from Dublin; and six hundred and thirty-five from various Missions of the Irish Church Missions in parts of Ireland specified on the different rolls.' It may be well to give here a more particular list of the different stations from which the signatures came, which made up the number of 1737 converts. They are as follows: Clifden District Ballyconree Orphans 19 Oughterard & Glan 29 17 93 20 55 61 30 20 84 14 26 54 36 54 13 18 31 54 ..169 211 380 38 44 82 533 564 1097 317 323 640 Total, 850 887 1737 The letter from Mr. Dallas containing this certificate was received by the prisoners in due course, and it has produced a feeling of earnest joy which could only have been experienced by Christians under the peculiar circumstances of trial in which these were placed. In replying to Mr. Dallas, Matamoros says: "I have received various letters of sympathy, with large numbers of signatures from different congregations in England. I preserve these as precious documents, which will soon produce the comforting effect that they ought in Spain. "The Address of the converts of Ireland is, doubtless, of most important value for this country, as being the expression of converted brethren, and, as such, beloved pastor, I shall have the most lively satisfaction in possessing it. There will be no difficulty in sending it to me; neither will it aggravate my position, even if it should fall into the hands of the enemies; for such documents as are calculated only to put those enemies to shame, could not possibly make my position worse than it is. I am anxious to have in my possession all these evidences of Christian piety and Divine love, and to make use of them in the hope that others, who at present are blind, may see the light, stimulated, perhaps, by these most beautiful specimens of fraternal love. Nevertheless, if you think that even in small portions it would not be prudent to send me these most important documents, I submit very willingly to your judgment.' But the most lively expression of the feeling which this Address from fellow-converts has excited, will be found in the reply which Matamoros has written to the Address, in which there appears not only an outpouring of christian gratitude, but a soundness in doctrine, and a faithfulness in counsel, which should give occasion to every christian heart to rejoice in the work of grace thus manifested in the individuals, and to hope largely and pray earnestly for the wide extension of a Reformation in Spain, which shall bring forth many souls into that glorious liberty which is so fully enjoyed by these prisoners of the Lord. His reply to the Address is as follows: "To my much loved brethren in Ireland, who, having been Roman Catholics, are now converted to the Christian religion, "Most dear brethren in our Divine and adored Redeemer Jesus Christ, our firm and unchangeable trust, our only intercessor with the Heavenly Father, and our most lively hope for eternal life. "The brother and respected pastor, much beloved through the saving faith in the Lord Jesus, the Rev. Alexander Dallas, has been kind enough to transmit to me a certificate, that he has received various Addresses expressing the christian sympathies which you feel for the Spanish Christians who are suffering legal persecution on account of their faith. With this certificate I have had the consolation of receiving a literal translation of these edifying and christian Addresses, with a declaration that these proofs of evangelical affection bear no fewer than 1737 signatures. "How lively and ardent is the enthusiastic delight which I feel at this moment, oh most beloved! Your pious expressions of fraternal and endearing love in Jesus, your eloquent tokens of holy union in His divine name by the regenerating Spirit, are an abounding source of profound consolation for my soul. "Before taking my humble pen, most dear brethren, to express to you the sincere sentiments which animate me, and also all the Spanish Christians, whether prisoners or fugitives I have cast myself upon my knees to raise my spirit to the Eternal One. To Him I have rendered, with all the outpouring of my soul, earnest thanksgiving for the blessed and saving conversion with which He has distinguished you, and for the plain proof of the protection and consolation which He affords to me in my present situation, through you His beloved children. "Many are the simple letters, my dearly beloved, that I have had the comfort of addressing to different congregations of dear brethren in England, and to various brethren in other countries; but never had I to regret so much the weakness of my pen-never to regret so much its incapacity to be a faithful interpreter of my fervent christian gratitude, and my unalterable love. "Oh! to you who, like myself, have suffered shipwreck in the stormy winds of the sea of this life, and who had, as the only refuge, the weak and sinking ship which the Church of Rome offers to her faithful children as the only means of salvation;-to you who have had to abandon this, exposing your souls to great dangers until you found safety in the port of salvation for ever, where that useless vessel never could bring you ;-to you who, now saved, now happy, now christian, sing psalms of praise to our Lord, and find yourselves free from the fetters of eternal death;-to you, lastly, who, like myself have abandoned for ever the worldly Church of Rome, humbly to follow Jesus;-to you I raise my weak voice from my miserable prison, to salute you with a holy kiss in manifestation of my joy. Ah! dear brethren, what moments of terrible struggle, of dangerous vacillations, of profound terror and distressing anxiety; what recollections-sad indeed then, and delightful now, now that they are seen in the day of triumph-take possession of my mind in writing to you. I, like you, was once blind; I was a slave to my enslaved