are, with scarce an exception, unable either to read or write, and have in early youth received no school training whatever.

I calculate that not more than one-third of the adults upon my district can read at all, and that not more than one-sixth can even read tolerably. On asking many who have said they could read, to read a portion of a tract, they have at once confessed their inability. The proportion who can write is, as may readily be imagined, much smaller than the proportion who can read.

Religious instruction, or indeed any instruction, to be made intelligible to such persons, must be clothed in the simplest language.

At the period when the writer first devoted his energies to the evangelization of such persons, having received a good education, and mixed with parties well educated also, he spoke as in usual discourse, read a portion of a chapter, prayed, and so closed his visits, pleased in very many instances with the apparent close attention paid, the ready response to the justice of his remarks, such as, "That's true, sir." "Oh, yes, indeed." "Certainly, your reverence." "What a nice prayer,” etc. After conducting visitation thus for some time, a circumstance arose which

occasioned some suspicion, and led to a system of catechising, and the result so affected the writer that he had almost decided upon relinquishing his charge. Pursuing this system of inquiry, after reading a portion of a chapter in the Testament, which would be listened to with the greatest attention, I would inquire, "Do you at all know what I have been reading about?" varying the interrogatory; and I found in the great majority of instances, that no leading idea whatever was possessed of what had been readno leading idea even of the subject: the reply would, perhaps, be, "About God;" "About good;" "Telling you to do your duty,"-some mere guess,—no real intelligent attention whatever had been paid. Some pleaded that they had "such a poor head-piece;" others that they were "no scholards." I found this to be a general result of my inquiries, and that I must pursue a widely different course. The mass of these wholly uneducated people, did not possess the mental apprehension of a second class scholar in our Ragged School. Missionaries who have just entered the Mission, and who have been sent to visit with me, have repeatedly been astonished. Visiting a sick man with one new Missionary,

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I requested him to read and instruct him, which he did, detailing to him our fallen condition, our need of salvation, and the redemption purchased for us, in a very correct manner, and then reading a portion of a chapter in the Gospels in proof of what he had said. The poor man listened with every appearance of attention, and when my young friend said, "You know, Mr. or any other interrogatives, he replied, "Certainly, sir;" or, "In course, sir." My companion appeared pleased with the man's attention to instruction, and I thought it time to undeceive him. "Mr. "Mr." said I, "my friend has been taking much pains to instruct you, and now I will ask you a few questions. "Do you know who Jesus Christ was?" "Well, no," "said he, after a pause, "I should say that's werry hard to tell." "Do you know whether He was St. John's brother?" "No, that I don't." "Can you tell me who the Trinity are?" "No, sir."

"Are you a sinner?" "Oh, certainly, "Have you

sir, we are all sinners."-A pause.

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ever done wrong?" Why no, I don't consider as ever I have." "Did you never commit sin ?" "Why, no, I don't know as ever I did.”

do you think you're a sinner?"

"But

"Oh, certainly,

sir, we're all sinners." "What is a sinner?" “Well, I'm blest if I know rightly; I never had no head-piece."

My companion was astonished. He had never been in the habit of visiting such persons, and declared he had been completely deceived.

It may perhaps be well to give a few particulars respecting this man's case. He was by occupation a sweep, and could neither read nor write. The disease under which he laboured was the "chimney-sweeps' cancer."* He lingered about four months after this visit, and then died. Whilst in health I very rarely had an opportunity of conversing with this man. He would not permit it, and was little at home. When not at work, he would spend his time at the river Lea angling, and would attend Sadler's Wells Theatre sometimes three and four nights in the week. From the time of the visit above described, I visited him very often, although the stench of his cancer, which dripped on the floor

* Scarcely a sweep known to me has escaped this dreadful disease, caused by swallowing soot. I remember but one who has not been operated upon, some many times, and several known to me have died.

as he sat, was almost insupportable, as very many sick cases are. I would read and catechise him like a child, and notwithstanding the most unpromising aspect of his case, from excessive ignorance, as described, it seems very doubtful whether those instructions did not result instrumentally, in the salvation of his soul.

Nor must the ignorance of this man, extreme as it was, be supposed a solitary case. I have known people to declare they would not believe there were any other countries in the world but "England, Ireland, France, and Scotland."

I was endeavouring to attract one man's mind to my instructions by detailing the particulars of a Hindoo festival on the Ganges, and said, "Do you think washing in the Ganges can wash away a person's sins?" to which he replied, “Why, I don't see why it shouldn't."

Another man professed to be an infidel, and said, it was all stuff to suppose Jesus Christ hadn't a father: he said, "Any one ought to know better than that." I said, "Do you believe there ever was a first man?" "Why, of course," said he, "else how could there have been a second." "Tell me," said I," who was the first man's father?" "Oh, you're talking about Adam