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still distracts the multitude, and priestly opposition continues unabated, the work progresses, is acquiring additional influence and deepening in many hearts.'

Also from Donegal, the inspector writes, Even the present political excitement has but very slightly disturbed the wonted desires and quietude of the people;' and in every district in which the Society

labours, the same testimony is borne. The above statements, gathered from the printed documents of the Irish Society, which may be obtained at No. 32, Sackville-street, show that an instrumentality is in operation of the utmost value, and which only requires efficient application to render it mighty in undermining the power of Popery in Ireland.

THE LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY.

AT the Anniversary Meeting of the Society, Captain Fitzgerald Gambier spoke as follows:

"I am here with the desire of bearing testimony to the excellent character of the individuals whom this Society has sent to the South-sea Islands; and also, as an eye-witness, to bear testimony, that the Bible has not only reached those islands, but, through the instruments whom God has been pleased to honour, whose Spirit has accompanied their preaching of His word, has reached the hearts of those people.

I

In the month of June, last year, was directed, by my Admiral, to go to Tahiti; his intention was, that I should remain there for several months; and I had hoped to have visited all the islands, for I am much interested in that people, and in the work of the Society among them. I was desirous of meeting a number of natives at Tahiti, for the purpose of ascertaining precisely their advancement in religion, and with what truths of the Gospel they were really acquainted. To effect this, I requested Mr. Pritchard to permit me to meet a number of them without previous intimation; and he, with the other missionaries, most readily assented. On the next day but one, at seven in the evening, I accompanied Mr. Pritchard and his wife and children. Mr. Moore, I think, was presentone of your younger missionaries, who had just gone out-and one or two others. One of my own officers accompanied me, and we went in uniform to their chapel. They have morning-service in the chapel for any who are desirous of attending public worship before they go to their daily occupation. On this occasion, a man, who is mentioned in that work on Missionary Enterprises by poor Williams, was present-Uava, one of the

deacons of the Church. There were present about fifty persons, young and old, and among them the Queen's mother, the Queen's foster-father, and several others. Uava was offering prayer. I was told afterward by the missionary, that, on our appearing in our uniform, he offered up a most affecting prayer for me and the ship's company, that God's blessing might attend us. He was not aware of our purpose in coming; and I mention this merely to show how kind and really Christian a spirit there is among those islanders.

'As soon as the service was over, Mr. Pritchard-who, though he is our Consul, is also at times still to be found in his old missionary workinstead of addressing the usual lecture to the assembly, told them that a captain of a man-of-war was coming among them, and was anxious to question them in the Bible. There was naturally a smile upon the countenances of many; but they said, 'We are not prepared for this: you should have told us: we have not our Bibles, for many of us are on our way to work.' I mention this to show that really none of them knew of my intention, and that they were not prepared; and I may add, that when I went into the chapel, I had not myself prepared the subject on which I was going to speak to them. Some ran here and there for their Bibles, and others looked over one another, so that I got them round me in a circle, and we commenced. I began by asking them to read the first chapter of St. John's Gospel; and I will go into particulars, because it will show how marked was their attention, and how curiously they caught me in a mistake. I had intended them to read to the sixteenth verse"And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace; " but I

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only told them to read to the fourteenth verse-" And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only-begot ten of the Father, full of grace and truth." Now, having done that, without a word of comment or question, I asked them next to read (as they all read a verse in turn) the first chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews; and having done that, I inquired why I had called upon them to read this chapter. Instantly, all answered, Because it is on the same subject;' proving how well they had studied the Bible, and were acquainted with its spirit. Seeing they were so quick, I went on asking questions on what I conceived to be the leading fundamental doctrines of the Christian religion. I found them exceedingly well versed in the Scriptures. It was most delightful to see the rapidity with which they turned to the passages: they were all able to find them at once; and before they had gone through the various texts, they looked up to me, delighted to find they had caught the idea.

Having proved that, so far as our Saviour was concerned, He was the only hope of the sinner, I was desirous of showing to them that there must be among Christians a family likeness to the Head. I therefore asked them to look through the verses of St. John's Gospel, which they had first read, and requested them to show me were it was said that we were to be like our Saviour. They looked through it, but they could not answer me; and I was obliged to say the sixteenth verse. Oh,' said they, we have not read that;' and here they caught me in my mistake. They were quick enough to know that it was grace for grace, or grace answering to grace, which I believe is as correct a translation as the other.

