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Ought not these few arguments induce you to abandon a Church which allows such glaring absurdities? Is it not worse than Paganism, when it teaches its deluded votaries to offer prayers and supplications to inanimate things?

"Our God hath formed the earth, the

heavens he spread,

But Papists bow to gods their hands have made;

The kneeling crowd with looks devout behold

Their silver saviours, and their saints of gold.

"As to the intercession of the Virgin Mary, I shall offer a few observations, and before I proceed to do so, I shall mention one fact. Romanists adduce the following argument in favour of their reliance on the Virgin. They say that if any person wishes to get a favour from some high personage, he will naturally go to some near friend of his, or hers, to intercede; thus you place your Saviour and a miserable worm in the same light-the being who knows the secrets of your hearts with a person who knows not his own. These are the words of St. Paul, 'There is one Mediator.' (1 Tim. ii. 5.) Ponder on that. If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sins.' (1 John ii. 1, 2.) Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.' (Acts iv. 12.) 'And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.' (Acts ii. 21.) I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me.' (John xiv. 6.) These are plain truths which your blind leaders cannot refute.

Every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.' (John iii. 20.)

"The next thing which I now direct your attention to is the confessional; and oh! how my mind shudders at the impious and hellish interrogatories which your priests propound to their infatuated penitents. Were you acquainted with

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the questions proposed to married women, I feel confident you would not allow your wives to be tainted with the noxious exhalations which emanate from the confession-box. In the whole of the Bible there is not one text of Scripture which tells us to confess our sins to a priest; and as proof of this, read the following:When Achan sinned, Joshua said to him, My son, give, I pray thee, glory to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession unto him.' vii. 19.) I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession.' (Dan. ix. 4.) And when the Jews sinned, Ezra told them, Make confession unto the Lord God of your fathers.' (Ezra x. 10, 11.) To our Heavenly Father we must confess our sins, and not to frail and wicked mortals, for who can forgive sins but God only ?' (Mark ii. 7.) "Pardon belongs to God alone;

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If we to him our sins confess, He'll send forgiving mercy down, And cleanse us from unrighteous

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"I next proceed to impugn the doctrine of purgatory, which fills the pockets of your priests, who adopt the motto, No money-no paternoster;' and who take upon themselves the onerous duty of leading souls to heaven for silver. The rich man, who is well able to pay them, can purchase an entrance ticket for heaven; but the poor must be content with an inglorious escape. doctrine of purgatory is at variance with the written word of God, for we there read,—' The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin.' (1 John i. 7.) Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation.' (John v. 24.) There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.' (Rom. viii. 1.) He that believeth in the Son of God hath everlasting life.' (John iii. 36.) To die is gain.' (Philip. i. 21.) You perceive, therefore, that the doctrine is a mere fable, invented by cunning men for the sake of extracting your money.

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"I hope these few plain, but un

In reference to transubstantiation, an eminent divine,* in a Sermon recently delivered, observes :

"I know of no system, of either ancient or modern idolatry, in which the idol is made before the eyes of the worshippers; where the priest of any idol takes a thing in common daily use, as an article of food by the people, as a bit of paste of flour and water, and when at one moment every man would see and admit and declare that it was a bit of paste that the next moment, after the pronunciation of a few words, the thing which, an instant before, they confessed to be a piece of paste the very next instant they prostrate themselves before it, and declare that it is invested with the full person and attributes of the mighty God, the Creator of the world, the Redeemer of mankind; that it becomes, in their own words, 'the whole body, blood, soul, and divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ.'

"I soberly declare, I know of nothing, in my view, so monstrous, so revolting even to the fallen intellect of fallen man, in the whole history and scope of ancient or modern idolatry.

"There is this aggravating difference :

"Paganism dishonours a God whom they do not know:

"Popery dishonours the revealed God of the Bible.

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Paganism sets up an idol in the place of an unknown God:

'Popery turns the true, the revealed, the known God into an idol. "Read the express Word of God in his description, by the prophet, of idolatry-Isa. xliv. 14, &c."

How long an offended God may think fit to restrain this Protestant nation from believing the awful delusion, that a piece of paste is the Redeemer of the world, is not for us to predict.

May He, in his infinite mercy, avert such an awful visitation from this highly favoured land!

MONTMORENCY.-A ROMAN CATHOLIC TALE.

(Continued from p. 39.)

