as in a brief" letter to Lord Palmerston," which forms a preliminary chapter to Mr. Hobart Seymour's new work. The question which Mr. Seymour proposes for investigation is simply this:-" Whether the motives and restraints of the Church of Rome have succeeded in suppressing crime in those countries where they have undisputed sway, in the same degree in which Protestant Christianity has succeeded in England ?" The question Mr. Seymour examines solely by the light of official and undeniable authorities. The Government statistics of every country in Europe have been collected; and the rusults which he publishes are thus placed beyond controversy. He takes, first, the crime of murder. The facts relating to this crime are matter of record in all civilised countries. From these records, Mr. Seymour draws the following fearful results. Out of every million of inhabitants, the average number of persons perishing by murder, every year, appears be as follows: to Here, in England, we have but the benefit of seeing a Priest now and then, slinking along the street in some strange dress, or of seeking him out, in yellow, or lilac and gold, among the gauderies of "St. George's" or "Moorfields." But with the scarceness of priests, we have scarceness of murders. With 18 millions of people in England, we have 72 murders per annum; or 4 to each million. The whole population of Italy is of nearly the same amount,-about 18 or 19 millions. But in that happy land there are not fewer than 120,000 priests, and monks, and nuns. These are all persons devoted to a religious life," whose days are, of course, spent in instructing the ignorant, comforting the sick, and feeding the indigent. Blessed country But how is it, that while in heretic England" we have but 7 murders per annum, in Catholic Itally" the murders are 1963 in each year! Can any one explain this strange circumstance ? But we pass on to another class of crimes-that of sexual immoralities. Here, too, we can consult authentic records. In London, in 1851, the total number of births for the year was→ 66 "That Rome itself, the city of the Holy See, makes perhaps it could hardly have been expected no return. Mr. Seymour remarks, that a city possessing a Pope, many cardinals, 29 bishops, 1280 priests, 2092 monks, 1698 nuns, and 737 ecclesiastical pupils, should know anything of illegitimate births. There is no such return to be found. One little incident, however, does escape. It appears by Dr. Bowring's report, that the whole Aumber of births in Rome in 1836 was 4373." And to this we must add, that in Mittermair's Italian statistics it appears that the number of foundling children received into the hospitals of Rome in ten years was 31,689. This gives a yearly average of 3160. So that, in this " city of the Church," the whole number of children born in the year is 4373; out of which number 3160 are sent to the Foundling Hospitals! When Protestants deal with Popery in the House of Commons, let them not annoy the house with doctrinal discussions. Let them rather take it by the throat as an immoral, anti-social, and detestable thing. It is a teacher of crime, and a panderer to immorality. Its priests live to crime. Their wealth is gained by selling indulgences to the living, and masses for the relief of the dead. The more crime the more money. By crime they get their riches; and for the sake of those riches they have covered Europe with crime.— Morning Herald. [And yet in the face of the above statistics, the altars of the Popish Chapels in Ireland, commonly ring with their base insinuations against the immoral and even murderous England. Were the priests' testimony to be taken, England were the most depraved and the most unprincipled of kingdoms! And thus are the minds of the unenlightened, priest. ridden peasantry wrought upon.-EDITOR.] Obituary. A BRIEF MEMOIR OF THE LATE REV. ROBERT PHELIPS, M.A., VICAR OF YEOVIL CUM PRESTON, AND RECTOR OF LUFTON, WHO DIED FEBRUARY 24, 1855. Ir is with feelings of sacred pleasure we concur with the wishes of correspondents, who have written to us upon the subject of the subjoined Memoir. Seldom are the columns of a newspaper adorned with that which is so humbling to the naturally-proud heart of man, but at the same time so God-glorifying. In the removal of this honoured servant of God, we are reminded of the important fact, that Jehovah has his witnesses scattered here and there in our still highly-favoured land. Unlike those who are called to stand in the forefront of the battle, they live and move in a certain circumscribed sphere, bearing an honourable testimony for God and truth; and, inasmuch as the precious seed of the word cannot be lost, the Spirit, as a Sovereign, through the instrumentality of his servants, scatters it