windows are filled with pamphlets and tracts. The Irish towns even seem destitute of printed intelligence; no newspapers, no cheap journals, no libraries, nothing apparently to interest them but the coming "holydays," and riotous wakes! to be of the same stock. I had much more to speak of, but I will close by saying how much I was struck with an instance which occurred illustrative of the difficulty of industrial progress in Ireland. I refer to the transmission by post of the GOSPEL MAGAZINE. I can clearly see there is no room on the car for many things besides the Gospel Magazine.*-Adieu! Believe me, Yours ever faithfully, June 19. W. H. COLLINGRIDGE. 66 ONWARD! THE GOAL! 66 EVERY right-minded Christian must deplore the degraded state to which sin has reduced mankind; and still more do we grieve, when we look at the present aspect of the family of God; that there are lively souls to be found we cannot No one can say how far into the future doubt-indeed we know them; but what your educational work may go-no one are the great bulk of professors about? can set a limit to its influence for good. yea, even those who say they have been It is really startling to note the contrast translated from Satan's kingdom, into between the half-clothed, ragged, and the kingdom of God's dear Son?" ́Alas! semi-civilized looking children that meet the heart sickens at the sight! how many your eye at every turn in Ireland, and of us who seemed to have begun well, the bright, quick, cleanly, and interesting have been allured into our "easily bechildren in the Schools at Bonmahon. A setting sins;" and instead of “ resisting stranger can with difficulty believe both unto blood-striving against sin," have folded to our breasts those clogs, which but sink us down into the most abject not only impede our progress Godward, slavery. That we most have aclog, cannot be doubted, and whether its name be pride, covetousness, wantonness, or whatever may be its nature, if not fought against, it presently blinds us, so that we lose our way, and if not speedily "look," brought back by hook," or bridle," we go moping on year after year, like "the blind groping for the wall." Sometimes, indeed, we have a * On Thursday morning the monthly slight evidence that we have life, but that packages of the Gospel Magazine were made is all; but how is it we have sunk so up, and despatched, by post, to the Subscrib-many fathoms deep in darkness and sorers. I have heard, with pain, the frequent row? Have we, in the first instance, complaints of friends that they do not obtain been so taken with a brilliant deliverance their copies, until many days after the time from the bondage of the law, that we when they should be delivered. Now I saw have made a Saviour of it? or in what and understood the canse of delay-another way have we "grieved the Spirit ?" It may be urged here, God does sometimes cause clouds and darkness for the trial of faith; but is it so with us? "Let us examine ourselves," and whatever conclusion we may arrive at, what a mercy it will be, if a long-suffering God does at length teach us, that although our salvation "is finished," yet, the enjoyment of it is conditional, for "If ye live after the flesh ye shall die, but if ye through the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live," "And abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul." And again, our souls can no more be vigorous than our bodies, without the use of the would soon languish and die without food; appointed means; indeed our bodies so our souls, deprived of the means and crdinances of God's appointment, soon sicken and die as to any feeling we may have that we are indeed alive. God arouse any of us who have so far sunk into these sinful slumbers that we are even neglecting the relative duties of of the many impediments to industrial and Protestant progress in Ireland. To save the village postmaster the usual labour of stamping, and the messenger the additional labour of carrying a large number of magazines, Mr. Doudney despatched them, in the care of a lad, with a donkey cart, direct to Kilmacthomas (a distance of four miles), the post-town of the district. The boy returned after having delivered his parcel of stamped Magazines, and the question was asked him, "Have the magazines gone forward ?" "No please," said he; "the man said there wasn't no room for them on the car, but they'll go to-morrow." The next day the lad was sent again, and returned with the same answer- "No room on the car-they'll go to-morrow." From day to day this is repeated; the stamped papers lie at the postoffice, waiting the pleasure of Hibernian caprice; subscribers waiting in anxious expectancy, annoyed at their non-arrival, while the Editor has to bear the blame for unpunctuality. Here is the secret of the delay-There is no room on the car for conveyance of Protestantism!