there to prevent any person from injuring the plantations, or from diverging from the prescribed path in ascending the hill. He was very civil; gave me a good deal of information respecting the surrounding country; helped me to break off fragments as specimens of the vitrified fort, little weening that he was aiding a person who had been a transgressor in rambling through the plantings, and who had escaped his watchful eyes, because, unlike the fabled Argus of old, he had only two eyes instead of an hundred, and neither of them was in the under part of his head. I had transgressed ignorantly, however; and in com. ing down I conducted myself comme il faut, not once stepping aside from the beaten track. I reached Inverness in good time to dine with Dr. Walker, and in the evening, which was very sweet, I had a delightful drive with him up the River Ness. There is a sweet little wooded island in the midst of the stream, to which there was access by a wooden bridge, and which used to be a place of resort for an evening promenade. We had a near view of the celebrated Tomnahurich. It is very conspicuous, as it stands in the plain, quite detached from other eminences. Tomnahurich means the watchman's hill, which tells us that it was one of the "ward hills," so necessary when every man's hand was against his brother, or at least when every clan needed to be on the guard against all the surrounding clans. In ancient times it was used also as one of the moats for holding courts of justice. And amongst our superstitious forefathers, it was regarded, probably on account of its beauty, as a favourite rendezvous of the fairies, that tiny little race of prankish elves, whom, in my boyhood, I have heard some asserting that they had heard and seen. We laugh, perhaps, at the credulity of our forefathers, and at their foolish fears lest these fays should, in the absence of the mother, visit their habitations, and carry away from the cradle a lovely babe, leaving in its stead an unthriven, evil-loving changling. Alas! we forget that worse than these imaginary beings are, though unseen, constantly wandering about our habitations, seeking to ruin ourselves, and especially desirous of bringing our children into a state of the most degrading thraldom. How wonderful is it, that when we are told, on undoubted authority, that our great adversary the devil, is constantly going about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour-when we know that legions of evil spirits are ever on the watch—that they have been most successful, in all ages, in luring myriads to walk according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience that Satan seeks the everlasting ruin of our bodies and of our souls;-how wonderful is it that so many live at ease, in a state of fatal security, never once thinking of Satan and his wiles-of his fiery darts, of his chains of darkness, or of the mansions of misery in which he is for ever to torment those who submit to his debasing yoke; and continue as his willing captives to work iniquity with greediness! And is it not almost as wonderful, that so many should forget that we are constantly surrounded by blessed spirits of light, whose unceasing desire is to do us good;that if we love God, they are sent forth by him to be our ministering spirits, as the heirs of salvation; that the angels of the Lord encamp about those who fear him; that if our eyes were opened we might at all times see myriads of holy spirits encompassing the path and ministering to the happiness of the friends of Jesus-watching over the beds of dying saints, ready to waft the disembodied spirits of the ransomed from the earthly tabernacle, and from the chamber of death and sorrow, to the mansions of the blessed, to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, to join the general assembly of the first-born, and to enter on that rest that remaineth for the people of God? How beautiful does the bard of Paradise cause Adam to speak to Eve on this subject, when they were both happy and pure, when as yet they knew not of unholy spirits, when angels of light owned them as their kindred, and when they were supremely blessed in holding converse with God! "Nor think, though men were none, That heaven would want spectators-God want praise. Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth Unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep. All these, with ceaseless praise, his works behold Both day and night. How often from the steep Of echoing hill or thicket have we heard Celestial voices to the midnight air, Sole, or responsive each to other's note, Singing their great Creator! Oft in bands Where they keep watch, or nightly rounding walk, With heav'nly touch of instrumental sounds, In full harmonic number join'd, their songs Divide the night, and lift our thoughts to heaven.” The morning came, however, when we must leave Inverness, turning our faces southward. We returned as we came, through the great glen of Scot- -| land. The weather was now most propitious, and were I to describe all that afforded us delight, I might fill a volume. I shall merely, however, linger for a little at one fascinating point-the Fall of Foyers. When we were on our way to Inverness, there was no time allowed for landing, and few of us had any inclination; for the day was wet and windy. We had proof, however, that we were near the Falls, for the place was pointed out