tion, therefore, but at the same time in the holy boldness of faith unfeigned, she would still seek to retain and occupy the position which the foregoing summary of her history assigns to her; humbly claiming to be identified with the Church of Scotland, which solemnly bound herself to the Reformation from Popery, and again similarly pledged herself to the Reformation from Prelacy; deploring past shortcomings from the principles and work of these Reformations, as well as past secessions from her own communion, occasioned by tyranny and corruption in her councils; and, finally, resolved and determined, as in the sight and by the help of God, to prosecute the ends contemplated from the beginning in all the acts and deeds of her reforming fathers, until the errors which they renounced shall have disappeared from the land, and the true system which they upheld shall be so universally received, that the whole people, rightly instructed in the faith, shall unite to glorify God the Father in the full acknowledgment of the kingdom of His Son, our blessed Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, to whose name be praise for ever and ever. Amen. Extracted from the Records of the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland by } THOMAS PITCAIRN, Cl. Eccl. Scot. Lib. PATRICK CLASON, PRACTICAL HINTS FOR THE CHURCH'S WORK.-No. X. WHAT MEANS HAVE BEEN MOST BLESSED IN THE MINISTRY? IN giving the results of my experience on this subject, I would say, that the preaching of the gospel faithfully, simply, and affectionately, is the chief instrument of saving good. In the parish where I laboured for thirteen years, I found that faithful preaching, even when unaccompanied with any private remonstrances, put down many evil practices that at one time prevailed; and, among these, Sabbath entertainments, which latterly were shunned by all, except the openly profane. The preaching of the truth produced a tone of public feeling and morals, which was recognised to be correct, and which was even owned as scriptural by the ungodly themselves. In country parishes, there is to be found generally little of theoretic, whatever there may be of practical, infidelity. As these notices, I presume, are meant for the benefit of those who are commencing a ministerial life, this part of the writer's experience may be encouraging. A minister cannot go among his people, and allow, on their part, freedom of remark, without having his own best thoughts presented to him again, and often with touching application. The neglect of pulpit preparation is equivalent to the casting away of the most potent instrument of usefulness. But all the means work together; and a gracious Lord blesses the setting forth of his truth in any way. In looking over the names of your congregation, and considering who of them give signs of spiritual life, you will find that some were arrested by the steady preaching of the gospel from day to day. On others, the words that were dropped in a time of sickness, or in your domiciliary visits, have had a blessed effect. That man or woman, that is now living consistently, you remember coming out of some careless house in the parish, to attend the Sabbath-school; and many a time you have got thanks from father and mother, for the care you took of their child, or children, though they failed to see what was the chief cause why they should thank you,-your rescuing them from the unhallowed influences of home, and giving them a taste for better pleasures. Therefore, it is well to ply all the instruments which the Lord puts in our hand; they will be helpful to one another. We must not expect from our people, that they shall tell us at what time and in what way they were brought to serious thought. There is, on the part of many, a dread lest their goodness should be as "the morning cloud;" and if one is to be happy only when he hears his people telling him that such and such a sermon or address brought them to Christ, he will assuredly be disappointed. Let me tell of the manner in which three cases of, I hope, something better than mere improvement, were brought about. The first was a farm-servant, who had been brought up in a very careless family, and whose marriage was not carried through so as to approve itself to me. Visiting him one day, I was struck with his remark, "You said there was not a more pleasant sight than to see the labouring-man sitting on the Sabbath evening teaching his children the Word of God: I find it very pleasant." This was the first intimation of a change. From that day the man took a new position in the parish. He had much family affliction, which he bore with a most submissive spirit, and his worldly circumstances have so improved, that I found him lately in possession of a small farm, and highly respected. The second case was that of one of our most "well-to-do" farmers. Often had this man been