vinced that the priests were deceiving the people, and that he was rearing his family in the knowledge of the Bible, hoping that the Lord would open the way for their leaving the place, that they may profess themselves Protestants, without the measure of reproach and persecution which they should meet in their native place, especially as the mother is not yet as enlightened as he. While he was speaking to me at the roadside, a little child, aged five years, came out with a message from his wife, who was ill within, and whispered, as the father gently stooped down his ear, "Mother says, speak easy." This was, lest the men working near might overhear our conversation. Oh, let them hear, sir," said the poor man; they are beginning to know my sentiments well, and the priest knows them too." I trust the Lord may soon lead this man to see the duty of openly renouncing any connection with a church which he knows to be in apostacy. The Readers have been well received this month; and though great efforts have been made to stir up the minds of the people against the Church, many of them openly declare that, so far from the Established Church being an offence to them, its ministers are their best friends-residing among them, giving them good advice, and affording them employment, as well as otherwise spending money in the country. In a remote place, which we commenced lately to work upon, the opposition is greatly subsiding. The man who, at the priest's bidding, broke his contract about giving a house for the Reader, has strongly expressed his regret, and now receives the Reader, and visits him in his house; and some others, who were most violent, also, now visit him, and converse freely with him. An intelligent Protestant young man, who has himself learned the truth from us, is working a reformation in his family, and is becoming quite a Missionary amongst his Roman Catholic neighbours. In the parts of the district in which the work has been for some years carried on, the converts are steady, the Irish schools working well, and many families are always ready thankfully to welcome the visits of the Reader and Inspector. May the Lord help us to be steadfast, immoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, and, by his grace, our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. Louth. The excitement caused by bitterly-contested elections in both Drogheda and Dundalk has necessarily caused the Readers to act with great caution and prudence, and I am thankful to say that in neither place have they been in any degree molested. The marvel is that, in Drogheda, where the work has taken deep root in the minds of the lowest class, by means of the Ragged Night School, the Mission was not in any degree injured, or the Readers insulted; and I verily believe that, although the town was for an entire week in a state of the most violent disturbance, the Readers might have with perfect safety assembled the school as usual, but prudence dictated a cessation. The Readers are doing their work admirably, and success attends every movement. We are restrained only by straitened means. In Dundalk the Reader reports most favourably of the progress he is making, and I have no reason whatever to suppose that his reports are too sanguine. I am fully persuaded, and have been so for several years, that in Louth a brilliant field for Missionary labour lies open. Roundstone.-The salutary effects of reading the Scriptures among the Roman Catholics was fully exemplified here during the past month. In my last report I mentioned that a very violent priest had been appointed to this parish, and that he succeeded in making some of the Romanists in the district keep their children away, for the present, from our school there; but I am happy to say they are coming back again one by one. He was even more violent here in his endeavours to make the Romanists keep their children away from our schools, but he did not succeed in a single instance. This I can attribute to nothing but that the people are more enlightened here than at having always had the advantage of a Scripture-Reader going amongst them, while the others had not. This has enlightened their minds, and has had the effect of making them see that the priest was not consulting their good in trying to induce them to keep their children away from our schools, where they are so well taught. In fact, the entire tone of the minds of the people round here is raised by having constant intercourse with our Readers. , We have commenced the night schools, and they promise to be well attended. In several of the schools the daily attendance is not quite so good this month as usual; but this is chiefly to be attributed to the children being taken up with gathering sea-weed for manure. I have had a controversial lecture once a week I am during this month, and purpose (D.V.) to continue it until the winter is over. also endeavouring to get up cottage meetings. I make two of the Schoolmasters, those at and act as Scripture-Readers each day from twelve o'clock, their wives taking sole charge for the remainder of the day. This I find to work very well. At those Romanists who, through fear of the priest, withdrew their children from the school, are regularly visited by the Schoolmaster, who acts as Reader, and they receive him in the kindest manner. They all express their regret at being obliged to withdraw their children, and promise shortly to send them back again. and B Errislannon.