Irish Chronicle. To the Secretaries. Boyle, Sept. 20, 1824. In my last I spoke of the great stir the appointment of the Education Commission had made in this country, nor is it at all abated; on the contrary, all that conjecture, anxiety, and inclination can suggest, is started-now one report, and then another-but all are to have their own wishes complied with by the Government. These reports are producing an unfavourable effect in many places, causing some children to neglect their scripture tasks, and many others to leave the schools, to join those established by the priests of the respective parishes; for these are now become very general, with the hope that a grant will be made to them, with permission to use their own books. Yet, notwithstanding this statement, it will be gratifying to the Committee to learn, that I scarcely recollect a quarter's inspection in which so many the merited by premiums were scholars, for committing the scriptures, all the receivers of which having committed five, or more chapters, during the quarter, in addition to those before learnt; of this they will be satisfied, when I mention that, to one school I have sent five premiums, to another six, to another ten, to another thirteen, to another sixteen, and to another nineteen; besides several others. I hope the mention of this will be a sufficient inducement to any of our friends who have suitable books, or other things, to give, to forward them, my stock is now getting very low. I have the pleasure of stating, that now the dark evenings are coming on, my congregations are increasing in most places, although, through the summer, some of them have continued larger than ever. If inquiry be a pleasing indication concerning the truth, which I believe is admitted by all its friends, certainly there are pleasing prospects in this country, notwithstanding all the superstition, and bigotry, and vice, that yet prevail. On my lately seeing Colonel P he told me he had neglected to fulfil his promise of writing to you on the proceedings of our Society; he being one whom I had requested to do so; he said he would do it. J. WILSON. To the Secretaries. Sept. 20, 1824. I HAVE been out the last three weeks preaching and inspecting the schools. I am happy to say, that I was well attended, and that there is an increasing desire to hear the gospel. With pleasure I also mention, that I found the schools again increasing, except one, notwithstanding the persevering threatenings, and dreadful and shocking cursing of the priests; it is a critical time with them, and the more they curse, the people get less afraid of them. It would be tedious to write, and it would also occupy too much of your time to read every circumstance which I might relate; I will only mention a few. Our congregation here is better than I could reasonably expect; the place being entirely popish, and our Sundayschool here, which I established, is prospering beyond all expectation, in the face of the most determined opposition. There are two priests here, and a popish bishop. On the 30th of August I left here, and arrived in Miltown, about thirty miles distant, in the evening; it is situated on the tremendous banks of the mighty Atlantic, to the north-west of this, and endeavoured to make known the way of salvation to as many as possible, and some appeared greatly staggered with respect to their confidence in the priests: the place is entirely popish. On Lord's-day, the 5th, preached at Moy in the morning, about six miles from Miltown, to a Roman Catholic congregation; there was only one ProFour or five families testant woman. threw off Popery, and others will fol low them; there were about thirty of their children present, and the people all the way to the county of Wieklow, to a famous priest, who is eminent for absolving sin. But the Lord has mercifully shewn him his delusions. He was determined not to hear me the night I preached at Long's, but the Lord had determined he should. He is now most diligent in reading the Irish and English scriptures to all be possibly can, without pecuniary reward. After preaching at Bushe's, I immediately went off to Mount Shannon, in the county of Galway, and preached to a crowded congregation, who heard with the greatest attention; and the next evening at Clanwella to a room full of people. The Lord mercifully preserved me from those who would swallow me up. I hope I shall still be remembered by my friends at a throne of grace. I inclose a statement of the schools for the present quarter. In the Blackwater School, under the patronage of Mr. M'Adam, and regularly attended by Miss M'Adam, a young lady of eminent talents and piety, five of the children repeated, from memory, eighteen chapters each, this quarter, perfectly, and four chapters each imperfectly. One child repeated ten, this quarter, one repeated six, and one three chapters. These children are only six and seven years old, and answered questions in the most pleasing manner. The whole country is convulsed: there was never such a stir in Ireland. WM. THOMAS. To the Rev. Mr. Thomas. Moynoe, Scarif, August 19, 1824. REV. SIR, In giving you an idea of my labours during the