CORRESPONDENCE. ANNUAL MEETINGS OF THE BAPTIST UNION OF IRELAND. To the Editor of the Baptist Magazine. DEAR SIR,-Knowing the deep interest you take in the proceedings of the baptist denomination generally, I venture to present you with a brief notice of the annual meetings of the Baptist Union of Ireland, held in Dublin on the 24th, 25th, and 26th of August. For several weeks previously to the time appointed for our meetings they were looked forward to, both by the brethren in the country and the friends in this city, with feelings of anticipated pleasure, and I rejoice to say their expectations were fully realized. The universally expressed opinion is, that they were decidedly the best attended, the most interesting, and the most cheering ever held in connexion with the baptist churches in this country. When the ministers first met together on the morning of the 24th, with their beloved friend the secretary of the Baptist Irish Society at their head, in the vestry of the baptist chapel, Lower Abbey Street, they reminded one of a faithful and united band of soldiers after a hot engagement with an enemy. One of their most ardently attached and universally beloved officers had fallen in the deadly struggle. True his name was on the roll, but it was referred to only to deplore his loss-to call forth the sorrowful sigh, and to embalm his precious memory with the tear of brotherly affection and heartfelt sympathy. After this natural and sympathizing pause, the silence was broken with expressions of grateful acknowledgment for the preservation of each other to Him to whom the "shields of the earth belong." They had been all less or more exposed to peril; they had been associated with scenes of famine and pestilential disease, the arrows of death had been falling around them, while they reposed safely under the "shadow of the Almighty." As they thought on the scenes through which they had been called to pass, and felt that they were permitted once more to assemble together as the living to praise God, their happy and grateful countenances presented a striking contrast to the sorrowful appearance exhibited by some of them a few months before. Then they were under the dark and lowering cloud; now the sun had emerged from under it, and chased its terrors away, and the heavens had once more regained their wonted cheerful aspect. Our brethren in coming up from their various localities to the metropolis had passed through "pastures clothed with flocks and valleys covered with corn." It seemed to them as if Jehovah himself had opened the windows of heaven and poured out a blessing. After our usual prayer-meeting at ten o'clock, we proceeded to business, and during the successive days this was attended to, the greatest harmony and good feeling prevailed, there was not a jarring note in the whole. Each one seemed to vie with his brother in endeavouring to advance the cause of God, and to diffuse a spirit of love and union throughout the whole body. All our services were found refreshing, but I must not trespass on your pages by entering into a minute detail. The public meeting on the last evening was well attended by Christians of various denominations, and we were honoured with the presence and valuable assistance of our respected friends the Rev. W. B. Kirkpatrick, the highly esteemed minister of the Scotch Church, Mary's Abbey, and the Rev. Dr. Urwick, well known to most of your readers as the beloved pastor of the independent church assembling in York Street in this city. I must not attempt a sketch of the speeches delivered on this occasion, but to me it was one of the most interesting and agreeable public meetings I have ever been privileged to attend, and I should be delighted to witness such a meeting in your metropolis on behalf of the Baptist Irish Society. The valuable secretary of that society said to me afterwards, "I wish I had every one of the committee here to-night, that they might see for themselves." Before concluding this brief account I would just add that to many of us the most deeply interesting and encourag ng meeting was the one at which the lett'ers from the churches were read. In almost every locality good had been accomplished. The internal state of the churches was more cheering, and considerable numbers had been added to the Lord. In my opinion Ireland is white already to harvest. Never were there such openings for missionary enterprise in this benighted land. Were it not for encroaching on your pages I could furnish abundant proof of this assertion from the unquestionable statements of the agents of the Congregational Union of Ireland, from the interesting facts brought forward by one of the Wesleyan itinerant missionaries at their last annual meeting held in this city, as well as from personal knowledge. Prejudice has been subdued by British benevolence; would to God that the same benevolence would send us a few righthearted preachers of the gospel. God has honoured our brethren in England in preparing the soil for the reception of the heavenly seed; may he honour them still more highly in sending forth sowers to cast that seed into the ground. I remain, dear Sir, very respectfully yours, COLONIZATION. To the Editor of the Baptist Magazine. Wem, Salop, Oct. 15, 1847. SIR,-In Chambers's Edinburgh