pointing out the hymn, &c. And not unfrequently have I witnessed these ladies, as I entered the chapel, moving among the sailors, like ministering angels, distributing books, or tracts, or giving some good advice, speaking a kind word, or, if nothing more, a gentle nod of the head, accompanied with a welcome benignant look, as much as to say, 'we are your friends, feel yourselves at home. O how heavenly! how angelic! such acts of condescending benevolence appear, when contrasted with that fastidious disgusting pride, that betrays itself in the scornful look, the curling lip, or tossing of the head, when assembled among those of inferior rank,”

HOME DEPARTMENT.

SUNDAY SCHOOL ANNIVERSARY.

The Anniversary Meeting of the Society's Sunday Schools, was held on Tuesday Evening, the 16th ult., when the Rev. R. Ferguson, the Secretary of the Parent Institution presided. There was a numerous assembly, and the engagements were highly interesting.

The Report, which from its facts and details produced 'a most delightful impression, exhibited that there had been during the past year, a considerable accession to the ranks of the Teachers, that many more names have been entered on the School roll;that the internal state of the Institution was truly encouraging; -that there had been the most pleasing instances of positive good among the children, and that there was every thing to animate and encourage both the Teachers and Directors, as well as the friends and supporters of the Institution.

1

The Meeting was addressed by the Rev. Messrs. Drummond, Hyatt, Upton, and Wallis; Messrs. Hayward, Benson, Ward, and Palmer, and Capt. Kell.

We cannot but hope that the results of the School will be visible, not only among the children, but among the parents, and in that dark and benighted neighbourhood in general.

THE CABINET.

DUTY OF SUBMISSION TO THE WILL OF GOD.

"Suppose that the members of our bodies, instead of being controlled by the will of the head, had each a separate independent will of its own; would they not in this case become useless and even mischievous? Something like this, you are sensible, occasionally takes place. In certain diseases, the members seem to escape from the control of the will, and act as if they were goWhen this is the case, verned by a separate will of their own. terrible consequences often ensue. The teeth shut suddenly and violently, and lacerate the tongue; the elevated hands beat the face and other parts of the body? the feet refuse to support it; and it rolls in the dust, a melancholy and frightful spectacle. Such effects we call convulsions. There are convulsions in the moral as well as the natural world, and they take place when the will of man refuses to be controlled by the will of God.

"Did all men submit cordially to his will, then they would live together in love and harmony; and, like the members of a healthy body, would all promote each other's welfare, and that of the whole system. But they have refused to obey his will, and have set up their own wills in opposition to it; and what has been the consequence? Convulsions,-most terrible convulsions,—which have in ten thousand thousand instances led one member of this great body to injure another; and not only disturbed, but almost destroyed the peace of society. What are wars, insurrections, revolutions? what are robberies, piracies, murders, but convulsions in the moral world? convulsions which would never have occurred, had not the will of man refused to submit to the will of God. And never will these convulsions cease, never will universal love, and peace, and happiness prevail, until the rebellious will of man shall again submit to the controlling will of God, and his will shall be done on earth as it is in heaven.

"If all mankind could be persuaded to say, 'Not as I will but as thou wilt,' as sincerely as Christ said it, sin would that moment

cease to exist in the world. God and men would be perfectly reconciled, and his will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. Yes, let every human being only say to God with his whole heart, 'Not my will but thine be done,' and holiness and happiness would instantly fill the world; men would be embodied angels, and earth would become a sublunary heaven."-Payson.

Poetry.

EARTH AND HEAVEN.

[The following Verses are taken from Watts's Lyrics.]

In vain we seek a heaven below the sky,
The world has false, but flattering charms:
Its distant joys show big in our esteem,
But lessen still as they draw near the eye:
In our embrace the visions die,
And when we grasp the airy forms
We lose the pleasing dream.

Earth with her scenes of gay delight,
Is but a landscape rudely drawn,
With glaring colours and false light:
Distance commends it to the sight,
For fools to gaze upon:

But bring the nauseous daubing nigh,
Coarse and confused the hideous figures lie,—

Dissolve the pleasure, and offend the eye!

Look up, my soul! up to the eternal hills :

Those heavens are fairer than they seem:

There pleasures, all sincere, glide on in crystal rills,—
There not a dreg of guilt defiles,

Nor grief disturbs the stream:

That Canaan knows no noxious thing;

No cursed soil,-no tainted spring ;

Nor roses grow on thorns,-nor honey wears a sting!

MONTHLY CHRONICLE

OF THE

British and Foreign Sailors' Society.

In recording the transactions of another month, we beg to call special attention to the statements in the Reports, relative to the actual condition of our Metropolitan Seaman's Boarding Houses. We feel it to be a most sacred duty to bring this subject again and again before our readers. The influence under which the sailor is brought in these abodes, is most prejudicial to the more favourable elements of his character. Unless another and an opposite agency is brought to bear upon him, he always leaves them the worser man, with his moral feelings more blunted, with his conscience more seared, and, consequently, in a condition more likely to be involved in ruin-present and eternal. It would therefore, of itself, constitute an era in the history of our Navy, were some effective plan laid by individuals intimately acquainted with the system of crimping as it is now carried on, and were it to be taken up and supported with sufficient spirit, by an enlightened public, by which the sailor might be rescued from these dens of infamy, -escape the hands of the crimp, be informed where he may find suitable accommodation, be left to choose his own residence, be allowed to retain and lay out his own little property, and in every legitimate way have it in his power to enjoy himself as a rational and social being. This done, we may then hope well for the sailor. His ultimate reformation is rendered more certain. Nor is it to be doubted, that, in a thousand instances, the

character would become distinguished by whatsoever is "pure, and lovely, and of good report."

There is another point to which we must be permitted to refer, and it is what we have already frequently urged -the erection of a suitable Place of Worship in the port of London, with the necessary appendages of School and Reading-Rooms. We are only waiting till our friends put us in possession, by promise or otherwise, of the sum which we have before specified, (£1,000,) to justify us in at once commencing the erection. Another offer has been made to raise £50, and again we would urge this as a method worthy of imitation and adoption. Shall we appeal to our merchants and ship-owners in vain? Shall not the NATION respond to an appeal in behalf of her seamen? While they are held in such degrading thraldom,-physical, mental, and moral,-Britain never can be free.

AGENTS' MEETING,

HELD ON MONDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 15th.

In addition to the usual engagements of the evening, at this conference some very pleasing intelligence was communicated relative to the introduction of the preaching of the gospel at Billingsgate, and the facilities which are afforded for the most effective services among a deeply neglected and no less equally degraded class of our seafaring population. Would to God we had resources to avail ourselves of these openings, to enlarge the kingdom of Christ!

Report of MR. J. WELCH,-Thames Missionary.-During the two months, which my present report embraces, and which have been devoted to the lower and upper pools, I have visited