ground of the eternal welfare of the human soul; that thus we may improve the urgencies of the time to our own spiritual advantage, and regard the movements of the day as an awakening call from God to "consider our ways," and to cleave with more earnestness to the faith once delivered to the saints. Let a Christian first give himself to a steady and persevering use of the means of grace, and thus, to the security of his own everlasting happiness; and he may then, with great safety, descend into the conflict around him. To this he will then come as a peace-maker; and if he can do but little with the mere men of the world, he may be able to inspire combatants of a higher aim and character with his own feelings; and may also be honoured by causing the dubious, the half-hearted, and the fluctuating, to be more decisive in the Christian warfareby stimulating them to look well to themselves, and to choose the side of their Lord and Saviour; lest, should they continue to linger between the two parties of believers and unbelievers, they should ultimately lose their own souls; and be disappointed of eternal blessings, while the tempter is amusing them with nothing better than disputes on Catholic emancipation.

But we must lay down our pen to introduce Mr. Wilson's letter.

Tothe Editorofthe Christian Observer.

Islington, April 28, 1829. MR. EDITOR,-Being informed in various quarters, that, after the part I have taken -I can truly say, most unexpectedly and reluctantly taken-in the great religious question which has agitated our country, I am loudly called upon to suggest what can be done at the present juncture for the spiritual good of Ireland,—much as I shrink from pressing any thoughts of so humble an individual as myself upon the public attention, I cannot for an instant withhold any aid in my power, towards the spiritual welfare of my Irish fellowsubjects. I would I had more local knowledge, and more leisure for adequate inquiry. But I am so deeply convinced of the guilt of our great neglect as Englishmen in this respect--1 am so penetrated with painful reflections on centuries of misrule and indifference to the best interests of our sister kingdom, that I am ready to venture any hazard in hastening to her relief. That something should be done, and done promptly and effectually, I cannot doubt. I throw out the thoughts which occur to me, rather for the purpose of soliciting the advice of better-informed friends, than with any idea of doing justice to the great subject. Novelty is not to be expected.

If I am asked, then, What are the MEANS to be employed for the spiritual welfare of Ireland? I answer,

I. The chief instrument must be the Gospel of Christ. We have no other means for elevating and restoring ruined man. God, in the person of his Son, reconciling the world unto himself: God by his Holy Spirit illuminating, converting, consoling man, is the grand remedy. A departure from this Gospel has been the spring of the troubles of Ireland. Superstition, idolatry, priestcraft, human commandments have been substituted in its place, and have To these produced their natural effects. have been too much opposed a partyProtestantism, cold orthodoxy, a form of godliness devoid of life and power, a proud and angry morality without the inspiring grace of love. One superstition has been employed in putting down another. Statesmen have come in between the contending religions, with enactments for the restraint and coercion of crime. Philosophers have interfered with their theories of virtue and schemes of political economy. Nothing effectual has been done. We must return to the simplicity of the Gospel, that Gospel which is founded on the death and sacrifice of Christ, which touches the conscience, which is adapted to the inward necessities of a sinner, which is attended with a Divine influence, which changes the bias of the heart, restores man to himself and to his God, attracts him by the love of his Saviour, and animates him with charity towards his fellow-creatures.

This Gospel at the birth of our Lord overthrew the altars of heathenism. This Gospel, revived at different eras by St. Austin, Claudius of Turin, Waldo, WickThis liffe, asserted its pristine grace, Gospel, again brought to light after a slumber of centuries, by the noble army of Reformers, penetrated England, Scotland, Switzerland, Denmark, and half of Germany and of France, three centuries since, It is this Gospel which Ireland wants now. Every other means is important and efficacious as it is connected with this. We have this Gospel in our Articles and Liturgy; let it only be embodied, exhibited, presented in its native purity to the hearts and consciences of our fellowcountrymen, and it will still be found" the power of God unto salvation." It has "The arm of the fost none of its virtue. Lord is not shortened that it cannot save, neither is his ear heavy that it cannot hear: but our iniquities have separated between us and our God." The Holy Saviour has been forgotten and dishonoured. Human wisdom, human laws, and human expedients, have been too much relied on. Spirit of grace, in consequence, has not blessed our efforts; and hence our evils. Thank God, the last few years have seen a revival in the Irish Protestant church. The "glorious Gospel of the grace of God" has been better understood, felt, preached in her pulpits. Let this be extended more widely still: here let faith fix her foot; let her wield, in humble depend:

The

ence on the operations of the Holy Spirit, the tried armour of Evangelical truth, and her victory is sure.

