first opening which lights up enthusiasm and gives a spring to self-denial and charity. It is not in the natural course of man's history that this should continue with unabated ardour; but still the Society holds on its way, and maintains its principles, and God has blessed, and is still blessing, this open exhibition of His truth.

Success would seem to prove that the Society is one adapted to the tone of your national character; but it never was intended to be a "Pastoral Aid Society," or a settled local agency. The great object in its formation was to carry the lamp of truth through the country, and from place to place to kindle the holy fire; in other words, to plant the gospel, gather churches, and then go on to others, on the apostolic model of itinerancy. When Mr Dallas delivered an address to the assembled missionaries in 1854, he thus expressed his original purpose:

"My object is to put before you the position and the principles of the Society, in order that there might be extension, and that the success already achieved might give a fresh impulse to all the clergy of Ireland to carry on the work of the Reformation in their different localities." He adds-"The missionary work is an extraordinary work, and would to God that it might be said to be a temporary work-that in a few years it might be unnecessary, when, every parish doing its own work, there will be no more necessity for this machinery. The parochial system gives to every clergyman a very large exercise for individual discretion; whether he number among his people 500 Protestants or 5000

Roman Catholics, they are all under his superintendence."

"A large proportion of the population are stereotyped in Romanism; and while the framework of the Church extends locally over the country, this does not prevent the strange anomaly. It needs an extraordinary service for the purpose of restoring the Church to the position in which she ought always to have been placed, and from which she should never have fallen.”

Mr Dallas then proposed three important points to the consideration of the clergy.

I. Their duty as ministers to stand fast in one spirit, striving together for the faith of the gospel.

II. That no portion of the population should be left out of the sphere of their ministrations.

III. That the most practical and efficacious means be used, consistently with the discipline of our Church, to bring the truths of the gospel to bear on the minds of the Roman Catholics.

Resolutions to this effect were signed by upwards of 200 clergy in Dublin and afterwards by a very large number at Cork. The report afterwards given in England by the clergy who were present states, that they

were delightfully impressed with the piety, unanimity, and earnestness with which their Irish brethren, laying aside all minor matters, discussed frankly and fully these important subjects, and came with one accord to conclusions in full harmony with the proposed plan of the Society for Irish Church Missions.' From Limerick to Dundalk an eyewitness testifies that there was a general conviction of the need of strenuous and united

efforts for carrying the banner of gospel truth into the hitherto closed ranks of its enemies."

The position of the Church is altered, and we as English people can scarcely appreciate, though we deeply sympathise with, your difficulties; but you are free from the fetters of civil courts, and the spoliation you have suffered may be for the furtherance of the gospel, as districts deprived of regular ministry will be thrown open to missionary efforts. The obstacles to overcome are indeed insurmountable, except as met in the strength of Omnipotence. In that strength may you be enabled to arise as in the days of St Patrick-emphatically a missionary Church, showing to us and to the world that the word of God is the foundation of your ritual; and in the power of truth and unity, may that Word sound forth from you, that in every place your faith to Godward may spread abroad!

The help which we have been permitted to supply to your Church for these missions has been often curtailed by objections to the Society, and those objections such as are not met with in appealing for other missionary objects. Wherever there is a fraternising with the Apostate Church and an infusion of the tenets of Rome, the principles of the Irish Church missions must be disapproved; and with shame we must own that there are many among our clergy so entirely one with Rome in her errors, that they would rather bring those doctrines into our Church than draw any soul from her communion.

Their language is, "We are united on the doctrine of

the sacraments. We own the Church of Rome as a true Church, though erring in some points. She must be left to reform herself." And in action they say, "We will imitate her as closely as we can."

Can we wonder that the result of these views is the repudiation and condemnation of missions to Roman Catholics, or that the Society which boldly exposes her errors is unwelcome in parishes under such teaching?

There is often found great ignorance of the doctrines of Rome, arising from a defective theological education. The canons of the Council of Trent have never been studied by our young clergy, and their contradiction to the Word of God and to the Articles of our Church is not known. There is a valuable book called "The Liturgy Compared with the Bible," which brings every part of our Prayer-Book to the test of Scripture. If these Canons, the Creed of Pius IV., and other books of the Church of Rome, were thus dealt with, and texts brought to prove them, what an exposure of false doctrine would be elicited!

In Ireland the continual contact with Romanism has led to more distinctive teaching. Yet may there not be among you occasionally a palliation of Romish doctrines which acts, perhaps indirectly, against the introduction of missionary effort?

But there are those who, deeply realising the fearful errors of the Roman Creed, and earnestly longing to gather souls from darkness into light, and from the power of Satan to God, have another objection to the Society. They would gladly encourage a plain statement of gospel truth, and an earnest personal applica

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tion of it to the souls of their fellow-sinners, but they abhor controversy. The very name is with them something totally adverse to Christian love; they consider it only calculated to awaken hostile feelings, and to alienate the heart from a reception of truth. In short, it is considered as an angry disputation, and the abuse of a great gift is confounded with its use, for the exercise of human reason and arguing power without the spirit of love might lead to this. The application of Scripture truth to the peculiar condition of the Roman Catholics is a very different thing. The whole Bible may be said to be full of controversy-God's controversy with man -and our Lord Himself to be the greatest controversialist. Witness His conversations with the Jews (John vi., vii., viii.) The apostles follow in His steps, and by continual argument show the false and dangerous character of the errors they reprove (Gal. v. 2).

In dealing with the Roman Catholics, it is impossible to present the truth except in antagonism to their errors. Their religion is based on truth, and it professes to have its foundation on those doctrines of the gospel which we also hold, but which are utterly neutralised by the erroneous tenets which are laid upon them. Then, words and phrases are retained by them which are common to us both, but are differently understood by us. Faith means to a Romanist a belief in what the Church teaches however false that may be. Repentance means sorrow for sin, expressed by confession to a priest. Prayer means the repetition of the Paternoster and the Ave Maria. Even the blessed name of our Lord Himself is connected in the mind of the Romanist with the wafer;