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truth constantly in his power, but deterred from receiving it by fellow-creatures, in the same state of blindness as himself, but with this guilty addition that they are wilfully blind. This is worse than heathen idolatry, though what the priests teach is nearly the same. The heathen is led by his priest to suppose that his goddess can do him some good; he therefore presents offerings, and prayers, and praises to her, just as Richard was doing to the Virgin; and the heathens have the same authority for doing so that the Catholics have for worshipping Mary. The heathen priests teach their people to worship the goddess, and the Popish priests teach their people to worship the Virgin: And the heathen priest can just give as good a reason for the worship he teaches, as the Catholic priest can for the worship he teaches; for the heathen priests say that their superiors in the priesthood have, for many hundred years, taught that it should be so; and the Popish priest can only say that his church, that is, Catholic Popes and priests, have, for a few hundred years, said it should be so. For the heathen idolatry is much older than the popish, and both are equally contrary to the revealed will of God. A man has just as much authority from the word of God to worship the idol Juggernaut, or the idol Baal, or the goddess Venus, as he has to worship the Virgin Mary, or any other being than God.

Such were my thoughts as I listened to poor Richard. I caught the following words also:

"Mother of the living,

Gate of saints' merits,
The new star of Jacob,
Queen of pure spirits-
Be thou of Christians
Refuge and stay-"

"He hath created her in his holy spirit,

And hath poured her out over all his works."

"Oh! Holy Mary, mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, queen of heaven, and lady of the world, who neither forsakest nor despisest any, behold mercifully, with the eye of pity, and obtain for me, of thy beloved Son, pardon for all my sins."

I could listen to no more; but going to the farthest end of the room, and turning my back upon the poor idolater, I prayed to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for his blessed sake, to open the eyes of this deluded one, that he might see how vain it was, and how dishonourable to our only High Priest and Intercessor, Jesus Christ, to offer these prayers to a fellow-creature which he alone can receive, and offer to God, and answer. I then turned to the 17th chapter of St. John's Gospel, where there is a prayer of Christ for his disciples, and I wished that I could only stop poor Richard that I might read it to him, but I feared offending him.

Still he read on, and now his voice was raised as if he wished me to hear :—

"Fair lily among thorns, That serpent frights;

Clear moon that in dark

The wanderer lights," &c.

Again

"Thy name, Mary, is oil poured forth,
Thy servants have exceedingly loved thee."

These last lines greatly shocked me by the boldness of the blasphemy in taking words evidently applied to Christ, and thus applying them to a creature. (Song of Solomon i. 3.) Thy name is as ointment poured forth."

And these words,

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Pray unto the Father for us, whose Son thou didst bring forth ;"-in which the very office of Christ, as our only Mediator and Intercessor with the Father, is ascribed to a human

creature.

My Irish friends can never have any idea of the effect that hearing such words addressed to a fellow-creature produces on a mind which has been instructed from the pure word of God, till they themselves examine the Scriptures, and discover how boldly and awfully they have been disobeying the plainest commandments of God.

When Richard had finished what he called the office of the Virgin, he came to me.

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"Still the little Bible, Andrew ?" said he. "Ay, Richard, but you have taken off my attention to listen to your strange prayers. you now listen to one from my book?"

Will

"But yours is not a right Bible, Andrew; I would not believe any thing I heard out of it." "Now, Richard, just let me ask you one question: Did you ever hear that there were a great many different ways of understanding the Bible amongst Protestants ?"

"To be sure I have.

Who has not?"

"And have you not heard, too, that those differences amongst Protestants, about understanding the Bible, made them hate each other?" "Yes; I have often."

"And do you believe it ?"

"Yes; I have always believed it."

"Then, do you really think all those Protestants who are differing about the Bible, and hating each other, would agree about the translation being right, if they could prove that it was not?"

Richard thought for a little," Well, Andrew, I do not think they would."

"Certainly not; and yet you will find that all Protestants, who are Christians at all, receive the same translation. You, however, ought to read the Douay translation till you are convinced of this. But now listen to me for a few minutes, while I read the prayer our blessed

Lord, and only Mediator, Himself offered for us all the night before he suffered." I then read:"Jesus lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.-I have manifested thy name to the men thou gavest me out of the world.—I have given them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them,-I pray for them;-I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word: That they all may be one; as thou Father art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world."" (John xvii.)

us.

Richard listened with the deepest attention while I read these words, and he repeated :

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