Entelligence. PRAYER BOOK AND HOMILY SOCIETY. THE Annual Meeting of this Society took place on Thursday, May 3. The Report stated that during the past year 3,326 ships had been visited or revisited in the London and other docks; 913 of them were spoken with particularly, and supplied with books. Sixty-nine masters held divine service on board their vessels regularly; 799 entirely neglected that duty; 1,256 Prayerbooks in English, German, and French, with several copies of the Homilies, had been sold to sailors. More than one hundred masters of vessels in the coal trade had signed a solemn agreement to hold Divine service regularly; and much usefulness had resulted from conversing with bargemen and other canal navigators, and distributing Prayerbooks amongst them. The Homilies distributed in Ireland had been of the greatest use in calling the attention of Papists to the errors of their church. Interesting accounts were given with respect to the East and West Indies, Upper and Lower Canada, Spain, and other parts of the globe. The total issue of books during the past year was 164,386. The total issue from the commencement was 2,214,718. The receipts amounted to £2,466. 13s. 10d. and the expenditure to £2,539. 19s. leaving a balance due to the Treasurer of £73. 5s. 2d. besides which the Society was under engagements amounting to £1,513. 10s. 4d. USEFULNESS AMONG SAILORS. Some The Rev. E. Sidney having lived on a cure near the coast, was able to answer the question, Of what use is the Prayer-book and Homily Society?? Sone years ago he recommended the agents to keep a record of the ships they visited. He held in his hand two Reports made by a retired lieutenant who laboured on the coast of Yarmouth. time ago a census was made of the number of ships on board which prayers were read either statedly or occasionally, and there was not quite one in two hundred. By these Reports it appeared that now there were 110 out of 210. That alone was enough to encourage them to go on. God had greatly blessed the Labours of the agents among the bargemen. It was scarcely possible for the Meeting to conceive that in the midst of a civilized and Christian country there could exist a number of persons so thoroughly brutalized as these people; but such was the fact. They were, however, improving, and becoming awakened to some sense of religious duty. A like improvement was taking place amongst our agricultural population. He had recently asked a large farmer in an eminent agricultural district to tell him honestly what was the feeling amongst his class towards the church. He replied with great earnestness, Rising! Rising!' He lately saw two men and a boy sitting under a hedge during a shower of rain, and the boy was reading a homily tract. He asked the men if they understood it, and they answered, 'perfectly.' The boy had been since taken into a confidential situation, and bad conducted himself so well, that his master, during his illness, had committed to his care the whole management of his business. Thus the Church of England was exercising her influence over the minds of the people. He felt strongly and increasingly every day the value of the church, because she was based on the Scriptures, and on the Scriptures alone; and while she stood on that foundation, she contained the elements of a spiritual life and permanence. Her temporals might be taken away, but her spirituals never could be destroyed. Some years ago the Government talked of taking away the court of the City of London, and the Lord Mayor asked, 'Can you take away the Thames?' So, it might be asked, Who can take away the spirituals of the church? In an account of the sufferings of the martyrs it is related, that while a good man was under LONDON SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIANITY FROM the Report read at the Annual MR. WOLFF'S The Rev. Mr. Wolff, after some previous observations said, I had established, with the kindness and support of my most excellent friend and brother Schlienz, divine service, according to the Church of England, in the Church Missionary Society House, at Malta, which he continued after my departure from Malta for England, in 1835. I assisted him again in 1836, and, beside this, lectured in his house on week days; and then set out for Egypt, where I arrived for the tenth time. Rabbi Mercado, the Jewish Rabbi at Cairo, called on me and said, that he was delighted to observe that I not only believe that the Messiah appeared in humiliation, but that he will come again in glory, and that he and his congregation wish to see that doctrine verified by passages of the New Testament. I therefore showed to him Acts i. 11; Acts ii. 30; xv. 14; Luke i. 32, 33; Revelation xi. 15; xix. to xx. 6, &c. On my arrival upon Mount Sinai, I found that the Hebrew New Testament, which I left there in 1821, was the means of the conversion of a Jew from Smyrna, who came there, and read it, and was baptized by the Greek Archimandris; and the Arabic Bible which I left there was read by the descendants of the Bulgarians, sent there by the Emperor Justinian in the year 500 A. C. and who had, in the course of time, become Mahomedans, but by the reading of the New Testament, several of them were induced to return to the religion of their forefathers. I returned from Mount Sinai to Egypt, where the Church Missionary Society had JULY 1838. liary Societies. From Ireland the sum subscribed was £1,259. 