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the doors of his room to be left open that he might hear and join in the requests and thanksgivings addressed to God. Soon after prayer he gave a groan and expired, no one being at the moment in the room; but a niece being in the adjoining room heard the groan, ran to him, and, screaming out, Mrs. L. and the minister entered the room; but, alas! it was only to behold a lifeless corpse. Thus suddenly terminated the life of this truly devoted Christian and minister, on the 13th of August, 1831, leaving a sorrowing church and a bereaved widow.

In summing up the traits of his character, it is manifest from what has been related that he was taught of God, and had an experimental knowledge of his own sins and depravity, more clear and affecting than what many experience. He seems ever to have felt a holy jealousy lest he should not be sincere in his repentance; and instead of coming for ward at once as a professor, he was cautious, and delayed until he was satisfied that he was the subject of a divine change. Then he did not hesitate to tell what God had done for his soul.

He was naturally of a courteous and amiable temper. His open countenance was expressive of the kindness and affection of his heart. There was nothing forbidding or repulsive in his looks; nor was he cold, distant, or reserved to any who addressed him. He assumed no haughty airs, nor spoke in a tone of severity and harshness, but was gentle and condescending to inferiors, and respectful towards all. In him religion appeared lovely. There was no affectation, no attempt to impose on others by seeming to be what he was not. Sincerity was a striking feature of his character, and guile and hypocrisy were his abhorrence. He was an Israelite, indeed, in whom was no guile.

He felt keenly for the sufferings and afflictions of his friends, and often min

gled his tears and prayers with theirs on such occasions. He was hospitable, and ever glad to receive and entertain any of his brethren in the ministry. According to his means he was liberal to the poor, and ready both to aid and give them the best advice and counsel. How much his heart was in the success of missions has already been stated, nor were any exertions in his power to support them remitted until he closed his labours. As a Christian he lived in the exercise of faith; and it was his chief object to glorify God by a holy conversation.

As a preacher he was scriptural and experimental in his statements both of doctrines and duties. He did not attempt to make a display, but to commend himself to every man's conscience in the sight of God. His aim was to win souls to Christ. He ascended the pulpit in the same devotional spirit he cultivated in private, and his seriousness showed that he felt the importance of the message he had to deliver. The esteem in which he was held among the churches where he occasionally laboured, was a proof that he was a work man that needed not to be ashamed, but knew how rightly to divide and exhibit the word of truth.

By his amiable and Christian temper, his humble and unassuming behaviour, his kind and friendly disposition, his candour and benevolence, his uprightness and integrity, his love to all good men, and especially to his fellow-labourers in the gospel, he secured and enjoyed in a high degree their respect and esteem. This appeared during his life, but still more when it pleased God to call him to his rest. All the surrounding ministers felt they had lost a common friend and brother; and showed their sense of their loss by attending and conveying his mortal remains to the grave-the house appointed for all living. "The memory of the just is blessed."

SCRIPTURAL EDUCATION IN IRELAND.

A LETTER TO CAPT. J. E. GORDON, M. P.

SIR,-In your last you inserted an article on the subject of the measures now under the consideration of Government, for the Education of the Irish People. Since I read that article, which I admired for its temperate and manly

tone, I have had put into my hands "A Letter from the Rev. James Carlile, of Dublin, one of the Commissioners of the Board of Education, to a Friend in London; containing some Remarks on the Speech of Capt. J. E. Gordon, M. P., at

Exeter Hall;" which I cannot help regarding as truly worthy of the notice of your readers, and of the Christian public at large. If Irish matters have been bound up in faction and prejudice on the other side of the water, I trust we shall never have these detestable qualities imported into this country.

I beg to inform your readers, in the first place, that Mr. Carlile is minister of the Scotch Church in Dublin, and that he is a man, in talent, character, and zeal for the honour of God, yielding to no clergyman of any community in that city. His orthodoxy, too, is above all suspicion, even with Mr. Gordon himself, and he has long been known as the enlightened and tried friend of Scriptural Education in the Sister Island. You very wisely suspended your judgment upon the measures of Government till you knew what they were, and I think, when you peruse the inclosed Letter to the Member of Dundalk, you will not hesitate for a moment in concluding that he is chargeable with extraordinary misrepresentation of the state of fact. The Letter may be had, I understand, of Hamilton, Adams and Co.

A FRIEND OF IRELAND AND OF
SCRIPTURAL EDUCATION.

