-and that the revivals have wrought a beneficial change in the character and morals of great numbers is generally allowed; thus showing the danger of forming a hasty or adverse opinion of them. "For if this work be of man, it will come to nought; but if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it."-J. M.

NEGATIVE.

Conversion is not an impression, but a change.-P.

The suddenness of the apparent effect is neither a proof of the divineness of the cause, the reality of that effect, nor of the liklihood of its continuousness.-OWEN.

To be a revival indeed, Christ must give his good Spirit, and must create the nature anew, and sanctify the life; but the showy religiousness of the North of Ireland revivalists does not seem to indicate that they have partaken of that renewed nature which teaches us to "walk humbly."—B. F.

Conviction is not in general an act but a work.-S.

To touch is not to change, and to be stricken down is not necessarily to be raised again to newness of life in Jesus. -A. B. C.

We are not warranted to believe that in any great measure the ordinary operations of grace will be superseded by the extraordinary agencies of the Spirit. We are told to use the means, but what means can be used, if all means be set aside?-THREE.

The extraordinary beating up of the clergy of all denominations for something startling and Spurgeonic, and the turning of all eyes upon the extreme religious fervour of the Irish, is quite enough to account for the generation of that impious pretentiousness to piety which has been shown in such abundance among the convertites, alias "convicts."-C.

Trustworthy evidence of "real religious conviction" can only be obtained by the testimony of a life, not of a few months. Call no man blessed till he dies.-X. Y. Z.

There is nothing comic in any of the

conversions of which we have notice in the Scriptures; but the absurdities of the Irish revivals have required their advocates to become also their apologists, and they are therefore not likely to be real.-D. V.

Revivals, like small-pox, fever, and cholera, are epidemic; they are not, therefore, special, though they may be beneficial manifestations of the laws, order, and government of God.RIGHT.

We all know how often, in particular districts and at particular times, tendencies of thought develop themselves, and spread by a sort of spontaneous growth, but with little or no root in the heart or mind; e. g., the Rebeccaites in Wales; the Joanna Southcoteites, the Thomists of Canterbury, John Wilkism, &c., &c., which have now no abiding in men's minds. It seems to me that the Irish revival is a species of moral insanity, superinduced by a perverse and perverted notion of the true means of salvation, which gives peace to the conscience and joy to the Holy Ghost, instead of the disturbing and disturbance-raising influences which the prayer meetings of the sister island have exhibited. There is too much surface sentiment in this as in everything else. "Still waters run deep," and vice versâ. This is a cheap and easy way of rehabilitating one's character, to wear a white neckcloth, attend chapel, and say long prayers, that we may be seen of men; but it is not true religion to neglect the true duties of life-the home and homely requirements of the gospel to noise and pray in words. Laborare est orare.-DON'T IT!

The physical prostrations which have been observed so frequently, as an accompaniment of the revivals in the North of Ireland, are regarded by many as a great argument against the movement being of the Spirit of God. We think that though in many instances the deep conviction of sin has been sincere, and has produced that prostration of the frame of theretofore strong and healthy individuals already alluded to,

that by far the larger part of those socalled conversions are but the result of a certain fashion or mania, which is to be found in religion as in other departments. We shall look forward with anxiety to the returns from the inspector of prisons' office for this year in the revival districts, as one of the sure tests of the permanent and scriptural character of the movement; but we cannot help thinking that what originally may have been the work of God's Spirit, has been made a trade capital of by men whose duties to themselves, their people, and their God, would have been better discharged by consistent attendance upon their ordinary labours, before the revival panic had seized upon their minds. When we find men trying to 'get up " a revival in a place, just as a showman would try to get up a good piece of machinery or performance, we are not inclined to estimate the work in the light which probably it, in itself, ought properly to be regarded.-G.H.S.

แ

We think that real conversion of men, from a state of ungodliness to a state of godliness, comes not suddenly, but by slow and almost imperceptible degrees. The Spirit, which alone can convert men, works inwardly, and effects a change silently, without noise or outward show-as the seed which is cast into the earth, after months, perhaps years, of seeming unfruitfulness, in due season bursts forth-grows gradually, and yields fruit. So is it with man. In our opinion, the so-called revivals of the present day, like those of the past, are not the result of real religious convictions, but merely the result of a physiological disease, which is accompanied in many cases by hysterical, cataleptic, apoplectic, and prostrating pantomimic exhibitions-an insane enthusiasm, heightened in most cases by the ignorance and superstition of the parties foremost in the movement; that real christian feelings are not the basis or the cause of the revivals, must be acknowledged simply from the fact of the "noise," the clamour, the outward and visible "parade " show accompany

ing them, the belief the revivalists possess as to their superiority in a spiritual point of view" their selfrighteousness," the idea they have that those not possessed of the same infatuation as themselves will be among the lost. In none of this is exemplified the teachings of the gospel, or the feelings which should actuate and permeate true Christians. That a physiological disease is the cause principally of the mania, there can be no doubt, when we examine the absurd revelations and statements made by the individuals who suppose themselves "struck." Religion, instead of producing unhappiness, mental derangement, lowness, or despondingness, has quite the opposite effect; for a religious person, in whatever position placed-whatever trials and afflictions he has to contend against-is always happy and contented, being sustained by God. In Belfast and the neighbourhood, prostrations, fits, &c., are looked on as signs from above; to those that look upon them as such, in the language of Scripture we would say, O ye hypocrites, who seek after a sign; and there shall be no sign given, but the sign of the prophet Jonas." "Ye Pharisees, make clean the outside of the cup and the platter, but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness."GEORGE.