perhaps in the obscurest districts, and duly watering and nourishing it, causeth it to spring up and bear fruit some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred-fold.' -ED. ' his soul was safe anchored within the vale; his mind was filled with a peace which passeth all understanding. The great truths he had preached for so many years, filled his mind in his dying hours with an indescribable glory. His life was a beautiful commentary on 2 Cor. iv. 10, "Always bearing about in the body the dying of our Lord Jesus, that in our mortal flesh." Another observation the life also of Jesus might be made manifest and I have done, and it is worthy the notice of professing Christians, and that is, his abstractedness from the world, and the vanities of time and sense. He has often said, when speaking of the marks of a true believer, "Tell me what company you prefer, and I will tell you to whom you belong." At other times, when contrasting things of this present scene with the pleasures and enjoyments of the eternal world, he would say, "My friends, God has done nothing for you, if He has not taken the love of the world out of your hearts; For where the treasure is, there will the heart be also: ye cannot serve God and Mammon."" His preaching for the last three or four years has been, as it were, on the borders of heaven. Ofttimes his countenance beamed with immortality when speaking of those pleasures which are at God's right hand for evermore! Speaking of death, he would say, "Oh, it is the brightest day in the believer's existence; it is only going to sleep in the arms of Jesus." Just so, our beloved Pastor found that "Jesus could make a dying bed To the Editor of the Gospel Magazine. MY DEAR SIR,-Several friends have requested me to send you a short Memoir of our dear departed Pastor (the Vicar of Yeovil). The enclosed appeared in the Yeovil Times Paper, and as it embodies the principal facts connected with his ministry, I thought yon would be much gratified with an opportunity Feel soft as downy pillows are." of giving it a place in your Magazine. One or two things I would subjoin by giving you Thus he taught us how to live and how to his last text in the Parish Church of Yeovil. die. At his own request he was buried in a The first Sunday in Advent (and these sea- corner of the little church-yard at Lufton, in sons were looked for with peculiar interest by a plain grave, without the least ostentation, his attached hearers) he preached from these followed by a few of his attached bearers. words, "To them that look for Him shall He The funeral service was conducted by his es appear a second time without sin unto salva-teemed Curate, the Rev. T. Hare. The scene tion." In closing up, he said, "Brethren, I know I may appeal to every regenerated heart and say, 'Even so, come Lord Jesus; come quickly." The following Sunday he preached his last sermon at Preston Church, from these words, "Peace in believing;" and in the afternoon closed his ministry at Lufton Church from these words, "What shall we say these things, If God be for us, who can be against us ?" From this time he was laid entirely aside; and, although confined to his dying bed for some weeks, there was nothing permitted for a moment to shake his hope; to was truly affecting, "sorrowing that they should see his face no more.' After the body had been consigued to its final resting-place, his favourite hymn was sung over his grave "There is a fountain fill'd with blood." The last verse was so sweetly applicable to the moment, that it could scarcely be said to be sung "When this poor lisping stammering tongue Lies silent in the grave; And Then in a nobler, sweeter song, no doubt whilst we were singing, he was casting his crown at the feet of that | into the joints of the harness;"-" the wind Jesus, who for forty years he had so faithfully preached. I remain, dear Sir, Sincerely yours, Yeovil, March 7, 1855. J. GAMIS. The late Rev. ROBERT PHELIPS was the fourth son of the Rev. Wm. Phelips, Rector of Cucklington, who was the second son of Edward Phelips, Esq., of Montacute, and succeeded, on the death of his father, to the ancient noble mansion and its fertile lands, Edward Phelips, Esq., Member for the County of Somerset, the eldest son having died during his father's life. had blown where it listed," directed by the Spirit of God; the doctrines of free and sovereign grace, as they fell from the preacher's lips, dropt upon his heart like fructifying showers, and distilled thereon as the gentle dow:-from thenceforth" Old things passed away, all things became new.' Vicar and Missionary retired together after the Service, the one to listen, the other to demonstrate; one as a "new-horn babe desiring the sincere milk of the word," the other