BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE

Of the late Rev. George Young, D.D., Whitby.

(Continued from page 101.)

Those only who have seen Dr. Young in his own house, and at his own table, can fully appreciate his entire character. Any person worthy of attention was sure to meet with the most hearty welcome; and if with him for the first time, he would even lay aside pressing engagements to make him acquainted with all that was interesting and instructive in his own library, in the town, and among the inhabitants. All who have visited Whitby, as deputations from the Sailors', the Bible, Missionary, and Tract Societies, or as private lecturers, will unite in grateful recollections of Dr. Young's hospitality, and attention to all their need, as far as it was in his power to supply it. How much the Christian world owes to the former, eternity only will disclose. Many of the honoured individuals who had a home annually in his house, and laboured with him in the Bible and missionary cause for about half a century, have met in heaven, to recount before the throne services in which they mutually engaged for Christ. There is no part of the church more identified with the great cause, or more associated with hallowed recollections, than Whitby.

Few ministers carried on such an extended correspondence with all classes, and on almost every subject connected with science, literature, and religion. Were it possible to gather together his letters, they would represent an endurance of toil, and a desire to do good, far above any individual who ever occupied the same station in society. Those who have an extended series of his familiar letters will not easily part with them. Alas! we shall never find a correspondent like him again. It is well observed, in a notice of Dr. Young, in the United Presbyterian Magazine for March, that "he was always willing to serve every one, and to aid every religious or philanthropic object, at whatever expense of time or trouble. All knew that for every worthy purpose they had a friend in him, on whose unselfish, laborious, and untiring exertions they could depend with confidence."

But, however much Dr. Young shone among those who took a part in the institutions of Whitby, and the general societies of the day, it was at his own social congregational meetings that the esteem in which he was held by the religious public, and his brethren of all the denominations, appeared. It was the happy privilege of the writer to enjoy, for several years in succession, these annual meetings. A tribute was paid to the cause, as well as to the instrument, in the frequent acknowledgment of the good which had been effected to all the sections of the church in Whitby, by the young who found their way to communions more thoroughly English, and more in accordance with early prejudices, after having received their first impressions of Divine Truth in his church and Sabbath school. It were improper to omit the testimonial handed to him at one of the meetings referred to, at which, as pastor, he presided. A gold watch, with an appropriate inscription, was presented to him by his attached members and friends; and the following extract from a letter received from him shortly after, shows a very interesting feature of character, and one most ennobling to human nature. It should be premised that the crystal was as old in the service as the silver watch, and had become, however dim, part and parcel of himself. "By this time you will

have read the account of our service, inserted in the Secession Church Magazine for this month (Feb. 1846). You will observe from it that I sought on the occasion to propitiate my good old silver watch, by stating that the new comer was only received as its helper and successor, and not to supersede or supplant it, for I never cast off old friends for new. I also paid my old watch, with its well-scratched glass, some other compliments not recorded: and since the soirée, I have treated it with a new chain, as a further token of gratitude for forty-eight years' service." The italics are not in the Doctor's letter, but are introduced to impress upon every reader this part of his character, as well worthy of imitation. How often, when from home, after professional duties were discharged, would you have seen the aged divine, like Onesiphorus, of blessed memory, treading the intricacies of some obscure part of a town (and the bump of locality in his case was largely developed), to seek out very diligently an ex-member of his church, or friend with whom he had been long acquainted. The poor and the rich were alike to him, when time was at his disposal. It was in this way he secured so much respect in many parts of the kingdom, where business or recreation called him.

(To be concluded in our next.)

The Bethel Pulpit.

SERMON PREACHED ON BEHALF OF THE LIVERPOOL SEAMEN'S FRIEND SOCIETY AND BETHEL UNION,

In Great George-Street Chapel, Liverpool, by the Rev. JAMES BUCK, Minister of the Floating Chapel, Liverpool.

Isaiah 1x. 5.-"The abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee."

This is a promise addressed unto the church, of which the fulfilment is to be realised in these gospel times. The translation is sufficiently accurate to indicate the scope of the promise. A more exact and literal rendering, however, would be, "The noise of the sea shall be turned unto thee." Both of these renderings are figurative, and require to be reduced to a more simple form, that their meaning may become fully apparent.

The phrase, "shall be turned," finds its proper signification in the words. "shall be converted," when conversion is understood in the New Testament sense, as embracing the turning of the heart from sin to purity-from Satan unto God.

