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our country to greatness in commerce, had marked out this city as the emporium of the western hemisphere. By commerce she had risen to what she now isand if she was yet farther to extend-if we were to see house rising after house, and street extending after street, it must be effected by the instrumentality of our seamen. If ever there was a city bound, by ties at once of duty, gratitude, and interest, to cherish the seamen's cause, this was that city. Their claim, he said, received additional force, when we considered the peculiar exposure of their lives to danger. When we contemplate them parting, for years together, from wives and children, whom they never may embrace again, leaving the comforts of home and country-keeping their lonely watch amidst surrounding darknessswept by storms-surrounded by the raging ocean-bearing the alternations of heat and cold-oppressed by premature old age, and still hastening to some sudden death-and then reflect on their destitution of all religious privileges, how can we refrain from pity and from prayer?

The day of grace is to all men short-but to the sailor it seems, (if the expression will be allowed me,) but the fragment of a day. Whole months pass over them without one sabbath's holy rest-without one sound of Gospel mercy. But this shall not always be so. The Star of Bethlehem is lifting its cheering light upon the gloomy solitude of the ocean-the peace of Jesus, borne in the seaman's bosom through all its storms, shall give him the sabbath's rest in every clime. Let us lead the poor wanderers to Him who may reveal himself to them, walking on the waters, and saying to them: "It is I, be not afraid." But ah, sir, of those thirty thousand who, in the last year, perished in the British seas alone, how few, it is to be feared, heard this cheering voice in the hour of their extremity! Oh how ought we to feel, when we reflect that of these very sufferers, hundreds once trod our shores, nay walked these very streets, but nobody spoke to them of Jesus or his salvation.

The character of the sailor has ever been distinguished for warm and ardent feelings-whatever the storms may have done to his face, they have never given callousness to his heart; and while, in their hitherto neglected condition, this made them but the easier and the surer victims of temptation, did it not present the prospect that they would be the more deeply affected by the truth, when it shall be presented to them? The sailor's heart, sir, is a soil for the very best fruits of Christian grace-when they do feel the Gospel they feel it deeply. It is but this day that I read of one in the last stage of wasting disease, who dies a martyr to his zeal in the Bethel cause-vain was every attempt to repress its excess--to every remonstrance his reply was this, "that life my Master gave, shall be spent and offered in his service." Thus, sir, we have already seamen for martyrs. But these are only the first fruits-all shall yet be brought inthe Bible has promised their conversion-the ships of Tarshish are to be enlisted in the service of Immanuel. Till then, the millenium will linger on its way. A corrupted and guilty mass of seamen, are like a great gulf fixed between us and the heathen world-this must be removed-God's Spirit must come down on the mighty waters, and then from the rivers to the ends of the earth. That lovely and liberal spirit is indeed sending the word of life far and near; but the machinery of the missionary cause will never be complete, till our mariners become Christians-then truth will spread with the rapidity of the morning. May God bless this society-among the first that advocated the seamen's cause. You are dogreat things. Go on, sir, and aid the conversion of the world.-If those associations deserve our praise who are providing for the protection of the destitute from the inclemency of the season, what shall be said to men who go on hoping against hope, and gathering poor outcasts into the kingdom of the Redeemer ? Sir, the day is coming when your labours of love shall be known-your deeds shall be proclaimed before the universe. When seamen and landsmen shall together be gathered in one vast assembly, and the Judge of both shall render to every man according to his work, what will be your joy when you behold seamen, in countless numbers, going up to take their places on the right-hand of the Judge, and remember that the Bethel Union of New-York was the means, through God's grace, of calling them into the kingdom of life eternal!

