Page images
PDF
EPUB

liberality from the Legislature in order to ensure that education should be general. Under this system, we may justly claim for the Church of England her due share of Parliamentary grants, and her full influence in the charge of the education of the children who enter her schools.

On the like grounds the National Club feel bound to maintain the Universities of England and Ireland; they, in fact, form an integral part of the great scheme of National Education. That scheme does not exclude the Dissenter from the fullest opportunity of establishing colleges where his own system of religion is taught, but it reserves to the great majority of the English people, members of the Church of England, a like advantage, in the possession of the ancient seminaries where their national religion is taught along with useful learning. Any attempt to overthrow or undermine this system the National Club would stedfastly withstand. Colleges without religion are destitute of the power which impresses truth and forms character. Colleges, in which different religious bodies are united in the conduct of education, can never prosper. The result of neutrality on a question, which is the basis of discipline and the foundation of truth, is to produce laxity in morals, and opinions either openly sceptical or characterized by indifference to religion.

III. The members of the National Club feel it to be their duty to uphold the United Church of England and Ireland in her integrity and her Protestant character. They cannot concur with those who assail the Establishment of the Church of England as hostile to the interests of religion. They regard her as most effective for the teaching of truth, and as the great guarantee of our social welfare. For this has been the marked characteristic of the English Constitution, that in the midst of great political changes, it has kept firm the balance of our liberties, and has joined popular rights with social order. This is due to the character of the English people, formed in a great degree, as we believe, by the influence of a scriptural Church, a Church which blends the lessons of truth with the interests of the world, and restrains the passions of men by the words and warnings of God. This system it is at once our interest and our duty to maintain.

IV. On the principles which should regulate the Irish Government, the National Club hold these opinions. They regard it as the duty of the State to extend equal justice to all her subjects, to impose no penalties on the Romanists, to inflict no injustice on the Protestants, to look to the first with deep interest, as a people sorely wronged by those who have long misled them; to look to the last with cordial sympathy, as placed in circumstances of peculiar trial, yet the firm friends of British connexion. They conceive that every one in Ireland should VOL. VIII.-January, 1846. New Series, No. 1.

enjoy the full rights of freedom, and that over all, without distinction, should be asserted the supremacy of the law. In these views they confidently expect the concurrence of Irish Protestants, and as they turn to them for examples of loyalty, so they regard the Church of Ireland with firm attachment, as the best bond of union, and the most effective instrument for accomplishing the peace of Ireland.

These are the principles which the National Club regard as all important, not speculative, but practical, the foundation of our public fortunes. For if we suffer the faith of the country to fail, and her morals to become corrupt, we prepare, by an unerring law, the national decline. For, where national religion decays, the public morals become disordered; reckless morals cause restless politics, and by the shocks of frequent change the confidence of capitalists is disturbed, and the returns of industry are deranged. All therefore have a deep personal interest in maintaining these public principles.

For themselves the members of the National Club do not disguise the reluctance with which they make this statement public. It is contrary to many private feelings. But they have the strong conviction that great evils are at hand, and that there may yet be time by united exertion to avert them. They would call upon their countrymen to adhere to these guiding principles, and to act in concert in order to preserve them, putting forth their own efforts, and calmly committing the issue to him with whom alone are the destinies of nations.

PILGRIMAGE TO LOUGH DERG.

AMIDST the dark night of superstition that has long brooded over unhappy Ireland, there are gleams of sunshine breaking through the thickest dark; there is now and then a convert to the light of truth brought out from the moral gloom; a captive of superstition rescued from its cruel thraldom, and made a free man of the truth. Yes! and as the word of unerring truth declares that the wrath of man shall praise God, so it sometimes happens that the very means employed to darken and degrade the mind of man are by God's providence overruled and made the means of opening his eyes to the errors of that system of religion so directly opposed to the holy and peacegiving influences of the Gospel of peace. Doubtless all of our readers have heard of St. Patrick's Well, and the pilgrimages annually made to it by those deluded peasants who are taught that the pains of their bodies can expiate the sins of their souls; that heaven can thus be theirs, without faith, without holiness, without, love, without repentance.

