There is a feature of peculiar barbarity in this part of the proceedings of the faction it is in marking the most destitute the victims of their vengeance. One would think that with persons so pious and patriotic as our pseudo friends, the last to be visited with loss and ruin would be the poor and necessitous. But with them "the end justifies the means" and if they can accomplish their revolutionary purposes, break down the dominant faction, and establish a religious democracy-they care not if it is done by the disruption of the societies, the withdrawment of the gospel, the inroads of the destroyer, and the ruin of souls. They can lay aside their adherence to the truth they profess as divine; they can abandon and forsake the cross, as a means of salvation to others; they can enter into plan and concert to prevent the proclamation and glad tidings of salvation; they can cease for a time, till their schemes are accomplished, to love the souls of their brethren, and care for their happiness; they can claim the right of reducing to ruin the churches collected and fostered by the prayers, labours, and sacrifices of those who have gone before them; they can afford to lay aside all those noble feelings of faith, hope, love, good will, and zeal which relate to the extension of the kingdom of Christ; and whilst God is calling forth his people to the task of evangelizing the world, they can, it seems, with perfect piety and without outraging Christian morals, throw the whole weight of their influence into the opposite scale, and impede the growth of religion and the work of God. How they will substantiate their right to the claim of taking their present measures, on the ground of Christian principle-the obligations of religion-the spirit of the gospel—the example of Christ—the claims of the world-and the love of souls, is a question we leave to be settled betwixt themselves and the judge of all.

The remarks already made will be applicable to another class of persons in the connexion, whom the measures of these moral men are calculated to injure. We refer now to the Chapel Fund, and the great body of trustees. It is known that these brethren have entered into large pecuniary obligations; that they can derive no personal emolument from their trust-even in prosperous circumstances-but that in fact many of the chapels are in an embarrassed state, and the trustees are liable. Now these charitable, disinterested, and devoted men have taken these burthens upon them with the understanding that they should have the co-operation of the connexion. The resolution of the Association is to the effect that all the supplies shall be withheld from them in their state of embarrassment-that they shall be left to cope with their difficulties alone: meet deficiencies out of their own private resources, or go to prison, while their prospects are wrecked and their families ruined. This is no exaggerated statement; these cffects must, in a few months, literally follow, if their scheme were to succeed. Let us examine how this part of their proceedings will comport with Christian morality and the spirit of true religion.

The trustees of chapels hold their trust for the benefit of the societies and congregations meeting in the premises. As the whole society cannot be trustees, a few are selected at the instance and for the benefit of the whole. Being placed in trust, they are obliged to take upon themselves the pecuniary responsibilities; but it is evidently done on the faith that they shall be supported by their brethren. If any particular society or congregation succeed in saddling the responsibilities of a chapel upon some dozen of their members, and should then turn round and say-" Now that we have made you fast by the law, we intend to leave you in the lurch, and neither pay seat-rents, nor in any other way to help you out of your difficulties :"-would it not be seen at once that faith was broken with these men? That they had been trepanned into a difficulty, and then left to get out of it as they could? Where is the point of difference betwixt this case and the general case of the trustees through the connexion ? The principles of the Association carried out would be a breach of faith with them of the most gross and iniquitous kind. Now we ask-can a breach of faith be perpetrated on the principles of Christian morality and godliness? Put the case as betwixt two men can one of these men decoy another into a difficult, responsible, and onerous situation for his benefit, and then leave him to bear the burthen alone, with honesty, honour, and piety? He would be avoided, as a person not fit either for respectable or Christian society! The case thus put is the case of the trustees generally: to leave them in this embarrassment, or to destroy the only fund which can relieve them, is to break faith with them in the most wanton and wicked manner. To do this may symbolize with the morality of the Association, but we apprehend it will hardly comport with that of the New Testament. To deceive and then to abandon the victim of the deception to his fate, is in ill keeping with the precepts of that Almighty Saviour who is designated "the Truth." That it may not be imagined that we are grappling with an ideal evil, a case of hypothetical breach of faith, or of fanciful opposition, we beg to inform our readers, that in this as in other things, the Association are

acting on their principles. When, a few sabbaths ago, the collection for the Chapel Fund-or, in other words, the trustees-was made, the combination brought their law into effect; they appeared in their places in the different congregations, and when the boxes were presented to them, all refused to contribute, and many added a laugh, a grin a twist of the nose, a toss of the head, or a leering smile of contempt. This was in the house of God; it had respect to the support of His worship, and the assistance of brethren in distress; and yet there is nothing in opposition to either morality or religion in this! Is this doing to others as we would, in similar circumstances, expect others to do to us? We do fear that the reason that none of these things appear in opposition even to morality is, that the true morality of the gospel is of too refined a nature for the spiritual vision of our opponents.