-The change of teachers in E schools this month has decreased, for a time, the regular attendance. When the new teachers get into regular working order, I trust to see both increased. Since the great decrease consequent on the very violent opposition of the priests, when my schools were decimated, they have been gradually gaining ground. Now there is a very fair prospect of having a large school at Eand if the teachers are faithful in school, and diligent out of school, with God's blessing it cannot but greatly increase. I am sorry to lose my valuable Scripture-Reader. He has been chiefly instrumental in training a very nice class of Irish teachers. They are a most important branch of the agency, and will well repay attention and prayerful training. They have got both, and I look for blessed results yet through them. On Tuesday last, when going to my meeting at Ba little girl met me, and said her father wanted to see me. Having three miles to walk, I was unwilling to delay; but finding it was early, I went in. There sat the poor man, with his leg greatly swollen, unable to walk. Behind him, on the bed, lay a Douay Bible, and he handed it to me that I might explain something. It was about the fire that shall try every man's work. He agreed that it was of some particular day the passage spoke, and that it was for testing work, not purifying individuals. He seemed so thankful for the explanation, yet puzzled that learned men in his church should say it proved purgatory. I read a little of John xiv. Thank God for another sign of progress. It is, indeed a change to wish to see the minister in time of illness, and neglect the priest. I trust I may get as godly and pious an agent as the one I have just lost. Iar Connaught.—Our entire winter machinery of cottage lecture meetings, etc., has been in full work during the past month, and I have also commenced a course of controversial lectures both for Inverin and Spiddall district, with distribution of suitable handbills, the same preacher officiating, and the same handbills, with necessary changes, being made use of at each place. The cottage prayer-meeting, embodying as it does, in one, a prayer-meeting, controversial class, and catechetical instruction, I find to be specially suited to reach the spiritual wants of this district, so far as its comparatively-limited influence can extend. Our meetings of this class are, all things considered, well attended. One or more Romanists almost invariably attend. I encourage questioning, for information, by Romanists and converts, and frequently question the children myself, in order to instruct the elders; and as those meetings are held alternately in the houses of converts around, the influence of our sadly diminished band of converts is thus extended to Roman Catholic friends and neighbours. The attendance at Inverin school has improved during the month, and the Readers have, as hitherto, been well received. There has been no excitement whatever connected with the general election. The poor simple people care for none of these things. Some of the converts are evidently improving in scriptural knowledge, and, I trust also growing more and more in love of God their Saviour. On the whole, while I can surely say the hand of our God helpeth our feeble efforts, I can not report great things for the eye of man. For when I consider the ignorance which universally prevails-the battle for existence, in which the multitude are so engrossed that they seem almost incapable of meditating long on any idea except the all-absorbing one of food and the means of its supply; and when I add to these considerations the peculiar circumstances of the district-that the Missionary stands alone, without one resident gentleman to aid him in any way; and bear in mind, also, how the tide of emigration, in a now considerably diminished, but still continuous stream, is sweeping away all our most promising young converts, as well as the more intelligent Roman Catholics-I am constrained to feel and to express my persuasion that here, more than in any district where I have ever been permitted in any measure to labour, ours must be a work of faith and patience, and that for the real fruits of Missionary work here, its helpers must be content to wait for the great Harvest Home. Tuam.-The journals kept by Readers for the past month are most interesting and encouraging. They show a very satisfactory state of Missionary progress in this district. In private visits in the market-place, and on public thoroughfares, the Readers have been well received. Remarkable admissions of error in the teaching of the Roman Catholic church have been made by intelligent members of that system. On more than one occasion, persons confessed to the priests that they were in the habit of admitting the Readers to their houses, but afterwards did admit them, although solemnly enjoined, under threats, spiritual and temporal, never to receive them again. In the midst of the agitation now fostered on the church question, and on the eve of a general election, the quiet and friendly feeling which pervades the entire of this Mission field, must convince us all how changed have been the sentiments of the people since Missionary operations were commenced here, and for years carried on, in spite of fierce persecution and violent opposition. Moyrus.