THE time was when the Baptist ministry, like their primitive predecessors, gave themselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word; now, they are partly the ministers of the word, and partly the ministers of morality, of philanthropy, and of literature. They minister to the lyceum, to the temperance society, the abolition society, and the political meeting. We raise no question but they do much good in this way; but we ask, Is this preaching the word? It is not enough that the professed minister of Christ, who is thus employed, may reply that he is labouring to do good. He might say as much if he were devoting himself to the advancement of chemistry, or of navigation, or to labour on the farm. His commission is to preach the Gospel. That work simply and alone was so vast in the estimation of one of the greatest minds that ever existed on earth, as to force the excla

mation, “Who is sufficient for these things?" Are the ministers of our day more than sufficient, that they should desire additional labours? What is the divine command? "Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them." And who does not

know that a feeble unlettered ministry, wholly consecrated to the work, has been far more successful in winning souls, than a talented and learned ministry, partly devoted to other objects? Ministers, thus dividing their labours and scattering their strength, may, and probably do, suppose that they are not neglecting any part of their appropriate ministerial duties, but they are much mistaken. Their own hearts are not kept; their sermons are consequently deficient in that holy unction which is the fruit of prayer and deep meditation on the things of God; their flocks are not visited and admonished.

You are now gone to a Church that protects itself by arts of subtlety and arms, by violence and persecuting all that are not of their minds; to a Church in which you are to be a subject to the king, so long as it pleases the pope; in which you may be absolved from your vows made to God, your oaths to the king, your promises to men, your duty to your parents in some cases; a Church in which men pray to saints in the same form of words in which they pray to God, as you may see in the offices of saints, and particularly of our lady; a Church in which men are taught by most of the principal leaders to worship images with the same worship with which they worship God and Christ, or him or her whose image it is, and in which they usually

picture God the Father, and the Holy Trinity, to the great dishonour of that sacred mystery, against the doctrine and practice of the Primitive Church, against the express doctrine of Scripture, against the honour of a divine attribute; I mean the immensity and spirituality of the divine nature. You are gone to a Church that pretends to be infallible, and yet is infinitely deceived in many particulars, and yet endures no contradiction, and is impatient her children should inquire into anything her priests obtrude. You are gone from receiving the whole sacrament to receive it but half, from Christ's institution to a human invention, from Scripture to uncertain traditions, and from ancient traditions to new pretences, from prayers which you understood to prayers which you

understand not, from confidence to God to rely upon creatures, from entire dependence upon inward acts to a dangerous temptation of resting too much upon outward ministries, in the external work of sacraments and of sacramentals. You are gone from a Church whose worshipping is simple, Christian, and apostolical, to a Church where men's consciences are loaden with a burden of ceremonies greater than that in the days of the Jewish religion (for the ceremonial of the Church of Rome is a great book in folio), greater, I say, than all the ceremonies of the Jews contained in Leviticus, &c. You are gone from a Church where you were exhorted to read the word of God, the holy Scriptures, from whence you found instruction, institution, comfort, reproof, a treasure of all excellences, to a Church that seals up that fountain from you, and gives you drink by

drops out of such cisterns as they first make, and then stain, and then reach out; and if it be told you that some men abuse Scripture, it is true, for if your priests had not abused Scripture they could not thus have abused you; but there is no necessity they should, and you need not, unless you list, any more than you need to abuse the sacraments or decrees of the Church, or the messages of your friend, or the letters you receive, or the laws of the land, all which are liable to be abused by evil persons, but not by good people and modest understandings. It is now become a part of your religion to be ignorant, to walk in blindness, to believe the man that hears your confessions, to hear none but him, not to hear God speaking but by him, and so you are liable to be abused by him as he pleases, without remedy.

During the scarcity of 1795, after relieving the wants of his immediate neighbourhood, he sent, in a cover, to the London committee, with only these words: "To relieve the wants of the poor of the metropolis," and without any signature, the sum of twenty thousand pounds!

Applying to a gentleman whom he thought rich, but who was really only in circumstances of mediocrity, to stimulate him to give liberally, he made use of this argument: "When gold encircles the heart it contracts it to that degree that no good can be issued from it; but when the pure gold of faith gets into the heart, it expands it so that the last drop of life-blood will flow into any channel of benevolence."