2s. 11d. towards the funds of the Society, and £214. towards building a church at Jerusalem, being an increase of £436. from the preceding year's subscription. TRAVELS. several. missionaries, who are the only persons in Egypt who promote education combined with religious instruction. If one wishes to see the evil consequences of education without religion one must go to Egypt. Education without religion is the art of knowing to practise and treat iniquity with hypocritical gentleness and politeness, and the art of dissolving the ties not only between sovereign and subjects, but also between father and son. I then embarked for Jiddah, and proceeded to Abyssinia, where I met my friend Mr. Gobat in such an awful state that I went back with him to Jiddah; and after Gobat had embarked for Europe, I went, previous to my return into Abyssinia, to Sanaa, which is the Uzal mentioned in Genesis x. 27, and which is still called Uzal by the Jews of Palestine and Yemen. I had taken with me on that journey a servant, who was a German by birth, and whom I met with in the house of Gobat, in Abyssinia. When we arrived at Zabeed, and were informed that the road to Sanaa was dangerous, my servant forsook me, and I not having any assistant, and the Arabs of the mountain of Borro towards Sanaa being very bigoted, I received nothing to eat, and lived three days on grass, till I came first among the Nazram-formerly Christians, then among the children of Hobab, the descendants of Hobab, the father-in-law of Moses. These children of Hobab observe outwardly the Mahomedan religion, but are, like the Rechabites, whom they consider as a branch of their tribe, 2 N Jews in religion. Arriving near Sanaa, the city was besieged by the Rechabites. I desired the caravan to stop in a village near it, until I had had an interview with them. I went to them; they were encamped upon a mountain near Sanaa. I took my Bible with me, which I always found to be the best passport among all classes of people. I told them that I was a descendant of Moses, and that I had met twelve years ago one of their nation in Mesopotamia. They immediately remembered that I was Joseph Wolff who encountered one of their tribe, Meosa by name, in Mesopotamia. They, like their brother in Mesopotamia, pointed out to me Jeremiah xxxv. 6, to the end. I stopt among them several days, and then entered Sanaa with the whole caravan. The Imam, i. e. Prince of Sanaa, gave me a fine shawl and robe of honour, as a reward for having effected the entrance of the caravan. I saw then the Jews, who have lived there from the time of the Babylonian captivity, and declined to accept the invitation of Ezra to return to Palestine, for they said that they knew from the prophets that the Messiah will come again and triumph, and then they shall return. They explain the prophecies regarding the Messiah exactly as the Christians do, without knowing any thing of Jesus of Nazareth. I circulated the word of God there, baptized several of them, and then the Jews sent one Jew with me back to Mocha, to assist me on the road. On my return to the mountain the Wahabites came down and horsewhipped me for having given them books in which the name of Mahomed was not found. I then returned to Abyssinia, but, arriving at Hodeydah, and again at Jiddah, I was so ill, that I was compelled to give up my journey to Abyssinia, I therefore went to Bombay to recover my health, and intended then to enter Africa via Zanzebar, but the physicians advised me to give up Africa for that year. I therefore set out for St. Helena, where I experienced the kindness of Major-General Middlemore, and then proceeded to New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington. Bishop Doane ordained me, and a Jew of great talent was converted to Christ. At Washington I had the privilege of addressing the Members of both Houses of Congress in the Congress Hall, and am now again in the circle of my family at Richmond. LONDON HIBERNIAN SOCIETY. THE Day, Sunday, and Adult Schools of this Society now amount to 2,422; communicating instruction to 139,091 persons. The Day Schools amount to 1,143, of which 668 are under the patronage of clergymen of the Established Church, and 389 under the superintendence of Lay Patrons. The Inspectors and Scripture Readers amount to 67; and 23,279 English, and 41 Irish Bibles or Testaments have been distributed by the society in the last year. The receipts amounted to £9,991. 