-There never was a period when the enemies of Gospel truth assailed the Missionary work with greater determination, but I rejoice to say our dear brethren stood firm as a rock against all the powers of the prince of darkness. The Agents of your Society bear strong testimony to the faithfulness of our numerous converts, and there are many convinced of the errors of Rome who are afraid to come out in consequence of persecution. The Irish teachers are doing a great work among the adult population. Many are anxious to commit to memory God's precious word, as well as learn to read their native language. The people around us, for the most part, are quiet, orderly, and civil, and regard the Agents of your Society as their best friends. The people are most anxious to afford their children a good scriptural education, as the return of the schools testify. The Sunday-school has been well attended by adults and children, and the Sabbath congregation afford strong ground of encouragement at this inclement period of the year. The week-day services are taken advantage of by the people, even on dark or rainy nights, and some of those who attend afford strong evidence of conversion to God. TRUE AND FALSE WORSHIP. "There is no Saviour beside me."-HOSEA xiii. 4. WHO would trust their soul's salvation Save from wrath or dark despair? Only hears and answers prayer. Do we need a Mediator Other than the Son of God? There is sin, not praise or merit, In the best works men have done ; Saves the lost, and He alone. Why to creatures make confession?} None but Jesus Who for men his life-blood shed. Sacraments are only symbols, Blessed Bible! long has England Nor relinquish The Banner of the Truth in Ireland. APRIL 1, 1869. OUR AIM AND PURPOSE. HAT we are seeking to be the instruments for accomplishing for poor Ireland is, the revival of old and saving truths, once, as in the days of St. Patrick, held precious, but now, if not forgotten, yet which are so covered up with Romish superstition, as, to the masses of the people, to be scarcely discernible. For so it was in the discovery of the ancient cities of Herculaneum. When the ashes and lava of Vesuvius had been removed, noble temples, and pillars, and streets were brought to light, which had long lain buried in obscurity. Thus, the main object of the Irish Church Missions has been the resurrection of Bible truths in Ireland: to seek to bring about a second Reformation, which, as did the first in Germany, Switzerland, and England, shall bring a new impulse of spiritual life, intellectual expansion, and social liberty. Now, what was the one great foundation principle of the Reformation of the sixteenth century? Surely it was salvation by grace, the gift of God, and by the work of another; faith in the atoning blood and all-sufficient righteousness of the Son of God. True, this was the work of a century or more, and it cost the labours, and prayers, and blood of the noble army of martyrs; but yet surely it was the most glorious epoch of English history, was fruitful of the most glorious results to England and Scotland, at least; and because we still believe that in the two divergent principles of Romish darkness and ascendancy, and Protestant light and liberty, are arrayed life and death, the blessing and the curse-so we desire to rescue our fellow-subjects in Ireland from the deadly and soul-destroying thraldom of the Romish apostacy. Again, in seeking to promulgate the glad tidings of the gospel throughout the length and breadth of the land, we believe we are best promoting Ireland's social amelioration. Because we have seen, surely, both in England and Scotland, as well as in the West of Ireland, that whilst true Bible Christianity alone purifies, preserves, and sustains the social order of a country, it also, in diniinishing crime, diminishes the governing pressure necessary to check and keep down its outbreak. At such a time as the present, when Ireland is about to be exposed to increased Romish pressure and aggression, it is important that none of God's true people who are labouring in the good cause of the Irish Church Missions should forget that the gospel of the grace of God is still the power of God, through faith unto salvation. "CHRIST DIED FOR THE UNGODLY." "This," said Martin Luther, "is the artillery from heaven which sweeps away all the corruptions of human superstition." Hence we must not lose our faith in the power of the gospel. What it has accomplished in Dublin and Connemara, it can accomplish again in other districts. For the gospel, faithfully preached, has demolished, in times past, many a stronghold of Pagan and Papal idolatry; and it can, and, by God's favour and grace, shall do so, again and again! We cannot be blind to the fact, however, that whilst in England a preached gospel and circulated Bible have raised the general standard of public opinion so far as to secure the public approval of all benevolent and philanthropic efforts, yet those societies and institutions which are (like the Irish Church Missions) essentially spiritual and evangelical, from the increase of the Ritualistic poison on one side, and of Neologian on the other, are regarded with increased apathy and unconcern, if not decided animosity. What, then, we want in this day is, a body of true believers in the Lord Jesus, animated with a fervent and ardent attachment to His NAME, PERSON, and CAUSE, and who will manfully resist every doctrine, or system, which detracts from his glory. Once more we repeat what the Irish Church Missions desire to impart to the Roman Catholic population is, God's resolution of a present, completed, and personal salvation to all who simply and heartily rely upon the finished work of the Redeemer; and they call upon all those of God's people who would resist the efforts of Rome, open and proper, or Rome under disguise, now seeking to mutilate, and fritter away, and undermine this glorious truth of divine substitution—to extend to this work of BIBLE COUNTERACTION their prayerful and hearty M. R. nort. |