could ever act thus, unless thought, and research, and prayer, were to fail me."

66

They cannot be looked upon as unfailing, if pursued in the spirit of error," observed Miss Graham, "else why are so many sincere and pious souls led into error, notwithstanding incessant study, and ever ardent prayer?"

"There, Katherine, you have unconsciously uttered the strongest practical argument against private judgment that could be produced. We both find, from our knowledge of ecclesiastical history, and from our acquaintance and even friendship with the learned and devout of our own day, that thought, and research, and prayer, do fail! and that two pious and intellectual men, after heartfelt prayer, will, from the same sacred page draw opposite conclusions on vital points of faith! The only resource left to the Protestant, when pondering on this lamentable fact, is to hope against hope, that both these enquiries may be sufficiently near the truth for salvation; while the Catholic turns with delight to that assurance of his Lord and God, given to His Church, that the gates of hell-viz. errors in faith-shall not prevail against her; and, trusting the voice of his Church, as he would the voice of God, his mind rests in peace-that 'peace which' indeed 'passeth all understanding!""

17*

CHAPTER XVI.

A loftier strain-a deeper music,

Something that may bear

The spirit up on slow yet solemn wings,
Unsway'd by gusts of earth.

KEEBLE.

THE following day was Sunday, and the two friends walked together, accompanied by Mr. Everard, through the park, and by the river side, to the parish church. The discourse was on that day addressed to the children of the village school, and beautiful was the exhortation given to the little creatures by their holy and tender pastor. He was, however, suffering from so severe an attack of indisposition, that the sermon concluded abruptly, and, after the blessing, the clerk announced that there would be no evening service at Woodbridge church. After many enquiries at the vicarage, where Mrs. Sinclair assured the anxious niece, that her uncle merely required rest, Geraldine and Katherine slowly returned through the uplands to the Hall; and, on the latter remarking that no delicacy of feeling need prevent them that evening from seeking whatever preacher they might be curious to hear in the neighbourhood, Geraldine owned her intention not only to go herself, but also to carry off her friend Katherine, to the vesper service at the little Catholic chapel in Elverton. "This may be our only opportunity," said she, "of going quietly, without being missed and questioned. You can

have no objection, surely, to hearing the Psalms and Magnificat chaunted in Latin, with a few hymns; for you will escape, in the evening service, what you persist in thinking the idolatry of the mass !' Come, my dear Katherine, come and judge for yourself of part of the public worship of these 'selfrighteous Catholics!' I have a book of vespers with the translation, and we will both put on our close garden bonnets and veils."

"But people will certainly discover us to be Protestants," said Katherine, "from the awkwardness of our behaviour. I shall not in the least know when to sit, or when to stand, and as for kneeling, I shall dread to do it."

"Cannot you do as you see me do?" said Geraldine, "for I shall watch the little boys in the surplices."

"Ah! I can scarcely trust you," replied Katherine, "and, if they begin singing to the Virgin, I shall not wish to accord with them even in position."

"But I will promise to give you honourable notice," said Geraldine; and she continued to plead so hard with her friend, that, in the end, Katherine yielded ; and, having equipped themselves as soberly as possible, they bent their steps, at the usual hour, namely three o'clock, to the narrow lane at the outskirts of the town, where, in a row of mean and dilapidated houses, stood the humble chapel, unadorned even by a cross.

Long before she had taken any personal interest in Catholicity, Geraldine had attended the vesper service at the various chapels of the foreign embassies in London, for the sake of the music, and, at that time, had procured a book, which enabled her to follow the priest and choir with great facility; and although the commemorations and vigils of saints' days make the vesper service rather complicated, yet this difficulty had been soon overcome by

one, accustomed, in the Church of England prayer book, to seek for the accidental prayers at certain intervals of the service. In the little chapel, however, which the two friends now entered, the Latin book of vespers was useless, for that universal language, so requisite in the mixed congregation of the foreign chapels, was here exchanged for the native tongue of a congregation exclusively English; and Geraldine, although a little disappointed to lose the remembered tones which she had now expected to associate with the sacred emotions of the heart, yet acknowledged the judicious care of the Catholic Church, which, in guarding from every innovation the awful ritual of the mass, yet permitted a discretionary freedom with respect to the other services, when the change might be deemed profitable to a congregation.*

The two friends drew near the altar, and found places on a form, where a gentle, pleasing looking girl, gave them her book, pointing out to them, that the meditation,' which the priest had just commenced, was on the Gospel for the day, which was the tenth after Pentecost, consequently the ninth after Trinity, as it is entitled in the Common Prayer book of the Church of England. The priest, kneeling with the two acolytes on the bottom step of the altar, thus read, in a low, but distinct and deeply impressive, voice:

"This day's gospel is the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican, who went up into the temple to pray; and being designed against those, who confide in themselves, and despise others, let us pray. that God would mercifully deliver us from these inward indispositions, which are so very much dis

This freedom can only be claimed in virtue of long established usage with the allowance of the competent Ecclesiastical authority. -AMERICAN ED.

pleasing to Him. Let us pray: O Blessed Redeemer, who camest upon earth to be our physician, to heal all our infirmities, and on so many occasions hast laid before us the danger of our distempers, and the certain method of our cure, mercifully have regard to us this day, and grant we may receive the benefit of what Thou hast taught us in this day's instruction: Amen."

As the priest continued, Geraldine, still bearing in mind Katherine's accusation against the Catholics' doctrine, as inculcating self-righteousness,' gently pressed her friend's hand at the following words :"Thou hast plainly shown us, that nothing can be more destructive to us, than to confide in ourselves, to presume upon our own works, and to despise others as being inferior to us. Thou hast positively assured us, that this alone is enough to make void whatever good we do, and, in the midst of a well disciplined and exemplary life, to be hateful in the sight of God."

Answer: "Mercifully have regard to us, therefore, O merciful God, and grant we may receive the benefit of what Thou hast taught us in this day's instruction."

Priest: "O blessed Jesus! since Thou hast been thus plain in discovering to us the malignity of this self-confidence, presumption, and pride, grant we may be afraid of these evils, and with horror start at the first thought of them, as at the approach of an infernal monster."

Answer: "For what are we, O Lord, that we should place any confidence in ourselves, or be proud of anything we do?"

Priest: "We have every day convictions of our own weakness, of our blindness, of our corruptions,

* Extracts from Gother's Evening Service, used at Brighton and

elsewhere.