conscious of a love of sin, and a practice of | forth "the fruits of righteousness which are its ways? O, brethren, renounce it at once; consider what is at stake; "escape for thy life;" prefer not the fading pleasures of this fleeting world to the endless joys of eternal bliss. The sacrifice may be painful, and the self-denial necessary to its destruction irksome, but the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the weight of glory of the eternal world. "Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." "See that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called." "Tarry not in all the plain." Many indeed are the allurements which beset us, and the inviting palaces which offer us a resting place. Pleasure with her syren train courts some from the path of heaven; the Sound of mirth and songs of revelry entrap others in their destructive snares; and, should these happily have lost their fascination on our minds, the enemy has new objects to present to suit our altered affections-the business of the world, our trade and merchandize, our farms, our cattle, and our sheep. But you will say, are these our lawful callings sinful? Brethren, they may be, if suffered to occupy the thoughts to the exclusion of the concerns of the soul. If they keep you from the courts of the Lord's house, and the appointed ordinances of religion; if they prevent your daily prayers at a throne of grace, they are sinful; and too many, alas! are beguiled by them from travelling with pious and prayerful tread to the mount of God. But, so long as you act on the command of your God, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness," relying on the promise" and all these things shall be added unto thee"-all your occupations, instead of retarding your heavenly course, become the helpmates of religion to lead you on the way. O, brethren, I know nothing more calculated to exercise an hallowed influence over a pious mind than the daily labours of the honest husbandman. As he "jocund drives his teem afield," he is led to reflect on his Saviour's sufferings; "the ploughers ploughed long furrows upon my back. As he commits his seed to the ground, he is taught to behold, in the process it will shortly undergo, an emblem and assurance of his own resurrection. As he clips the fleece from his innocent flock, how forcibly is he reminded of him "who as a sheep before his shearers is dumb, so opened he not his mouth." As he beholds the barren tree opening its buds and bursting into foliage, he thinks of "the tree of righteousness, the planting of the Lord;" and is led to inquire whether he is bringing by Jesus Christ unto the glory of God." ""Tis religion that can give, Solid comforts when we die." Are any of you strangers to the consolation and the power of religion? still living in sin, wedded to this world, neglectful of a Saviour's love, and careless and indifferent about the concern of your souls? How shall I attempt to arouse you from this strange insensibility and folly? Shall I bid you again behold the vengeance of God in the ruined cities of the plain ? Shall I tell you of a coming judg ment, an angry God, and an hideous hell? No. I will tell you of mercy that even now does not forsake you; of a Father's love still watching you in all your sins, anxiously waiting to behold afar off the first turning of your heart towards him, that he may run forth to meet you, and fall on your neck, and kiss you. I will tell you of a Saviour agonizing on the cross for your sakes, and still weeping over your indifference, "Why will you die, O house of Israel?" "As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked." "Return unto me, for I have redeemed thee." I will tell you of the patience of God, who at the voice of the Intercessor has still spared the barren tree, that you may hear once more, by the mouth of his minister, this affecting warning-"Escape for thy life: look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain: escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed." And, if your hearts can remain unsoftened by such a display of mercy and love, I would then bid you tremble, lest the command should this day go forth from the lips of despised mercy, which is to seal your doom for ever, "Let him alone: he is joined unto idols." NOTICE OF ATTEMPTS MADE, CHIEFLY BY No class of our fellow-subjects have a stronger claim In his "History of the Attempts to convert the Popish natives of Ireland to the Established Religion," by the rev. John Richardson, published in 1712, he speaks of certain efforts being then made, and having reached Exertions similar to those which have been just touched upon, and which took place in the days of William III. and Mary, were made also in the subsequent reign of Queen Anne; but they were the private or individual efforts of the diocesans, who were led to take an interest in the wants of the people; nothing | public or official was as yet attempted. Two exemplary men however supplied, as