friends around me to-day, I mean, that there is probably not one of us who may not do something towards restoring one parish church at least either by his voice in a parish vestry, or by resigning his own exclusive pew in some parish church.

Cxtracts.

MUNIFICENT DONTAIONS.-The late Joseph Ridgway, Esq., of Ridgmond, Lancashire, by his will has made the following bequests, independent of others for the benefit of Liverpool, (free from legacy tax,) to take effect after the decease of his widow:-For the erection of a school at Bolton, 2000l. ; to the Bolton Dispensary, 1000l.; Chester Church Building Society, 1000l. ; towards building a parsonage house at Horwich, 8007.; Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts, 5007.; Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 5007.; Society for Widows and Orphans of Clergymen, 500l.; Manchester Infirmary 200l.; Manchester School for the Blind, 2007.; Manchester Deaf and Dumb School, 2007. National Society for the Education of the Poor, 2001. ; Additional Curates Society, 2007.; Society for the Sons of the Clergy, 2007. And he directed investments to be made in the three per cents., for producing annually the following sums-For the incumbent of Horwich church, 1007.; the organist and other officers of that church, 142ĺ.; aged poor of Horwich, 100l.; Horwich school, 50l.; Dean Church school, 401.; master of the School to be erected at Bolton, 100l. The donations, including the investments and legacy tax, will probably amount to 26,000l.

In Westminster Abbey, the choir is to be altered, the present miserable screen-work is to be removed, and pews abolished.

;

On Thursday, the 27th of July, the Lord Bishop of London consecrated the new church at Turnham Green, in the parish of Chiswick. It is a very elegant church of flint and stone, in the early English style, erected chiefly from funds contributed by the vicar and other inhabitants of the parish. The bishop preached the sermon to a large congregation, including the clergy of all the surrounding parishes. The collection, made during the reading of the sentences of the offertory, amounted to 150l.

THE BETHNAL-GREEN CHURCHES. - The treasurer of the Bethnal-green churches' fund has received a donation of

400l. towards the endowment of the ten new churches in that poor district; and it is intended to appropriate 40l. to each church. Four churches have already been consecrated, and two more will be as soon as some legal arrangements have been completed. The four others, with the schools, &c., will be commenced as soon as possession of the sites can be obtained. About 8000l. will still be required to complete the entire work.

DUNCHURCH.- Another and a most encouraging instance of what the church can do may be seen at Dunchurch, a small country town, with a population under 1400. In that place, 7371. 2s. 24d. were raised by voluntary contributions, last year, for religious and charitable objects; and of that sum more than 160l. were contributed at the offertory. But, then, the Church's system appears to be fully carried out there, and the people value and improve their privileges. The average congregation is about 700, or one-half the population; the monthly communicants, 130; the attendance at the Wednesday evening service, about 220; daily morning prayer, 41; on saints' days, 80.

ST. MICHAEL'S CHURCH, WORCESTER. A stained glass window has been erected in the chancel of this little church. The lower part of the window consists of three lanceolated shafts; and the armorial bearings of the Lord Bishop of the Diocese, the See, and the Dean and Chapter, occupy the centre of each shaft respectively, being supported and surrounded by emblems of the Trinity, and other devices of a sacred character. The window has been erected by voluntary subscription. The design was kindly presented by Harvey Eginton, Esq., the talented architect of the church.

SIR,

Correspondence.

LLANGORWEN CHURCH.

To the Editor of the Christian Magazine.

If you will permit me to occupy part of a page of your Magazine, I shall endeavour to give your readers a hasty description of the little church at Llangorwen, near Aberyst with, which I had the pleasure of visiting during a recent ramble in Wales; for, at the present time, when the erection of so many churches is going on, and when, unhappily, the true elements of ecclesiastic architecture appear either to be little known or much neglected, I think no attempt, however humble, should be omitted of urging on Churchmen the vital importance of exercising correct judgment in

their adoption of architectural designs, and the necessity of caution as to the fanciful and irrelative notions of architects, some of whom seem to have very little idea of the holy ends for which churches ought alone to be erected.