approached, but he invariably shied all close dealings; an "aye" or a "no" was the sum of what could be got out of him. At length, one day, I do not remember whether on the occasion of one of my visits to him, or of his to me, he asked me if I could lend him, or would buy for him, a book of prayers, as it was "a help to the like of him." From that day he presented a new character to the parish, and spoke and acted as one interested in the truth. In another case, an individual in the upper ranks of life, after having kept a thorough silence as to the means of her change from a system of self-righteousness to one of simple dependence upon the grace of God in Christ, when expecting death, felt it would not be right to conceal the instrumentality by which she had been led to serious views. This often occurs. The Lord graciously keeps from his servant the knowledge of what he is doing through him, it may be, lest he should be unduly exalted. Neither must the servant of the Lord be discouraged by those cold, and sometimes positively rude, receptions which he meets with. They sometimes are but the preludes to success. It was so in the case of one whom the writer of these few lines remembers with much comfort. K. S. was visited with severe bodily trouble, was ignorant and self-satisfied. The first statement of the gospel raised in her the keenest feelings against the message and the messenger. But the mind was interested; and when she was dealt with at a second interview, the enmity gave way to Christian faith and the grace of the Spirit, which gradually developed themselves during seven years of suffering, till she died, ripe for glory. But there must be close and faithful dealing. And it is where this is practised, that you may expect benefit from the Sabbath-school. Little good is to be looked for, where a Sabbath-school is merely a school for lessons of memory, or facts, or history. It is where you find the teacher dealing with the conscience and the heart, and letting those that are sitting round him see (and children will soon see this) that he has both a conscience and a heart himself, that you may expect and that you will meet with fruit. Some cry out against Sabbath-schools, but it would be a good preparatory question, What kind of Sabbath-schools do you object to? It would be well, too, to recollect, that you are not to expect to see the full effect of the rightly conducted Sabbath-school in early youth. Some effects, no doubt, you should and will see, but these are so much mixed up with the peculiarities of youth, that you may have to wait till these have passed before you can clearly perceive that grace has been operating. By this, I do not mean to say that gracious dealings on the part of God are not to be witnessed in the young. The day declares the good. Appearances often deceive. The writer of these lines was much gratified by perceiving an individual belonging to a careless family often affected to tears, and weeping too at times, when it was supposed the truth uttered spoke to her imagined case. This object of interest fell sick, and appeared to be dying. When she was visited, and sub jects for prayer were mentioned to her, she stated, simply but calmly, that till that occasion she had never prayed. How little we often know! How disappointing such cases! Painful as this was, it produced little feeling compared with the following. Thrown, in the Providence of God, into the society of a youth of rank and wealth, the gospel was stated to him. It captivated his imagination at the time, and appeared to tell upon his conscience. And not only then, but often afterwards, the youth visited his instructor, protesting that he would be contented to spend all his life in a dungeon, provided he possessed the peace of God. These visits were paid in the face of multitudes who made a mock of every thing serious. This same individual, afterwards, scrupled not to pass the house, where he had uttered such desires with tears, on his way to haunts of sin so vile, as the basest of the neighbourhood would have been ashamed to visit. Truly, fishers of men, like those after whom they are named, toil much without success; they lose the object of their toil, when, as they think, it is secured, -but their Master graciously rewards them, not for their success, but for their toil and labour,-" their work of faith and labour of love." THE PRAYER WAS TOO LONG. J. T. (From an American Paper.) WELL, that is a fault. We have no model in the Bible for a long prayer. The longest recorded is that of Solomon, upon the momentous, special occasion of the dedication of the temple. The deliberate offering of this would scarcely occupy eight minutes. One of the shortest, that of the publican, "God be merciful to me a sinner," may be offered in one breathing; and it was answered. "Lord, save, I perish," and "Lord, help me," are patterns of earnest, effectual prayer. Earnestness utters its desires directly, briefly, even abruptly. We are not heard because of "much speaking." The prayer was too long.