working for the one grand object of seeking and of saving the lost. The present number of Missionaries is fifty-four. THE DISTRICTS RECENTLY VACATED, NECESSITOUS AS THEY ARE, CANNOT BE SUPPLIED FOR WANT OF FUNDS.

The Mission has been honoured of God in originating and carrying out a plan by which, through the generosity of the British and Foreign Bible Society, every family in London found destitute of the Holy Scriptures has been supplied with a copy of the New Testament and Psalter; and another effort, by which every visitable family was presented, through the generosity of the Religious Tract Society, with a copy of a twelve page tract, entitled, "The Way to be Healthy and Happy," amounting to 250,000 copies, specially with the view of diminishing the awful intemperance in the metropolis. The districts occupied by the Missionaries embrace 1,345 streets, lanes, courts, alleys, yards, and similar places; 19,459 visitable houses, which contain about 33,565 families, and making a total of nearly 170,000 persons. Since the Mission was formed in 1835, up to Dec. 31, 1840, 1,096,114 visits have been paid to the poor, of which 128,291 have been to the sick and dying; 26,317 meetings have been held for reading the Scriptures, prayer, and exhortation; 1,695,066 tracts have been given away; nearly 40,000 copies of the Scriptures have been distributed, and the Mission has been the chief instrument in the abatement of the evils of Fairlop and of Bartholomew fairs. A course of lectures has also been delivered by clergymen, laymen, and ministers of various denominations, against Socialism, and published by the sanction of the Committee.*

The Hon. and Rev. B. W. Noel, at the recent Public Meeting at Store-street, when referring to the announcement of the Committee that they shall be obliged from want of funds to take away several Missionaries from most necessitous districts, said, “What person, that really hopes to be saved in eternity through the merits of Christ, and cannot shut his eyes to the fact that there are hundreds of thousands in this metropolis living in ignorance and vice, can find it in his heart to say, that the small band of faithful men, who are in this Association visiting from house to house among the poor, should be diminished yet? For my own part, year after year only adds to my conviction of the perfect adaptation of these agents of mercy to the work they are designed to perform. If it be in our power-not to those 700,000, who ought to be found in the house of God on the Sabbath-day, and who are never

* The last of these Lectures, entitled, "An Examination of Socialism," is just published in a cheap form, 12mo., closely printed, forty-eight pages, price 4d., by L. and G. Seeley, Fleet-street, for general circulation, especially where Socialism is prevailing.

The proceedings of the Mission and of the Meeting are published with the speeches of J. P. Plumptre, Esq., M.P. (Chairman); the Hon. Wm. Cowper, M.P.; Sir Wathen Waller, Bart.; the Hon. and Rev. B. W. Noel; the Revs. Messrs. Robinson, Witty, Aveling, Knill, and Mr. Owen, and may be had at the Office, 20, Red Lion-square.

found there, but to, at least, some fraction of that part of the community-to convey the knowledge of Jesus Christ: who will say to our fellow-creatures, that they shall die in the desert, because these messengers of mercy must not say to them, Ho! every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.' By whomsoever these glad tidings can be conveyed, let them go forth."

Of the efficiency of domiciliary visitation, by God's blessing we could give the most ample evidence. Much good is done in churches and chapels. Much, also, by leaving tracts at a door; but affectionate and faithful addresses to individuals and families partially or totally neglected, and left to sink in vice and perish in obscurity, must, as the field of labour is so large, be productive of great good. We shall give the following extracts from the Report recently read at Store-street, referring to what has been done on only one district, out of above sixty, that have been occupied during the year by the London City Mission :—

