eleven years of age she went to York, to reside with her grandmother, and soon after went to service in that place. At twenty-four years of age she was married to the husband who still survives her. About two years after her marriage, it pleased God to convert her soul, under the preaching of the gospel by our Wesleyan brethren. She joined that society, and continued a consistent member of it for twelve years; but having a large family, and many heavy trials to encounter, about this time she slackened in her Christian race, and remained for some time in a state of lukewarmness. Whilst in this state she was induced to go to Lendal Chapel, where, under the ministry of the Rev. J. Parsons and the late Rev. C. Paton, the work of grace was revived in her heart. She joined the Congregational church there, and continued a member until about four years ago, when she removed to Northallerton, was received into the fellowship of the Congregational church in that town, and continued a member of it up to the time of her decease. For some years past her health had been gradually declining. Last January she had a violent attack of asthma, from which she never entirely recovered. At the commencement of her last illness her mind was much exercised on account of the spiritual welfare of her numerous family. She prayed without ceasing for them, and at last was enabled to commit them all into the hands of her covenant God. From that time she was dead to the world. She took no pleasure in any conversation that had not the Saviour for its Alpha and Omega, embracing every opportunity of recommending him to all around, and saying, "If all the world my Saviour knew, Sure all the world would love him too." She never received food or medicine without imploring the Divine blessing, and never opened her eyes from slumber without praising God for his mercy, and rejoicing in his love. The patience of the departed saint was wonderful; it was indeed the Lord's doing. I had frequent opportunities of seeing and conversing with her, and found her always the same: her peace flowed like a river. Upon one occasion I said, "He will never leave thee nor forsake thee." "I believe he will not," was the answer: "I am upon the rock; the Lord has full possession of me; at least," she added, (and her voice faltered, and the tear started in her eye, at the bare supposition that it might not be so,) "I'm sure I wish he may." On another occasion she said, “I have been kept in perfect peace: not a cloud between my soul and God. Oh! how different from many who have been assailed by the enemy, and compelled to cry out, 'Get thee behind me, Satan."" I said, "You have abundant reason to be grateful. What a glorious Savicur is yours!" I repeated that verse beginning, "All hail the power of Jesu's name." When I had finished, she exclaimed, with uncommon energy, "Bless the Lord, bless the Lord, O my soul. Oh!! if I had a voice, I would shout his name from one end of the earth to the other. I would not exchange places with the Queen: she, indeed, has a crown, an earthly crown; but I have an incorruptible crown, that shall never fade away." Her faith grew stronger as her end approached, and the confidence of her acceptance with God frequently caused her to exclaim, "To patient faith the prize is sure, And they who to the end endure The cross, shall wear the crown." And smiling, she would repeat in ecstacy, "Yes, shall wear the crown." A little time before she died she was raised up in bed; she clasped her hands, and said, "O my God, thou knowest I have given up all to thee." Her breathing grew fainter and fainter, and about eleven o'clock at night, on the 3rd of June, she fell asleep in Jesus. The soul was set free from its prison-house of clay, delivered from its painful shackles, and restored to the light, and liberty, and purity of a child of God, entering into the enjoyment of that glory which the eye hath not seen, nor the ear heard, nor yet the heart of man conceived. "And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, Write, Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord." But, my immortal reader, remember there is a condition the reverse of all this to thee, if thou art unconverted. The bed of sickness is coming to thee; the bed of death is coming to thee; the hour of judgment is coming to thee. Remain as thou art but a little longer, and the sentence pronounced upon thee by the same Spirit shall be, Cursed are the dead who die not in the Lord:" then thy doom shall be fixed, the blackness of darkness shall receive thy soul, and thine eternal lamentation shall be, "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and I am not saved." "Lo! on a narrow neck of land, MRS. ANN ROBINSON, OF CARLISLE. MRS. ANN ROBINSON was the child of pious parents; she was born in 1794, and fell asleep in Jesus in 