'Your missionaries in those islands are not only useful to the people to whom you sent them, but they are a great blessing to those seamen of all nations, who understand the English language. There is, at present, a chapel open for them every Sabbath, for service, once a day, in that language; and I had the pleasure of leaving, for that chapel, a number of the Bibles of the Naval and Military Bible Society, and I also left some with Mr. Pritchard, for distribution among those men.'

Changes effected by the Gospel. The South-Sea Islands have for

years been the attractive scenes of Christian Philanthrophy. The man of science, when reading of those islands, and when reading of the work of the mason-insect, as it exists in subterraneous caverns and in hills and valleys clothed in vernal beauty, cannot but have delight; but we, as Christians, have to contemplate the moral changes that have there been wrought, and the scenes of moral and spiritual loveliness there to be found. And how great are these! In former days our thoughts were associated with the murder of Captain Cook, and with the unholy feasts of tatooed and bleeding cannibals. But what a beautiful contrast is presented to us in the journal of the faithful, diligent, much-loved, but worn-out and now sainted Waterhouse! What a change! What an affecting scene is that of his welcome to the shores of New Zealand by the Christian Natives! How impressive and morally sublime, when they assembled to listen to the tidings of salvation, as delivered to them by the messenger of Christ! How touching the incidental proofs they gave of their knowledge of the scriptures, when, accompanying their spiritual overseer in his journeyings, they quoted the words of Paul, as to the office of a Bishop, and the cloak he left at Troas! How reproving to many British Christians their love of the divine precepts and promises, as evinced in their writing them upon the sand, carving them in the bark of trees, and engraving them in the rock! How great the change! Men that we contemplated a few years ago crouching before a monster-block of wood or stone, and trembling before a motionless idol, now assembling with Christian cheerfulness in the house of God, and feasting together in love. Where are the men of taste and refinement that kindle into poesy at the sight of the calm, the sublime, and the beautiful? I defy them to produce a scene, which poetry, with all the fairy strokes of her rainbow-pencil, has sketched, to be compared with the scenes of evangelical culture presented to us in the South Sea Islands. On the Sabbath Day, say your Missionaries, there is a silence not known in this proud city of London-a silence never broken, save by the chime of the worship-bell as it calls the Natives to worship in the House of God, or

by the song of praise which, amid the vast solitude of the waters of the great Pacific Ocean, is heard ascending to heaven. Eternal praise to God for the success vouchsafed to your Missionaries iu the South Sea Islands!

WEST INDIES.

THE Emancipated Slaves of Jamaica have declined to accept the whole of the grant which the Wesleyan Missionary Society had resolved to appropriate to them. Instead of taking the £2500 which had been voted for the support and maintenance of the Missionaries there, they resolved that £500 should suffice, and the rest they would make up in the island; and they are actually repaying the loans which have been advanced for the building of Mission Chapels and Mission Premises. Now, it is not only the growth of education, and its consequent civilization, in one quarter, and the remarkable advance of vital religion in another, that are gratifying; but it is such facts as this, that Native Ministers are now able to do work that it required European Missionaries once to do, and they will relieve us of the burden of sending out so many European Missionaries. Had we not supplied the West Indies so abundantly with Christian Agency, we should not have had self-supporting Churches there at this day. This should be a cheering consideration with the supporters of the Society, to think that the more plentifully they pour in their contributions, at the present instant, the more rapidly

will that day come round, when they will be altogether relieved of the burden of sending the Gospel abroad, if burden they can deem it.'

A Missionary writes thus :

'At the commencement of last winter, I was deputed, by the Committee, to visit the scene of my early labours (Jamaica). I had not long been in the country before I was much impressed with the delightful change which had been effected in the circumstances of the Negro Population. The holidays of Christmas and the New Year, which were formerly spent in noisy revelry, drumming, dancing, drunkenness, and debauchery of almost every kind, now passed off with the utmost quiet and good order. Scarcely was a drum heard in any part of the city, and not a solitary dancer was seen parading its streets. It is true that, at the termination of the old year, many songs were heard in different parts of the city, but they were the songs of Zion; and crowds were seen moving along the streets, but they were not turbulent Negroes in midnight revels, but servants of the Lord with grateful hearts, returning from their respective Places of Worship. According to the testimony of the Morning Journal," a most respectable newspaper in Kingston, not a solitary individual was seen drunk in that city during the Christmas Holidays. Other changes equally delighted me. The holy Sabbath, formerly so much desecrated there, is now observed with as much Christian decorum as it is in any city or town in Europe.