2. The next means to be employed is the free circulation of the Holy Scriptures, in which this Gospel is contained. Marvellous is it that the Bible, which communicates the inspired and perfect will of God, should have lain for ages so much neglected, even in the Protestant churches. We have magnified the fallible writings of man, we have relied on names and authorities, we have dispersed books and expositions of human fabric, and have forgotten the word of God. Never can we expect real religion to be revived, till the book in which all the parts of it are contained as they fell from the lips of the inspired Apostles, is placed in the hands of our people. Truth from the mouth of ministers is weakened, mingled with errors, associated with prejudices, partial in its range, and defective in its tone and colour. Truth, as it lies in the Bible, is pure, unmixed, impartial, and complete: it flows clear like waters from their source; it lies amassed like gold in its native bed. At the Reformation, the Bible was the chief instrument for propagating the new learning, as it was then called. It was to the New Testament that Luther made his appeal. In this view the magnificent simplicity of the British and Foreign Bible Society must and will commend itself more and more to the affections of considerate Christians. It has a'ready begun to do something for Ireland. Its associations are diffusing themselves over the island Its funds are supplying more impoverished societies with thousands and ten thousands of copies of the holy word. Let this sublime project be urged forward. What does Ireland generally know of the Bible? Who amongst her cottagers have till lately ever seen it? How many thousands and tens of thousands have even now scarcely any knowledge that there is such a volume! How many make the Massbook, or some legend of saints, or a treatise of Popish devotion, their inspired Scriptures! How many thousands rest in some miserable abridgment of the Bible concocted and excogitated by priests-some twenty pages of historical summary

in the stead of the Divine word! Send the Bible, then, into every cottage. Let it plead its own cause against superstition and ignorance; let it be the companion of the private hour; let it be the cherished guide of youth; let it be the standard to which age refers all the doctrines it hears from man; let it be the element of the true primitive revival of the Gospel-the matter of prayer, the criterion of truth, the instrument of salva

Six hundred Bible Societies, and 80 or 90,000 copies of the Scriptures circulated yearly in Ireland, is a dawn of a bright day.

tion, in the hands of that Holy Spirit, who never fails to attend the humble perusal of his own inspired record.

3. But even this is far from all. The Bible may be neglected, may be perverted, may be misunderstood or explained away. The faithful and affectionate discharge of the ministry of the Gospel is, therefore, the means appointed by Almighty God for awakening attention to the Bible, for accompanying the use of it, and for applying its various truths to the hearts and consciences of men. The ministry is, indeed, only instrumental and subordinate. Every instruction it utters must be tried by the inspired Scriptures. But it is of indispensable importance. It pleases God still, by what men account the "foolishness of preaching," to save them that believe. It is not the Gospel in the mere letter of the Scriptures, but the Gospel as applied to the heart and conscience, as quickened by the living voice of exhortation, reproof, counsel; as clothed in all the affections and solemnities of entreaty, compassion, warning, which is God's ordi. nary instrument for saving men. It is the minister who directs truth to the case of each, who forces the languid attention, who arouses the conscience, interposes between the sinner and his sins, cries aloud in the chief places of concourse, and disturbs a slumbering world. It is the minister who raises the voice of prayer and supplication, who reads and unfolds the Divine Scriptures, who administers the holy sacraments, who exercises a mild and paternal discipline in the church of the living God. It is the minister who from the public assemblies of the faithful, meekly repairs to the chamber of sickness, and teaches the penitent to look to the crucified Saviour. It is the minister who is the friend of the sorrowful, the guide of the inquirer, the strength of the weak, the reclaimer of the wandering. He goes up and down after each lost sheep until he finds it, and restores it to the fold with the voice of persuasion and love; he hastens even into the highways and hedges that he may bring in guests to the great banquet of mercy. It is the minister who exhibits, in short, what Christianity really is before the eyes of his flock; embodies and realizes it to their view, and makes it bear, in its loveliness and tenderness, upon the human heart. Christianity was never revived and diffused without a holy body of devoted and consistent ministers, raised up by the providence, and qualified by the grace, of God, who received the Gospel directly from the Bible, and presented it warm and fresh and influential to the attention of men. How little the parochial clergy in England answer, in many instances, to this high end, we all too painfully know. Our Irish brethren may probably have to lament similar defects; though I rejoice to hear, from all quarters, the tidings of

