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and I fondly hope this is the case, and that our labours have been somewhat subservient to this end. But the belief of its improvement implies the awfully immoral state of the people in time past, and this indeed is verified on every hand. This place was proverbially and pre-eminently wicked for its population; it furnished more work for constables and gaolers than any other part of the county besides. Yet nothing like complacency may be felt with the present appearances of improvement, because of the still remaining aboundings of ungodliness; nothing is accomplished in comparison with what remains to be done.

"Let me attempt the ungracious task of particularising some of the awfully evil practices here prevailing. As one of the most shocking and most prevalent, I cannot but instance profane swearing. It is a frightful fact that great numbers, not only of the hardier sex and of dissolute habits, are guilty in this thing, but females, ay, young and in appearance amiable females, are guilty; even young girls and children habitually utter and imprecate damnation on themselves and others. Of a great number collected together, it is acknowledged that, with but few exceptions, they all swear!

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Sabbath-breaking, again, is fearfully general. Shopping, baking, travelling is done on the Lord's-day, without scruple, by many, and by some of whom better things might be expected. Of the extent of the lewdness I cannot write more than to say, I should think that in this respect no place in the land is worse, and I hope that but few are half so bad.

"But of the drinking habits here I am constrained to bear a decidedly unfavourable testimony. They (many, very many) do drink, and will drink, whatever may be the consequences. These are appalling, and yet, notwithstanding, the infatuation continues, and to an enormous extent. We are indeed compelled to apprehend that very many are restrained, not by principle, but the want of means of indulging the fatal propensity; for little additional wages come into their hands, and the public-houses are abundantly thronged. All these things, and worse, in the nineteenth century in Christian England, and in a county ranking high in morals and in religious privileges! What inferences ought to be drawn from the foregoing? What beneficial results have followed the established means of religious instruction? What is the duty of the churches in reference to the neglected parts of the country? and how loud the call for much faithful labour and the wide and mighty outpourings of the Holy Spirit!"

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Fearful Death.

"It will be seen by the list of services, that O- receives more attention than formerly this I have deemed necessary under present circumstances, and of which you are aware. I have established a members' meeting, which we hold fortnightly, and which we find highly beneficial in many respects. No other service has been declined in consequence, but I get a lay brother to supply my lack of service in another village for that evening.

"A most awful case has occurred in one of our villages during the present month. A man and his wife, living next door to our chapel at M, had for a long time lived a most ungodly and unhappy life. On Wednesday, the 8th of October, the husband was beating one of their children, and the mother attempted to defend the child; this so infuriated the man that he seized a piece of iron, struck her several times most violently, and a dreadful affray ensued. After the uproar had somewhat subsided, the woman left the house and went to a neighbour's: here it is said that, while uttering some awful imprecations, she sank down paralysed and speechless. She was conveyed back to her home, and after lingering until the Monday following expired. It has caused an alarming sensation in the village, and I trust may be the means of checking some in their career of iniquity. Having announced that I

should make some remarks in connexion with the event on the following Sabbath evening, the chapel was crowded. I took for my text, Acts xiii. 41, Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish.' It was indeed a solemn season; and I most earnestly hope that many who have hitherto been despising the threatenings, the judgments, the mercy, and the grace of God, may be brought to repentance."

IRISH EVANGELICAL SOCIETY.

OUR beloved brethren who have laboured as missionaries in heathen lands, have often sought to awaken the sympathies of British Christians by affecting descriptions of the superstitious practices observed by the people whom they have desired to turn from dumb idols to the living God. Perhaps it is impossible to point to any part of the globe where more absurd rites are practised than that described in the following extracts from a document recently received from one of the agents of the Society connected with the Connaught Mission. The description may be relied on, being from an eye-witness of the whole scene. It is published with the hope that its perusal will tend to awaken a greater concern, and excite a greater effort on behalf of our deluded fellow-subjects in that benighted portion of our empire. It is gratifying to the Committee to be able to report that this branch of the Society's efforts is exciting attention amongst the people, many of whom manifest a willingness to listen to the instructions afforded. But they regret that the opposition of others has displayed itself in a ferocious attack made on two of the Scripture-readers, who were beaten and stoned with extreme violence.

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"This being what is called, in this country, Big Lady Day,' it is kept as a holy day by the Roman Catholics of Ireland; but in this part of the country it is noted for the stations' performed in it, at the celebrated well called Basle, pronounced Baal, about six Irish miles eastward from Castlebar. Having heard a great deal on this subject, but not having had an opportunity of being present, I was anxious to be an eye-witness of the whole routine. I therefore went to view the scene, accompanied by Mr. O'Connor. Some of our brethren, and other friends, were apprehensive lest the crowds assembled there would discover that we were Protestants, and perhaps murder us; but we were determined not to be deterred; so we set out, in the name of the Lord. Before I attempt to give an account of the station itself, it is necessary to give a brief description of the place.