"In an attic at No. in -9 the Missionary found an interesting family in the deepest poverty, the father having been a commissioned officer in the army. At the request of the Superintendent, the Missionary invited their daughter to his house; but seeing some confusion, evidently from want of some outer garment to go in, the Missionary offered her his cloak. In reply she said, “My Ma has gone out, Sir, and has on our only shawl." Such was their poverty, and without any improvidence on their part, that they gladly accepted some tickets for bread and coals. Into the details of this interesting case the Committee cannot now go, except so far as to read one or two extracts written by the gentleman himself (and he is a gentleman by family, education, and conduct), showing what has been to him and his family the blessedness of domiciliary visitation. After the expression of much grateful feeling to the Missionary, he says, in a letter he has addressed to him, "I was carefully educated under a most respectable, amiable, and worthy master, the late Rev. Dr. Bewsher, of Richmond, Surrey, in the tenets of the Established Church. At the early age of seventeen I entered the army as Ensign in the Regiment of Foot. I served for several years in many parts of the globe, particularly in the Peninsular war, and various parts of Hindostan, regardless of my Creator throughout the vicissitudes and many perils of an ardent young soldier's life. Shortly after the peace of 1815 1 returned to Europe from Bombay (I have omitted to state that I am a native of the East, having been born in the City of Calcutta, in 1791,) and married my present wife, who has borne me nine children, five still mercifully spared to me, of the respective ages of twenty-one, fourteen, ten, eight, and five years. In 1819 I was placed on half-pay; and in 1832 retired from the army, receiving the compensation allowance. For some time I subsisted on the wreck of my little property, assisted latterly by a small pittance afforded us through the kindness of a near relative of my own. You can bear witness of the state we are in at present. Unsought and

unsolicited, you have found us out, spiritually exhorted us daily and unceasingly to fly to God, our best friend and succour in trouble, and in deep, grinding, and pinching poverty. Through you many of our wants have been relieved at this inclement season. You have visited us in affliction as a friend, a comforter, without fee or reward. What shall I render to the Lord? and how can I recompense you and the friends he has mercifully inclined to pity and relieve us, but by giving up ourselves to his service, steadfastly resolving to lead a new life, with confidence in God's mercy through Christ? It is, and will be, with God's blessing, my sincere and earnest desire to seek the blessing of salvation, the pardon of sin, and consolation of the Gospel, both in public and private worship, and by regularly reading and explaining the Scriptures, to the best of my humble abilities, to my family. I promise you these things not only for your past kindness, but in consideration of my precious soul; and I do this as in the presence of God, who alone can penetrate into the dark recesses of man's deceitful thoughts." When the Missionary first entered the room of this family, there was not only deep poverty, but there was no Bible, and no public worship. They now possess a Bible, and attend the ministry of the Rev. T. B. Baker.

The Committee will only mention one other case, also belonging to the same Association. The Missionary found in his visitation a man who had evidently been in different circumstances, but was now in poverty, and addicted to drunkenness and to whatever it exposed him. At first when the Superintendent called, he would enter into no conversation; but the Missionary having at length got access to him, by God's help found a way to his conscience and to his heart. It now appears that this man had made a profession of religion; had been a minister of the Gospel in London for about six years; and through some reverses, fell into a backsliding state, and then into profligate habits, in which he has lived for nearly the last nine years. He has written a long letter to the Missionary with all the particulars of his history; the following extract from which will show his present state and feelings :-" The Lord has strove with me in a most wonderful manner. He has, by affliction, brought me nigh unto death. He has reduced me from a comparative state of affluence to a state of extreme adversity, even to the loss of home and goods; yet none of these things have moved me towards himself. But the time has now arrived that he hath made himself known to me as the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, and that by the valuable exertions and visits of the friends of the City Mission. In the beginning of November last, I removed to my present place of residence, when the Lord was pleased to send you to seek a wandering, disconsolate backslider. Your visits, particularly, have been exceedingly beneficial to my soul. By your entreaties, and those of your friends, I have attended your meetings; and from the kind reception I have met with, allow me to say, with an expression of shame, sorrow, and self-abhorrence (which no tongue can give utterance unto), that I am anxiously seeking for pardon and reconciliation, through faith in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, which was so freely spilt for me the chief of sinners. I do now, this day, resolve and purpose, by the help of God, to give myself wholly to him; and I do pray, that God will preserve me from temptations above what I am able to bear; and that he will, with the temptation to sin and grieve his Holy Spirit, also make a way for my

escape. I purpose, if practicable, to offer myself to the Church under Mr. Salter's pastoral charge at their next meeting (God willing); and may God open my way, is the prayer of a returning prodigal."