far as they could, the demand for ministerial service: the one was the rev. Nicholas Brown, who in 1702 applied himself to the conversion of the Irish, and persevered in it with success; for he had the advantages of a thorough know ledge of the Irish tongue, and of a capacity for conveying ideas upon religious subjects in a way that was peculiarly suited to the structure of the minds of the native Irish. The plan he pursued is described by bishop Mant in the following interesting and instructive manner:-" By great kindness and humanity, and by works of charity among the poor, he gained their hearts and affections; and thus he took advantage of divine service in their own tongue; and he accordthe great delight which he observed in them at hearing ingly sought them in their own dwellings, appointed with them public meetings, attended at the places where they usually assembled to hear mass, taking care to be present when mass was just ended, and seized every opportunity of instructing them, adminisbefore the congregation was dispersed; and thus tering to them the ordinances of religion, reading to them chapters of the Old and New Testaments in Irish, and reading the prayers of the church out of an Irish book of common prayer. The people assembled in great numbers to hear him whenever they received notice of his intention, joined devoutly in his prayers, and heard his instructions with thankfulness and satisfaction. On one occasion in particular, the popish priest being much troubled to see his congregation joining in the service of the (protestant) church with great attention and devotion, told them aloud, that our church had stolen those prayers from the church of Rome;' to which a grave old native answered that, if it was so, they had stolen the best, as thieves generally do.' The result was that many of those whose parents and relations, and themselves also, had previously gone to mass, were brought and adhered to the communion of the church, notwithstanding the menaces and denunciations of the popish priests; and that he impressed the generality of his popish neighbours with a favourable opinion of the religion he professed and taught-many of them declaring that they were always kept in the dark by their priests, but that this man showed them the light, and said nothing but what was good and what they understood." For six years did this minister of religion pursue his work with zeal and assiduity, until he was incapacitated by illness. During his last sickness, he expressed to a friend his anxiety for the conversion of the Irish from the darkness of popery; and his confident expectation of success in a few years, should the convocation take the subject into consideration, and prevail on the parliament to encourage the building of churches, and to plant preachers and teachers, using the Irish tongue, in every diocese in the kingdom. At the death of Mr. Brown, which took place about the year 1708, his successor was found in the rev. Walter Atkins, treasurer of the cathedral church of Cloyne, and vicar | them come in, but can't approve of the methods pro of Middleton, in that diocese; a man who laboured strenuously in the good work wherein the clergyman that preceded him had been so exemplary. He had some little acquaintance with the Irish language before he was appointed to the pastoral charge of Middleton; but he afterwards strove to make himself a fuller proficient in it, and soon was enabled to perform the offices of religion for the natives in their own tongue; the earl of Inchiquin supplying him with an Irish book of common prayer, and the bishop of Cloyne, Dr. Crow, favouring his enterprize. He buried their dead according to the liturgy of the church, to the great satisfaction of the living, who joined in the responses, and shewed earnestness of attention throughout the service*; and, on one occasion of a burial in the cathedral churchyard, an attendant was heard to say that "if they could have that service always, they would no more go to mass.” Passing onwards from this period, we come down to the time when Mr. Richardson, under the patronage of the archbishop of Dublin, exerted himself for the obtaining permission that Irish bibles should be printed; as also for the liturgy, the "Exposition of the Church Catechism," and other treatises, in Irish. The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge directed that three thousand copies should be printed of his "Short History of the Attempt to convert the Popish natives of Ireland:" this was done with a view to the removal of any prejudices that might exist on the subject of the instruction of the Irish, and to lead the minds of the Christian community in England, especially, to favour the project of building charity schools for the gratuitous instruction of Irish children in the English language. Subscriptions were opened at the house of the society in Bartlett's-buildings, and the result was the printing of an edition of six thousand copies