"MY DEAR FRIEND,-I have read with astonishment the statement made by Mr. Gordon, respecting the Board of Educa tion now sitting in Dublin, in his speech at Exeter Hall, as reported in the Record' newspaper. The whole statement is one tissue of misrepresentation; and it forms one of those portentous examples of which the present day is so fertile, of persons professing zeal for religion manifesting nearly as little regard to truth and decency in prosecuting their measures as the most unscrupulous of the opponents of religion. What will the English public think of Mr. Gordon, when they are told, that in the proof-sheet which he professed to hold in his hand there was not a single syllable respecting the Virgin Mary, or any allusion made to her? Why did he not read the note, the substance of which he professed to give to the meeting in his own language? I can tell the reason, whether he will or not-it would not have suited his purpose.

"Did no individual at the meeting protest against the unfairness of bringing before the public a proof-sheet, which the honourable gentleman must necessarily

have obtained surreptitiously, and treating it as a document which the Board had actually published? Where was the kind and honourable spirit of my Lord Lorton, that he did not interpose to protect the characters of absent individuals, and to prevent the introduction of an unpublished document, which might, for aught he knew, have been stolen from a private scrutoire? Have the members of the obnoxious Board forfeited the ordinary courtesies of civilized life? In point of fact, the whole weight of the guilt of that proof-sheet lies upon my shoulders. The labour of compiling a book of school lessons from the Scriptures having, by some means or other, devolved upon me, I am in the practice of putting the matter into type before it is examined by the Board, that a proof-sheet may be sent to each of the members, and that so each may have full opportunity of considering it at leisure, before he be required to pass his judgment upon it. While the first half-sheet was thus in the hands of the printer, not adopted by the Board, some of Mr. Gordon's zealous caterers on this side of the water contrived, it seems, to procure a copy, which was forwarded to him, and which he used as the 'Record' describes.

"And now for the amount of guilt which I have incurred in the preparation of this proof-sheet. The facts are these:

The

The authorized version of Genesis iii. 15, stands thus: "I will put enmity be tween thee (the serpent) and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: tr shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.' Mr. Gordon says the Hebrew is HE shall bruise. How he discovers this I know not, as the Hebrew does not distinguish between the neuter and either of the other genders; but, at all events, that is a point in which he is at issue, not with me, but with the translators of the authorized version. Doway version stands thus:-'I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: SHE shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.' To which this note is ap pended—' she shall crush, ipsa, the wo man; so divers of the fathers read this place, conformably to the Latin: others read it ipsum; viz. the seed. The sense is the same; for it is by her seed, Jesus Christ, that the woman crushes the serpent's head.' Now, in the text of our proposed lesson book, I wrote, 'IT shall crush,' agreeably to the English version ;

because it is the reading of the Hebrew ; but I added, in common fairness, the note of the Doway version, as giving the reason why that version reads differently; more especially as the majority of manuscripts read SHE, conformably to the Vulgate. The reference in the note is manifestly to Eve, the woman immediately before spoken of, and not to the Virgin Mary, the introduction of whose name is Mr. Gordon's own invention. The latter clause of the verse I wrote, "Thou shalt lie in wait for his heel;' as being nearer the Hebrew than the authorized version, although, perhaps, a closer translation than either may be found and adopted.

"There is some approach to truth in Mr. Gordon's statement, that Roman Catholics will not receive a book of extracts from the authorized version of

Scripture. They will not receive such a book, which is, by principle, exclusively in the language of that version. But the two Roman Catholic members upon the Board have no difficulty in acting along with the five (not two, as Mr. Gordon asserts) Protestant members, in drawing up a book expressing the sense of the original in the language of either of the two versions, or in language which the Board may prefer to either. Nor do they require any note of a controversial nature to be added to the text. I repeat, that if the note above alluded to is to be regarded as controversial, the introduction of it in the proof-sheet was my doing, without any suggestion from them. I need scarcely add, that the Board have neither the power nor the wish to force any book upon either Roman Catholics or Protestants. They never proposed to render the reception of any particular book a sine quâ non in the schools aided by them. The idea of force being applied is another of Mr. Gordon's inventions.

