their temples rifled under the name of reformation, and when they look at the reformed religion, pressed by legislative enactments upon them, they see its ceremonials scorned by its very professors, and while they hear of laws to compel them to resort to their reformed parish church, they see that church in ruins.'

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If we are sending missionaries to Hottentots, to cannibals, to the most savage tribes, we say they must be men carefully trained and prepared, men too taught of God and filled with his Spirit; for the greater the diffi culty of the task, the more need of suitable instruments to carry it on. This was not the reasoning applied to poor Ireland, her children were despised and counted almost as savages, therefore it was thought that ignorant men would suffice to teach them.

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""The incumbents," writes Sir John Davis, "both parsons and vicars, did appear to be such poor, ragged, ignorant creatures (for we saw many of them in the camp), as we could not esteem any of them worthy of the meanest of those livings, albeit many of them are not worth more than forty shillings per annum : (p. 358,) and in Derry, one of the incumbents is described by the diocesan, Bishop Downham, as 'an honest man, but no licensed preacher, notwithstanding to catechise, and to speak and read Irish, and sufficient for a parish, wholly consisting of Irish:' and he describes another as 'an Irishman of mean gifts, having a little Latin and no English, but thought by my predecessor sufficient for a parish consisting wholly of Irish.''

In the reign of the first Charles, the holy Bedell flourished, a man who had the good of the Irish-speaking population thoroughly at heart, and spared no pains to bring the truth before them in their own tongue.

'The effect of his labours may be traced in the re

spect paid to his character, even by those whose hands, were yet reeking with the blood of the massacre of 1641, and in the prayer of the priest who stood over his grave, even in that moment of intense exasperation "O, let my soul be with Bedell !""

But his plan of religious reformation seems not to have been countenanced by Lord Wentworth during his vice-royalty.

"This,' says Archbishop Vesey, the biographer of Bishop Bramwell, 'was indeed a great part of the lord deputy's errand into this kingdom. The policy of that age was to make the monarchy strong and redoubtable to its neighbours; and the Protestant religion healthy and long-lived, by an entire union of all his majesty's subjects in the same confession and worship: and he knew all men are not to be preached and disputed, but to be governed, into virtue and piety, peace and unity.' p. 470. Mark the words, all men are not to be preached and disputed, but to be governed into virtue and piety, peace and unity.' The church of Ireland was not sought to be made the instrument of preaching the glad tidings of great joy, but of governing the people into virtue and peace ;-precisely the point we are endeavouring to prove.'

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In the beginning of the reign of the second Charles, the bishops were appointed with a becoming regard to character, but the popish tendencies of this reign soon so far developed themselves, that the Lord Lieutenant allowed the popish archbishop to borrow plate and hangings from the furniture of the castle, for the celebration, with extraordinary solemnity, of the then illegal service of the mass in Dublin.

(To be continued.)

onian, a strict churchman, supplies our Author with evidence, and he traces the history of the Irish Church from the reign of Henry VIII. Of this reign, an epitome is given in the following words :—

'It appears, then, that in the reign of Henry VIII. the matter of the king's supremacy was, in all sincerity, pressed upon the Irish church, and was admitted; that that church was robbed even to a greater extent than that of England; that the godly men who were promoted, on account of their zeal for the king's prerogative, received every possible discouragement in their efforts to substitute the truth of God for the errors they were invited to put down; that the monasteries were dissolved without the endowment of one single college or school; that, to use the language of our venerable historian, the king, "when he relieved the church from the impediment of the monastic institutions, forebore to provide thereby for the religious education of her people, as well as to bestow upon her any secular benefit, and left her incapacitated for necessary activity, and beset by difficulties;" (p. 183,) but that nevertheless, the very appointment of these men, all slighted, robbed, and insulted as they were, was made, by the mercy of God, instrumental in introducing into the land some glimmerings of Gospel light, the results of which the great day may disclose. But who, on reviewing this simple statement of facts, can say that, in the reign of this prince, one step had been taken by England towards the evangelization of this benighted country, and yet, Lord Gray (the then deputy) might, on his return from his government, have stood up among Henry's peers, and spoken of his fruitless efforts to introduce the Reformation into Ireland, with as much truth as the great majority of his successors.'

Even the reign of the sainted Edward passed over without any earnest efforts for the conversion of Ireland; that of Mary may of course be omitted. Under the vigorous rule of Elizabeth, measures were taken to compel outward conformity, but the pitiable state of the church may be seen from the following extract from a letter, written nearly twenty years after her accession:

The following extracts from a letter of Sir Henry Sidney's, the lord deputy of Ireland, written to the queen in 1576, though long, are too important to be omitted or abridged :- "The lamentable estate of the most noble and principal limb thereof, the church I mean, as foul, deformed, and as cruelly crushed, as any other part thereof, by your only gracious and religious order to be cured, or at least amended, I would not have believed, had I not for a great part viewed the same throughout the whole realm; and was advertised of the particular estate of each church in the bishopric of Meath, being the best inhabited country of all this realm, by the honest, zealous, and learned bishop of the same, Mr. Hugh Brady, a godly minister of the Gospel, and a good servant of your highness, who went from church to church himself, and found that there are within his diocese two hundred and twenty-four parish churches, of which number one hundred and five are impropriated to sundry possessions, now of your highness, and now leased out for years, or in feefarm, to several farmers, and great gain reaped out of them above the rent, which your majesty receiveth : no parson or vicar resident upon any of them, and a very simple or sorry curate for the most part appointed to serve them; among which number of curates only eighteen were found able to speak English, the rest

QUESTIONS ON THE COLLECTS.

1ST SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.

Fruits of Faith in the Trinity are Love of God, and our Neighbour, and Conflict with Sin.

1 What portions of the Service for this day enjoin love to God, and our Neighbour?

2. In what way are Christian duties, and the conflict with sin to be attempted?

3. What encouragement have we to attempt them?

2ND SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.

Fruits of Faith in the Trinity are the Fear and Love of God, and Love to the Brethren.

1. How are we taught in the Service for this day to fear God?

2. How are we drawn to love Him?

3. How are we enjoined to act towards the Brethren?

3RD SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.

Fruit of Faith in the Trinity is Humility.

1. What portions of the service for this day recommend Humility?

2. What is the source of Humility?

3. What are the fruits of Humility?

4TH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.

Fruit of Faith in the Trinity is the Expectation of Glory in the way of Patient Suffering with Christ, and Persevering Obedience to his Commands.

1. In what portions of the service for this day is an expectation of glory encouraged in the way of patient suffering with Christ?

2. Where is obedience directly, or indirectly recommended, as the way to glory?

3. In what way is perseverance in obedience to be maintained?