Extract from a Letter of his Grace the Most Rev. Dr. Murray. 66 Mountjoy-square, Dublin, 25th Feb., 1842. "REV. DEAR SIR,-Your letter of the 8th instant has afforded me the most neartfelt satisfaction. It has anticipated the wishes of the Dublin clergy, and exempted me from the necessity of applying to the Sacred Congregation, in their name and my own, for the approbation which you have so happily obtained of our projected college. It will give me great pleasure to hear of any future progress that you may make. "Rev. dear Sir, very faithfully yours, + D. MURRAY." The Rev. John Hand, one of the priests associated in this undertaking, is now in Dublin, and has been authorized to solicit and receive the subscriptions and donations of the faithful for this important object. All communications addressed to him to the Office of the College for the Foreign Missions, now open at 24, Lower Exchange-st., will be gratefully received and acknowledged. A committee of Clergymen meet in said office every Wednesday, at one o'clock, to forward the interests of the College. Subscriptions and donations will be also thankfully received by his Grace the Archbishop, by the Very Rev. the Vicars-General, by any of the clergy, and by the various collectors. The adorable sacrifice of the Mass will be offered up every day for the Subscribers and benefactors, living and dead, who may also hope to have a special share in all the Masses, Prayers, Conversions, and other good works, which may be the fruits of this Institution throughout the world, to the end of time. N.B. It is hoped that students can be received into the College, about the middle of next September. They should not be under 18 years of age, and should be far enough advanced in their education, to begin the study of Logic. Further notice on this matter shall be given in due time. To amount as acknowledged in our publication of the 23rd of July £758 0 3 114 12 10 872 13 1 A valuable gold repeating watch, from a lady, to be disposed of, and the proceeds to be applied for the benefit of the College. Besides the above charitable individuals who have already paid in their subscriptions, many others, moved by similar motives of zeal and piety, have promised to contribute largely towards the establishment and permanent support of this much-wanted and long-desired institution. Treasurer, HIBERNIAN BANK, Castle-street, Dublin. Office of the College for the Foreign Missions, 24, Lower Exchange-street. The above subscriptions and donations, so promptly entered into, together with the well-known generous dispositions of the faithful to co-operate, at all times, with the pastors of the church, in promoting the glory of God and the salvation of souls, leave no doubt but that they will, on this occasion, give a signal proof of their filial love for the chief pastors of the church, by furnishing means of establishing, according to their views, this college on an extensive, solid, and lasting foundation. The sovereign pontiff, in his paternal solicitude for the universal church, looks with confidence to Ireland, and in a special manner to this projected college at Dublin for the foreign missions, as to the fruitful source from which he hopes to shortly see, year after year, numbers of holy and active missionaries go forth, as his own beloved children in Christ, to scatter themselves over the vast extent of the English colonies, America, and other parts, and carry to the spiritually destitute inhabitants of these countries, the light of faith and the food of salvation. It is confidently hoped, and earnestly requested, that all Catholics, both clergy and laity, exert their influence in favour of this great work of charity, and that they hasten to send in their contributions, no matter how small, as if they considered that on them depended the speedy commencement and future prosperity of the new college. All donations and subscriptions towards it shall be regularly published. This missionary scheme, sanctioned by the Pope, is to be supported, it seems, by an emphatic appeal, for the italics are their own, to the doctrine of merit. Fearing lest zeal for the church, and the salvation of men, should not prove sufficient incentives to Irish liberality, its priestly projectors invite the children of Erin to embark their contributions, "no matter how small," in a speculation for the next world, which promises a very large return, "a special share in all the masses, prayers, conversions, and other good works which may be the fruits of this institution throughout the world, and to the end of time! !" Such promises were, doubtless, held forth by Tetzel and his Dominican brotherhood, when they sold indulgences in Germany in the fifteenth century, but we scarcely expected to find them openly employed in Great Britain in the nineteenth century. There can be, however, but little doubt that such inducements will prevail, and priestlings from Ireland will be sent in swarms to spread the dark errors of Popery throughout the colonies. Let a thoughtful Protestant realize the present position of Popery in