blackness of the night, and is less tinged with the orient streaks of the dawning of a better day.

Yet we believe that what he has written, "he has written in frankness, confidence and love." We perceive too, with pleasure, that notwithstanding the gloom of the picture, he has allowed some streaks of light to steal across that gloom; and that he alludes to "favoured ministers and congregations among whom, silently or visibly, God is doing a great work." The commencing sentences of his pamphlet glance more fully at such happy exceptions There is reason to believe that (amidst the large outspread of moral wilderness in Ireland, there are many "pleasant places," rendered sacred by the presence of " "the Rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valley." The Christian traveller may here and there alight upon some pleasing traces of the footmarks of the Saviour, who is not altogether a stranger in the land, or as one who tarrieth only for a night. The most secluded regions doubtless contain a few, at least, of "his hidden ones ;" and there are many, generally, whose hearts have been savingly affected by divine truth, and in whom the Spirit of God is pleased to dwell.

The foregoing admissions, we apprehend, will fully confirm the statements we have made in last month's leader, as to some of the delightful indications of progress and of success, which a kindly observant and judicious Christian visitor must notice in different parts of Ireland. Take them altogether, they are, perhaps, more numerous than may be generally supposed. Still we admit that they are but cases in the midst of a widely spread spiritual desert; but little coral islets rising out of the bosom of a vast and troubled ocean. We therefore fully agree with our friend in the following remarks:

"But, alas! the most enlightened and dispassionate charity must pronounce that even the spiritual sky which hangs over the land is, for the most part, dark and cloudy; and that, besides this, the wing of a destroying antichrist has cast its most melancholy shade over thousands, and even millions in our midst ! Such considerations are at once startling, depressing, and humiliating. There are many things which are for a lamentation.'

Some of these he proceeds to enumerate, "How deplorable is the spirit for hearing the word!" Or rather, we should say, the want of such a spirit. How seldom are sinners arrested and converted under the word! Still less frequent are revivals in the land! How feeble is the divine life in the hearts of believers! How slightly are the real evils of the land deplored!"

In this short sketch of causes for lamention, our readers will perceive that they are far from being peculiar to Ireland, but are evils almost everywhere to be met with and to be deplored, all over Christendom. The writer follows up his statement of each with appropriate remarks; we select the following instances:-" Religious strife is nigh well equal to the civil and political strife under which our nation bleeds. Even select Christians are alienated and divided. Their rivalry is that of envy; not of love. Our denomination -our principles-our society-our church, are terms of far too frequent occurrence, and objects of much greater solicitude with some, than the kingdom of the Redeemer, the spread of the Gospel, or the interests of immortal souls. Division and sectarianism have ruined many a fair and promising plan of usefulness in Ireland !"

The foregoing observations, to the truth of which we could bear a painful testimony, if needful, have reminded us of the frank confessions of a zealous and faithful labourer in Ireland, who, writing from the place of his residence, observes :-"I confess that it is only the part of candour to say, that dissent in any of our communities has not been favourably exhibited here.

The

frequent changes-to say nothing else, must be very injurious; and then, other causes have tended to do vast injury. I fear, too, a style of preaching has been adopted, not calculated for good. There is an idolatry of talent, fine speaking, &c., a desire, I think, rather to collect crowds, than to convert sinners and build up saints. The Church of England clergy have (with all their narrowness) been diligent in pastoral visitation; and have, as far as I can see or hear, preached 'Christ crucified. None of them are very great preachers, yet they are doing good. -I think I see that it is better not to be attacking churches or systems, but to preach Christ Jesus the Lord." Would that Evangelical Ministers, of all denominations, in Ireland and elsewhere, were led to see that this is "the more excellent way."

We are tempted to make another extract from the pamphlet before us. It relates to the melancholy condition of the Irish-speaking population of Ireland.

