In those places, especially, where large numbers of seamen usually congregate, Bethel services on the Sabbath are means of securing to them a great amount of moral and religious instruction. Besides, colporteur seamen become an efficient instrumentality in directing many a weather-beaten mariner to the house of God, and to the Saviour of sinners. When whale ships are about to leave our port for a cruise of two, three, or four years, it is the purpose of the friends of seamen connected with the several religious denominations in seaport towns, to place on board of such vessels copies of the Word of God, moral and religious books, the Family Library, tracts, &c. We believe this is the usual practice in other whaling ports;[E] but to what extent this arrangement is generally carried out we are unable to say. We acknowledge with gratitude the repeated donations of Bibles and Testaments both from the American and Foreign Bible Society, and the American Bible Society, for gratuitous distribution among the sons of the ocean. Nor would we forget to mention our obligations to the American Tract Society for thousands and tens of thousands of pages of tracts, generously given to be placed on shipboard or put into the hands of seamen. We believe that the good seed of divine truth, thus sown broadcast from year to year, will not wholly fall on unpropitious soil. We are encouraged and strengthened in this benevolent work by the express and significant promises of inspiration: "Cast thy bread upon the waters, for thou shalt find it after many days;" and, again, "Sow beside all waters." More, however, should and ought to be done for seamen. The benevolent and the religious, if so disposed, may find here an ample field for the exercise of their liberality. While something is being done for seamen with reference to their moral and spiritual improvement, yet, when we take into consideration the scores of thousands that yearly leave seaport places in our country, the thousands that are now traversing seas and oceans both near and remote, and visiting almost every part of the earth's surface, how limited are the means employed in behalf of their religious welfare, that Christ may become the pole star of hope to the wandering and tempest-tossed! The American seaman, in a certain sense, is our representative abroad; and, wherever the stars and stripes are given to the wind and fly from the mast head, there he leaves the impress of his influence. How important it is, then, as he departs from the land of his birth and from the scenes of his early associations, and goes out upon the ocean to meet its dangers and perils, as he is assailed by temptations, or mingles with foreigners in other ports, how immensely important it is, that he should be a true representative of Christian institutions and principles at home, and bear about in his own bosom, amid the vicissitudes of ocean life, the "witness of the Spirit" as his true and lasting treasure!