Australasia, and it will not be difficult for him to anticipate what a generation or two will effect for it, if left unchecked, not only in the British colonies, but amongst the Polynesian Isles, that have received Protestant Christianity. At New Zealand, it is stated, there is a large establishment of Roman Catholic missionaries, with a resident bishop; an English vessel, the Earl of Durham, having conveyed from Lyons twelve priests and acolytes of the order of St. Marie; while the daily papers announce that an English priest sailed with the Hon. Henry Petre, for Wellington, New Zealand, to be the resident Popish priest in that settlement. Let this system go on but a few years, and results most disastrous to scriptural Christianity in the Southern Hemisphere will certainly follow. Should it be asked, Would you then invoke legislative interference with the religious freedom of the Roman Catholics? our answer is, By no means let them go forth on their missions with all the liberty that a Protestant Dissenter would claim, enjoying alike, with all their fellow-subjects, the full protection of the state. But protection and patronage are essentially different, and true Protestants will have to see to it that they are kept so. Let, therefore, the Protestant mind be aroused to the impolicy of permitting grants to be made, either from our own treasury or those of the colonies, which become, in fact, premiums on the growth of Popery. This system would be best terminated by a declaration of the imperial parliament that the colonies shall not have an endowed and domi nant church. Though this is not to be hoped for, yet practically, it is well-nigh effected already. But the renewed vigour with which the friends of establishments are pushing both Episcopalian and Presbyterian claims, shows that while the golden prize of state alliance and support is displayed, it can excite no wonder if there be Popish, as well as Protestant competitors. This is the great source of our danger at home, and this it is, that stimulates the zeal of Roman Catholics in the colonies, and leads them, both in Canada and Australia, to watch, with such intense interest, the returns of each successive census, to ascertain their numerical strength. Fifteen thousand pounds a year to a self-denying priesthood is equal to five times the amount necessary for the support of the established episcopal clergy; for the returns already quoted show, that at Gibraltar, for instance, the Protestant chaplain and his deputy have £692 from government, while £300 per annum is sufficient for a Popish vicar-general, three priests, and a chief sacristan! Romish missionaries, under the vow of poverty and celibacy, can live in new settlements for a fifth of the money that must be spent by one who thinks with the apostle Paul, that he may lawfully take a wife. As crude views prevail, respecting the kingdom of heaven, amongst various bodies of Christians in these youthful colonies, let the Independent churches have their representatives and advocates. Is it not their reproach, they have but one missionary in all New South Wales, while they behold a hierarchy of Romish priests growing up, who, at this moment, are engaged in erecting ten Catholic churches, one of which, in Sydney, is to cost £20,000, besides the Popish cathedral already erected in that capital of the Australian world, and regarded as the most noble building in it? What do the members of the London Missionary Society think will be the fate of their missionary stations in the South Sea Islands, if Popery gain a firm hold in that colony? How can they hope for uninterrupted progress in China, with such a corps of Roman missionaries so near? For, let them be assured, that the devotedness which this paper discloses, is, after all, devotedness to the ascendancy of Rome. Recent facts have made it apparent, that jealousy and hatred of Protestantism will lead her emissaries rather to disturb and destroy our missions, than to go to the untutored savage who has never heard of Christ. Instead, then, of doling out a few score pounds for that colony, the churches ought to spend there as many hundreds, it might be said, thousands till sister churches shall be gathered, which, for their purity in faith and practice, shall show to the New World the scenes of Christian fellowship which once gladdened the Old, and by which those gifts and graces were nurtured and trained, that subjugated the paganism of Rome to the authority, not of Peter, but of Christ Jesus, his Lord. THE MISSIONARY CONVENTION AT JERUSALEM. (Continued from page 382.) THE THIRD DAY'S DISCUSSION. THE discussions of this day were too unedifying to be recorded. The subject was, the exciting theme of doctrinal and ecclesiastical distinction among evangelical Christians. There were those present who belonged to that party in every religious body, who are bigoted in their opinions, and restricted in their charities-who favour Christianity when connected with the advancement of their own sect; but seldom lend an effort to promote it in any other association. The principal part