CHRISTIANA AND FAMILY AT THE WICKET-GATE. 147

To them was given a guard and guide
Their arduous journey through,
Who lions, giants, fiends, defied,-
Ay, fought, and vanquish'd too!

What is the moral of their tale

To Hope, and Faith, and Love, But this ? that these can never fail, Seeking a home above.

Helpless and weak, as may appear
Such Christian pilgrims still,
He whom they honour, love, and fear,
His promise shall fulfil.

Though they may seem a mark but set

By spoilers to be spoil'd,
Their glorious Captain never yet

In battle-field was foil'd.

Their more than GREAT-HEART he will prove

In every needful hour;

He will sustain them by his love

Protect them by his power.

Unto the simple he will give

Pure wisdom from on high,

And hopes, which shall the grave outlive,

Of immortality!

These, at the bridge-less stream, his might

Shall bear in triumph o'er;

And they shall sing, in sun-less light,

His praise for evermore!

"LABOURERS FOR THE HARVEST;"

OR, SEAMEN THE BEST MISSIONARIES.

IT is a feature of the church in the present day, that great exertions are made to spread abroad the savour of Christ's name among the heathen: our missionaries are sent forth to evangelize the world, but we frustrate their efforts to a very considerable extent, if we do not labour to evangelize the seamen who convey them. British seamen will of course be looked upon as samples of British religion; and it is not to be wondered at, that the heathen should prefer their own superstitions, when they witness the cruelties, profanities, and debaucheries of those who profess and call themselves Christians. It must run thus in the mind of a reflecting savage, "These men are brethren; so their complexion, language, and manners, declare, and one of them is a teacher of religion: we may judge then from his companions, what is the nature and excellence of the religion he teaches, and wherein it excels our own;" but if it be objected that his companions have not received his religion, it will very naturally be suggested to the mind of the savage, "but if these men, who are in every respect so much better qualified to judge of its merits, reject the Christian religion, how can it be expected that we should embrace it!"

It is, alas! a too well-established fact, that our own seamen are among the most inveterate enemies the gospel meets with in those countries. Heathenism favours licentiousness, Christianity forbids it: therefore, these men are angry with its holy interference, and endeavour to excite opposition against it, and render its ministers contemptible.

The great obstacles which the religion of our crucified Lord meets with in the world, are to be found in the ungodly lives

of those who profess his name; in the opposition which the gospel encounters in Christian countries, (so called,) there is a mixture of strength; its enemies are its professed friends; it is the opposition of creed and practice, of the belief and of the life, that wounds the very vitals of Christianity among ourselves: the arguments with which our holy religion is foiled and stript of her glory here, are drawn from the character and conduct of those who profess to believe in her divinity, and the whole amount of her failure is charged upon those who " having the form of godliness, deny the power thereof.”

But send the gospel to the heathen accompanied only by men who have experienced and can illustrate its saving power; men who can say each one for himself, "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth;" men, that can illustrate that power in their tempers and conduct, and in the whole uniform tenor of a renewed and sanctified life; to whom your Missionaries can point as proofs, that "whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report," are the natural and spontaneous fruits of the religion of Jesus Christ, and then shall we see a nation born at once, and those parts of the earth bring forth in one day. Behold how swift the progress, how rapid the triumphs of the gospel, thus accompanied by evidence of its truth and divinity, and encountering nothing but the darkness and weakness, (we say, for that which is wholly evil, is essential weakness,) of idolatry, rapid as the triumphs of morning over the gloom of night, swift as the headlong torrent over the bending osier.

And is not this the way to bring on the latter-day glory? for if whole nations of ignorant, idolatrous, vicious heathens were thus brought under the light and influence of the gospel, and were thus made to exhibit to the world the power, and spirituality, and

glory of Christianity, would not this do more to overthrow the scepticism, and infidelity, and formality that have overrun Christendom, than any thing else would do.

There are traits in the character a seaman essential to that of a Missionary: their benevolence is great; they have long been proverbial for generosity; the pure element on which they live seems to have engendered it; just as the pestilential vapour of large cities, in which men are so crowded together, that they seem to fancy they may be excused for living upon one another, appears to engender avarice, and covetousness, and fraud, and injustice, and oppression, and the other forms of robbery. But generosity, especially a seaman's generosity, is a quality very distinct from benevolence and beneficence; they are the legitimate offspring of Christianity, but it is astonishing what a much more healthy appearance they bear when found grafted upon a disposition naturally generous.

Nor are seamen wanting in zeal; and they have withal a brave fearlessness, which is of singular service in a good cause. Oh, how has Christianity suffered from the timidity and cowardice of some of its professors!—but cowardice and seamen are terms that cannot be associated-his constant exposure to peril seems to have given to the mariner a kind of constitutional bravery he is reckless of consequences in the pursuit of his favourite passion, and he has learned to laugh at that which would fill the stoutest heart with fear.-He whose very sport it is to wrestle with the elements, and with coolest intrepidity to face a thousand forms of most appalling danger, and cut his way through the very jaws of death-who sings his careless song amidst the tempest's wildest rage, and fearlessly mans the yards when the ship lies on her beam-ends— he possesses perhaps the truest sort of courage uninspired by Heaven.

Now send these bold, courageous, zealous, generous mer

abroad; and what will be the result? Nay, you do send them! Where is the port that is not visited by British seamen ? where is the shore that bears not the print of their feet? But, alas! they are not Christian seamen- -their good qualities have not been sanctified and pressed into the service of religion-the soil of heathen lands is stained with their crimes—they have made our holy religion to stink in the nostrils of the heathen. But let them be converted, and every seaman who leaves our ports will be the world's Missionary. O this will be scattering the precious seed with a liberal hand, and over a wide space truly this will be pressing into the service of the gospel a mighty host of men, whose adaptation to the work of extending Messiah's kingdom is greater than is by many imagined.

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To convert a seaman is to do far more towards evangelizing the world, than to convert almost any other man, for a landsman has comparatively few opportunities of advocating the gospel; small is the circle through which his benevolence may range; circumscribed within the limits of the town or neighbourhood in which he dwells, few comparatively are the individuals with whom he, through the course of his whole life, comes in contact; and against his contracted labours, lies the whole force of that discouraging truth, a prophet is not without honour, save in his own country." But that which applies with so discouraging a force against a landsman, applies in the same ratio of encouragement to the seaman, for he has no country, no location, before him; the whole population of the teeming earth passes, and people of every colour and of every clime are his neighbours, with whom he keeps up a constant correspondence, the opportunities therefore presented to him of diffusing abroad the savour of Christ's name, are such as are presented to no other man living.

And let us not forget that seamen have souls to be saved. If there be one class of men more than another that have claims