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The term "noise" is evidently intended to stand for those who make it, being a common figure to denote a “multitude,” or an abundance," of people, the effect being put for the cause producing it.

We have designedly said a multitude or abundance of people, because it is only the conversion of such which is at all important in the eyes of the church. Her converts are men. Their wealth is only cared for, as it may be the evidence of their own submission to her claims. The "sea" is put in opposition to the nations of the Gentiles, therefore cannot be understood, in the Jewish sense, as denoting those nations. It is also put in opposition to the isles of the sea, and therefore must be distinct from them. It can only be understood

of the sea itself, as distinct from the dry land. The English of the original is manifestly, "The multitude of mariners shall be converted unto the church.", Anxious to give this rendering all the support it may fairly claim, we shall occupy a moment with a reference to another portion of the same prophet's writings, in which the same times and the same subject occupy his pen. Our reference is to Isaiah xlii. 10-12, "Sing unto the Lord a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth, ye that go down to the sea, and all that is therein, the isles, and the inhabitants thereof. Let them give glory unto the Lord, and declare his praise in the islands." Here the sailor is more easily identified, by the mention of his profession, while he is with equal precision, as in the other passage, put in contrast with the inhabitant of the isles, and of the continental shores; at the same time he is pointed out as the future convert of the church, an exhortation being given him to render a service unto the Lord, all the propriety of which is derived from the supposition of such conversions having taken place. We repeat our rendering of the passage with increased confidence, "The multitude of mariners shall be converted unto the church."

The scope of the promise, and the mutual obligations of the parties principally concerned in its fulfilment, will now pass under review.

First-The scope of the promise. At the time this prediction was written, which is twenty-five centuries ago, Omniscience alone could have known that in these days there would be a multitude of sailors. For a long season, therefore, the church, without incurring censure, might well wonder from what quarters to expect the promised increase to her spiritual family, and be excused if found looking in any direction rather than to the sea. Still the fingers of the Divine foreknowledge kept pointing in that direction; and it was left to the progress of the world's civilisation and commerce, by covering the sea with ships, and crowding its ports with a seafaring population, to justify the correctness of the indication.

Now that multitude is round about us. Our own eyes verify their existence. Our own domestic comforts prove the universality of their visits. Our own widely-extended dominions, on which the sun never sets, is the evidence of their long and yet continued familiarity with the perils of the great deep.

Here, then, in this nineteenth century, is the multitude of mariners, participating in all those characteristics of our fallen condition which render the conversion of any-of every-man matter of such vital moment; and, behold! the face of God is towards them, notifying his intentions respecting them to the church. His language is, "The multitude of mariners shall be converted unto thee."

The first assurance we receive from this promise is, that the Gospel is to be preached unto and among sailors, and that to them shall be given the hearing ear and the understanding heart, so that its legitimate fruits shall appear in their repentance, their faith, their holiness. The repentance, the faith, the holiness of sailors! Yes; reckless as they have been in their moral abandonment, one and another from among them shall be seen coming to himself, and resolving, "I will arise and go to my Father." "Floating hells" though their ships have been denominated, and so denominated with unquestionable propriety, even they shall yet be heard resounding with the cry, "Lord, save, or we perish," for sailors shall be converted.

We are further assured, that these effects of Divine teaching shall be of no common occurrence,-shall cease to be rare. The prodigal's resolve, the publican's prayer, the affrighted disciple's cry, are to become familiar things.

Pious seamen are to be multiplied, become common, -tɔ be every day seen, every where met with. When Jesus shall indeed go forth, walking on the water in his power to save, simultaneously will the eye of many a sailor be opened to recognise the Lord, and the hearts of many a crew be constrained to receive Him gladly up into their ship, for a multitude of mariners shall be converted.

Thirdly. It is an assurance that this pouring out of the spirit upon them shall at length embrace the whole profession. Unlike that of the army, which arose with the declensions of religion, and will be abolished in religion's regained ascendancy-unlike the army, the calling of the mariner would have been indispensable, though our first parents had never tasted the forbidden fruit. It would have harmonised with all those relations which an unfallen world could have borne to God. It would naturally and inevitably have sprung up, as the only means of diffusing the world's population over its surface, and, after such diffusion, must have remained necessary, as the sole medium of promoting the intercourse of the separated nations.

So is its continuance required during the period of the world's degeneracy, both as a means of promoting the fellowship of its scattered people, and of re-producing the manifestation of their original and essential unity. Who can help observing that God is himself chartering the shipping of the world with His own written revelations of himself, and the living teacher of that revelation, sending these out two-and-two, to every place whither He himself will come? Even God, to reach the ends of the world, must go by the way of the sea!