"Much clamour has been raised about our taking away the Scriptures from Protestants, and refusing them to Roman Catholics. The fact stands thus :-In the first place, we take away the Scriptures from no school whatever; because we have no power to interfere with any school till its conductors, of their own accord, make application to us. In the next place, if the conductors of a school who wish the Scriptures to be read apply to us, we suggest to them to assemble those children whose parents desire that they should read the Scriptures, before the regular hour of school business, or to detain them after it, the hours being left to

their own determination; when they will be at full liberty to do as they choose in that respect that we direct them not to introduce the Scriptures during hours which are appropriated to the common branches of education, because their doing so would exclude children from the benefit of education whose parents are averse to their reading the Scriptures without interpretation; and in the meanwhile we are preparing such extracts from Scripture as will furnish to all the children a large portion of scriptural knowledge, and which, being recommended by the Board, consisting partly of persons in whom Roman Catholics have confidence, will be received by many who would not consent to read the authorised version. The Government plan lays no obstacle of any importance in the way of any children reading the Scriptures whose parents do, bonâ fide, desire that they should read them. But most of the Protestant education institutions attempt to compel Roman Catholic children to read the Bible, under the penalty of forfeiting the whole education afforded by them. Now this appears to me a most pernicious system. The consequence has been, that although a considerable number, as it would appear, of Roman Catholic children have, under these circumstances, attended the Kildare Place schools, no healing influence has flowed from them over the face of the country. The two parties are, perhaps, at the present moment, more embittered than they ever The very Bible, placed in such a position, fails to produce its proper effects. The reading of it is viewed as part of a price paid for education; while no explanation of it being permitted, no application of it made to the consciences of the children, no prayer accompanying it, the enlightening, purifying, elevating, healing influences of it are totally lost. The Bible is thus converted into a party book, and the reading of it into a party symbol; and thus the very food which a merciful God has provided for the souls of men, has, in this country, been converted into the gall of asps.

were.

"You may wonder at the loud and apparently general outcry that is made in Ireland against us. I shall endeavour to explain some portion of it: In the first place, there is a party who would not consent to the circulation of the whole Bible by the Board so long as there is a Roman Catholic upon it, or any other whose religious principles they do not

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approve; among these, I believe, is Mr. Gordon himself, who has seceded from the Bible Society on these principles; so that nothing would satisfy him and his party, but the education of Ireland being placed in their own hands. Secondly, there is a party who would not be satisfied with the introduction of the whole Bible into the schools, unless the Board consisted exclusively of members of the Established Church: this is manifest also from their having kept aloof from the Bible Society ever since its establishment, avowedly because it receives Dissenters on an equal footing with members of the Establishment. Thirdly, there is a party who will be satisfied with no system of education, with or without the Scriptures, which comes forth under the auspices of the present administration.

This is evi

dent from their mingling the subject of education with that of reform, of tithes, and other subjects which have no connexion except as they are viewed in connexion with the measures of the present ministry. Nothing, I should suppose, could have induced noblemen and geutlemen of high character to submit arguments respecting the Bible and scriptural education to assemblies of Orangemen, amidst a display of party flags, and an accompaniment of party tunes, which have long been signals for strife and bloodshed, but their conceiving that they were making out a case against the present Government. Fourthly, There is a party who are stimulated by an hereditary antipathy to Roman Catholics, and who are enraged beyond measure to see a Roman Catholic prelate sitting as a member of a Board, acting under the directions of Government, or any Roman Catholic aiding in the disbursement of the public funds. Fifthly, There is a large party who do not think for themselves, but who have been misled by the exaggerated and distorted representations of these four parties; a good specimen of which you have in Mr. Gordon's speech. These will decrease as the truth becomes known. Any one of these causes of hostility might blind the judgment of a strong man; but when a man is under the influence of several of them at the same moment, you cannot wonder at the extreme violence and extravagance which some have manifested. Sixthly, After all these are accounted for, there is a remnant of highly estimable persons, some of whom decidedly dissent from the Government plan, others of whom stand in doubt about

it; and it has been one of the severest trials of stedfastness to principle that I have ever undergone, that I have felt myself compelled to adopt, and to persevere in, a course which such persons disapprove of. I would not, however, by any means be understood as intimating that I stand alone among those with whom I have been accustomed to co-operate. There are many eminently pious individuals with me, both here and in Britain. I trust my motives are simple and scriptural. If they be otherwise, I pray that God may open mine eyes to my error, and direct me to a course of conduct more consonant to His will. I have no interest in continuing with the Board but duty to the Government of the country, in lending them my best assistance in prosecuting what I conceive to be not only a lawful but a wise and just measure, and the hope of promoting the peace and well-being of a people who have too long been subjected to a treatment which, in every point, has outraged the first principles of Christianity. At a time when the legiti mate authorities of the empire are bearded and threatened by two opposite factions, equally unscrupulous in their measures, and equally regardless of bloodshed, I would not, for all my worldly interests, assume an attitude towards them that might be construed into coldness or disrespect. The King, acting by his representatives, is my father, whom I am bound to reverence and obey in all his lawful commands; if he do wrong, I may entreat him as I would a father; but I must not revile him, nor hold him or his servants up to contempt. The style of language adopted towards Government by some good men, appears to me to be altogether at variance with the precepts and examples of Scripture, on the duty which Christians owe to civil governors, and to be a direct resistance of the ordinance of God. The members of Government are charged and found guilty of dark conspiracies against religious institutions, and against religion itself, upon evidence which any man of feeling would repel with indignation if he heard it pleaded against his own parent.