-It is certainly difficult for us to concentrate our thoughts with the intensity that devotion requires for a long time; or to maintain, without weariness, the proper attitude of prayer. Remembering this, he who leads publicly in prayer, representing not simply his own desires, but those of the congregation, should go no further than he reasonably may hope to carry with him their thonghts and devotions. All beyond this, if it be sincere, is private prayer, and should be uttered in the closet. If it be not sincere, it is hypocrisy. The prayer was too long.-Perhaps the good brother did not know it. In the self-forgetfulness of devotion, perhaps he took "no note of time." As the prayers of the social meeting are generally too long, he was but extending a bad custom. Now, if you were kindly to mention it to him, not complainingly, but as though you really desired to promote his usefulness and influence, might it not have a good result? Just try it; and if he is a reasonable Christian, he will thank you for it. The prayer was too long.-Perhaps your own heart was not in a proper frame to sympathise with the devotions. You did not pray in private before you came to the public meeting, and consequently you wanted a praying spirit. There was then but little fellowship of spirit between you and the brother who sought to express what ought to be your desires; and if his heart was warm, and yours cold, it is no wonder you thought the prayer was too long. The prayer was too long.-Was there any preaching in it? Sometimes brethren aim to instruct the congregation, and substantially turn their prayers into exhortations or statements of doctrine. I think, in all such cases, it would greatly add to the interest and profitableness of the meeting, if a division were made, and the things that differ were separated. The prayer was too long.-Was it formal and heartless? Without unction and earnestness, did it seem as though the brother prayed merely because he was called upon, without appearing to have any special errand to the throne of grace? Did he seem to pray merely to fill up the time, or to perform his part in the prescribed routine of service? Was it the same old stereotyped prayer which he always offers, as though circumstances never changed, and our wants and supplies were always the same? If it were so, then the prayer was certainly too long, even if it occupied only one moment, There may not be much poetry, but there is common sense and piety, in the following stanza: "Few be our words and short our prayers, LETTER FROM REV. ALEX. ANDERSON, OLD ABERDEEN, TO THE EDITOR OF THE FREE CHURCH MAGAZINE. Old Aberdeen, 16th Sept., 1851. Number for the present month, two letters by me,-one pubDEAR SIR,-You have been pleased to notice, in your lished in May last year, addressed to Dr M'Crie on his Lectures on Christian Baptism, and another, having reference to the same question-not published, but sent by me to a portion of the leading ministers of the Free Church and others in the Presbyteries of Edinburgh, Perth, &c. You have, in answer, presented me with an argument, intended to supply the article of identity between the old and new dispensations which is demanded, and which argument you think is "calculated to give no little difficulty to the Baptists." Your Magazine being a denominational one, I am not sure that you would be inclined to grant me the permission of debating the subject in your own pages. hope, however, that you will allow me to state the terms on which I am prepared (D.V.) to engage in such a discussion, either in the pages of your Magazine, or by separate publication, and the grounds on which, at the expense, perhaps, of allowing you a seeming triumph, I decline meeting the particular argument with which you have confronted me : I. Your article, in so far as I understand it, derives the alleged element of identity between the old and new dispensations, not from a comparison of the Scripture revelations concerning the nature of each, but from certain supposed principles of natural law, determining the unity of parent and child as a necessary truth under all dispensations, and therefore warranting us to hold that this unity must exist under the new dispensation, as it confessedly did exist and exists still, to certain effects, under the covenant with Abraham, in its reference to his natural posterity. This, however, is not the argument of the Standards with which I contended; which rests the identity of the two dispensations on an alleged oneness of "substance" between the Abrahamic covenant and the covenant of grace, as the nature of each is revealed in the Word of God. Again, your argument appears to maintain that the children of believing and saved parents, being in a state of