The Rev. JOHN TRUAIR offered the following:

Resolved, That the success which, under the blessing of Providence, has followed the exertions of Bethel Union Societies in England and America, calls for increased and persevering efforts in this benevolent enterprise

In accompanying this resolution with some very appropriate and pungent remarks, the Rev. gentleman adverted, in the commencement of his speech, to the name of the society; which led back the thoughts to a wandering pilgrim, flying from the persecuting hand of a brother, who lay down in the open plain, and taking the stones of the wilderness for pillows, there dreamed that he beheld the glory of God and the way to heaven. And rising from his slumber, he set up the stone for a pillar, and called the place "BETHEL," "a house for God." Little did Jacob then think that his words would form the motto of such a society as this! whoever adopts them, acknowledges the being and the presence of Him whom Jacob worshipped. Whoever goes to a Bethel meeting, acknowledges, by the very act, the presence of God in that meeting. Yes, sir, God is present wherever the Bethel flag is hoisted-present to bless in terror and in affliction-present to protect in danger aud to defend from persecuting enemies, (a sense to which no doubt poor Jacob had especial regard when he gave the name.) No matter where it be-it is the same God-whether it be at Luz or in the temple at Jerusalem, or in a sailor's boarding house, or on board his ship-and whoever goes to a Bethel prayer meeting, goes professedly to meet him there. And I rejoice, sir, that so many have met God. We have heard the praises of him who brought them from darkness to light, in a Bethel prayer meeting. Much has been done at Bethel meetings-and, sir, these things plainly show that the Bethel Union is yet destined to become a birth place for the souls of men-and no doubt, sir, in that day when we shall all give an account how we have treated sailors, we shall meet with many who can look back to a Bethel meeting as the place where they received the light of eternal day. Therefore, sir, I move the following-(here the Rev. gentleman read the words of the resolution.)

Something, it is true, has been done in this cause-but the efforts you have made, the conquests you have gained, do but open a more extended field. And in this remark I have no reference to foreign shores. I confine my meaning to our own country: nay more, sir, I confine it to this city. Our own city presents sufficient work for us all. Say you have at present sixteen thousand seamen : and suppose you have in port at one time five thousand. How many attend a Bethel meeting? One hundred is more than the average number; but allowing one hundred, and you want fifty Bethel meetings; allow two hundred, and you will want twenty-five a week to give them one religious opportunity weekly. But, sir, an awakened sailor wants more than one meeting a week. Consider, sir, how short a time he remains in port after being absent for months, perhaps for a year, perhaps for two, three, or four years. Does he not want more than one meeting, sir? It may, indeed, be said, that if you had ever so many more meetings the sailors would not attend. But, sir, you can seek them out. Let us only feel their need of the bread of life. Feeling is wanting-labour is wanting-self-denial is wanting-prayer and efforts are wanting-money is wanting-but this, sir, will not be wanting long when that self-denial is practised, which it becomes the disciples of Jesus to practise, to rescue from damnation so many precious and perishing souls. Let but these things be felt as they ought to be, and all difficulties will vanish before you. New-York may be pre-eminent in this good work. You have wealth in abundance-you have seamen in abundance, who helped you to get it you have twenty thousand professors of the Gospel. Cannot two or three hundred, out of all these, be found, who are willing to redeem a little time for God? Seek out such, and see if you may not have twenty, if you will not have fifty meetings; and plenty of ships and plenty of boarding houses to receive you. Let but Christians feel-le. them lean upon the Lord, and the Lord will help them-and when you die, others will rise up in your place, and raise the Bethel flag, and maintain the Bethel cause, till a glorious company of sailors saved, shall meet and welcome us in the day of judgment.

