the Society for united prayer on the 4th of July, was cordially responded to in all the mission stations. Special meetings were held, and many earnest petitions ascended to the throne of grace for the outpouring of the Spirit upon Protestants and Roman Catholics. Previous to this, meetings for prayer had been commenced in Dublin, some connected with our mission, and others of a more general character. Large crowds of devout and earnest worshippers have attended these meetings, which form of themselves a most encouraging feature of the present time.

Writing on the 29th of June, the Rev. C. F. MacCarthy thus alludes to these meetings, and the general state of the Dublin mission :—

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"On Monday evening we had another monster prayermeeting in the Metropolitan Hall; every standing-room filled. In tone and power it was much beyond the former - but there was no excitement beyond hearty amens and responses. offered up the last prayer, for Christ's coming and kingdom. Last night we turned the discussion-class into a prayer-meeting in Townsend Street, and had nearly 700 present. After it was over, a Roman Catholic woman went to one of the lay-agents, and said she had never felt in her whole life as she did then, and that she could not be a Roman Catholic any longer. At the meeting prayer was made very earnestly for the conversion and salvation of Dr. Cullen, who is sick-very sick. We are to have another similar meeting on Thursday evening in the Coombe, and I have given out that we shall have another in Townsend Street next Monday evening, the 4th July.

"Within the last month there has been a growing earnestness felt amongst all of us in our Missionary work. The reports of the conversions in the North have produced a sensation generally, while the simple fact, that all these under convictions of sin cry for deliverance only to the Lord Jesus, brings to the minds of Roman Catholics and Protestants the recollection of the one simple way of salvation through personal faith in our blessed Saviour. Greater directness in bidding souls to cast themselves on Christ must be the result of the feeling of the nearness of God, and the seed-sowing of the last ten years seems about to spring up before our eyes. In going round the schools this last week and telling the children about the Lord's doings in the North, and in New York, &c. there has been manifested the greatest attention and much feeling amongst them. There seems much solemnity and expectation on all persons. The accounts have a great and good effect, and one cannot but feel that we are on

the verge of wonderful times. May the Lord pour out abundantly of His Spirit upon, and glorify Himself in the salvation of, multitudes. The Roman Catholics give us the credit of starting and preparing the way for all this stir, which they fear will end in the downfall of their system."

We have received a further communication in a similar strain from Mr. MacCarthy, written after the 4th of July, showing the sustained character of the present movement. Mr. MacCarthy writes as follows:

"On the 4th of July we had a most solemn prayer-meeting. Several requests were sent in for persons to be prayed for. Marrable, Robinson, and myself took part. After the meeting a minister from Maine stood up, and said that he was greatly delighted at spending the evening of the anniversary of American independence so happily and pleasantly. He has 100 converts added to his congregation by the movement there, and 600 more have been added to others in the same town.

"The Metropolitan Hall was fuller than ever on Monday night, and now that it has passed into the hands of a Protestant proprietary, it will be opened other evenings for religious purposes, and perhaps for a noon-day prayer-meeting.

"Last Thursday evening we had a most profitable prayermeeting in the Coombe :-500 present, many Roman Catholics, all as quiet as possible, inside and out. I hold a class there on Thursday evening (D.V.), and prayer-meetings are to be held this week in Oriel Street and Mountjoy Street."

Meetings such as these are the truest evidence of health in a missionary work. Waiting on God is the true attitude of the Christian missionary. And more especially is this true with reference to a revival. It cannot be forced; but it is in the Lord's hands, and can only be given in the Lord's time, and in the Lord's way. Let every friend of Irish missions join ia spirit at this time in these simple and blessed meetings, and pray very earnestly for the conversion of many souls, and that true and lasting revival, which it is the prerogative of God alone to effect.

Aggression Resisted.

THE following communication, addressed to the Hon. Sec. of the Society by the clergyman of a parish in the county of Louth, will show the value of the Irish Church Missions in

resisting the efforts made by the priests and different Jesuit orders, now so extensively employed by the Church of Rome.

"DEAR SIR,

"Collon, Co. Louth, June 27, 1859.

"Our hitherto undisturbed parish has for the past fortnight been subjected to a violent assault from the Romish Missionaries' priests, Rinolfi and Furlong, and I desire, through you, to return, on the part of our vicar and myself, our most grateful thanks to the Irish Church Missions Society for the valuable aid it so kindly and promptly afforded us in our efforts to repel the encroachments of Rome. Situated as I was, I could not have hoped to have been successful in preventing them from making proselytes in a place where mixed marriages prevail to such a lamentable extent as they do in Collon, had I been left altogether to myself; but, thanks to the Rev. C. Miller, your Missionary in this county, and his excellent staff of Readers, we have been, under God's blessing, enabled to completely turn the tables upon them, and from having been the aggressed are now ourselves the aggressors, inviting the priests to meet us in discussion, and prove the truth of the statements made by themselves in such of their sermons as we were able to have reported by Readers sent to the chapel for the purpose. These invitations they have not the courage to accept, and as they are made public by placards, the effect of their silence must be to weaken, if not destroy altogether, the confidence of their dupes.

