mission has been renewed. Having done this, they feel assured that they need only remind its friends that there is still a wide and open door for the propagation of the Gospel in Ireland; and that many devoted men of God are waiting, and only need be invited to go. Indeed, the whole hundred, with scarcely a single exception, have had their sympathies for that unhappy, but generous and intelligent people, so powerfully excited by their last visit, that they feel constrained to return, so soon as they find opportunity and the means. The Religious Tract Society has again granted a very liberal supply of tracts for gratuitous distribution, and the Hibernian Bible Society has also furnished a larger supply of Bibles than the ministers who have gone forth have been able to dispose of a further supply, moreover, being promised, if needed. SAMOA: EXTRACTS OF LETTERS FROM THE REV. GEORGE TURNER. MALUA UPOLU, SAMOA.-January 24, 1854.-War affairs in Samoa still unsettled, both parties building war-boats and double canoes, and preparing for another fight. The John Williams has just returned from another interesting cruise among the islands to the westward of us. But you will see an account of all in the Reporter, which is now in the hands of the printer. Tana is again shut, and the teacher driven away, but there are bright prospects for Erromanga. Free intercourse has been had by the missionaries with the chief of Bunker at Dillon's Bay, who killed Mr. Williams. A club is now in our house, said to have been the one by which Mr. Williams was struck down, and which will be forwarded to the mission-house. I have now in my desk a silk handkerchief, marked “J._H. 5,” just brought from Erromanga. I intend sending it to Glasgow next year, and I have no doubt but you will see it handed to the nearest relatives of the late Mr. James Harris; to them it will be a deeply interesting relic. It was given up by the wife of a chief, at Dillon's Bay, to one of the teachers. We have now three stations on Eromanga, and the people, even by the sandal-wood seekers, are reported as being greatly changed for the better. Niue natives from Erromanga, Fate, Mare, Savage Island, and other hea then tribes, have just arrived in the Join Williams, to take up their abode for a time with us in the institution here. work is going on in these islands of Wes A great tern Polynesia. We are appealing to the friends of Missions in New South Wales, Van Dieman's Land, as well as our London directors, and hope that, ere long, we may have the pleasure of seeing other missionaries sent forth to that part of the Lord's vineyard in Polynesia, where the harvest is so great, and the labourers yet, alas, so few. April 7th.-War affairs are much as when I last wrote. No farther fighting, only they are busy building fresh boats and canoes, professedly with a view to further strife. A general meeting of the missionaries is to be held here on Wednesday, the 19th, and we have arranged to go in a body, on the 17th, with as many of the chiefs and people of our peace-party as choose to join us, first to the one camp, and then to the other, of the warriors, again to remonstrate and beg them to shake hands and have done with the quarrel. They are tired of their camp mode of life, and find it so difficult to gain what they wish by fighting; hence we have some hope that they will accede to our wishes, and desist. The news have just reached us of the taking of New Caledonia by the French; that, too, may have some influence over their minds; but the missionary's hope and trust are in his God. In the name of God we lift our banner, and advance to this and all other fore I close I may be able to tell you how efforts for the welfare of Polynesia. Bewe have succeeded. 7th, I went in company with other seven April 19th.-As I mentioned on the of my missionary brethren, two days ago, home here last night about 10 P.M., after to remonstrate with the parties; we got being two days at it. We have succeeded fully better than we expected, and have received the promise of the one party to give up the war. The united decision of days, as they have to send for some chiefs the other party will not be known for some who are in the distance. More as to this in a future letter. We are now holding our general meeting, or what we may call our Synod. Captain Morgan is with us on this occasion, and we have just been arranging the future course of the John her voyage to England not later than the be Williams, so as to leave these islands on ginning of December. We are all well, &c. Printed by WALTER GRAHAM BLACKIE, at his Print ing-Office, Vilafield, in the parish of Barony, and residing at 10, Kew Terrace, in the parish of Govan. Pubbished by ROBERT JACKSON, Proprietor, at 5, St. Enoch Sandyford, parisha of Baronv. Square, Glasgow, residing at 184, Sandyford Buildings, THE CHRISTIAN JOURNAL. GOD'S SPECIAL PROVIDENCE. For sparrows? Yes. Are the Yes. Then trust Him with thine "But, is it not bencath the great "Doтn God take care for oxen ?" Yes. very hairs of our heads all numbered? immortal soul; he will take care of that. God to take care of, watching over, such small and insignificant things as sparrows and the hairs of the head, when He has to take care of great planets and keep them from running against each other; for example, Saturn, with its rings of solid matter, and eight moons, larger, take them all together, than