last quarter, I am constrained to relate the following striking instance of sovereign and redeeming grace, which delivers the captive, heals the broken-hearted, and sets at liberty such as are bound. Although it would be tedious and impossible for me to give you more than a specimen of the pilgrimages, stations, mortifications, &c. of the celebrated Carmelite, who is the subject of this narration; yet, suffice it to say, that I have frequently known him to refuse lying upon a feather bed, he would not lie so comfortable; his bed should be a litter of straw, with the worst covering that could be procured, and when at his own house, his bed would be a mat made of straw, and a small bit of Scariff, and not twenty yards from Priest Vaughan's door, and, to my great surprise, he spoke very friendly to me, (though he refused speaking to me twice when I spoke to him, since the priest turned me out of the chapel, nor would he even look to the side of the road that I might be at,) and asked me when did I see Mr. Thomas, the preacher; told me that he heard you preach at Long's; said, that you condemned and shook every part of the Romish religion; particularly Transubstantiation, the interference of angels and saints, extreme unction, &c. &c. I took an opportunity then, in a calm, loving, and submissive manner, of pointing him simply to the complete and finished work of redemption, and that the merit of the atonement was not to be attained by doing penance, by confessions into a priest's ear, by purgatory, by masses, ointments, &c. &c.; but that pardon, peace, &c. were unmerited free gifts of grace for guilty sinners, by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, once offered on the cross, when he had by himself purged our sins, &c. I also endeavoured to impress upon his mind the necessity of reading the scriptures, as the grand medium to bring him to GOD; and I rejoice to say, that, since that time, he is not a bigot, but like a noble Berean, and is, day and night, and from house to house, at every opportunity, searching and read. ing the scriptures to all who are willing to hear their joyful sound. He came on purpose to my house at least four or five times a week these two months back, and never ceases reading the scriptures, and has felt a great desire to converse with me upon the things of God, insomuch so, that he frequently continues, until clear day in the morning, talking of Moses and the Prophets, Christ and the Apostles, &c. This man could hair-cloth would be his whole covering, sheets, blankets, quilts, and all, though he could well afford lying upon a bed of feathers; but mortification was his trade, and he looked forward in hope that his passage through Purgatory would be tolerable, in proportion to his sufferings here. Urged by superstition, he cut off his hair, and began to wear a wig, and resolved on devoting the rest of his days to religious services, in what is called performing rounds or stations at different places in the kingdom, famed for imparting peculiar merit to observances performed at them. Lady's well, Lough-derrig, Inniscaltraugh, or the Holy Island, &c. were frequently the scenes of his blind devotions, particularly the latter, at least ten or twelve times a year. This island lies in the river Shannon, has a steeple and seven churches; it would be difficult to describe the seven and seven score rounds that are to be performed here on the sharpest stones, with the bare feet, and on the knees; the whole circuit of rounds, put together, is computed at upwards of twenty-eight Irish miles, besides seven Paters, seven Aves, and a creed, carefully counted on a string of beads at each and every of the seven and seven score, or 127 rounds. This Carmelite, who is a young man, and an eminent tailor, states, that you preached at Mr. George Long's, in the parish of Clounrush, last spring, where he happened to be at work, and declares, that when he saw the neighbours collecting to hear you preach, he gathered up the cloth that he had in hand, and retired to an adjoining room, lest he might be contaminated by your pestiferous preaching; and just when you commenced preaching, the light that he had, went out; he then stood up to the room door in the dark, and paid the greatest attention to what you preach-read the English well, though he did ed, which made an impression on his mind that will never be forgotten; and, at his returning home to Tomgrany, he called at my habitation, but I was not at home, to know from me what I thought of the doubts that were upon his mind, and what I thought of what you preached; and he solemnly declared to my wife and family, that you levelled the Romish religion to the ground. "Oh!" said the Carmelite, at the same time stamping his foot, "Mr. Thomas, the preacher, sunk the Roman Catholic religion, never more to rise." In three or four days after, I met this man in the street of not know a single letter of the Irish, but could speak it fluently, and having seen several at my cottage, who could read the Irish scriptures, he expressed the greatest desire to know how to read them. I got an Irish Testament, and taught him the Irish letters, and