to us, and as, owing to the heavy rains, there was much water in the river, the spray, like the smoke of a furnace, was rising high above the surrounding woods. In such circumstances, when the wind is blowing up the glen, the spray rises several hundred feet, and if the sun is shining fine rainbow is formed on the cloud of spray. Two hours were allowed us, and as the day was fine, the party large, and in good spirits, we all enjoyed the walk exceedingly. The ascent was considerable, and occupied a good while, for as the day was hot, we had to take it leisurely. It was delightful to wind our way through those fragrant Highland woods, in the conjoined parishes of Boleskine and Abertarff. The river forms two cascades within about a quarter of a mile of each other. The upper one being the less remarkable, we went to it first. Directly in front of it, there is a bridge across the stream, from which, without dread or fear, we could H 1 UNBELIEVING MOTHERS. contemplate the gush of descending waters. The It thundering shoots, and shakes the country round. Then whitening by degrees, as prone it falls, 533 three kinds of them in the nest-males, and females, I must, however, bring to a close my too-protracted narrative. I returned home much pleased with my northern expedition, grateful, I trust, for the opportunity I had had of seeing so much that was new to me of our magnificent country, for the kindness of the Lord's providence that I had experienced, and for the happiness I had enjoyed in contemplating so many fresh manifestations of his goodness and wisdom in the wonderful works of his hand. own? UNBELIEVING MOTHERS! PERHAPS the eye of some may rest on these lines who are conscious that they cannot be addressed as Christian mothers, in the highest sense of the term; and if there be one such, permit me to ask that one, if she is conscious of what she is doing? As you are voluntary agents, I am not at this time to object to the ruin of your own souls, but I have to ask you, whether you have a right to ruin the souls of your children? If you ask, Are not our children our I answer, with emphasis, Surely they are not. They are a sacred trust committed to your care; they were lent to you by God, and they belong to him. But even conceding that they are your own, are they yours to destroy? Oh, what a satire upon a mother's love, is a mother's irreligious, impenitent, worldly heart! We are told in history, that when Egypt was once under the direful scourge of a universal famine, it was no unusual thing for parents, with most unnatural appetite, to feed on the bodies of their children; and when asked how they could do this desperate act, many a mother has been heard to say, stung to agony by the reproach, and well nigh maddened by hunger, "Is not the child my own, and had I not better feed on its mangled limbs than that the stranger should do it?" We shudder at such a recital; and yet more cruel is that mother who, by precept or example, or by both, leads her child to the ruin of eternal death. I do not doubt that Carthaginian mother's love, who took the smiling infant from the pillow of her bosom, and cast it to the flames in sacrifice to Moloch, because I can believe that she was the victim of a bondage to a horrid superstition, which seemed to make the sacrifice a duty. But in this day of light, in the bright When wending our way downwards through the shining of this meridian sun of gospel grace and woods, a cry was raised, "What is this, what is this?" glory, I cannot conceive a mother's love consistent with the sacrifice of the soul of her offspring. And It was a mound pregnant with life-swarming with yet this refinement of cruelty is the achievement of living creatures, winged and wingless. It was a every mother who keeps her own heart from the large ant's nest--the word large being applicable both submission of obedience to the gospel of Jesus Christ, to the ant and to the nest. It was a species of ant and leads her children with her in the path to which I had fallen in with only once, up Lochfine,'eternal wretchedness. Tell me, yet unconverted some miles above Tarbet. It was Formica Hercu- mother, do you desire that your children should be lanea, which forms its nest in woods; and the great tumulus which it constructs is formed of little bits of sticks which it carefully amasses. There are saved? brace the religion which you reject! that they will What folly to suppose that they will emgive their hearts to the Saviour from whom you keep your own! that they will yield to the love which you trample under foot, and obey the grace to which you you, careless, impenitent mothers, to a sense of your man! What an expression of countenance! No one looks at me as he does-he never takes his eyes off me, and seems always to be saying, 'Be serious, be in earnest; don't trifle, don't trifle.' Then smiling at the picture, and gently bowing, he added, ‘And I won't trifle, I won't trifle."" "I have never thought," he said, "that the circumstance of God's having forgiven me, was any reason why I should forgive myself; on the contrary, I have always judged it better to loathe myself the more, in proportion as I was assured that God was pacified towards me. Nor have I been satisfied with viewing my sins as men view the stars in a cloudy night-one here, and another there, with great intervals between; but have endeavoured to get, and to preserve continually before