Till

"To say nothing of the vast masses unerlightened, there are three millions of the celtic population, for whom, besides Scripture readers, there are not twenty ministers of all denominations, who can preach in the vernacular. What slender means are these, compared with those of other lands. For the neighbouring kingdom of Scotland, whose people are less numerous, there are nearly three thousand ministers, besides a thousand effective religious institutions, pouring a flood of gospel day over highland and island. recently, our one hundred and sixty islands, with their fifty thousand inhabitants, were scarcely heard of; their geography untaught, their very names unknown! The poor Celt, amidst the sequestered cabin, could know no religion-English and Latin alike were a Babel to him. Long continued has been his moral and spiritual destitution. It is no new calamity, no sudden advent of affairs, that millions in Ireland are ignorant of the great salvation. The harmonies and joys of our national harp have ceased for ages. The fingers which placed that harp upon the willows have long since become dust. Oh! who, if rightly affected, but mourns over the annals of his neglected ancestry! Patriotism and piety stand absorbed at the records of their ill-circumstanced lot. They silently dropped into eternity, amidst the secluded region of the mountain or the glen, or from some solitary islet of the west, where little else than the winds and waves from Labrador wailed over their departure; and where the life-inspiring accents were never heard'God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him might not perish, but have everlasting life.' The music of nature is of the minor, i. e. of the plaintive key, and the lone zephyr may well sigh in most melancholy strain, as it sweeps over the sepulchres of millions, thus long since departed, who never in their own fond language (and they knew no other) heard the glad tidings of the one sacrifice, and the only Saviour. And what was, to a great extent is. The Psalmist could say, 'Rivers of waters run down my eyes, because men keep not thy law.' How enviable, how precious, such soul-relieving compassion. • Oh that my head were waters and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!

"These things assuredly are for a lamentation. WHAT SHALL BE DONE? is a question which demands the most prayerful attention."

The author then proceeds to observe that the ministers of Christ must have religion revived in their own souls;-that believers must pray more ;that unconverted sinners must begin to lay their condition to heart (which, however, we apprehend they will not do, until converted;) that believers need a large measure of union; and that there must be more zeal;-each of

which important considerations be enforces with much earnestness and variety of illustrations.

We should willingly transfer some further extracts from this pamphlet to our own pages; but must forbear. The pamphlet itself will probably be in the hands of most of our readers; and we would recommend it to those who have not as yet purchased it, as, in addition to the general excellence of its contents, the profits of its sale, if any, are to be devoted to the Hibernian Bible Society, and Religious Tract Societies for Ireland.

But before we take leave of the "Irish Harp on the Willows, we would suggest that the gloomy picture it presents may, in a measure, have arisen from too exclusive a view of the state of things in a single denomination; perhaps, the writer's own denomination, and, therefore, a state of things with which he was best acquainted, and which pressed most strongly upon his observation and feelings. And without entering into any controversy, or touching upon any painful reminiscences, we would simply ask, "Is there not a cause?" But we do not think that the low and feeble condition of one section of the Church of Christ in Ireland, is to be regarded as a fair criterion of the state of every other section. We much question whether pious Episcopalians in Ireland would admit that it gave a just view of the spiritual condition of congregations under their ministry: whether godly Presbyterian ministers in Belfast, and other parts of Ulster, would allow it to stand as a correct delineation of the state of things among the people committed to their charge; or whether our Wesleyan brethren, in any part of Ireland, would agree to the propriety of such a standard, if applied to the societies with which they are ecclesiastically connected. However painful it must be to a Christian mind, in taking an enlarged survey of the interests of the Church of Christ, to perceive any section of that Church, languishing or retrograding in its religious interests; and though such circumstances must be peculiarly distressing to the mind of one immediately connected with that section; they are not to be regarded without further evidence as an index and expositor of the circumstances of every section beside. Our limits are already reached, or we should add that, in stating the numerous increase of the Roman Catholics of Ireland, it should be remembered that it has been but in proportion to the rapid increase of the population at large; and that in estimating the progress of true religion in Ireland, it must be calculated by a comparison with Ireland's condition in former years of no very remote date, and not by a comparison with England's present condition. It is but fair that sabbath-schools and scholars, church members and congregations in Ireland should be reckoned in the proportion of one hundred to every thousand in more highly favoured England. Nor is it fair to select some of the larger and more flourishing congregations of London, Birmingham, and other large and populous towns, and ask what is there in Ireland like these, while numbers of small and struggling interests that are crowded together in the back ground of the picture are thrown into the shade and utterly overlooked in the comparison. But more of this, perhaps, at some future opportunity. Meantime, we heartily concur with those notes of the Irish harp that wail over past neglect, mistakes, and short comings; and that call for more prayer and piety, more zeal and union in reference to future movements. We lament that so many "clouds without rain" still overhang the land of our warm and affectionate sympathies, while we rejoice in the full assurance that they shall yet be scattered and melt away under the bright shining of the Sun of Righteousness. C.

This work may be had of Mr. J. SNOW, Paternoster-row: Mr. J. ROBERTSON, Dublin.

ESSAYS, EXTRACTS, AND CORRESPONDENCE.