"To return for a moment to Mr. Gordon-It is somewhat remarkable that he should now manifest so tender a conscience respecting concessions to Roman Catholics, seeing that it was he, even he himself, who procured the publication of the only edition of the Rheims New Testament in a cheap form, without note or

comment, that ever issued from the press. His edition was, I believe, twenty thousand copies. Yes, twenty thousand copies of such texts as these have been sent by him over this kingdom, for the confirmation of Roman Catholics in their own faith:-EXCEPT YE DO PENANCE, YE SHALL ALL LIKEWISE PERISH;' and, 'JACOB WORSHIPPED THE TOP OF HIS ROD.' Yet this gentleman can now stand forward in public meetings and declaim about compromises to Popery; and, moreover, about excluding Roman Catholics from all share in circulating even the authorised version of the Scriptures without note or comment.

"The whole of Mr. Gordon's reasonings upon the number of Roman Catholics reading the Scriptures are, as it appears to me, founded upon the most palpable fallacies. In the first place, he would have his hearers and readers to suppose that all the children attending the Kildare-place schools read the Scriptures. He forgets that only the upper class do so; that the upper class forms but a small proportion of any school, and that multitudes of Roman Catholics who, under various influences, are entered in these schools, are withdrawn before they reach the upper class; many of them, I believe, purposely to avoid it. He argues

also, that, because societies supported by voluntary contributions have succeeded in inducing Roman Catholic parents to permit their children to read the Scriptures, the same societies, supported by Government grants, would produce the same effects. Here, again, he is deceived. If any one of the societies alluded to by him were to receive a Government grant, its whole character, internal and external, would be changed, and would be instantly exposed to the same opposition which the Kildare-place Society met with, and which, with regard to any beneficial effect produced upon Roman Catholics, rendered that society a total failure. How, then, it may be asked, do I expect that similar opposition will not be made to the Boards? I answer, Because Roman Catholics, by the constitution of the Board, are admitted to a share in the management of the public fund appropriated to that object; and when they are thus accosted, in a fair and liberal spirit, I doubt not that they will be found to co-operate with Protestants in diffusing the light even of revealed truth among the people to an extent far beyond what is antici pated.

"I am, your's sincerely, "JAMES CARLILE. "Dublin, March 1, 1832."

APPEAL ON BEHALF OF THE WIDOWS OF FAITHFUL MINISTERS.

Mr. EDITOR,-I read with pleasure, in your January number, the appeal of one of your correspondents on behalf of the widows of Evangelical ministers; and am happy to inform you, if you do not already know, that it has not been made in vain. In three congregations with which I have some acquaintance the subject of increasing the sale of the Magazine has been mentioned, by their respective pastors, with the very best effect; several additional copies of the work have been ordered; and, should the example of the ministers in question be generally followed throughout the country, I doubt not that your means of helping the widow and fatherless will be nearly doubled. May I be allowed, with all affection, to suggest that our several congregations are under peculiarly strong obligations to support a work, the profits of which have realized, for so many years, such a considerable fund for the widows and families of poor

but devoted ministers. The sacrifice of a sixpence per month is so small, that I can scarcely allow myself to believe that any one, not absolutely in want, would scruple laying it out for such a noble and benevolent object, were the fact more generally known, that the Trustees of the Evangelical Magazine annually distribute from eight hundred to a thousand pounds, in sums of five and six pounds, among the widows of faithful ministers of various evangelical communities.

I would venture respectfully to urge all the pastors of our several churches to mention the Evangelical Magazine from their pulpits; both the nature of the work, and the charitable object to which it is devoted, will perfectly justify such a measure. And I will, moreover, add, that in many instances a comfortable addition might thereby be made to the income of some faithful pew-opener, who might be able to get the bookseller's allowance on

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