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following, taken from the Catholic Herald: “A solemn high mass will be sung on Tuesday next, the 29th inst. (July,) at 10 o'clock, at the church of the Holy Trinity, corner of Sixth and Spruce, for the repose of the soul of the late Gen. Lafayette." The General died, it will be remembered, on the 20th of May. I did not know that he had been heard from since, any more than the rest of the dead. But the Charleston and Philadelphia editors seem to have had accounts of him up to as late a date as the 29th of July. Forty days after his death, according to the one account, and sixty-nine days according to the other, his soul was not at rest; and they give notice that measures are about to be taken to procure its repose. I don't know where they got it. They do not say through what channel the intelligence came. They are very positive, however, in regard to the fact. I have often been surprised at the confidence with which Catholics make assertions, implying a knowledge of the condition of souls beyond the grave. One would suppose they had a faculty, peculiar to themselves, of seeing into the invisible world. With what positiveness they speak of this one and that other as saints in glory, and even pray to them as such. I have often thought that many of the prayers of Catholics might be lost from the circumstance of the persons to whom they are addressed not being in heaven.

We Protestants do not lose any prayer in that way. We do not pray to any being who we are not certain is in heaven. We speak with positiveness of the future condition of characters and classes of men-the righteous and the wicked—believers and unbelievers. The Bible does that. But we do not, we dare not

speak of the condition of individuals with the same confidence; and especially dare we not say of this or that person that has died, that his soul is not at rest. We think it better to be silent concerning the spirit that has returned to God who gave it, and wait for the great day to disclose the decision of the eternal mind on its case, and that especially if the person seemed to die in impenitence. We would not usurp the place and prerogative of judgment. What Protestant, even though belonging to the class of Calvinists, as some of us do, would intimate that the soul of such a man as Lafayette is not at rest?

But the Catholics are not so reserved. They pretend to know not only who are saints in glory, but what souls are suffering in the fire and restlessness of purgatory. They can tell you the names of the persons. They have printed in two of their papers, at least, that the good Lafayette, as our countrymen are wont to speak of him, has not gone to rest. His body rests; but his soul, they tell us, has as yet found no repose. It has not obtained admittance into that place where "the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest." The General lived a long time where the wicked cease not from troubling; and much annoyance received he from them, in the course of his patriotic and useful life; and many trials and fatigues he underwent for liberty and the rights of man. Now it seems to me the Catholics take a great deal on them, when they say that his soul is still subject to the annoyances and disquiet which were his lot on earth. Yet they do say so. They appoint a day, a good while after his death, to sing high mass for the repose of his soul. Of course they must believe that

up to that day his soul is not in repose, else why seek its repose? If the person who inserted these notices were living in the papal dominions, or under the influence of Prince Metternich, or the ex-king Charles, I should not wonder at their proclaiming his soul not at rest, for Lafayette was never a favorite at Rome, Vienna, or in the court of Charles X. He loved liberty too well for that. But that American Catholics, and, if the reader will not smile at the incongruity of the terms to each other, republican Catholics, should assert such a thing of him, I am a little surprised. I almost wonder that the people do not resent it as an insult to the old general. If a Protestant minister should say from the pulpit, or through the press, that Lafayette is not at rest, his church and his person would be hardly safe. But the Catholics do it with impunity. And let them. All the penalty I would have them suffer, is the contempt of every intelligent mind.

But why do the Catholics suppose that Lafayette is not at rest? Is it because none are at rest when they die? Is this their doctrine? A comfortable religion to be sure! According to this, how is it "gain to die ?” Who would be "willing rather to be absent from the body?" Or how can it be said, "O death where is thy sting?" since here it is, and sting enough. But he who wrote, Phil. 1, and 1 Cor. 15, and 2 Cor. 5, was not a Catholic. Or do they conclude Lafayette to be not at rest, because only saints find repose in death, and he was no saint? I wish all the saints of the church of Rome had been as good men as Lafayette. They have canonized worse men than he. I have never inquired curiously into the devotional character of the

general, but I am possessed of no proof that he was not a Christian. Certainly, I find in his moral history no reason why they should be so positive that he is not at rest. They might have made the appointment conditional, I should think-mass to be said for the repose of his soul, provided it be not at rest. But they insert no condition. They are sure he is not at rest. Well, if he is not at rest, how are their masses to give him repose? Does the Bible say that they have that efficacy? I must be excused for being so oldfashioned as to appeal to the Bible. That book, since it says nothing about masses, cannot be supposed to say anything of their tranquilizing tendency. I always forget that the Catholics have another source of information on religion besides the Bible. Tradition they call it. They mean by it the talk of inspired men, when they had no pen in their hands; which being heard, was reported, and so has come along down by word of mouth. But I, for my part, am satisfied with what they wrote.

We, Protestants, cannot join the Roman Catholics in their solemn office for Lafayette. We hope there is no need of praying for the repose of his soul; and we are certain there is no use in it. We prayed for him while he was living. We did not wait for him to be dead first. Now that his spirit has returned to God who gave it, and the Judge has passed upon it, we leave it there. By the way, how do the Catholics know when to stop praying for the repose of a soul? The Charleston Catholics had their mass for him on the 30th of June. But it seems it was of no avail, for the Philadelphia Catholics aro called together to sing theirs on the 29th of July. How long is this thing

to go on? I am writing on the 31st of July. Is he at rest now? Was the mass of the 29th inst. more efficacious than that of the 30th ult.? Perhaps the next news from New-York will be that mass is to be performed there for the repose of the same soul some day in August. I hope the church is not infallible in regard to Lafayette, as in other matters. I should be sorry to think him all this time not at rest.

I remember an old Latin maxim, "Nil de mortuis, nisi bonum," say nothing but good respecting the dead-which, it seems to me, the Catholics have disregarded in the case of Lafayette. It is certainly not saying any good of a dead man, to say that he is not at rest. And it is cruel to sing about it. The Philadelphia mass was sung. Is it kind to treat a suffering soul in purgatory with singing?

47. Prayers for the Faithful Departed.

I have taken up again that little book, "The Christian's Guide to Heaven," published, as the title page assures us, with the approbation of the most reverend Archbishop of Baltimore. Parts of it I have heretofore reviewed, but I have not exhausted its contents. I find on page 198 of my edition, the title of this article, "Prayers for the Faithful Departed." Faithful, said I to myself; and is it for the faithful dead that they pray? I was, so ignorant as to suppose that it was for wicked Catholics, being dead, they were so

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