THE

BANNER OF THE TRUTH IN IRELAND.

SEPTEMBER 1, 1862.

000

The Dublin Mission: A Testimony.

AN influential Christian layman, who has recently had an opportunity of witnessing the work of the Society's Mission in Dublin, thus records his impressions in the following interesting letter addressed to the Missionary secretary : 5, Wellington Square, Hastings, Sussex,

July, 18, 1862.

MY DEAR MR. EADE,-Till within the last six weeks, I had been, like too many others, unable to appreciate fully the merits of the work of the Irish Church Missions. I had not had sufficient time at command hitherto, to make any personal inspection, and having been spoken to here and elsewhere in England, on the subject, I often felt regret (I might use a stronger term) at being unable to give more than a general expression of approval of the labours of your Society; lately, however, I was able to give a little attention to the subject, and the result proved most satisfactory to myself.

The scenes which I visited, and which interested me so much, were those connected with the work of the Irish Church Missions in Dublin and in Kingstown. I had visited Connemara some six or eight years since, and can still call to mind the interesting incidents of my tour, which made an irresistible impression at the time. These, I know, were but as the day-dawn outlines of a prospect which has since shone brighter and brighter, and has led many of the Lord's servants to rejoice that so large a blessing has been vouchsafed. But in Dublin and in Kingstown I visited, I think, all the controversial classes but I joined the worshippers on several occasions in the Mission Church in Townsend Street; I witnessed the operation which, like a dissolving view, transformed the church into its thirty-five or forty classes as a Sunday school. I attended that singularly interesting scene the quarterly tea meeting of the pupils, nearly

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one;

four hundred in number, young and old, who had given in the quarter at least twelve attendances at school; the great proportion of this gathering were either converts or Roman Catholics under instruction. I visited the ragged school dormitories, both for girls and boys, and the institution for the formation of habits and of character suited to qualify for domestic service. I am aware that the expenses of the tea meeting, and the maintenance of those other institutions, are not borne out of the funds of the Irish Church Missions, yet they have all arisen in connection with its centering efforts, and cannot be separated from the fruits of its labours.

At the controversial class held in the spacious rooms of " The Bird's Nest," at Kingstown, there were fewer of the very poor than at the other classes which I visited, and perhaps also fewer Roman Catholics; but I did not on this account attach less importance to the animated scene which I witnessed, because I have long felt satisfied that our Protestant poor have been left too much and too long in ignorance of the nature of the errors with which they are surrounded; and hence, by intermarriages, and other devices of the crafty system of the Church of Rome, they are too often led captive and ensnared in its deceitful and dangerous errors. I may say of this, as of all the classes, that I noticed with great satisfaction the tact, the temper, and the Christian deportment of all the labourers in the Mission work, they never failed to distinguish between the system which enslaves, and the votaries held in bondage: denouncing the one, but by kindly and affectionate sympathy, confronting the error with the truth as it is in Christ Jesus, seeking thus to strike off the fetters that the captive might go free.

The controversial class in the Coombe it would be most difficult to describe; there were gathered there manifestly the very lowest and poorest in "the Earl of Meath's Liberty," as it is called. I think the evening I attended there were at least four hundred present of all ages. In two or three cases it was evident the whole family had turned out-there was the father, followed by two or three children, and the mother drawing up the rear, with a child in arms just emerging from infancy, who carried in its hand the key of their comfortless habitation.

As I did not intend to remain the entire time, and not wishing to disturb the meeting, or seem to be wearied of it, I took up position just inside the door. Soon the proceedings commenced, and I found myself surrounded by those who contended on the Romanist side in the controversy. A scene of great animation followed. A man came in in his shirt sleeves, and holding the hand-bill of the evening in hand, sat down on the seat

in front of me-we were face to face. The advocate of Rome's errors was next me, on my left; he met the difficulties placed before him with some cleverness, but also with a full share of acrimony. When a point seemed met with clearness in the estimation of the man in the shirt sleeves, he would say, "You're a darling-stick in the spur," or some other such like expres-sion. Subsequently another man took up the gauntlet, and seemed a tolerably practised controversialist. He made some hit which he estimated as a triumph, and turning to his party, in the midst of which I happened to be seated, he said in a triumphantly sarcastic tone," Does that plase you." The response from my friend in the shirt sleeves followed, "Go it, my boyyou're a posy." On hearing this hearty response, I leaned over, and naming the speaker, I whispered, "He does not believe a word of what he is saying." "You're right enough, sir," was the reply, and forthwith taking a seat beside me, he evinced a ready desire for conversation on the subject. He admitted, too, that he was himself half a Protestant. "I do be reading," he said, "I do be reading the Bible every minute I can get.' He directed my attention, however, to some point expressed on the hand-bill, saying, "But I could never swallow that." I never before felt so satisfied of the value of these hand-bills, as calcutated to exercise the minds of Roman Catholics, and to arrest their serious attention. Extending his arms before me as he sat, without his coat, he said, "I'm not fit to speak to a gentleman in this way, but if your honour could name a time tomorrow, I'd meet you dasently dressed; you could bring your Bible and I could bring mine, and we could have an hour of it." This would have been a very tempting invitation, had I felt myself sufficiently versed in the controversy, but I referred him to Mr. McCarthy, or to you.

