TO THE SEVENTH VOLUME OF “CHART & COMPASS." LECTORS we have just returned from our Seventh Annual Editorial Voyage, to find our country stirred at every point of the compass, on the General Election. This very morning the great Axeman starts North to raise the battle cry. But let it be remembered by every party and leader, every elector and elected, that hundreds of thousands of our captains, officers and engineers, sailors and seamen, firemen and fishermen, are practically disfranchised, and though so important, without political power in the State! No noble lord, no legal luminary, no parliamentary orator, will visit their humble dwelling, to grip the hand, compliment the wife, pat the little boy, touch the chin of the baby, and converse most cordially on questions which concern them most, always ending up with the sacredness of giving their vote. Who cares for the vote of an absent sailor ? Who ever heard of sailors lobbying members in the House of Commons ? Is there one man who has served as a sailor in a merchant ship, to take his seat in the New Parliament ? So far as we know not one, the mighty ocean is unrepresented there! Captain, Prime Minister, whatever your political creed, whoever you may be, how is it you won't have a single merchant sailor in your Ship of State ? Shipowners are there, but where are your sailors ? Is it to be thought a thing incredible that a sailor should rise from the death of political extinction and sit and speak in what is called the People's House ? If all the readers of Chart and Compass really had the Franchise, who can tell, they might send the editor of their craft even to the House of Commons ! Fancy a sailor who went in at the horse pipe and had his hands in the tar bucket, actually sent to that august Assembly! It may be too late now, but surely the time will come when a constituency will be found, which will send if not the editor, at least one who has been a sailor and is a sailors' friend. It would have to be upon the understanding that we represented rather seafarers than land lubbers, less of land grabbing and more of sea getting (God has given the sea to man), principles rather than party. Legislation to be helpful and healing to humanity (seamen and landmen), whether on the lines of temperance or thrift, purity or peace. Extension of empire by commerce and Christianity rather than sword and slaughter, morality rather than majority, a recognition that sailors and shipping have to all nations a transcendent redemptive mission, inaugurated by Jesus Christ Himself, such are some of the planks in our platform or deck. It is blessed to be the elect of men, how much more the elect of God ? It may not always happen that man's elect is God's elect. May it be so in this next election. Vox Populi, vox Dei. What a mighty anchor to the State as well as to the soul, is this. “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?” But this is a curious preface! We want every elector to take Chart and Compass, and every reader to become an elector by giving his vote (that is 25. 6d. for 1886), to the editor. In fact, extend the franchise on sea and shore, and thus secure other voters, The editor cannot canvass with his wife our world wide constituency! It would indeed be a pleasure to call on every elector, but as this cannot be, fill up your voting paper just the same, and whether it be for one, five, seven or more, plump for Chart and Compass. Fold your paper according to Act of Parliament, after putting in cheque, order, or stamps, and deposit it in the pillar-box or post-office, provided in every constituency by the Crown. Our readers will agree with us that the Chart and Compass volume for 1885, is perhaps the best and most important of the series. It will be good not only for a New Year's gift, but a book of reference on the glorious themes concerning the sea. It has chronicled the many sided works of the honoured agents of the British and Foreign Sailors Society, as also many others of the Lord's servants. It has linked a glorious past with a more PREFACE. glorious future. It has been true to the high destiny of our brother seamen. It has gone to many of their homes, when they have been absent in ships with a “be of good cheer.” If we must glory, it has given monthly what no other magazine has done, a page of the unalloyed gold from God's mine. Gentle readers