10s. 9d. and the expenditure to £10,902. 5s. 3d. VALUE OF THE SOCIETY. The Bishop of Derry said that he felt constrained, by a two-fold motive, to lend his sincere, though feeble aid to the society. He was influenced, first by duty, and next` by gratitude, in advocating its interests. He felt it an indispensable duty to advance the inalienable rights of his countrymen to the possession and enjoyment of the unmutilated word of God. And as he had long known this society, and experienced its beneficial operations in Ireland, he should be ashamed not to show gratitude for what it had done for the poor of Ireland. It had, in fact, benefitted them temporally and spiritually; it taught them how to act in the concerns of this life, and led them to aspire to another and eternal state, where their light afflictions of time would be found not worthy to be compared to the glory to be revealed. IMPORTANCE OF SCRIPTURAL EDUCATION. The Rev. Edwin Sidney observed that the devout thanks of the assembly were due to Almighty God for the blessings which have followed the exertions of this society. Its labours have been most successful in cultivating the vast moral wilderness of Ireland, a wilderness over run, indeed, with a multitude of thorns, but whenever these are cleared away, giving birth to flowers of heavenly fragrance, and spiritual beauty and loveliness. The Protestants of the sister island contain among them men of surpassing piety of heart and exemplary unity of feeling, and I have it on the authority of one present at the religious meetings in Dublin only a few weeks ago, that there were assembled together no less than five hundred ministers of the gospel, of whom it might be truly said that they appeared to be animated but with one feeling, namely, that of a desire, "with one mind and one mouth," to glorify the God of Israel. What may not be expected from such a demonstration, and how much thankfulness ought we to feel at receiving these tidings? Of all the countries in the world, none is of deeper historical interest than Ireland. This land was once the seat of piety and learning, and multitudes flocked to her to acquire erudition from every quarter of Europe. But now its literature is in lamentable obscurity, her once bright flame of religion is darkened by the shadows of Popery, which by the help of God your society is eminently qualified to assist in dispelling. Under an agency so effective, by the diffusion of the word of life, by the scriptural education of the people, great things will be speedily effected, to the honour of God, and the help of our fellow-subjects in those benighted regions. It is pleasing to see that the Roman Catholics send their children in such numbers to schools where teachers instruct them out of an undivided Bible. To give less than the whole Bible, this association will not sanction, nor take away any portion of the perfect entire of the volume of inspiration. The folly of the contrary course is evident to the mind acquainted with the importance of knowing all the will of God, and the perfect way to eternal peace. An honest Irishman was asked when he had joined the Protestant faith, how he could possibly tell that he was right?' Suppose, said the inquirer, 6 you were told by two separate persons that two different ways each led to Dublin, how would you know which was right? and when you are told by the Protestants and Roman Catholics of two different ways to eternal happiness, how do you know the Protestant is right? Why,' replied the honest Irishman, with the readiness and quaintness of his nation, if I had the map in my pocket, I could look and see which of the men told me right as to the road, and I have the Bible in my pocket to tell me the Protestant road is the right one to heaven.' The argument of the poor Irishman was good, and it is a principle of your society, to refer all to the word of God. But hence also appears the necessity that it should be entire; for, suppose the map had been cut up into slips, and pieces of it given at pleasure to the inquirer as to the road, what hope could he have had of finding his way? Just so it is with giving only part of the perfect word, the map of the everlasting way, the sure guide to eternal felicity. We must have it whole, as the Lord gave it, and suffer no portion thereof to be withheld by man. If every teacher gives only what portion of it he pleases, who will feel secure as to its guidance into the unerring path? Happily, I say, vast numbers of Roman Catholics are to be found in your schools. It is said to be deemed by some of them a mortal sin to attend a Protestant place of worship of any denomination without confessing it, but only a venial one to send children to the schools, and therefore they abound in them, as you have this day heard, and will, it is hoped, be eminently profited