sense which she gives to it which is alone the true one. She cannot err: her decisions are then the divine meaning, and should she declare sin to be virtue, the faith of the humble disciple is bound to believe it." This is the fundamental principle of the Church of Rome; and this also, says she, that which forms the confidence and repose of each one of the faithful. His religion is in his priest. Let him follow his direction, and receive just so much as he (the priest) communicates to him, and that will be all of the Bible that he ought to know. "For the moment," says that Church, "that he doubts, or questions the authority and decision of the Church, he in fact separates himself: he ceases to be Catholic." "The Church," it adds, “is above the Bible; for it was before the Bible." Such is the sad condition of Romanists everywhere; and this is a cause of great grief to the disciples of the Bible. Poor deluded Romanists who believe their Church and not that which God says! Stranger. But the Bible, the priest says, is very obscure or very difficult for unlettered people to understand. Disciple.—But unlettered or ignorant people are men; and it is to the whole human race that the God of heaven has proclaimed his love. To suppose that this gracious message may be obscure or difficult to understand, is to say that that which is charity, or the proclamation of the love of God to man, is less good or less wise than the Father of this world: when I say to my children that I love them, my words do not appear to them either obscure or abstruse. And such was also the sentiment of the Saviour, whether when he delivered to the people his long and admirable Sermon on the Mount; whether when he taught, in the city, in the village, by the sea-side, or in the field, the crowds of men and women who hung with raptures on his words. He never feared that his expressions were too profound, nor that the people could not understand them. (To be continued.) PROTESTANT ANECDOTES. KING EDWARD VI.-At the coronation of this monarch, which was on February 20, 1546, he being then only nine years old, when three swords were brought, as signs of his being king of three kingdoms, he said there was one yet wanting. And when the nobles about him asked him what that was, he answered, "The Bible!" "That book,' added he, "is the sword of the Spirit, and to be preferred before these swords. That in all right, ought to govern us, who are the sword, by God's appointment, for the people's safety. He who rules without the Bible, is not to be called God's minister, or a king. Under that we ought to live, to fight, to govern the people, and to perform all our affairs. From that alone we obtain all power, virtue, grace, salvation, and whatsoever we have of divine strength." When the pious young king had said this, he, with the greatest reverence, commanded the Bible to be brought, and carried before him. BEZA. It is related of Beza, one of the reformers, that when he was old, and could not recollect the names of persons and things he had heard but a few minutes before, he could remember and repeat the epistles of St. Paul, which he had committed to memory when he was young. THE IRISH PROTESTANTS.-It is related, in the papers of Richard earl of Cork, that towards the conclusion of Queen Mary's reign, a commission was signed for the persecution of the Irish Protestants; and, to give greater weight to this important affair, Dr. Cole was nominated one of the commission. The doctor, in his way to Dublin, stopped at Chester, where he was waited upon by the mayor; to whom, in the course of conversation, he imparted the object of his mission, and exhibited the leather box which contained his credentials. The mistress of the inn, where this interview took place, being a Protestant, and having overheard the conversation, seized the opportunity, while the doctor was attending the mayor to the bottom of the stairs, of exchanging the commission for a dirty pack of cards, on the top of which she facetiously turned up the knave of clubs. The doctor, little suspecting the trick, secured his box, pursued his journey, and arrived in Dublin on the 7th of October, 1558. He then lost no time in presenting himself before Lord Fitzwalter and the privy council; to whom, after an explanatory speech, the box was presented, which, to the astonishment of all present, was found to contain only a pack of cards! The doctor, greatly chagrined, returned instantly to London, to have his commission renewed: but while waiting a second time on the coast for a favourable wind, the news reached him of the queen's decease, which prevented the persecution that would have otherwise proved so awful a calamity! Queen Elizabeth was so much gratified with these facts, which were related to her by Lord Fitzwalter, on his return to England, that she sent for the woman, whose name was Elizabeth Edmonds, and gave her a pension of forty pounds a year during her life. POETRY. THE MASSACRE OF THE PROTESTANTS AT PARIS, ST. BARTHOLOMEW's day! we remember the time, So fearfully dark in the annals of crime, When France saw her thousands who worshipp'd the Lord, Thou smilest, proud harlot ! perchance at the thought Strangely flushed is thy cheek, but it is not with wine; We look on the blood which thy right hand hath spilt; The shrieks of thy tortures the deep hell will rend; God hath punished thy guilt, and avenged his great name ! M. A. STODART. CABINET. I see there is no man so happy as to have all things, and no man so miserable as not to have some. Why should I look for a better condition than all others? If I have somewhat, and that of the best things, I will in thankfulness enjoy them, and want the rest, with contentment.