But this question respecting chapels is very intimately connected with the public worship of God; and if the scheme to break up this fund shonld succeed, the consequence must be to close them. These chapels have often been erected by a comparatively poor people, after long and arduous difficulties, and by a united and simultaneous effort. The poverty which made the erection difficult operates against their preservation from debt, they often find that their hopes are disappointed, and year after year new embarrassments press upon them, till they are obliged to have recourse to this proscribed fund. Here again, the evil falls on the most necessitous; and there are hundreds of places of worship amongst us that must be closed in the course of a short time, if they could receive no aid from this fund. We again ask-can this be done without a direct and palpable violation of the principles of sacred piety? Acting on these principles, every good man must ardently desire to see provision made for the preaching of the gospel and the worship of God, on the model of his own views. The Wesleyan connexion-with unexampled zeal, liberality, and affectionate concern for their fellow-countrymen, in times when there was much less care for the souls of the people than at present-filled the poorest parts of our populous towns, together with the rural parts of the country, with their chapels, to accommodate the poor, and to invite them to the comfort of public worship and the knowledge of salvation. If the authors of these plans were acting piously and patriotically—pray, what are those doing who are pursuing a diametrically opposite course, by endeavouring to pull down what the others built up? This is the plan that these innocent men are pursuing, and if they do not succeed, it will be no fault of theirs. They are, in effect, saying to these poor societies and congregations, as they are saying to the preachers-We love you dearly; but, rather than be disappointed in our projects to bring down the priesthood, we will destroy your sanctuaries, scatter your congregations, break up your societies, and reduce the noble monuments of the piety and zeal of yourselves and your ancestors to a state of total ruin. This is their morality-this their godliness!

We have left ourselves but little space to mark the demonstrations of pure morality and ardent piety of this combination towards the Missionary society. They have resolved to stop the supplies of this institution. There are three parties interested in this decree : the missionaries and their families, the native churches collected in the wilderness, and the heathen world at large.

The Missionaries and their families are deeply interested in the stoppage of supplies. -Every Missionary who leaves his native country and home-puts his health and life to hazard by entering a tropical or frigid climate: dwells amongst the savages of New Zealand, or the hordes of wandering Africans in the desert-does so with the perfect understanding that his wants shall be supplied; and if obliged to return with broken health, that he shall have the benefit of advice and medicine; and, in case of his death, his wife and children shall not be abandoned to penury and want. This is the agreement. On the one side, there is the offering of service of all which man holds dear in life of home, health, and life; and on the other side, there is the pledge of bare support. Every man of the Association has broken this pledge. The Missionary and his family are abandoned in a foreign country to their fate; there they are left to meet their miseries, unpitied; and if not protected and provided for by the less savage tribes around them, to perish of hunger. We are told that there is no violation of moral principle in this. O spirit of faction! what art thou not capable of doing? Surely, "blindness in part hath happened to our Israel;" and not only the blindness of the mind, but that which is worse-the obtuse insensibility of the heart!

But the infant churches which have been formed by the exertion of the Missionaries, are deeply interested in this stoppage of the supplies.-By the mercy of God, some success has attended their exertions in every place; and in others, an amount equal to that of the most prosperous periods of the Christian church. In the West Indies, in Southern Africa, in the South Sea Islands, triumphs have been gained—