The meeting in the school-house of the parish of St. John was altogether of a different class. It was previously announced that a challenge had been given by some Roman Catholic; the room was crowded to overflowing, and the great preponderance were men; and judging from their appearance, they were of the mechanical class, and seemingly men of great intelligence. There was a most animated discussion, well sustained on both sides, and which lasted from half-past seven till nearly half-past ten o'clock. On a subsequent evening, the same young man appeared at Townsend Street class, and again much interest was evinced. I think much darkness was dispelled, and much light infused into the minds of many present. The subject of discussion was the doctrine of Transubstantiation.

But I cannot close my communication without expressing to

you the profit and pleasure I felt in my attendance at the Mission Church in Townsend Street. The congregation took their part fully, and thus much life, as is the design in our church, was infused into the whole service; and I think I may say I never witnessed in any church so much attention and order amongst children as in the case of those which filled the raised seats or gallery. I felt at the time that it reflected much credit on the discipline and wholesome instruction imparted in your schools.

The Sunday school was a scene of surpassing interest, and should be seen to form any adequate idea of it. The day I was there there were over five hundred pupils in attendance, about one hundred and fifty of whom, I think, were between the ages of forty-five and sixty-five or seventy; the great proportion either converts from Romanism or Roman Catholics under scriptural instruction. In one class you might notice a mother, with her eyes intently fixed on the teacher, drinking in the truths of the gospel, while her infant was engaged in a similar vocation, though after a less spiritual fashion. Again, in another, the same earnest attention was manifest in the parent, while the infant lay in her lap, extended at full length, with its hands and its heels, baby like, beating the air. Again, here and there, you might notice a two or three-year old toddling through the narrow passages which separated the classes, their dress and their attitudes making one long for a practical knowledge of the photographic art. This, I know, is but one, but a fair sample of the other schools in Dublin under your Mission.

As to the main object of the Irish Church Missions, the spiritual, scriptural instruction it imparts, it must, with God's blessing resting upon it, produce, by and by, the most important results, and which are already being largely preshadowed. The first Napoleon was wont to say, "Give me the women of France." He knew the influence of the female parent on her offspring. You have succeeded in gaining the co-operation of a goodly number of these, and, besides, a multitude of young people are under such instruction as shall enable them to "meet the enemy in the gate," and by spiritual weapons to resist his encroachments on a purer faith. I felt, I may say, charmed with that little paper, with one hundred texts in groups of ten, which, so to speak, are ingrained in the minds of all. The facility of repeating a text when its reference only is announced, or naming the reference when the text itself is repeated, is a feature in the teaching of your schools, the value of which cannot be over-estimated. I was present on several occasions when the children were questioned on those passages, when it was

evident that a fund of information had been stored in the mind of the most precious kind, which, when it pleases God by his Spirit to bring home to the heart, will be as a well-spring, everflowing and overflowing, imparting freshness and spiritual life on every side.

Exception, I know, is sometimes taken to controversy, which is so leading a feature in the operations of your Society, its aggressive character, its onslaught upon the deadly errors of the Church of Rome, seem to grate upon the nerves of the lovers of smooth-water sailing; but as in nature the elements seem angry betimes, and even the hurricane will show its devastating influence, the question naturally arises whether life or death is most promoted by such conflicts? For myself, I have long ceased to have any doubt upon this question. Serle, I think, remarks, that "the best method of defeating heresy is by establishing truth; if one man proposes to fill a bushel with tares, if one has it full of wheat first, his exertions may be defied." This thought evidently presupposes that the vessel is empty; in other words, that the mind is not preoccupied. But this is not the case with those with whom your Society has to do; the vessel is full of tares, and hence to expel them must be a process of a different character; it is like the amputation of a limb, or the pulling out of an eye-painful in the extreme, but necessary, absolutely necessary, to the preservation of life itself.

There is, perhaps, still more serious exception taken by some to the proselytizing character of the Irish Church Missions. The term is ever odious in the sight of some; but unless this position can be fairly and fully defended, I do not see how your Society could or ought to exist. The objectors on this ground do not, I think, reflect upon the question to which exception is taken. The simple object of your Society is to draw from error, soul-destroying error, and to establish those so drawn in the truth. Such is the avowed design of every Missionary Society; such is the design of "the whole Church universal.' The plausible term of charity is in the mind, if not on the tongue of the objector; but it is that charity which will allow one whose system has been infected with poison to sleep a slumber unto death. Your Society, on the other hand, adopts the emphatic language of the apostle, "Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light."

Controversy, doubtless, has its dangers.

move without danger? But

When shall we

"Prayer makes the darkened cloud withdraw ;
Prayer climbs the ladder Jacob saw;

Gives exercise to faith and love;

Draws every blessing from above.