taken on themselves the responsibility of the rent and repairs, as well as the fitting up of the place. Towards the latter item of expense, they look for help from friends in London and in other places, who are interested in the success of this attempt to increase the means of Christian instruction in connexion with our own denomination. The hope is also cherished, that many visitors who have long regretted the want of a Congregational place of worship in that celebrated watering place, will now be gratified by their attendance on its services, and thus help to nurse the infant cause.

EFFORTS IN THE COUNTRY.

But while the Directors are desirous to respond to appeals from towns, where their help is likely to be needed only for a brief season, they feel bound to give their chief attention to the rural districts, where the people are farther from the means of grace, and less able to obtain instruction for themselves, than those who reside in towns. Encouraged by an improvement in the income of the Society, the sad work of lessening the number of stations has ceased, except in those cases in which, under any pecuniary circumstances, alterations would have been made. They have even ventured to adopt stations, and to make new grants-few indeed compared with the demands made upon them. Still they are making progress in cultivating new fields of labour, and hope to make more, as the zeal and liberality of their friends continue to increase. From the Agents now actively engaged in their missionary work, the Directors are receiving encouraging accounts-mingled, it is true, with incidents of painful nature-but still displaying, in connexion with the use of appointed means, the influence of religious principle and the power of Divine grace. The following simple narrative will, no doubt, deeply interest the reader, as showing the goodness and faithfulness of God to a poor and afflicted woman.

Affecting Case of Conversion, of Poverty, and of unexpected Relief. "Since our last report, we have had several additions to the church, and fully expect that four more individuals will unite in church-fellowship with us next month. Among the former, is a middle-aged woman, with a large family, but in very destitute circumstances, having the means of obtaining scarcely more than will keep body and soul together. Notwithstanding this, however, there is something about her conversion very interesting. Some six or nine months ago, she was visited with a painful and tedious illness in her family-several of her children being ill at the same time, one of whom has since entered eternity. During this illness, she was compelled to pledge much of her furniture, small as the whole was, and we believe every article of dress worn by herself, husband, and family on the sabbath, as well as some articles which they wore on the working-days. The result of this painful disposal of her goods and clothing was confinement at home on the sabbath, and inability to attend the means of grace. However, painful as this scene of wretchedness, distress, and privation was, one mitigating circumstance was connected with it. Her residence is situated in a secluded spot, about a mile from the chapel, and one of our sabbath-day services being in the evening, its darkness, though dreaded by some, was welcomed by her, as it screened her half-naked person from the gaze of her neighbours, and alleviated the pain which the contrast between her appearance and theirs would have occasioned. Of the opportunity, therefore, of coming out in a dark evening she availed herself, and aimed to arrive at the chapel when she supposed the congregation were securely seated and no one would see her, and then she would remain just within the lobby. She was soon, however, noticed by One greater than man. He, out of whom virtue went to heal one who dared only touch the hem of his garment, saw this poor destitute, half-starved, and naked creature, and applied a preached Gospel to her soul. A powerful conviction was

produced, and deeply-rooted alarm pervaded her mind, which was not removed till, by faith, she beheld a bleeding Saviour. She continued in this trying state of mind above three months, without giving the slightest intimation of her feelings more than that which an alteration in her conduct presented, but which from the secluded spot in which she lived, and her abject poverty, failed to attract any marked attention. As soon as conviction of sin was thus produced, she felt especially anxious to be able to attend divine service on the other parts of the day, but, as was noticed above, destitution of clothing prevented it; for out of the small earnings of the husband, it was utterly impossible to save anything to redeem her apparel. According to her own account, in a state of despair as to ever obtaining the clothes, she saw that only God himself could appear for her. She determined, therefore, to spend one night in prayer to God for this particular object. And when relating the story to us afterwards, she said, 'I told my dear heavenly Father my whole distress, and that I had not a friend upon earth to whom I could look to relieve my necessities, and that he must find the friend, and direct him to me, that it must be entirely his own work.' And from what quarter assistance could come, she could not, she said, even guess,—it was darkness, impenetrable darkness to her. She, however, continued the night in prayer; and extraordinary, sir, as it may appear, on the following morning a lady who knew her some time since, who had left the county, but was called to D, a town about a mile and a half from the residence of this poor woman, to settle some property on the death of her sister, sent for this woman, and gave her the amount, and 74d. over what was required to obtain her apparel from the pledge. The clothes were obtained, and the poor woman has been a constant hearer ever since; no winds, nor weather, however unfavourable, can prevent her coming to the house of God.