-W. H. Collingridge. May life; and with holy fervour, may we return to our God and Saviour," seeking to have a conscience void of offence towards God and towards man."' "Seeing it is high time to awake out of sleep;" for if in the apostles' day it was "high time," the day cannot now be distant when our loved Lord will come; therefore, " may we be found of Him in peace,' ," "and not be ashamed before Him at his coming." S. H. Peterborough. perso an so neither does it behove him to be other than as was the Apostle, namely, "Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended; but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus," Phil. iii. 13, 14.-EDITOR.] BEREAVEMENT.-THE WAR! Once more I take up my pen to address you, my kind Friend and Brother. Since last doing so, you may perceive I have been passing through deep waters. O how deep! When will the Lord have perfected that which concerneth me?" The last tie to earth is now gone; that which was dearer far than life, yes dearer my very soul. But I trust I can confidently say, "Not lost, but gone before." than None of them that trust in Me [Those were wondrous battles, and wondrous victories too, at Alma and Inkermann; but it would be a very unseemly thing for the besiegers of Sebastopol to spend their whole time in either nal or mutual congratulations upon the successful issues of those great conflicts! Thus would the enemy gain time, and thus would the forts under which they were loitering, speedily assume increasingly formidable front. Nay, humanly speaking, would the latter battle ever have been fought, or thou shall be confounded." But if there be in sands of our countrymen have languished this great city a heart left desolate, for I and died under the walls of Sebastopol count not the passing sympathy of friends, during the last winter, had the Allies which I might enjoy often if I would, pushed on to the citadel, after the I believe it is that of the writer; while scene of the Alma, instead of tarrying to yet not unmindful of the providential exult over a great but at the same time mercies which still remain, and which only a partial conquest? Well might our many are also bereft of: yet the one comarmy rejoice in what had been accom-panion, counsellor, friend-the kindest, plished, but equally would it behove that army to remember what remained to be effected.-Among the many snares which Satan and our own hearts have spread for our feet, assuredly not the least is that sitting down in a condition of what presently lapses into carnal ease and security. As our correspondent has intimated, a gracious and conspicuous deliverance from the captivity of sin, Satan, and the law, is often so idolized as to plunge the soul, ere it is into a new and most unsuspected thraldom. Satan has tripped up many a child of liberty ere he was aware. John Bunyan's Doubting Castle stood not far from the green meadow into which the Pilgrims strayed. Soldiers are equipped for service, not for show. Fresh-water sailors are not thought much of. The Christian's is a warfare. From the moment he enlists under the banners of Immanuel, he enters upon a ceaseless conflict with a threefold, ever-vigilant, ever-powerful (though not all powerful) foe, the world, the flesh, and the devil. And, though he may have daily cause to "thank God, and take courage," yet, as he can never sound a truce in this war, aware, A little best, is gone, and the blank is irreparable. of nature be prolonged, it seems almost | partakers of our joys, the travelling onward in interminable, and I am ready to sink into total despair. Yours sincerely and gratefully, June 19, 1855. A. S. [Beloved unknown, yet well known, although we are in the dark as to particulars, yet clear it is, that "The Lord hath afflicted you sore, ," but yet it is equally clear, that he hath "not given you over unto death." Amidst that loneliness, desolation, and an guish, which none know but those who have experienced it, you say, "I know whom I have believed, and that nothing can separate me from the Father's love in Jesus." Beloved, at the time at which we write we are almost overwhlmeed at the tidings that four thousand of our own countrymen have fallen in a recent conflict. Naturally, then, we say, how many thousands are encountering the desolation and the agony of which you speak; but who are, at the same time, ignorant of the God you love, and perfect strangers to that blessedness of which withal your are a partaker. Oh, then how far less afflictive your lot. "Not lost but gone before;" oh think of that! What a privilege! what a prospect! what a double treasure laid up in heaven? Christ himself, and those we once knew and loved in Christ! And You ask, " Why must I still remain ?" Beloved, we knew one who used to ask the same question. Everything seemed to suggest, Why not go now? All the ties snapped but one. Matters so cleared up. Things in such a finished state. Now, Lord, now. Now, Lord, 'lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy servant, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation!" " yet