the old man, "I would advise no such thing; but if you will teach me, with God's blessing I'll learn to read it myself."

From that day forward he came regularly to her house for instruction, and is now able to read a chapter himself, although when he began he knew not his letters, in his 75th year. A river flows between his house and the teacher's, over which he has to pass; and sometimes the floods swell the river so much, that he, being lame, cannot venture to ford it, and he stands, when he comes to the edge, hallooing to the teacher's husband to come down and carry him across the river, "until he gets his lesson," which he hardly ever neglects.

The Romish hierarchy are learning experience from us; and, finding how greatly success attends the measures of the Irish Society, have resolved, in some degree, to follow its example. They have determined to have a new translation of the Bible into Irish, to follow, as the Douay and Rhenish do, their version of the Vulgate; and an edition of 15,000 of their Catechisms, in Irish, has already issued from the press. It is but natural that the Roman Catholics should exert themselves to counteract the effects arising from our efforts, and, finding that terror and violence ultimately fail in producing this counteraction, they, with the wisdom of the serpent, are changing their mode of action, and beginning to fight us with our own arms. The question, therefore, now is, how best we shall keep them at bay? How shall we hold the conquests we have made? How make fresh ones?

We answer, In two ways. By increasing the number of native Scripture readers. Many, who are fully qualified for the office, are now unemployed. These devoted men open the way, touch the hearts, win the understandings; none others can so well do this, as those who, having themselves been converted from error, know the very points on which to address the minds of their fellow-men. But, great as are the consequences produced by reading the Bible with, and receiving assistance from, the readers, yet there must be something above them, something higher, something permanent and controlling; this superior power forms the second means, and is to be obtained by raising up and preparing an Irish-speaking clergy for those extensive districts where the Irish language is alone understood. There are now but few of such labourers in this Irish plot of the Lord's vineyard, while, were there twenty Irish-speaking clergymen more than we have, and two hundred readers, there is at this moment ample employment for them all. Numbers, well fitted to be teachers and readers, continue unemployed, while thousands-yes, we repeat it-thousands are languishing for instruction. There must, in short, be an increasing host of readers, a proportionate body of faithful inspectors, and a due number of zealous, well-chosen clergy, to oversee, to teach, to guide, and to receive these returning sheep into the fold of the British Church, where the Shepherd of that true Church will accept and make them his own.

We cannot doubt that this guidance is of the utmost necessity, when we reflect on the state of extravagance of dissent, and error in opinion and in practice, which followed the revival of religion in Wales. We are, therefore, bound " to provide for our people, so suddenly awakened

by the Bible, a continuance of scriptural instruction, through a ministry that will hold up that book steadily and constantly as a lantern to their paths, that they may not be dazzled or misled by the many errors that will be sure to glare around them as soon as they dare to pass from darkness to light."

This ministry must be a regularly ordained ministry of the Established Church, fully educated and taught, and possessing, in addition to the usual requisite accomplishments, a perfect command of the Irish tongue. None can possess this absolutely necessary attainment in the same degree as those who speak it as their mother tongue. Experience has proved that little can be done by those who acquire the language: besides its peculiar difficulties in grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation, a college student can hardly have leisure for the undertaking." It must also be recollected, that a person acquiring the language in that way cannot acquire the turn of thought, the habit of expression, which a naturally born Irish speaker possesses without the trouble of learning, yet do such turns and habits go at once to an Irish heart.

"The best plan, therefore, is the simple one of endeavouring to complete the education of young persons of ability to whom the Irish is the mother tongue, or who have been in the constant daily habit of speaking it ;* who, from the beginning, can look to the Irish scholarships as a means of support, and save the Irish professor the most laborious part of their education.

"With the view, therefore, of providing such an Irish clergy for the converts, a plan has been suggested of placing Irish-speaking youths in the families of trustworthy clergymen who reside in the near neighbourhood of schools, such as Enniskillen, Dungannon, or Drogheda, &c., &c., where these boys may daily attend and be well fitted for college; to bring them through which they must be supplied with means. In furtherance of this part of the project it is proposed to establish one or more exhibitions in Trinity College, Dublin, to be held by young men preparing for the ministry, fully acquainted with the Irish language, and manifesting their reception of the doctrines of the Church of England and Ireland. It must be a standing rule, that no person shall be eligible to hold one of these exhibitions who does not give evidence that he receives and approves the doctrine of the Liturgy and Articles of the Church of England."

