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cerning Jesus Christ. There are some number of secret disciples."

We add a translation of a letter recently received by this missionary from one who was a learned Rabbi among the Jews:

"This day, the 29th, Afternoon.-Beloved and HONOURABLE BROTHER,-You have enlightened my eyes, that I should not die in darkness. It is, indeed, my duty to call you father, even more than if you were my earthly father; for he gave me earthly things which soon perish as the grass, and are gone when a little wind riseth, but you have brought me to everlasting life. You are my father indeed. I cannot express the obligation which, as a son, I feel to you. Although I call you brother, as to a dear father I write. I have now put on Christ. I was baptized at Oxford* on last Sabbath, with my young friend, your son in the Gospel. I have no words to express myself, but I now beg of you, as you have brought me to the truth, not to lose sight of me. You have received a letter from the minister who baptized us. Tell our brethren of the riches of Christ, argue with them that they should look to Him for salvation--even to Him whom our fathers crucified, but whom God has risen from the dead, and given to Him all power. Our fathers have despised Him, and called Him impostor. He had not where to lay His head. At last they scourged Him, and crucified Him between two wicked men. But He obeyed the holy will of His Father. Oh! the fountain of all love! for, after all, He will forgive them when they will trust in Him. Farewell, with your wife and children, from your very thankful brother,

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To the Lord alone must the praise be rendered for whatever benefit has resulted from this missionary's appointment. The London City Missionary Magazine.

APPEAL

ON BEHALF OF THE SCOTTISH ASSOCIATION FOR THE RELIEF OF CHILDREN ATTENDING SCRIPTURAL SCHOOLS IN IRELAND.

HAVING lately spent a considerable time examining the Schools in connexion with the Irish Church Missions in

He fled there to avoid persecution from those of his own household and connexions.

Dublin, Galway, Achill, and Connemara,—and being deeply impressed with a sense of their great value and their great necessities, I venture to make the present Appeal on behalf of the above Association, instituted for the purpose of assisting them and other similar institutions.

The Irish Church Mission Schools are spread nearly over the whole of Ireland. Wherever a Mission station is planted, schools are also established. These schools form an essential, and one of the most important parts of that system organized for the conversion of the Irish Roman Catholics, the astonishing success of which is the theme of admiration over the whole kingdom. Thousands of poor destitute children, the children of Romish parents, are there instructed in Gospel truth, over the whole length and breadth of the island. When they leave the school, they go out thoroughly imbued with Protestant principles. From personal observation and searching examination, I can bear unqualified testimony to the excellence and Scriptural character of the education there given. I have found multitudes of half-naked and half-starving children possessed of an amount of Scriptural knowledge, which not more delighted than astonished me. I have found many examples of poor children there, of whom I should not be afraid to say, that they are mighty in the Scriptures. On points of controversy especially, they are wonderfully instructed. Confine the controversy to the Word of God, and children will be found, in these schools, capable of refuting all the arguments of the priests. They have done so again and again. These schools are, therefore, every year sending forth multitudes of young people thoroughly instructed in the truth as it is in Jesus, and thoroughly imbued with Protestant principles and Protestant feeling. Let the Society for Irish Church Missions but have the means of supporting and extending them, and they will infallibly change the whole aspect of the country. England and Scotland are almost as much interested in this result as Ireland herself. The flood of ignorance, vice, and pauperism, which Popery pours out of Ireland into our large towns and manufacturing districts, is intolerable. These schools are drying up the flood at its fountain-head. Popery is the plague-spot and the weakness, not of Ireland alone, but, through Ireland, of Great Britain. These schools are washing it off.

But mark this: All these schools are essentially ragged schools. The children must be fed, and, if possible, clothed as well as educated. They cannot possibly come to school

without receiving food there. They are starving, and must go and beg, or steal, or gather sea-weed, or shell-fish, or other refuse, to allay the cravings of nature, unless they receive a small quantity of food at school. A miserably insufficient mess of Indian corn meal porridge without milk, is all the schools pretend to give; but this they must give, or the children cannot come, or would come in a condition unfit to receive instruction. The supplies which the schools are able to afford are altogether insufficient, as is evident from the miserable rags, and the wan and haggard countenances of multitudes of the children. Now, many of these humble but invaluable seminaries are on the point of sinking for want of means to continue even this wretched supply. Fellow-Christians, and fellow-Protestants! this must not be.

