of persons, already wrought up to a high pitch of excitement, and in many cases reduced to a state of spiritual anguish by the preparatory discipline to which they had been subjected, there were not found several disposed to accept the easy terms. Many, no doubt, thought themselves entitled to claim the sweet privilege of being among the ransomed. Others, there is too much reason to believe, were not even imposed upon by their own enthusiasm, but simply imitated what they saw others do and say, determined not to be left behind in the race, and willing to have a share in the notoriety, the distinction and the general interest which they saw lavished on their friends and neighbours who professed to have undergone the life-giving change.

It is always preceded by "an agonizing sense of sin. The parties affected feel that sin is a hell-kindling, soul-destroying, God-hating thing; they not only dread the wrath and curse of an offended God, as exposing them to everlasting torment, but experience in many cases a godly sorrow for their offences against the holy and good Jehovah, especially in neglecting and rejecting the well-beloved Son, 'having trodden under foot the Son of God, and counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified (sic) an unholy thing, and hath done despite to the spirit of grace.' The conscience thus afraid by the remembrance of past sins, and the devil assaulting them with great violence, going about to overwhelm them with heaps, seas of sins, we often see the perspiration, bead-like, streaming from the brow, the body trembling as in an ague fever, the hands clasped with convulsive energy and raised to heaven..... The soul begins to live as it utters the now well-known and common cry, 'God be merciful to me, a sinner.' (Adams, p. 13.) To the same effect says another ardent friend of the revival: "The soul is felt to be guilty and lost. Sin is seen to be loathsome and deadly, and it is generally felt to be an intolerable burthen, crushing the body and soul to hell. Horror unutterable overwhelms the heart, especially of those who feel that the devil is persuading or dragging them to perdition. With some, this conviction has reference to particular easily besetting sins; with others, the greater number, to the general sinful state of the soul. In almost all the unregenerate, it produces an intense fear, an awful agonizing horror of eternal condemnation..... The subjects of conviction are of all ages, from five to seventy years; but the great majority are young. Some are frequently convicted, though they do not return to their old ways, perhaps to intensify the work. Conviction and sinning alternate with some; and ultimately the convictions seem, in the mean time, to triumph." (Moore, pp. 9, 10.) This part of the process is obviously grounded on the most intense doctrines of Calvinism,-an offended God, an ever-active devil, an eternal hell. Remorse is felt not merely for besetting sins, but for "the general sinful state of the soul,"—which, we are

sure we do Mr. Moore no injustice in affirming, means, in his mouth, its sinfulness by nature derived from the original corruption of the whole race of man in Adam. How else could these horrors overwhelm the minds of children of five years old? It is well that all of us should understand what is the real significance of the movement which so many are anxious to applaud, if not to recommend for imitation.

Mr. Moore states that the great majority of the convicts are young. In the earlier stages of life, that is, among the children, the proportion of the two sexes who are (or were) thus affected is nearly equal; perhaps the number of little girls who "feel conviction" is rather greater than that of young boys of the same age. In advancing life, the females decidedly preponderate. Not many youths "experience conviction" after the age of fifteen years, and scarcely any men after two-and-twenty; but women of all ages are smitten. "They" (the converts) "have been universally of one class-the ignorant, uneducated, hard-worked and easily-impressed class; and, in the proportion of nineteen out of every twenty, young and excitable females. When I say universally, I do so deliberately, for the exceptions are not worth taking into account. I have known of some in the upper class who, in the reign of the excitement, went about even desiring to be struck,' and failed; and just one individual approaching to the class of educated has come within my knowledge in Belfast." (M'Ilwaine, p. 9.) We have heard of a few cases in which some went through the whole or part of the revival process who had received a moderately good education; but in all the instances of this kind of which we have heard, conviction was followed by the suspension or the loss of reason; in several, by the loss of life. But we must not anticipate.