This plan appears to us to be by far the easiest to accomplish, as well as very much the most economical, of any which has hitherto been thought of. It insures, as far as human foresight can presume to say, attention to the morals, conduct, and manners of the young men, by placing them under the care of clergymen of ascertained and highly respectable character. It secures their being properly fitted for college, by putting them to good and adequate schools; while it saves the great outlay which must be caused by either erecting or procuring a building such as might accommodate a school; together with the expense of masters, ushers, and professors-a yearly expense which must be of large amount, in order to secure such as are worth having. All

* Many of the western resident landlords and gentry, and their sons, speak Irish constantly to the people around them.

this great expenditure might also be found not to answer the intended purpose, to have been made in vain for that, and so have wasted the moneys entrusted to the Society for the benefit of the country.

We have now briefly and succinctly detailed the origin and plan of the Irish Society in all its branches: its noble object; its hitherto success, through the careful working of its simple, well-contrived machinery; and its requirements-yes, its requirements: for, to carry on its extended work what large means are wanted; even though all details are managed with the strictest attention to economy, as they now are, yet the outlay must be great, and must increase in proportion to the success of the Society.

We have also displayed the engaging character of the people for whose benefit this great work has been undertaken: we will only add, in the words of the great moralist, "Let it be remembered that the efficacy of ignorance has long been tried, and has not produced the consequences expected. Let knowledge, therefore, take its turn, and let the patrons of privation stand a while aside and admit the operation of positive principles." Yes; let us bring in true knowledge-that knowledge which alone bridles the passions and "controls the unruly will of man," the knowledge of the "Truth as it is in Christ Jesus." Let us exert ourselves to supply the funds necessary for this purpose-funds, without which this great work must stop in its course, and leave Ireland to darkness and to crime; and in so doing, not only perform our duty in the sight of Almighty God, but call down a blessing on our country.

APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION.

WHEN Luther began to preach the doctrines of the glorious Reformation, the great doctrine on which he rested his whole teaching was that of Justification by Faith, and Faith alone. When the writers of the "Tracts for the Times," which have been productive of so many consequences, as among their admirers to be spoken of as having effected a CounterReformation, undertook to give a new character to the practical teaching of the Church of England, the foundation of their system, as they themselves have told us, was this: That the due administration of the Sacraments is necessary to the essence of a Church, and that Apostolical Succession is no less so to the due administration of the Sacraments. What in Luther's system Justification by Faith was, that in theirs was Apostolical Succession. Now, Luther, for his great and leading doctrine, had abundant and repeated proofs of Holy Scriptures, declaring, as it seemed, in express words, what he taught. That we are justified by faith freely, not for any works or merits of our own, but solely through the

atonement made for us by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ-this Holy Scripture asserts not doubtfully, or once only, but most plainly and repeatedly, in words which do not require the doctrine to be deduced or brought out, but which of themselves broadly assert it. It might, indeed, be said, as of course it was by his opponents of that age, and still is, not only by writers of the Church of Rome, but now by writers in our own Church also, that he misinterpreted Scripture, and explained it contrary to the received sense. This was said, but it could not be said that apparently, at least, his doctrine was not to be found written as elsewhere, so especially in every part of the Epistles of St. Paul. But now compare the doctrine which formed the foundation of his system, with the doctrine which was the basis of that of the writers of the "Tracts for the Times;" the doctrine not of Apostolical Succession simply (for we must carefully observe that that is not the point), but the doctrine of Apostolical Succession as absolutely necessary for the essence and being of a Church. It is of this last doctrine that Dr. Arnold, in one of the ablest refutations of this system which has ever been written, has not scrupled to say, that it is without any proof in Holy Scripture: and, asserted as it is by these writers, without any exception whatever, we cannot see that Dr. Arnold's statement is wrong. Let us not be mistaken: we repeat it, we are not writing of Apostolical Succession simply, and taken by itself. The doctrine that the ordaining power has descended from the Apostles through the line of Bishops-this has, indeed, always been maintained more or less generally by our Church: but this is only a very small part of the doctrine of these writers, who have maintained that all grace has descended by the same line; that our sanctification, and regeneration, and justification, all the best and holiest gifts of God's blessed Spirit-nay, our very salvation in that Church, out of which no one can be saved, are all dependant on this Succession; so that this doctrine must be the great and fundamental doctrine of Christianity, the keystone of the whole building, the stantis aut cadentis ecclesiæ articulus. And that this is their real meaning, they have, we think, plainly avowed, when they have asserted that there are no true Churches in the world, but those of the Romish and Greek communion, and the Church of England, with those derived from her, because these Churches alone have preserved their Apostolical descent unbroken.

