tural and general education, having books of well selected Scripture extracts, and of excellent hymns, containing all the great principles of Christianity, unmingled with error, and various works of a religious and moral character, which I have examined with great satisfaction. The evident progress of the children is surprising, considering that but a few months since, many of them did not know a letter, and might well be compared to the "wild ass's colt." And this indefatigable friend of his country is projecting two more such schools, which, with those now in operation, and a dispensary, which he is establishing, all Irish miles apart, will give him in superintending them as much work as he can accomplish. And a better work is not doing from Cape Clear to the Giant's Causeway. It is true that conversion to the purity of the Protestant faith is not the direct object of these schools. Yet that must be their ultimate issue. Good ground is being prepared for the good seed; much of which is already sown. And a religion recommended to the poor people by so many acts of Christian kindness will win upon themis winning upon them. We were, ere now, filled with horror, at the murders and threats of murder in this neighbourhood; but there is no longer any fear in the once infamous Feakle. The man that has most to fear, carries no pistols with him, and cares not to bolt his door at night. All his neighbours are his friends. It is true that they are Roman Catholics still; but then, without question, they have in them far more of the Catholic, and far less of the Roman, than they had heretofore. And as for the children, they will no longer say the catechisms, or sing the ballads, which were formerly the only reading of the very few that could read at all. So that my conclusion, from the inspection of these schools, in connexion with observations in their neighbourhood, was, that they will afford a demonstration of what has been for some time my deliberate conviction, that education must precede, and will be followed by reformation in this country.

As I traversed this most interesting sphere of Christian exertion and usefulness, I said, would that some of Ireland's warm-hearted friends at Hoxton could come and see all this. They would come, I am sure, to help on the good work. For I have there heard many a

soul-stirring and successful appeal, in behalf of "her Sister Island," but never Idid I feel one like this which I see. And would that England could witness what great good may be done in Ireland, by the efforts of one devoted labourer. For then would my country be more forward to help her sister. And, Sir, this labourer must have more help than hitherto. He wants money to build the two, and to support the five schools, and the dispensary, and clothes to cover the children; many of whom are next to naked, and likely to be so all the winter, but for his kindness. We then, in Ireland, and our friends in England, must do what we can for him. And we may do this conscientiously and confidently; for I would challenge the most strenuous utilitarian, and the man moreover most sceptical, whether any good can be done to Ireland, to come to Feakle, and say whether there is not, for everything spent, a harvest of positive and of present good there. I am sure that such a one would acknowledge it, and add that, if there is a name in Ireland, worthy to rank among most generous philanthropists, and most sincere patriots, it is the name of Harrington. Therefore he should by all means be sustained.

To encourage those who have evinced their interest in this country, by their contributions to its cause and prayers for its prosperity, suffer me thus to bear my testimony to what I have seen of our fellow-labourer's success; in the hope that some more may encourage him.

Yours very faithfully,

J. D. WILLIAMS. Limerick.

SCRIPTURE READERS IN IRELAND, UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE TRUSTEES OF THE LATE COUNTESS OF HUNTINGDON'S CONNEXION.

COUNTY TYRONE.-Mr. J. S. Reader. The following testimony to the labours of this reader is given by his superintendant, the Rev. J. H.

Mr. S. has completed another three months' active and laborious engagements in this neighbourhood. A reference to the accompanying journal affords some

proof of this; but the summary record gives no adequate idea of the full extent of his labours; especially, it cannot hence be learned, what are the effects produced: I shall therefore endeavour to supply this deficiency by referring to a few incidents.

"The attention that is shown to Mr. S. by persons of all denominations throughout this neighbourhood is most gratifying. During nine months incessant labors he has met with but one instance of incivility, this it is considered arose from the following circumstance: He had been reading and conversing in a Roman Catholic house, the man of the house was exceedingly attentive, and assented very cordially to what Mr. S. advanced respecting the way of a sinner's salvation. But while Mr. S. showed the insufficiency of supposed works of human merit, and directed the attention of the man and his wife to the only and all sufficient Saviour, she got very angry, contradicted Mr. S., railed on her husband, and told him, that he (the husband) knew very well that what he said was wrong, and that the Church (meaning the Church of Rome) taught otherwise. When Mr. S. proposed to pray, the man consented most readily, but the wife ran out of the house. Some time afterwards Mr. S. was passing through a bog near the man's house, when two fellows came runnin gacross the bog to the road, along which Mr. S. was passing. They threw themselves on their faces, on the side of the road, to prevent their being recognised, and remained so till Mr. S. passed, when they arose and flung great stones after him, from which he very narrowly escaped. But Roman Catholics repeatedly listen to him with great respect though they will seldom engage with him in prayer. One day Mr. S. conversed with a Roman Catholic, who appeared to hearken with much attention. As Mr. S. knelt in prayer, the man jumped up, sprang over Mr. S.'s legs, crying, "With your leave, Sir," and escaped out of the house. On another instance, Mr. S. went into the house of a Roman Catholic, read the Scriptures and conversed; he found the man remarkably well informed in the Scriptures, for he had a Bible; he said to Mr. S.