which mark, in a most encouraging manner, the power of the gospel and the finger of God. But, from a variety of causes, these new churches are dependent. Many of them are just awakening to a perception of their degradation, and are emerging from the darkness and misery of savage life. Besides, they are beginning to perceive the value of social habits, and, connecting them with religion, to lay the basis of civilized life. Cottages, gardens, corn fields, schools and chapels, begin to appear where all was dreary sterility. The incipient principles of government, law, civil order, and all the great ties which bind man to man, are in operation, and begin-like flowers in spring— to display their opening beauties. Now, let the principles of the Association be acted upon, and these stations must be abandoned. The rising light must sink again into midnight darkness-the smiling spring of civilization must be again lost in the winter of barbarity-the budding joys and hopes, created by the presence of the Missionaries, and the truths they have taught, must be nipped and blighted by the return of heathenism and all the fair prospects of the church in the universal triumph of Messiah's kingdom thrown into obscurity! While this is doing by the machinations of these destroyers, they loudly proclaim-We are men of spotless character: not.a moral stain rests on us; we are ready-nay, foremost-in season and out of season, for every good word and work; we love God, and love the brethren; and it is consummate villany to treat us in any other way than as the most innocent and virtuous of men. Let the wrongs and injuries inflicted on innocent and unsuspecting Negro, Hottentot, Caffre, Singalese, Hindoo, and South Sea Indian churches, reply to this boast. Their principle is to make them the means of inflicting more punishment on a third party. This is their morality-this their religion! We are bold to affirm, that a more immoral, anti-Christian, irreligious, and diabolical principle was never patronized by men professing godliness; and we doubt whether an equal number of men as that which composes the Association could be found, out of the pale of Methodism, who would have the unblushing impudence to avow such a sentiment.

Besides the parties already mentioned, the whole heathen world is deeply injured by this stoppage of Missionary supplies. It is neither more nor less than consigning them over to the tender mercies of heathenism and the devil. A pretty general impression, we believe, has been made on the Christian public, that the Church has long been remiss, and become guilty before God in not making provision for the wants of the heathen. Our Missionary societies are founded on the principle of this obligation, and are using their utmost exertions to cause the Christian world to come forward to the discharge of their duty. If they are right, then it follows that this anti-Missionary Association is wrong. If the British churches are acting on the clear command of Christ, the spirit of the gospel, the charity of religion, the grand and sublime revelations of God then those who are taking the opposite course, are frustrating all these. If the friends of the Missionary enterprise are the true friends of their race and of the world, and are promoting its highest destinies and happiness-then it follows that those who are for stopping the stream of life are misanthropists-haters of mankind.

That we may not be accused of fanciful and unsupported accusation, in this branch of our subject, we re-publish the following hand-bill, which was posted on the walls of Blackburn, from one end of the town to the other, on Saturday night, the 7th instant, previously to sermons being preached on the following day and the Missionary meeting being held on Monday evening :

"TO THE WESLEYAN PUBLIC.

"By public advertisement we learn that a Wesleyan Missionary Meeting is to be held in this town in the course of a few days: we, therefore, deem it our duty publicly to expose the hypocrisy embodied in that annunciation, in order to counteract its deceptive tendency.

"It is needless to state that the Wesleyan Conference, at their last congress, unconstitutionally established what they were pleased to call, a "Theological Institution for the better education of the junior preachers." As this was done in direct opposition to the will of our venerable founder, and in bold defiance of the laws of our connexion, (if indeed any such exist,) it was quite rational to suppose, that such unjustifiable proceedings would meet with the stern opposition of all enlightened Methodists. The obtainment of the necessary supplies thus became a matter of serious embarrassment, and difficulties of no ordinary magnitude seemed to place insuperable obstructions in their way; but, as dishonesty is seldom without an expedient, these ardent projectors conceived the design of connecting their embryo Institution with the Missionary Society, and thus to obviate all difficulties at once.

"But here we may seriously ask, is it just, is it honest, is it ingenuous, that money collected to promote the noble objects contemplated by the Missionary society, should be appropriated to support a paltry, party scheme, designed to strengthen the interest of an intolerant faction? Had we not sufficient proof of the mal-appropriation of the Missionary Funds previous to the introduction of this autocratical design, to prove the injustice practised by mercenary individuals on the credulous part of the Methodist public? We might advert to the enormous expenditure incurred in the support of the Missionary Secretaries and their establishment in London, which, in the course of three years, viz-1831, 1832, and 1833, amounted to little less than SIX THOUSAND POUNDS.

"Can such abominable misapplication of the offerings of the poor be justified in the sight either of God or man?