infancy, are saved with these parents, in virtue of their alleged unity with them (p. 273). I know no Scripture ground for such a distinction between the infant children of believers and those of "heathens, or of unbelieving professors." Your view, however, cannot be that of the Westminster Standards, when they assign to the children of believers an interest in the covenant of grace. If the privilege alleged in the Standards means a saving interest in the covenant of grace at all, it must be a sure and everlasting interest, involving a permanent change both of character and state, not to be lost by their passing the years of infancy, this certainty and unchangeableness being the very characteristic distinction of the promise of the covenant of grace. Such a view, however, being contradicted by facts, the Standards, when they speak directly of the work of the Holy Ghost in connection with baptism, restrict it, not to the infants of true believers, but to "such (whether of age or infants) as that grace belongeth unto secording to the counsel of God's own will, in his appointed time." The Standards, with more wisdom, as I think, than has been evinced by the contributor of your article, have, in dealing with the subject of infant salvation, declined to rest it on any other ground than the sovereign will and purpose of God-the rule and the method of executing which, as in the present matter it has no bearing on the question of our duty, he has not been pleased to reveal to us. In respect to both the above points your argument is novel, and different from that which, as contained in the Standards, I endeavoured to confute. II. In dealing with the argument of the Standards, my first object, in both letters, has been to disprove the identity of the Abrahamic covenant and the covenant of grace, on the assumption of which identity the Westminster Standards argue summarily from the administration of the one to that of the other. I have stated in my second letter a series of reasons for denying this doctrine, each of which, as I believe, by itself goes conclusively to show a distinction of "substance" between the two covenants; several of them showing at the same time a contrast on that very point of hereditary privilege, on which the argument in question supposes the identity to exist. Having thus stated objections which appear to be fatal to the scriptural argument for infant baptism as expressed in the Standards, I think that I cannot fairly be asked by any Free Churchman to deal with another argument, whether derived from Scripture, or, as in the present case, from the principles of natural law, until he has either shown the unsoundness of my objections, or acknowledged that the framers of the Standards have rested their practice on an untenable ground. III. I have never said-although you ascribe to me some statement of this kind-neither do I believe, that Free Church ministers, or the framers of the Standards, intend to assert the hereditary salvation of the posterity of believers as children of the covenant of grace, however their language and the practice of infant baptism may be held fairly to involve it and however inevitably it tends to foster such a delusion in the minds of the ignorant. I believe that in asserting a hereditary interest possessed by these parties in the covenant of grace, they used the language in a loose sense, intending only to assert some sort of improper interest in the covenant of grace, the nature of which no one at the present day, so far as I know, endeavours to explain, and the vagueness and uncertainty of which ought, I think, to excuse a certain amount of obscurity in any attempt to ascertain its character with a view to its confutation. I have made the supposition that it may be intended to signify a family covenant with the posterity of every believer, of the same or a similar nature with the covenant still in force with the posterity of Abraham in the line of Isaac and Jacob, as is formally maintained by at least one eminent divine of a former age; and I have given what appear to be conclusive reasons for rejecting this theory. Before entering on a new argument, I am entitled to expect that either this view of the subject shall be disclaimed, or my objections to it removed. IV. Perhaps when the infants of believers are said to have an interest in the covenant of grace, no more is intended than to state the fact that they are born in outward connection with the church of Christ, and so have a special claim on its prayers and sympathies, which it may be hoped that God will acknowledge and bless. Why a thing so plain should be expressed in language so ambiguous and liable to be fatally misunderstood, I do not undertake to explain. Understanding it, indeed, in its proper sense, it would go far to bring the class in question fairly within the description of the proper subjects of Christian baptism,-and