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after death, before the efficacy of his atonement will allow of their being taken to heaven! And where is the fulfillment of his promise, "Come unto me and I will give you rest. Ye shall find rest to your souls ?" According to the prelates, &c. these bishops have not found it yet.

I would dare ask another question. How is it that the priests and prelates can tell with so much accuracy how long a soul remains in purgatory before it is released? How do they know just when to stop praying? I will not insinuate that they pray as long as the money holds out, and no longer; for in the case of the bishops, I suppose they freely give their prayers. I could not help thinking, if they did go first to purgatory, yet they may not be there so long as this. A year is a long time to be in purgatory. Hours pass slowly away while one is burning. O, is this a part of Christianity? Can it be? What an unsatisfactory religion, which will not allow its most eminent examples, its most virtuous votaries, to have repose even in the grave! Credat qui vult, non ego.

45. Canonizing Saints.

I was a good deal struck the other day in reading, in a Baltimore paper, the following notice: "On Monday, the 17th of March, St. Patrick's day, a solemn HIGH MASS will be sung in St. Patrick's church, Fell's Point, and the panegyric of the Saint will be

delivered." It suggested some thoughts which I beg leave to communicate.

Why should the 17th of March be called St. Patrick's day? How is it his day more than yours or mine? What property had he in it more than others? He died on that day, it is true. But was he the only one that died on that day. Many thousands must have died on the same day. Does a man's dying on a particular day make it his? Ah, but he was a saint. How is that ascertained? Who saw his heart? I hope he was a good man, and a renewed person. But I think we ought to be cautious how we so positively pronounce our fellow creatures saints. Especially should Catholics, since even Peter himself, though, as they affirm, infallible, did not express himself so confidently, for he says in his first epistle, 5th chap. and 12th verse, of Silvanus, "a faithful brother unto you, as I suppose."

But what if he was a saint; every real Christian is a saint. If any one doubts this, let him consult any part of the New Testament. I trust there were many saints on earth at that time; and I doubt not that other saints died on that day as well as Patrick. I object altogether to the day being called his. I have no idea that the 365th portion of every year belongs peculiarly to St. Patrick. I have no notion of this parceling out the year among the saints, and calling one day St. Patrick's, and another St. Cecilia's, and so on. At this rate we shall have the whole year appropriated to dead saints.

Ah, but you forget that Patrick was canonized. The church made him a saint, and appropriated that day to him. But I have not much opinion of these

canonized saints-the saints of human manufacture. I like the sanctified ones better. Our Protestant saints are "God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus." But granting the 17th of March to be St. Patrick's day, why is it kept? What have we to do with it, who live so long after? Patrick died in 493, and here in the 19th century they are keeping his day! I think it is time to have done grieving for the death of St. Patrick, now that he has been dead more than 1300 years, and especially when he died at the good old age of 120. Really, I think it is time that even the Irish Catholics had wiped up their tears for him. Tears! why, they do not keep the day in lamentation for him, but in honor and praise of him. High mass is to be sung, as it appears by the advertisement. Now singing expresses praise—and his panegyric is to be pronounced. It is wonderful what a disposition there is among the Catholics to multiply the objects of their religious honor. O that they were but satisfied to praise the Lord that made heaven and earth! But no -they must have creatures to do homage unto-angels; and saints of their own making; and above all, the blessed Virgin, "our heavenly mother," as some of them call her. It would really seem as if they had rather pay respect to any other being than God! They cannot be satisfied with the mediation of Jesus. They must have creatures to mediate and intercede for them. They are always doing things, and keeping days in honor of the saints. How much they talk about tutelar saints and guardian angels. It would appear as if they had rather be under the care of any other beings than God!

Now the idea of still eulogizing, panegyrizing, and

praising, here in these United States, one St. Patrick, who died in Ireland in 493, how absurd! How is piety to be promoted by it, I should like to know!

By the way, what is high mass in distinction from low mass? They differ in several respects. Among the peculiarities of high mass, this, I believe, is one, that it is more expensive than low mass. If you want high mass said for a poor suffering soul in purgatory, you have to pay more than you do if you are content with low mass. And so it should be, for the high mass is worth more. Low mass scarcely makes an impression on a soul in purgatory. It is high mass that does the business effectually and expeditiously. As for us Protestants, we have nothing to do with these masses. We do not find any thing said about them in the Bible. The Catholic will pardon me, I hope, for alluding to the Bible. I am aware that it is no good authority with him, except now and then a verse, (entirely misunderstood,) such as that about the rock, which they say was Peter, on whom the church was built, according to them! Only think now, a man that denied the founder of Christianity three times with profane oaths, himself the foundation of the whole church! Nothing else for it to rest upon but Peter! But the beauty of it is that this foundation should have had a long series of fundamental successors, down to the present Pope! I always supposed that when a foundation is laid, there is an end of it, and that all after belongs to the superstructure. But this is a digression. I was speaking of us Protestants, that we reject masses. And so we acknowledge no distinction of days, but the Lord's day. We keep no saint's days. We keep the Lord's day. It is almos:

the only day that some Catholics do not keep religiously! They are so busy with their saint's days, that they quite overlook the day which "the Lord hath made."

It strikes me that in giving this notice, the priests should have used an easier word than panegyric. I wonder how many of our Irish brethren know what it means. But "ignorance is the mother of devotion," you know, is one of their maxims. What multitudes of them said, on the 17th of March, "blessed St. Patrick." Probably many more than said "Hallowed be thy name." And every day how much more respect is paid among them to the mother than to the Son! It is as clear as demonstration can make any thing, that the Catholic religion is idolatrous. Men may say that it is a very uncharitable remark. But if any oné will dare to say it is an untrue remark, I am ready to meet him. Let us inquire first, what is truth. Then we will come to the question, what is charity. And we shall find that charity is something which rejoices in the truth."

46. Gen. Lafayette not at Rest.

A few days since I observed the following notice, taken from the Charleston Roman Catholic Miscellany: "There will be an office and high mass in the Cathedral on Monday, 30th inst. (June,) for the repose of the soul of General Lafayette." Also the

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