Nevertheless, as the ark of God might not be carried by unconsecrated men, no more must these vessels which are to convey the treasures of Divine grace be unclean. "The Lord our God is a jealous God;" holy men shall do the work of the Holy One. Therefore God, needing sailors, will convert sailors; convert them in such numbers as to make their influence felt alike over the world from which they shall secede, as over the church to which they shall give in their adhesion; and so assist, not passively and grudgingly, but actively and gladly, in hastening on the millennial age. Then shall the millennium come. God will sanctify the whole profession to himself, by the conversion of all its members, retaining the universal navy in commission during the whole of that period, to do the errands of a triumphant church, and to conduct the commerce of a sanctified world; every sailor a disciple of Christ!— every ship a Bethel !

As the want of this is painfully felt by the church, (witness whereof the complaining of her missionaries,) so the bringing it about shall fill the church with intense excitement. Their noise shall attract her attention; their multitude shall rivet her gaze; their approach shall call her forth to meet them. As they rush into her bosom, she shall become tremulous with joy, and hasten to make enlarged room for their accommodation: for thus the rapt prophet writes-"Then thou shalt see, and flow together, and thine heart shall fear and be enlarged, because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee."

In the second place, the obligations of the parties most concerned in the fulfilment of the promise, the church and the sailors, to seek its realisation must now come under notice.

First-The obligation of the church. Every promise of increase made to the church involves a command to seek, to pray, to labour for that increase. A special promise involves a special command, and implies a special obliga

tion. This promise is a special one; a distinct call, therefore, to a distinct work. Both the labourer and his sphere of labour are mentioned by names. The church is summoned to the work of expecting, praying for, and labouring unto the conversion of the world's sailors to her own faith and practice. Not simply, either, as a part of the "all nations," or as included in the "every creature" of her Lord's commission; but as constituting a distinct class, whose case, because it can only be met by a separate organisation and a direct effort, is made the subject of a distinct and special promise; and we think the position of the church, in reference to this promise, can accord with the Divine intentions only as she is seen busily engaged in planting her Bethels upon the quay, mooring her floating chapels in the docks, and sending forth her messengers with the emphatic charge, "Go ye out into all the boardinghouses and ships, and compel the sailors to come in, that my house may be filled."

The following considerations may serve to show in some degree why this promise is special, as well as to give additional impressiveness to the church's sense of obligation.

I. God's foreknowledge of the sailor's liability to be forgotten by the church which it indicates. The great bulk of the church being inland, the existence of a multitude of sailors is scarcely known to them. Even those portions of the church which are located in the sea-ports are liable to have their attention restricted to those seamen which are on shore, losing sight altogether of the far greater number who are away; their multitude is never present to the church, to give emphasis to their appeal. "Out of sight out of mind," may with great force be adopted by seamen in their address to the church. They have been forgotten, neglected, despised, permitted to come and go without notice, to live and die, no one caring for their souls.

This is what the Lord foresaw,-here He gives the result of his foreknowledge. Our text is fore-intended to be an antidote to this contemplated forgetfulness. I see it, saith the Lord, but it shall not continue. Record it!

Record it! Let it be conspicuous among the promises. Give it due place in the prophetic announcements of my word,-make it as a perpetual remembrancer to my church, alike of my intention and her duty. Oft as she looks into my testimonies, let it come up before her. Render continued obliviousness impossible. Record it fairly, legibly. "The abundance of the sea shall be

converted unto Thee."

II. The Divine consciousness of responsibility, of which it is the exhibition. There seems to be a beautiful propriety in God thus coming forth before his church with such a promise, and such a command. "The sea is His, and He made it." "He raiseth up the stormy wind, and lifteth up the waves thereof." The profession of the mariner, and the dangers incident to it, are necessitated by His arrangement, and it is as though he were conscious of something analogous to what, when found among men, is denominated responsibility on that account. As though he felt it to be due to Himself to show that He could not be forgetful of those whose calling and perils He had Himself ordained. He seems to say, "The sea is mine, I did make it, and I who made the sea, care for those whose business is on her bosom. I care for sailors. Their calling shall subject them to no disadvantage. They shall not perish because they are sailors. I will call special attention to their claims. My church shall receive a solemn charge to make them the objects of a direct and special labour; and I will myself ensure success to those operations which contemplate their evangelisation. The abundance of the sea shall be converted