Journal or the month of September, page 185, there is an interesting article on the founding of a new colony for Scottish emigrants belonging to the Free Church of Scotland, at Otago in the middle island of New Zealand. Bucks. It is conducted, we believe, under the superintendence of Mr. and Mrs. Hobson; and its claims to public support should have been presented to the attention of our friends earlier, had we possessed the requisite information. We are informed that applications are very numerous and painfully urgent. There is nothing but the want of sufficient subscriptions to prevent the doubling the number of pupils immediately. It may be advantageous to some of our ministering brethren who have families, if we add, that Mrs. Upton of St. Albans, who has a lady's school, receives the daughters of ministers on exceedingly liberal terms; and we trust that both she and Mr. Upton will excuse us for mentioning the subject thus publicly, without their cognizance, and adding that it is within our own personal knowledge that the daughters of ministers thus received are treated by them with great kindness, and enjoy advantages which ought to be highly appreciated. Allow me to call the attention of your readers to the article itself, as it is too long for me to transcribe to your pages, and any abridgment would appear to me to spoil the effect and force of the remarks. My reason for addressing you is to endeavour to enlist the feelings and talents of some of your able correspondents, on the desirableness of forming a similar colony for the baptist community. Hitherto we have done nothing as a denomination for systematic religious colonization, although perhaps no religious body possesses greater facilities for that purpose. There is scarcely a place in any quarter of the globe where baptists may not be found. Families professing our tenets have from one cause or other been reduced in their cir-lating to the education of English students cumstances, and when all hope of obtaining a comfortable livelihood in their native country seemed to them lost, nothing but emigrating to our colonies or to a foreign land was the miserable alternative. They therefore emigrate without the means of being comfortable or thriving in their new country; and it is no wonder that their isolated and wretched con dition should drive them to a state of feeling approaching semi-heathenism. Now, it is to remedy this evil that I wish to suggest the propriety of establishing a colony of baptists either in New Zealand or South Australia, similar to the one about being founded at Otago by the Scotch. Hoping that this short note will be the means of calling the attention of your correspondents, whose means and talents qualify them for discussing the subject, I conclude with a quotation from the article referred to above:"There is no doubt something invidious in favouring one sect beyond all others, yet, as respects colonizing, the practice is not without its recommendations. It forms an inducement for a large body of individuals to band together on a basis of common sympathy." I am, sir, yours truly, S. T. HARRIS. EDITORIAL POSTSCRIPT. Dr. Davies and his family, after a six weeks' voyage, reached Montreal in good health on the 14th of September. On an earlier page, our readers will observe an account of the Society for the Education of Ministers' Daughters, High Wycombe, The editor has received several letters re questing additional information respecting the extract contained in our last postscript, re for the ministry at Montreal. He has answered some, advising the young men who wish to avail themselves of the proffered instruction, to converse with their pastors in the first instance, and to request them, if they approve the desire, to correspond with Mr. Cramp on their behalf. For the sake of others, to whom he has not had time to write, he adverts to the subject here. He does not suppose that our friends in Canada would pay the expense of the voyage; but if he understands them rightly, they would be willing to furnish board and education gratuitously, to young men well recommended as eligible for the ministry in Canada, who would engage to devote themselves after the termination of their preparatory studies, to labour in that province. The qualities needed are, not refinement, or what is called shining talent, but strong common sense, ardent piety, and a readiness to endure privations and work hard in the service of the Redeemer. A letter containing all the particulars of the case, addressed to the Rev. J. M. Cramp, M.A., Montreal, Canada, placed in the postoffice on or before the second of the month, fourteen pence being paid for it, will, however, bring, at the expiration of about two months, information far more definite and satisfactory than we can give. Except in the winter, there is a mail also in the middle of the month. The Rev. J. J. Davies of Bootle, has in the press a volume, entitled "Sketches from the Cross: a Review of the Characters connected with the Crucifixion of our Lord." It is to form one volume, royal 12mo., price six shillings, cloth. ASIA. APPEAL ON BEHALF OF THE BAPTIST MISSION IN INDIA, BY ONE OF ITS OLDEST MISSIONARIES. There is another point to which I wish to call attention, but what I have to say must be directed, not so much