The Seaman's Retreat has been favored with wise and pious officers. In 1851, a Temperance Society was organized by the Superintendent, and during the six years following, 3,200 seamen signed the total abstinence pledge. Prayer-meetings have been held weekly most of the time for many years. The published report of the Institution for 1869 declared that more than one hundred seamen had given evidence of conversion during the last three years. Besides the services of a regular chaplain, the Institution is occasionally visited by Pastor Helland and Pastor Hedstrom, who minister to the Scandinavian sailors in their own language. These services are often seasons of thrilling interest ; the sermon being. supplemented by the prayers and exhortations of the sailors, and not unfrequently attended with the tears and sobs of the impenitent. Many who have entered the Retreat in quest of physical remedies only have found to their great joy the balm of the soul, and returned to their occupation with aspirations and hopes hitherto unknown. As our foreign mission work in the past has been greatly retarded by the dissipation and impiety of sailors representing Christian countries, may we not hope for the day when their consecrated energies shall make them rank among its most potent auxiliaries? The conversion of a humble sailor often sets in motion a series of moral influences which sweep around the world, and may never, never cease their vibrations. How powerful the motive to labor for this class of persons! Some of its surgeons have been men of remarkable piety. Thomas C. Moffatt, M.D., who expired December, 1869, and who was the fourth physician to fall a victim of ship-fever contracted in discharge of duty, was a most amiable and saintly man. During the fifteen years that he had the medical charge of the Hospital, his religious influence was as marked as his professional. Skillful as he was in prescribing for an enfeebled body, he was no less wise in administering to a disordered soul. His labors in the chapel, at the prayer-meeting, and temperance meeting; his tender, thoughtful, and affectionate treatment of all his patients, had so won the confidence and love of all, that when the long procession came to take the last look at his remains, many brave hearts broke down with emotion, and turned away to weep. Few in his position have, in so eminent a manner, exemplified the excellence of the Christian religion.

The Institution is provided with the current periodicals of the day, and has a circulating library of about a thousand volumes. The inmates are for the most part expected to recover. Incurables are transferred to Sailor's Snug Harbor, or to other Institutions if possible; if not they are provided for here. Fifty-six thousand disabled seamen have been admitted into the Institution since its establishment in 1831, most of whom have been cured and returned to the sea.

The grounds also contain a handsome cemetery, situated on an eminence at the western end of the grounds. Here the hardy tars find a resting place by the side of their comrades when the storms of life are past.