And as this doctrine must seem a harsh and severe one, excluding from Christ's Church so many souls, the members of those communities which have confessedly not retained this Succession, so to soften its rigour, these writers have told us that they leave such Christians to the uncovenanted mercies of God. Yet this, it is plain, makes no difference; for these uncovenanted mercies they speak of, wherever else to be found, are not, it is clear from their very title, to be found in the Word of God: nay, they are common to the Turks, and Jews, and Heathen, whom the judgement of charity must equally leave to the mercy of God. If Apostolical Succession be so absolutely necessary as it is represented to be according to this system, it is plain, that those communities which

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have lost it are on the same footing with those who do not even profess the faith of Christ; in like manner as the Roman Catholic will tell you is the case with those who have renounced their allegiance to the chair of St. Peter; and even as we believe of those who deny the atonement of our Lord. Yet, if these things are so, surely it is not too much to expect that some plain declaration of Scripture should support this doctrine : surely the great foundation of all Christianity, the sole security that we have, according to this system, that we are in any sense in union with Christ, in any sense partakers of the benefits of his death and passion, must be so clearly laid down in Holy Writ, as to be appealed to with the same confidence that we appeal to the proofs of the doctrine of the atonement. If any of Luther's opponents had said to him, Your teaching cannot be true; for the very fundamental doctrine of the whole of it, Justification by Faith, is not supported by any plain and certain declarations of Holy Writ: cannot we imagine with what readiness and confidence, nay, with what righteous indignation, that great Reformer would have cited text upon text, poured out as it were in abundance the Scriptural proofs of his great doctrine? But here an honest and fair writer, and one well versed in God's Word, Dr. Arnold, has made this very charge, has asserted that he can see no support for the very foundation of the whole system of these writers in Scripture and they have not, that we know of, any texts that they can quote in answer, any clear passage of Scripture resting our whole salvation, all our union with Christ and his Spirit, on Apostolical Succession. Passages of Scripture there are, we know, alleged in favour of Apostolical Succession; but with these at present, we repeat, we have nothing to do; the question does not depend on them: for a doctrine may be true, nay, important, and yet not absolutely necessary, yet not the foundation of our whole Christianity. To prevent our being mistaken, let us quote a passage from the late charge of the Bishop of Ohio, with which we would be understood as entirely concurring: "But when they speak of a succession of saving grace, as well as of ordaining power-of saving grace inherent in the line, and sent down from hand to hand, precisely as the right of ordaining is inherent and descending; when all that is precious in Christ to sinners is made to come to us exclusively through that descent, so that not only does the validity of the Sacraments depend thereon, but the very being of a Church, and the whole regeneJation and justification which the Gospel offers. .. When such awful pretensions are joined to the simple basis acknowledged of old, the doctrine is no longer the same, its whole form and visage are changed." (No. 1, p. 66.) Changed, indeed, from the old simple doctrine of the Church of England, which would have, indeed, those three orders, that have been from the apostles' time, continued and reverently used and esteemed in her communion; but nowhere, that we know of, limits all saving grace to their succession, nor passes any judgement on those Churches which have lost them.

Neither has this foundation of the whole teaching of these writers