tution—the Irish Church Missions Society?' It may be well to say a few words on that point. I cannot stand here to say anything of the working of the Society as seen by my own eyes, except what I saw with pleasure yesterday evening. I can tell you why the Church of England feels so warmly interested in this Society. We read our Bible for ourselves, I hope, with prayer, and I hope with faith; we read the Articles of our own Church, and we mark the strong decisive tone of those Articles : all throughout England we read the history of our own Church the history of the Church long gone by-not alone the history of the last 300 years, but the history of the Church previous to that which belongs to us. We remember what the Church of Rome did 300 years ago. We remember what battles our ancestors fought; we remember the fires that were lighted in Smithfield, and how the noble Ridley, the noble Latimer, the noble Cranmer, the noble Hooper, and all the glorious army of the martyrs laid down their lives for the cause of Christ. These things are not faded from our minds. There is pestilence abroad in the Church of England, and that pestilence has a tendency to induce men to go back half way to the Church of Rome. Romanism is amongst us, and on that account we feel more than ever bound to come forward and support the great and good Society which assembles here to-day.

"We love this Society for the object it has in view. What is that object? To give instruction, and to do good to the souls of Roman Catholics. It is truly the duty of an English clergyman to cross the water, though he may suffer a little, to hear the way the Roman Catholic Church and its false doctrines are spoken of. We do not hear such plain speaking in our own country; sometimes we hear a tone attempted most disagreeable to every Protestant heart, and offensive in the sight of God. There is a plague of false liberality; there is a tendency in many men's minds to regard most opinions as the samethat men will get to heaven if they act up to their own principles, if they are conscientious, if they are sincere in their professions. There are those who never can bear to hear a word spoken against the Church of Rome, who call her the sister church. May we ever be delivered from such sisters as these! But when we hear such language as this in England, it is truly refreshing to come here and hear such things called by their right names,- to hear Roman Catholic principles held up as false, and contrary to the word of God. There is something refreshing in all this. Now, my Lord, because this Society has always held plain-spoken language about the Church of Rome, has always called things by

their right names, and has held to the principle that the Church of Rome teaches soul-destroying error, I love this Society. I applaud the promoters of the Society, and I feel great pleasure in standing here to speak for it (hear, hear).

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But there is another reason why I love the Society — it is for the field in which it labours. I desire always to look on Ireland as a sister country, and I would look on all Irishmen and Irishwomen as my brothers and sisters in the Gospel. I do not like to hear the broad line of distinction which is sometimes made between Ireland and England (hear, hear). We all have our own national peculiarities and characteristics, but I always feel a regret when I hear Ireland and England spoken of as distinct countries. We are subject to the same Queen, not to the Pope; we are guided by the same laws; we are one in our Church, the United Church of England and Ireland (hear, hear). I feel it is our solemn duty in England to come and aid in every way we can the Church of Ireland, especially at a time like this, when she is suffering in many ways, and has been so shamefully treated by the governments of past times. We are sorely suffering from bad governments. I have no politics. I have no time for politics, and I leave them to the Houses of Lords and Commons. When they settle what seems to them best, of course I must act accordingly. But still I do feel there has been sad misgovernment of the Irish Church; there has been misgovernment about your National System of Education (hear, hear); there has been misgovernment about the College of Maynooth (applause); and there has been misgovernment about your godless colleges (applause). These great points of misgovernment are blots on our great nation (hear, hear); and we, Englishmen, are bound to come forward and use every effort to aid our brethren in God to resist the aggressions of the Church of Rome, and to prevent the spread of its noxious principles. 'We have other reasons for aiding our brethren. There is one great name,- who amongst us who has a library has not got his works?. that great statesman, that noble orator, Edmund Burke (hear). Do not all of us who are divines, or who know anything of theology, delight in the works of the gifted Archbishop Ussher? I think him a greater man than St. Patrick, if I may be allowed the contrast (hear, hear). Do we not all like the works of a man like Hopkins? and have we not got in England men who put forward their first steps in Ireland, to whom many an English heart and conscience owe their first awakenings and their ultimate love for God's blessed word? Ireland had done nothing else for England than send to her

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such a man as Hugh M'Neile (great applause) we would be under an everlasting obligation to you. For all these things we feel that the Church of Ireland has a right to seek for redress through its English brethren.

"We love your Society, too, because of the instrumentality by which you act. We do not seek for high and learned ground; we delight in the simplicity you use,-the word of God spread before every one who can read that word, and preached to every one who can understand it. We show them the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of God, and we give them the glorious proclamation of the Lamb of God, whose blood taketh away the sins of the world. We tell them to believe in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.' This teaching plainly preached will, we believe, prove to be God's chosen instrument for saving the souls of many. We feel the more bound to your Society for this instrumentality, because we are constantly told in England that we must use other weapons to overcome Popery.