The Missionary under the superintendence of the Hon. and Rev. B. W. Noel, recently reported the results of his labours, when it appeared that he had been the means of inducing fiftythree persons to attend public worship, of sending 132 children to school, of giving away 20,178 religious tracts, and of eleven or twelve persons being brought to the knowledge of the truth, and becoming communicants at St. John's Chapel, Bedford-row. Another Missionary reported the addition of eleven persons during the year to different Churches as communicants."

In the words of the concluding paragraph of the report, "Can any good man, of any section of the Church, disapprove of such efforts and such results? Besides the various indirect and minor blessings which the Mission has conferred, souls have been converted by the grace of God, and have been united in Church-fellowship with the Established Church, with Congregationalists, Wesleyans, Presbyterians, and with Baptists. They have been called out of darkness into the marvellous light of the Gospel. Who would say that they had better have remained what they were, than to be what they now are? Through the mercy of Jesus Christ, they are now walking in the fellowship of the Gospel, and angels have rejoiced over their conversion by an instrumentality which, however humble, God has honoured and blessed in doing his own work. What Christian, then, will complain against God, or against the instrumentality he has employed? Or, rather, what Christian is there who considers the state of the metropolis, the sole object of the Mission, and the past successes attending its labours, but what will give God thanks for its existence, and help it to the utmost of his power? The frown of a disciple will ill comport with the smile of his Master, and the withholding of support, by those who have it in their power to render it, from any Institution which God signally approves, must meet with his displeasure at the last day. Committee invite their Christian brethren of all denominations, holding the truth in righteousness, to give them the hand of fellowship, and cordially to unite, as parts of the universal Church, in doing the will of Jesus Christ, having for their object and end what ought to be common to all Christians, and their highest honour and glory-The gathering together in one all things in Christ.""

I remain, Brethren,

Your faithful fellow-labourer,

LONDON CITY MISSION OFFICE, 20, RED LION-SQUARE,

March 1, 1841.

The

THE EDITOR.

Macintosh, Printer, 20, Great New Street, London.

THE LONDON

CITY MISSION MAGAZINE.

APRIL, 1841.

THE LECTURES ON SPIRITUAL CHRISTIANITY. THE important course of Lectures on the Reality of Spiritual Christianity, by Isaac Taylor, Esq., announced in our last number, has been delivered under the most encouraging circumstances. We shall not here attempt any description of these masterly productions, they will be immediately published, and we doubt not very extensively read and admired.

The following summary, by Mr. Taylor, which he has kindly permitted us to extract from the last Lecture, will gratify our readers, and enable them to form some idea of the train of thought pursued throughout the course :

"We have urged upon the attention of those who have in this "instance honoured us with a hearing, the historic reality of Christianity itself, which, if admitted—and it cannot be rejected "-involves us in an obligation to yield to it the absolute control "of our faith and lives.

"We have named those exterior characteristics of the Gospel "which give it an unquestioned advantage in comparison with every other scheme of religion.

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"We have distinctly stated-not attempting to prove them dogmatically-those great truths, which in the highest sense are "of the substance of the Gospel, and which distinguish it from "all the corruptions that have borrowed its name.

"We have exhibited the characteristics of the system of morals "which Christianity enforces, and especially as drawing its motives "from the great truths above referred to.

"And now we have pointed out those adaptations of Christianity "which entitle it to be regarded as the engine or means of bring"ing about, if ever it is to come, an age of universal well-being "for the human family, when the Tabernacle of God shall be “with men, and he shall dwell among them.'"

At the close of the last Lecture the Rev. Robert Ainslie