magnify not subordinate defects; dwell not upon minor differences of judgment. Let a holy unity inspire all the societies. Great undertakings imply attendant errors; but he deserves not the name of a Christian, who can aggravate such errors, in order to withhold his aid, especially at such a moment as the present. Ireland stands waiting for the doctrine of life: her generous and grateful peasantry claim our succour. The various societies are exerting their best efforts. To pour into their treasuries the needful funds, is the part of every sincere friend to the highest and purest of all causes. And when we consider the rapid increase of these institutions during the last few years, and the eager delight with which their labours are, generally speaking, received, it is not too much to say, that in a short time Ireland will be raised in point of the means of education, to the standard of Scotland or England themselves. I know that the preaching of the Gospel, the pastoral care of the parochial clergy, and the study of the Holy Scriptures are not to be superseded: nor is such an attempt in contemplation. But it is by such institutions that the direct means of grace, and the ministry of the Gospel may be aided, furnished with suitable instruments, sustained, followed, and rendered more effective. An active and enlightened body of clergy, aided by voluntary associations, seems the great thing to be desired. The very excitement of the anniversaries of these institutions has been attended with a sensible advantage, and may be made subservient, in various ways, to the further. ance of the grand object, the spiritual renovation of Ireland.

labour. Thousands of hands, and ten thousands of hearts are thus called in to aid in the work. A spirit of inquiry is awakened, notice is drawn to the great question: the torpor of some, and the timidity of others is aroused: the funds for extensive exertions are accumulated, invention is stimulated, prayer is excited, and a vast machinery is set in motion. The number and activity of these societies is one of the very best grounds of hope. An admirable gradation may be observed in the various classes of schools, from those which are limited to parts of the Scriptures only, up to the Sunday schools which embrace the whole range of practical piety. And indeed it is a delightful reflection, that in the short space of seventeen years, the number under education in Ireland, has been raised to nearly, if not quite, the average of the most enlightened countries of Europe. A tenth or eleventh part at least of the whole population, are now in the different Protestant and Catholic schools-whilst the highest point to which it is considered that the education of the poor can be carried, is an eighth or ninth. That great improvements are indispensably required in a large proportion of the schools in Ireland, to elevate them to any thing like a Scriptural level, is undoubted; and this fact forms an additional argument for every nerve being exerted in cherishing and extending our various societies. But this should not lessen the honest joy we should feel at the wide base which has been laid. Pursue only the course before you. Extend your religious - education societies to their limits; send your Scripture readers to bless the untaught. Seize with avidity the prejudices for the native Irish language, which animates the breasts of millions, to convey by it the words of truth. Stand not upon small difficulties;

:

* An eighth is the proportion in Scotland. In France, at this moment, the proportion is not higher than a thirtieth. In 1824, the proportion in Ireland was a twelfth it is now, I should conceive, raised to a tenth. In the Kildare Street Society, and the London Hibernian Schools, the number of children has been doubled in the last five years. In the first, the number having been raised from 57,500, to 106,839: in the second, from 37,500 to 76,500. If my documents are correct, there cannot be less than 650,000 children in daily schools, to which about 90,000 are to be added from the 185,490 in Sunday schools, as attending those schools only. Much of this extended education is extremely defective in kind, as well as unequally distributed; but the prospect is glorious. My authorities are Mr. Glassford and the Reports of the Societies.

+ Could any thing be so monstrous as the idea long entertained, of suppressing the Irish language, and withdrawing all

6. But we should not confine our exertions to Education Societies; but extend them to institutions for propagating the Gospel abroad, and for promoting designs of foresight and prudence at home. To engage the Irish mind in the various Missionary and Bible and Jews' Societies in their operations throughout the world; and to draw it to those measures at home which promote economy, prudential management, habits of frugality, a spirit of independence, and of doing for themselves, would essentially advance the general cause of personal religion. The doctrines of truth are insinuated, are made palpable, approach the heart by an unsuspected medium by the first class of charities: whilst the Savings Bank, the Visiting Societies, the Benefit and mutualassurance Institutions, Dispensaries, Benevolent Funds, tend to generate habits of industry, to create hope of self-improvement, and to exclude the worst of all foes,

means of instruction in it; even enjoining the use of Latin for the church services, where the clergyman did not understand English?

despair. The contributions to these foreign and domestic objects, so far as the mass of the population are concerned, might be small at first: but if the heart be interested, if the state of fallen man and the operations of Divine grace be observed and recognised on the one hand; and if, on the other, the satisfaction arising from the comforts of home, and a little provision made before-hand, begin to arise in the mind, the domination of priestcraft is likely to sink. An estimate of the nature of real Christianity and of the capacities of men to act for themselves, may, by the blessing of God shake the very foundations of idolatry and ignorance.