FOR some moments after Ernest had breathed his last, Hubert remained in doubt as to the reality of all around. Surely, thought he, it is a vision, a vision of the night! "Speak, Ernest, speak! dispel my fears! but no, he answers not: he is gone!-Father of mercies, ah, whither!" In the struggle of conflicting feelings, his self-command failed him, and he threw himself in an agony of feeling on the body of his friend; from which the next moment he recoiled in horror as he groaned aloud-"I am punished, justly punished, I have loved to idolatry an enemy of our Church, and now he is gone an unbeliever to eternal misery." The words of his friend seemed to resound in his ear, as his dying lips had spoken these words-" Fear not for me, we shall not be parted for eternity." The tears rushed to his eyes as the question again arose, "Was he indeed an enemy of

God? his life so holy, his death so tranquil, would they be followed only by an eternity of intolerable torment?" And as memory recalled

* An Appeal to the Protestant Church of Ireland, in behalf of their Roman Catholic countrymen. By the Rev. R. J. M‘Ghee.

the fervent piety, the evident sincerity of his departed friend, a ray of hope pierced the thick gloom that bordered on the darkness of despair, though terrible was the conflict of his mind during the next few hours; but before the close of the following day, those feelings were lost in the delirium of fever, caught during his attendance on his friend, and greatly increased by the excitement of his mind. For three weeks Hubert's life hung suspended by a thread; the fever at length subsided, and left him conscious of his danger, and trembling at the prospect of eternity. The ministers of his religion were summoned to his aid; confession of sin was duly made to them; absolution was fully granted; the sacraments, with all their saving efficacy, were not withheld; but still all was darkness and confusion in Hubert's soul: he felt himself a sinner, and vainly sought for peace, for solid peace, where peace could not be found. The priest sought to administer comfort: he reminded him he was a member of the One True Church, spoke of the efficacy of the Keys of the Kingdom entrusted alone to the priests of that Church, reminded him of his prayers, his alms-deeds, his fasts, his penances. But Hubert's con

science was too much awakened to derive comfort from these: he could feelingly adopt the language of Job, "If I wash myself with snow water and make my hands never so clean, yet shall thou plunge me in the ditch and mine own clothes shall abhor me; for He is not a man as I am that I should answer him, and we should come together in judgment." And then he remembered Ernest's dying bed, the simple trust he placed in Jesus, the confidence he felt of eternal safety, not from works or deservings of his own, but from the atonement made, the righteousness wrought out by the Saviour. But Hubert could not grasp this consoling truth; there was too much of "wood, hay, and stubble," built on the foundation he had raised, to abide the fiery furnace in which he was placed; but weakened and confused as his reasoning powers then were, he readily yielded obedience to the commands of his Church, and tried to calm his agitated spirit by stronger faith in the saving efficacy of her ordinances. Health and strength were, however, restored to Hubert; nor will it be wondered at, that, on arising from his sick bed, he resolved more strictly than ever to lead a life of greater holiness than he had led before. One visit only of painful harrowing feeling he paid to the grave of his Protestant friend, and there he strove to bury every natural feeling of affection in the all-absorbing one of devotion to the Catholic Faith!

In the course of the delirium that attended Hubert's illness the name of Clara had often been uttered by him, coupled with solemn warnings respecting the Bible she had in her possession, and earnest entreaties that she would resign it to Father Joachim. It will not be matter of surprise that these warnings had been mentioned to the priest who visited Hubert, nor that on the recovery of the latter his spiritual guide felt it his duty to inquire into the meaning of these mysterious sentences. A long conversation ensued, in which Hubert was deeply blamed for his late sinful attachment to Willoughby, and assured that he could not more acceptably atone for his past errors than by rescuing a beloved sister from the deadly heresy which would

inevitably ensue, if permitted the indiscriminate use of that word, so fatally dangerous to the young and ignorant, so constantly wrested by them to their own destruction.

Scarcely could Hubert command his trembling hand to write a. letter ere one was addressed to Clara, in which every argument that sophistry could dictate, and every persuasion that affection could induce, were used to prevail on her to resign the book she had received from Pierre, and to confess to Father Joachim the influence it had produced on her mind.