of the day was occupied by this class of speakers. The reason they severally assigned for not supporting foreign missions with energy corresponding to the magnitude of the enterprise was, the paramount necessity of rightly directed labours at home. Each discovered so much error in some form or other among professed Christians, that neither knew how the world could possibly be converted, until the churches were purified. To those who had never visited Christendom, the whole discussion was a confounding paradox. It was impossible to reconcile what they witnessed with their preconceived opinions. It was equally impossible to repress the alternate surprise and grief with which their minds were overpowered. After hours of unprofitable reasoning, in which each one laboured to erect his own theory upon the ruins of all others, a converted Brahmin, who had mingled with different sects of Christians, requested liberty to express a few recollections which the previous discussion had called up. When I first became acquainted, said he, with the diversity of opposing sects, and listened to the arguments by which they sought to establish their respective opinions, and saw the unconquerable zeal which animated each party, I found myself distracted, and knew not what course to pursue. There must be a right, thought I; who possesses it? Truth is simple, and homogeneous. What is truth? I was assured by one, that I did not belong to the apostolic church, and consequently had no claim to the covenanted blessings of God. A second affirmed that my system of faith was unscriptural as my teachers were heterodox. A third suspected that my religion was made up of cold inoperative orthodoxy. A fourth declared that I was still a heathen, because the discriminating ordinance of Christianity had never been administered to me. I was called one thing by one party, and another by another. A variety of men's names, not Paul, and Apollos, and Cephas, but others of whom I had never before heard, were alternately applied to me, while each sect endeavoured to convince me of the exclusive propriety of their own tenets, as well as of the advantages of assuming the name which distinguished them. What could I do? I was afflicted, tempest-tossed, almost destroyed. It seemed impossible to resist the currents which rushed upon me from every quarter, or to keep from sinking in the whirlpool which their tremendous conflict produced. In a paroxysm of feeling, I flew to my Bible, and humbled myself before God for direction. I did not seek in vain. From the Acts of the Apostles, and their inspired Epistles, I learned that there was great diversity of opinion and practice among the early converts to Christianity; and that, as far as was consistent with the essential doctrines of grace, the apostles "became all things to all men." What assisted greatly in restoring the equilibrium of my troubled soul, was the discovery that the spirit of sectarianism is contrary to the spirit of the Gospel. A kingdom divided against itself—the dearest relations at open and exterminating hostility-the very body of Christ dismembered-nay, his own Spirit disunited, self-opposing-how repugnant to every principle of the Gospel. Another argument which impressed my mind with great power, was gathered from the effusion of God's Spirit upon the churches. I perceived that the Holy Spirit, instead of confining his influence to any particular body of evangelical Christians, operated the most extensively in that part of each denomination, where there was the most zeal with the least intolerance. In scenes of revival, it was evident, not only that no partiality was shown to sects, but that those who had been opposing and devouring each other for ages, would, on these blessed occasions, often forget their petty differences, and harmonize and co-operate as though they had always been united. These considerations wrought a total change in my feelings. The more I dwelt upon the subject of denominational distinction, the more was I disposed to transfer all my anxiety from my own personal condition to that of the church and the world. I clearly saw that the sectarianism of the present day was incompatible with the spirit of the Gospel, and opposed to its extension. The strife it produces and the false zeal it awakens, (probably more than all other causes,) prevent the diffusion of Christianity in the world. Sectarianism provokes the most deadly of all feuds—an internal and perpetual warfare against the admitted friends of the Saviour. Its elementary principle is its condemnation. With all its concessions, it proclaims by its primary rule of action, that it is more important to build churches, and expend resources, and exhaust talents, where the Gospel is preached by all other denominations, than to employ the same system of instrumentality where the most stupifying and corrupting idolatry reigns. While it professes that all other evangelical bodies of Christians hold enough of the truth to be saved, it practically assumes the shocking position, that those places where the Gospel is extensively |