Mr. S. "Why?"

R. C. "Because," said he, "we do not like to pray with any of your communion."

I would just refer to one more instance of a Roman Catholic, to whom I trust Mr. S.'s labours have been savingly blessed. That instance relates to a young woman who is afflicted with a painful and very distressing malady. Mr. S. has conversed with her several times; each time her mind appeared to open wonderfully to the truth, so that she at length openly declared, to the no little annoyance of her parents, that she would not depend on anything that man could do for her soul! but that she depended solely on the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. This was uttered with so much feeling and simplicity as to indicate her sincerity. There are two members of our church, warm-hearted Christians, who live only a few perches from the house of this young woman; she is often in their house, and they read to and converse with her. May the Gospel take effectual hold on her heart.

There are other instances contained in notes of Mr. S.'s now lying before me, of a very different character to the last which I have given. They relate chiefly to manifestations of extreme ignorance of the way of a sinner's salvation, and they are the more remarkable because evinced by those who should have known better. But I need not be further tedious. Our beloved Christian friend commenced anew his course over the field of labour to day (1st October), and

I gave him a renewed charge to go still closer on the people in regard to the great and all important matter of personal religion. I said, time is short! your opportunities may be but few. "Whatsoever your hand findeth to do," &c. End your days gloriously. The good man went away to his work apparently penetrated to the very heart with the importance of those things."

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The Rev. W. H. Cooper, adds— "Mr. S.'s Journal shows him to be continually employed every Sabbathday, in teaching a class in the Sabbath School, and attending public worship, and every week-day in reading the Scriptures, from house to house, different places, which be names, at 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 miles distance from his abode. Even on wet days he does not seem to be idle, but reads in his own immediate neighbourhood. The labours of almost every day seem to close with a prayer-meeting."

COUNTY CLARE. Mr. M. G. H., reader, [The following letter recently addressed to the Rev. W. H. Cooper, furnishes the latest account of the labours of this zealous and indefatigable reader.]

Rev. and Dear Sir, I am thankful to be able to say, that our blessed Lord has mercifully preserved me and enabled me to persevere in the good cause during the past quarter, indeed I can truly say, that the work of faith and labor of love is progressing now very much. I have met with great encouragement in reading the Scriptures and circulating tracts amongst the poor. In fact, nothing can equal the great desire of the people to get instruction.

I have, as on former occasions, visited the different small towns in the surrounding part of the country, and distributed several portions of the Scriptures and religious tracts amongst the people there; had I to mention particulars, it would be a repetition of what I have stated in former letters, but, indeed. I have great cause to rejoice, for the greater manner in which the Lord is giving me access to the people, and providing means for their instruction. I have, a few days since, visited a very remote part of the mountains, called S-r, about nine miles from here. Indeed, I have not the words to describe the ignorance of the poor in this place, they all generally spoke Irish; therefore, it was of no use to leave them tracts. I had a conversation with many of them, and read portions of the Irish Testament, but I could hardly make them understand that there was any Bible but the priests' Bible, which they considered to be the mass book. One old woman asked me, could I say mass? I told her it was of no use for her to hear mass, as she could not understand the Latin language. She said it was true, for that she often went to mass, and could not understand what the priest was "cantering over." I opened the Irish Testament, and read for her the Lord's Sermon on the mount, and

explained to her that we were all command" ed by our blessed Lord, to read and search the Scriptures, and that the priests were keeping that blessed book from the people, because they wish to keep them in the dark, in order to get money from them. The old woman said, "O Sir, you know the priests well, bad luck to them; many a shilling and a crown they have taken from me, saying, they have power to let me into Heaven;" and she added, "I think many of themselves will not go there."

I hope to be able to visit this place often, when, I trust, I may be of some use to those poor people, and it is on my mind, if possible, to establish a school there. My schools are going on well; indeed, I have not words to explain the great good that has been caused here by the schools. I have now 650 poor children receiving instruction. And it is not 650 I would have, if I had means, but 6000. May the Lord direct that the friends of Ireland may take a more active part in providing education for the poor.