Our readers can hardly fail to have remarked the naïveté with which Mr. Moore announces that "some are frequently convicted, though they do not return to their old ways.' He does not tell, what however is an undoubted fact, that this agonizing anguish has been experienced by some of the convicts as often as once every second or third day, and in some cases as often as once a day, for weeks together. With our profane carnal philosophy, we can account for these things very easily on natural principles; but if they are the work immediately of the Holy Spirit, (an Omnipotent agent,) it does seem strange that it should require to be repeated so often.

Our brethren whose heads are filled with the fancies of antisectarianism, and who, at the same time, have been strongly attracted towards the Revival movement, will doubtless be grateful to us for informing them that it has, from first to last, been characterized by a bitter spirit of intolerance towards all forms of faith different from that which is professed in the communities to which the revivalists and the converts belong. The Editor

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of the Coleraine Chronicle,-who is a very ardent friend of the movement, and who gives, as an evidence of its power, the pleasing fact that on one occasion he had applications for several hundred copies of his paper more than he was able to supply, (Massie, p. 12,) says, "The most tangible proof of the genuineness of this work is to be found in its remarkable results, as evidenced in the disappearance of vice, the prevalence of a high-toned morality, and the conversion of Roman Catholics, Unitarians and other errorists. . . . Arians have joined Trinitarian churches, and Roman Catholics have burned their prayer-books and become Protestants, in spite of the virtues of holy water and wine." (Massie, p. 4.) At Ballymena, a poor woman "was urged by some of her fellow-converts to follow their example and burn her 'Manual' of the Roman Catholic faith. No,' she replied, 'I will not do that, for it contains some portions of the Word of God, but I will bury it in the earth."" (Massie, p. 19.) Similar indications of an anti-catholic spirit will meet the reader of the first half-dozen pamphlets in our list. But these can give but a faint idea of the savage ferocity with which the doctrines, the clergy and the rites of the Romish Church were inveighed against in many of the revival prayer-meetings. Still it may be inferred that a system which inculcated as an act pleasing to God, that of burning the prayer-books and other works of Roman Catholic devotion, cannot claim much credit for anti-sectarianism, and could scarcely be said to aim at the preservation of the public peace in neighbourhoods in which there is a large infusion of Roman Catholicism in the population. And this reminds us of the language uttered by one of the speakers at the recent meeting of the London District Unitarian Society. He said that on the 12th of July, "the whole of the vast assembly" were animated by a spirit of love to all mankind, which it was truly delightful to witness. We can inform this gentleman that on the 12th of July, 1859, there were just two "vast assemblages" held in the north of Ireland,-one at Ballymena, and one on the racecourse, called the Maze, near the town of Lisburn. Both were convened nominally as Revival meetings; and that at Ballymena appears to have been conducted in a perfectly inoffensive manner. But the Maze meeting was attended by a great number of Orange lodges, with flags, sashes and other insignia, which marched to the ground in bodies, with drums and fifes playing party tunes; and, in several instances, the persons composing the procession uttered most insulting expressions toward their Roman Catholic fellow-citizens. Several were equipped with fire-arms, which they discharged from time to time, not only while going to and returning from the meeting, but during its continuance; so that it is due to the forbearance of others, and no merit of theirs, that the day did not close with riot and bloodshed. Such proceedings, we need scarcely add, are themselves, by the Act for sup

pressing party processions and demonstrations, a breach of the public peace.