1847. She had given herself long to the Lord, previous to her joining the Independent church; her unfitness to sit down at the Lord's table, and fear of bringing reproach upon Christ's name, having long acted as preventives, until, under the Rev. Percy Strutt's ministrations here, some nine or ten years ago, light broke upon her mind, when she saw that the above were but suggestions of Satan, and gave herself to the Lord's people. Still, although a communicant, she did not see so clearly the way of salvation, until the first revivalmeetings held here in 1840. Previously her cry was, "Tis a point I long to know, Oft it causes anxious thought," &c.; but during the last six years of her life she rejoiced in the fact that "Jesus died, the just for the unjust, to bring her to God," and that "God so loved the world, as to send his Son Jesus to die." She felt she was included in the word "world:" like "poor Joseph," she felt, "If Jesus died for sinners, he died for me." Mrs. Ann Robinson was not one of those confident believers who are ever standing upon the mount of triumph. No; I have heard her say frequently, "When I would do good, evil is present with me;" and, in the "Twixt two unbounded seas you stand, language of the poet Watts, Secure, insensible; A point of time, a moment's space, Flee, flee, Oh! flee from the wrath to come! N. P. "My heart, how dreadful hard it is! How heavy here it lies! But she would add, "Dear Saviour, steep this rock of mine In thine own crimson sea; None but a bath of blood divine Can melt the flint away." She could not attend the sanctuary during the winter months, because of her heavy afflictions; yet light compared to the weight of glory she is now the recipient of. Asthma, rheumatism, besides being now and then seized with spitting and vomiting of blood, were diseases with which she was acquainted; yet she was never heard to murmur, but would say, in words something like the following, "God is too wise to err : I need all this; it is sent for good." Death, for some years, had been a favourite topic of conversation. She wished her house set in order: she felt she must die, and not live. I think I hear her repeating the 17th Hymn, 1st Book, Watts: "Oh! for an overcoming faith, To cheer my dying hours; To triumph o'er the monster, Death, Her care not only extended to the temporal, but also to the spiritual concerns of her children. Her prayers and exhortations were blessed, to a certain degree, in the conversion of the writer, but more particularly to her second son, now at a distance. I pray that every Christian mother may see the same blessed effects. Although she is dead, I hope she speaks with a voice that shall awaken those amongst her numerous relations who are dead in sins, especially her youngest children, whose loss, at the present, is her gain. Although confined to bed during the month of January, we had hopes of her recovery, until the 3rd of February, when the symptoma of death were visible to all. She gradually grew weaker, until the following day. when her happy spirit soared on wings of faith and love, to meet the Saviour she adored. Thus died Mrs. Ann Robinson, on the 4th of February, 1847, aged fiftytwo years. May these lines prove serviceable to some of the many readers of your valuable Magazine, of whom it shall be said, (I know not how soon,) "And he died;" "And she died." "Be ye also ready!" Believe in the finished work of Christ. Every legal obstacle is taken away. May it not be said of you, dear reader, at the last day, "Ye would not come to me, that ye might have life!" R. R. The Letter Box. THE IRISH CHURCH: ITS ENORMITIES. YOUNG MEN OF GREAT BRITAIN !-You live in the most eventful times which have transpired since the appearance of the Son of God upon earth, and the establishment of Christianity. In your own dear native land, great things, of late years, have been achieved in behalf of religion and humanity, through the diffusion of light upon many important subjects; but stupendous events have still to take place, especially in relation to Church Establishments, before the Gospel can have free course in the British Empire. This controversy is gradually widening in its range, and multiplying the parties and classes that are en gaging in it. But a vast increase of light is still wanting upon Church Establishments. The Church of Scotland is bad; the Church of England incalculably worse; and the Church of Ireland worst of all. It is time that you, who are soon to fill all the great and important posts, civil and religious, in these realms, should understand this question generally, and first as it relates to Ireland; because you will ultimately be required to speak, to vote, and to petition upon it. We have, therefore, a great duty devolving upon us towards you,-to familiarize your minds with the grievous facts of the case; which is the object of this Letter. Towards the close of last year, a meeting was held in the Merchants' Hall, Glasgow, to oppose the threatened Endowment of Popery. At that meeting most of the principal ministers and gentlemen of Glasgow, friends of Civil and Religious Liberty, attended, and a number of them addressed the assembly in speeches characterized alike by ability and eloquence; but that of Dr. Taylor, a Presbyterian minister, contained so large an amount of telling statistics, which cannot fail to carry conviction to every impartial and inquiring mind, that we have great pleasure in placing it before you, in the hope that you will read with care and seriously ponder it.