Llangorwen church, consecrated about two years ago, is situated in a secluded valley near the coast, at the distance of two or three miles from Aberst with. On approaching its western entrance I was at first struck with its uncouth appearance, but found that it is intended a tower shall be added at a future time. The entire length of the church, as nearly as I could ascertain by stepping, is thirty yards, ten yards for the chancel, and twenty for the nave. On each side are three rather long and narrow windows, and at the east is a handsome triple window, without any side lights in the chancel; and you will observe that the threefold character of all the windows seems to be beautifully emblematical of the distinguishing feature of the Holy Catholick Faith. The roof has a high pitch externally, and within is open and apparently of oak, the chancel roof being most ornamented. The whole building is stone, but very plain and simple.

On entering the western door I was impressed with the great beauty and fitness of the whole for its holy purposes. There is a broad aisle up the centre without any obstruction whatever; on either side are open oak benches, low, wide, and convenient, with a thick coarse mat for kneeling on towards the east; and, I tell it with delight, not a single appropriated sitting in the whole church, but all equally good and, as they ought to be, equally free to all comers. The pulpit is placed at the north-east corner of the nave, and near it is an eagle for reading the lessons from to the congregation, the priest as well as the whole of the people kneeling towards the east during prayers.

I wish I had ability fully to describe the beautiful chancel, its oak screen of open work about four feet high, with an entrance the width of the aisle and rising one step above the floor of the church, the stone altar approached by three steps more; in short, the chancel is one of the most perfect sanctuaries that has ever come under my observation. I must not neglect to inform you that there are the daily morning and evening prayers, and I assure you that the quiet and reverent mode of performing the services in this holy place is well entitled to the imitation of all Churchmen. I hope your readers will excuse the length and tediousness of this letter, and am, Mr. Editor, Yours very obediently,

The Feast of St. Bartholomew, 1843.

A CHURCHMAN.

ALICE PARKER;

OR, THE TEA DRINKING.

By the Author of "Susan Carter," "Thomas Kenmur," "Peggy Thompson," &c.

Of all the inhabitants of the pretty village of Hedgefield, there were perhaps few better known than Alice Parker and her quiet unobtrusive daughter Mary.Alice had been left a widow when Mary was only two years old, and her three sons, who were her greatest earthly comforts when her husband had died, followed him into the grave, one after the other, just as they were emerging from boy-hood; falling successively a prey to that insidious disease consumption, which carries off so many young and loved ones in this land. Few, who heard of Alice's troubles, could help feeling interested in her, and no one who saw her deep suffering, mingled with such truly Christian submission as she displayed, could help loving and respecting her. Her outward form indeed betokened the anxiety and anguish she had undergone. Her countenance, beaming once with rosy health, was changed into that sallowness, which close attendance on the sick seldom fails to give and her formerly brisk walk was changed into a quiet slow step. It was seldom you saw her excited except when talking of her darling Mary, who was now about fifteen years of age, but who, from sharing in all her mother's griefs and cares, thought and acted like one over whose head several more years had passed. To those who knew nothing of Mary's history, perhaps her character would seem almost unnatural; for when I say that her mother and the Church had her whole thoughts, they might think, as perhaps some of my readers also may, that, at the age of fifteen, it was an unusual case; but such I

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firmly believe was Mary's. She had seen one by one her brothers laid in the consecrated ground of the Church. She had often gazed on the spot where she knew her father was buried. She had seen her mother go to the prayers of the Church Sunday and workday, whenever its doors were open, and she had seen her enter those doors weeping and return to her home comforted. Her mother had often and often talked to her of her own baptism and the blessed privileges granted to her within its walls, and she had only lately kneeling at its altar rails received the bishop's blessing and prayer that she might continue God's faithful servant. She too had joined her mother at the altar on the following Sunday, and received with her the Body and Blood of her Blessed SAVIOUR, and rejoiced in thinking that henceforth she need not be separated from her dear mother in any act of public devotion. Knowing then how many and great were the privileges and blessings derived from the Church, and these her fond mother was never weary of talking about, what wonder was it that Mary should care for little else than her mother and her mother's comforter? The beautiful order of the services of the Church Mary could deeply appreciate, and would often converse with her mother on the blessedness of belonging to it, and of having the history of her SAVIOUR's birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension brought prominently and regularly before her, not by chance, but in order. She had never even heard any other priest perform the services of the Church excepting Mr. Jones and his curate, and though she knew that her neighbours would occasionally run to some other village or town, when any popular preachers, as they called them, were to preach, (whether they belonged to the Church or Dissent,) Mary never felt any wish to go with them. To go to a dissenting meeting she knew would be a sin, for her mother had told her so, and had often made her read those passages in the Epistles, forbidding us to join those who make divisions. And as to going to another church she never