PREFACE. LOOKING to the gracious " Captain of our salvation" for constant direction, and depending on the gales of his blessed Spirit, the "PILOT" has been enabled to keep stedfastly at his post of observation to the close of another year. Having been favoured by the "Father of lights," and aided by the prayers of an increasing number of readers, who sympathize with our brave mariners, his various records of the triumphs of truth and the progress of holiness among that vast and important body of our countrymen, besides seamen of foreign nations, are calculated to excite in the mind of every Christian reader, the liveliest emotions of gratitude to God. Recording the transactions of the British and Foreign Sailors' Society, many have read its pages with admiration at those operations in so extended a field - metropolitan, provincial, and foreign. Every inquisitive Christian, observing "the signs of the times," when British Colonial possessions are enlarged, and our commerce increased, must feel deeply interested in its various details. These relate to North Shields, South Shields, the Scilly Isles, Dublin, Newry, and Belfast, besides aid afforded to Bethel Missionary captains, and to many ports around Great Britain; — and their foreign operations extend to Honfleur, Memel, Berbice, Honduras, Jamaica, St. Helena, New South Wales, Tahiti, and the Navigators Isles. Details of the Society's agency in the Port of London, cannot fail to render the "PILOT" interesting to Christian merchants: as this agency consists of eleven preachers, who hold, besides the religious services on shore, eighteen Bethel Meetings on ship-board every week, the port, including Blackwall, Deptford, and Greenwich, being divided into seven stations. On these the Thames Missionary visits during the year seven thousand ships, conversing with the sailors on the things of salvation and directing them to the worship of God, and thus distributing about fifty thousand religious and temperance tracts to seamen. The following summary of this part of the Society's Report of the last year will further illustrate the materials of the PILOT-the Agents of the Society circulated, during the past year, about 216 Bibles and Testaments, about 4,000 volumes of bound books, about 20,000 pamphlets, and about 100,000 religious and temperance tracts in the English, French, German, Dutch, Spanish, Danish, Russian, Modern Greek, and other languages. The Committee also greatly aided in furnishing the seamen of the Coast Guard, around England, Scotland, and Ireland, amounting, with their families, to 20,321 persons, exclusive of those on board the Revenue Cruizers, with 620 libraries of the choicest books, comprising in all above 52,000 volumes. Pursuing thus their grand object-THE EVANGELIZATION OF SEAMEN OF ALL NATIONS the Committee profess and sacredly maintain the essential principles of Protestant Christianity; and they cultivate communion with all who hold the same saving doctrines-the all-sufficiency of the Scriptures the Trinity of Persons in the glorious Godhead-the Divinity and Atonement of Christ - regeneration of heart by the Holy Spirit, and personal holiness to glorify God. Distinct from, yet inseparably connected with, every Christian institution, which adorns our age and exalts our country, the British and Foreign Sailors' Society requires the friendly co-operation of all: this the Committee desire and seek, and this in a good measure they have happily obtained. While, therefore, Scriptural orthodoxy - the great principles of the Reformers are held sacred by the Editor and the Directors of the Society, whose transactions it details; and while they cherish fraternal affection towards "all who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity"- especially as the "PILOT, OR SAILORS' MAGAZINE," is the only periodical of the kind issuing from the British press adapted for domestic reading, giving a religious view of maritime affairs they cannot but regard their humble Publication as having peculiar claims on the patronage of every Christian family in Great Britain. With best thanks to his respected Correspondents, the Editor requests a continuance of their favours, that the "PILOT," enriched with their valuable contributions, may, by the grace of the Spirit of God, be instrumental in leading many, besides mariners, to glory everlasting, through Jesus Christ our Lord. November 24, 1836. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS to Donors, 286. Advice respecting a very common complaint, 409. Agents, Proceedings of the Society's, 23, 62, 96, 136, 209, 245, America's first Bethel Flag, 73. American Seamen's Chaplain, 237. Skipper punished, 150. Ancient Vessels, Extraordinary, 44. Anniversary of the British and Foreign Sailors' Society, 181. Baptist Board and the British and Foreign Sailors' Society, 215. Barking Fishermen and their Ship Libraries, 413. Belfast Seamen's Friend Society, 95. Meetings at New South Wales, 91. at Leeds, 411. Birmingham Friend to Sailors, 61. Birmingham's obligation to Sailors, 5. British and American Seamen compared, 325. Intrepid Fidelity at Algiers, 366. Manly Courage, 228. Burder's, Rev. G., Sermons, 121. Capt. B and his Bethel Flag, 21. Cephas, the Shipwrecked Sailor, 59. Christian Ship hailed at Sea, 87. Colonization of South Australia, 217. Conversion of a Ship's Crew, 306. Converted Christian Sailor, 122. Correspondence and Proceedings of the B. and F. S. Society, 20, 60, 91, 125, 161, 207, 237, 271, 309, 342. Donations, Collections, and Subscriptions, 35, 72, 107, 142, 180, Editor's Reply to Correspondents, 298. English Seamen's Chaplain in China, 253. Episcopal Floating Church Society, 237. Farre's, Dr., account of a British Captain, 118. Female Readers of the Pilot, 21. Fire at Sea, and Loss of Life, 403. Influence of a Christian Officer, 266. of remarkable Deliverance, 12. Inquiries of the British and Foreign Sailors' Society, 20. Journal of a Pious Sailor, 37. Laying the first stone of Sailors' Chapels, 304. of a Line of Battle Ship, 57. the Marlborough, 373. Map of the Israelites passage of Red Sea, 409. Melancholy case of Anthony Ward, 339. Missionaries the friends of Sailors, 55, 132. |