The motion was seconded by the Rev. Dr. SPRING. The Rev. Speaker did not wholly concur in the strain of congratulation which seemed to animate some who had gone before him. He was not indeed destitute, he said, of common sympathy for this class of men. His heart blessed God for what had been done. But while the society report spread before his eye a serries of facts on the subject, which were on the whole encouraging, that very report contained the evidence that comparatively but little had been done. There seemed to be a disposition in the friends of this cause, on both sides of the Atlantic, to magnify the amount of the efforts made; he regretted to observe this-his conscience would not permit him

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to go forward with a prospect that in fact does not exist. The solemn fact was, I would not derogate, said Dr. S. that but little had as yet been done for seamen. from the merits of any; but, sir, I look at the future world. I have been, I confess, long under the impression that, in the progress of truth through our world, sailors would be the very last-born of mankind, who might be expected to be converted. The Bible, indeed, (especially in the very apposite passages which have already been adverted to,) does promise that they shall be brought in; but, sir, there are awful difficulties in the way. The great mass of seafaring men care no more about God and Jesus Christ-about heaven or hell-than so many men taken from the lowest depths of heathenism. I make my appeal especially to those masters of vessels who are before me, for the truth of this remark. I know there are exceptions, but I do verily believe, that in attempting the conversion of seamen, this society is called to expend its strength in bringing the Gospel to a class of men more hostile to the doctrines and duties of godliness, than any on the face of our globe. It is a melancholy fact, that sailors, in general, are most deplorably ignorant. Go where you will, you find it so. I know, indeed, that the officers of ships are frequently among the most intelligent of men-but it is far otherwise with their crews. And when, in addition to this weight of ignorance, we think upon the temptations to which they are continually exposed, a new and awful obstacle presents itself. Why, sir, if a man had the heart of a Paul, and was constantly circumstanced as they are, it would be a miracle if his did not become the heart of a Judas in the end. I tremble even for good men, when so tempted. We all know that a great mass of surrounding sin, even when we are not actual partakers in it, has a native tendency to blunt and paralyze the conscience. Seamen, whether at sea or on shore, are continually thus surrounded-they have the opportunity of losing sight of all moral obligation. Then, sir, there is something about the maritime character itself, which still increases the difficulty. That very hardihood and heroism, which is so often the subject of eulogy, and which leads the sailor to brave danger, and face the mouth of the cannon, has a natural tendency to steel the breast against the terrors of the law. No man who knows and feels the worth of his soul, is or can be insensible to danger-he dare not despise it. Great, however, as the difficulties are, they are far from excusing the conduct of Christians toward this unhappy class of men. It makes me shudder to reflect how we have all neglected them. What do we not owe to their services? In this view, sir, their brows should be crowned with perpetual laurels-but our conduct in return has amounted nearly to this-" if they are saved, it is well-and if they go to hell, it is well." Fondly flattering ourselves, that we were exercising submission to the divine sovereignty, we have stood, in worse than stoical indifference, over their ruin, and while they were damned before our view, we have satisfied our pious hearts by saying: "God's will be done." Sir, we have acted as if there was some impossibility in the wayas if God could have no design to save them--or considering that he has promised that the abundance of the sea shall be gathered unto God. Had it not been so, could I have pointed you to one striking fact now before us all? I mean, that at such a meeting as this, when we have reared the Bethel flag on purpose to let seamen know what God is doing on their behalf; after notice, too, of this has been fully published; in all these seats there should scarce one sailor be seen?

I do not say these things to discourage-but to stimulate. The work is great :it is not to be accomplished by congratulating ourselves that we have done our duty; nothing but heavy, steady labour will or can accomplish it. It is a truth, that seamen, almost universally, are ready and willing to receive the Bible. Will you pardon me, if I say a few words in relation to my own observation on this point? It was lately my privilege to attempt the distribution of that blessed book among some of them. The Bibles were not only received, but kind and grateful feeling was manifested-there was evident eagerness to receive the books-the men pressed upon each other, and hand was reached out over hand to be first in the reception of them. The scene was such as sent us back to our cabin with thanksgiving to God, that there was still some hope for seamen. One man, in particular, on being asked whether he had a Bible in his possession, promptly answered: "a Bible, sir? I should as soon think of going to sea without the mainmast."

The distribution of religious tracts also promises to be of use among them. These winged messengers will find their way to their hammocks, and, in an unlooked for hour, may reach their hearts. There is something in the habits of seamen, with respect to the evening that precedes the sabbath, that exerts a very unhappy

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