almost suddenly, and apparently without any struggle. He had previously expressed his abiding peace, and his good hope through grace; and he passed away from time to eternity as though he had been falling asleep. He was a good young man. Towards God he was humble and devout; towards man, upright, kind, and courteous. the community to which he belonged, he was a faithful member; and his relations are only comforted under the loss they have sustained by their firm conviction that their loss is his eternal gain.

ABRAHAM CRABTREE.

Of

22. Died, May 1st, in London, Mrs. Elizabeth Mildred Strong, wife of Mr. F. G. Strong, and daughter of the Rev. John Nelson, Wesleyan Minister. She was born at Bridgetown, in the island of Barbadoes, January 12th, 1821. From the dawn of reason, she was taught the lessons of sacred truth; and these early instructions, which were never interrupted, were accompanied by the gracious visitations of the Holy Spirit, not only enlightening her mind, but affecting her young and tender conscience. Sin became exceedingly sinful in her view; and from her infancy she was evidently under the restraining influence of the fear of the Lord. During her father's residence in Tobago, when she was about five years old, she had committed some fault for which she had been reproved and corrected. In deep distress, she begged that her father would forgive her. He told her that he would readily forgive her; but that she had also offended God, and that she therefore needed His pardon, and must go and pray for it, through the Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour. She retired to her own room, kneeled down, and poured out her full heart in prayer to God. Before long she returned, her whole countenance brightened, and said, "Now, papa, you must forgive me; for the Lord has forgiven me." Out of the mouth of babes He has indeed ordained strength and praise. Ever after that she walked cautiously, always professing, with great simplicity and truthfulness, that she was happy in the pardoning love of God. When she was eleven years of age, she requested permission to meet in class. It was her own voluntary act. She regarded it as a privilege to be enrolled as a member of Christian society, and to enjoy thus "the fellowship of saints." From that time to the end of her life, she held fast her profession without wavering, regularly meeting in class, and conscientiously attending all the means of grace. Her behaviour corresponded with her profession, and she had delightful experience of the power of religion in the soul. The tender susceptibility of her mind was sanctified, and largely contributed to her spiritual enjoyment, especially when, in seasons of retirement for prayer and praise, she had communion with her heavenly Father who is in secret. She knew much of

"That sacred awe that dares not move,

And all the silent heaven of love."

In 1842, she lost her mother, whose faith and hope, expressed in

her dying hours, made a deep impression on Elizabeth's mind. She remarked afterwards, that before she had witnessed her mother's death she had felt a fear of dying, from which she had occasionally suffered much; but that since that event all these terrors had been removed, because she had seen how mercifully in that solemn hour God gave to his children victory through the Lord Jesus Christ. For three years she superintended her father's domestic affairs with all fidelity and diligence, and with many prayers for the younger branches of the family. Her conduct in this difficult and untried position was truly exemplary. In July, 1845, she was married to Mr. Frederic George Strong; and though the period of their union was more than ordinarily brief, it served to develope and mature the virtues of her character. During her short married life she had commenced a course of consistent duty, and had endeared herself to the circle of relations and friends into which she had been introduced. Her prospects of usefulness and happiness were bright and cheering; but in the mysterious order of providence, they were suddenly and, as to this world, permanently darkened. On the evening of the 30th of April, 1846, she was taken ill; and, notwithstanding the assiduous attention of surrounding friends, and the utmost efforts of medical skill, after several hours of great suffering, she expired in the course of the following day, having given birth to a dead child. From the nature of the affliction which thus terminated her life, she was prevented from giving expression to her feelings, except by signs. At an early stage of her sufferings, the power of articulation failed her. She had previously spoken of her calm confidence in God, whether for life or for death; and during the progress of the mortal conflict, her resignation and peace were significantly indicated. Not long before she died, her aunt repeated to her the animating verse,—

A gentle smile on her countenance declared her assent.

To those who beheld it, the final struggle was distressing; but to her it was peaceful and triumphant.

A father might be regarded as a partial witness if he were to say all that he thought of her character. He will only add, therefore, that it was distinguished by honest, truthful simplicity, unassuming, modest, and retiring virtue, kind and generous affections in all the relations of life, and especially by deep, fervent, and abiding piety to God. JOHN NELSON.

DIVINITY.

THE CAUSE AND THE REMEDY OF IRELAND'S EVIL
CONDITION:

A SERMON,

PREACHED IN LONDON, BEFORE THE HIBERNIAN SOCIETY, IN MAY, 1825:

BY THE LATE REV. EDWARD IRVING.

(Concluded from page 590.)

II. WITH respect to the remedy to be applied to a people which have been suffered to fall into the low state of superstition and sensual degradation to which Ireland hath come, every man will speculate according to the faith he is of, and the light which God hath given him. Those that have no faith in a revelation of the will of God, and in a providence fulfilling the same, or only a nominal and inactive faith therein, as is the case with all our political economists, and almost all our statesmen, can, of course, look only to the secondary causes with which they are acquainted, and in the operation of which they have faith in which lore of secondary causes being but indifferently read, it is a poor and beggarly account they can give of the matter; but such as it is, it must be mentioned and considered, because of the noise it has made, and the likelihood that it will in whole or in part be adopted. Being ignorant of the spiritual world, they conceive all religions to be much about a par with respect to political and social advantages, and cannot endure that our fathers should have made a difference, which they regard as the proof of their ignorance and prejudice, and to do away with which they regard as the chief work of policy and statesmanship. And I blame not the men who know no better concerning the history of their country and of Europe, and of the Papacy and of the Reformation; for the mole must not be blamed because he pierceth not the heavens with his vision, as doth the soaring eagle: but I pity that this island should have come to such a pass, as to prefer such ignorant minds of yesterday, such men of money and accounts, such ungodly and unspiritual men, to the honourable office of their Representatives; and I pray God to give them the spirit of discernment, and the spirit of zeal for their best and dearest prerogatives, as a nation of reformed Christians. We have deserved it by a century of bickering and contention concerning paltry party distinctions of Whig and Tory, and total neglect of the interests of His church, for which our fathers were so zealous as not to count their lives dear unto themselves, so that it might be defended from the paw of the wolf: so that the Protestant Church of Ireland was suffered to be managed like a close ministerial burgh, or something worse, and sheep-shearers, sheep-slayers, were, with excep

VOL. V.-FOURTH SERIES.