my eyes, such a view of them as we have of the stars in the brightest night-the greater and the smaller all intermingled, and forming, as it were, one continuous mass; nor yet as committed a long time ago, and in many successive years, but as all forming an aggregate of guilt, and needing the same measure of humiliation daily, as they needed at the very moment they were committed." "I have said nothing to Mr., or to the viceprovost, or any in the College, about Mr. —'s conduct. It is the second blow that makes the battle. HINTS FOR MINISTERS. (Selected from Carus' Life of Simeon.) "BEING the only gownsman that attended there (the church of an evangelical minister at Cam-And what harm does it do me to be silent? To pass bridge), I rather wondered that he did not take any by a transgression is more becoming the gospel, than notice of me. I thought that if I were a minister, to resent it." and saw a young gownsman attending as regularly and devoutly as I did, I should invite him to come and see me." During the period of Mr. Housman's residence at King's College, he knew it was Mr. Simeon's invariable course to rise every morning, though it was the winter season, at four o'clock, and devote the first four hours of the day to private prayer and reading of the Scriptures. In one of his pocket-books was found twice written in large characters: "Talk not about myself." "Speak evil of no man." So congenial were the duties of the Lord's-day with his taste, that he generally appeared at the close of the day to be invigorated, rather than exhausted by them. "I am an eight-day clock," said he; "now I am wound up for another week!" It may be generally remarked, that they who have been most honoured as the instruments "of turning many to righteousness," have been the persons who have been least grudging in their efforts to seek out or reclaim single wanderers from the fold of Christ. Mr. Simeon had a portrait of Henry Martyn, the sight of which greatly affected him. He used to observe of it whilst looking up at it with affection, as It hung over his fire-place, "There! see that blessed "I feel, and have ever felt, that I have no talents for the world, no taste for the world, no time for the world: and, therefore, except as an ambassador from the Lord, I have had for forty-four years almost as little to do with the world as if I had not been in the world." "About four years ago, when I was in my blessed work of purchasing livings, to secure pious and laborious ministers in them, I wrote to Dr. K.————, whom I had never seen, to ask some assistance towards it, thinking he might possibly give me £500; and, behold, he gave me nearly £8,000! and now that I am engaged to the amount of above £10,000, a gentleman, whom I never saw but once, and then only for half-an-hour, has died and left me £9,000. My poor dear honoured and lamented father thought that I should ruin myself by giving my money to the poor, and, therefore, left my little fortune in the hands of trustees. Behold, this is the way in which God leaves me to be ruined! O what a master he is! wonder who ever lost by serving Him!" I A man strikes me with a sword, and inflicts a wound. Suppose, instead of binding up the wound, I am showing it to every body; and after it has been bound up, I am taking of the bandage continually, and examining the depth of the wound, and making it to fester, till my limb becomes greatly inflamed, and my general health is materially affected; is there "KIRWAN" ON EXTREME UNCTION. a person in the world who would not call me a fool? Now such a fool is he who, by dwelling upon little injuries, or insults, or provocations, causes them to agitate and inflame his mind. How much better were it to put a bandage over the wound, and never look at it again! To a monotonous preacher, who had asked him after sermon, his opinion, he replied, "Why, my dear brother, I am sure you will pardon me, you know it is all in love, my brother; but indeed it was just as if you were knocking on a warming-pan-tin tin, tin tin, without any intermission " TRUTH AND CHARITY. THE spirit of Christianity is entirely liberal in its desires, prayers, efforts, and communications, but not of course in its opinions; for there is no room for liberality in reference to these. A liberal Christian, if the term be intended to characterize him with respect to his religious sentiments, is an absurdity. We must believe according to the facts and evidence within our reach. What it appears to us that the Scriptures teach, after a close and prayerful examination of them, we must believe. And were our hearts enlarged to entertain all the charity of heaven, it could not alter, and ought not to alter, our belief. Charity can never affect our belief, but by first affect ing the things believed. We can change our creed only by changing, what is manifestly impossible, the facts and truths comprehending our creed. We often hear it said by men, that they have charity for all, meaning thereby, that they believe all are in a safe condition in reference to a future state, or that those who live under the influence of Paganism or Mohammedanism are about as well off as those who live under the Christian system, and one Christian denomination scarcely to be preferred to another. Now whether there be truth in this, is another question; but there is certainly no charity in it. There may be charity in connection with this belief. But there