from the spiritual experiences of his own soul, testifying to the truth as it is in Jesus, and both taking sweet counsel together. After the departure About twelve years after his appointment of Mr. Mayor, the subject of this memoir, to Yeovil, he was presented, on the death of not only became a subscriber to the Society, Mr. Taylor, to the Rectory of Lufton, in but he more clearly saw, and felt the neceswhich parish he long resided, and there he sity and importance of the doctrines prohas now died. He was subsequently offered pounded to his belief and conscience; they the valuable rectory of Cucklington, but de- bound themselves around his affections and clined it on principle, preferring to retain his heart, and to his dying hour were incorthe larger sphere of duty and usefulness, un-porated with his whole sentient being. biassed by any pecuniary consideration. At From this eventful epoch in Mr. Phelip's the commencement of Mr. Phelips's minis- life it was that taking the articles of the terial labours, he was not remarkable for any Church of England as his standard of faith clear and distinct enunciations of Gospel and practice, he preached fully the leading truth; he appeared deeply impressed with doctrine of our blessed Reformation, namely, the great importance of his vocation, and "Repentance toward God and Faith in our was zealous in the discharge of his pastoral Lord Jesus Christ." Nor did the preacher duties, but it could not be said of him that stop here; Mr. Phelips taught, and ever he had that earnest, personal conviction of without any mental reservation, that man the deep depravity of the human heart, and is gone as far as possible from original rightthe necessity of being born again of the Spi- eousness, and inclined only to evil; that he rit of God, which afterwards became the has a nature so depraved and a purpose so moving spring of his whole moral being, and weak, that he can neither turn or prepare the Alpha and Omega of all his public and himself by his own natural strength to faith private ministrations. Some few years after or calling upon God. He also brought frehis becoming the Vicar of Yeovil, he estabquently before his people, himself taught by lished a Sunday evening service, and a Thursday evening lecture, at the parish church; both these services were for many years performed by himself. Some time in the summer of the year 1817, a friend had induced Mr. Phelips to read "Bishop Leighton's Exposition on St. Peter," observing at the same time" You can skip the Calvinistic parts, if you cannot receive them."-That the late Vicar did not act upon the suggestion of his friend is obvious, from what soon followed; for in the mysterious orderings of Divine -Providence, the Rev. Robert Mayor (Missionary to Ceylon, and brother-in-law of the Rev. Edward Bickersteth), visited Yeovil, and on the 19th of October, in the same year (1817) was permitted by Mr. Phelips to occupy his pulpit, and preach a Missionary Sermon. Our late pastor listened with intense and awakened interest, as the preacher opened up the truths of the everlasting Gospel in their full and ample demonstration. Stronger feelings and desires arose in his mind; he felt that what the Gospel of the grace of God was effecting upon heathen hearts, must also be performed upon his own, or he could not be saved: the arrow," thus "shot at a venture, pierced the Spirit, the deep things of God, (but always in language becoming so high and mysterious a subject,) the foreknowledge and sovereign election of God, "decreed before the foundation of the world, whereby those who are called according to his everlasting purpose obey the call, are freely justified and adopted, are made like the image of his only begotten Son, walk religiously in good works, and at last, by God's mercy, attain everlasting life.' From this memorable period in Mr. Phelip's ministerial life, the Gospel trumpet never gave an uncertain sound; no doubt clouded his own clear vision, or troubled his soul. Upon these all important and vital objects he pillowed all his hopes for time and for eternity; his own firm sense of pardon and acceptance through the covenant promise and by the blood-shedding of his beloved Saviour, formed his theme, his inspiration, and his song. This it was which enabled him, Sabbath after Sabbath, to give to those who valued his preaching, and constantly attended his ministrations, such implicit confidence in the truthfulness and efficacy of his doctrines, and their strict conformity to the revealed will and word of God. In the year will give you faith, to apprehend the holdings of his hand." And to both he states as the fruits of his own long experience—that, “It is impossible to look to Jesus by the real faith of God's redeemed and