THE ANNUAL ADDRESS OF THE IRISH CONFERENCE TO THE BRITISH CONFERENCE.

VERY DEAR FATHERS AND BRETHREN,

UNDER & deep sense of the importance and responsibilities of the sacred office in which we are mutually engaged, it comforts our hearts to think that we are one with you in doctrine, discipline, and affection, "walking by the same rule, and minding the same thing;" and that, by many substantial proofs on various occasions, you have given us to know that we possess a large share in your parental and brotherly regards. The experience of each succeeding year affords increasing evidence to us of your constant concern for our well-being and well-doing; and we feel gratefully sensible of the advantages and aid which we derive by means of our connexion and intercourse with you, in our endeavours to uphold and extend the work of God in this portion of his vineyard.

To us it is matter of unfeigned congratulation, that the troubles which have recently agitated your Connexion have happily subsided, and that prosperity distinguishes your Christian labours, both at home and in foreign climes. The unexampled success of your Missionaries in heathen lands reminds us of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, when thousands were converted to the Christian faith, and "the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul." These wonders of grace discover the fulfilment of prophecy. For "thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people: and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders. And Kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their Queens thy nursing mothers." "Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains; for the Lord hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his

afflicted."

With us the past year has been peculiarly marked by afflictions of various kinds. Unprecedented depression in trade, and general commercial embarrassments, have produced painful and distressing pecuniary results to many families and individuals. The unusual severity of the winter season, combined with the awful prevalence of disease and death, for a length of time greatly diminished the attendance on all our religious services; and the mortality among the members of our Society has been greater than even during the cholera. The still prevailing political and religious contentions, which have so long disturbed and afflicted our population,

have kept up the spirit of emigration, whereby thousands of our Protestant countrymen have been led to remove with their families in search of an asylum in foreign lands; and amongst those emigrants we have to reckon six hundred and ninety-two members of our Connexion, some of whom, it may be truly said, were in their respective localities the most active, influential, and useful agents of our Society. Still it may be hoped that they are gone to augment and advance the interests of the Christian cause in other parts of the world: and yet we are not without our fears that our losses are more than their gains. Under these untoward circumstances it will not be thought strange, although to us it is matter of deep humiliation and sorrow, that we have suffered a diminution of our numbers to the amount of four hundred and twelve below the return of last year. This declension, however, has taken place in a very few Circuits; whilst in others we have been favoured with a considerable accession: and, taking the number of emigrants into account, there appears an increase of two hundred and eighty, over and above those who supply the vacancies occasioned by other causes. Besides, there are other considerations which bear a cheering aspect connected with our general interests in this country: the generosity of the members and friends of our Society, in their contributions to our several Funds, has not declined: the lives of all the brethren employed in our regular Itinerancy, have been graciously preserved: and we have had eleven young men strongly recommended by their respective District Committees as candidates for our ministry, and approved by the Conference; six of whom have been appointed to Circuits, and five are placed on our List of Reserve. On a review of the whole, notwithstanding the disadvantages which we experience in the prosecution of our sacred work, we have much cause of thankfulness to our divine Master, and find ground of encouragement and hope in Him for more abundant blessings on our labours in the ensuing year.

Never were we at any former period more fully resolved, trusting not in ourselves, but in strength divine, to love and live to God; to " preach the word;" to "be instant in season and out of season;" to reprove, "exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine;" to call sinners to repentance, and "to comfort all that mourn;" to give due prominence in our ministrations to those vital truths of Christianity which the great Head of the Church has heretofore so signally owned in the conversion of sinners, and the edification of believers on their "most holy faith," viz., the fall and total depravity of human nature, the essential divinity and universal atonement of Jesus Christ, the divine agency and operations of the Holy Spirit, the third Person in the unity of the Supreme Godhead, the justification of penitent believers by

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faith in Christ alone, "the witness of the Spirit itself," testifying in the believer his adoption into the divine family, "the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost," with all the fruits of inward and outward holiness, experimental and practical; illustrated and enforced by conscientious pastoral visitation, and the faithful exercise of our wholesome discipline and economy, in all their branches. "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God."

The warning voice of death has been heard in our Israel. Two of our Supernumerary brethren have been summoned away. One of them, an aged brother, "worn by slowly rolling years; the other, "broke," although not by sickness, "in a day,❞—with his wife and five children. He was on his voyage to America, when the vessel became a total wreck, and all on board perished. How mysterious are the ways of Providence ! He was a devoted and beloved brother. Many have fallen "as sudden, not as safe."

