Rome by the heretic Marcion, Polycarp own us,' answered, 'I do own thee for the first-born of Satan.' The line was as generally understood among true Christians, and as diligently retained, as it was well and strongly defined.

I am not writing in utter ignorance of the state of the Irish church at this moment. It is true I never was in Ireland, and I am acquainted with no Irish Christians; but this much I know-that it is not for us, in our peaceful and plentiful homes, by our blazing hearths, with the proverbial blessings of English liberty- our actions,' in the words of that beloved and ancient king, to whom English gratitude has delighted to ascribe many of our English blessings

our actions free as air;' 'our houses our castles; ' 'castles,' if I may be permitted to continue, in the noble, the energetic words of Lord Chatham,' around which the winds may whistle, into which all the elements may enter, but the king cannot-the king dare not:'-Oh! it is not for us to bring before our eyes in vivid reality the sufferings entailed upon those who are faithful to the cause of the Lord in Ireland. It is not to make light of sufferings which go beyond description, and can be but faintly shadowed out by imagination, that I write. No; but amid all, and in spite of all, let the words be heard, "Stand, quit you like men, be strong; "be that would save his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life for the cause of Christ shall save it." The still small voice of the gospel, when heard in the heart, can and ever will speak more effectively than the roarings of the lion seeking whom he may devour.

There are, we know, in Ireland hundreds of devoted ministers, who count not their lives dear to

C

them, and who, in their Master's service, are enduring a more severe species of persecution than that effected by fire and sword. It is not to them that any allusion is made. They need rather to be reminded that a necessary care of life is a duty; that our great Master ordered his disciples, when persecuted in one city to flee into another; and that the apostles used every means compatible with duty, for the preservation of existence. It is not, I repeat, to them that I allude; but it does seem in this letter alluded to, as if Satan, who knows how to address himself to the best as well as to the worst feelings of man, when he wishes to further his own ends, were laying hold even of that hallowed affection which subsists between a pastor and his flock, to retain slaves in his service. The devil has many ways of deceiving, but never is he more to be feared than when he puts on the semblance of an angel of light, addresses himself to our better feelings, and enlists our conscience on his side. Are we to furl our standard because the enemy is in the field? Are we to fight under the enemy's colours, mingled with his host? God forbid. If God be for us, who can be against us?" "The Lord is on our side, we will not fear what man can do unto us."

Oh! that was a noble and a spirit-stirring eulogium, which burst from the heart of the Regent Morton, while bending over the body of the reformer Knox, 6 There lies one who never feared the face of man!' We need not fear the diminution of our members. The increase of Christians resembles what Paley says of the increase of population; it is by a geometrical progression. The increase of our enemies, be it what it may, can keep pace with us, we do

trust and believe, but by an arithmetical series. The blessing of God is on his people; "increase and multiply," has been said to them; and, like Egypt in the days of the Pharaoh who knew not Joseph, "the land is filled with them." Cadmus's soldiers, Deucalion's stones, glance across the eye of imagination, but it is not now time to amuse ourselves with ' agreeable trifling.' The glowing sentence of Tertullian rests on my ear, and sounds in my heart. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.' And strong and mighty is the declaration of God respecting his servants-"The more they were afflicted, the more they multiplied and grew."

Very often, while penning the few foregoing remarks, have I been led to thoughts more nearly connected with home and home concerns than the churches of antiquity, and the present persecuted church in Ireland, may at first appear to be. And, before transcribing the passage which called forth these remarks, may I be permitted to say a word for England's peaceful and outwardly prosperous church --a word to English hearts at the present day. Comparing ourselves with Ireland, the enemy may be said to be apparently yet at a distance, but who knows when or how he may arise to grapple with us? And there is a truth which ought to be pondered in our hearts," All who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." We may do well to think whether we escape the badge of discipleship by unfaithfulness to the cause. There may be persecution-inquisitorial torture, when all is smoothness and apparent peace. War may be in the heart, and felt too by the victim of hatred, while the words are Are there not many who have

smoother than oil.

felt the force of the pathetic proverb, “There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword," a sword exquisitely polished as if on purpose to cut? : Are there not some who know what mean the war of words-the rack of unkindness, of open attack, and of cool neglect? The enemy may be nearer than we imagine; let us be found standing to our arms, and ready for the assault. Thou therefore, my son, endure hardness, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus." Possessing our souls in patience, openly standing forth as defenders of the truth, "looking unto Jesus," "who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession"-this is the attitude for England's faithful people; and these are the means for becoming "bold as lions," in the strength of "the lion of the tribe of Judah." "When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him." "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts."

But I turn to Mr. Seymour's letter, and I transscribe the passage the more willingly, as it tells facts and speaks volumes.

'I shall confess to your Lordship the effect which it (the spirit of persecution) has had upon myself, and the course which I have pursued may be variously regarded. I may have acted wrong—I may have acted right. That God who knoweth the heart, whose I am and whom I serve, knoweth the motives that swayed me, and that it was not without many an anxious thought, and many a painful struggle, and many a prayerful hour, that I adopted it; but whether I shall be deemed guilty or not guilty herein, I shall confess it before God and my country, and do now avow to your lordship, that for the last five

years I have not asked any Roman Catholic to renounces the Church of Rome. I have preached to them the Gospel of Jesus Christ; I have, as far as God hath given to me the light of his truth, set that truth before their minds-but though I have seen them perishing around me, I have not called on them to abandon the Church of Rome, because I knew that they could not do so, without being exposed to the malignant and virulent persecution of the priests and their emissaries. I could not bring myself to expose them and theirs to insults and injury in both person and property. I knew that they would be pointed at and sneered at in our streets insulted at our markets-beaten at our fairs -reduced by combinations against them to undeserved poverty and finally, perhaps, obliged to seal their testimony with their blood. O, my lord, it is our God alone who knoweth how many martyrs -I use the word in full consciousness of its import -have been immolated in Ireland as victims at the shrines of the priesthood of the Church of Rome!

May the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ prove himself to me as a Father of mercies, and forgive me if I have acted wrong in this matter and proved unfaithful to his cause! Truly there was a time when I asked many, and, by God's help, prevailed on many, to abandon the Church of Rome, -but when I witnessed the fearful consequences, the poverty, the insults, the suffering, the blood,my heart' struggled against my head, and I could not bring myself to ask men to expose themselves to trials which no man, whose heart was not as cold as marble, and hard as flint, could witness without bleeding for the sufferers."