Who are these that fly like a cloud, And like doves upon the wing? Verily, the distant coasts shall wait me, Their silver and their gold with them, Because of the name of Jehovah, thy God; And of the Holy One of Israel, for He hath glorified thee." LOWTH'S TRANSLATION. Yes, many a ship is now consecrated to God. Many a pious master gathers his people together on the holy day. I behold that wonder upon the deep; that deck, a floating altar; that tapering mast, a spire pointing to heaven; above, the dome of the sky; around, the farspreading sea, the flooring of God's temple; and there, amidst the vast and listening solitude of waters, go up the voice of prayer and the anthem of thanksgiving! And when that ship returns, she brings report, perhaps for such things are known-of other gains than those which pertain to the merchandise of this world; of treasures found by her inmates, richer than Indian pearls or gold of Ophir. Upon the boundless deep its wandering children are learning of Him whose "way is in the sea, and whose path is in the great waters, and whose footsteps are not known." Bibles and good books, provided by kind hands, went out with them; prayers and good exhortations were uttered in their ears; the blinding mists of intemperance had already fallen from their eyes; and now they have seen the light and felt the power of a new creation. Yes, upon the wild element, so long estranged from religion, there are now "revivals of religion." I say not with what imperfection or weakness of faith the poor sailor has received the visitation; but I say that the eventful voyage which has brought to him the sense of that Power Divine, is of dearer concern and value than if it were freighted, for his single behoof, with the wealth of Indian empires! Nay, ask himself; and, poor as he is, he will tell you that he would not give up his hope in Christ for the wealth of the world! I hail that new-born brother from the sea. There is a man the more in the world. There is a soul created, where before was only a wild, thoughtless, reckless mer-man on the sea-madman on the shore. Reasonable now-pious, temperate, correct in morals and in manners, and becoming intelligent and manly, and useful to the world without ruining himself that rescued man pleads powerfully the cause of his brethren. There are already many of these rescued men; but, alas! there are yet many who, instead of being able to help others, need themselves to be helped. They have come wrecked from sea, or they have been more fatally wrecked on shore; and their earnings all spent, their clothes, perhaps, half stripped from them, they come seeking help both for body and soul. Reader, will you turn away the homeless wanderer from your door? I make no ordinary nor hackneyed appeal to your pity. The sailor would not, if he could speak to you. With a kind of modest manliness, rather-with a sort of rough nonchalance- with ill-concealed shame and sorrow, a thousand times more touching than the whining tones of beggary he stands before the door of yonder "Home;" he brushes the gathering mist from his eyes, as he remembers a home that once was his-as he feels what a dark veil of division he has drawn between it and him; but he would rather not tell his story-he would rather not speak of his parents and his family; he only says, "would your Christian kindness but look upon me, sir, and perhaps I will find a way to thank you!" Oh! if ever there is a time when the pleading of a human soul for pity is awful-not a moving entreaty alone, but a dread adjuration-it is that time-that crisis in its fate-when it says, "one kind look now would save me-one kind word would call me back,-else I plunge into despair and perdition; God, have mercy!" That kind look you will bestow-that kind word you will surely speak; and may the God of all pity accept and bless the deed! O. D. BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE Of the late Rev. George Young, D.D., Whitby. (Continued from page 77.) Sailors and their families engrossed a large share of Dr. Young's attention. The departure and arrival of the former, their successes, disappoint ents, and shipwrecks, were all incorporated with his well-regulated plans and habits. In his church, the very excellent and useful practice prevailed of soliciting the prayers of the congregation for sailors going to sea, and of offering thanksgiving to God for their safe return. His earnest intercessions and heartfelt aspirations will never be forgotten by those who heard them. O, that they may be answered in behalf of some who are still stout-hearted, and far from righteousness! He often preached sermons to improve the death of those who met with a watery grave; and his lectures on Jonah, which have been extensively circulated and much blessed, will continue to form a standard volume in the Ship's Library. The Bethel Pulpit for this and last month gives a favourable specimen of the style and character of Dr. Young's instructions to this interesting class of men. It was while his third lecture on Jonah was read by a pious captain, far off upon the sea, that one poor sailor was born to God. This alone were a sufficient compensation for all the labours of the author during the long period of forty-two years. In the life of Captain Cook, he also avails himself of the opportunity of advocating the claims of the sailor, as well as the cause of missions, though on these accounts it was not admitted into the series of volumes in the Cabinet Library," for which it was originally prepared. To