of the book of common prayer; as many of the church catechism, the Irish alphabet, and elements of the Irish language for the use of the charity schools; and six thousand copies of Lewis's" Exposition of the Church Catechism," which Mr. Richardson had translated. These several books were printed in English and Irish, in parallel columns ; and circulated both in Ireland, and in the Highlands of Scotland. It may not be out of place to insert here a letter of archbishop King to Dr. Swift, in 1711, written to the latter during Mr. Richardson's visit to London: "We shall, I believe (writes the archbishop), have some considerations of methods to convert the natives, but I do not find that it is desired by all that they should be converted; there is a party among us that have little sense of religion, and heartily hate the church: they would have the natives made protestants, but such as themselves; are deadly afraid they should come into the church, because, say they, this would strengthen the church too much; others would have Let not this be thought unimportant. As other services of our church have been made useful to the awakening of careless persons, so, particularly, has the burial-service, Instances are on record of some who have been, for the first time, seriously impressed with what they have heard at a funeral: and thus, the prayer. "We beseech thee to raise us from the death of sin nnto the life of righteousness," has been blessed with an almost instantaneous answer. posed, which are to preach to them in their own language, and have the service in Irish, as our own canons require; so that between them I am afraid that little will be done." The lower house of convocation, în 1711, proposed certain measures on the subject of the conversion of the Irish; but these failed to meet with that response in the upper house by which alone they could be rendered effectual. Want of time may have been a part of the cause, but the want of a hearty affection to the undertaking was probably the main reason that it did not succeed. To the same cause is to be attributed the failure of a " proposal" subsequently made by Mr. Richardson "for converting the popish natives of Ireland." There were wanting alike those who should bring it forward, and those who should heartily have espoused it among the ruling authorities. A letter of archbishop King, written in November, 1711, to Mr. Annesley, will make it evident that Mr. Richardson never could, with the feelings entertained towards him, carry the object he had at heart into effect. This letter shews that the exertions of any single man were deemed insufficient to the end proposed. The archbishop thus writes: "As to that part of your letter which relates to my opinion concerning Mr. Richardson's project about the Irish tongue, for converting the natives of Ireland, I confess to you, if I could have helped it, it should not have been Mr. Richardson's or any private man's. But I desire you to distinguish between the matter itself, and as it is undertaken by him. I may put you in mind that when a thing is proper and fit to be done, and they whose duty it is to do it neglect or refuse to concern themselves, others that are zealous and not so wary will generally intermeddle with it. The case was so in the reformation: and God sometimes blesses such endeavours. But there are always, when the case is thus, great irregularities and imperfections in the performance, and the work often miscarries; and the evils become worse than they were, and more desperate. If the bishops of Ireland had heartily and unanimously come into this work, and the government had given it countenance, certain methods might, in my opinion, have been taken, that with due encouragement from the parliament, would have had great effect towards the conversion of the natives, and making them good protestants, and sincere in the English interest. But what success it may have in the hands of a private man, without such evident encouragement, nay, under the manifest disapprobation of most of those who are able to give it life, I believe it not difficult to guess." A few remarks suggest themselves on this letter. And first, with respect to the unwillingness of the high civil authorities to aid Mr. Richardson in his noble enterprise. When they who ought to move in any scheme of great public utility, especially connected with man's highest interests-when such decline to exert themselves; we may not censure, but applaud, the individuals who come forward to encounter the whole weight of an undertaking which others refuse to touch with one of their fingers. It is not that an individual in this case miscalculates the vastness of the enterprise, or forms an overweening estimate of his own powers, but that his "spirit is stirred within him | Irish, and other necessary charges he was at in that when (as in Mr. Richardson's case) he beholds the" millions" wholly given to idolatry." He feels the necessity of something being done, and