-EDITOR. SPEECH OF DR. TAYLOR. Dr. Taylor said,-The resolution which has been entrusted to me states, that one class of the supporters of the endowment to the Romish priests have openly avowed that their object in adVocating this measure is to give increased stability to the Irish Church Establishment. Perhaps it would be mcre correct to say that there are two classes of politicians who entertain this view. There are, first, certain Tory Churchmen who wish to maintain the Irish Church in the present position, and in possession of its present emoluments; and there are certain Whig Churchmen who are anxious that the Church should be maintained, but on a reduced scale, commensurate with the wants of its own adherents. But both are cordially agreed in advocating the payment of the Roman Catholic priests from the public funds, as the only measure which can save the Irish Establishment from total destruction. Now, in these circumstances, it becomes necessary for us to inquire whether this institution be worth saving at all; much more, whether it be worth saving at such a cost. There are at present in connection with the Irish Church two archbishops, ten bishops, 326 deans, prebendaries, canons, &c., of whom a number are non-resident. Some are pluralists, and live in the parts of Ireland; some are both pluralists and absentees; and about 2,200 clergymen living in England or on the Continent, totally neglecting all their pastoral duties. The income of the various dignitaries amounts to upwards of £208,000 a year, and the total annual income of the Church to £650,753. Out of 1,338 churches in Ireland, 474 have been erected since 1800 by Parliament, at an expense of £445,180; and adding to the sums expended in building churches the cost of glebe houses and glebe lands, we find that during the past and present century no less than £920,900 have been voted to the Irish Church out of the public exchequer, and this, be it observed, altogether independent of the revenues which are looked upon as the peculiar property of that Church. The total number of persons connected with the Irish Establishment amounts only to somewhere about 80,000. In 1835 there were, according to the report of the Ecclesiastical Commission, 151 parishes in Ireland in which there was not a single Protestant; 194 parishes with less than 10 Protestants; 198 with less than 20 Protestants; 107 with less than 40 Protestants; 77 with less than 50 Protestants;-making a total of 860 parishes in Ireland in which, on the ag- dustry of this country with the support never has been, an efficient institution. It is, and always has been, full of defects, loaded with abuses, impotent for good, powerful only for evil. (Hear, hear.) It is the church not merely of the minority, but of a mere frac tion of the population of Ireland. Its adherents do not amount to one in ten. It is the church of the wealthy and influential portion of the community. It may seem strange to this meeting, but it is nevertheless true, that this very fact has been seriously brought forward as an argument in favour of the Irish Church. I heard Sir John Walsh, member for Radnorshire, in his place in the House of Commons, advocate the maintenance of the Irish Establishment on the ground that its adherents, though comparatively few in number, belong to the wealthy and intelligent class of the population. (A laugh.) Such a mode of reasoning shows very clearly the desperate nature of the cause which requires such a line of defence. So far from being an argument in favour of the existence of the establishment, it is in reality one of the strongest arguments that can be urged in favour of its entire abolition. If its adherents, though few in number, belonged to the poorer classes of the community, something might be said in favour of the policy of supporting from the public funds a church which communicated religious instruction and consolation to those who were unable to pay for the ministrations of religion, and who, it might be alleged, would be in great danger of being left without religious instruction altogether. But no such plea can be employed in behalf of the |