his indomitable perseverance we owe, notwithstanding, the appearance of this valuable work, he having resolved at once to take the responsibility of its publication. In making up ships' libraries, looking after the boxes, and inquiring into the use which the sailors made of the books provided for them by the Whitby Bethel Union Society,-a Society which owed its efficiency principally to Dr. Young's persevering exertions,―he took especial delight. In these works of faith and labours of love he was as much absorbed as in deciphering old MSS., or making up boxes of geological specimens. But this was not all. The widow and orphan of the sailor rose up to call him blessed. How often did he make their hearts to sing aloud for joy! The formal connexion of the Whitby Bethel Union with the Parent Institution, at a public meeting held in his chapel, in 1840, was to him a source of great gratification. An analysis of the reports of this Society, which he wrote for so many years, would present an amount of labour in behalf of the sailor, which few ministers have been able or willing to perform. Indeed, he acted with all the enthusiasm of a stipendiary agent, whose services are properly remunerated. The following notice, given by the Rev. D. Macintosh, now of Dalkeith, who was supplying for Dr. Young during his last illuess and death, will be read with feelings of tender interest :-"Although he was now under great corporeal exhaustion, he continued strong in the cause of God. Entering his room, on the Wednesday previous to his death, I found him attempting to write a report of the Sailors' Society; but the attempt overpowered him, and he had to lay aside the pen, which was ever the pen of a ready writer, never to take it up again. I am not able for these things now,' said he, with a look which will ever be remembered; but to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Yes, my dear brother, Christ is my all.' His mind now began to wander; but all his observations were of things spiritual and benevolent; and even in his dreams he was collecting and giving money to missionary societies." Until the great day of account, we shall never know the number of sailors converted to God through the instrumentality of his spoken and published sermons. Besides his lectures on Jonah, and a number of occasional sermons, he published, in 1812, a volume less known than its merits deserve, in which the inconsistency and dangerous tendency of the Unitarian scheme is exposed." It did good service to the cause of religion at the time, may be called forth in its defence again, and is perhaps the best of all his works. A circumstance worthy of the humility of Dr. Young should not be omitted. Speaking of "Elijah, the Tishbite," he jocularly remarked that its appearance had laid his treatise on the same subject, then ready for the press, on the shelf. Such a work, however, from one who had laboured so long amid many difficulties, would have been no ignoble companion to this illustrious continental production. This account of his theological efforts is given to set him right with those who think that he spent too much of his time in literary and scientific pursuits. Many who have heard of the latter are not aware of the time which he devoted to the proper work of the ministry. His geological and antiquarian labours might be too extended; but these were at the expense of his morning and midnight hours. His "History of Whitby and the Vicinity," "Geological Survey of the Yorkshire Coast," "Picture of Whitby," and "Scriptural Geology," bespeak a large share of sanctified talent and scientific research, as well as of piety and benevolence. This is not the place to review the works referred to. Suffice it to say, that of being their author no one need be ashamed; and that one and all of them have received the approbation of gentlemen and scholars. As a geologist, than whom few are better acquainted with the facts of the science, he attempts to do honour to the holy oracles; and it may turn out, ere long, that his theory will stand, when many of greater repute in the learned world will fall to the ground, or, to say the least, become as antiquated. Even when lecturing on these subjects, as many remember, whether astronomy, or geology, or botany were the topic, the eye of the scholar and of the divine kindled into rapture, and his whole frame became eloquent in praise of the Creator. His successor will reap the advantage of his self-denying labours, in a temporal as well as in a spiritual respect. Cliff-lane Chapel, through his exertions, is free of debt. Like too many of his brethren in the ministry, he often suffered more than prudence or necessity dictated for the cause of God. Those only who have been placed in similar circumstances can appreciate the amount of labour which he bestowed in behalf of his church, and that not only at the beginning, but towards the close of his ministry. He went to London in 1831, and returned with upwards of £90 to his people, where perhaps no one else at that time would have obtained as many shillings. Nor did the master of the vineyard allow him to go unrewarded, as various sources of comfort and emolument opened to him. It has seldom happened that any faithful labourer in the Gospel has not ultimately received what was right, either as to success or reward. And Dr. Young has now reached that land with which all his early struggles were so intimately connected, and will hold a higher place than many who have laboured in richer corners of the vineyard. To leave a church free of debt, and in circumstances to call and support a minister of the gospel, as the gospel itself requires, is the richest legacy which any man, or number of men, can bequeath to posterity. It is proper also to add, that he did not labour alone in chapel affairs. By donations, sales of ladies' work, and jubilee purses, his people and their friends aided the Debtliquidation Fund; and one of his early Sabbath scholars, at his own expense, lighted the chapel with gas, and also placed a time-piece in the front of the gallery. (To be continued.) The Bethel Pulpit. "JONAH OVERTAKEN BY THE STORM," A SERMON, BY THE LATE REV. DR. YOUNG, OF WHITBY. Jonah i. 4.6.