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in connexion with the Church of England for propagating the Gospel at home or abroad, among Jews or Gentiles and I conversed with persons of the ages of 17, 21, and 40, who could not read, who had never attended a Sunday school, and were, in every respect, as ignorant of the way of salvation as a Negro just liberated from the hold of a slave ship.

At different times. I have endea, voured to bring before your readers the subject of Popery, and indeed your constant endeavours to expose the nature of that iniquitous and ruinous system deserve the thanks of every lover of truth. It is to be wished that all your brethren were like-minded; but it is with real concern I have observed a timid crouching to that monster; an unwillingness to view it in its true light, and a consequent backwardness in bearing a decided and public testimony against it. Does the spirit of Wickliffe no longer exist? Is his name all that remains? Is the mystery of iniquity to be regarded with complacency? Is the mistaken liberality of our day so great, that it is unwise, or injudicious, or imprudent, to be "valiant for the truth? Is the fear of exposing the deformity of the man of sin become

a Christian duty? Is the church which retains the very errors against which our Reformers protested, to be regarded as a twin-sister of the Church of England, which acknowledges no rule of faith or practice but the holy Scriptures? Union, firmness, boldness, decision, and unwearied exertion, are more than ever required by our clergy. The people are eagle-eyed; and it is of no use to say, “Let them mind their own business, let them judge and watch over themselves:" they will think; they will censure; they will speak of clerical neglect, of clerical ignorance, of clerical inconsistency; and we might as well attempt to stop the rudest blast of the north wind, as to think, in this age of inquiry and observation, to stop the thoughts or tongues or pens of our countrymen. Let our ministers be clothed with righteousness; let them speak as the oracles of God; let them shew out of a good conversation their works with meekness of wisdom; and, so far from having cause to dread public opinion, they will carry it along with them; they will be a blessing to their country, and they themselves will be blessed of God.

AMICUS HIBERNICUS.

Sept. 29, 1825.

you met with in the world? That you could seldom find time to go to church, or to think about another world? That you were a poor woman, and no one took any pains to learn you to read or to seek after heaven; but that, after all, you were not worse than other people? Is this what you intend to do?" "No, no, sir; that's of no use: I know that will not do, since you told me about it before."-" Now, mother, you know the Lord searches the heart, and knows all we think

and wish and say, whether good or evil. Do you really, in your own heart and soul, believe and feel that you are a great sinner?" "Oh yes, I be: I be such a sinner! I know I be such a sinner.". "Are you willing the Lord should tell all the saints and angels in heaven what a sinner you have been?" "O yes, if he will but forgive me.". "When the Lord opens the book, and makes known all your thoughts, words, tempers, desires, and actions, all your neglect and ingratitude, all your worldly mindedness and contempt of his word and command ment, there will be a long and dismal account, much blacker than you can now conceive."-"Ah! there will, there will: what shall I do?"-" Do! why you cannot take the book out of the Lord's hand, and tear out the account; nor can you contradict one thing then brought against you: so you must confess before the Lord and all his holy angels that the account is true; that you are a poor, wretched sinner, and deserve to be sent to hell. Now this is a part of what you mast do; but it is not all. You know, that, when your soul appears before God, your Saviour will be there. You will see and know him. He once came into this world to save sinners: He died for them: He went back to heaven to attend to their concerns, and to hear their prayers, and to pardon all their sins, as soon as they feel their burden, and give up all hope and expectation of saving themselves, and cast their soul on his hands, and desire to love and serve him for the future. You know I told you this before."—"Ah, so you did, my dear creature," sobbed out the old woman.- Well, then, mind what I say: when you come before the judgment-seat of the Almighty, and all your sins are brought to light, and it is asked what you have to say that you should not be condemned to hell for ever, you must look to that blessed Saviour, and

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say, "Lord Jesus Christ, I was instructed to leave my case with thee: I was told that thy precious blood would blot out all my sins; I was told that thou wouldst pardon and save my soul. Now, Lord, I pray thee save me; for I have no other plea, no other hope; Lord, thou knowest this was all my hope and trust, in sickness and in death; and now let thy mercy and salvation save me, and be my portion for ever.' This is what you must do. And if you do sincerely intend it, and do now really wish to love that blessed Saviour above all things, and to praise him for ever, he will save you: yes, he will blot out all the account, and that, as it were, with the blood he shed for sinners; and then he will smile upon you, and tell you that you shall be with him for ever; and that you shall never again sin in thought, word, or deed; never sorrow, or suffer, or complain, but dwell with angels and all the happy souls in heaven."