send us a thank offering of a £1,000 for the Aged Missionaries Fund. If you cannot send it bequeath it in your will. And if you can spare another £ 1,000, we would, with your permission sacredly invest it in perpetuity to help qualify Christian sailors of gifts and graces, for the more dangerous enterprizes of Christ's Church, on rivers, lakes, inland seas, ocean bays, &c., &c. But we must close this preface. Boatswain, call the watchwriters, sellers, readers, voters, givers, to help send the magazine afloat and abroad, all hands on deck. And now before we separate for 1885, let us thank God and take courage. Shall it be a good-bye farewell, au revoir, God bless you! A few we have committed to the deep, to wait till the the sea shall give them up. But enough remains to man the old ship for another voyage. Let us all sign articles again. We must revise our list for 1886. Be sure your name is not taken off. Where's that voting paper ? Did you post it with the enclosure to the Editor ? E. W. MATTHEWS. Sailors Institute, Mercer's-street, Shadwell, London, E. 281 ... 306 218 GENERAL INDEX. News from the Stations appear some- Dyke, The Child ...... times under other headings than the Duke of Kent, The Late ........ 66 Distress Signals ................ PAGE Death of an African Explorer.... 202 Don't Say Such Things of God's Drinking; or, I had rather Die .. 279 Aged Missionaries' Fund........ Aberdeen, Lord, and the Church Esther Beamish....... of Scotland .................. “ Allen Gardiner” Mission Steamer 239 Easter Greeting, An ............ American Seamen's Friend Society 273 English Language, The ........ 136 Encouragement from Nottingham 188 Bible our Compass, The ........ Editor's Notes and Notices, 30, 61, 93, 126, 159, 190, 222, 255, 287, 318, 350, 374 Enthusiasm, The Power of...... 308 Society ...... 97, 129, 190, 274, 307 Fig Tree, The ..... Ditto Report, including all Friends Called Home ..... Fawcett, Professor ........ . .............. 25 Father Taylor on Emerson ...... Brassey's, Lady, New Book .... 7 Floating Libraries ...... 29, 157, Brassey, Lady .............. 99, 129 Firemen as well as Fishermen, 59, 100 British and Foreign Bible Society Fish in the Boat; or, Christ in "Flora,” Barque .............. Cadbury Brothers ... 208 Fighting for its own Sake .... Can't have her ................ 196 Captain, A, Thinks of Chart and Floating Icebergs ........... Captain at Sea, The ............. Food Supply, Our.............. Converted Jew, A..:::....... 307 Christ the Rock amid the Waters 278 Gallantry Rewarded ............ Good Templars' Congress, The .. 274 319, 351, 375 Gladstone, Mr., and our Sailors.. 70 Chart and Compass, 92, 119, 187, 198, Gifts to Fishermen and Sailors .. 286 Cholmondeley, Death of the Mar General Grant ................ quis of ...................... 59 Great Guns at the Sailors' Insti- tute ........................ 337 Convention for Seamen, A German Beer and Tobacco ...... W orld's ................ 253, 257 How to Live in Peace with others 348 Happy Ship, A ................ 79 Heaven's Gate, A Letter from .. 103 Helping the Sailor ............ 147 (Nottingham).... ......... 105 " lole," Steam' Mission Yacht, 19, 53 Keeping the Promise .......... 268 Kidnapping in Queensland ....... 286 Queen's Gift, The.............. 33 Quiet Work in London ........ 249 Reed, Rev. C. E. B. (the late) .. 6 Remarkable Conversion, A...... 211 Look and Live ............. 154 Life before Property........ 193, 248 Little Jack's Arrival at Ujiji .... 195 London and its New Bishop .... 199 Lord Mayor's Visit, The ........ Lighthouses, Chart and Compass Sailors and Christmas in a Foreign Sailing life's ocean with Christ 356 Storms on the Labrador Coast .. Sunday Free Teas.. 81, 126, 195, 261 Strong Drink is raging .......... Shaftesbury, The Earl of.... 187, 374 Scriptures issued Every Minute, Still More Deadly Machines .... 374 Sunday Work in our Steamers .. 201 Sunday thoughts for Sailors, 32, 64, 96, 128, 160, 192, 224, 257, 288, Sailors' Publications............ Sunday Schools, Claims of Seamen Stepney Meeting House ........ 57 Sunday, November ist .... 290, 317 Spurgeon, Mr., and a Sailor .... 291 Sunday at Sea ................ Sea, A...................... Something for Ladies to do .... Stewart Island, A Visit to ...... Sailors' Home, London, The .... Sailors' Friend Gone Home .... 369, 371 |