66

THE CHRISTIAN GUARDIAN,

AND

CHURCH OF ENGLAND MAGAZINE.

FEBRUARY, 1845.

THE EDITOR'S ADDRESS.

EVERY THING earthly is subject to the changes and chances of this mortal life. Even the agency by which that which is unchangeable and unfading, the truth of the everlasting God, is conveyed to man, must partake of the common lot of humanity. The message from heaven never dies, but flows in one continuous stream through successive ages; but the ambassadors who bring it die one after another, and their places know them no more. So it is with all who labour for God, whether it be in the pulpit or with the pen-at home or abroad. The treasure never fails, though the earthen vessels wherein it is deposited often break; and thus, amidst all that is so utterly powerless and inadequate in human agency, and at the same time so glorious and blessed and unceasing in the triumphs of truth, we are taught most effectually that "the excellency of the power is of God and not of man:" "so that neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase."

These thoughts are suggested by the transfer of the CHRISTIAN GUARDIAN into new hands. It is a pleasant and encouraging reflection, that whatever changes from death, or otherwise, have taken place in the management of this work, it has pursued the even tenor of its way now for nearly forty years, as a faithful and uncompromising witness for the truth as it is in Jesus. There have been no vacillations in its principles; no uncertain sounds issuing from its pages. Christ has been uniformly and prominently set forth as the sinner's all; and they that have believed on God have ever been exhorted to be careful to maintain good works. We have regularly seen it almost from its commencement to the present moment, and we know not a single instance in which it has deviated from the straightforward course of pure and unadulterated truth. We feel it an honour and a privilege, though a solemn responsibility, especially in such days as these, to carry it forward. And it is a gratifying reflection, that we know not a single change that we wish to make in any sentiment of importance that it has usually advanced and upheld.

1845-FEB.

We have formed to ourselves one special object, amongst others, on embarking in the work, and for the prosecution of which we have chiefly been induced to venture upon it; but that object is not one that has ever been heretefore lost sight of, or one which the exigencies of the times would not have strongly suggested to others as well as ourselves.

We wish to make the CHRISTIAN GUARDIAN a vehicle for enforcing, in every possible way, the urgent and paramount duty of personal holiness, and practical, self-denying, expansive benevolence. Every thing conspires, in the present day, to drive us to the conviction, that no half measures will suffice amongst Christians. The whole world is the field now white for the harvest. The respective claims of all the various gradations of society are now being put before us. God is wonderfully enlarging the opportunities for doing good, and the means for it also. The returning tide of national prosperity comes with its solemn lessons; and its coincidence with the calls to do good cannot but strike the most sceptical. While the simultaneous shaking to the very centre of all the sections of the Christian Church, seems to tell us, as with a voice from heaven, how easily, and how certainly God can make the light that is in us to be darkness, and transfer the candlestick of the Gospel from ourselves to others more worthy.

Our readers must bear with us if we are found to be continually lifting up our voice like a trumpet, and to be telling God's professing people of their sins. They must not regard us in the light of an enemy, if we tell them the truth, and press upon them the Scripture declaration in all its details, that "faith without works is dead."

They must bear to be told that the knowledge of former days, and the praying of former days, and the self-denial, and the charity, and the almsgivings of former days, will not do now: that all the functions of a holy life must rise to the requirements and the dangers of the times, and that there must be no poor, pigmy, feeble Christians amongst us; but that, as there is an arduous battle to fight, perilous times to pass through, and extended duties to discharge, there must be giants in these days; men of renown, valiant for the truth, who can stand the last desperate sally of the enemy, clad in the panoply of heaven, and "strong in the Lord, and the power of his might."

We commence our work, most truly feeling our own insufficiency; but looking upwards for wisdom and strength, we venture to hope for the large and efficient co-operation of friends, whom, in their communications, we wish to bear in mind the principles we have just laid down for our own direction.

We are not without abundant materials to commence with, such as Original Correspondence, &c., which, we believe, will prove peculiarly interesting to our readers.

And if God enables us to maintain the CHRISTIAN GUARDIAN in its integrity, and be pleased to own it as an instrument for good in His hands, to Him be all the glory!

CASTERTON HALL, JAN. 9th, 1845.

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