in the dining cabin under the direction of a librarian : a provision for the recreation and improvement of the crew, of which no public ship bound on a long cruise, should be destitute. Irving's Life of Columbus, Scott's Napoleon, the Lady of the Manor, Erskine's Freeness of the Gospel, Weddell's Voyages, Payson's Sermons, and Martyn's Life, are the volumes which have thus far principally occupied my attention. The last has long been a kind of text book with me; and I have now finished it for the fourth time since its publication, in the devoutest prayer that my life might partake some little of the character of his, and my death be blest with the spirit which dictated the last paragraph he ever penned. The situation of my apartment is such as to afford almost the retirement of a study at home, and with the exception of an hour or two on deck for air and exercise, in the morning, and a visit to the sick in the afternoon, most of the day is devoted by me to studies and writing immediately connected with my profession, and official duties on board. During the same period, the whole crew are variously but busily employed; and the ship, in every part, presents the industrious activity of a village of mechanics on shore. With the approach of evening, however, this ceases to be the case: and the two or three hours preceding the setting of the night-watch, at 8 o'clock, is a time of general relaxation and amusement. During it, the thrumming of the guitar, with the low voice of the song, may be heard in the cabin; while the gayer notes of the flute and violin enliven the ward-room and steerage, and the band on the forecastle sends its full-toned strains far and wide upon the deep. Along the decks every where is to be heard the hum of busy talk, the earnestness of argument, the repartee and the laugh, the jest and the jeer, intermingled with the tread of the dance among the more youthful and light-hearted of the crew. As the night gathers round us, I generally myself take possession of one of the gangways, at the side of the ship, the better to gaze on the expanse of water around, and the heavenly hosts above: and in their sublimity to trace the power and majesty of their Maker. Notwithstanding the various and confused sounds on every side, the meditations stealing over the mind at this period are not unfrequently such in a degree as I could wish; and in the multitude of my thoughts, my spirit is often refreshed within me. If such glory is discernible in the revelation which the Almighty makes of himself in his works, O! what will be the power of that, in which all the moral, as well as natural perfections of the Godhead, shall be exhibited to us face to face! In one respect, however, I have proved the spot chosen to be most unfortunate: the gangway is the place of punishment; and twice, within the last two evenings, the keenest emotions I have known on board the Guerriere, have come suddenly upon me in the sound of the lash and the cry of some wretch suffering at my side. This mode of punishment is deemed by many indispensable on board a man of war and it may be so- -but as yet I am far from being reconciled, in feeling, to the necessity. To me there is an indignity and degradation in it, which seem inconsistent with the high toned principles and spirit of Americanism; and independent of all other considerations, I never witness it without being tempted to ask Paul's question to the centurion, "Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman ?” But though there was sorrow in the case, and I felt every stroke almost as if across my own shoulders, it was not without a profit too. Only the moment before, I had been gazing on the mild splendor of the southern Cross, absorbed in associations inseparable from it, in the life and death of Him who hung upon the accursed tree; and the mind at once reverted powerfully to that scourging "endured for us," and to those "stripes by which we are healed." The reality and extent of the ignominy suffered by Him, who "thought it not robbery to be equal with God," never before forced themselves upon me in such fullness and such freshness; and my soul melted within me in thought of the love which caused Him to "humble himself and become man," and to submit unmurmuringly, not only to the power of death and the grave, but thus also to scourges and to shame. 32 WORSHIP ON LETTER IV. MORAL ASPECT OF THE CREW. U. S. ship Guerriere, at sea, BELIEVING with Pope, that "the proper study of mankind is man," I have ever delighted in opportunities of observing my fellows in new lights and relations; and find daily amusement, with an admixture of other emotions, in the development of character among those around me. A man-of-war is a world in miniature, in which every different kind of temper and disposition is to be found, under the various modifications of a diversity of early habits and impressions. The moral field in which I am to labor is confessedly a hard one; but I am far from being discouraged in attempts to recover, and eventually draw from it both fruitfulness and beauty. A right use of the means of grace will ever produce, in a greater or less degree, both in ourselves and others, their destined results; and in the persuasion of this efficacy, I found all my confidence and my hopes. A more interesting and attentive audience than that formed by the five hundred of our crew at worship on the Sabbath, I have seldom addressed; and every look, and the whole appearance of the men, after the first sermon I preached, as I passed among them while at dinner to distribute a set of tracts, plainly told they were far from being indifferent to the services of my office, and regard me personally with feelings of kindness and good will. Commodore Thompson informed me at an early period, that it was the desire, both of himself and Captain Smith, to have public prayers daily on board the Guerriere, according to a prescribed, though hitherto disregarded rule of the naval service. The hour of sunset was fixed on, as the most convenient and most appropriate for the duty; and the first day the weather permited, it was commenced. A more desirable and salutary observance could scarce be devised-nor one more pleasing and more impressive. It was well remarked in reference to it by a principal officer, though not professedly a religious man, that wanderers as we are upon the deep, separated widely from all the rest of the world, there should be, at least once in every twenty-four hours, a common and appointed time for all to pause in the daily round of occupation, and, as intelligent and immortal beings, to reflect for a moment what we are and for what created-what we are about, and whither we are going-unitedly to join in the worship of our God, and anew commend us to his grace and mercy. It is no common spectacle thus presented by our ship, when, as the curtains of the night begin to drop around us, the busy and varied occupation of so large a company is seen to cease, and, at the appointed signal, all, from the highest to the lowest, quietly gather to the altar we have here erected, to offer to heaven an evening sacrifice of |