-"But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken." (Continued from page 31.) While the mariners prayed for deliverance, they did what they could to procure it; for they lightened the ship, that she might be in less danger of foundering. The blessings of God are commonly received in the use of means; and we only insult him, if we pray for those blessings, without employing the means adapted to obtain them. If the husbandman neglect to cultivate his fields, how can he presume to pray for an abundant harvest? The thoughts of God's all-sufficiency, and the promises of his aid, instead of inducing habits of sloth, should encourage our efforts as well as our prayers. When Paul, in his perilous voyage to Rome, had assured his companions that God would preserve the lives of all on board, he told them immediately after, that this could only be done, through the skill and exertions of the seamen; "Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved." So it is also in spiritual matters. We cannot consistently pray for holiness, while we are neglecting Acts xxvii. 22--31. the means of grace; and the hope of experiencing the operations of the Holy Spirit ought not to relax, but stimulate our endeavours: "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." The method employed by the seamen for their preservation was to throw part of the cargo overboard: they "cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them." They had promised themselves large profits on those wares, at the end of their voyage; yet now they are willing to part with them, to save their lives. It is a true saying, though it was uttered by the father of lies, "All that a man hath will he give for his life."+ It was better to sink half the cargo, nay, the whole of it, than be sunk by it to the bottom. Of what service are the most precious goods to those who are on the verge of eternity? Nay, they are worse than useless, when they are ruining their owners. Too often have riches brought destruction on their possessors; many have they sunk in the depths of the sea, and many more in the gulf of perdition. O that men would set a proper value on their best life, the life of their souls; and cast off those worldly attachments which would ruin them for ever! "What is a man profited, if he should gain the whole world and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" As nothing on board was so valuable as the lives of the seamen, and everything else must be sacrificed for their preservation-even so, nothing in man is so precious as his soul; and all the concerns of the body, and of the present world, should be deemed as nothing, compared with its salvation. Is natural life so highly prized, and shall eternal life be set at nought? O that all men, and especially seamen, who are so often hovering on the brink of an eternal world, would give earnest heed to the interests of their immortal souls! Ah! how mad is the conduct of those who ruin their souls for ever, to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season! But where was Jonah, while these things were passing in the Tarshish trader? One would have expected that, like Paul in a similar case, he would have been the most active and conspicuous person on board; that he would have been directing the views of the sailors to the God of salvation, and making them acquainted with his doctrines and promises. But far otherwise was he now occupied: "Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship, and he lay, and was fast asleep." Before the storm arose, he had gone below, and lying down in some retired part of the ship, he fell asleep; and was so fast asleep, that neither the roaring of the winds nor the dashing of the waves, neither the tossing of the ship nor the cries of the sailors, had awaked him. Perhaps he had got little sleep from his leaving Gath-hepher, till he came on board; and hence, his mind and body being both exhausted, he fell into a deep sleep, when he lay down to rest in the vessel. Yet his sleeping at this time can scarcely be excused; for it showed that he was little concerned about the wickedness of his conduct in running off from God's service. One would have thought that his anxiety, on account of his disobedience and disgraceful flight, would have kept him awake, or at least have prevented him from sleeping soundly. Of all men on board he had most reason to be awake, and to be employed in prayer; yet he only is fast asleep, while all the rest are toiling and praying. It too often happens, in public calamities, that those whose sins have procured them are least affected with them; the most guilty are often the most secure. Let us not count such insensibility enviable; it is the worst of curses. Ah! how many sinners sleep on in carnal security, in + Matthew xvi. 26. * Philippians ii. 12, 13. † Job ii. 4. |