contented. But, in one sense, we are sure these kind favours from men are of God; and we have good hope that he will make room for us and our little ones, especially when we look back and see ourselves on the brink of sailing, but suddenly stopped and sent back; no prospect of another ship; I and my family become two bands; all darkness and threatening, fear and dismay; but in three days another ship appears, takes us, and the whole family; which we just before thought, on many accounts, impossible to be done. When we think of these things that are past, we trust Him for all that is to come.'

Amongst the many points of unavoidable secular detail in the conduct of missionary societies, the transit of their agents is one deserving no small attention. Comfort and economy are the points to be secured. The missionary himself, it is hoped, will generally pay as studious an attention to the latter, as the society that sends him forth; and the society, whilst justly anxious to husband well, and wisely apply, the resources placed at their disposal, should carefully avoid an inconvenient and pinching parsimony. The public, the missionary, and the society should consider that they are all mutually obliged in this work, and neither party should conceive it has any interest separate from the other. The public, that their devotion can be in some degree represented, and their obligations to the heathen world discharged, and the fruits of their benevolence profitably applied, through the labours and sufferings of one specially

consecrated to this particular service. The missionary is equally so, as, by the bounty of the public, and the patronage of a particular society, he is enabled to gratify desires which he would be incompetent to do in his insulated capacity. The society is also both obliged and honoured, because, in their associated capacity, whilst they can effect more good than would be possible by their solitary efforts and contributions, they are constituted the depositaries of the concentrated bounty of the christian world, and the directors and guardians of its devoted agents. Christians in commercial life, whose property is in the shipping interest, may become the largest benefactors to the missionary cause at no very great sacrifice, whilst the fact of their proprietorship will be a guarantee for the proper treatment of the parties. Gentlemen might be referred to, who have in this way repeatedly rendered the Baptist Missionary Society their debtors, and who, we trust, will be imitated by others.

Those to whom societies refer the negociation of passages for their brethren, should be solicitous to obtain a good ship and a reputable captain; and a keen regard should be had to the accommodations, especially when females are to be arranged for. No society should become a party to the mission of a single lady, except she can go under protection. The expense of a passage is of secondary importance. A crazy and crank vessel, with a rude and vulgar captain, bad fare, and low fellow-passengers, without the charge of a single farthing, would render a voyage

far too costly. The inconvenience and mortification accruing from such sources would be a sufficient trial for a single day; but recurring every day, and every hour, for six months in succession, become intolerable, and are such as no missionary and his wife should be obnoxious to, if there exists a possibility of their prevention. Some painful tales might be told upon this subject, were it discreet to relate them, and such as might prove admonitory to those intrusted with the transaction of such affairs. In negociating terms, no such severity should be observed as might disparage a missionary in the estimation of the captain. And, then, when a society has done its part, let the brother take special care he does not disparage himself. Without such care, this may very soon be done. No scene is more trying to character and to temper than a ship, particularly to young and inexperienced persons, such as missionaries and their wives ordinarily are, and such as they must be, until those of some age and standing in the christian church embark in the work. Great circumspection is desirable in our intercourse with fellow-passengers, many of whom are of very dissimilar principles and habits to those which a missionary is supposed to hold and cultivate. A christian in these, as in all other circumstances, should not be deficient in the civilities of life; yet he will find it convenient to put his social tendencies under more restraint than is needful at other times. The close and almost unavoidable contact into which you are thrown in the living details of every day, without care, will originate annoyance and collisions. Reserve will

prove less inconvenient than familiarity. The former, though it will make you apparently less amiable, will yet throw a defence about you, and render insult and encroachment difficult. All altercation with fellowpassengers upon secular matters should be studiously avoided, though the temptation to it may be strong. The commencement of a voyage is often the most trying period; and, from the novelty of the predicament in which we find ourselves, very difficult to be borne. Do not expect too much from ship-servants. The moment you most require them, they have ten calls, each one of which is as urgent as yours. In bad weather you are not likely to find your fellowpassengers bland and courteous. The inconvenience that all share will make every one careful only for himself. And, even at other times, some will be found, who, though on shore they might pass moderately well as gentlemen, through their constitutional impatience and the tedium of a sea-life, will be always misanthropic, and, whether the wind blow foul or fair, will quarrel with a straw. It is preferable to reconcile oneself to neglect or injury in such a case, than to risk remonstrance or complaint. Not but that a minister will meet with sympathy and defence under insult and ill-treatment; yet worldly gentlemen will offer it in their own way, which will incur an evil, perhaps, tenfold more aggravated than the one they resent. A christian minister, being once abusively spoken to by a fellow-passenger, was generously defended by another; but the resentment of the injury was shown by threatening the offender

with a duel. Thus, his high-minded friend grieved him a thousand times more than his enemy.

A missionary will witness much on board a ship to shock religious feeling. It will require as much wisdom as zeal to resolve how and when to reprove. A mistake in either of these particulars, may exasperate and excite repugnance.

Missionaries are generally allowed to conduct public religious exercises; though some captains have been, and still are, sufficiently prejudiced and absurd to prohibit them, judging that, if they take hold of the mind of a sailor, they disqualify in some way, they scarcely know how, for duty. Now and then, upon a very fine Sunday, they think it may do no harm to read the prayers of the church of England. When that is done, they consider 'there is an end of it;' but what praying and preaching may lead to, is hard to tell. But this narrowness and misconception, once so common among seafaring officers, are fast wearing away. The good that missionaries have effected on their voyage has its living testimony in every part of the globe. Better behaved hearers are not to be met with through all the gradations of society than sailors and soldiers. Their habits of obedience are favourable at least to attention, and that, again, to a correct perception of what is addressed to them; and my belief is, that, according to the means of instruction they enjoy, the preaching of the gospel has been more successful among them than amongst any other portion of mankind.

The religious reader will, perhaps, recur to some