what a mercy that self-same one esteems it, that his cravings were not heeded. It is not for us, beloved, to "know the times and seasons which the Father hath put in his own power." When flesh and blood asks, "Why? why ?" faith answers, "Be still, and know that I am God." "What we know not now we shall know hereafter." Depend on it, there will be blessed disclosures even with respect to the time-tarry. He that is "God of the whole earth," as well as "Ruler in the armies of heaven," hath much to open and precious things to exhibit even here below. Wilderness as it is, beset with snares as it is, encompassed with enemies as it is; yet, that Mighty One who is God Almighty-our Father, our Friend, our Portion-will but make that wilderness, those snares, those enemies, subservient to his wise and loving purpose of revealing his mercy, his grace, and his faithfulness; and enable us, in the sequel, to testify of the same. You speak, moreover, of the duration. Well, twenty or thirty years do appear to stretch far, very far in the distance; and when we have consigned to the silent tomb, the companions of our sorrows and the loneliness and desolation through the dreary, far-spread desert, does make one recoil into one's-self in pensive gloominess; but, beloved, Time is on the wing; and, as we journey forward, swifter and swifter still he flies, whiles away the otherwise tedious hours, and or at least appears to do so. Occupation weeks, and months; and, ere we are aware, another and another year is counted off the score of time. Once more. Heaven's before us! Home's in view! Soon, very soon, we shall see our face! In these blessed circumstances, could Father and our everlasting Portion face to on earth we said-we did-so little for our we sigh, why should we do so? That whilst Lord and Master! One thinks in this sense, one should say, I may live afresh, and, if need be, die for "Send me back again, that thee !" Shall we suggest an antidote for your sorrow, a remedy against despair? Meet the mourner! sympathize with the sorrowing! help the helpless! and verily you shall find in the use of these simple means-and the objects are ever at hand—you shall have your reward, in diverting you from your own distresses, and moulding your spirit into a grateful submission to the Lord's will and purposes.-ED. THE PROTESTANT CHILD'S HYMN OF PRAISE. flow, [See next Page.] LORD, I would raise my feeble voice to thee, I praise Thee, though by nature prone to stray, Nor worship pictures, images, and bones; And when at last death summons me aw. y, "LORD, THOU HAST HEARD THE DESIRE OF THE HUMBLE: THOU WILT PREPARE THEIR HEART, THOU WILT CAUSE THINE EAR TO HEAR: TO JUDGE THE FATHERLESS AND THE OPPRESSED, THAT THE MAN OF THE EARTH MAY NO MORE OPPRESS."-PSAL. X. 17, 18. BELOVED, we touched in our last upon the confidence expressed in this language, and we pray you, observe, that this confidence has supplanted the very opposite-namely, a want of it. This is clear from the wording of the text. It implies a previous state of doubt. It shows there has been conflict. It evidences triumph. It is the utterance of one who, emerging from some it may be long and desperate struggle, says, "Well I shall win yet. It will be all right after all. I shall be helped-I know I shall." "Thou wilt cause thine ear to hear." As much as to say, "I have doubted it. Everything has appeared to make ahead against me. Matters have been as gloomy as they could be. I saw no way of escape. But now, blessed be God, I see ground for hope. A door will be opened. The Lord will appear. He will hearken, though for a long season He has seemed to turn a deaf ear, and to shut out my prayer.” And here, beloved, you will see the Lord's overruling and well-ordering hand; for that very darkness and unbelief of which you speak, the Lord, in his marvellous wisdom, will cause to tell in your favour. Thus: you felt you could not dispel that darkness; you struggled, but to no purpose, against that heavy weight upon the spirit; you could not possibly free yourself from a burden that hung like a millstone about your heart: precisely in the condition of the poor woman in the Gospel," you could in no wise lift up yourself;" and yet you are raised-you are relieved-you are cheered. By whom? Most certainly by the Lord. None but himself could have raised you. Man could not, Satan would not, had he the power. Again, is it a change of position or circumstances that has cheered you? Nay, they are precisely the same. Perhaps worse; humanly speaking, things may assume a more forbidding aspect; there is not the slightest ground for hope or encouragement, and yet, hope and encouragement seem based upon this very fact. "Thou wilt cause thine ear to hear," springs up from the mouldering embers of all creature hopes and expectations. Everything has given way but a simple childlike looking to and confidence in the Lord; and the blessedness of the feeling is already unspeakable. Such a going out of |