Donations and Subscriptions in aid of this Institution may be paid either to the Treasurer, MR. STROUD, 1, Wilton-place, Tunbridge Wells; or, to MESSRS. JACKSON & WALFORD, 18, St. Paul's Churchyard, London.

THE PRIESTS' PROTECTION SOCIETY FOR IRELAND.

It was our design to have called the attention of our readers to the important Institution, the name of which stands at the head of the present article. The following letter, with which we have been favored from the pen of a pious and zealous Clergyman of the Episcopal Church of Ireland, who has taken an active part in the formation and furtherance of that Society, so fully explains its objects, and so ably advocates its claims, as to supersede the necessity of any observations of ours. We would wish our Episcopalian friends all success through the Divine blessing on every such "work of faith and labour of love." And we feel pleasure in recording their exertions as a stimulus and pattern to other sections of the Church of Christ in Ireland, in order to urge all forward to that variety of plan and effort which is so much called for, with regard to a country where so much land remains to be possessed, so much work is yet to be done, and such multitudes of precious souls, both of priests and people, are still to be won to the Saviour. The conquest of Erin's millions for Christ is a mighty undertaking; it

demands mighty energies, and should be attempted on a great and noble scale. Let the priests be won, and they will help to win the people. Our friends, we think, have acted wisely in beginning to care for the former; when really converted, and scripturally trained, they will become the most efficient missionaries that can be employed for the conversion of the Roman Catholic population of Ireland.-ED.

To the Editor of the Irish Missionary
Magazine.

Sir, I crave permission to occupy a corner of your Magazine with a few remarks on passing events of considerable importance at the present moment. That Popery is essentially Anti-Christ, carrying the image and impression of the cross every where, except on the souls of its adherents, is a position to which every day's experience gives increased confirmation. As an insult

to the common sense and natural rights of mankind, and as a refuge for guilty souls from the requisitions of the Gospel, it is decidedly opposed to the spirit and letter of the religion of Christ, of which the boast of Rome is, that it is the sole depository. The confessional and the wafer are resorted to by men who feel uneasy in their sins, and they gladly fly for security from the alarms of conscience to these "beggarly elements," these "refuges of lies." Thus Popery opens a wide door for the encouragement of a system of fraud and deception, insulting to the purity and to the selfcrucifying demands of the Gospel. This is the very spirit of Anti-Christ. But, as

truth is not the basis on which the fabric of Romanism rests, how shall the Kingdom of the Apostasy stand? The signs of the times indicate plainly that it is shaken, and that vain is the boast, that the Church of Rome is built on a rock, against which the gates of hell shall not prevail. The attempt to paralize the unsightly monster, preparatory to its destruction, is even now making. The Bible is the lever which is employed, and directed by the mighty power of an invisible, but omnipotent hand; it is going on, "conquering and to conquer." The rock on which Popery is said to rest is no rock at all; and therefore it yields, and must yield in the pressure of the engine which God himself employs for the overthrow of error, idolatry, and superstition. In Ireland, the work of the Reformation is no longer in abeyance; and the hope that new territories will soon be won to the truth and love of the Gospel, may be realized sooner than many persons imagine. The first fruits of the modern Reformation in this country, gathered in within the last twelve months, are such as

to excite wonder and to produce feelings of gratitude. "A great company of the priests" have become "obedient to the faith;" and to these may be added not a few monks and Maynooth students, a part of the ecclesiastical forces of Anti-Christmen who have been drilled and disciplined into all the seductive arts and plans of a system which claims Rome as its birthplace. Not many weeks ago, another priest of the Church of Rome, the Rev. George McNamara, left that corrupt communion, and embraced, in the most solemn manner, the doctrines of the United Church of England and Ireland. The Island of Achill, the place which he chose as the starting-post of his conversion, is, if I may so speak, hallowed ground. There is there, an infant church, which, like most others that have arisen out of the Papal communion, originated in hearing and reading the Word of God, and was cradled in persecution. In that island, an asylum for persons of the clerical order, like-minded with himself, is now in progress of erection; and a converted priest laid the foundationstone. Judging from passing events, it is not unreasonable to expect that it will become a college of ecclesiastics, in which instruction suited to their peculiar position will be communicated to them; and that, ultimately, they will go forth to preach the faith, which, in time past, they laboured to destroy. I am fully persuaded, that a great work is silently progressing in the minds of many of the Irish priests; and the existance of a "Priests' Protection Society," now some months in operation, will inspire them with courage to come out boldly from the apostate Church, with which they are connected. It is not to be expected that they will manifest the zeal and boldness of an Apostle; nor can we calculate that they will "rejoice to be counted worthy to suffer shame," poverty, and persecution for the sake of the new principles they imbibe, if protection be denied them. We must be prepared to shelter, protect and support them. Blessed be God! It shall no longer be said, that converts from the Popish priesthood shall pine away and perish for want of suitable provision against every emergency. Protestant Christians are at last beginning to awaken to a proper sense of their responsibilities; and not a few have already cast their mite into the treasury of the "Priests' Protection Society," convinced that its operations are essentially necessary under