may be quite as much in connection with the opposite belief. Charity does not qualify opinions, but affections and actions. Feel charitably, act charitably, think truly. If one's charity is to be decided by his own opinions, as in common parlance, liberal or illiberal, then what was HE, in respect of charity, who said, "Strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life, and few there be that find it?" Was he not charitable, yea, charity's self? Yet you see what an opinion he expressed. It is said, "We must have charity;" so we must, else with all things beside, we are nothing; but we must also know what charity is. Whether is not he more charitable who goes and spends his life and employs his talents in the selfdenying service of a missionary to the heathen, even supposing him to act on an error of judgment, than he who stays at home, and, sitting in the midst of his comforts, proclaims that the heathen are as well off without the gospel as with it? We cannot help deciding in favour of the former, that he is more like Paul -like Jesus. Ah, it is easy to talk charitably, and (if you like the language) to think charitably; but to entertain charity in the heart and to enthrone it there, and from its deep impulses to act and to endure, with constancy and without wearying-therein lies the difficulty of charity," the labour of love." Paul would not have been considered as very charitable in his opinions; but in his desires, in his deeds, and in his ordinances, what mere mortal ever went beyond him? 535 "KIRWAN" ON EXTREME UNCTION. To the Right Rev. John Hughes, Bishop of New York. MY DEAR SIR,-Agreeably to the promise made to you in closing my last letter, I now proceed to a statement of the additional reasons which prevent my return to the pale of your Church, in which I was born, baptized, and confirmed. I shall begin As but with your sacrament of extreme unction. few of your own people, and yet fewer Protestants understand it, I hope you and my readers will bear with me even if I should occupy this letter with its When rightly understood, it is a terrible sacrament. I will try so to explain it as to bring it to the level of every mind, and from your own standard authors which lie before me. consideration. The name of the sacrament explains it; it is anointing by holy oil of a sick person when recovery is extremely doubtful. This, and the fact that it is supposed to be the last act of religion, gave it its name. The object of this anointing is thus explained by the doctors of Trent: "The devil is always busy in seeking to destroy the souls of men; yet it is at this hour of death that he most violently exerts all his power; and the object of this anointing by holy oil is to fortify the soul in the dying hour against the violent attacks of its spiritual enemies, and to enable it to make a holy death, and to secure a happy eternity." The only person who can administer this sacrament is a bishop, or priest. You admit a midwife or a layman to baptize, but a priest only can administer extreme unction. The reasons for this will appear in the sequel. The oil used in this sacrament must not be common oil. That the effects intended may be produced, it must be oil of olives," solemnly blessed by the bishop every year on Maundy-Thursday" I quote from Challoner. The sentence leaves it doubtful whether the efficacy of the bishop's blessing continues only a year, or whether the oil must be used on that day. It has what is called in rhetoric a squinting construction. As the priest is paid for blessing it, it is probable he blesses but little at once, and that he gives it efficacy only for a limited time. The effects and fruits of this anointing are these: it remits sins, at least such as are venial; it heals the soul of its infirmity and weakness, and helps to remove the punishment due to past sins; it strengthens the soul to bear the illness of the body, and to repel its spiritual enemies; and if it be expedient for the good of the soul, often restores the health of the body." I wish you, sir, and my readers, to ponder the words in italics. Its meaning is this: If the person is restored, it is a miracle wrought by extreme unction; if he dies, restoration would not conduce to the health of his soul. The manner of administering this sacrament is as follows: If the time permit, certain prescribed prayers are said the confiteor is repeated, and absolution is granted; then the priest, making thrice the sign of the cross, says, "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, may all the power of the devil be extinguished in thee, by the laying on of our hands, and the invocation of the holy angels, archangels," &c. Then dipping his thumb in the holy oil, he anoints the sick person in the form of a cross, upon the eyes, the ears, the nose, the mouth, the hands, and feet; at each anointing making use of this form of prayer, "Through this holy unction and his own most tender mercy, may the Lord pardon thee whatever sin thou hast committed by thy sight. Amen." And the same prayer is repeated, adapting the form to the several senses. The requisite disposition in the receiver are faith in the sacrament, a pure desire for the health of his soul and of his body; if expedient, resignation-repentance-devotion. it up as a commandment of men, I have a few ques tions to ask in reference to it. Is it so that God's people need the oil of olives, blessed