2 Y

tions too few to be mentioned, poured upon the idolatrous people; whose idolatry was suffered to root and root itself more firmly ; whose darkness was allowed to engross the people more and more darkly, because the question of Papal idolatry or Protestant worship was not of importance sufficient to take up a thought in a century which was ushered in by the wits of Queen Anne, and seen out by the infidels of Paine and the French Revolution. And, accordingly, when the time of shaking the idols of the nations, and giving the sign of their downfal, came, in the French Revolution, idolatrous Ireland felt the shock, and hath been shook still, and idolatry-tolerating Britain hath almost had a third part of her dominion rent away from her. If any man ask me why insurrection arose among the Catholics of Ireland, the most ignorant part of our people, and the least pervaded by revolutionary principles, and why disaffection still showeth its hydra head in those parts, I answer him, Because of the idolatry of the one part of the people, and the carelessness of the other part to protest against that idolatry; and, above all, because of the indifference of the British Government to the question of God's worship within this dominion, which is the chief and great question of all his controversies; it came to pass that he sent into the midst of that unhappy land the scourge of civil war, and keepeth there the mouth of the volcano still open, and ready to send forth its destructive fires. But our governors, untaught by experience, unread in the history of God's providence over the nations, doting and dreaming on about questions of commerce and trade and finance, as if Mammon were the King of kings and Lord of lords, are now come to the awful crisis of proposing to legitimatize the idolatry; not only to endure it, but to patronise it; and some go so far as to propose to hire and pay it. I am not a politician, and do not choose to intermeddle in their angry quarrels ; but I am a Minister of God, consecrated by authority, and invested with power in this nation to declare the whole counsel of God, for the instruction of all ranks and offices of men within this realm; and being now called, in the providence of God, to make known unto this people the ills of Ireland, I do certainly declare, that the greatest, sorest, and most hopeless of her evils, is the remedy which by all means they are endeavouring to force upon her in every way; namely, the making no difference between the sensual idolatry of the Papacy and the spiritual worship of the living and true God. If adopted, it will most certainly put it for ever to rest, whether this country regards the questions of the Reformation to be more than idle tales. To examine it, I undertake not; and I have but introduced it in passing, to show that it is no question concerning seats in Parliament, or offices in the army and navy, that is now at issue; but that the question really is, whether the Catholic religion is not, to all intents and purposes, as good, righteous, and creditable a thing in a state as the Reformed. Ah, thou wretched Church of Ireland, to have permitted this to be a question! thou nurse of idleness, thou that hast been an incubus upon the breast of the people sleeping the sleep of death! thou deservest no better, and canst hardly expect any better, for thy

conduct for a century, than to be treated as no better, if not worse, than the idolatry and abomination itself. Thou shouldst have made it apparent to the blindest, as the Church of Scotland hath, that there is a mighty difference between a superstition and a religion to the well-being of a state. But so it is with thee; our liberal men pecking at thee, and seeking to spoil thee of thy wealth and possessions, which thou hast too much loved; to deprive thee of the children over whom thou wast long ago established the nursing mother; and to raise to the level of thy dignity that base idolatry and superstition, for the extinction of which thou wast established, and hast been so long maintained.

I do consider all these schemes which are brewing in the minds of our politicians, to be engendered partly of the most gross ignorance with respect to the influence of the Catholic religion upon the character of its votaries, of the utmost scepticism with respect to the influence of religion altogether, and a rooted error, that religion hath no right to intermeddle with, or to be recognised by, political measures s; measures which are then best when they treat all religions alike; that it is an unfair advantage to take of the infant mind to possess it with any particular inclinations to one or to another; and the more it can be avoided from the education of children and the government of men, so much the better. In short, the strong stream of the cultivated mind of this land is to divide and separate itself from the mind of God, and to carry with it all over which it hath an influence. And it is too late in the day to resist it with effect it will have, and it will obtain, its way. It will force all the barriers of the constitution, which are every one of them builded on a religious basis. For it cannot be expected but that God will give it way: he will not always resist. He will give us up to their violence, because we are a worldly, money-worshipping people, and a self-magnifying church; have Christ in our mouth, but our own wondrous exploits in our heart. And God is not acknowledged in the counsels of our nation; and the name of his saints hath become a by-word of scorn; and we are grown to be a poor, ignorant, sin-laden, self-sufficient people.

No remedy can have any effect which doth not at once address itself to the evil of the sensual religion which cultivates and sanctifies the sense, and oppresseth the spirit; but those remedies of education and policy which they propose, go upon the principle that there is no evil in a sensual religion, but rather a good, forasmuch as they desire to promote it to some new point of advantage and dignity. The remedy is, to attack the evil at once, and to contend with it face to face, and drive it out. Suffer not the idolatry to be; for so long as it is, and where it is, God will send a blight and barrenness of all grace and goodness; and not to them only, but to all who patronise it. Suffer it not to be: fight against it, as more terrible than the pestilence or famine, or the sword of the invader; because it is that which bringeth all these instruments and executioners of the Lord's anger upon a people. Give it no toleration in your spirit: no, none; unless you would tolerate Satan's host, whose standard is idolatry.