Amidst the conflict of opinion, "strifes of tongues," and outrages which have so long and so deplorably distracted and distressed our population in this country, we have studied to "live peaceably with all men," conscientiously abstaining from party feuds and political contention. Nevertheless, the most uncompromising loyalty to the house of Brunswick, and the British constitution as by law established, have ever characterized our Preachers and people in Ireland. Accordingly, our Conference have unanimously voted an address of condolence to Her Majesty Queen Victoria, on the lamented death of her illustrious uncle, our late revered Monarch, William the Fourth; and of congratulation on her accession to the throne of this realm, with fervent prayer that, under her auspices, the true religion established among us may greatly prevail and flourish; that Her Majesty's reign may be long, prosperous, peaceful, and happy; and that, when, full of days and of blessings, Her Majesty's crown and honours shall devolve upon her legitimate successor, she may receive from the righteous Judge a "crown of glory that fadeth not away." The presentation of this address we have committed to our President, the Rev. Dr. Bunting, with the Rev. Messrs. Robert Newton and Alder, in such way as shall appear to them most advisable.

The labours of your Agent, the Rev. Walter O. Croggon, as Superintendent of the Irish Missions and Schools, have been highly beneficial to those important institutions, and promise to be increasingly so, when sufficient time is afforded for the developement of his judicious plans for their further improvement and efficiency. His unwearied attention, diligence, and fidelity, in

the discharge of those trusts which you have confided to him, engage our best affections, and command our entire approbation. The visit of your excellent Missionary Deputation, the Rev. Messrs. Grindrod and R. Young, for the north, and the Rev. Messrs. Philip C. Turner, and Joseph Roberts, jun., for the south, call for our grateful acknowledgments, both to them and to you. Their labours, as well in the pulpit as on the platform, have been more than gratifying. Some good fruits of them have been already gathered; and more, as we anticipate, shall be found after many days.

Of our highly venerated and beloved President, the Rev. Doctor Bunting, and his companion, the Rev. Robert Newton, we find it difficult to speak in suitable terms. Their praise has long been in all our churches; but never on any former occasion were their labours more in character with their honoured names : and they return to you, if possible, still more "highly esteemed in love for their work's sake," both by our Preachers and people. With regard to your worthy Missionary Secretary, the Rev. Robert Alder, we should deal unjustly, did we withhold from him the unfeigned expression of our growing esteem and love. The able manner in which he has conducted himself in relation to all our affairs, has afforded us much pleasure; and we have hearkened to his public ministry and general Missionary information with profit and delight.

We send you as our Representatives our faithful and beloved brethren, the Rev. Messrs. William Stewart and Thomas Waugh. Their long and intimate acquaintance with the state and circumstances of our Connexion in Ireland will enable them to supply for your information whatever may be lacking in this Address. We pray the Lord to "direct their way unto you ;" and may the great Master of assemblies guide you in all your counsels, and conduct your deliberations to the happiest results!

We cannot conclude without recording an expression of our gratitude for the great pleasure and advantage which we have enjoyed in the visit, although transient, of Shahwundais, the converted North-American Chief; and the Rev. Edward Fraser, the native emancipated West Indian. Their presence among us excited intense interest, and attracted vast crowds of all denominations. The touching simplicity of the addresses of the former, and the admirably clear, correct, systematic, and evangelical discourses and Missionary details of the latter, produced a powerful and, we trust, permanently beneficial effect. In their own persons and character they exemplify the elevating and sanctifying power of the Gospel. Do any inquire of your Missionaries for letters of commendation ? To these instances, as well as to numerous other trophies and triumphs of the cross, they may

refer in apostolic language, saying, "These are our epistle, written in our hearts, known and read of all men forasmuch as they are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart."

Signed, in behalf and by order of the Conference,

THOMAS W. DOOLITTLE, Secretary.

Cork, July 6th, 1837.

THE ANSWER OF THE BRITISH CONFERENCE TO THE ADDRESS OF THE IRISH CONFERENCE.

VERY DEAR BRETHREN,

IT is with unfeigned satisfaction that we receive the renewed assurances of your brotherly affection and regard. The reading of your Address, which has been presented by your faithful Representatives, Messrs. Stewart and Waugh, has excited in us a very lively interest; while the additional communications made to the Conference by these two honoured brethren, have tended still more to impress our minds with admiration of the devotedness with which you apply yourselves to your ministerial work, amidst many and various discouragements. We are persuaded that, as a portion of the church of God, you occupy a position of immense importance to the welfare of your native country. While the eye of the mere politician is anxiously directed to Ireland as a scene of affecting contemplation, the attention of the truly pious rests, with a yet deeper interest, on her moral and religious condition ;-in attempting to improve which, we rejoice to believe that you, dear brethren, continue to be "in labours more abundant.” We look on you as being, in a peculiar manner, "set for the defence of" the pure principles of the Protestant faith, amidst the dense mass of superstition which unhappily still exists. Surrounded as you are with difficulty, opposed by the powers of evil at every step, while you "earnestly contend for the faith once delivered unto the saints," you have need of more than common assistance from above. You need to be endued with peculiar vigilance, as watchmen on the towers of our Israel; and to be inspired with superior energy, as workmen in the