The revival mania, recently begun and carried on in the North of Ireland to an amazing extent, is a movement originating in the weakness of human nature, wrought upon by artful and designing men, who consider that they are the vicegerents of the Deity, from whom they have received their mission. Hysterical, not sound religious convictions, constitute the malady, which is no harbinger of genuine and durable conversion. The origin of these ravings is evidently traceable to the source assigned, and not to the workings of the divine Spirit.

Upon the authority of the Ven. Archdeacon Stopford we may compile a critique upon the movement in ques

tion. The archdeacon investigates the revivals, and, in the course of such inquiries as were calculated to arrive at a veritable conclusion, assigns the causes of the movement to hysteria. And according to the descriptions of the converts after being "struck," no person of ordinary discernment will pronounce otherwise than that they are more fit for medical than religious treatment. The archdeacon, in his description of what transpired before him, where the most remarkable cases took place, interprets the cause from the effects; for physical prostrations thus, in the absence of great strength of mind, the terror-striking tones and accents of the preachers, were calculated to alarm any one.

The archdeacon himself confesses his inability to restrain tears, on account of such an extent of human delusion and suffering, yet he remained self-possessed. The scenes are 80 graphically described, that none can hesitate to aver that they are the temporary excitements of the moment, rather than the evidences of sound conviction, and the harbingers of a genuine repentance.

The archdeacon charges the preachers with duplicity and craft; as they appear, he says, to understand the sources of the malady, and so work upon their hearers' weakness to produce their contemplated designs. The account given of these deluded beings, after their removal from the congregation amongst whom they had been "struck," is most melancholy to recite, viz., delusion. delirium, complete madness. Two cases are reported by the correspondent of the Daily News. The frenzied feelings being at the zenith, one woman plucked out her right eye deliberately, requesting her husband to do the same, that they might enter the kingdom of heaven. She subsequently made attempts to bite off her right hand, and, lockjaw supervening, she died. Another refused to receive nourishment, alleging that she had been informed that she was then in a better condition for heaven than she would be at any other time, as the

Holy Spirit was freshly poured out upon her!

What are the descriptions the archdeacon gives of this modern pentecost? We will here introduce a short passage. "It is notorious that hundreds of mill girls, in Belfast, have prayed and are praying to be "struck." This was acknowledged to me by an elder or officebearer in the place of worship famous for such conversions. It was also told me by several of the mill girls themselves. I need hardly say that such a prayer answers itself. I say they learn in places of worship to offer such prayers. I was myself present in a Presbyterian meeting-house, at a prayer offered with the most frenzied excitement and gestiticulations, that God would then and there descend and strike all unconverted to the earth. This was the most frightful scene I ever witnessed in life. No such scene would be permitted in any Bedlam upon earth. It is shocking to hear this well-known morbid sympathy mistaken for the mutual love of God's children."

We think we have done enough in the way of transcription to inform our readers that the revivals are hypocrisy on the part of the priesthood, and delusion on the part of the converts. We have been witnesses of similar revivals, when children have prayed to God to "touch their parents' hearts," and when these exclamations have been vociferated by a shrill voice, the most awful responses and hideous noises have been made. Soon after these fervent and successful prayers, the converts relapsed, and soon were accounted the most re

probate and abandoned. Every tree is known by its fruits," but these revivals are not, in our estimation, the signs of genuine piety, neither are the preachings of the ministers in accordance with the doctrines of the lowly Jesus, who said, "Come unto me, all ye who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest."-S. F. T.

The apostles of the Irish revivals have predicted, in glowing language, the dawn of a new era. They have

loudly announced that the present supposed outpouring of the Spirit is a sure sign of the latter days; the "struck" and "awakened" as the real converted; their writhings and contortions as the purifying of their souls from all uncleanness; that the reign of perfect peace was begun; that charity, the greatest of all the graces, will henceforth be the guiding angel of Ireland's chosen people. But in vain do we look for the "earnest and foretaste" of this; in vain for that perfect love that casteth out fear." "Can the atmosphere of the mind in a state of storm"-rent and torn; its very citadel tottering on the verge of insanity-be taken as evidence of real religious conviction? Can a blasted fig-tree produce fruit? Can the weak in imagination, and the feeble in will; invalids and fanatics, whose minds have been debilitated, be capable of imbibing real religious convictions? Yet these are the saints they would have us imitate,- to throw down the strong fortress of reason, and give full scope to the wild play of sympathetic delusion, and call it the workings of the Spirit. "The will is the natural faculty of the soul, by which it determines in favour of what appears to it either true or good." The will in relation to the Irish revivals appears utterly powerless; the ephemeral excitement of the feelings is the only characteristic of it: the entire absence of will by the "struck" is proof that the noblest part of our nature is set aside that the unreasoning for the time reigns supreme. Well-meaning but misguided men, both lay and clerical, have thrown themselves into the vortex of delusion with more zeal than prudence; they have encouraged it, by every means in their power, to increase the number of the "struck." We heard an illiterate man praying in a crowded assembly, calling upon God to "strike down twenty or thirty." In their zeal for the supposed good work, they have not been troubled with scruples. The most ignorant and unthinking were objects of special interest; those who never thought, never read, of the glo