"Will you then, Wesleyan Methodists of Blackburn, unscrupulously agree to support an obvious imposition on your credulity, in the shape of a College Institution? Nay, rather let your united res ponses emphatically proclaim, "No!" Impeach not your intelligence-your independence-your high regard for the principles of right, in sanctioning, by your contributions, such flagrant acts of injustice. "Let the result of the present appeal to your liberality testify to the world, and your unrighteous rulers, that you are really in earnest in discountenancing such reckless and dishonourable conduct. Convince them that you are not so easily induced to bear pecuniary burdens, imposed upon you without your consent, and against your protestations;-that you ought to have some little say in the formation of those laws and regulations which are designed to affect yourselves, and, it may be, your posterity. "Blackburn, March 4, 1835."

If this does not shew the animus of the faction, we know not what can.

We are quite aware of the argument which will be brought against all we here say, or can say in any other way, to convict these parties of inconsistency. It is that it is not in opposition to the Funds and Institutions of the connexion that they combine, but against Conference-against a dominant faction-against the proceedings of the Manchester district meeting-against the Theological Institution-and against malversation connected with these things. All we at present think it necessary to say on this is that the evils complained of are not proved, and, if they were, the proof could not justify the proceedings. If the men of the Association have injuries to be redressed, or revolutionary purposes to carry, they cannot make other parties suffer-suffer as a sacrifice, as an atonement, on the altar of whose sufferings they intend to place and carry their objects, without violating every principle of justice, morality, and religion. With unfeigned grief, we openly declare it as our deliberate and settled conviction, that as vile a leaven of antinomianism as ever afflicted the church of God, is eating its way amongst us that the anarchical proceedings of this irreligious movement, are based on this, and fed and nurtured by its deceptive influence. This term, we know, is somewhat unusual amongst us. Thank God! our doctrines are not antinomian, neither is it in the nature of our system to produce it; but whilst it is possible for a theoretic antinomian to be practically pious and holy, so it is equally possible for parties to hold pure and elevated views of religion, and yet in practice, to spurn the laws of Christ. This new notion respecting church membership, put forth in the letter to Mr. Marsden, is one of the most antinomian ever broached by any section of the Christian church. The principles of the Association, we have seen, are of the same kind; and the facility and ease-nay, exulting joy-with which the parties break down the fences of the church-scatter the flock-snap the ties of religious fellowship-defame the ` ministry-deprive the old preachers of their support-leave the poor societies at home to their own resources-abandon the trustees to the burthen and hardship of their lotand then devote the Missionary work and the heathen world to perish together;—we say, the state of mind which could superinduce all this, is warped by a deep antinomian alloy. Methodism will, in the end, work it off; for-as it only exists on the foundation of truth and purity-an evil of this description cannot long be endured.

THE SPIRIT OF THE FACTION.

"Some men are singularly fitted for great actions; superior to discouragement, they press through difficulties, which, to others, appear to be insurmountable, and no more regard opposition than does the stately bark the opposing billows of the ocean; nor reproach, than the noisy spray, or the foaming waves which occasionally break upon her bows, as she rides contemptuously through them."-Association Catechism, Part III. p. 67.

Unlike the men who " 'say and do not," these teachers illustrate their doctrine by practice, and the great principle here laid down in the Catechism, is exemplified by the heroes of the Association.

On the eighth of February, a Methodist minister being about to administer the sacrament at Leeds-street chapel, exhorted such as were "in love and charity with their neighbours," to "draw near," and "take it," to their "comfort." It was not long before Rowland advanced to the person appointed to examine the tickets; and, with the help of another champion, showed his "love and charity," by forcing his way to the Lord's table. On the eleventh he made his appearance at the Hull meeting, and gave the following account of the preachers and people, with whom, three days before, he had received the holy communion :-"I will give you a few directions;-be silent when you are bid-always give your money at once and freely, and never ask what is to become of it. Aye-I am sorry to say it-I regret it; but I avow it from close and many years actual observation-these are the qualities that will recommend you to your ministers-these are the things that will procure you their smiles. Beyond this, if you are very fond of office, you will have it; you will be courted; you will have the pastoral