Mark this again: The Society for Irish Church Missions, whose energy and zeal have supplied the desert places of Ireland, to so great an extent, with the means of grace,with missionaries, teachers, and Scripture readers,-cannot, from the very terms of its constitution, give one farthing for temporal relief. It can build schools, and pay salaries, but not purchase a pound of meal or potatoes. And this, we frankly acknowledge, is a wise and prudent regulation, for many reasons; but so much the more necessity is there that this essential deficiency be supplied from other sources. In districts where Protestants are numerous, and tolerably wealthy, this is not difficult. But, alas! in those very localities where the schools are most required, this is not the case. There are vast districts in which, until the Irish Society and the Church Mission Society began their labours, there were no Protestants at all; where, though now increasing in numbers, they are in extreme poverty themselves; and where the original Protestants, where there are any, are few, timid, irresolute, or indifferent. Hence the absolute necessity for such assistance as that which is offered by "The Scottish Association for the Relief of Children attending Scriptural Schools in Ireland." The Ladies who compose this Association, belonging to various denominations of Christians, deeply impressed with the importance of the object in view-sympathizing with the faithful missionaries and teachers connected with the Irish Mission in their almost overwhelming difficulties-grieved at heart to hear of the dangers to which the schools are exposed, and the sufferings of the unhappy children of the poor in the West of Ireland-and zealous to give practical effect to the invitation of their common Lord and Saviour:

"Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not,"-venture to make this earnest Appeal to their fellowProtestants in Edinburgh. They have already been able to afford valuable assistance to the schools at Oughterard and elsewhere; and they have just exhausted their little funds by sending a small sum to the schools in Tuam, which are almost in a sinking state, and stand in absolute need of still greater assistance. To those who love the Bible-who love their country-who are acquainted with the wretchedness and ignorance of the Irish Roman Catholic population of our own towns-who would wish to dry up the fountain of such a national evil-who sympathize with the poor, and pity the children of the destitute,-to these, they are confident, they will not appeal in vain. They have requested me, as one intimately acquainted with the circumstances of the case, to certify the Scriptural character and national importance of these schools, as well as the urgent necessity in which they stand of assistance, independent of the noble Society which established them. With this request I, with all my heart, comply; and add my fervent prayer, that the Spirit of God may dispose His people to come zealously to their help.

12 DRUMMOND PLACE, 7th Dec., 1854.

WM. ROBERTSON, Minister of New Greyfriars.

GOOD NEWS FROM THE FEEJEE ISLANDS.

A FRIEND has sent us the following communications :11th January 1855.

THE MANSE,

MY DEAR SIR,-By the kind permission of the gentleman to whom it is addressed, I am enabled to send you the enclosed extract from Mr. Calvert's letter, which, as containing recent and authentic intelligence of the great change going on in the Feejee Islands, may perhaps be of some use for your Juvenile Record.

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Mr. Calvert is the missionary whose wife you may possibly recollect* was instrumental, a few years ago, in rescu

See "Horrors of Heathenism," at pages 14 and 26 of last year's volume of the Juvenile Record.

ing several persons from becoming the victims of a cruel cannibalism in the same country in which, through God's blessings on her husband's labours, they are now "bowing before the Lord" of peace and love.

Extract from a Letter by the Rev. James Calvert, Missionary in the Feejee Islands.

VEWA, FEEJEE, 4th May 1854. MY DEAR SIR,-In December last I wrote to you, when it was my painful duty to tell you of wars, and strangling, and cannibalism. Now I have the heartfelt satisfaction to inform you, that our mutual friend Tui Fejee, now Vunimalu, bowed before the Lord last Sabbath at Bau with upwards of three hundred of his people. It was a most pleasing sight. All were dressed-many of them in Tonga cloth. He was preceded by his grey-headed priest with a long beard. His children stood, with many others, in front. His wives, chief women not a few, and others, on the right hand. He and the male attendants were on the left. All were orderly, serious, and attentive. Evils of long standing and great magnitude, which we could not get removed, were thus done away with at a stroke. It was the commencement of good, which shall spread with great rapidity, and which shall endure after this short life is ended.

You know my long and anxious concern which, thank God, I have been enabled to maintain amidst many and various discouragements, for the salvation of the chief. On that day he abandoned heathenism. He seriously, I doubt not sincerely, became a worshipper of the only living and true God. I trust that his repentance will be hearty, by which he will forsake sin, and that he will unfeignedly believe, trusting with his heart on the Lord Jesus Christ so as to obtain the forgiveness of sins.

Now the way will be plain for the speedy spread of the Gospel in Feejee. We greatly need an increased number of labourers. We have despatched the mission schooner for native teachers from Lakemla and the Friendly Islands. We have just printed a new edition of 3000 copies of the New Testament. The Word of God is eagerly sought and carefully read by the natives.

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May 20th.-On the 7th about 600 assembled for worship at Bau. The chief is very decided. He has got a bell to announce family worship, so that all from the outhouses may assemble.

The aspect of affairs in Feejee is greatly changed.

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