regenerated children, without receiving from the sacred bosom of the Redeemer a stream of blessings, suited to every want and every exigency of every child of God." 1819, Dr. Hawker visited Yeovil, and preached | in all the riches of his grace, in all the breaththree times, twice on the Sunday, and once ings of his peace, and in every event he on the Thursday evening; and in 1820, on ais way to London, the Doctor again preached. On the occasion of the Doctor's first visit to Yeovil, Mr. Phelips prevailed upon his friend and neighbour, the late Rev. John Dampier, Incumbent of Brewham, to attend, and on this occasion, it was that the latter gentleman became convinced and converted, and like the Egyptian eunuch, "went on his way rejoicing." No man perhaps had a fresher view of his Saviour's Life and Passion than Mr. Phelips, and no man had a greater faculty of imparting those views to others. No one beholding Mr. Phelips as he latterly appeared almost to totter, and fall, in ascending his pulpit stairs, weak and faltering, (not from length of years, but from bodily infirmities) could refrain from feelings of sympathy and personal respect, but when once in his pulpit, and "about his Master's business,' the Ambassador of the King of kings rose to the full dignity of his sacred office, cast aside every visible appearance of suffering and of weakness, and out of the rich stores of a highly cultivated mind and a deeply sanctified intellect, he poured forth such strains of Gospel truth, such humbling views of self, and such exalted views of his Saviour, as could not fail to reach, not only the understanding, but the heart. The day of judg. ment alone will disclose the blessed fruits of those Holy Sabbath expositions. Many persons in this town and its neighbourhood who were his constant hearers will be ready to exclaim with the agitated and bereaved prophet-"My father, my father, the chariots of Israel, and the horsemen thereof," for to them the decease of Mr. Phelips will be an almost irreparable loss. The aged among them have lost their friend and their stay, and the young their guide and their guard-both "chariot and horseman." But their departed pastor has not gone without a word of truth and consolation for each. To the former he says"There is nothing too great for God to bestow, and nothing that is good will he ever withhold." To the latter-"Jesus will come forth to you in all the loveliness of his being, Mr. Phelips's talents were of the very first order, his intellectual qualifications high, and his reading extensive; he was at once the CHRISTIAN, the GENTLEMAN, and the SCHOLAR. His deep personal piety was apparent to every one brought into contact with him: his frequent audible pious ejaculations, not only as he went forth to his Sabbath duties, but as events and circumstances passed before him, were, to use his own beautiful word, "redolent" of a soul in the full possession of pardon and peace! It was, by a constant daily commerce of his soul" with heaven, that he went from strength to strength, until he has appeared before God in Zion. Many of his sermons taken down in short-haud by attached hearers, are in the possession of several friends, and we hope one day to see those precious memorials gathered together, and published for the benefit of the Church of Christ. Few will forget what we may call Mr. Phelips's pastoral addresses, in which he spoke of his Divine Master in his beautiful character of a shepherd, illustrated, as those addresses always were, from the beautiful scenery amongst which he dwelt ; or the sadly touching, yet sweet and plaintive tones in which he was accustomed to read the 23rd chapter of Isaiah, or quote passages from it, and other portions of the Word of God during the delivery of his sermons:few men read the beautiful services of our Church so well as the Vicar of Yeovil. Bat he is passed away from us; the great householder has laid in his wardrobe till "time shall be no longer;" all that was mortal of the pious dead there to remain till again "clothed upon," at the sound of the last trump! "THE HELPLESS SINNER'S FRIEND." "I AM TRUSTING IN JESUS, THE HELPLESS SINNER'S FRIEND." THESE were the last words of one who left Jesus when on earth; and his word stands fast the dreary desert of this world, for her man- for ever; it is done in truth and righteousness, sion in her Father's house above, a few years blessed be his name! The person above resince. The words have often been brought ferred to, was not one favoured to walk in the to memory, and with solemn and joyful feel- full liberty of the Gospel, but by her conduct ings, I have pondered them. "He that con- and conversation in the world, she had long fesseth me before men, him will I confess be- adorned the Gospel; she