A lady applied to him on behalf of an orphan. After he had given liberally, she said, "When he is old enough, I will teach him to name and thank his benefactor." "Stop,"

SIR, I shall feel much obliged by receiving your opinion upon a subject on which, from various causes, I have bestowed considerable attention.

I have lately been brought into contact with several priests, and students for orders, formerly belonging to the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland, but now converts to the Reformed faith.

For the reception of such persons there is at present no proper institution. When a Protestant clergyman unhappily apostatizes to Rome, the Romish monastic establishments present a ready and accessible retreat, for training the individual for future labours.

There are no such asylums provided for the reception of a convert from Rome to our communion.

Yet it cannot surely be doubted that some asylum ought to exist.

A convert from Romanism, if he have been, as all the priests now are, well grounded in the subtle sophistry by which Popery is supported, has a thorny path to traverse before he can reach the full development of a purer faith.

His conversion may have taken place on some one or more just grounds, ex. gr. the recognition of Scripture as the sole rule of faith, or a perception of the impieties of the mass; and yet, from an early education, so wonderfully warped as that of a Romish ecclesiastic is, there may be great confusion in the mind of the convert as to the fundamentals of the Gospel.

I believe this to be generally the case. I believe that the mental state of a newly awakened Romish convert is one of much bewilderment, and peculiarly solicits the care of his fellow-Christians.

Yet can it be doubted (I speak with peculiar reference to Ireland,) that the most useful agency, under God, for converting Romanists, would be that of their own priests and stuOCTOBER-1847.

dents who have conscientiously embraced the Gospel?

Who can be expected to be so accurately acquainted with the subtle web, which the mystery of iniquity has wound around the minds of the poor Irish, as their own converted priests? They who have chained the mind are surely the most natural instruments to be employed for striking off its fetters.

I believe that we may reasonably expect a peculiar blessing upon the labours of pious and enlightened priests converted from Rome, among their fellow-countrymen.

It was generally by the agency of the conversion of some individuals of the clergy that the Reformation was effected.

It has occurred to me, that a College ought to be established with the above view of receiving and preparing converts from Rome for the ministry of the Established Church.

I do not suppose that such a College could be supported exclusively for the reception of converts; but the course of study might comprehend a two years course of theological training, open to all students for orders in our Church, whether converts from Rome or not,-and equal, in point of value, to what is given at St. Bees' or Lampeter. Such a training, many of the bishops would, I think it is probable, receive as sufficient for ordination.

The peculiar and distinguishing feature of such a college would be the marked attention bestowed on the Romish controversy. Possessing the fundamentals of a sound theological education, the students would be obliged, from the course of study prescribed, to make themselves peculiarly familiar with the grounds of our Protest against the errors of the Church of Rome.

At the present day, such a College, I believe, would be peculiarly valuable for English, as well as Irish, purposes.

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I am not aware that in any of our universities are the means provided of carefully studying the Romish controversy; and I cannot but think that had such instruction been given, as is contemplated in this plan, many of the recent secessions to Romanism would never have taken place.

How gladly would many parents not long ago have welcomed such a place, where their children, slowly tending Romewards, might have the means of carefully and prayerfully studying under a learned and pious tutor, the delusions with which they were beset.

Such a College, I think, ought for many reasons to be in England rather than Ireland.

It occurs to me that generally, the

best plan would be to have such a College near Liverpool, for convenience of access from Ireland-and that it ought to be conducted somewhat on the model of our universities. A principal and tutor should conduct the education. Two classes of students should be received-those who are able to support themselves, who should be received on a scale of payments similar to St. Bees'; and those, such as Romish priests often would be from desertion by their own relations, who must be supported in part at least by eleemosynary contributions.

May I request the favour of your remarks on these views. Yours faithfully,

THE following are extracts from a memorandum addresssd some time ago to James Macgregor, Esq., Chairman of the South-eastern and Continental Steam-Packet Company, by Alexander Swan, Superintendent of Machinery, regarding the running of the Company's boats on Sunday.

"This subject lies without my province, although it borders upon it; it concerns me less than many others; but were my connection with it more remote than it actually is, or my reasons for bringing it forward less substantial, the importance of the subject would itself constitute a valid excuse for directing your attention thus specially towards it. And the fact that, strictly speaking, it is not my business, will just make me feel less reserve in expressing my mind in regard to it, considering myself, for the time, rather as an indifferent party, who craves a favourable hearing for the suggestions he has to throw out, than as one prepared to give evidence upon it.

