statement of a circumstance that came under my notice only last week in Worcestershire may be useful to you, as tending to throw some light upon the difference that also exists between us with regard to practice.

The village of B in Worcestershire, has long been the residence of a body of Passionists.

Some six or seven years ago these monks thought to carry everything before them, and used every exertion to do so; not even shrinking from the pretended performance of miracles, in order to work upon the credulous minds of the agricultural population of the neighbourhood. They were publicly and boldly met, however, by the Vicar of Bwho most ably and thoroughly exposed the fallacies of their teaching and the trickeries of their conduct, and compelled them to desist from their endeavours to lead his people astray.

have been,

Since that time the monks of Bcomparatively speaking, quiet, and the numbers attending their school and chapel have gradually decreased. But while I was on a visit last week at the vicarage, my friend the vicar made me acquainted with the following circumstance. There is a monk newly arrived at Bcalled Father S. The Vicar of B- 9 having heard that Father Shad been making a visit to a Protestant family, went immediately to learn its object; and was informed by the poor woman herself, who is the wife of a labouring man, that Father S- had been to suggest to her the propriety of having her child baptized. "She has been already baptized," was the woman's reply. "Ah, but not properly, I fear," said Father S―, "leave her to me; I will manage it all; and nobody need know anything about it." Mrs. Sh- answered that she was a Protestant, and that her husband was a Protestant, and that he woul be very angry if such a thing were done. To which the monk replied that she need not tell her husband anything about it; and that the child herself was too young to understand much of it, or to be likely to mention it to her father.

The vicar, on hearing this, took with him one of his churchwardens as a witness, and went straight to the monastery and desired to see the Superior, before whom he laid the exact state of the case, and desired to know whether

Father S-- had acted with his sanction.

"I should not think of sanctioning anything that is wrong," was the Jesuitical reply. "Well," said the vicar, "do you call this wrong? ?" "I am sure that Father S

only acted for "Allow me to

the child's benefit," said the Superior. tell you, once for all," answered the vicar, "what my notion of such conduct is. My bible teaches me that children are to obey their parents, and have no secrets from them; and that wives, in like manner, are to have no secrets from their husbands. Your religion, it seems, teaches something different. And I am compelled to say that such a mode of acting is alike unworthy of a Christian and an Englishman; and I shall take care that it shall be known throughout the length and breadth of the village."

And I think, Sir, that you will agree with me that such conduct cannot be too severely reprobated; and that it should be made public, not only "throughout the length and breadth of the village" of B-, but "throughout the length and breadth" of the kingdom. You say in your preface to the eleventh volume of the CHURCH WARDER that "it is want of faith that makes weak-minded men apostatize to Rome." I agree with you. But let men learn for themselves a little more of the true teaching and principles of action of the Church of Rome, and they will shrink even from the very idea of joining her communion. I am, my dear Sir, yours faithfully,

December 1st, 1857.

THE IRISH SEPOYS.

H.

SIR,―The mind of the British nation has been deeply agitated by the Indian mutinies, and most persons feel that the main cause of the rebellion is the encouragement which has been given to idolatry, and the absence of that dissemination of Scriptural Christianity amongst the Sepoys which would have insured their loyalty to the British crown.

It seems to me that we may learn a lesson from these painful events with respect to a country nearer home, and a far more important portion of the British empire—I allude to Ireland.

The majority of the inhabitants of Ireland are Roman Catholics. Many of them, are, I believe, loyal subjects, but they are only so in proportion as their hold of Roman Catholic principles is weakened by the wholesome restraint of Protestant influence, which causes many to forget the allegiance they owe to the sovereignty of the Pope. Drs. Cullen and Wiseman have ill disguised their want of sympathy with a Protestant Government and a Protestant Queen in the present emergency; and what Irish Roman Catholics might become, were the priestly influence to be dominant, may be seen in the unfeeling exultation of the Nation newspaper and the sanguinary manifestoes of the "Irish Sepoys.' Read, for instance, the following extract

from the Nation :

“Sweeter than the voice of love, sweeter than the warm accents of friendship, dearer than the mellowest sunshine of the heart, is the news of English discomfiture in India to the breast of the Irish people. They are delighted, rejoiced, and gladdened beyond measure, when they hear of the torture and humiliation of their ancient foe. There is not a vessel of hers which is wrecked, there is not a general of hers who is slain, there is not a battalion in her service which is routed and overthrown, that the people of Ireland do not gloat over with the greatest satisfaction and delight. From the deepest recesses of their hearts they wish her defeat and misfortune in whatever enterprise she is engaged. Loyalists, slaves, sycophants, and West Britons, may seem astounded by all this, but from our knowledge of the people, we can assure them that what we have stated is a fact. The Irish millions wish to see England subdued.

