the object in view. Every day's post brought its supply of work for these ladies, and every week returned the tale of that work to the general depository.

For many years I had possessed a private printing press, which had been used originally for my own people only. It had grown to be more extensive, and had been handed over to a Christian young man, brought up under my own ministry. Clever and trustworthy, I could place entire reliance upon. him. He had associated with him a printer whom he had himself instructed, and who, above that, had received the instruction of the Holy Spirit. These two carried on the whole of the process of printing the papers which were to be conveyed in the covers addressed by my indefatigable female helpers. In all, the number of persons in England who were in any way acquainted with the scheme amounted to seven, and every one of these were trustworthy spiritual Christians.

In the progress of this interesting work, the circumstances connected with the exhibition of the Holy Coat at Treves occurred, and the movement of Ronge and Czerski consequent upon it. This suggested the writing of another paper, which was entitled "A Look

out of Ireland into Germany." As time passed on in the work of preparation new thoughts arose. I determined to get the "Voice from Heaven" translated into the Irish. Fanny Bellingham got this done for me in Dublin, and I had it printed in London. Then she suggested that the message to the Romanists would not be complete nor fit for a blessing unless it contained some portions of the Word of God. So a number of special and pointed texts were selected, and printed on a separate paper. Thus the contents of each envelope were, 1. "A Voice from Heaven to Ireland;" 2. The same in Irish; 3. "A Look out of Ireland into Germany;" and 4. A. Paper of Selected Texts. These took the full of the money's worth for every penny envelope, though any overweight was carefully avoided.

By the end of the year 1845, about twenty thousand of these precious packets were made up, and addressed to so many Roman Catholics in every part of Ireland. An arrangement was then very carefully made for their simultaneous reception. The periods of postal delivery in the different districts of Ireland were ascertained. Bristol, Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, Edinburgh, and London were selected as the points of departure, and

means were taken for having the letters posted in these places at such times as would secure the delivery of all the letters at all the places on the same day. Some of the distant districts required three days, some two, and others would be delivered on the day after being posted. The detail of all this was minutely arranged, and the numbers sent from the several places were so divided, that the excess need not retard any from one post-office.

When the whole was finally settled, the letters were packed in small divisions, each directed for its proper place. They were to go forth by the luggage-train from the neighbouring railway-station. A cart was brought to the door of the cottage in which the printing press was carried on. There is a little room in that cottage which had been the depository of the work as it grew to completion. It was now so filled with the closed parcels, that the whole floor was covered two layers thick with them. The whole of the seven persons who alone were in the secret assembled in that little room while the cart was waiting at the door. We all knelt down upon the very parcels which left us no other foot-room, and I solemnly delivered them to the Lord, entreating Him so to guide the way of

each of those thousands of letters, that his own glory might be magnified in the salvation of the souls of unhappy Romanists, and that many might be brought "from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God." I feel sure that this prayer was echoed from the hearts of all the seven; the answer that has been vouchsafed let the records of the Irish Church Missions proclaim.

Wafted by this prayer, the parcels were put into the cart, and conveyed to their several starting points. The day on which the letters were delivered at the doors of those to whom they were addressed was the 16th of January, 1846. The record of the events of that day I will reserve for another chapter.

CHAPTER VII.

It was on the 16th of January, 1846, that the shower of letters fell like flakes of snow from heaven at the door of about twenty thousand Roman Catholics in every part of Ireland. Before proceeding to fulfil my promise of recording some of the events of that day, I must call special attention to that date. It is important to mark it, because a general feeling exists that the movement carried on through the Irish Church Missions took its rise from the effects of the famine. If this were the case, its origin could not but impart a certain character to its progress, and whatsoever fruits might result from time to time, permanent impulse could hardly be calculated upon. But this is not the case; a change was creeping over the spirit of the Romish peasants in Ireland, the dawn of which had been discernible for some years before the famine began. The