"Your Society has proved, under God, an able protector to our little band of Protestants in their hour of danger; and the cool, steady, yet zealous conduct of the Readers, some of them converts themselves, has made a favourable impression indeed on the minds of even the most bigoted Romanists in the parish. They are Christian men, and as their conduct was Christian, even their enemies did not, though the ground was new, and they were incited by their priests, attempt to offer them the least insult. To your Society and its excellent Missionary in this county we again return our most grateful thanks.

"Rev. A. Dallas.

"Faithfully yours,

"GEORGE FINLAY."

Reports from the Missions.

CONNEMARA.

(From the Missionary.)

"THE present state of things in the Ballyconree districts is most interesting. Some of the most respectable Romanists have sent their children to our school this week, five from one family that were never in a Mission School before. The National Schoolmaster who recently left the Church of Rome, paid the school a visit a few days ago; and it was most interesting, I hear from our master, to see his friendly salutations to his former pupils, and the delight with which both master and pupils encouraged each other to stand fast. Two intelligent little children told our master that their little brother, younger than themselves, was calling them 'Jumpers' when they went home the first day; so they agreed to take him up and carry him off the next day, and he is now quite as happy as themselves in school. One of our agents told me he met a man on the road that had been very violent some time ago, and on one occasion said that they ought to be hunted off the street. This day the agent asked him 'What he thought now?' Well,' said he, I don't know what to think. I am afraid to say what I think. I have a mind to go and tell the priest that a man in the village is sick, and ask him to come and anoint him, and then let ye have at him in the street, and we'll hear all he has to say.' 'Oh! you must not tell a lie,' said the agent. 'Why,' said he, what else can I do? Sure if I go to ask him a question he will only call me a Jumper, and bid me have nothing to do with you.'

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"Dr. McHale has just been to hold a confirmation, but we scarcely heard of it. He went down to St. Joseph's to see the children there, but he was not five minutes in it. One of the agents happened to see him coming up on a car with the priest, and a few children after him with their hands stretched out asking for something, the priest pushing them off with his umbrella, and saying he had nothing for them. We had a funeral last evening, and McHale's visit did not prevent the Roman Catholics coming into the church. We had an immense body of them, who were most attentive and serious. The church was quite full."

The following journal of the lay-agent describes the interesting state of the Ballyconree district in this Mission. It describes the conversion of a Roman Catholic schoolmaster. This is the third case of the kind which has occurred in the Connemara

Mission during the past twelve months. Roman Catholic schoolmasters being centres of influence with the people, the importance of such instances of conversion is too obvious to require comment.

"On one occasion, while speaking to the Roman Catholics on the Gospel plan of salvation, in contrast with that of the Church of Rome, a man who was building a boat where we were conversing got very angry when he saw that no one was defending his Church as he would like (namely, with carnal weapons, but all of them listening attentively, while I was proving her from the Bible a false and corrupt system), came up to me, using very threatening language, and trying to excite others to join with him, and assault me, for daring to say a word against the teaching of his Church; but he was not a little surprised and disappointed when he found that not one of them would join him, but, on the other hand, took my part, and had I not interfered for him, and showed that we should, in obedience to our blessed Lord, do good for evil, and love our enemies, they would have given himself the treatment he seemed so determined to give me. They told him that he was greatly mistaken to imagine that any of them would oppose the Bible, or suffer the man who taught it to them to be offended or assaulted in their presence, especially after inviting me to a discussion. I then put the truth before this poor bigoted man, and after a little he went away saying to me, 'It was well for you I did not meet you in a certain place;' but the cheering language of the, rest was truly gratifying, and enough to show, that though apparently Roman Catholics, they are Protestants in heart, and with a little more teaching under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, will (I trust) shake off the yoke altogether. I may say with safety, the whole district is in a similar state-the majority of the people inquiring after the knowledge of Christ, and showing greater anxiety day after day, and appearing less afraid of the priests. I give the following for example:

There have been about twenty Roman Catholic children attending our Mission School for the last two months, who were never there before; which greatly alarmed the priests, and caused them to exert themselves in getting a schoolmaster of their own. They also went from house to house, warning the parents of these children to take them at once from the Jumpers' school, or what would they not do to them? Yet, with all their threats, in the chapel and out of it, the people would not obey them, but kept their children every day at the Mission School. there were other children on the point of coming to the Mission School who were prevented by the priests getting up their own

It is true