general amid the perils of the field, has not acted on the principle here involved, and derived from its inspiration something of supernatural strength and energy?

"Never give up!" was the motto of Joseph, and it enabled him to resist the most powerful solicitations of evil, and raised him from a prison cell to the prime ministry of Egypt. When Pharaoh and his host pressed hard upon the flight of Israel, and the sea stretched before them, and the precipitous mountains shut them in, and they murmured against Moses and against God, "Never give up!" was the motto which made a highway for the chosen people through the deep. It gave Caleb and Joshua strength to withstand the spies that brought an evil report against the goodly land, and procured for them great honor from God and men. It divided the waters of Jordan, shook down the walls of Jericho, and prevailed over the gravitation of worlds on the field of Gibeon. It made Gideon and his three hundred mightier than the many thousands of Midian. It gave Sampson the victory over his enemies in death. It turned the captivity of Job. It raised David. from the sheep-cot to the throne. It enabled Isaiah to despise the saw of Manasseh. It moaned from Jeremiah's dungeon, like the wail of a broken harp. It rendered harmless the seven-fold fierceness of Nebuchadnezzer's fiery furnace. It tamed Darius' lions in their den. It sweetened the death-draught of Socrates. It invested the tongue of an Athenian

with more power than the sword of the Macedonian. It triumphed over defeat at Thermopylæ. It made John the Baptist prefer the loss of his head to a virtual compromise with royal crime. It inspired Paul to go to Jerusalem, in the face of "bonds and imprisonment;" and to Rome, in defiance of the bloodiest tyrant of antiquity. It led Luther undaunted to the Diet of Worms; and would, if all the tiles upon the houses had been devils. It armed Wesley and Whitefield with a torch which set all England on fire. It has planted the standard of the Cross amidst miasma and death on the shores of Western Africa. It has written itself in blood upon the soil of Bunker Hill, and won the admiration of the world in our declaration of independence. It has renovated with cold water the rum-scathed isle of Erin, elevated the

What has it not done? Try it and see. We recommend it to the poor, the sick, the bereft, the bankrupt, the slandered, the oppressed; and to all the enterprising friends, patrons and disciples of virtue, science, literature, religion and philanthropy, in all their aims and efforts; while we mean, by the blessing of Heaven, to make it our own motto, whether in the pursuit of knowledge, the diffusion of happiness, or the salvation of the soul!

"O could I climb the morning sky,

And write it there in lines of fire!"

XV. "SHIP AHOY!"

(1846.)

"I love the sailor, his eventful life,

His generous spirit, his contempt of danger, His firmness in the gale, the wreck, the strife; And though a wild and reckless ocean-ranger, God grant he make that port, when life is o'er, Where storms are hushed, and billows break no more!" Colton.

I HAVE just finished the perusal of a little book, entitled, "The Art of Spiritual Navigation;" intended to convey seasonable instruction, in a suitable form, to "the tribe of Zebulon." It is an allegory in nautical phraseology, which can scarcely fail to interest that class of men for whom it is written, and to whom such works are necessary. Censorious critics may object to its figurative character; but such was the ordinary style of our Savior's teaching, and the eminent success of the Pilgrim's Progress is sufficient evidence of its utility.

I was reading recently an account of the commencement, twenty-six years ago, of the Seamen's Bethel enterprise in this city, by that faithful man of God, and indefatigable friend of the sailor, "Father Eastburn," the first mariner's preacher in Philadelphia.

"We hoisted a flag," said he, loft; and when Jack came along,

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66 on an old sail

he hailed usAnd we

Ship ahoy! where are you bound?'

answered For the port of New Jerusalem, sailing under Admiral Jesus! You had better come aboard. We have room for you all, and all are welcome. Here is ship Presbyterian, and ship Methodist, and ship Episcopalian, and ship Baptist, and several more. You can have your choice, but you would do well to go in the fleet.'”

Many of them embraced the invitation, and some of them are now riding at anchor in the calm waters of the Bay of Paradise, with their beloved

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Captain Eastburn," and all the " 'Redeemed of the Lord," who have gone over from this continent of evil, and weathered the storms of life. The New Jerusalem is in full view before them; its majestic "walls adorned with all manner of precious stones;" above which palaces of pearl, and ivory, and alabaster, and towers of diamonds, and rubies and chrysolites, and amethysts, and emeralds, cemented with solid gold, lift themselves far into the cerulean; and from a thousand domes, and turrets, and pinnacles, streams down the glory as of a thousand suns; and white-robed bands are beckoning from the shore; and every breeze from that land of the blessed wafts through all the fleet the incense of celestial altars, and the many-voiced song of the seraphim, with its ravishing accompaniment of harps and trumpets, "as the sound of many waters and mighty thunderings." They are waiting for their brethren who are yet behind; some of whom, having braved many a tempest, and tossed on many a

stormy sea, already rejoice in occasional glimpses of the better land, lying like a semi-circle of blended azure and emerald on the glorious horizon; while others are "tossed and driven" mid-ocean,

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Freighted with grace and bound for heaven;"

and others are just embarking for the voyage; and when the whole fleet shall have arrived, the number of the elect being complete, the King of Zion shall send forth the summons, and every ship shall come joyously into port, amid the greetings of the immortals; and the gates of the eternal city shall be opened, and "our eyes shall see the King in his beauty-they shall behold the land that is very far off!"

I have read a beautiful anecdote of Father Eastburn's funeral. Half a dozen sailors met the procession, stopped the hearse, and demanded if it was not Father Eastburn's funeral. On being answered in the affirmative, one of them added:

"And do you think we shall let these horses haul our Father to his grave? No! We will carry him upon our shoulders!”

Whereupon they took the coffin from the hearse, and bore it, weeping as they went, to the place of burial. Such is the sailor's heart!

In its enterprise for the improvement and salvation of seamen, Philadelphia is not a whit behind any other city in the Union. The Methodist Mariner's Bethel, on the corner of Shippen and Penn