this double sense of the language gives to the argument of the Standards the only plausibility which it can possess to one who knows the place assigned to the ordinance of baptism in the Word of God. But the view of the position of our children now under consideration, is itself beyond the reach of dispute. Only the question remains, How do you derive from this view authority for baptizing them? I apprehend that this question is to be answered, not by quoting the example of circumcision in the Abrahamic church, at least until you have shown, on scriptural grounds, that the dispensations are identical, and the cases in all respects parallel, and parallel especially in regard to the matter of hereditary privilege in the house of God,-not either by abstruse and precarious considerations concerning the unity of parent and child, derived from the principles of natural law, but by reference to the revelations of the Word of God concerning the designs of Christian baptism and the rule of its administration, as these are connected with the supernatural and gracious principles of the New Covenant and of the New Covenant Church. (Heb. viii. 10-12; Acts ii. 41, 47; 1 Cor. iii. 9; 2 Cor. iii. 3-6; Gal. iii. 27-29.) V. I have endeavoured, under the fourth head of my last letter, to show that even supposing the truth of the theory of a hereditary interest in the Abrahamic covenant possessed by the families of believers, and supposing the unity to this extent between a believing parent and his child, baptism, as a badge of membership in the Church of Christ, belongs only to saved persons, and is to be administered by us only to those who appear to have become partakers of salvation, and that the family and national membership of the whole posterity of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, possessed by them from the beginning under a covenant of law, has, both in fact and in principle, been, under the new covenant, expressly repealed. If my proof of this position is, as I believe, irrefragable, then it is useless, so long as the paramount authority of the Word of God is allowed, to attempt to support the practice of infant baptism from less direct considerations, even although these may be derived from the Scriptures, not to speak of a priori arguments such as that adduced in your article. While I have given, therefore, what abundantly satisfies my own mind as a confutation of the theory of an interest in the covenant of grace, or the covenant with Abraham, alleged on behalf of the posterity of believers in the Westminster Standards, it seems to me that it would be a waste of time to discuss even this question in its reference to baptism, until first the argument of the fourth head of my last letter in its six articles has been fairly met and answered. In truth, the doctrine of the gracious and spiritual constitution of the New Testament church lies, I believe, at the foundation of this whole subject; and in the humble hope that my brethren, giving me credit at least for a sincere regard to truth, will bear with me in urging my belief on their consideration, I propose as soon as possible to address to them another letter specially on this branch of the subject. Forgive me for appropriating and reiterating the words of your article: "It were well if men, instead of broaching theories which oppose a fundamental law" of new covenant administration, "would lend their energies and lives for the reviving of that great institute (the church), on the revival of which sa much depends, even the salvation of this lost world.”—I am, &c. ALEX. ANDERSON. [Out of courtesy to Mr Anderson we insert his letter. He will pardon our appending to it a remark or two. The article on which he comments was written, not with the design of commencing a controversial discussion of this vexed question, but of supplying an argument on the opposite side to such of our readers as may have met with Mr Anderson's letters. Our friend must be aware that the question at issue is not his particular views of the Abrahamic Church and Covenant, but Infant Baptism. And supposing that his letters were to effect the design ke has in view, they would issue in making us Baptists, and not in merely overturning some particular theory we may have of the Covenant of Grace, or the phraseology we employ in giving expression to our ideas on that subject. Mr A. will pardon us for saying, that we have the greatest difficulty in ascertaining what he means, though we have conned his three letters with exemplary patience and care; but our idea is, that he is anxious to lead us all to take the step he himself has taken. Ere we take such a step, then, we must test it in every possible way; and if there be any principle of divine truth which his theory and its results would demonstrably controvert, then we suppose the natural inference is, that the untrue lies in the line of