306 NOTE s. 



worthier, three fourths of their forty months' absence are pass- 

 ed. When they are on shore, or lying in port to refit, cor- 

 ruptions, by libidinous intercourse with impure women, in- 

 temperance, and other abominations, vary, while they by no 

 means improve, their condition. Christian Reflector. 



E, p. 253. 



THE Sabbath-keeping experience of Rev. William Scoresby, 

 who, as well as the father, was for many years employed in 

 the Greenland whale fishery, is of great practical value. In 

 a volume entitled " Memorials of the Sea," he gives the fol- 

 lowing results of a strict and conscientious observance of the 

 Sabbath at sea : 



It was in the last four voyages, wherein my personal in- 

 terest in the fishing was the greatest, that the providential 

 testimonies to Sabbath observance were the most striking. 

 During this period, the pecuniary interest to myself alone, 

 in the capture of a large whale, was not uufrequently near 

 300, while a single day's successful, fishing might afford a 

 personal advantage, as in one instance or more it did, of up- 

 ward of 800. Consequently every motive of self-interest 

 was in favor of unceasing exertions, during the whole seven 

 days of the week, for promoting the success of our undertak- 

 ing. The practice, morever, almost universally is, to pursue 

 the fishery equally on the Lord's day, as at any other time, 

 whenever whales were astir. 



Works connected with the fishery, indeed, but considered 

 of less importance, were, for the most part, suspended in 

 honor of the Sabbath ; but the capture of whales, if oppor- 

 tunity offered, was considered as such a kind of necessity as 

 to justify that departure from the ordinary rest of the day; 

 for it was argued, and that with reason, that the whales which 

 were seen on the Sabbath might not remain till another 

 day ; and, therefore, it was inferred, though by no means 

 with the same strictness of truth, that it was a necessary duty 