“Well, sir, about three months after her conviction, God was pleased to give rest to her mind; and when we tell you that her joy was not a common Christian joy, you will not feel surprised. Amidst distress, poverty, and trial, she 'lives on high,' and is as happy as a saint not in heaven can be. No sooner had she experienced this transition from a state of painful conviction of sin, to a state of pardon and peace, than she was anxious to unbosom her hitherto undisclosed feelings, and unite herself with the church of God. This, however, was done with difficulty. A fear lest she should disgrace the cause of Christ seemed to impose an almost insurmountable obstacle. At length she made up her mind to come to our residence, which is about a mile and a half from her own house. One morning, therefore, we heard a knock at the door, and on opening it, who should be there but this poor woman. She introduced herself by saying, 'I attend W- C— Chapel, and am come to speak to you about my soul.' This was a cheering sound. We asked her to sit, and immediately she began to relate the change, and the means by which it was produced. She began with a relation of her trials and afflictions, her prayer and its answer-her deep convictions of sin, produced by our ministry, and the liberty which she enjoyed, and then expressed an ardent wish to join the church of God. To attempt to describe the joy her simple, but sincere and pathetic relation produced, is unnecessary, and, if necessary, would be difficult. We could see that she had evidently been taught of God. She thanked God for all her trials, difficulties, and afflictions, as kind expressions of God's love to her soul, to save her from hell. We have since verified her statements and admitted her to the church, where she is still praising God her Saviour. This must suffice about her at present: we would only add, that now her husband and family attend our ministry."

There are other obstacles besides poverty that keep the villagers from the preaching of the Missionaries, and lessen their apparent success. The following case will supply an illustration :—

Difficulties in the Way of Success.

"While your Agent is grieved with, and mourns over, his manifold infirmities and small success compared with others, he is of opinion that, among other reasons, his want of greater success is attributable to three causes.

"First. To Roman Catholic influence. The college, which is very near us, exerts a very great pecuniary influence; for though they have not many converts, by this means they prejudice the minds of the poor against us, because we cannot give away so much as they. The students and priests are very active in visiting and lending. In those visits they fail not to tell the poor that we Dissenters are false teachers, and our religion of recent date; but theirs has existed from the time of our Saviour. It will be easily perceived that these Romanistic efforts impede the progress of scriptural religion in this place and neighbourhood. I could relate several illustrative facts, but shall at present forbear.

"The second hinderance is that which is found in very many places-High Church influence. The vicar is a religious nondescript; he is a magistrate and (ex-officio) one of the guardians of the union; and besides this, he has the disposal of parish charities, which amount to £130 per annum. The poor are, therefore, afraid to offend him, knowing he will withhold his gifts and punish them as soon as he can. A short time ago, I had the following conversation with a poor man who used to attend the chapel at P, but who had absented himself some time. 'Well, William, I have not seen you at chapel some time.' 'No, sir, I will tell you the truth I was very bad, and went to Mr. L. (the vicar) to see if he would give me something, and he said to me, 'D., you never come to church.' 'Oh yes, sir, I do.' 'I never see you.' 'I sit where you can't see me.' I replied,Then, William, you told a lie to please him; that was a very wicked thing.' 'Yes, sir, but

:

if I had told him I did not go, he would not give me anything.' I reasoned with the poor man, and then proceeded to ask, 'What did he give you, William ?' 'He gave me five shillings, sir, and said, 'Well, D., if you stick to me, I'll stick to you.' I like you better than I do Mr. L., but I must go to church sometimes.' This poor man is a specimen of many of the poor of this place. But in the midst of these hinderances God has not permitted us to labour in vain.

"There is a third reason to be assigned for our not increasing more in numbers, viz., the want of employment in the neighbourhood for our youthful hearers, by which they are driven to a distance to earn a livelihood. Could the members of our more respectable families have found employment in their native villages, they would have gladly remained at home, and would have been usefully engaged, some of them, at least, in forwarding the work of the Lord, and holding up the hands of their minister. But as soon as we see them enter the ranks of those who are on the Lord's side, they are removed to other places. I could refer to nearly twenty such removals which have taken place within the last eight or ten years. Some of them were members, and others were in a hopeful state. One is now in trade in L, and is usefully employed as a lay preacher and Sunday-school teacher. Another has been trained in the Borough-road school, and is now in Norfolk; and several others are very usefully employed in various places. Thus larger churches in towns reap some of the good resulting from our village labours. Who can measure the good that results from the labours of your Agent even in reference to the young just referred to? Had there been no missionary in their neighbourhood, what would have been the state of their minds and morals! Would they not have gone forth and probably become the companions of them that do evil, and added to the poisonous influence of the towns in which they are located? But now, behold they are standard-bearers, as good soldiers of Jesus Christ! They may not be in the foremost ranks on the field, but they are found with the lambs, or collecting the scattered in the desert places."

IRISH EVANGELICAL SOCIETY.

A NEW STATION.

THE Committee have recently adopted as a station the little town of Ballybay and its neighbourhood, to which they sent one of their agents, the Rev. A. Gordon, A.M. of Londonderry. Mr. Jennings has supplied the pulpit of Mr. Gordon during the visit of the latter to the new field of labour. From his journal it appears, that a door is open for the proclamation of the Gospel there, and a voice is addressed to the Society, "Come over and help us."

LABOURS OF THEOLOGICAL STUDENTS.