a thousand such worlds as ours?" No; and it should exalt our views of Him that He is able to take care of the small as well as the great. And it should give us the highest consolation, that when our mortal body crumbles, God watches over each atom in all its wanderings, and at the appointed time will summon them all back, like the scattered members of a disbanded army, to take their proper places in the new body that is to be. Yes, body and soul God will watch over for good-the highest good that heart can wish or mind conceive. Does not an anxious thought pervade you, when you think of that long farewell you are soon to bid to all earthly scenes-your body to be laid in the grave to moulder into ten thousand atoms, and be wafted perhaps on the wings of every wind to all parts of the globe? And how long? It may be for thousands of years. Then, your thinking, conscious spirit— where will it be, and in what condition or circumstances, during that long. period of separation from the body? Now, although the words, "this day shalt thou be in Paradise," should be enough for our faith, had we nothing else, yet it is delightful to strengthen that faith by the further lights and leadings of God's Word. And, doubtless, the Lord Jesus designed that most interesting talk with His disciples about the sparrows and lilies, to be our support and solace in VOL V.-No. 59, N.S., all possible suppositions. Especially when infidelity from within and without suggests perplexing doubts of the future, should we appeal to the great truth of God's special Providence. "How much better are ye than sparrows! If God so clothe the lilies and the perishable grass, how much more you, for whom His dear Son came down and died." But, says the doubter again, "I don't know about all this; men die, good and bad, and fall into all manner of evil. Why does not your doctrine of a special Providence keep them from premature evil? But it does not, and so no argument can be drawn for the future. Besides, your own book says, "Time and chance happeneth to all;' I see no special Providence." Answer-You notice the evils into which God in His wisdom permits men to fall, but you are blind to the deliverances which He works every day. If God should open your eyes, as He did the eyes of Elisha's servant, you might see that the deliverances exceed the calamities a thousand fold. Did not Marshal Ney pass through a hundred battles, and not get shot by one of the hundred thousand bullets that whistled around him? Take the following: Elias Boudinot, founder of the American Bibl Society, was returning in his chaise to his home late in a dark night, from a court he had been attending many days. He did not know that a recent freshet had carried away all the planks from the long bridge which lay in his accustomed path. Therefore he drove right on, as though there were a bridge there, and reached home safely. His friends inquired by what road he came. "The usual road," he replied. "Impossible," said they, "there are no planks on the bridge." He persisted, and they, trembling for his veracity or his sanity, eagerly went with him, next morning early, to survey. When arrived, they found the very tracks of the carriage at either end of the bridge and on the sleepers, and the very foot-prints of his horse on a central sleeper. There was no more to be said-sanity and veracity were both safe. Some power had presided over the instinct of that horse, had ordained the correspondence of those wheels with the sleepers over which they passed, and kept the man in ignorance of his danger. Was that power fate or chance? O, my doubting friend, I turn from you and listen to another voice, "Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary ?" AT THE DOOR. "BEHOLD, I stand at the door and knock." At what door? The barred door of your heart, fellow-sinner; your heart, defiled, darkened, perverted, hardened, alienated from God and holiness, greatly needing the entrance of some one who can change all this, restore it to God, and make it an abode of purity, love, and peace. Who stands there? Your best friend. He who has done for you already what no other being could or would; who has made possible the change you need, and now presses urgently upon you, acceptance of the provided mercy. How does He knock? Reason asserts your true condition, your deep necessity for just such a Saviour. Conscience thunders its condemnation of your guilt? Memory peoples the past with accusing witnesses. Apprehension looks forward to dreaded, deserved ills that the future has in store. He has knocked long. By His Word, pressed upon you in early childhood by Christian parents, friends, teachers, pastors, or, in later life, pondered in the solitude of your closet. By His Providence, preserving life and health, or sending sickness; supplying every want, directing all your ways, protecting from danger, giving friends and removing them, in each case for your good. By His Spirit, awakening, convicting, reproving, melting, leading others to repentance, pardon, and peace; convincing you that you have only to accept the proffered mercy to be blessed. Why does He knock? Because of His love for your soul. He would save it. You have shut and barred Him out, and persevered in excluding Him. He even begs to be admitted. He will hardly be denied. He has done and suffered so much to make salvation possible for you, that He cannot bear to have you persist in refusing to be saved. But He will not always knock. "There is a time, we know not when, A point, we know not where, That seals the destiny of men For glory or despair; To pass that limit is to die." Many a soul has passed it, and found henceforth the fountains of feeling for ever frozen, the ears deaf to every persuasion, the soul unmoved even at the prospect of eternal misery, its destiny sealed with as much certainty as if the eternal darkness of despair already shrouded it. Hear that knock. Open and admit Him. Then He and His Father will love you, come unto you, and make their abode with you. He is Himself a "door," the only door of hope and safety for your poor soul. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Still persist in your refusal, and you may ere long knock at the door and find it shut. There are others than thy Saviour about the door of thy heart. "If thou doest not well"-just thy case in this refusal-"sin lieth at the door." Death, too, lies at the door. The entrance thou refusest to a pleading Saviour, death may at any moment force; Christ will never force an entrance. If He enters, it must be at thy opening. He who knocks at thy heart's door in love and compassion, will soon appear before thee in another character. "Behold the Judge standeth before the door!" Are you prepared to meet Him with your heart still closed; to hear Him say, "Because I have called, and ye refused; I stretched out my hands, and no man regarded; I also will laugh at your calamity, I will mock when your fear cometh ?" Are ye prepared to endure eternally that most terrible of all wrath, wrath of the Lamb ?" "the Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF THE REV. JAMES GALLOWAY, OF SUTTON. MR. GALLOWAY died at Little Sutton, on September 16. It may be interesting to some to have on record a brief notice of his manner of life, and views in the prospect of death, and we therefore furnish what follows. He was in his youth brought up to a trade, and carried on business on his own account for some time in Glasgow. Early, it would seem, his heart had been turned to God; while prosecuting business for himself, he sought to do good to others as he had opportunity; and amongst other movements of the day, the temperance cause enlisted his sympathies. One evening, after delivering a lecture on this subject, an elder of one of our churches in Glasgow suggested to him the duty of devoting himself more prominently to the work of God. He agreed to consider the matter; and after a prayerful consideration of the question, gave himself up to the work of a city missionary, in connection with Rev. Dr. Eadie's church, and continued to fill this situation, with much credit to himself, and comfort to those employing him, for a period of nine years. During these years he applied himself to study for the gospel ministry, and was licensed by the Presbytery of Glasgow. Soon after license, he was sent to Orkney, and had a call to take the oversight of a congregation there; but previous to acceptance, being sent to Sutton, near Chester, he was induced to accept a location as missionary, and in a few months was ordained as pastor over a small church in that village, which originally belonged to the Congregational body. Here he found religion at a low ebb, and the working classes, of which that and neighbouring villages were principally composed, exceedingly ignorant, and indifferent to the things which belonged to their peace; and he set himself, by preaching the Word within and outside the chapel-by classes and Sabbath-schools -by gathering together adults who could not read, and teaching them on the winter evenings-by family visits, and drawing them from the publichouse, and by other means, to work a reformation. Nor did he labour in vain. Some who were drunken and dissolute became sober, and seated themselves in the house of God as often as it was opened for His worship; some who had not known a letter, were taught to read God's Word; and the neat little chapel, which had at first only a handful of worshippers, was reported, at last anniversary in June, to be so fully let, that the erection of a gallery was proposed. We shall not soon forget the strong faith, and obviously holy joy, which Mr. Galloway evinced in that, the third anniversary of his settlement. He saw that God had blessed him, and pros pered his people; their numbers were increased; they lived in peace and harmony; their annual revenue had risen from £70 or so, to £160, “and,” said he, "I have no fears." But his race was nearly run. He paid a visit to Scotland in August, and was refreshed by the sight of old scenes and former associates; returned home in good health, and attended the presby tery in Blackburn on September 5, and urged, with his usual earnestness, the duty of maintaining the gospel in Bolton, notwithstanding discouragements. On Sabbath he preached as usual, taking for subject in the forenoon the proceedings at the final judgment; and in the evening, the impossi bility of those escaping who neglect the great salvation. About one o'clock on Monday morning, he was seized with violent pain in the pit of the stomach, which appears to have been caused by some internal stoppage, and which produced afterwards heavy sickness and vomiting. The best medical skill was obtained, but he gradually sunk, until Saturday afternoon, when, at the bidding of the Master whom he |