But we preach Christ, as the only destroyer of the law, bearer of transgression, devourer of death, and killer of Satan. (Geoetzwurger, Sundentreger, Todfresser, und Teuffels morder.) Whoever regards not the Redeemer in this point of view, then will the Saviour never more rescue him from the grasp of this invincible enemy; although such a despiser of Jesus could produce in his own behalf the sufferings and merits of all the saints of God, much less of all the Papal worthies.-M. Luther; from a Sermon preached at Smalkald, 1537.

DESCRIPTION OF PAPAL PREACHING.

You may then expect the last and terrible time; when once Christendom has been emptied of true Christians. On this subject Jesus Christ himself says; "When the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth ?" as if he had said, 'The last age will be so sad and perilous as to manifest the disappearance and loss both of the word of God and of faith. Nowhere will Christ be exhibited to view, and every one will teach, believe, pray, and do what pleases self, and is right in a man's own eyes. Certainly thus it has been the custom for nine hundred years. And no one has either preached or written in opposition to the destructive fallacies and idolatries of the Babylonish system.'

Was it not a monstrous error and shameless falsehood, when the best partisans of the Papacy, the holy monks, persuaded the people, that if they would but on their decease put on the cowl and be buried in it, then they would attain to forgiveness of sin, and be conveyed from earth unto heaven! Oh! rather, I fear,

to the bottomless pit! Not a word then was advanced either of the oracles of God, of the sufferings and resurrection of Jesus for our salvation, or of faith. Alas! they turned the very Saviour into a judge and gaoler. They filled our minds with notions that represented Mary the mother of the blessed Lord, (der lieben Gottes geberin Maria,) and other saints, as if they were our mediators and advocates to reconcile us unto Almighty God, and to obtain grace.

But this intercessory office and this high prerogative are ascribed in Scripture to the Son of God alone. Is it not written in Romans viii., that "Christ sitteth at the right hand of God, and maketh intercession for us?” Is it not said by St. John, that "God so loved the world," &c.? The Bible is full of these and similar comfortable testimonies for Christ. Doubtless the anger of God must be kindled in a high degree against the hierarchy of Antichrist; and against the shocking ingratitude of the world. Nothing now must be seen or heard of this nature; very little else is understood and disseminated, except that which torments sadly disconsolate consciences;-for how can wounded spirits obtain relief from pernicious and artful superstition, from absolution, indulgences, calling upon saints, pilgrimages, and whatever besides is a part of the endless trash and rubbish? They cannot be deceived by such miserable delusions. For to this day there are prayers, and canticles, and their books before them, which point out such modes of consolation. These are injurious to the Saviour, and unhappy consciences hence learn only to increase their danger.

This is what the Church is now taught; and as proofs, the vast cathedrals, and abbeys, and a neverending range of foundations meet our eyes, otherwise

(I maintain) they would deny the fact. I will hold my tongue concerning other indignities offered unto the Almighty, in the proclamation of the year of Jubilee, and the sale of indulgences, and the deliverance of souls out of purgatory, and the intercession of the saints. Indeed the world is so full of cloisters and religious retreats, that there is hardly a corner to be found free. And does not every one very well know what a trade the apostle of Satan has driven by the widelydiffused absolution? Has he not boasted that he holds all the merits of all the saints within a chest, and that he can parcel them out, how and to whom he will; and that with these you may avert from your guilty head the punishment impending? Men not only learn, but they pay for these deceptions. This is the teaching of the Church. Every one has experienced the same. The world is filled with books written to uphold the same. What a multitude of Saviours, and of Redeemers, have been created; even as many saints as are in heaven! Saviours have been invented from such as could afford no help to man, and from such as never existed but in men's imaginations. For I should be very averse to making a serious affirmation that St. George and St. Christopher were ever born into the world. (Denn ich wolte nicht gern darauf schweren das S. Georg. und S. Christoff che auf erden komne weren.)— Preached at Smalkald in a Sermon which bears the title of Schone Trostliche, 'Delightfully Cheering,' 1537.

THE FAMILY OF GLENCARRA.-No. VIII.

BY SIDNEY O'MORE.

Death wounds to cure, we fall, we rise, we reign,
Spring from our fetters, fasten in the skies,
Where blooming Eden withers in our sight.

Death gives us more than was in Eden lost;

This king of terrors is the prince of peace.-Night Thoughts.

VAINLY had a pilgrimage of love been undertaken by Norah's anxious parent. The insidious disease which had begun to undermine her frame, slowly progressed, until its ravages might have been traced by the most casual observer. But the invalid trembled not, as she found bar after bar of her earthly tabernacle give way. She knew that a house eternal in the heavens awaited her arrival, a glorious mansion illumined by the presence of a Saviour God; she had been happy in life, but she expected to be happier after death. With trembling terror her sister Bridget had contemplated the hour of dissolution, as the dread moment which should launch her unsupported spirit upon an untried, unknown, and therefore fearful existence. But Norah leaned upon an Almighty arm, and felt confident that it would bear her safely through; she raised the eye of faith to a bleeding Saviour, and could exclaim with the happy Psalmist, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me, Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me."

Almost daily my mother and I visited this interesting patient, and administered to her comfort; she was always very grateful for any little restorative that we happened to take with us. Very frequently she begged me to read to her the soul-upholding truths of Holy Writ, when weakness had rendered any exertion wearisome to her frame.

One morning Mrs. Moran came up to Glencarra in a state of violent excitement, 'I seen it, I seen it!' were the only words we could extract from her.

'What have you seen?' enquired my mother.

'The Banshee, yer honour, the banshee (literally fairy woman) I heerd her scream by the lake the night before little Kieran died, I heerd her again when Biddy died from me; I heerd it last night too, and now I know my darling Norah wont stop any time wid me.'

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Might it not have been the wind shrieking through the old trees which overhang your cabin?' asked my mother, or possibly the excited waves of the lake surging, for the night was stormy.'

:

'Oh no, yer honour, I seen her with my two eyes, dhressed in white and runnin' along the lake side, wringing her hands with the grief; my heart dhropped in me whin I heerd her cryin' for my Norah deelish.”

Nothing that my mother could say, could dissuade Mrs. Moran from the idea that she had really beheld the warning spirit; she maintained that the whole country knew that her family was attended by a Banshee, and could prove that none of them had passed away without a similar summons. It was evident that her excited imagination and over-strung nerves had conjured up an apparition, which had been watched for by many.

The same evening Mrs. Moran informed her daugh