We regret to add, the letter was not written in vain. Heart-broken at the accounts of her brother's illness, and trembling lest she might be the means of increasing those sufferings she so bitterly lamented, young in years and weak in faith, without a human friend to counsel or advise, she wept, she trembled, she hesitated, her boasted courage failed, she thought she loved her Saviour, she once thought she would die rather than resign his Word; but the hour of trial came, she fled not to the strong for strength, she yielded to the temptation, she hastened to Father Joachim, confessed all, resigned the Testament, implored his pardon, and promised to submit to any penance he commanded. But when Clara first retired to her own room, after resigning the book she had lately learned to prize, she was not happy; she could not pray, for conscience whispered, yes, loudly whispered, she had acted against its dictates, and followed those of affection to an earthly relative, when they stood in opposition to the allegiance she owed a Heavenly Friend. "And must I then," she asked, in bitter-. ness of spirit," must I return to the spiritual darkness from which I so recently have escaped? Can I believe the sweet peace I have lately tasted to have been only delusion, the work of Satan, the malice of an enemy ? Must I again bow before the Virgin, to implore her mercy, when I have felt the privilege of going at once to him who ever liveth to make intercession? Must I again tremble at the contemplation of the torturing flames of Purgatory, instead of rejoicing in the rest of which my Bible tells me, the rest in Abraham's bosom, to which the soul of the happy Lazarus was carried at once by angels to be present with the Lord? Ah, what is truth? who shall teach me? What if the Church I have just obeyed be wrong, and I, partially enlightened as I have been, fall with that into hopeless ruin! Yet," and why did Clara listen to-day to what she would have rejected yesterday?" yet the Romish Church may be right, and I may have been too self-confident, and acted rashly in disregarding its authority." Do we ask, why? Because "the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." It suggests-oh, how readily!— excuses and palliatives for its own conduct. Clara had stifled conscience when she resigned the Bible, and this excuse, which arose at the moment and was not rejected, was less painful then to her mind than the thought she had acted against a clearer light, and obeyed a Church opposed to the commands of God.

Nothing but a supernatural power can effect the conversion of a soul. The Gospel of Christ allows of no compromise, offers no conditions acceptable to the natural heart; on the contrary, it requires violence to be done to every feeling that stands in opposition to its

commands. "If any man," says the Saviour, "will come after me, and hate not his father and mother, yea, and his own life, he cannot be my disciple." And surely it is most just and reasonable that such a requirement be made. What friend, however great, lovely, or beloved, has done for us what our Lord and Saviour has deigned to do? And does he require too much, when he claims the first place in our heart, our obedience, our loyalty, our devotedness? Clara, perhaps, was not aware how much she was influenced by the dread of her friends' opposition; how difficult it was to break through the ties of strong affection, which bound her to her brother; and how she had failed in simply desiring to fulfil the will of God when she yielded to Hubert's entreaties; but she had yielded, and the path of return to darkness was easy to tread, and swiftly trod. Caressed by her friends, occupied once more in the busy scenes of youth, she soon remembered those strong feelings but as a dream that was past; and one acquainted with her history during the few months that succeeded her parting with the Bible would have classed her among the number of those who have no root, who endure for a season and in the hour of temptation fall away. The time was, however, yet to come when the good seed, if choked for awhile, should spring up and yield an abundant harvest.

(To be continued.)

MY DREAM!-AN ALLEGORY.

AN inhabitant of a vast and populous city, I had received many pressing invitations from a friend residing in a very remote county; which, however, upon some frivolous pretext or other, I had as constantly declined. Being rather of an indolent temperament, I disliked even the contemplation of a long and toilsome journey, which it was necessary to take, ere I could hope to arrive at the mansion of my friend. At length, something like a feeling of compunction for such ungracious returns to his repeated proffers of friendship and service, combined with the consciousness that the regard he still expressed for me was wholly unmerited on my part, while it mantled my cheek with the blush of shame at such manifest ingratitude, determined me no longer to delay complying with his request. I resolved immediately to avail myself of his hospitality; and, addressing myself to my journey, with the first peep of dawn, had soon left the city and its slumbering inhabitants far behind me. It was a lovely morning early in April; the lark, attuning his matin orisons as he mounted aloft, seemed to invite the rest of the feathered choristers to share his joyous song. The soft balmy breath of spring, as it fanned my cheek, was redolent with perfume, while the dew-drops that gemmed the newly awakened earth glittered in the sunbeams like so many diamonds. The sky was of the brightest blue, save here and there a few light fleecy clouds of various form and size, which were sometimes driven to and fro by the sportive breeze, at others congregated together, till their weight caused them to descend in gentle refreshing showers.

I trod the green sward with a light heart and elastic step, oft loitering on my way, either to chase the gay butterflies that con

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