argument he adopts, and not either in the church's practice or in her standards. This principle we gave. Mr Anderson, we are bound to assume, took his present position, because he believed that ALL TRUTH--both natural and revealed-afforded no countenance to Infant Baptism, and not merely because he believed he could find fault with the phraseology of the Standards, or even the foun|dation on which they place the matter. For the state of the question is this: Is Infant Baptism in accordance with the truth of God, or is it not? If it be not, it can stand no test either of fundamental principle or of specific revelation; but if it be, then no quarrel with the Standards of our Church will have any other effect than that of making us doubt the soundness of those views which our friend labours so very earnestly. to enforce. Very much has been written to show that Revelation decides the question of Infant Baptism in the affirmative. And to such books as "Roberts' Mysterie and Marrow," and "Gillespie's Miscellany Questions," to mention no more, there is yet no answer; and that natural principles speak the same language, we think was shown pretty clearly in our article. To show this occupied but small space; to discuss Mr A.'s letters would have occupied a very large space; but we do not in the least shrink from the discussion, and at some future time we may perhaps enter upon it.] Notes on New Books. The Lily and the Bee. An Apologue of the Crystal Palace. By SAMUEL WARREN, F.R.S. 1851. WE cannot say that we regard this as a very successful production. It is a sort of Prose-Poem suggested by the Crystal Palace a string of meditations and emotions called forth by that marvellous scene. Fine thoughts and high feelings gleam here and there; but the endless accumulation of highflown language is really too much for us. It is the irregular and impulsive style of writing run wild. Mr Warren is a man of genius, an able and powerful writer; but we cannot think he has consulted his permanent reputation in this work. It is but justice to say, that it is pervaded by an elevated tone of piety, exalting God, and humbling man; though even the piety is too general and sentimental to do much practical good. We subjoin two short specimens, one of the more descriptive, the other of the more sentimental, portion of the volume: THE SPECTATORS. "Amazing spectacle! Touchstone of character! capacity! and knowledge! Spectacle, now lost in the spectators: then spectators, in the spectacle! Rich: poor: gentle: simple: wise: foolish: young: old: learned: ignorant: thoughtful: thoughtless: haughty: humble: frivolous: profound: Every grade of intellect: every shade of character! Here is a voluble smatterer: suddenly discomfited by the chance question of a curious child: and rather than own ignorance, will tell him falsely. There a bustling piece of earth: one of the earth, earthy: testing every thing by money value. Here is a stale bundle of prejudices, hard bound together: to whom every thing here is topsy-turvy, and discoloured, seen through jaundiced eyes. Here comes one, serenely unconscious that he is a fool. There is one suddenly startled by a suspicion that he knows scarcely any thing. Here is one listening, with seeming lively interest, and assenting gestures, to a scientific explanation, of which he comprehends nothing; but appearances must be kept up. There is one falsely thinking himself the observed of observers; trying to look unconscious, and distinguished. Here is one that will not see a timid poor relation, or an humble friend; as fashionable folk are near. Yonder is a statesman: gliding about alone: watchful: thoughtful: cautious: pondering national characters: habits: capabilities: localities: wants: superfluities: rival systems of policy, their fruits and workings: imagining new combinations: speculating on remote consequences. Is here one abhorring England, and her institutions: hoping he sees her approaching downfal, their subversion? Yonder walks one who has committed, or is meditating, great crime; and hoping that his heavy eye may here be attracted, and his mind dazzled into a moment's forgetfulness; but it is in vain. There is a philosopher, to whose attuned ear the Spectacle speaks myriad-tongued telling of patient sagacity: long foiled, at length-or suddenly-triumphant: of centuries of misdirected, abortive toil: of pain, suffering, privation: of one sowing what another shall reap: Here is a philanthropist-thinking of blood-stained slavery. Of millions, dealt with as though they were the very beasts that perish bought sold: scourged: slain: as if their Maker had not seen them, nor heard their groans, nor treasured their tears: nor set them down against the appointed Reckoning. Here is one, little thinking that he will suddenly fall dead to-morrow: having much on hand, both of business and pleasure. There is one tottering under the