We give the following account of it from an interesting book by an Irish clergyman, which contains an account of the change of sentiment produced on a poor Irish scholar, named Connor, from his pil

grimage to St. Patrick's well, and subsequent meeting with an Irish Scripture reader who showed him from the word of God the differences between the devotion commanded by his Church, and that which the Word of God required.

Arriving at a small hamlet Connor found some of the inhabitants preparing for their pilgrimage to St. Patrick's Purgatory in Lough Derg, a celebrated resort of Roman Catholics, where penance is performed by the numerous devotees, which is supposed to be so meritorious as to cancel all the sins they may have previously committed. The party whom Connor found about to set off to the island consisted of an old grey-headed man bent with years, his wife, equally aged, three or four younger neighbours of both sexes, and two lads the children of a woman, who was a widow. As soon as the group espied the scholar, who was known as such by his satchel, he was cheerfully saluted by all.

"The blessings o'the mornin be on you," cried the old woman, "and are ye going to the island wid us? It's glad we'll all be of your company, and I may say that too for every one here."

"Ay, right glad all of us," exclaimed the rest of the group.

"Ye'll read to us about the blessed Virgin and St. Patrick and all the saints, wont ye, avourneen," said the first speaker.

"And let me carry your books yer' honour," joined in one of the lads.

Connor stared with some surprise at the group, and knew not at first what answer to return to the inquiries. He had never seriously contemplated the pilgrimage, though he knew that the direction he was taking led to that far-famed place. However, he determined to join the party, and signifying their intention to do so after he had taken some refreshment they set out on their journey, carrying white bags behind them slung over the shoulders, containing provisions for the journey, and the scouns or oaten cakes which is the only food allowed to be eaten by the pilgrims on the island. As the party drew near to the island they found numbers going in that direction on the same errand as themselves, some of whom had travelled many weary miles, and appeared almost worn out with fatigue. There was a great variety of characters for the keen and observant eye of Connor to contemplate, and he was struck with the apparent indifference that was manifested by the majority of his fellow-travellers, some of whom had visited the island once or twice before, but whose evil courses had compelled their father confessor to send them to the purgatorial spot again. Some there were who externally indicated great sorrow for sin, and a few of whom seemed to be sincere, but often the laugh and the jest passed from one to another, as if the pilgrims had been holiday personages on the road to a fair. This conduct, however, by degrees subsided, and a look of awe and solemnity gradually occupied the place of the laugh and the merry smile as they came nigh to the lake. At the close of the fourth day's journey, Connor perceived by the accession to the number of pilgrims that he was in the immediate vicinity of the far-famed spot. Old and young of both sexes almost lined the road; some passing those whose age or weakness prevented their making any very rapid progress, but whose anxious look indi

cated the intense desire they felt to behold the island which lay before them hidden by an intervening ridge of hills. Connor and his party soon joined the penitents, and entered at once on their perambulations. However enthusiastic they had been in climbing the hills, that enthusiasm soon cooled when they began to feel the lacerations produced by walking upon the spiked stones. Still as others kept on they made no pause, but went round the building, joining in the prayers to the Virgin and to God. This was repeated several times during the day. When at night wearied with fatigue they had just retired to rest, they were awakened by the cry of a man, calling the pilgrims to the chapel or prison. All arose, and, although nearly overcome with sleep, they entered the place to which they had been summoned, having first washed themselves in the lake. Nothing was more calculated to affect the minds of the pilgrims with solemn dread, predisposed as they were to all that is superstitious, than the scene which the chapel presented. It was a comfortless looking place, with naked walls, dimly lighted by two or three candles, which stood upon an altar that was raised near one of the sides of the chapel, and crowded with halfslumbering devotees, whose low monotonous repetition of prayers, mingled at times with a deep-drawn sigh, or a half-suppressed groan, or a timid and fearful shriek, wrought mightily upon the nerves of the scholar. The exchange of the solemn stillness of the midnight hour for that sepulchral sound, and the transit from the soft yet clear radiance of the moon and stars to the dim light of almost expiring tapers affected him in common with the others. Everything had been so artfully arranged that it was impossible to shake off the feelings of awe and terror that began to possess them. Here, kneeling upon the bare ground, they repeated their prayers, often falling asleep over the duty, and as often aroused by severe blows inflicted by persons who went round to keep the penitents awake. In this place, exhausted by their previous penance and the loss of their rest, they continued their devotions until day-break, when the same traversing of the sharp stones took place, and the same devotional exercises at stated times. No refreshment was allowed, save the water of the lake, which is warmed and presented to the pilgrims who require it. It is called wine, and is supposed to possess certain virtues. Another visit to the prison which they left at midnight completed the first part of their penance which they so vainly and ignorantly believed had a meritorious power to blot out their guilt.