was slow to profess fore my Father which is in heaven," said with her lips. Her life gave evidence of a power in truth dwelling in the heart, by faith, and flowing from the rich fulness of Jesus, to sanctify. During her last illness, the word was peculiarly her delight, her treasury, and the testimony of heaven-taught souls was always refreshing to her to hear. As we have remarked, she said but little, but that little (at least to the writer), was sufficient to show that she was taught of God, the two great truths so beautifully, and with such simplicity set forth in the words which were her last-her own helplessness as a lost sinner before God, and" Christ the helpless sinner's Friend." Yes, He who teacheth as none other can-savingly taught this wanderer from the fold the fearful danger of sin, and led her back to the fold, where, with Jesus, she trustingly abode, and found, not only perfect security, but at last, after long seeking, assured confidence, and that where most needed, as she drew near to the longdreaded " change" which awaits us all. Having witnessed her suffering, and heard her expressions of fear, mingled with hopes, and felt my heart moved in prayer, and my bowels to yearn over her as a precious seeking soul, it was with great joy I received the tidings of her last hours. Not that it would have affected her final state, had no intimation been given us of her assured rest in Jesus, when about to depart; yet it is pleasing, it is refreshing to the soul, to hear the testimony of a soul when death, with all its terrors, is at hand, triumphing over the grim monster, and experiencing the truth of the declaration, “The righteous hath hope in his death." Oh how fearful must that death be without hope! Such souls are "driven away in their wickedness." "Driven away." -Oh where? To darkness and eternal despair-to everlasting confusion and destruction; "But the righteous hath hope in his death." The soul dying, "Trusting in the helpless sinner's Friend;" being justified by faith, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, "saved from wrath through Him," and having eternal life in Him, those precious souls enter into peace, find death to be but a sleep, a rest from labours, & delightful mansion from a world of cares, to the blissful presence of Jesus, faith, that dim or dark glass is changed for clear vision. O what a change! Nor will it be asked at the portals of the eternal city, how strong the faith, how clear the perception, how perfect the knowledge, how great the attainments made below. There is one requisite (and one alone), faith in Christ Jesus. "He that believeth on the Son, hath life, he that believeth not the Son, hath not life." One who had loved much, and laboured long and successfully in his Master's service, left for his dying confession, "A guilty, weak, and helpless worm, Be thou my strength and righteousness, Another being asked, in a thoughtful moment, what occupied his thoughts, said words to this effect, "I am casting away all my good deeds, and bad deeds, and sailing to heaven on the plank of free grace." O my soul! let thy change come when it may, sooner or later, may this be thy happy experience, self-loathing, self-renunciation; simple, trusting faith in the holy Lamb of God, "Who died for our sins, and was raised again for our justification," and, while kept as sojourners in this vale of tears, called to "endure afflictions," to fight the good fight of faith. May our hope, dear reader, be steadfast, our faith unwavering, and our love kindled with a divine flame, burning with holy zeal for the cause of God, and the truth of Jesus, So prays yours in Him, Blackmore, Nov. 6, 1854. VISIT TO THE BONMAHON SCHOOLS, AUG. 1854. To" G. C., OF BIRMINGHAM." "Let the inhabitants of the Rock sing," Isa. xlii. 11. MY DEAR SIR.-You requested a communication from me, relative to my preaching among the Roman Catholics, and my purposed visit to the interesting Schools at Bonmahon. The Christian Times has rendered it almost unnecessary for me to say anything respecting the former, and you have had an opportunity of seeing what was published by my fellow-traveller, the Rev. C. KIRKLAND, of Canterbury. In general terms we may say, that our attempts to preach the word of God, and hold up a crucified Saviour, and converse with the benighted inhabitants of this land were on the whole, encouraging; and that having left King's and Queen's County and Tipperary, I came on to Clare, and preached in the cities of Limerick and Cork, to respectable congregations of Protestants, and from thence reached Waterford early in the afternoon. Here I found myself a perfect stranger, my letters of introduction to friends not having availed, in consequence of their absence from home, and N |