to the end, that I may find myself at your feet in heaven. Amen."

The second is an account of a vision, whose teaching is neither more nor less than an exaltation of the power and mercy of Mary beyond those of our Divine Lord :

"We read in the Chronicles of the Franciscans, that Brother Leo, once had the following vision: 'He saw two ladders, one red, at the top of which was Jesus Christ, the other white, at the top of which the Virgin Mary had placed herself. Several attempted to ascend by the first ladder, they mounted a few steps then fell, they again attempted it with no greater success. No one arrived at the summit. At this crisis a voice cried to them to turn to the white ladder, and having done so, they happily ascended, for the benevolent Virgin held out her hand to aid them."

I know that my Roman Catholic friends will say, "Such expressions as those do not escape our lips." Some of them, I grant you, do not, others of them, however, are taken from devotional books which are in common use in this city. But, in respect of those petitions that occur in books, which, though you have never seen them, are sanctioned by the proper ecclestical authorities, you surely will not venture to protest against these, you surely will not reject the prescriptions of your own Catholic Church, you will not surely disavow the sentiments which I have now read from the Pope's encyclical letter, you are bound by your own vows, bound by every principle of your church, to pay the same deference to these sentiments as you are intending to pay to the Pastoral letter which has lately

reached this country from the sacred congregation, respecting subjects that relate to the government of your church. We hold you, my dear friends, and your church, to the doctrines which we have gathered from these works, freely circulated as they are in Catholic Countries, until their authors shall have been denounced, and the books themselves introduced into the Index expurgatorum et prohibitorum.

We have then proved, satisfactorily, as I think, that Divine titles and works, are ascribed to the Virgin Mary by authority of the Church of Rome, and that the members of that church present absolute worship to her, and place an absolute trust in her. Against this, the Reformed Churches raise their solemn protest.

FIRST, On the authority of the Word of God.

And here I will read at once from the Douay Bible that passage upon which the Roman Catholic Church chiefly relies for the honor and reverence, as she calls it, for the adoration, as we call it, which she pays to the blessed mother of Jesus Christ. It is found in the first chapter of the Gospel according to St. Luke, at the twenty-eighth verse.

"Be

The chief stress is laid upon the 48th verse; hold, from henceforth, all generations shall call me blessed." Now I ask what does this prove? Is it intended to be urged that this is a sufficient warrant for those honours which are paid to the Virgin? The argument proves too much.

"Blessed are the meek for

Blessed are the poor in

they shall inherit the earth. spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." But let us turn to the Book of Judges. In the fifth chapter, I find

the canticle of Debora and Barac, and I read the following passage in the twenty-fourth verse: "Blessed among women, be Jahel, the wife of Haber." Am I then on the ground of this passage to regard Jael as worthy of religious reverence and homage? And yet, so far as the text is concerned, we have as much authority for the one as for the other. But let us see how Jesus, the Son of Mary, understood this passage. He, the founder of Christianity, knew what position his Mother should assume in the church which he established. He knew whether she was or was not the Queen of Angels, the Queen of Heaven, the Gate of Heaven, the Most Holy, the Seat of Wisdom, the Refuge of Sinners; and if the Roman Catholic doctrine be true, I have a right to expect that, by both words and actions, Jesus Christ would intimate, to his disciples at least, the exalted reverence which was due to her who bare him. Let us then search the Scriptures whether these things are so. I turn to the Douay Bible, and open it at the second chapter of St. John's Gospel. I read in the first few verses:

"And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee and the mother of JESUS was there.

"2. Ánd JESUS also was invited, and his disciples, to the marriage.

"3. And the wine failing, the mother of JESUS saith to him: They have no wine.

"4. And JESUS saith to her: Woman, what is it to me and to thee? my hour is not yet come."

I will give my hearers the benefit of the note which is subscribed:

"What is to me, &c. These words of our Saviour spoken to his mother have been understood by some commentators as harsh, they not considering the next following verse: Whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye which plainly shews that his mother knew of the miracles that he was to perform, and that it was at her request he wrought it; besides the manner of speaking the words as to the tone, and the countenance shewn at the same time, which could only be known to those who were present, or from what had followed: for words indicating anger in one tone of voice, would be understood quite the reverse in another."

But look again: what a comment on the words "blessed art thou amongst women," does our Lord Jesus Christ furnish in the eleventh chapter of the Gospel by Luke (ver. 27)?

"And it came to pass: as he spoke these things a certain woman from the crowd lifting up her voice said to him: Blessed is the womb that bore thee, and

the paps that gave thee suck."

Not less forcible is the comment which he pronounced on another occasion, and which is recorded in the eighth chapter (ver. 19, 20, 21).

"And his mother and brethren came unto him; and they could not come at him for the crowd."

"And it was told him: Thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to see thee.

"Who answering said to them: My mother and my brethren, are they who hear the word of God, and do it."

And now let me conduct you to a scene upon which

angels gazed with holy reverence, and upon which many in this Church have often gazed in imagination with sacred joy and grief. I take you to the heights of Calvary on the day of the Saviour's crucifixion; see your Jesus hanging upon the cross; see there the blood streaming from his temples, from his outstretched hands, from his nailed feet; contemplate his fearful agony;

See from his head, his hands, his feet,

Sorrow and love flow mingled down;

Did ere such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

See at the foot of the cross looking on with mournful anxiety, the mother of Jesus, and the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdelene, and with them the beloved John. Now mark the affection of the man Christ Jesus! "When Jesus therefore had seen his mother, and the disciple standing whom he loved, he saith to his mother, woman, behold thy son. After that he saith to his disciple, behold thy mother." What tenderness is here displayed! what pity! what kindness! Who can but admire the filial care of the Son of Man, so strikingly exhibited at the very moment that he was bearing the sin of the whole world! But is there any reference to the high dignity with which the Church of Rome seeks to invest her? Does it not seem to you impossible that such an address should have been presented by the Lord Jesus Christ to Mary and John, were the Roman Catholic theory scriptural and evangelical?

Again, in what light did the Apostles regard Mary after the ascension of our Lord? Did the Apostle John