PREFACE. WE commence our sixth volume under feelings of peculiar emotion, excited by a review of something that was never contemplated at the outset, nor, indeed, at any subsequent period of the work; but which calls for most grateful acknowledgment; first, to the Author of all good—and next to the friends who have so cheerfully obeyed the impulse from within, and answered the call from without in a manner that it is almost overwhelming to contemplate. A brief statement will prove this:-In the Number for July, 1835, a letter bearing the signature T. appeared. The writer of it is long and well known to us, as a Christian gentleman of untiring zeal in the cause of the gospel, more especially as to the promulgation of its blessed truths in his native land— Ireland. In that letter he proposed, that a fund should be provided, for enabling two students of divinity preparing for holy orders in Trinity College, Dublin, to pass a year in the island of Achill; at once to assist his and our dear friend, Mr. Nangle, in his arduous mission there, and to perfect themselves A in the vernacular tongue of the long neglected millions who love no other sound. In a few months, the readers of the Christian Lady's Magazine had forwarded to the Editor upwards of thirty-five pounds, which she handed to T. and the cheering example operating on others, he has been enabled to collect more than enough to set one of the students at work: with a near prospect of making up the sum requisite for both. "Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters." On the approach of the Centenary of that glorious event, the completion of Coverdale's translation of the Holy Scriptures, the Editor was led, under much anguish of spirit, to relate some facts not then generally known, in reference to the afflicted state of the persecuted clergy in Ireland. In doing this, she would even have shrank from the idea of assuming a responsibility so serious as that of receiving assistance, the exact distribution of which could never be made public, consistently with those feelings of delicacy towards the individuals concerned, to which nothing could tempt her to do violence. But it pleased the Lord so to work on the hearts of his servants, that, since the month of October last, no less a sum than nearly seven hundred and fifty pounds has passed through her hands, for the use of the persecuted saints. This, with the exception of a small balance, reserved for some particular cases, has been faithfully applied, in conveying, as delicately as possible, to pious clergymen, and to such alone, the free-will offerings of their English friends. Known to the Lord are the timely interpositions that, under His providential direction, |