to you, as to our friends and supporters in England; and I beg their serious attention to what I have to lay before them. There is, dear Christian friends, something which causes great distress both to myself and, I believe, to every one in the mission it is the fear, the almost certainty, that we are labouring in vain; that the seed which we are now sowing will never produce a crop; and that the expectations of the few, if there be yet a few who anticipate a rich harvest in India, will be most painfully disappointed. "What! no harvest to be hoped for in India! Are then all the labour and expense bestowed on the Indian mission to be lost? This is gloomy indeed!" "Yes," say some, "yes," say many (at least so it is supposed), "this is just what we have long feared; and now our fears are corroborated by the opinion, the publicly expressed opinion, of the oldest Baptist Missionary in India; nor do the other brethren appear to dissent from that opinion." No, dear friends, I am persuaded that all my brethren are very much of my opinion on the point just stated. It requires no inspired prophet, no long experience to foresee the result of the present state of things in our mission in India; the most unpractised eye can clearly discern that inevitable result. You say, dear friends, that letters from India are not interesting; that they all contain nearly the same matter, which has now become so stale as to excite little or no attention. And this is the reason, I suppose, that so few of our letters are laid before the public. Those on whom it devolves to publish the letters of missionaries, must of course consult the public taste, and give what will be considered interesting matter; if they do not, they fear you will withdraw your subscriptions. But may an old missionary be faithful? May he tell you some plain truths? May he venture to say, that there is such a thing as a vitiated taste, a taste that needs to be corrected by the application of a little more sound piety? May he be so bold as to express a fear that excitement, which is often injurious to the human constitution, has done serious injury to the friends of the mission, and the baptist churches in Britain? I could not have believed, had not the facts of the case convinced me of the painful truth, that the baptists, to whom even other denominations give some credit for sound judgment and steadiness of character,-the bap tists who commenced the mission in faith, and who have carried it on so long in faith and patience, would have proved so unsteady, would have shown themselves so deficient in that unwavering, unrelaxing perseverance, which so characterized Carey and his associates both at home and in India. You despair, dear friends, of India, and you glory in your success, very rapidly obtained, in the West Indies. We rejoice in that success, and in the success of the mission in all places as cordially, we hope, as you do; but will you forgive your almost forgotten brethren in India, if they tell you, that as they have not fallen into the whirlpool of excitement, as they fear you have, they cannot view all things just as you do? Souls are valuable everywhere, and the greater the number converted by our brethren in the West, or in any other place, the greater the cause of joy; but, in a mission there are many other things to be considered, besides the simple fact that a certain number have been converted. If we admit that you have been as successful in the West as you once thought you had, what have you done? You have mustered a very strong force to attack a very weak position; and now you complain and despond because you have not carried a very strong position by a very weak force. You have won, as you think, an island, and we rejoice that something has been done; but, dear friends, the plain, and we fear unpalatable truth is, that in winning an island you have almost lost a continent. Yes! it is a fact, a mournful fact, that India is almost lost to our denomination. Christians of other denominations, who have, it seems, more faith, perhaps not greater resources at command, are now coming to cultivate that field which we have laboured to prepare for cultivation. Ichabod is most legibly written upon our mission in India, and you must send help, whatever becomes of your favourite projects in other places, you must send help to India, or your mission here can only struggle and die. I am inclined to say but little on the pain which you inflict, and which you have long inflicted on your brethren, the missionaries, in thus leaving them to labour without the hope of final success; but I must remind you, that they are the men whom you selected and sent out; the men whom you promised to support; whom you exhorted to persevere amidst all discouragements; to whom you said: “God will bless you, and we will never cease to pray for you, and do all in our power to strengthen your hands." Did you not, dear few years witnessed society after society formed for the defence of Hinduism! Do you prop a firm building? Are not many, yes, very many, and some of them men who hate Christianity, just now forsaking Hinduism, because they feel it untenable? Yes! every month, almost every day, augments the number of those who are making their escape from this almost dilapidated fortress. friends, say