May the same spirit and the same conduct be still maintained; yes, be abundantly increased! In the sight of man, and in comparison between man and man, many efforts have been quite remakable; many gifts truly munificent. But, in the sight of GOD, every one must confess and bewail his own deficiency and selfishness in this as in all other matters of the kind. The calamity is still prolonged. Let Christian liberality be prolonged in a commensurate degree! Many gave largely a few months ago. But time has since passed on, and many in this wealthy country have now been again enriched with fresh means of doing good, as God has prospered them. So it has been with many of the wealthy. So it has been with many of more limited income.

tion has now safely come.

To each his por

Out of that por

tion let each one again liberally give! Let none be forgetful of distributing, or weary in well-doing! The famine and the pestilence still cry out with a tongue reaching heaven, "Whoso hath this world's goods, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth

the love of God in him?”

"Let us not

love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed

and in truth."

These few prefatory remarks might have ended here. Nevertheless, the writer, as a minister of Christ, is unwilling to conclude even these brief observations without making, on a subject such as this, a more direct and express reference to Him, who openeth His hand and "filleth all things living with plenteousness," or, for a moment, in His wise purposes, shutteth it, and men die,-who upholds a nation in health and freedom from the wasting pestilence, or bids it go forth and destroy* countless multitudes. And yet

* Among all the means of mitigating and staying the effects of this calamity which GOD has enabled any residents in Ireland to execute and devise, none appear to the writer more suited to the wants of vast parishes, stretching over large portions of ground, but with few towns, villages, or residents, qualified to act as relievers of distress, than those measures, lately adopted in the parish of Schull, by the Rev. F. F. Trench, of Clojordan. His own parish being adequately provided with help, he made the offer of exerting himself in the locality just mentioned (the Rector of which, Dr. Traill, has just gone to his rest from the midst of those scenes of misery and those labours in which he met his

upon this subject,-on the famine, nationally speaking, among us, so much has been spoken from pulpits, and written in every form, and rightly uttered by the lips of God's faithful people in the land, specially in connexion with that appointed *Day of Fasting and Humiliation, so lately and so duly kept throughout this whole realm, as to render it a needless thing to repeat here those admonitions and those reminiscences which have now taken their place in the feelings of all our countrymen who worship God in spirit and in truth. Thanks be to God, His Name has been abundantly proclaimed as a God near and not afar off,-as one who "worketh

death), and has succeeded in preserving life to a very great extent by the extension of eating-houses into the distant localities, where, with eleven helpers, he is now at work. Full details would have appeared in a small volume, already advertised, as "Three Days at Schull," by the Rev. R. C. Trench, had it not been for the sickness of the writer, caught at the place in his self-devoted work.

*The return made to the Secretary of State for the Home Department, shows that the number of worshippers in every church, chapel, and place for Divine worship in the metropolis, was not less than 627,637,

hitherto" among the children of men, and without whom not a sparrow falls, far less can anything like famine and like pestilence, arise and prevail, or diminish and depart. Therefore, to one point, and to one point only, shall the reader be directed here. That is, to the claim and the appeal made at this present moment upon all, to unite heartily together, with faith and prayer, in beseeching God the Father Almighty, for the sake of His beloved Son, to be merciful unto our land and favourable unto the people. The present moment is one of unspeakable importance. The severity of the winter, now just ended, appears wonderfully calculated to effect the destruction of that blight, and of those countless animalculæ, which have been so observable for two or three seasons past. And now, just when required, the fertilizing showers fall, and all promises well. Nevertheless, a certain degree of waiting and suspense must of necessity prevail as to the ensuing produce of the earth. Scarcely can we form any adequate conjecture yet, whether the seed of one particular crop-the potato of course is

meant has in it the taint of blight, or whether the germ of life be restored to health and vitality once more. Neither, indeed, can we foresee, or premise, as to that character which the general harvest will assume, either in Great Britain or throughout the world. It defies all imagination to calculate the mighty consequences, one way or other, which will attend the results. The present time, therefore, is just and truly the precise period in which to manifest faith without wavering, hope without despondency, and love without cold backwardness of trust in the mercy and goodness of our GOD. Let, then, the petition of our Litany not only be the formal language of our lips, used on the Sunday, and then laid by for the week, but let it be formed within us, as our constant, ever-ascending prayer, "That it may please Thee to give and preserve unto us the kindly fruits of the earth, so as in due time we may enjoy them." And let us look straight up to GOD for his blessing, through sun and showers, through dews and clouds, through the vernal breeze, and through the summer's glow,