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care of your preachers; they will have love and affection for you and these good deeds, and after your smooth and oily path is terminated, they would, if they might, snugly slip you into paradise itself."-(Lantern, No. 8, p. 119.) St. Paul has said"If any man that is called a brother be covetous, or a railer, with such an one no not to eat," 1st Cor. c. 5, v. 11. Now, if what this orator" avows from close and many years actual observation" be true, it is certain that the preachers, in general, are covetous,' in the very worst sense of that expression. It is equally certain that although he knew this on Saturday, he yet determined, in spite of the apostle, sacramentally "to eat" with these "covetous" men on Sunday, and then set off to Hull to perform the part of a "railer" against them, on Wednesday. From all this, it would appear, that the men who "are singularly fitted for great actions," are so "superior to discouragement," arising from apostolic injunctions, that they "ride contemptuously through them." There is a certain class of persons who need to have good memories. These wholesale 'railing accusations," and abundantly more, are found in the Lantern; and yet the editor gravely says "we would not willingly insert any thing calculated, in the slightest degree, to injure the personal character of any individual, whether priest or layman ;" and goes on to talk to other people about the sad consequences of being "revilers."

The Hull meeting furnishes a specimen of the kind of fair play which is to be expected at the hands of the people who conceive themselves to be "singularly fitted for great actions." The orator laid it down as an axiom, that "a court of appeal ought to be pure, uncommitted, unpledged, unsuspected.' He then added-". we have come to Hull to make our appeal," (Lantern, p. 117.) Very well; then the court, we suppose, is "pure,” and “ unsuspected.' In the first place, the Hull Packet, of Feb. 20, says that "a majority of five to one of the individuals then present were not Wesleyan Methodists." In fact, this "majority" was composed of persons of all creeds and characters, who agreed in nothing but hating the Methodist Conference. In the second

place, this "pure" court proceeded to hear Rowland's "appeal" on his own case, in the absence of all the other parties concerned, and without ever giving them notice of trial, nay, it was stated, by the chairman, that no reply would be allowed, and that "police officers" were in attendance, to take into custody any friend, who dared to say a word on their behalf. In the third place, this "pure" court, after hearing the plaintiff, and gagging the defendants, returned a verdict of guilty against them, by loud cries of shame, shame." In the last place, this "pure" court deemed it right to compliment the speaker on what appeared to them to be his peculiar excellencies; and, accordingly, after he had said-1st, that he was "anathematized," which was a gross untruth-2d, that he was 66 ex-communicated," though he had actually communicated only three days before-and 3d, after he had become a "railer" against the Methodist preachers, who, he said, were known to be " covetous," although he had just been eating" with them at the Lord's table, all in flat opposition to the New Testament, it is added, "he sat down amid thunders of applause." It would seem, therefore, that these appellants have special reasons for preferring this court of appeal to every other. Accordingly, they say, "We have lost our confidence in Conference." They can introduce no police officers there. "We will not go to a special district meeting. "There they have a way of hearing both sides. "We have come to Hull;" and that was far better for them than going to the Vice-Chancellor.

We have further proof how "singularly some men are fitted for great actions," and how "contemptuously they ride through difficulties which, to others, appear insurmountable," in the copious issue of counterfeit tickets, which has recently taken place in Liverpool. It was intended that these, in their manufacture, should resemble, as exactly as possible, those distributed by the preachers; and the cheat, though certain, is not readily discovered. This device, not unworthy of the "ineffable hypocrisy" of its authors, among other ends, intended to enable expelled persons, and others, to obtain access to sacraments, love feasts, band meetings, along with the accredited members of the Methodist society. A young Associationist, yet in his teens, was recently detected in presenting one of these documents, as his passport to the Lord's table, and thus literally making his way to the altar with "a lie in his right hand." Common people when found out in such matters, generally see "difficulties which appear to be insurmountable." Where there is such precocity in the art of deception, and such old adepts behind the scene-first to direct and encourage such youths, and then to laugh at their exploits as a capital joke-detection will be attended with no difficulties" at all; for they "regard the reproach" arising from such an "untoward event" as a clear proof how "singularly they are fitted for great actions."

The editor of the Lantern (No. 8, page 128,) says, "The following anecdote we insert on the authority of a most respectable gentleman in Birmingham, a trustee for