he thinks that if he cannot achieve all, he may yet do something: if he cannot be allowed the privilege both of laying the foundation and of raising the top-stone, he may at least accomplish the former of these two: he may have the satisfaction of reflecting that, if another be destined to water, to him it was given to plant. Far less would we do away with the reproof which is conveyed to our own supineness, when those whose means are wholly inferior to our own are found displaying an energy to which we ourselves are strangers. undertaking." This prelate, out of consideration of these losses, as well as from his esteem of Mr. Richardson's character, expressed his desire to "contribute somewhat towards making him a little easy in his circumstances, and to procure him, by the duke's favour, some dignity in the church. This application procured for him the appointment to the deanery of Duach, or Kilmacduagh, for which (since it was but a small emolument) he solicited, as an exchange, the deanery of Kilmore; but his application, though supported by archbishop Boulter, did not prevail with the lord-lieutenant. He had in the interval been recommended for a chaplaincy to a regiment; but neither did he attain this appointment. It was left to him, at an advanced age, to derive his main earthly consolations from the consciousness that he had not lived in vain as a Christian minister, and a clergyman of the church. He had striven to promote true religion, and to extend the usefulness of that national institution whose honour it is to be an instrument in that sacred cause. The archbishop alludes to the interference of the unwary, when others decline to move; and adds, "The case was so in the reformation, and God sometimes blesses such endeavours." It is to be inferred that he included the reformation among the occasions so blessed. That there were individual agents in that great work, if not in England, yet in some parts of Britain, whose judgment was less sound, and their hand more unsparing than was to have been wished I do not deny; but that the work itself was eminently blessed of God, I cannot doubt. The prin-church, without referring to the labours of the “Irish cipal actors in our English reformation were discreet as well as holy men; and, if we should ever witness the deterioriation of which archbishop King speaks, we shall find reason to refer it, not to that which they did, but to some other causes, of which our own times are the authors. Nothing was eventually accomplished towards Mr. Richardson's project for the conversion of the popish natives of Ireland; a failure for which archbishop King thus accounted to himself (in an unpublished letter of the date of July 21, 1724): "It is plain to me by the methods taken since the reformation, and which are yet pursued by the civil and ecclesiastical powers, that there never was, nor is, any design that all should be protestants." This is a remarkable sentiment, throwing light upon other subsequent periods, as well as that in which it was put forth. Nor must it be passed over without observing, that, whatever be or be not the design of human authorities with respect to the carrying out of any plans for the illumination of a portion of this or any other people; whatever be the arrangements framed upon the prudential maxims of man's policy, it is the will and the command of God, that his truth should be introduced every where; and no schemes of a temporizing nature must be admitted to retard the fulfilment of this his will. The eye of God sees the aggregate of such presumptuous opposers of his purpose, and separates all such masses into their component members, with each of whom he will accurately reckon. The recompense of his labours does not seem to have been sought, it certainly was not obtained in the preferments of that church of which he was a zealous minister. His benevolence was the occasion to Mr. Richardson of much disappointment and loss: for, as archbishop Boulter stated in a letter to the duke of Dorset, in 1730-" He met with great opposition, not to say oppression, instead of either thanks or assistance; and suffered the loss of several hundred pounds, expended in printing the common prayer-book in It would be wrong to conclude this notice of the career of a valuable clergyman of the sister episcopal Society of London," whose aim it is to teach the peo- Poetry. "IT IS GOOD TO BE HERE." (For the Church of England Magazine.) A glory round the spirit flows Of love, and joy, and sweet repose; "Saviour, we here would ever stay, But, rapturous as such moments be, There is a voice that calls thee back But a frail creature still of earth- And, though thou feel, that bright blaze past, In humble hope, God's righteous will, Than those bright gleams of glory lost- Of an abiding presence near To guard and guide, to soothe and cheer; Miscellaneous. ARDENT SPIRITS.