While my friend thus discoursed with the old woman as with a child, she appeared to comprehend what he said, and very much to feel it. Hope and fear struggled for the mastery, and her couch was literally watered with her tears. "Now," added my friend, "is it not a most wonderful thing that such a holy and blessed, such a great and glorious Saviour, should ever so pity and feel for us as to die in our place, and to be willing to bless our souls with his grace here, and then to take them to himself hereafter?" "Ah it is it is indeed," replied she. "And the return," said Erastus, "which he expects is, that you should love him; that you should give him your heart." "And I do love him; yes, I do love him." "I really think you do, mother; and therefore take courage; trust him: pray for grace to understand and to love him more every day; and by and by he will do all, and much more than your soul desires."

Erastus then called the daughter and daughter-in-law up stairs, and, having addressed them on the necessity of seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, he bid them kneel by the bed-side, while he offered up a prayer for the Holy Ghost to enlighten the mind and sanctify the soul of the aged sufferer, and to instruct, convince, and convert the others, now in the day of better health and of greater bodily strength. A trifle of money was then left with the sick woman; and we descended the old stairs, followed with the blessings and prayers of her whose bed-side we had just left.

On coming into the lower room, Erastus glanced at a printed paper stuck against one of the side-walls, and asked, "What have your here?" "Our Saviour's letter," replied the woman. “Nonsense," said Erastus: "who told you it is a letter of the Saviour's?" "Why, sir, it says all about it, you see, on the paper." "It is all a forgery: it is an old piece of Roman Catholic falsehood." But, sir, it says how it was found under a great stone; and how nobody but a little child could turn over the stone, and come at it; and how it is such a good thing to have it in one's house." "It is all nonsense and falsehood," said Erastus, half vexed:" and has it ever done you or your family any good?" "I don't know, sir; but every body says it is a good thing to have in the house." "Do give it me," said my friend: "don't let so false and foolish a thing disgrace your house any longer." With some reluctance she pulled it from the wall, and handed it to him."You have a Bible, I believe." "Yes, sir." "And, now, be assured that Bible is the word of God: this paper is the lying word of a Roman Catholic friar. The Bible tells you all that Christ did and said, so far as concerns us to know; and if you did but read and understand his Gospel, you would not trust in such a refuge of lies as

this paper. But the mischief lies here you suffer God's most holy word to remain on your shelf unopened and unknown; you live in ignorance, when you might obtain knowledge. You seem neither to know nor to care what is truth; but you eagerly seize a ridiculous, lying penny-paper, and call and believe it to be a letter of the Saviour's; and you, and many more, almost make a god of this very trumpery paper. I know that many others, as well as yourself, put just the same superstitious and idolatrous trust in this pretended letter as heathens do in their idols, and as Roman Catholics do in their pretended holy relics and images of the Virgin." To this the woman again replied, "She always had heard that it was a mighty good thing to have in the house." "Ah! were it true it might be so," said Erastus; "but it is false; for the Bible itself, the very word of God, will not do what this pretends to do: nor did our blessed Lord ever say one syllable to encourage his most favoured servants to expect deliverance from many of the calamities which this wonderful lying talisman pretends to deliver you from."

"This is a very strange affair," said I. 66 Pray what does this wonder-working letter pretend to do for its possessors?" Erastus held it to the dirty window, and read from it as follows:-' He that hath a copy ' of this my own letter, written with my own hand, and spoken with my

own mouth, and keepeth it with'out publishing it to others, shall 'not prosper; but he that publisheth it to others, shall be blessed of me;

and though his sins be in number 'as the stars of the sky, and he be'lieves in this, he shall be pardoned; and if he believes not in this writing, and this commandment, I will send my own plagues upon him, and consume both him, and his children, and his cattle. And whosoever shall have a copy of this 'letter, written with my own hand,

' and keep it in their houses, nothing shall hurt them; neither lightning, pestilence, nor thunder shall 'do them any hurt. And if a wo'man be with child, and in labour, and a copy of this letter be about 'her, and she firmly puts her trust in me, she shall safely be delivered ❝ of her birth.—All goodness, happiness, and prosperity shall be in the 'house where a copy of this letter is to be found,' &c. &c.

"What think you now, my friend," said Erastus, "of this precious letter?" "I think," I replied, "that it is not only as vile a thing as you have described it to be, but even worse. It is a lying, blasphemous production: it really makes itself a god unto the poor deluded people who give credit to it. But I hope there are few such papers, and fewer such persons, to be found in our land."-"There are thousands and tens of thousands of these papers hawked about the kingdom and sold every year," said Erastus. "It is really incredible to many people, the vast numbers that are sold, and the many thousands of people who at this moment think as this poor woman has done of them; that is, believe and almost worship them. I have almost a hatbox full of copies that I have collected from among my cottagers; and still you may, I fear, find many more against their walls; and not a few, I believe, have copies secreted in their drawers or trunks, although they have been prevailed on to tear down from their walls those I possess. One copy I have by me was particularly looked to, and was present at the birth of seven children; but its owner was compelled to acknowledge that six of these children had died, and the seventh was very ill at the time the talisman was surrendered up. Another had been carefully preserved for twenty years, as a protection against housebreak ers and thieves; but at the end of that time the thieves broke in and robbed the house, and then the all

protecting letter lost its credit. At third I have, which was preserved with great care in the same family for sixty-three years: at length the owner's faith in its power and blessings failed, and the lying piece of ' antiquity at last found its way into my study."

