his arduous and difficult work in Achill. Repeatedly has he been made to feel that in daring to war against the abomination that maketh his country desolate, he must wrestle not only against flesh and blood, stimulated to offer personal violence, and to seek his very life, but also against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places, countenancing and encouraging the madness of the infatuated people. Still he went on; and having established both a church and school in that island, where Satan dwelleth, he recently added the formidable engine of a printing-press. A newspaper called the Achill Missionary Herald,' was set on foot, published, and circulated from that spot. The usual stamps were purchased, and every thing done to legalize it as one of the regular journals of the country, while its extremely moderate price ensured an extensive circulation to the important truths contained in it. By an act of the most arbitrary power, availing itself of a doubtful right reserved to the existing government, this newspaper, thus protected by the Stamp Office, has been seized at the Post Office, arrested in its circulation, and charged as a letter to those who have a right to receive it free of postage. We earnestly call on our friends to interest themselves in the case; to uphold Mr. Nangle in his just and difficult course; and to assert on his behalf the rights which, if we see not to it, will soon be wrested away, until Protestantism itself is no longer an object of toleration.

THE PROTESTANT.

I NEVER Write these words at the head of my paper without experiencing a thrill of almost impatient anxiety. And, "Is there not a cause?" Months glide away, years roll on, and events succeed each other like drops from an unseen fountain descending on the rock below. Alas! these continued droppings, which few of us care to mark, are quietly wearing away the stone on which our fortress stands; and because they do not thunder down in the form of a cataract, we take no heed to dam up the stream, or to renew the defensive works that once presented a barrier to its course. I have sometimes thought of enumerating the various particulars illustrative of the effect produced; but it is a discouraging task: for, foremost on the list must stand that lukewarmness of spirit which repels with chilling indifference, or insults with unseemly levity the attempt to exhibit things as they are. The drops that fall upon our rock are not those of the pure element that represents the influence of the Holy Spirit, gently, gradually, perseveringly descending on the hardened heart of man, until, step by step, the blessed work is accomplished. It is not the sprinkling that subdues and cleanses; it is the trailing of a tainted fluid, which defiles while it corrodes—which, eating a portion away, deadens and corrupts the remainder, rendering it an easier prey to the next invasion. Truly

may we say that blindness in part has happened to our Israel; and the part so blinded comprises, as in the expiring Jewish church, the great majority of the whole. There is indeed a remnant; and concerning them we can but ask, “ By whom shall Jacob arise ? for he is but small."

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For a long while past, the cunning perseverance of the Romish party, aided by our criminal carelessness, has prevailed to engross to themselves the appellation that no tortures could induce our pious forefathers to bestow on them. Let it be remarked in company, Such a one is a Catholic, and every body present will understand it to signify that he is a member of the church of Rome. I am always willing to attribute this misnomer either to ignorance of the meaning of the word, or forgetfulness of the last Sunday's presumed confession of "one catholic and apostolic church;" but many reject these excuses, saying they are aware it is not the correct term, but they use it from habit, or for brevity. Poor apologies these, from such as have studied the admonitory warnings of scripture against rashness of speech! 'What is there in a name?' they ask: the answer is, much every way. Names represent things; and he who wantonly misapplies the one, is on the road to misapprehension of the other. Mark the progressive effect of these minute droppings: war has recently been declared against the name of Protestant; and men there are at this day officiating in the church of England, unscathed by ecclesiastical censure, who do not scruple openly to reject it, and to assert that the Reformation ought never to have taken place: that our separation from the apostate church of Rome was a sin of schism; and that there

needed but some few curtailments and improvements in her outward seemings to render her a perfect church. In other words, they hold that the washing of a portion of the paint from off the harlot's cheek, and the throwing of a decent veil over her brazen brow, would have identified her as the chaste, and humble, and undefiled spouse of the Lord Jesus Christ! If this be not a blasphemous insult to HIM, I know not what deserves to be so called.

There is nothing in a name, so long as that name be a title of honour conferred on the enemies of our Master: but a name rises into vast importance, and is to be most emphatically repudiated, when it implies, on our part, a decided separation from and opposition to those his enemies! Indeed, the latter is the inevitable consequence of the former; and many a smile of derision, many a frown of rebuke have I endured, while witnessing, at all times and in all places, for a long course of years, that so it would at last appear. The time has arrived, and He who said to his Israel," I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine," is perhaps overruling the madness of these infatuated men to the severing of his servants from among his foes, preparatory to putting honour upon them—the honour it may be of the dungeon and the stake-even in the very same name that their fathers gloried in, as the badge of their protest against the Antichrist of Rome. Is it then a marvel that the word should come home to my bosom, fraught with recollections and anticipations which bid me rejoice with trembling, while I consecrate a portion of my poor offering to the Christian Ladies of my country, by that sacred and honoured title, THE PROTESTANT, and that they fling a shade of

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anxious uneasiness upon my spirit, amid the efforts of a deluded sect of false teachers in our own church, to wrest the pledge from our relaxed grasp?

Something must needs be done to counteract the spreading venom. Popery must be unmasked, and a higher power than man's invoked to achieve the re-conquest. Many methods have been suggested, several adopted, but all with limited success. The Reformation Society was the first to break the ground, and its steady progress, aided by publications devoted to the same object, has done much in each quarter of these islands. More recently, the Protestant Association has arisen, putting a vigorous hand to the plough, and embracing a wider range than the former, inasmuch as it meets the enemy in the compound character peculiar to that wily mystery, a political system shrouding its temporal despotism in the robe of spiritual infallibility. The extension of this sociéty is a point of the utmost importance, but before men can see the necessity for such an engine of defence, their eyes must be opened to behold the perils that surround them. The platform and the press will combine their powers in vain, until the spirit of prayer be poured out, and the Lord intreated first to awaken, then to save us. To this end, it is most desirable that in every neighbourhood where a few have been aroused from their lethargy, prayermeetings should be held, with an especial regard to the humbler classes, and a revival of true Protestantism in the land made the subject of united supplication. Let all who be thus minded resolve at once to commence, whether alone, or with a single companion; whether within the circle of their own homes, or amid a group of cottages, or in a more extended