rious truths of the gospel, were suddenly awakened to the full realization of perfect bliss in Jesus. One minister boasted, in vindication of the revivals not being confined entirely to the ignorant and careless, of one real lady being "struck;" and, that there might be no mistake about her being a lady, he told his audience "that she had on a fine silk dress, and a real gold chain." Such artifices are a mockery, and unworthy the high and holy calling of a minister of Christ's gospel, and go far to throw ridicule upon our holy religion. "It would be well for some who have taken upon themselves the ministry of the gospel, that they would first preach to themselves, and afterwards to others." The pure and simple truths of Christianity have been twisted and distorted for the purpose of making them tally with their supposed real religious convictions. "They have fashioned a god stern and sullen, retiring in awful gloom from His creation," not to be approached but with shrieks, groans, and convulsions; the noblest faculty of His creation torn from its seat, and trampled in the dust by the spasmodic tortures of a distempered mind. Can these be the result of real religious convictions?

Every age of the world has given examples of revivals; and the inferences to be drawn from them are not in favour of spiritual outpouring, but rather the madness of bodily weakness, or a high state of nervous excitement. It sometimes, as in the "great French revolution," assumes a political madness; or in that of the present, the religious madness of the Irish revivals.

The North of Ireland revivals have risen on the surface of society, like the white spray on the crested waves of a stormy ocean; but when it resumes its former level, there will be seen on its bosom, not the gallant bark, freighted with the precious souls of the genuine converted, but the mournful wrecks of a morbid insanity, tossed to and fro, the only remnant left of the hallucinations of the nineteenth century.-D. R. R.

On

Camden Debating Society. Tuesday evening, November 29th, 1859, a meeting was held in the City of several young gentlemen who, residing in Camberwell, and being engaged in the City during the day, are anxious to secure some occupation, instruction, and amusement for the winter evenings. It was resolved to form a debating and mutual improvement society, bearing the above name. A code of laws was then drawn up and resolved upon for the government of the society. The Camden Debating Society is to hold weekly meetings throughout the six winter months, viz., October, November, December. January, February, and March, and at each meeting a debate is to take place, and one or more lectures and recitations delivered by the members. Some of the leading reviews and periodicals are to be subscribed to and distributed among the members for reading, pro rata. A library will also in due time be formed. It was resolved that at the next meeting Mr. H. Edwards should open a debate or discussion; subject-" Is capital punishment expedient?" Mr. J. Langton will deliver a lecture on "Trade winds," and Mr. A. E. Mollett one on "Recitation." This society has good prospects of success, for no place is more deficient in such aids to improvement and instruction than Camberwell.

Weston-super-Mare Working Men's Institution. - On Thursday evening, Dec. 8, 1859, Mr. Macready gave one of his readings from the English poets to the members and friends of this institution. In the course of his opening remarks he made a suggestion, to which a wide hearing should be given:-Before entering on the subject selected for reading that evening, it would not be considered out of place if he made some slight reference to that art by which they endeavoured to convey to their hearers not only the words but the inner feelings of the heart. It might, perhaps, appear to some that he

set too high an estimate on dignifying that as an art in which no one confessed to a deficiency. Every one could read; but, he asked, could every one listen to their reading? For his own part, one of the greatest of intellectual luxuries was to listen to the powerful reading of the eloquent utterances of their great writers. It might be asked, where did they hear this? and too often it was the echo that returned the answer. It would grieve him to offend any of the fair portion of his audience, by telling them that there might be more charming and more genuine music from their sweet voices in reading than from their singing an air of Verdi or Mozart. Every one could lend his ear to strains of music, but it was not every one who could appreciate a noble passage of poetry. Nevertheless, in what is considered the fashionable world, the intellectual was made subordinate to the superficial and the non-essential. Let him put in a word for reading as an accomplishment. He believed it was an accomplishment which required as much time and practice for its acquirement as the music of their first composers. Excellence was never obtained without labour. It was only conceit and pretension that would presume to claim the time and attention of those who knew time's worth. In the case of music, little distinction was made between those who could play and those who could not play-those who had ears, and those who had none. All were brought up to the sacrificial altar, while those who stood around were unable to remonstrate. While contending for reading, he yielded to none in his love for music-good music.

Whitby Institute.-The fourteenth annual soirée was recently held in St. Hilda's Hall, when upwards of 300 persons partook of tea, gratuitously provided; after which the chair was taken by the Right Hon. Sir George Hamilton Seymour, G.C.B., late ambassador to the Court of St. Peters