-When ardent spirits are taken into the stomach they cause irritation, evinced by warmth and pain experienced in that organ; and next, inflammation of the delicate coats of this part, and sometimes gangrenes. They act in the same manner as poisons. Besides the local injury they produce, they act on the nerves of the stomach which run to the brain, and, if taken in large quantities, cause insensibility, stupor, irregular convulsive action, difficulty of breathing, profound sleep, and often sudden death. The habitual use of ardent spirits causes a slow inflammation of the stomach and liver, which proceeds steadily, but is often undiscovered till too late for relief.-London Medical and Surgical Journal. CAN THERE BE PEACE WITH ROME?-With Rome as it was when St. Paul declared that "its faith was spoken of through the whole world"-with Rome as it will be when the object of the permission of its fearful power is accomplished by the providence of God, when (not the catholic church of Christ, not the scripture, not the gospel) but when Rome changes? And it will be changed by the blessing of the Almighty, imbuing, in his own good time, the nations of the earth with the same conviction with which he has so long imbued the mind of England-that Rome and Christianity are not identical: when Rome rises from the dust of the errors of ages, and puts off the bloody robe of her canonical law, and clothes herself in that better robe of righteousness and love which the Father will grant to it, then-then, and not till then, there may be peace with Rome. But with Rome as it is, with Lateranized Rome, with Tridentine Rome, there can be no peace-none, none whatever. The severe canons, the unrescinded errors, the usurpations and the demands of Rome, are too numerous to allow us to anticipate peace with Rome as it is. But God will prove to Rome, in his own time, that the nations of the world will desert it-that civilized man will not endure it-that it must change, or become obsolete, uninfluential, and useless. One lesson, in the mean time, is proved to be true by all the history of the past-that Rome can never, never be gained by any concession or conciliation whatever to change or rescind one error, or repeal one decree. It cannot be won by sacrifices; it cannot be conquered by war; it can only be subdued by the patience of the more spiritual churches, by refusing submission to its dominion, by rejecting its errors, by guarding against its decrees, by persevering in the holy, useful, activity of the tongue and pen, to which the providence of God calls us, until, by the blessing of that same Providence upon our humility, zeal, suffering, and enduring, the priesthood of that very church exclaim of Christian deserving, "Truly these are the sons of God."-Townsend's Preface to the Life of Fox. AMERICAN EPISCOPACY.-The ecclesiastical organization of American episcopacy is as follows:-A general triennial convention, constituted in two houses, namely, the house of bishops and the house of clerical and lay deputies, is invested, by a constitution adopted in 1789, and since amended, with powers of general legislation, supervision, and control; legislation being supposed to involve the last two attributes. The body, however, is purely legislative. Every bishop is exofficio a member of the upper house; and the lower house is composed of a representation of the clergy and laity from each diocese, not exceeding four of each class. The deputation of any one diocese can, at will, divide the lower house on any question, by requiring the clerical and laical votes to be declared separately; the decision to be based on a majority of suffrages in each order, provided such a majority comprehend a majority of the dioceses represented; the votes of each diocese, and of each order separately, be they more or less, counting as one in a case of division. There must be a concurrence of both houses for authenticated acts; consequently, either house may be a check upon the other, and the laity of the lower house may be a check upon the clergy of the bishops. The bishops of the several dioceses are same house, and immediately upon the house of elected according to rules adopted by the convention of each diocese, and are consecrated by a bishop, with at least two to assist him. No bishop can perform episcopal functions in another diocese without the consent of the bishop thereof; or, in case of vacancy of the episcopal chair, he must be authorized by invitation. Bishops and clergymen are amenable to the court erected by the convention of each diocese for the trial of their own bishop and their own clergy, in case of delinquency. At the trial of a bishop there must always be one or more of the episcopal order in court. A sentence of degradation on a bishop, presbyter, or deacon, can only be pronounced by a bishop.-Colton. London: Published by JAMES BURNS, 17, Portman Street, Portman Square; W. EDWARDS, 12, Ave-Maria Lane, St. Paul's; and to be procured, by order, of all Booksellers in Town and Country. PRINTED BY JOSEPH BOGERSON, 24, NORFOLK STREET, STRAND, LONDON. |