"And now, my good woman," turning to the dirty and half-idolatrous mistress of the house, "I have got your letter, and I beseech you to lay to heart the great sin and folly you have for years been guilty of in neglecting to read and understand the true word of God, and in reading and trusting to what is altogether useless and false, and even, as my friend says, blasphemous. Be assured, if you do not repent, and believe the Gospel, your soul will be lost. Your poor old mother, is, through mercy, seeing something of the right way at last, and will, I hope, be admitted into the vineyard at the eleventh hour; but woe unto you, if you continue to neglect and despise that great salvation which Christ Jesus makes known, not in this lying letter, but in the Scriptures of truth." The woman looked somewhat ashamed and confounded.

It was now time to go: we therefore left the cottage, and directed our course homeward. Having some way to ride ere we reached the vicarage, we naturally fell into conversation; and I observed, that we had seen a variety of characters and circumstances in a short space of time, and that I hoped the morning's labour would not be in vain. "We are assured," said Erastus, "that our labours are not in vain in the Lord. Circumstances may be, and often are, very forbidding for a while; and sometimes it seems to us that all our endeavours are utterly useless; but it is extremely wrong to give way to desponding and unbelieving thoughts. One thing is certain, that, whether Israel be gathered or not, the LORD will be glorified; and you know, that, when a loyal subject is employed to nego-,

tiate terms of peace between his revered sovereign and some hos tile nation, however he may lament his unsuccessfulness in bringing the enemies to terms of reconciliation, it is yet a real consolation to his mind that his mission, though rejected by the foe, will still be for the honour of that prince whose ambassador he is of that prince whom he loves and serves. If, as ministers of God's word, we are faithful in warning and entreating sinners to flee from the wrath to come, and they still persist in rejecting the overtures of salvation, we may, like our blessed Lord, weep over them; but we must not allow our spirits to be so cast down as to weaken our hands or retard our progress in the work. We must go forward; and it may be that to-morrow's success may encourage us, although to-day has called forth its sighs and its tears of disappointed hope. This poor old woman was so ignorant a few weeks ago, that it would have been very discouraging work had there not appeared so much earnest desire to hear and learn. One day, after I thought I had made her pretty well understand the first principles of the Gospel-the doctrine of man's utter helpless and worthless condition, even in his best estate-she began talking of her husband, who had been dead many years; and how anxious he was to receive the sacrament before he died, and how kind the minister was in coming and giving it to him. Then, all at once, she burst out into a fit of crying, and clasped her hands, and said, 'Oh! if ever I should be fit to take that blessed sacrament! But you know, sir, we must not have any thing to do with that until we are clear of all our sins!"" "Poor woman!" I replied, "then she will never have any thing to do with it, any more than ourselves.""I told her so," said my friend, "and began, and went over, all our lessons again, finding, as I did, that so little, after all, had

hitherto been understood. We have had several conversations, or rather repetition lessons, since that time; and, I believe, she does now see her way a little clearer: yet, after all, her knowledge of Divine things is very limited, and her ideas much confused; but I believe her heart is under the teaching and transformation of the Holy Ghost. After all," continued Erastus, "we have seen nothing extraordinary to-day; at least nothing more, in point of the ignorance and unconcern of soul as to the Gospel and a future state, than may be found every day in thousands of places in our land, and in tens of thousands of those people who call themselves Christians, and are, by themselves and their neighbours, considered to be in the fair road for heaven."" A pretty good proof," said I, "that some means are absolutely necessary for the effectual spiritual instruction of this land, beyond all that have ever yet been brought into play."-" Of that," said Erastus, "there can be no doubt.

We have neither ministers sufficient, nor enough of public preaching, nor of pastoral and domestic labours. It is especially to the scantiness of this last description of labour that the deplorable ignorance, and apathy, and unconcern, of the great mass of our peasantry, must be ascribed. Nothing can make up for the want of visiting the poor, and instructing, encouraging, and rebuking them at their own houses. Great, I know, are the privileges of a public and stated ministry; but, great as they are, they are not all, nor are they by any means sufficient for the instruction and over-rule of a wide-spreading rustic and ignorant population. Very many of such people will not come near a church or Sabbath service, even where the labours of the minister are of the most faithful and promising description; and when, as is the case in many districts, only one sermon is preached every other Sunday, and that in a