continued instructing him the most part of five or six days: and before he went away, he could read three chapters of the Irish Testament fluently; and, whilst away from me, he applied himself diligently to the study of the scriptures, and to a language so endeared to the natives by every tie of love and affection; and has made such wonderful progress, that he sat in a class of Irish readers, the three last Sundays, at my house, and read the Irish scriptures in his turn, to the great delight of upwards of thirty persons, who were present upon that occasion; and I am told, by persons for whom he lately worked, that he, with the most indefatigable zeal, spends half his time reading the Irish scriptures to them, and declares that he never will be hindered by priest or bishop from reading the scriptures to his poor benighted brethren; others, following his example, are now, with the greatest avidity, learning the Irish: persons who never before thought of learning it, and thereby ensuring the study of the scriptures, as they will admit an Irish Testament, where they would not handle, or even look at an English one; even a revenue police-man,stationed in the barrack at Scariff, who is a Roman Catholic, is now eagerly learning the native language, and deeply laments that he did not begin when P- the Carmelite did. He begged an Irish Testament of me; I gave him my own, which he sounds into the ears of the rest of the men, who are chiefly Romanists, and borrowed one for my own use. THOMAS BUSHE. 16 10 64 77 At Abingdon........... Received by Mr. Burls. By Rev. Moses Fisher.... 54 10 6 17 17 ...... Received by Mr. Ivimey, since the By Rev. John Dyer Annual Meeting. Mr. Henry Cox, by Rev. Mr. Shenstone......... Mr. Bass, by Ditto....... Rev. Professor Martyn, Kimbolton ............ Mrs. Franklin, Albory.......... A Farmer's Comment upon Prov. iii. 9. Rev. J. Hindes, Sharnbrook 1 000 Legacy of £100, of Joseph Collected by Rev. Mr. Gibbs : 2 0 0 At Nottingham..... At Northampton..... At Newark 7 0 ......... 1 0 00000 At Loughborough.... 2 10 0 1 0 0 From Portsea, by Rev. C. 0 12 0 ... 110 By J. Wilson, Jun. Scotland-yard, small Collections 1 6 0 T. Mileham ............................. 12 5 0 2 0 Eros, Haddenham 0 Richard Foster, Jun. Esq. 10 10 0 by Rev. Mr. Upton 1 3 6 ciety, by Rev. Mr. Smith 7 10 0 The Friends of the Society are respectfully informed, that Mr. Burls, the Treasurer, is much better; though it is still feared his valuable services, in future, will be lost to the Institution. Missionary Herald. BAPTIST MISSION. Home Proceedings. BOSTON, LINCOLNSHIRE. ON Thursday, September 23, 1824, a meeting was held in the Baptist Chapel, Liquorpond-street, Boston, for the purpose of forming an Auxiliary Society, in aid of the parent institution. An introductory discourse was preached the preceding evening, by Mr. S. Sutton, Missionary from the East Indies, from Psalm 1xxiv. 20; "Have respect to the Covenant, for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty." He gave an affecting description of the degraded state of the heathen. The public meeting commenced at two o'clock on Thursday, when appropriate and interesting addresses were given, by the Rev. Messrs. Wilbourn and Ratcliff, Methodists; Rev. Messrs. Taylor, Bissell, Everett, and Yeats, General Baptists; and Messrs. Sutton and Macpherson; in moving and seconding the resolutions connected with the object of the meeting, which were unanimously adopted. Mr. Macpherson, of Hull, preached in the evening an impressive sermon from Luke xiv. 23; "Go into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled." Much Christian feeling seemed to pervade our assemblies on this occasion; and an elevated tone of pious feeling greatly promoted. The collection amounted to £10, and nearly the same sum was obtained by subscriptions. J. H. Foreign Intelligence. SERAMPORE. Extract of a Letter from Mrs. Marshman to Mr. Dyer, dated Serampore, 9th June, 1824. BEFORE the last distressing inundation we had seventeen schools, in and about Serampore; but since that period we have had only thirteen. We are now about to erect a new one, which is to be called the Chatham Union School. We assembled eleven little girls upon the spot early this morning, where we intend erecting the school. It is to us one of the most astonishing circumstances we have ever met with in this country, that the children are so willing to learn, and their pa rents so willing to let them. What we had been striving at, (but in vain) for twenty-two years, is now effected with but little trouble. Surely, it is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes; and He shall have all the praise, for it is due to Him alone. You will be happy to hear that Dr. Carey is quite recovered, and preaches just as delightfully as he did before his long and severe illness. CALCUTTA. WE are happy to find, by recent arrivals from this station, that Mr. and Mrs. Leslie reached Bengal in safety, after a voyage, of nearly seven months' duration, in the latter end of May. They were received with great kindness, both at Calcutta and Serampore; but it appeared doubtful, at the date of these letters, whether Mr. |