"With this premise, then, I beg to express my deep conviction, that a greater amount of active service could be performed, if the ships' crews could be insured their Sabbath-day's rest, than by the best possible arrangement without it; and this

increased amount of service would be performed at least as efficiently, and certainly more heartily than at present. This is just equivalent to saying that eight boats could accomplish as much work in six days as a greater number could in seven; and that is what I mean to affirm. By not systematically depriving men of the rest which the human constitution as peremptorily requires, as the law of God demands, you would be so much better served, that it would be equivalent to getting another boat upon the station. By exacting seven days' work, you get less than six days' labour. This is a truth that has been widely verified, and the general correctness of the principle has met with almost universal acceptation; the recent appreciation of it has led, I am informed, to the abolishing of Sunday working in the public works of France. It is just the same with machinery in general, as it is with the men who work it; when officials get fagged, jaded, and dispirited, whether these officials be stokers, sailors, servants, engineers, or officers, the wheels turn heavily, whether by land or water. It is matter of notoriety, that those crafts which are pursued through seven days in the week, are followed by an almost proverbially indolent set

of men, and after a somewhat sluggish, spiritless, and perfunctory fashion.

"God has blessed the Sabbath-day to the restoring of bodily strength, animal spirits, and mental energy, and He has not blessed any other arrangement by which his own institution is sought either to be set aside or amended. Were the hands to be refreshed for their work by the stated recurrence of the Sabbath-day's rest, they would work with spirit like other men, with the hope of rest when their task was done.

"You must not suppose that a day's work of a man is a fixed and constant quantity; under certain circumstances a man will put forth three times his average amount of exertion, without feeling much fatigue; and while I do not intend to propound a recipe to enable any one to extract the maximum quantity of work from his servants, I will tell you plainly how to get the least possible, aud that done with the greatest grudge; just keep them at it Saturday and Sunday, from March to October, and Sunday and Saturday, from October to March, and if you do not succeed, very completely, in damping the spirits, marring the efficiency, and destroying the energy of the best men in the service, and rendering thoroughly useless all the worst, you will at least have the satisfaction of having done what you could.

'Mainly to the effect of Sunday sailing do I attribute the circnmstance that I have had occasion to part, in one way or other, in the last few months, with not fewer than eighteen stokers and coal trimmers, some of them first-rate hands, being equal, in point of number, to the entire complement. It is that which gives force to every other temptation, because it removes the most efficient corrective, if not the absolute antidote. placed beyond the conservative and ameliorating influence of the Sabbath, nothing else but deterioration, more or less gradual, can be expected, and, for the most part, nothing else takes place; and when the men get addicted by degrees to tippling, drunkenness, and smuggling-when they turn indolent, careless, negligent, and insu

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bordinate, you may not suppose that such a process can take place without both risk and loss to the service, nor can anything short of a very unequivocal necessity be deemed a sufficient reason for maintaining a practice that naturally issues in such a result.

"It appears to me, that to one description of evil incidental to Sunday working, or Sunday sailing, that of apparent listlessness and heartlessness for work, or inaptitude for enduring great fatigue, arising from the lassitude and physical exhaustion produced by unintermittent work, the rest of the Sabbath affords a substantial and material antidote; while to the other fruitful sources of evil above-named, a moral remedy, of still greater efficacy, is to be found in a properly spent Sabbath. I do not speak at random, when I talk of the blundering results of Sunday working, or the equally blundering fashion, and tortoise-like speed at which the Sunday workers and Sunday pleasuretakers contrive to sidle through their work on a Monday morning. Put it in my power to apply such a preventive, and such a cure; give me the Sabbath-day, not only for myself and the factory hands, but also for the engine crews, and in due time, with the help of the various engineers, I will give you a very different set of stokers, and that, perhaps, without changing three hands out of the twenty.

"The truth is, I have not arrived hastily at the conclusion that there is scarcely a man in the Company's employ whose services are much worth retaining, who does not heartily detest the Sunday sailing and Sunday working, and it consists with my knowledge that several of those who, in your opinion, and in the estimation of the public, do the greatest credit to the service, and could least be spared, are just the individuals who are most sickened at the slavery of it. It is on broad grounds that I make such an assertion, and yet, I doubt not, some exceptions might be made.

"I do not believe that the plea of necessity is ever urged or ever thought of by three in a hundred of those that travel on Sunday, or could be consistently maintained by one in ten