"Baal is a very neat village; the principal part has been erected during the last ten or twelve years; and I think it owes a good deal of its prosperity to the concourse of people flocking to the well on or before the station days. It is surrounded by a fertile country: all nature seems smiling under the government of a beneficent Creator. But how painful to see man, with his immortal soul, so debased as not to know the Hand that made him--but performing the most degrading and disgusting rites, to please an imaginary deity-certainly not the God of the Bible!

"On our right, as we entered the town, is a chapel, connected with which is a burying-ground, which presents an appearance such as I had never seen before; the whole looks like a flagged floor. As there is a large freestone quarry convenient, each family has its own grave, covered with a large rough flag. In the graveyard is one of those round towers, for which Ireland is so famous. This tower is northward of the chapel. At a short distance north-east of it is an altar, on the top of which is a cut stone, about two feet square. On the stone is carved the figure of a cherub, and under it is cut, in large letters, The Queen of Heaven.' We now leave the graveyard, and pass through the west gate, which leads to a plot of ground, not now enclosed, though formerly a burying-ground. The length from the west gate to the famous well is about six or eight Irish perches. Just at the east

side of this well, and adjoining it, is a small unroofed house, in the east end of which is a door, and another in the west, out of which the pilgrims step into the well. Near to it are two monuments, about seven feet high, erected more than a century ago, over the graves of two respectable families. In the east side of these two monuments is fixed a cut stone, with the following inscriptions, which I give verbatim. The one towards the north I will call No. 1; the other, south and west to the well, No. 2.

No. 1.

"Pray for FAr Laurence Lynch, the soul of John Lynch and Mary Brown, his wife. Richard oge* Lynch, and Eliza Lynch, his wife. Sub tuum procidium Confugimus, S Ta Dec. 1733, genetrix,' &c.

No. 2.

"For the passion of Jesus Christ say one pater and one ave, for the soul of Father Charles Jordan.'-1733.

"This brief description of the place is necessary, in order to understand the following account of the 'stations.' The station commences in the graveyard: the pilgrims begin on the south-east side of the tower, and take nearly a circular course round it and the altar, north-east of it; the whole circumference is about ninety yards; this they walk round seven times, repeating seven paters and seven aves. When this is fulfilled, they go on their bare knees, on a place covered with coarse gravel. They move along slowly on their knees, now upon rough gravel, and now again upon rough flags, according as they happen to be in the way. In a short time, the pain in their knees becomes so excruciating that many of the pilgrims must stoop on their hands, in order to relieve their knees a little, and then crawl the remainder of the way in this posture. They move along, evidently in great pain, until they reach the altar, which I have described above. In many cases, the flesh becomes so lacerated that the bone may be seen. The whole length they go on their knees in the graveyard is about sixty yards. When the pilgrims arrive at this altar, they repeat seven paters and seven aves, and then kiss the ‘Queen of Heaven three times. This closes the station in the graveyard. The principal part of the pilgrims then rise from their knees, and walk down to the two monuments already mentioned. Here they kneel opposite to the cut stones No. 1, and No. 2, and repeat seven paters and seven aves, then rise up, and walk round the t o monuments seven times, repeating prayers: as they go along each time, they bow to the cut stone No. 1. After going round seven times, they take a small stone, cut for that purpose, and cut a cross on the stone No. 1, four times, and then kiss it the same number of times with the greatest veneration. When all this is performed, they go to the unroofed house at the well. The floor of this is also covered with gravel: they enter this through the door at the west side, move along on their bare knees, repeating prayers, till they reach the opposite door, from which they step into the well. The well is about two and a half to three feet deep. Men and women step promiscuously into it, turn round in it seven times, say seven paters and seven aves, throw some water on their head,—and thus this painful ceremony ceases.

Although a reader may think this station superstitious and painful enough, yet there is another performed by some far more so. The pilgrims who perform this station, when they reach the altar in the graveyard, instead of rising from their knees like the others, walk on their knees to the well-gate, and from that to the two monuments, go round them on their knees seven times, move to the unroofed house,

* Oge is an Irish word for young.

and through it to the well. The first pilgrim that attracted my attention was a man, who, after going through all I have described, on his knees, was just going into the unroofed house, but his strength was so exhausted, and his knees so lacerated, that he had to get two sticks, one in each hand, on which to lean, that he might be able to get through the whole. I believe if they fail through fatigue and pain, they can taste nothing until the station is performed. Some of these pilgrims are a long time before they recover their strength.