weight of ninety years: to whom the grashopper is a burden: leaning on the arms of dutiful and lusty youth: gazing with glazed eye: silent with wise wonder. Here sits a laughing child, upon a gleaming cannon, Yonder is a blind man, sightless amidst surrounding splendours: but there is one telling him tenderly that he stands beside the statue of Milton. There, in the glistening centre of the Transept, stands an aged exile: venerable: widowed: once a Queen: looking at the tranquil image of Queen Victoria: meditating, with a sigh, on the happy security of her throne." Cease, then, aching and repining heart! So royally arrayed with Glory out of Heaven, Come, let me humbly press thee to my heart- See! the tears I shed, and all for lo e of Thee! Before the Flower, whereby, And Life-bought Man. I hear and make me ever hear! -So shall I never know Despair, With Gems, and Gold, and Silver, And living, hope and love, and patient wait, With the Lily on my heart, Sweetly stilled, in death." 1 a second edition, to give more prominence to the phase which Unitarianism has assumed in our own day, in the writings of such men as Newman, Greg, Martineau, and the whole Chapman school. The "History" of Unitarianism is not complete without a notice of Dr Channing, to whom we do not find any reference in Mr Easton's volume. What is the Duty of Seceders in reference to Union with the Free Church? By a WORKING MAN. Edin. 1851. IN a modest but graceful manner, the "Working Man" presents the clear and sober sense of a subject which some people contrive wonderfully to mystify, and comes to the conclusion that there is nothing to justify the "Original Seceders" in refusing to unite with the Free Church. We commend his pamphlet to all interested in the subject. Second Class Book of Physical Geography; Embracing Organic Life, and the Geographical Distribution of Plants, Animals, and Man. By WM. RHIND. Edinburgh: 1851. THIS little manual contains more information than we could have supposed it possible to give in 96 pages. Though condensed, the information is given in an interesting style, and is not over-crowded. We can very decidedly recommend it to the attention of teachers, who will find that school-lessons may be very greatly enlivened by a little instruction on the extremely interesting subjects treated here. A Defence of Infant Baptism: embodying Replies to Carson, Campbell, Noel, &c. By the Author of a Catechism on Christian Baptism. Paisley: 1851. THE substance of this work appeared some time ago, in the pages of the "Scottish Presbyterian," the Magazine of the Reformed Presbyterian Church. The subject is discussed with very great acuteness and clearness, and with a liveliness and good-temper that form a striking contrast to the tone of most controversial discussions. The conclusions are brought out in a forcible and convincing manner; and, altogether, the work is a useful contribution to a subject which excites so much interest at the present day. General Entelligence. CONVERSIONS IN IRELAND. THE following deeply interesting passage is from a letter written by the Rev. J. D. Smith, an independent minister in Dublin, in reply to certain disparaging remarks by the British Banner, on Protestant Missions in Ireland, with the view of rousing British Congregationalists from their apathy, by showing the success which has attended the exertions of other denominations: "It is a source of congratulation to all who take a lively interest in Ireland to know, that a most powerful impulse has been given to popular feeling on the subject of scriptural inquiry, which, through the Divine blessing, is already productive of results highly favourable to the Protestant religion. All denominations-our own excepted-(and this surely should be known and felt by us)-have thrown an impulse into the country most unexpected in itself, and most astonishing in its results. The Church of England, by means of its more pious members, and by voluntary effort, has effectuated a movement in the West worthy of the name of a reformation. Ministers are preaching out-of-doors as well as in-doors; in cabins, and in cottages, as well as in churches, to crowds of converts from Romanism. More than one Bishop now seeks congregations in mere huts and hovels of the poor. In one case where a great change has been effected, the Bishop, it is said, instead of making converts of the people, has been made a convert of by them. Wonders are being done in Conemara alone. How simple, how interesting, the origin of the movement! Mr Dallas, a Hampshire minister, goes over to that region in quest of health. But few invalids choose such a spot; but few have had the good fortune to know of it. Yes, but few know of Loch Corrib, with its hundred islands; or the Killeries Mountains, with their eagle abodes, and salubrious air; or of the rich dewy valleys, with the melody of their woods, and the fragrance