"Wherever England draws the sword or lights the match, Ireland prays for her defeat; and at no time has she prayed more fervently in that way than she does now, when the patriot Sepoys in India are endeavouring to strangle the British power, and sweep it root and branch from the fair and fertile fields of Hindostan."

Now, Sir, it seems to me that England has been acting towards Ireland very much as she has acted in India. It is not necessary to inquire how far the British Government may have shrunk from avowing its Protestantism in the attempt to conciliate the Irish priests, or whether the

national system of education has had the effect of keeping the Bible from the people. It is sufficient to know that, as in India, the private philanthropy of British Christians is seeking to accomplish what perhaps no Government can undertake, and is thus conferring the greatest benefit on the country. So in Ireland, let the great truths of Protestant Christianity be spread far and wide by the zeal and energy of those who value the truth, and the "Irish Sepoys" will agitate in vain. There will be no fear of the repetition of the bloody massacres of 1641, and the Roman Catholic population of Ireland will be as peaceable and as loyal as we trust the inhabitants of India will become, when the British nation, learning the lesson of the present calamity, shall have manfully avowed its Christianity, and done its utmost to make known the truth of God amongst the people.

My purpose in writing is a practical one. The Society for Irish Church Missions has for its precise object this point which I am urging. Entirely unconnected with politics, its agents are actively engaged in spreading Scriptural principles amongst the Roman Catholics, and have already exercised a most important influence throughout the land. Yet the income of the society is precarious and diminishing, and its committee are painfully embarassed for lack of funds. It seems to me that such a work is of the very deepest importance at the present time, and that efforts such as these are the only effectual means-to take no higher grounds-of placing the government of Ireland on a firm and stable foundation, and of securing the whole population in their loyalty to our Protestant Queen.

ALEX. R. C. DALLAS. Wonston Rectory, Micheldver Station, Nov. 9.

THE PENTECOSTAL GIFT.

SIR, I have been long disappointed in endeavouring to find any satisfactory exposition of the significance of the Gift of the Holy Ghost, bestowed on the day of Pentecost. Most writers seem to look to it as the result and means of application to men of the Work of Christ, and as the inauguration of His Church: but either it does not seem to be regarded as having anything in common with what has

occurred to Christians since that time, or a very questionable limitation of it is made to one or more of the great "operations" (1 Cor. xii. 6) of the Father upon the believers in His Son. I am desirous of directing the minds of your readers to this subject; and with this view, will here suggest a few thoughts of my own upon it.

I. One element, indeed, there was in the Pentecostal gift which was peculiar to it. It was the first and the last effusion of the Spirit of Christ upon men. On that day, the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity descended from heaven, and took up for ever His abode in Christ's Body, the Church; making it, as heretofore His natural Body, His Temple (John, ii. 19-21, 1 Cor. iii. 16). Henceforth nothing is done to the Church from without, but everything from within, by His indwelling.* The benefits of the Work of Christ are applied to our spirits not by a gift sent down afresh from above, but by operation of God by His Spirit from within, pouring forth His grace through the Word and the Sacraments of the Body of Christ. And yet more than this, when "He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken our mortal bodies," it will be, not from without, but "by His Spirit that dwelleth in us" and because He dwelleth in us. (Rom. viii. 1.) The Resurrection and accompanying Glorification of the Body will be effected by the same indwelling Spirit, and are thus potentially included in the Pentecostal gift.

II. But beyond this potential inclusion of all that should hereafter accrue to the Church of Christ through His Work, there must have been some gift at the time to the Apostles and other brethren on whom the Holy Ghost fell.

Now the only operations of the Spirit which correspond with the instantaneous and unrepeatable act we are heré considering, are: (1) Regeneration. (2) That "gift of the Holy Ghost," afterwards bestowed by the laying on of the Apostles' hands (Acts viii. 14-18. xix. 1-6). (3) Bestowal of the gift of Ministry, in ordination. (2 Tim. i. 6)

I believe that upon all assembled, the first two, at least, of

I do not, of course, mean that the Church, apart from Christ, is the reservoir and fountain of God's grace. All still flows direct from Christ; but it is from Christ" in us" (2 Cor. xiii. 5 &c.) by His Spirit.