are happily increasing in number; and the time is rapidly hastening when "the abundance of the seas shall be converted unto the church of God." Illustrative of the spirit of piety of a Bethel captain, we give insertion to the following judicious counsels to his niece, who had recently joined the people of God, in the ordinances of Christian fellowship:

"Your favour of the 4th inst. came to hand something like an olive branch; the contents of which gladdens my worthless heart. I must begin at the latter end of your subject, generally called the application, as you have kept the best wine till the last. Nothing could have given me greater joy than to know that you had cast in your lot amongst us. Ah, my dear niece, what is our joy when we see sinners willing to be reconciled to Christ! When we contemplate the joy there is in heaven amongst the angels of God, the very moment you made up your mind to venture your eternal all on Christ, and took shelter amongst God's people, that happy spirit which has attended you through the wilderness, Dan. ix, 21, 22, 23; Heb. i, 14; are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to attend on them who shall inherit salvation; it is their office to protect, succour, comfort, and to enlighten the mind. The next stage of Christian experience, which St. John calls young men, because they had overcome the wicked one, that is, since their sins were first blotted out they had obtained spiritual strength, and thereby they were fitted for the field of action, and therefore they were found at their post watching and praying. By these means Satan is conquered: your spiritual enemy can never enter so long as you keep a constant correspondence with our heavenly Father, with our divine Redeemer. Oh my dear niece, I ever had a true and sincere regard for you; but now you are united to my heavenly Father, through the blood of the atonement, I love you, my dear, because the divine Redeemer has first loved me. Another soul fled for refuge-another soul escaped the snare of the devil-another soul emancipated from Egyptian bondage and darkness, and delivered from the prison-house of sin. Hallelujah! one more has joined the noble army of Zion's travellers. Go on! go forward! fear not, it is my Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. You are now bidding fair for a better inheritance, looking forward

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to the time when we shall join those of our own family in Paradise, and to spend a sweet eternity together. Thirty years last January I set out for heaven: praise the Lord, thirty years nearer glory. Live, live I beseech you, live to God; cleave to his people; love your spiritual guides; hold up the hands of your leader, by living in the Gospel; burst the bonds asunder. Yea, endeavour to get into the sweet and useful habit of telling your leader the various exercises of the mind, that you may receive such instructions as your real case demands. Be bold for your God, be constant at your post, in order that you may be a useful member of his visible church. My dear niece, receive this advice from one who has longed for your spiritual welfare. May stability be written upon your character, so that you may adorn the doctrines of Jesus Christ my Lord. I am expecting to leave my native country, the embraces of my family, and the sweet society of God's people, and awhile to traverse the trackless deep. I promise to pray for your spiritual and temporal welfare. May your life be blessed with Heaven's choicest blessings, health of body, health of soul, peace of m nd, and peace of conscience. Cultivate the spirit of prayer. Let those who live nearest to God be your chief companions; form an acquaintance with one or two pious females; when opportunity offers meet together for prayer. By this means you will be fitted for future usefulness in his church below; you would by this gain strength and confidence. Prayer is the very life and soul of religion. Get well grounded and established in the sweet work, and then, in the course of your experience, you will be qualified to administer comfort to the sick and dying. I submit these few remarks to your consideration, leaving you to apply the subject.

"Remaining yours,

"In the bonds of Christian union."

THE WISE CHOICE.

If God be the highest perfection in himself, and the highest good to the creature, then it is the highest wisdom of the creature to choose him, and the highest branch of his duty to live in the observance of the will of God. If all creatures possessing reason must certainly appear before

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his Great Majesty, and bow unto him, I admire the wisdom of the godly, and I wonder at the folly of the wicked.

And seeing this certainly and of necessity must be, Lord, let me be of the number of those who, through Jesus Christ, choose thee here, so as that for ever hereafter I may enjoy thee; and not of the number of those who refuse thee here, and who must for ever hereafter be separated from thee.

MERCATOR.

A CHRISTIAN'S END.