on Maundy-Thursday, to be placed upon their eyes, and nose, and ears, and tongue, and hands, and feet, to secure the remission of their sins, and to heal the maladies of their souls, and to enable them to repel their spiritual enemies? If this oil can do it, what need is there of the blood of Christ ? If the blood of Christ, and the presence of his Spirit can do it, what need is there of this olive oil? But again: you require in the receiver of this sacrament the dispositions above stated. Those are truly Christian dispositions, bating a few things in │ In case of recovery and relapse, it may be repeated, your manner of stating them. If these dispositions and as often as the person relapses. And your scriptural authority for all this you find in James v. 14, 15, which you thus translate: Is any sick among you? let him bring in the priests of the Church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: and the prayer of faith shall save the sick man, and the Lord will lift him up; and if he be in sin, his sins shall be forgiven him." Such is your extreme unction, as described by the Council of Trent, Challoner, and the Poor Man's ¡Catechism. Although abridged, you at least will say that it is a perfectly fair abridgment. Let us now examine it in the light of Scripture and reason. I ask you to look at your Greek Testament, and then to answer me on what authority you thus translate a portion of the 14th verse of James v.: "Let him bring in the priests of the Church?" Ah! the priests, the priests; this sacrament is for their benefit; and, by a mistranslation, the power of anointing and praying must be confined to them! But does the text afford the shadow of a support to the sacrament? No, not even the shadow. You utterly pervert the meaning of the apostle. The anointing and prayer of James is for the life of the sick; your anointing is for their death, and is never administered whilst there is any hope of life. The anointing of James is for the cure of the body; yours is for the cure of the soul, in reference to which the text gives no direction. The saving of the sick and the forgiveness of sins are in consequence of the prayer of faith. Can none but a priest offer that prayer? The anointing of James, and the prayers to be offered, were to be followed with miraculous recovery; yours are to be followed with speedy death. The cures wrought by the anointing of James were for the establishment of the claims of the gospel; yours for the ghostly authority of your priesthood. That text above quoted is confessedly the only one on which you build your sacrament; and that text must be mistranslated, and utterly tortured out of its sense, and meaning, and end, even to afford a pretext to the use which you make of it. And this is but one of the many instances in which your Church has changed and perverted the original meaning of the Scriptures, and forged them into chains to bind men to your system of delusion. Having thus swept from your extreme unction the only scriptural authority claimed for it, and hung are possessed, will not the soul of the person be saved! without your olive oil? If not possessed, will your olive oil save them? : Again among the effects of this sacrament, as stated in the Poor Man's Catechism, p. 329, is this, it brings him (the sick man) in safety to the port of eternal happiness." Now, sir, does extreme unction save from purgatory? This you will not say. If not, then it only takes him to the port of eternal happiness. From the port he is turned into purgatory; and your priests get paid for the olive oil by which he slips safely to the port of eternal happiness, and then they get paid for the masses by which they get him out of purgatorial fire into heaven! So that extreme unction is simply a device to increase "the alms and the suffrages of the faithful." Again what a low and sad view of the religion of God does this sacrament give to a dying bed! Let us suppose a case, which no doubt, often occurs. There is a Papist in the hour of death. To this hour he has lived in sin. Feeling that death is upon him he sends for his priest. He thinks now of nothing but confession, the eucharist, and extreme unction. The priest appears in his robes. If the sick man is able, he confesses. If not able, the anointing commences, and proceeds in the way already stated. He is crossed and anointed on his eyes, his nose, his tongue, his ears, his hands and feet, and the prescrib ed prayers are said. The man now dies in peace, feeling that his sins are remitted-that his soul is healed of its infirmities-that his spiritual enemies are all subdued, through the efficacy of olive oil, blessed on Maundy-Thursday! Not a thought of the dying man is directed to the cross of Jesus Christ, or to the efficacy of his atonement! So that extreme unction is a Papal incantation, by which the priest makes a deluded people to believe that the keys of heaven and hell hang by his girdle-that by his olive oil he can procure for them all that the Bible suspends on faith in Jesus Christ! Esteem me not harsh, reverend sir, when I declare it my deep conviction that by your sacrament of extreme unction your Church is deluding and damning mul titudes of souls, and that from year to year. It is a wicked substitution of olive oil for the blood of Christ at the dying hour, and simply and only for the benefit of your priests. And what a tremendous use your Church has made |