Besides several other instances that might be mentioned, more recently, four Roman Catholic Clergymen, Messrs. Frost, Burke, O'Brien and Brashie have lately renounced Popery; three of whom are now under the care of the Priests' Protection Society for Ireland, and are engaged in their studies with zeal and assiduity, preparing for the ministry of the Word.-ED.

existing circumstances. I know that our good friends in England will sympathize with us, and the Christian co-operation of many a benevolent individual in that highly favored land is surely a pledge that others will follow their good example. They will be happy to hear that there is a shaking among the dry bones, and that a spirit of inquiry is at work, like leaven, which will not be easily extinguished. Were it not for the system of terror, which prevails to an alarming extent, many would, no doubt, come out at once, and shake off the trammels of Popery. Long experience enables me to speak with some degree of confidence; and I am satisfied that many members of the Romish church, now halting between two opinions, were they to give utterance to their secret thoughts, would add strength to my impressions. There is, I firmly believe, a powerful arm at work, silently moulding and quickening, through the instrumentality of human means, the dead mass of Popery and superstition into form and life; and it seems as if a star were about to arise, which will conduct multitudes to the presence of their Saviour. I am sanguine enough to believe that a great moral revolution will, at no distant period, be effected in Ireland; and that the movement, now taking place among the priests, is but the dawn of a brighter day, when a purer knowledge will cover the surface of this benighted land. I anticipate that the priests and the people will no longer cling to Ave Marias, masses, auricular confession, saints and saintesses, and all the et cæteras of their idolatrous system; but that, casting them all to the moles and the bats, they will go for instruction to the fountain of all true doctrine, the library of heaven, the very mind of God himself, the pure, the unsophisticated, the uncommented Word of the living God. Whether my anticipations be correct or not, the path of duty, in which we, who boast of the enjoyment of superior light, ought to walk, is plain. The smallest appearance of reformation in religion, if it be only the size of a man's hand, ought to be hailed as a happy omen; they who are enjoying the benefits of the grandest revolution, which has ever taken place in the circumstances of man, should not be slow in paying back the debt, by helping forward a work, evidently bearing upon it the stamp of the divine blessing. If the sincere professors of a pure faith act up to their principles and privileges, pecuniary supplies will not be wanting to give an impetus to the machinery at work in Ireland, for the overthrow of error; the dissemination of the true faith, and the protection of those Romish priests who have deserted, or may hereafter desert, the ranks of Popery, and exchange the crucifix for the cross. Dublin, Nov. 1844. HIBERNICUS.

With the contents of the three first Nos. I am much pleased, and I sincerely hope and believe the same Christian and independent spirit will pervade all its future pages. Indeed, without intending to utter a sentence by way of panegyric, I would say, with great confidence, that the name and character of the gentleman under whose control or direction the work is published, is a sufficient guarantee that these high and holy principles will never be forsaken for those of an opposite character. Its very title recommends it sionary Magazine."

"The Irish MisHad it been the

"Church Missionary Magazine"-the "Presbyterian Missionary Magazine"-the "Methodist Missionary Magazine"-it would have been very properly designated, as representing a particular section of the Christian community-and to the adoption of any one of those terms no reasonable person could object; but however proper in such a case, not one of them could have been considered a suitable designation for a Magazine courting the support, and intended to represent, all the existing denominations of Evangelical Christians in Ireland. The Title, "The IRISH Missionary Magazine," appears to me, therefore, to be highly appropriate. Again, the Missionary Magazine," - which are, no doubt, intended to designate the character of the work, convey sufficient intimation of what its readers will, from month to month, find recorded in its pages. The establishment, enlargement, and ope rations of Irish Christian Missions will constitute its darling theme, and their success, as instruments, in the Saviour's hands, of the conversion and salvation of our countrymen, its glory and its joy.

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With sentiments of profound humility and respect, may I be permitted to say, in continuation, that a strict adherence to these principles will be absolutely necessary, in every stage of the future progress of the work, in order to the accomplishment of the truly great and important object which its Projectors have in view. Every thing sectarian must be excluded from its pages, and the dissemination of Gospel Truth, by