Besides the agents, pastors, missionaries, and Scripture readers, statedly occupied in their several locations, the Committee have frequently availed themselves of the services of students preparing for the work of the ministry in our academical institutions in Great Britain. During the last vacation, three of these young brethren were employed in extensive missionary tours in Ireland; and the Committee feel great satisfaction in stating, that their labours were highly acceptable. Wherever they went they were received with great cordiality, treated with uniform kindness, and listened to, as they proclaimed the glad tidings of salvation, with the deepest attention. Mr. William Dougan, from Cheshunt College, was appointed by the Committee to labour, under the direction of the Rev. S. Shaw, the Society's longtried and highly respected friend, at Moy, in the county of Tyrone. He is a native of Ireland, and thus expresses his views to the Committee:

"I was very much pleased and encouraged by my visit to that part of the country, and hope that, by the Divine blessing, the preaching of the blessed Gospel was not altogether ineffectual in furthering the great and glorious end for which it was designed. In some instances impressions were made; O that they may be followed up by the influences of the Holy Spirit! I am happy to inform your Society that my fellow-countrymen are exhibiting more of an independent spirit in matters of faith than hitherto. A spirit of inquiry seems to be excited concerning the great doctrines of the Bible, a circumstance truly encouraging to any friend of Ireland, inasmuch as wherever and whenever it is to be found, the first step has been taken to enlightenment and reform."

Mr. Richard Garvey of Highbury College, was sent to his native city, Limerick, to labour in that county and elsewhere, as he may be advised by the Rev. J. K. Williams, whom the society has recently introduced to the church at that place. Mr. Garvey was diligently employed during his entire vacation. He not only preached in Limerick and its vicinity, but also visited Tralee, in the county of Kerry. He was everywhere received with great kindness, and his labours proved acceptable, and were desired more frequently than his limited stay permitted.

Mr. Wm. Shaw, of Highbury College, was instructed by the Committee to proceed to the North of Ireland, and to itinerate under direction of the Society's valued friend, the Rev. P. Finan, of Newtown-limavady, in the county of Londonderry. The following remarks are interesting:

"In Cookstown there are three very excellent Presbyterian ministers. I spent two Sabbaths here, and was admitted into their pulpits in the mornings, and had an evening meeting, which they announced for me. The congregations were very good. There are some friends in this town who are Independent in principle, but remain in the Presbyterian connexion from attachment to their ministers. Where the minister is a good man, and where discipline is attended to, the practical working of one of these churches differs little from our own regium donum is the

chief difference; but the course of events will soon compel them to give this up; I know preparations are making in the body for such a contingency. Should this event take place, the Presbyterians appear to me to be the body fitted to bless Ireland. Their rising ministry are most devoted men; they are a strong body, and their strength is in the country: they are united. I preached also in Stewartstown in the Presbyterian meeting-house, to a good congregation."

COLONIAL MISSIONARY SOCIETY.

PLANS OF OPERATION AND PROSPECTS OF SUCCESS.

"There can be, I think, no more useful or more sacred task than assisting in forming the moral and intellectual character of a new people; it is the surest and best kind of missionary labour. I sometimes think that if the government would make me a bishop, or principal of a college or school, or both together, in such a place as Van Diemen's Land, and during your government, I could be tempted to emigrate with all my family for good and all.”—The late Dr. Arnold, of Rugby, in a Letter to Sir John Franklin, while Governor of Van Diemen's Land.

It is evidently the will of God that England should be a colonising power on a scale of extent and importance unexampled in the history of the world. Look at the facts. One great and growing empire has already arisen out of British colonisation-the United States of North America-a nation which, after every fault and drawback has been admitted, is undeniably one of the greatest powers, and one of the greatest hopes of the human race—a nation, too, whose glories lie in the future, not in the past. This is the first result, and a magnificent result it is, of British colonisation. Compare English Protestant colonisation in North America at the commencement of its third century, with Spanish Papal colonisation in South America at the beginning of its fourth century!

Then, when colonisation in the United States had completed its proper work, when the settlements there had been nursed and protected till they needed guardianship and could submit to control no longer,-then, that England might still pursue its allotted work of colonising, new regions were subjected to her sway. Mighty Canada was then a recent acquisition. Success in war had also recently completed the dominion of Britain over the northern regions of America on the Atlantic-Cape Breton, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia. Discovery had established the claims of our country to the vast regions of the Pacific. These were all regions for England properly to colonise, to people with her sons, to subdue by their labours, to cover with her institutions; for they were unoccupied, or their wide surface but sprinkled over with feeble and wasting tribes of barbarians.

Nearly a half-century of wars and commotions followed after the acknowledgment of American independency, during which the resources of Britain were consumed in far other enterprises than colonisation. But it was not the less in the mind of God to plant from the British stock in far lands. Those lands were already secured and opened for the purpose. The return of peace brought wants for which colonisation offered the true remedy. An ancient people crowded, agitated, illgoverned, could not but produce calamities that needed an asylum, enterprise that longed for a field, and, alas! crimes that required a banishment far from their native soil. Thus originated the second period, now in full activity, of British colonisation. Already two millions of our fellow-subjects are laying the foundations of at least three or four new empires of British origin, language, and character. It is keeping far within bounds to affirm that they are commencing the occupancy of salubrious