-BISHOP HALL. It is in vain to pluck the leaves off a tree; they will grow again. Lay the axe to the root, and the leaves will all fall off and will appear no more. Grappling with particular sins and vices merely, cannot warrantably be expected to produce any radical improvement of heart, any salutary change of principle, any real reformation of life. To deal faithfully and kindly, and effectually with men, we must begin with them where God in his word begins with them. We must clearly and impressively set before them their apostacy and depravity; their spiritual poverty and wretchedness; their ignorance and utter helplessness, their need of a divine and justifying righteousness, and of the sprinkling of the blood of atonement, to give them peace and acceptance with God. We must urge on their consideration the necessity of a change of heart, and of the abiding and indwelling influences of the Holy Spirit, to produce in them, through the knowledge of Christ, that godly sorrow for sin, which worketh repentance to salvation, not to be repented of: to lead them into all divine truth, to subdue their iniquities, to dispose and enable them to love the Lord their God with all their heart and soul and strength and mind, and their neighbours as themselves; and in all things to prepare them for serving, honoring, and enjoying God; for rightly performing the duties which they owe to their fellow-sinners in all the relations of life, to inspire them, even in death, with the hope of eternal life in Christ Jesus, and to prepare them for the glory and the bliss of heaven. INTELLIGENCE. The Commissioners believe, that in the Manchester workhouse a room is allotted for the religious services of the Roman Catholic Clergyman, and they think it would be advisable for the select vestry to adopt a similar course in the Liverpool workhouse." The vestry did not adopt the course recommended. Manchester.-The Popish chapel in this town is to be sold immediately, with permission for the present occupants to retain possession for two years; meanwhile, a splendid mass-house is to be built in a more eligible position. St. Albans.-Priest Ward, writing to the Tablet, August 9: "I have the honour to be the first priest stationed in this mission since the Reformation." Luton. -This same priest writes: "On the first of "PRAY WITHOUT CEASING."-1 Thess. v. 17. June, I celebrated the first Sunday mass Southwark.-A crowded and respectable meeting of the Members and Friends of this Association was held in the National School Room, Borough Road, on Tuesday Evening, August 19, Mr. James Callow in the Chair. The Speakers were, the Revs. H. Robbins and T. T. Cuffe, and Messrs. Binden and Sibley. Liverpool.-A crowded Meeting of the Toxteth Park Protestant Operative Society was held on Monday night, in the Hall, Mile-street, for the purpose of hearing some details relative to the history and principles of the order of Jesuits, and "to warn against the insidious manoeuvres of that wily body," who, it appears, are busy in that locality. The chair was taken by Charles H. Horsfal, Esq., who briefly addressed the Meeting upon the position which Protestant Associations occupy in the eye of the public, and gave it as his opinion that they were now more important than at any former period in their history. The Rev. Mr. Parry addressed the Meeting, and concluded by a demand for "No surrender," which was warmly responded to. The Meeting was subsequently addressed by the Rev. W. R. Hunt, J. Volan, and C. H. Marshall, after which the audience dispersed. ENGLAND.- Liverpool.· The Popish priests of this town are seeking to obtain permission to perform their idolatrous worship in the workhouse. At the meeting of the select vestry on Tuesday, July 29, a letter was read from the Poor Law Commissioners, from which we extract the following:-"The Commissioners have always been in the habit of approving of arrangements by which Protestant Dissenters, being inmates of a workhouse, meet to attend Divine service, celebrated by a Dissenting minister, in a room in the workhouse. that Luton had known for centuries." IRELAND.-Escape of a Nun from the Milltown Convent. There is a great deal of talk in this town about the return of Miss Burke to her father's home from the Milltown convent, and the causes that led to this unusual step, which has been very much opposed by the conventual authorities. However, no persuasion, or even threat could prevail on this young person to continue an inmate of the convent. She is daughter to William Burke, a most respectable resident of Castlemain. What makes this circumstance the more talked of is, that a brother of her's left Maynooth, and is now a student of Trinity College.Kerry Evening Post.-Clongowes Wood College, near Maynooth. The yearly academical concours of this thriving institute of the Jesuits in Ireland, was held on Thursday. Dr. Murray celebrated a Pontifical High Mass. The number of pupils training to do the work of the Jesuits in Ireland, England, &c., is very large. COLONIAL. Trinidad. The new Vicar Apostolic of this island is expected to sail from England shortly with a large number of priests. Popery is gaining great accessions in Trinidad. Dr.. Brady has recently been consecrated at Rome Vicar Apostolic of Western Australasia. Grenada. Five Popish Churches are in the course of erection in this island. FOREIGN.-Cologne.-The king of the Netherlands has, through his Excellency M. Scherff, Dutch Minister Plenipotentiary at the Germanic Confederation, caused to be intimated his Majesty's intention of subscribing 1,000 florins towards rebuilding the cupola of Cologne Cathedral. This is the second Protestant Sovereign who has subscribed to rebuild that Popish Cathedral. France. The French political world is busy with the approaching elections. Like other people), but the Aulic Council of Education parties, the Ultramontane or Jesuit have issued their circular to the electors. A struggle is to be made to recover the ground they have lost by the recent movement of the Government against them. Turkey.