of their flowers. In fact, few scenes are more interesting or more romantic, than wild but fond Conemara. There are heard the most majestic falls of the Atlantic; there are seen the most peaceful waters of loch and ་ lake, bathing the feet of some of the smallest of Erin's mountains. No pilgrimage to the Rhine can be compared to a visit to Conemara. I have just received a letter from this region, which states that the Scriptures are now being read through twelve well appointed districts; that some of the Popish chapels are almost deserted; that some have been thrown down; that between four and five thousand persons have left the errors of Rome, and that the priests, some of them, are about to emigrate to America.' The Rev. John Gregg, a most excellent minister of this city, visited fifty-six congregations, composed of converts, inquirers, and Roman Catholics, varying in number from fifty to six hundred.' In this small peninsula, with its adjoining districts in Galway and Mayo, which form the diocese of Tuam, there are ten thousand converts regularly gathered into Protestant communities. The Bishop was an anti-convert man; but, from the flood of inquiry rising up around him, he has been compelled to join in the movement. Bishop Daly, who himself has often preached at the back of a chair to an Irish-speaking peasantry, declared in a speech, recently delivered in Exeter Hall, that, in Connaught alone, ten thousand souls had been reclaimed out of the Church of Rome.' These several witnesses doubtless are true. The facts are remarkable. They accord with my own knowledge and convictions of Connaught. Before the visit of the excellent Hampshire Rector, I had made two extensive tours through its more destitute parts, and to some of its most desolate islands. Never did a people appear more willingly to congregate together for the purpose of hearing the gospel. I reported to the Committees of the Irish Evangelical Society that, for miles and miles--in one district for twenty-one miles-I could discover no place of worship at all, either Romanist or Protestant; that there was not a Nonconformist minister for every 51,000 souls; that there were upwards of 800,000 people out of the million and half in the province of Connaught who could neither read nor write. The winter following this visit, I made a second journey at the request of the Committee. I found the people anxious to hear the Gospel-most anxious for schools; the sites were selected; a chain of schools, such as would have the industrial element infused into their constitution, was fixed upon; in some cases, the masters were chosen; the Committees in Dublin and London had agreed to the plan, but, alas! I returned to England only to hear that the Society was embarrassed with another debt, that nothing new could be done which might prevent appeals for its removal. Only one person knows of the bitter disappointment which was inflicted. Mr Dallas had the advantage of going direct to all England. He found the people willing enough to aid in a work to which it appeared evident God had called his servants. At that time only two places of worship existed between Galway and the Atlantic. Now eight more are determined on, in order to meet the wants of the converts. Where much of this work is progressing, I have delegated to preach the Word of Life to a multitude of grateful auditors. I have known them come for ten miles under an inclement sky, and return on the same night to their mountain hovels amidst a heavy fall of snow. How some of these congregations at present meet, may be imagined from a scene in Kerry-for the work has extended there also-written from the spot by an eye-witness. "I stood,' he remarks, upon a rock overhanging the wild waves of the Atlantic, near to the village of Ballybunnion. It was eventide, and the setting sun was gilding the ocean; here was a little bay with its beautiful pebbly beach; and there was a stupendous rugged cliff, with the waves dashing against it, and rebounding in boiling foam and feathered spray, or rushing into the caverns beneath with noise loud as the cannon's roar. "Before me was the ruin of an ancient castle, telling that once some noble kept watch and ward, and presenting a striking contrast with the fisherman's huts or the village cottages around. "A group of peasants were seen, clean and orderly in their gait; and then another and another group appeared, wending their way over cliff and rock and strand to the village school-house, where the missionary of the Irish Society was about to preach the word of eternal life; and then the bathing cottages sent their contributions of souls inquiring the way to Zion; and amid the sand-hills outside the town might be seen the blue mantle and red petticoat of the Kerry peasant women, all bending their steps to hear of Jesus in their own loved tongue. It was a beautiful sight to see 100 converts, |