WISE agents do always propound their ends before they set upon their work, and then direct their actions to the end which they have proposed. If the mariner launch, it, is that he may get to his destined harbour; therefore he sails by compass, that he may attain that for which he puts to sea. A Christian should have always one eye upon his end, and the other eye upon his way. That man lives a brutish life, who knows not what he lives for; and he acts but a fool's part who aims at heaven, and yet lives at random. A wise Christian's end of living is, that he may live without end; and therefore his way of living is, that he may live continually to spend his life in the ways of life. He is always walking in those paths where he sees heaven before him.

O, my soul! what then is that at which thou aimest? Is it a full enjoyment of thy God? Why then, whilst thou art present in this body, be always drawing near to the Lord through the atonement and intercession of Christ; so that when thou shalt be absent from this body, then thou shalt be always present with the Lord!

PHILO-NAVIGator.

SOUTH SEAMEN:

THEIR NUMBER FROM OUR SEVERAL PORTS.

MR. EDITOR,-In reply to some inquiries in the PILOT, I beg leave to forward the following statement, obtained from a seafaring friend, which I have no doubt will be found to be substantially correct.

From London 85 to 90 ships; Liverpool 10; the Humber 4. Average, about 35 hands each.

Foreign vessels in the same trade nearly as follows.

From France 40; Sweden, Denmark, and Russia 30; Portugal 4; America 200.

Hoping that the information thus furnished will be turned to good account in the operations of the British and Foreign Sailors' Society, I remain, Sir,

Poplar.

Yours in the Great Cause,

A CONSTANT READER.

INCREASED CIRCULATION OF THE PILOT. CAN any good reason be assigned why the circulation of this little work should not be doubled in 1836? I think not. Let the following statement be considered by those respected members whose names appear on the Committee.

The writer of this article knows a minister, who lately took a number to the prayer-meeting, read some interesting accounts of the foreign operations and home proceedings of the Society, requested the prayers of his friends for its success, and then remarked that it would give him great pleasure to hear that it was taken in by many of his hearers at the commencement of 1836.

An immediate effect was produced, and now he has the pleasure of hearing one and another say, Will you be kind enough, Sir, to put down my name for the PILOT? Believing that no comment on this simple statement is necessary, none shall be made by

AMICUS.

THE INFLUENCE OF REMARKABLE DELIVER

ANCES.

WE cannot have much intercourse with seamen without being impressed with the idea of the wonderful interpositions of Providence which many of them experience, by which in many cases they have been rescued from the very jaws of death and the grave. Such events produce deep effects at the moment; but in too many cases these are transient. It may not be unprofitable to inquire, what is the proper influence of remarkable deliverances.

It is said of Pascal, that one day, as he was taking his accustomed ride in a coach-and-four, and was going over the bridge of Neuilly, the two fore-horses took fright on a part of the bridge where there were no side-rails, and plunged into the river. Happily, by the suddenness of the jerk in their descent, the traces were broke between them and the hind-horses, that the carriage remained behind lodged on the very edge of the precipice. But although the life of Pascal was thus preserved, the surprise and shock were so great that he fainted away, and was with difficulty recovered. The impression remained so strong upon his mind, that he was long afterwards harassed in his sleep with the idea of falling down a precipice. He considered this event as a warning to him to break off every idea of human alliances, and he renewed his resolution to renounce all pleasure and all superfluity, and to live for God alone.

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The writer of this article is not prepared to hold up that great man as a model in all respects; yet he thinks that, in this instance, his conduct may be viewed with advantage and having himself recently experienced a deliverance from death so remarkable that his flesh trembles with horror at the frightful recollection of the danger to which he was exposed, he is exceedingly anxious to draw the minds of others to the subject. It is a sweet recollection, that the danger was incurred in the service of the blessed Redeemer, and in an attempt to benefit the souls of our British seamen.

The influence of remarkable deliverances may be considered either with respect to ourselves, or with respect to others. Have the gates of death been opened unto us? Have we been exposed to such danger as to lead us to conclude that we were just about to take leave for ever of all earthly objects? Surely the effects ought to include gratitude, self-examination, renewed consecration of ourselves to God, and an immediate attention to those various things which we have always intended to do, but which from time to time have been deferred till some more convenient season.

But perhaps our relatives or friends have experienced some remarkable deliverance. Oh, then, let our hearts expand with gratitude to God, and let us be exceedingly anxious that this feeling should lead to some practical results which shall be to his glory. In some cases it may be, the wife has been brought up from the gates of death