7. I would next suggest the wide dispersion of religious books and tracts. These are, generally speaking, I should think, better than discussions-more calin, more satisfactory, more impartial. Much is already doing by the various societies for superseding the monstrous and disgraceful class of school-books which once abounded in Ireland, by means of works of a moral and religious description. I know not accurately what are the particular tracts already in circulation; but I would venture to suggest tracts which should give a brief and candid exposition of the chief points of difference between the Church of Rome and the Church of England by persons really competent to the task-point by point fairly stated-with the Scriptural arguments by which they may be refuted, and a succinct narrative of the manner in which the error or superaddition arose. Other tracts might contain authorities from the fathers of the first four centuries, on the duty of disseminating and studying the Scriptures; and, on the principal heads of the Christian religion; for example, the Divinity and atonement of Christ, the operations of the Holy Spirit, the love of Christ, the spiritual life, prayer, communion with God, the desire and anticipation of heaven. Even a father so late as Bernard would furnish admirable matter-whilst St. Austin's works are a store-house of scriptural divinity, not unmixed indeed with error, but of truly Scriptural divinity in the main. Selections from the most popular writings of later ages might also be made with advantage: Thomas à Kempis, Quesnel, Nicole, on the one hand; Massillon, Bourdaloue, Bossuet, De la Rue, Soanen, &c. on the other. I remember seeing on the continent a tract, in the form of a single folio sheet, for pasting up in cottages, full of the most powerful appeals to the conscience on the subject of eternity. Other tracts might be directed to remove prejudice, to state what Protestants are, and what they believe; to distinguish between infidels or atheists, and those who simply reject the peculiarities of the Roman Catholic faith; and to invite general examination and inquiry.

8. But I hasten to add to these means what is indispensable to the success of them all, the exertions of each individual in his own sphere of influence. Ministers and public societies cannot do every thing: much must be left to the Christian zeal and love of the friends of religion, each in his own circle. The heads of families must be the teachers of their children and servants. The gentry must use their influence with their trades-people and dependants. The leaders in commercial and agricultural districts must guide those under their superintendence. There are a thousand instances in which private individuals can act better than societies. or the clergy, and can reach and influence what is beyond the range of other efforts. Lay agency is of indispensable importance. One minister may set at work hundreds of subordinate agents,—may be a centre of activity and zeal to all around him. The invention of new schemes for promoting piety may be expected; for we have no more exhausted the discoveries of benevolence, than we have those of natural science. Let the heart be deeply touched, and the understanding will be pregnant with schemes of good. open a correspondence in different parts of Ireland, and to undertake journies of humanity like Howard and Fry, would also promote the desired objects. The communication of sentiment, the exchange of mutual advice, the application of the schemes in one place to the circumstances of others may thus be obtained, and means of usefulness be propagated widely. Already have the various societies stimulated individual efforts and encouraged multitudes to acts of munificence almost incredible. Where a society expends hundreds, it may lead individuals connected with its proceedings to lay out thousands. Let each individual then be a missionary, a teacher, a guide. Let the nobleman, the gentleman, the landlord, the merchant, the lawyer, the physician, the tradesman, and the farmer, rise to the work of mercy and consecrate their opportunities of influence to the glory of their Saviour. Let no one hide his light under a bushel; but elevate it for the illumination of his household; and let no selfishness, no irritation darken the bright effulgence of individual zeal and love.

To

9. To make all these means bear upon the minds of magistrates, legislators, and governors, so as to obtain their aid in suppressing vice and immorality, and in encouraging piety and virtue, is the last means which I shall mention. Much may be

* It appears from the Kildare Street Report, that the local contributions have exceeded the Society's grants in some cases as eight to five, and in others as three

to one.