-The agents of the Propaganda have lately opened a Popish Chapel at Mitylene (the ancient Lesbos). A fresh draft of priests has left France for Egypt, China, &c. America, Charleston. The Popish Bishop of this place is in London seeking money for his Church. Colombia. A number of priests and nuns arrived here in August, 1844. Paris. In January, 1844, the Abbé Maurette, who had been a priest in the department of Ariège, left the Church of Rome, and published under the title of "Le Pape et l'Eglise," his motives for separating from that apostate communion. The work was seized, and he was tried at the Court of Assizes of Foix, for "attempting to bring the Roman Catholic religion into contempt." The abbé was declared guilty, condemned to pay a fine of 600 francs, and to be imprisoned for one year. The term of imprisonment expired on the 24th of July last. On his release, this victim of Popish persecution (semper eadem) was conducted by sympathizing Protestant friends to the Taitbout Chapel, when prayer and thanksgiving were offered to the Lord by a numerous assembly. Segonsac, France. On Sunday, July 13, M. Chardavoine, lately curé at Migron, solemnly abjured the errors of the Romish Church in the Protestant Church at Segonsac. Marseilles.— The Bishop of Marseilles has addressed a circular to the curés of his diocese, calling on them to make collections towards defraying the expenses attendant on the beatification of Benoit-Joseph Labre, who died in the last century in a state of sanctity. Austria. —The Jesuits.—"We extract the following from a recent journal:-'A letter written from the Rhine provinces on the position of the Jesuits in Austria confirms the news which we published a short time since. Not only, as we then said, does the Austrian Government allow the Jesuits free access to the States (the assembly composed of the three orders of the empire, clergy, nobility, and Published under THE PROTESTANT At F. BAISLER'S 124, Oxford-street; SIMPKIN, MARSHALL & Co. W. DAVY & SON,] has opened to them all the colleges of the empire. No other steps are necessary in obtaining the direction of any educational establishment than for the candidate to obtain testimonials of fitness from the superiors of the order.'"-L'Esperance. Secrecy in the Confessional.-The following appears in some of the French papers as a private letter from Frankfort, under date of August 1. The subject is interesting to us, who have so many Roman Catholics among our fellowcitizens:-"The Senate has just adopted a strong resolution against a Catholic priest of the name of Roose, who has recently created a sensation in this town. This priest had tried to persuade a Catholic female, who is married to a Protestant, to endeavour to convert her husband and children to Catholicism. She refused, and M. Roose upon that refused to give her absolution when she went to the confession, and added that her marriage, being a mixed one, was no marriage at all, and that she therefore lived, in fact, in a state of concubinage. The Senate, in the first place, requested the bishop to change the residence of the priest, but the bishop declared that he could not punish a priest for such an offence as that alleged, for that the advice given by M. Roose at the confessional was under the seal of secrecy, and that to raise any question as to what passed in that place would be an attack upon the liberty of religion. The Senate replied, very truly, that the seal of secrecy was binding upon the priest only, in as far as he was bound not to divulge what was confided to him at the confessional, but that there was no such obligation on the communicant, nor could the priest be exempted from punishment should he make an improper use of his office of confessor. It, therefore, persisted in its determination, and sent an order to the priest to quit the town within a stated time. M. Roose refused to obey, upon which the Senate sent a body of police to his house, who, without further ceremony, carried the refractory ecclesiastic beyond the boundaries of the Frankfort territory, giving him a parting hint that he might meet with a disagreeable reception if he ventured to return." Seven Shillings per Hundred, for Distribution. [Gilbert-street. "If they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them."-Isaiah viii. 20. MANUAL OF THE TRUE PROTESTANT; Or, Short Answers of a Disciple of the Bible to the principal questions of the Romish controversy. By Dr. Cæsar Malan, of Geneva. (Translated from the French.) FIRST CONTROVERSY-THE BIBLE. (Continued from p. 69.) Stranger. But again, (for so the priest represents it,) is not the free use of the Bible dangerous to the people, from the abuse which may be made of certain passages? Disciple.-What is there that sin does not abuse? But because a child, or an idiot, might abuse a police regulation, does it follow that it ought not to be made? Or, because a book is profound in its style, should no one study it? However, let us see what God himself declares of His Word. He says, that it is purer than silver, purified seven times; that it is perfect, and whoso findeth it findeth life. He declares that the Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. and marrow, VOL. VI. He says, that it is a light which lightens, a fire which devours, a hammer which breaketh the rock, water which refreshes, wine which strengthens, and is sweeter than honey and the honey-comb. He says, last, that it is the power of God; and that by it the Holy Spirit begets, revives, sanctifies, and comforts the soul of man. (Ps. xii. 6; xix. 7; Prov. viii. 35; Heb. iv. 12; Ps. cxix. 130; Jer. xxiii. 29; Rev. xxii. 17; Is. xxv. 6, and lv. 1; Ps. xix. 10; Rom. i. 16; James i. 18; John xvii. 17, &c.) Certainly, if God thus speaks of His Revelation, he knows what it contains, and what is its character; and it is I think very imprudent, nay impious, for any one, in spite of such declarations, to declare that the Bible is full of obscurity, enigmas, and problems. Stranger. And children, do you give them the Bible also? Disciple. It is impossible for us to do otherwise than God has commanded us with regard to them. Now listen : These words which I command thee this day, saith the Lord, thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children; and shalt talk of them, no doubt with them, when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. (Deut vi. 6, 7.) |