"There are those who say, the more closely we go to Popery the more certain we will be to get them back; the more like them we are in our behaviour and in our ecclesiastical proceedings, the more likely they are to come back. I believe this is delusion, this going as far as you can to Popery. These professions we hear of in some parts of England; but what has been the result of them? They disgust Protestants; they alienate our best friends, and do not bring over to our ranks one of those whom we want to convert (hear). Non tali auxilio nec defensoribus istis tempus eget.' We do not want men from the Church of Rome to come to us without conviction. If we are to fight with them, we will fight them on high ground, and not meet them half way. We do not understand imitating their errors. We do not want a candle on the altar, though it be not lighted. We want the light of the everlasting Gospel, and with it the word of the Lord Jesus Christ. We do not want a huge cross lifted up in our places of worship. We believe in the cross of Christ, and the strength of our position has been fully proved by the 300 years' experience which we had in drawing poor Roman Catholics from darkness to light.

"We love your Society, because of the means it has always used, and the instruments with which it labours to do good. I need not dwell on that point. You know to what I allude: I allude to the aggressive agency which you have always employed. My Lord, the value of a weapon or an instrument greatly depends on the manner in which it is used. Many a machine is

at this moment useless, simply because those who possess it do not know how to use it. I remember hearing, on one occasion, of a gentleman who wanted to do good in Hindostan, and sent over to the Hindoos a particularly valuable new patent English plough. A patent English plough is an excellent thing where there is a good ploughman who knows how to manage it, but the poor Hindoos did not know what it meant; and when the gentleman sent over to inquire how they were getting on with the new patent English plough, he learned, to his amazement, that, thinking it was an idol, they had set it up on a high place, and were worshipping it as a god (laughter). Upon the handling and use of an instrument you see its real value greatly depends; and allow me to say, I think your Society for Irish Church Missions knows well how to use the true aggressive principle of not letting Roman Catholics alone, seeking them up, going after them, pressing upon them, in a spirit of love and tenderness, the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ, and His great salvation, in broad, clear contrast with the darkness and delusion of the Church of Rome (applause).

"What if this Church Missions movement causes some excitement? Excitement is an excellent thing. Some people are afraid of excitement, and will not have anything to do with it. They say, 'Do not let people become excited, and, whatever you do, keep quiet.' I remember perfectly well beginning, in company with the Rev. Dr. M'Neile, Rev. Mr. Millar, and others, the glorious movement for special services for the working classes. I remember how the thing was received in Englandhow some people said, when we were calling together the working classes, stirring them and exciting them, that the whole thing would fall to the ground and no good be done. But when a man is in danger of dying, should not every possible means be used to restore him? When he is sunk in spiritual sleep, should not every effort be used to awake him? We are not to turn our backs upon him because he is absorbed in worldly things. Every possible means ought to be used to arouse him out of that condition, and make him feel the value of his own soul, and to induce him to seek the kingdom of God. If we see a house on fire, shall we not do all we can to save the lives of those who are in it' Shall I stand still and say, 'I will not knock at the door, because if I do I shall awake the mistress. I shall not make a noise under the window, because the people do not know me; I have not been introduced. I must send in my card, and wait for an introduction! Far be it from me to do so. I see the flames arising; I see the smoke issuing from the windows; I'll

knock again, and again, and again, and do all I can to awaken them before death comes upon them, that they may be aroused to a sense of their danger, and saved from the devouring flames' (applause). How are men to be aroused if there be no controversy? Controversy! I know nothing at all of the word of God if controversy be not an instrument capable of preaching the truth as it is in Christ Jesus. Why, my Lord, the cause of Jesus Christ's Gospel was cradled at its first birth amidst controversy of every kind (hear). What were all the epistles that we find written by St. Paul to contend against errors of various kinds but so many-I say it with respect-controversial letters? (hear). Have we not controversy in the Epistle to the Galatians? Have we no controversy in the Epistle to the Hebrews?-no controversy in the Epistle to the Colossiansin the Epistle to the Romans? (hear, hear). Surely all those epistles are just so many controversial letters. Where the Gospel is preached, error must be denounced; where the truth is set forth, that which is contrary to truth must be fully exposed, and the truth cannot be properly set forth except the falsehood is denounced side by side with it (hear, hear).

“There never was a time in the history of the Church but there has been controversy, wherever the Gospel has been preached. They may talk of the primitive Church, but vhat was the history of the early Church but a continual course of controversy? We had controversy with the Arians, the Nestorians, the Sabellians, and other heretical sects, and, after a long interval in the dark ages, though the Church slept a scund sleep, when the light had not broken in upon her, how did the gleams of light again break in upon her but through controversy? What was Wicliffe, the morning star of the Reformation, but a man who carried on the work through controversy? What were Luther, and Calvin, and Melancthon but controversialsts? What were Ridley, and Latimer, and Hooper, and all the glorious company of martyrs, but men who exposed error as well as preached the truth of Christ? (applause). I hope and trust we shall never be ashamed to speak of controversy in the Church. After all, my Lord, there is no estimating the good that may be done by real, true, kindly aggression upon the souls of pen. Letting men alone when they are in danger, and holding our peace and doing nothing to rescue them,some may call that liberty, and others may call it charity, but from such charity and from such liberty may you and I ever be delivered (hear). If it had not been for controversy, where would England be a this moment? (hear, hear). Mr. John Bull speaks very often