around us proclaim the arrival of that day, the distant prospect of which filled the mouths of our martyrs with praise, while their bodies shrank and crackled amid the flames. Mother of abominations! fill up the full measure of thine iniquities, for the day of the Lord's vengeance is at hand; the year of his redeemed is well nigh come!'

6

6

· Uncle, I believe it: in my very soul I believe it to be so and what has occurred within the last few weeks, or rather days, in Ireland My uncle interrupted me in a joyous tone: Ay, there is an instance of the working of genuine Protestantism.. You must have remarked, that even in the times of our martyrs great advantage was given to the adversary by the injudicious concessions of some who admitted an appeal to the fathers,' as certain old doctors in theology are called. Instead of bringing every disputed point to the law and to the testimony, the more learned of our reformers consented to receive, as authoritative, the writings of these fallible, and often fanciful and absurd commentators; by which means they helped to extend a favouring veil between popery and the clear light that would have revealed all its abominations. It is from this the difference arises that strikes us when reading those records where the unfettered spirit of a poor weaver, fisherman, or labourer, soars high in the pure atmosphere of gospel truth, while that of an equally pious bishop, perhaps, flutters among the cobweb trammels of human inventions. When Mr. Pope met Maguire, he fell into the same snare; a very tempting one to men who have devoted many a studious hour to those voluminous authors. From the moment that I heard our good friend Gregg had resolved, in his own plain

phrase, to throw the fathers overboard, and betake himself to the grandfathers'-the apostles, I had no fear of the result. It is in a peculiar manner God's controversy; and those who honour him by receiving as all-sufficient the testimony of inspiration against this daring adversary of God's truth, he will honour. I trust we shall henceforth hear little or nothing of the fathers it is true that the church of Rome has shamefully belied and perverted their writings; and occasion should be taken to vindicate them from her calumnies; but as to making an acquaintance with their works a necessary preliminary to entering the field of battle against Popery, I consider it just a device of the enemy to deter men of faith and prayer, whose chief study has been the pure word of God, from engaging in a conflict where they were sure to come off victorious.'

'Do not the Oxford party build much on these same fathers?'

'The Puseyites? Yes: they use them as stepping stones whereby to descend gracefully and gradually into the dark cellars of Great Babylon. I have got a book, niece, for you to study, which will enable you to let a little light in upon that subject, for the benefit of your readers in the mean time, please to note down the following words, spoken by Mr. Maguire, on the sixth day of the discussion. It may perhaps startle some of your readers. He said, when trying to prove that the church of England received all her Christianity from the corrupt source of the Romish apostacy, 'You have, in fact, a book published in Oxford, in the year 1838, which is nothing more than a translation of the hymns contained in the Parisian Breviary; AND YOU APPEAR, IN TRUTH, to be going

BACK BY DEGress, until YOU SHALL HAVE RESUMED ALL THE DOCTRINES AND PRACTICES. OF THE ANCIENT CHURCH FROM WHICH YOU SEPARATED.''

"I am glad he said it, uncle.'

'So am I. The fact is, that the unhappy men who have imbibed these doctrines are leading their flocks directly into the very jaws of the wolf: and while hundreds who now submit to the guidance of God's word are gradually becoming emancipated from the darkness in which they were brought up, thousands born and educated in the light of Protestantism, are suffering themselves to be blindfolded, casting that word behind them, and following the voice of man into a net that shall entangle their feet-I fear for ever.'

'It is an awful contemplation.'

'It is, indeed: it happens now to us as to Israel, who, holding the oracles of God, made them of none effect, by listening to man's vain traditions and commandments, and so were cast away, while the light which they despised was turned upon Gentile nations, who speedily occupied their position as to the true church of Christ. The wild olive, grafted in the ancient stock, has hitherto stood by faith. It is now, through high-mindedness, forsaking and provoking the Lord, who will surely not spare the alien branches thus going about to establish their own righteousness, in the very face of his authority.'

'Do you now speak of the Protestant churches, uncle?'

'I speak, at present, of that church to which we ourselves belong, so far as her members have turned into this high road to apostacy. I am not aware of this plague-spot having yet appeared in any other

community; but the chaff will be blown in various 'directions, some to Popery, some to infidelity; while the wheat alone will abide the winnowing fan, and be finally gathered into the Lord's garner.'

'What a tremendously interesting spectacle does the world at this moment present! I think, uncle, we shall all be compelled to acknowledge this, ere long.'

'It is so striking, my dear, that I have almost ceased to look on political movements with any solicitude, satisfied that the Lord is working mightily, and that worldly men are but as puppets in the hand of Satan, who is now venting the last ebullition of his rage against the true church of Christ. I would have you improve this subject as a powerful incentive to labour with double diligence for your Master. See the glorious effect of distributing a few bibles and tracts among the wandering Tyrolese peasantry, and lose no occasion of slipping those blessed messengers into the hands of the foreigners whom the coronation is bringing by thousands to our shores. The greater number of them are from Popish lands: be prompt in supplying yourself and your friends with suitable publications. If we cannot stem, to any extent, the dreadful tide of Popery setting in so strongly among our own population, let us at least seek to make reprisals on the enemy. God will guide our hands, and bless our work. Above all, watch the day-beam now spreading in the sister isle, and do your utmost to tear away the covering from eyes that as yet behold it not. Give no heed to discouraging voices: remember who has said, " Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it." Ask, therefore, through Christ, great things, and expect them: "Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full."

THE

CHRISTIAN LADY'S MAGAZINE.

AUGUST, 1838.

BY-GONE DAYS.

THE images still haunted me of the Lady Elizabeth and her loyal little follower, when I left my humble garden to join the expectant throng who congregated in the metropolis to salute another virgin Queen on her assumption of England's crown. 'I too will bring my lady my mistress more flowers,' thought I, while stripping my garden of all its blossoms, to decorate the house of an equally loyal friend; where, besides other emblems formed of the same fading but beautiful materials, I hung a broad fold of drapery, where the name of VICTORIA was wrought in living moss rose-buds, on a ground of white silk, in letters of a foot in height; and when I fairly saw the bright eye of that royal maiden resting on the device, which certainly had a most lovely effect, I was overpaid for my labour, though it had completely occupied the whole preceding night. Those flowers formed a re