Not a whit less intolerant towards every shade and form of Unitarianism were the leaders of the Revival movement. In a few instances, persons professing Unitarian opinions were caught by the epidemic frensy. Some were terrified by the awful denunciations which they heard from the pulpit, when, from motives of curiosity, they had gone to see and hear what was making such a noise in the surrounding sects; their nervous system received a shock; and when they heard their neighbours shrieking, or saw them thrown prostrate to the earth, writhing in agony, and calling on Jesus to rescue them from the bottomless pit, it is no wonder that a few young persons, chiefly delicate females, were unable to resist a contagion which might put the self-controlling power of the strongest man to a severe test. When one such person yielded to the influences which were brought to bear upon her and was "stricken,"—that is, deprived of the power of her limbs, with partial or total loss of consciousness for a time,-great was the rejoicing and loud were the pæans chanted on the wonderful triumph. The triumph was proclaimed at prayer-meetings, celebrated in newspapers, and heralded to the south, the east and the west, in the letters of correspondents, as an augury of the speedy downfal of the "Goddenying heresy." For the destruction of Unitarianism, solemn prayers were repeatedly offered up; and many of these, and indeed most of those presented in connection with the revival, were addressed not to the God and Father of all, but to the Lord Jesus. As might be expected from the youth and ignorance of many of the persons employed in leading the worship, some of these prayers were as silly as they were unscriptural. "Come unto me," said a child of ten or twelve years old, who was permitted by a Presbyterian minister to conduct the devotional services of his congregation,-" Come unto me, O Lord Jesus, and I will give you rest!" Another youthful convert besought the Lord Jesus to come and rescue his followers "from the pit of salvation!" And we, who believe it to be unwarrantable to address prayer to any but the Living and True God, and who believe that the Divine Spirit is not the author of nonsense and absurdity, are required to demonstrate, to the satisfaction of professing Unitarians, enlightened and liberal Christians, that they are mistaken when they think they see in all this the immediate work of the Spirit of God!

As might be expected, the anti-Unitarian zeal of some of the agents in this work led them, in some instances, to misconceive and very grossly to misrepresent facts which they had seen through the coloured medium of sectarian prejudice. The Rev. Mr. Marrable, a clergyman of the Church of England, came to Ballymena while the fever was at its height, was told one of

the hundred lying tales which were from day to day put into circulation, swallowed it with implicit and uninquiring faith, —and in due time published it abroad in a printed account of his tour. He said that two young persons belonging to the Unitarian congregation in Ballymena,-whom he indicated, by means of initials and descriptive circumstances, in such a manner that the individuals might just as well have been named,—had been, during the revival, converted from their erroneous faith; he reported expressions, full of contempt, which they were said to have used with respect to it; their words, declaring a fixed determination never again to enter the chapel which they had hitherto attended; and language, full of blasphemy and impiety, which their minister, the Rev. John A. Crozier, was stated to have used to them and in their presence. There was not a syllable of truth in the whole story! And although the two young persons referred to, and their father and mother, and the minister thus belied, published the most emphatic contradiction of it in every one of its facts and circumstances, it has never yet been retracted, and is in many quarters still believed, and accepted as an undeniable proof that the hand and spirit of God were at work in "the blessed revival of religion in Ulster!" But this is by no means the worst example of the deliberate falsehoods by which the movement was urged forward and followed up. Upon that topic we shall hereafter have a few remarks to offer. Meanwhile, it is our object to illustrate, for the information of our non-sectarian" readers, the bitter spirit of hostility to Unitarianism by which the movement was characterized from the very outset. In truth, its supposed tendency to draw away members from the Unitarian to the orthodox churches, was undoubtedly one of its features which very much commended it to the friends of evangelical religion, both in the province of Ulster and at a distance. It was the bait by which many were caught, who, but for this device, would have exerted their sagacity much sooner than they did, in ascertaining the real nature of the Revival movement. Their zeal was enkindled and their sympathy enlisted in favour of a process which, as it was represented to them, held forth the prospect of utterly uprooting from the soil of Ireland the pestilent heresy of Unitarianism; and they inquired no farther. While on this topic, we may advert to a letter which we have seen from a revivalist minister addressed to a Unitarian divine who happened to be present at a revival meeting, the writer of which seemed to expect that his heretical brother would be brought over to the true faith by hearing so many of the converts, chiefly, it may be remarked, boys and girls under the age of fourteen, one apparently not more than ten,-declare that they had "found peace" and "full assurance" after, and in answer to, prayer addressed to the Lord Jesus!

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So far all was peace among the revivalists. Presbyterians,