thereby. The fundamental principles of this society are such as must, by the divine assistance, ultimately prevail over the errors of Popery. They go on extending a gentle, but efficient, influence over thousands for their best good. The declamatory denunciations of the errors of the Roman Catholics, are not the most likely to confute and disown them. No, the silent effectual spread of truth, the education of the young in the way of life will be found, without depreciating the value of elaborate discussions of the doctrines of the Catholics, to be the surest mode of convincing them of their mistakes, and of diffusing an abiding knowledge of pure Christianity. This presents an antagonist force that must prevail, for it has no alternative but to conquer or perish in the struggle; and this can never be, since it contains all the essential elements of victory and triumph. Popery may appear to be lifted up just now, but there is a wide difference between it being held high in the hand of the Divine wrath as a Scourge of the nations for their sins, and its being lifted up to manifest its imperfections; and that these being shown, it may be cast down in judgment, broken to atoms, and its fragments scattered to the winds. That day seems to be approaching, and whenever it shall fall, it will be a time of blessedness and peace. EFFECTS OF, AND OBSTACLES TO UNSHACKLED BIBLE READING. The Rev. Dr. Cooke begged to call the attention of the meeting to that phrase in which they announce themselves decidedly in favour of an unshackled scriptural education. Men were too often decided just as the weathercock was decided, to point in one direction just as long as the wind. The wind shifts, they wheel; the head to-day, where the tail was yesterday; every thing by turns, and nothing long,' fixed to nothing but change, and surrendered to change merely to avoid an inconvenience, or to secure an interest. But this meeting repudiate this venal boxing of the compass of opinions. They have come here, knowing the opinions of this society, and he might presume they came prepared to affirm and sustain them. They pledged themselves to be decidedly of opinion, that no system of popular education could contribute to the happiness or prosperity of the land, unless it embraced the whole word of God. Let him, then, remind the meeting of their pledge of decision; but let him warn them against that species of decision which is the mere fashion of a place and of an hour, which follows after variety as the beau and the belle follow the tailor and the milliner, exhausting the rainbow in search of colours, and the forest in search of shapes. Let the meeting rather learn their lesson of steadiness of principle from the stanch imperturbable Quaker, whose coat retains its colour, and his hat its extent, and who is sure to come into fashion at least once in a century of years, when the vanity of the world has exhausted its century of inventions, and returns again to what is antiquated, to set out again in the search of what is new. He did not mean for a moment to reject the idea of improvement on the modes of Roman education, he merely meant to condemn all tampering with the principles of education. For, just as immemorial experience had settled the elements and principles of morality, and embodied them in the ethical proverbs and" maxims of all civilised lands, so had the word of God, which was divine wisdom, superadded to human observation, settled the immutable principles of instruction, and embodied them in a few announcements, which none could misunderstand who were willing to be taught of God. Ireland, whose benefit the meeting had in view, Ireland might in act be often barbarous, but in mind was not barbarian. Whoever supposed that it was an uneducated nation, knew just nothing of that nation. The evils of Ireland did not originate from ignorance of reading, but from ignorance of what it was good to read, whilst the power of reading, without a controlling power above it, was but like the gale in the sails of a ship without a rudder, a power to impel, not a power to guide, and by whose mightier forthputting she must finally founder at sea, or be wrecked upon the shore. Besides, however, the education of literature, which Ireland, as compared with other places, did not want, there was the education of habit, which Ireland did want. How many practical virtues depended upon the early formation of habits of industry, order, subordination to law, and respect for authorities. But the education of principle was the foundation, the topstone, and the cement of the other two. This was the education by which Britain prospered; this was the education by which Ireland must be sayed. He could well imagine an English audience almost pestered out of patience by the stories of Ireland, and peevishly exclaiming, Now, what do the people want?' So far as the Hibernian Society was concerned |