"The above is but a very faint description of the ceremonies performed, and the sufferings endured. No writer could paint them in all their horrors. Think for a moment of men and women, young and old, from the boy or girl of twenty to the man or woman of sixty years or more, travelling on foot, perhaps sixty miles, for the purpose of torturing themselves, by crawling on their hands and knees, over sharp gravel and rough flags, until, in many cases, the blood drops from their mangled flesh. All this, in many cases, is to make an atonement for some horrid crime perpetrated, or to get the soul of a friend released from the pains of purgatory, or to thank the Queen of Heaven' for restoring a husband or child to health. May it not justly be said of poor Ireland, that darkness covereth the land, and gross darkness the minds of the people? May a gracious God soon say, ' Arise, shine, for thy light is come, the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee!' Hasten the time, O Lord God of salvation!"

COLONIAL MISSIONARY SOCIETY.

Decease of the Rev. Moses Parker, late Missionary in Van Diemen's Land. THE following letter from the Rev. Wm. Jarrett, secretary to the Van Diemen's Land Colonial Missionary and Christian Instructiou Society, conveying intelligence of this mournful event, requires no comment. Mr. Parker, during his short term of service, seems to have manifested very valuable qualifications for his peculiar and difficult sphere of labour among the convicts and settlers thinly scattered over a wide tract in the interior of Van Diemen's Land. His loss will be severely felt. Christian sympathy must be excited in behalf of his widow and fatherless children, in the far land of their sojourn. If it should dispose any friend to communicate for their assistance, the Rev. A. Wells will be happy to transmit any sums that may be confided to him at the Congregational Library.

"Hobart Town, May 26, 1845.

"My dear Sir,-A few weeks since, I wrote to state to you the grounds upon which we had come to the conclusion that Mr. Parker was fit to fill the office of missionary, vacant by the removal of Mr. Morison to Port Phillip. It is my painful duty now to inform you of his death. He had proceeded to the Huou River, a distance of twenty-five miles from Hobart Town and forty from Richmond, where he was attacked with dysentery. Some days elapsed before we could be informed of the circumstance, and several more before he could be removed to town; and at the expiration of a fortnight from the first attack of his disease he died. It was my privilege to be present when he breathed his last. I say privilege, because I was permitted to witness in his case a striking illustration of the power of the Gospel to afford peace and comfort in the hour of death.

"The impression of the committee respecting his suitableness, as recorded in my last communication, has been strongly confirmed since his death. Very many

instances of the usefulness of his ministry have been brought to our knowledge, and most convincing evidence presented that he laboured throughout his short but useful career with a single eye to the Redeemer's glory. We feel our loss to be indeed great, and at present quite irreparable. You will, I am sure, unite with us in the prayer, that the Lord of the harvest will be pleased to provide a suitable successor to our brother who has entered on his rest.

"Our deceased brother has left a widow and five children, who are destitute of the means of support. Feeling that the widow and fatherless have a strong claim upon our sympathy, we have opened a public subscription on their behalf. All that we can do, however, will be quite inadequate; may we therefore look to you, kindly to use your interest to obtain from the widows' fund in connexion with the Evangelical Magazine, an allowance in aid of the distressed family of our deceased brother, and any further aid you may be able to obtain ?

"The committee trust that you will allow them to draw, as heretofore, in favour of any agent they may deem qualified to supply the office of the late Mr. Parker. The committee deeply feel the importance of fixing a high standard of qualification. They feel, moreover, that it would be better that the office should not be filled, than filled unsuitably. We have resolved to wait two months before taking any steps to appoint a successor to our departed brother, and in the mean time to supply his stations in the best manner we can. So much embarrassment would be caused to the committee, if not permitted to draw, in the event of the appearance of a suitable person to fill the vacant office, that we trust your committee will exercise a generous confidence in our judgment and integrity, and concede to us the favour we ask. I remain, my dear Sir, faithfully yours,

WM. JARRETT,

"Joint Secretary of the Van Diemen's Land Colonial Missionary and Christian Instruction Society.

To the Rev. A. Wells, Secretary.

TRANSACTIONS OF CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES.

MEETINGS FOR SPECIAL PRAYER.

Ar the monthly meeting of the Congregational Board of London, held at the Library, Tuesday, Nov. 11, the following resolution was unanimously adopted

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"That the members of this Board, having heard the minute and resolutions of the Congregational Union at its autumnal meeting, recently held at Manchester on the present state of religion in our churches, and on the need of united and earnest prayer for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and for the increase of love, zeal, and union amongst all the people of God, agree to recommend to our churches the observance of the first week of December for conference and prayer, either associated or apart, as may be found convenient."

ENDOWMENT OF AIREDALE COLLEGE.-With feelings of unfeigned satisfaction we record another, and we may denominate it the crowning, proof of the generous concern and bounty of Mrs. Bacon, of this town, in behalf of the above important institution, of which, in connexion with her late pious sister, Miss Sarah Balme, she may be regarded and honoured as the foundress.

These excellent ladies gave the estate at Undercliffe, upon which the present college is erected, and another estate at Fagley, from which an average rental of more than £80 per annum is derived, for its perpetual maintenance. Besides her annual

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