israel, nearly three hundred years before the case of the Rechabites. Now we are told what the rules of living were which Jonadab by his will left in writing, charging his children and his posterity throughout all generations religiously to observe. They were such as he himself had all his days observed. He forbade them to drink wine. It is a commendable piece of self-denial not to use it at all. Temperance, self-denial, and mortifica tion to the world, do very much befriend the exercise of piety, and help to transmit the observance of them to posterity. The more dead we are to the delights of sense, the better we are disposed for the service of God." "They drank no wine. Their wives and children drank no wine; for they that are temperate themselves, should take care that all under their charge are so too." The pious and celebrated Dr. Gill, in the large volume of his Scripture Commentary, published at London, in 1810, says :-" An order to bring the Rechabites into the temple, which was done wine is set before them to drink, which they refuse, alleging the command of their father to the contrary, which they carefully and constantly obeyed. Wherefore the Lord promises the sons of Rechab that there should be always some of them who shonld minister unto him, verses 18, 19. Now this family was brought to the temple, as some think, to reproach the priests for their intemperance." Dr. Gill says, respecting the command to drink no wine by Jonadab, his sous thought |