Early the next morning the whole party sought the priest to whom confession of their sins was to be made, and who was to bestow absolution upon them. He listened with great gravity to what_Connor had to say, and then immediately pronounced the pardon. This was the case with all who followed; a very short time sufficing for all to go through the catalogue of their sins, most of which were acknowledged without compunction. Nevertheless, no difference was made in the treatment of any. A hasty absolution was given to each party individually, and then their places were filled up by others intent upon the same errand. Their next object was to take the sacrament, and that solemn ordinance was desecrated by the eager anxiety of some to push before the others in order speedily to enter upon the last act

[ocr errors]

of penance before leaving the island. There remained another duty to be done, that of walking round the beds; but the mind of Connor was made up to have no more to do with such a system of mummery, by which the souls of men were deluded and the excellence of real religion completely hidden under a round of foolish ceremonies. He returned to the hut in which he had left his satchel and oaten cakes, and hastily entered the ferry-boat which was conveyed to the opposite shore of the lake. It was high noon when he reached the summit of the hills that rise from the water. He turned for a moment to gaze on the scene he had left, in which folly and superstition were enchaining their votaries, and saw crowds of pilgrims performing their devotions, and the boat that had brought him across the lake returning with a fresh company of credulous Catholics who were about to join them. It were surely needless to point out to the enlightened mind of the Bible Christian the sad profanation of scenes like these, how fatally souls are ruined, and what an insult is thus offered to the glorious sacrifice of Calvary which alone can take away the guilt of sin; for since the Word of God declares, "without shedding of blood there is no remission," how can it be that penances like those we have described can satisfy the offended justice of heaven, can purify the heart from sin, or fill the soul of man with that filial love which can alone spring from a sense of freely-bestowed and pardoning mercy Yet, cheering is the truth, that the labours of the Irish Scripture readers have been so abundantly blessed by the Almighty, and bright are our hopes for Ireland that error and superstition shall yet flee away before the glorious sunshine of Gospel truth.

?

AN APPEAL TO DR. MURRAY AND THE ROMAN CATHOLIC LAITY OF IRELAND.

"From this polluted fountain of 'indifference' flows that absurd and erroneous doctrine, or rather raving, in favour and in defence of 'liberty of conscience;' from which most pestilential error the course is opened to that entire and wild liberty of opinion which is everywhere attempting the overthrow of religious and civil institutions; and which the unblushing impudence of some has held forth as an advantage to religion."-Extract from the Encycli cal Letter of Pope Gregory XVI., dated at Rome 15th August, 1832, addressed to all Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, and Bishops.

"DR. MURRAY, you are an aged man. I call on you at this eleventh hour to look to Christ for mercy. You have not ventured now while an edition of this work has passed through the hands of the public, to meet the proofs of one tittle of it. You have written a letter, which Mr. O'Connell read at the Meeting of the Popish Institute in London, on the 26th of last May (1840), in which you assert what you know not to be true, as if you thought, by the solemnity of denial, to disclaim what you dare not encounter in the field of proof. You have hereby only aggravated your sin, and drawn upon yourself additional demonstration of it. Have you not served this hard master long enough? Have you not long enough bowed under the yoke of this Mystery of Iniquity?' The awful superstitions you administer have led you into this labyrinth of treachery and falsehood-they

« PreviousContinue »