these things? and was it not on day truth. Come to India, and you will see the faith of these and other similar assurances the shaking of the towers and the consternathat your missionaries came out to India? tion of their defenders. Have not the last Was it not so? But how stands the matter now? Here your missionaries still are; but they are only the feeble remains of a once much stronger band; and though they do not boast of being perfect characters, yet they have persevered in their work; they have, generally speaking, been faithful, and they wish to be faithful till death terminates their labours; but they have not the consolation of knowing that they have, what all faithful missionaries ought to have, the prayers and sympathies of all their Christian friends; no! for clear it is, that those who will not read their letters, and who feel no interest in their labours, are not the persons on whose prayers they can depend. Yes, dear friends, the Indian mission is dying, as some of you, no doubt, have long supposed; and we fear that this intelligence will cause little regret to some at least, for men do not bitterly regret the failing of an undertaking in which they have long felt but little interest. But suffer me, dear friends, seriously, and as in the sight of God, to inquire into the causes of this expiring state of the Indian mission. Will you then lay the blame on your few neglected, broken- | hearted missionaries? Have they been unfaithful? Are they seriously deficient in piety, and are they men of very inferior talents, and hence unsuccessful? If they are, why did you send them out? Have they been loiterers in the Lord's vineyard? If you think they have been loiterers, they have certainly the pleasure of knowing that you are somewhat singular in your opinion. Is then our little success to be attributed to the invincibility of error and wickedness in this part of the world? Must it after all be admitted that Satan's strongholds in India are quite impregnable, and that there is no hope of their being pulled down by the weapons of the heavenly warfare? And must we say, that the blessed predictions of the scriptures will never be fulfilled relative to India? This cause is also inadmissible. I will venture to assert, that neither of the above causes is admissible. I will say nothing of myself, but I am bold to affirm that my brethren are pious, faithful, laborious men, and that there is a sufficiency of talent among them for carrying on the great work committed to them. And as to Satan's strongholds in India being impregnable, the idea is but a dream of apathy and unbelief. Impregnable! They are not;-I see his towers tottering now while I am writing; his strongholds are shaking to their very foundation; those within them feel them shaking, and while some are trying to prop and strengthen them, others, presaging their fall, are fleeing out of them. This, I assure you, is no poetry, no fiction; it is plain, every ; Nor can it be said that it is not the will of God to bless the labours of the baptist missionaries in India. He that asserts that God has withdrawn his blessing, must endure the mortification of a direct contradiction. It is not so; God has not forsaken us; it is men, our pledged friends, that have withdrawn or greatly diminished their aid, not God that has withheld his blessing. Never has the mission been without some tokens of the divine favour. Labourers have been removed or died, and our operations diminished, but where labour has been continued, there some success has been obtained. There was a time when but little of a divine blessing was manifested, a time which every one that loves the mission remembers with regret; a time when all was not peace; a time when stations were abandoned, and valuable labourers dis missed for want of funds to support them but even in those days the work of the Lord made progress. The Spirit we may well suppose was grieved and offended, but he did not forsake us; there were still hopeful conversions, and baptisms, and additions made to our churches. Our stations to the south of Calcutta were formed and flourished too even during that very period. But now all is peace; sweet peace has long reigned, and may it always reign! but the mission, generally speaking, does not prosper, though we can mention a place or two in which converts are much more numerous than at any former period; yet where is that lengthening of cords, that strengthening of stakes, that breaking forth on the right hand and on the left, which a time of peace and prosperity ought to witness? Our stations are diminishing in number instead of increasing. The Allahabad station, which we held thirty years, has been relinquished for want of men and money to carry it on. But what is the cause of this little success? The causes already mentioned have been shown to be inadmissible; hence I must now request attention to another probable cause, and that I would plainly and faithfully state as in the sight of God. That cause is the want of support. The mission has been neglected for years; and must not our churches at home be responsible for this neglect? Yes, dear friends, you have not held the ropes as they were held in Fuller's days, and for some years after his death, The stream of your benevolence has not, we |