conscience, till a ray of divine light illuminated my mind on a day to be eternally remembered by me; that ray of light gave me a glimpse of a hope which I had begun to lose in the disastrous struggle between a liberated reason and an enslaved conscience. I desired to follow the ray which that light, the beacon of salvation, was showing me, and to begin a decided course; but a fatal warfare tormented me. I was a slave to the Church of Rome, and I conceived that all my steps which separated me from her, all my desires, all my longings were leading to eternal perdition. Everywhere I heard the sacrilegious word ""excommunication" from the mouth of the pontifical king, and this device of the Prince of Darkness, this word so terrifying to an enslaved conscience, was thrust upon me as an insuperable barrier that obstructed every path to salvation, either by meditation or by study; and in these consisted the source of those dangerous vacillations, and of those continual fears, to which I have referred. Cer "But the truth triumphed in me. I implored the powerful protection of the Holy Spirit; I asked, and it was granted me! From the road of eternal perdition I passed into the way of eternal life, which is in Christ Jesus. O christian, can you not recall with triumph and joy such distressing times of intense trial, for surely you must have experienced them. tainly, certainly, you have; but now, by the beneficent light of the Holy Spirit, you know and follow the way of eternal life in Jesus Christ. Now that you are able to comprehend the misery of your past, and the happiness of your present-now, in short, that you can understand how holy and essential are the motives which have induced the Spanish Christians to abandon for ever the Church of Rome-now you extend to the prisoners a hand of loving support, accompanying it with these delightful and christian words We, like you, have been Roman Catholics, and, like you, are now converted to the Lord' oh! that His holy benediction may be upon you for ever, my beloved ones! "You are probably aware of the result of the first sentence pronounced against the dear brethren. The severity, the wrath, the spirit which rules the blind servants of error, is evidently seen in this judgment of men; but, dearly beloved, believe me (and I say it with my whole heart), that I feel happier and more cheerful than ever; my present life is indeed most painful to this weak and miserable body, but it is refreshing to my soul; I feel my physical strength rapidly decay, but I experience better and more vigorous life in my spirit. 66 If my unchangeable faith in our most beloved and adorable Redeemer Jesus Christ, and my strong desire to propagate this faith should bring me to the galleys, as I step over the threshold of that mansion of crime, I shall have left behind me all my rights as a citizen of Spain; in that abode of the unfortunate a chain will be my companion, and the rod of a criminal will be the instrument of command and direction. My body will be that of a slave; but will my spirit be such? No, a thousand times no! I shall be free, entirely free. I shall enjoy, as I do now, that liberty of which the world with all its delusive power cannot despoil a Christian. Yes, my beloved ones, liberty in slavery, joy in persecution, the most delightful hope in the very moment of death, this is the treasure of inex haustible and heavenly consolation with which the divine Gospel of Jesus Christ supplies us. "My whole confidence is placed in our beloved Heavenly Father, with humble obedience to His divine commands, which are always life-giving in the Word of Life; and with a confident hope in the intercession of our Divine Redeemer, with a faith which feeds me-a faith from which I expect life-my passage from the world to the grave, is but a step from a bed of thorns to a bed of flowers. Yes, beloved ones, if I die in Jesus, and for Jesus, the grave will be the happy termination of my course as a Christian. "Do not suppose, beloved brethren, that my poor words, which are the faithful expressions of my christian sentiments, result from any notion of my own righteousness, or of my own merit. Oh, no! they are the expressions of a faith rooted and settled. Without this faith which gives me life-without the hope of pardon from our Divine Father, through the intercession of His most beloved Son Jesus Christ, I should be a coward and without strength, for I should be in the darkness and in sadness, and without doubt I should have succumbed; for my hopes would then never have gone beyond worldly expectations, which soon are disappointed; I should have had none of that eternal hope which now sustains me; now I joy in my griefs, I live in the death of my body, and for this joy,. and this life, I never shall be able to be sufficiently grateful to our Lord Jesus Christ. "But I have detained you too long. What I have intended to say in this poor letter would be interminable if I were to extend it as much as I should desire, from the comfort I find in directing my weak voice to you. But, beloved brethren, from my wretched prison I only desire to entreat you not to be con-tented with having only learned the truth; no, most dear brethren, each of you in his position, each in his class, I en-treat you to be unwearied in affording assistance to your excellent pastors. What you have already learned in the light, carry it to the places where there is darkness ;-search out the most hidden spots, that you may there make the darkness disappear; the sound of your Christianity extends from the sumptuous halls of the powerful to the lowest and most neglected cabin. Do not fear the remarks of the world; takeno account of threatenings; never weary in so saving and blessed a course; and in all your tribulations remember that your sufferings form unfading crowns. Yes, my beloved brethren, |