voted a day to prayer and fasting on their account and his own. It runs thus: "Woe is me that I sojourn in Mesech, and dwell in the tents of Kedar. "My soul is among fierce lions, though they are sons of men; for their words are spears and darts, and their tongues are a sharp sword. "O how those who should live like expectants of glory, resemble the damned in hell! "Where is the honour of thy name, which by every tongue is continually blasphemed? "How often would the loss of an organ have a little relieved the anguish of my mind, and the sleep of death shut out the mournful scene! "Who can enough extol the patience of God! But who can be enough astonished at the impenitence of man, who still goes on in sin! "Whence shall I fetch floods of tears to weep over my demented acquaintances, who are hastening to hell, yet believe it not? "Surely my dwelling is in the suburbs of hell, where I hear the blasphemies of the damned! "The lips that should daily praise thee, are daily speaking perverse things; the tongues that should talk aloud of thy righteousness, are set on fire of hell. "Where, in the day of judgment, where shall these poor souls appear? and whither will they cause their shame to go? "Ye saints! ye little know what a life your chil dren lead when far from you, however well they may have been brought up. "Surely sinners come nearer to the devils in their wickedness, than saints to the angels in their sanctity; yet a glorious change awaits the one, but a fearful end the other. "When shall my silent Sabbaths pass away, so that I may praise the God of Zion in the Zion of God? "How melancholy to dwell with those whom death at last shall part, to meet no more in one society again! "Now it is proper that I pray for them, mourn over, and deplore them; for in a little their state will eternally forbid it, and my state eternally forbear it. "How might one see, and not be greatly afflicted, nations conquered, kings dethroned, prisoners pass in thousands, and multitudes go to be broken on the wheel! But who can see numbers of fellow-creatures daring the thunders of the Almighty, provoking his vengeance, and plunging into everlasting flames, and not be pained to the very heart! "Surely the society of the wicked is the academy of hell, where vice is taught, if not by precept, yet by practice, and sometimes by both. "Every morning my sorrow returns upon me, and my anguish recoils with every fresh reflection "How dangerous is the company of the wicked! for though they should not prevail on us to commit sin, yet their often committing it in our sight is ready to blunt the edge of our detestation, and allay the vi gour of our abhorrence of it. "Were men as stupid about the things of this life as they are about the world to come, they would be a burden to society, and useless in their generation. How deplorable is it, then, that they should be only prudent in matters, not of the last, but of the least importance, and that even those who other wise are indolent, should perpetrate sin with the greatest ac tivity! "When neither judgments nor mercies, promises nor threatenings, patience nor examples of vengeance, can prevail, nothing can let them see their folly till awakened by the flames of hell, when it will be too late. "Revolutions here* have advantaged me nothing, for it was still from bad to worse." Immediately after their arrival from the coast of France, Mr. Meikle began to write what he styles "A Secret Survey into the State of the Soul," the principal articles of which have been published in the first volume of his works. To this, therefore, the reader is henceforth referred for information respecting his religious views and feelings. It is proper, however, to observe, that he did not satisfy himself with watching over the state of his own soul, and bewailing the wickedness of his companions. He still, as prudence dictated, continued to reprove and warn them. He still privately continued to instruct and counsel the boys whom he had taken under his charge. Besides, he spent many hours, during the greater part of the year, 1760, in conversation and prayer with a young gentleman belonging to the ship, who had fallen under strong convictions, and suffered very singular horror of conscience; a minute narrative of whose case has been found among his papers; but the issue, of which, whether in a gracious change or not, Mr. Meikle could never learn, as the ship was ordered to sea soon after the gentleman left it, and he could never afterwards obtain any information concerning him.t * Since he joined the ship, besides changes among the inferior officers, they had three captains. The chaplain was so very wicked, that he had been expelled the ship! This Narrative may perhaps appear in the remaining volume of Mr. Meikle's Works. While lying at Plymouth, Mr. Meikle bethought himself of a new expedient for the benefit of his companions. Seizing a favourable moment, when some of the midshipmen had conducted themselves so ill as to be turned off, he prevailed on a few of those who remained, to enter into a solemn engagement respecting their future behaviour; and that he might not scare them, limited the obligation to the period of one month, expecting doubtless, if his attempt should succeed, to obtain their concurrence to a renewal of the engagement, or to the adoption of some similar rules. The original is in Mr. Meikle's handwriting, and is subscribed by other three persons. As it will be deemed by those who are acquainted with the prevailing manners of the navy, a curiosity, and happily illustrates, not only his zeal, but his prudence, in adapting the regulations to the circumstances of those for whose benefit they were devised, an exact copy is subjoined: "On board the Portland, Jan. 3, 1761. "We, the underwritten, subscribe to observe the following Rules. I. "That none of us shall swear, or even mention the divine name, but when in reading it occurs. II. "That we shall say grace before and after meat by turns, or every one for himself. III. "That every morning and night we shall read a portion of scripture. IV. "That none of us shall sing obscene songs, or talk about lewd women. V. "That our table-discourse shall be improving, innocent, and merry. VI. "That we shall keep the Sabbath strictly, not in telling idle tales, or yain discourse; but shall read the Bible and good books by turns, while the rest hear. VII. "Good books to be put into the foremost birth every Saturday night, and nobody to come into the aftermost birth on Sunday, but the former inhabitants. VIII. "That, on account of patients, every night, at six o'clock, the aftermost birth be evacuated. IX. "No lewd women shall be admitted into either birth. X. "That we will not play at cards or any game for money, but at cards at no rate. XI. "That no dispute be carried on too far; but when passion begins to appear, it shall be dropped. XII. "That no new midshipman be admitted into the mess. XIII. "That none of us reveal our rules to any on board. XIV. "That this continue a month in force. XV. "That the breach of any of the above rules by any of us, dissolves all. "To the above we set our hand. (Subscribed) "JAMES ATKIN, "HUGH FERGUS, "JAMES NELSON, "JAMES MEIKLE." How long these regulations were kept, or what salutary effects they had in the reformation of the subscribers, is not known. Mr. Meikle often complains in his diary of the short continuance of good impressions on the hearts of those with whom he remonstrated, of their breach of pious resolutions, of their goodness being like the early cloud, and of many of them returning like the dog to his vomit. Grieved |