not aware of it until I got hold of the book I have been reviewing. But it is a fact that they do. At the end of the book I find the two following hymns addressed to her. They are both in common metre. Here is the first. You will see that, in point of idolatry, they are fully up to the prayers to her.

"O holy mother of our God,
"To thee for help we fly;

"Despise not this our humble prayer,

"But all our wants supply.

"O glorious virgin, ever blest,

"Defend us from our foes;

"From threatening dangers set us free,
"And terminate our woes."

Here is the idolatry of looking to a creature for the supply of all wants, and of flying to a creature for help and for defence. There is a curse pronounced in Jeremiah, 17: 5, on the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm." If the person who devoutly uses this hymn does not make "flesh his arm," I should like to know who does.

The other hymn runs thus :

'Hail, Mary, queen and virgin pure,
"With every grace replete;
"Hail, kind protectress of the poor,
"Pity our needy state.

"O thou who fill'st the highest place,
"Next heaven's imperial throne;
"Obtain for us each saving grace,

"And make our wants thy own.

"How oft, when trouble filled my breast,
"Or sin my conscience pained,

"Through thee I sought for peace and rest,
"Through thee I peace obtained.

"Then hence, in all my pains and cares,

"I'll seek for help in thee;

"E'er trusting, through thy powerful prayers,
"To gain eternity."

But it seems the blessed Virgin is not the only creature they sing to. I find in the same book a hymn to St. Joseph, of which the first verse is,

"Holy Patron, thee saluting,

"Here we meet with hearts sincere; "Blest St. Joseph, all uniting,

"Call on thee to hear our prayer."

66

Perhaps the reader is aware that the Catholics are not satisfied with praying merely to animated beings, they sometimes supplicate things which have no life. Indeed they seem disposed to worship almost every thing, except it be Him whom alone they should worship. To give but one example, I find in "the Litany of the blessed Sacrament," as they call it, among many other similar supplications, this one, O wheat of the elect, have mercy on us." What a prayer this, to be sanctioned by an archbishop, and sent forth from one of the most enlightened cities of America, and that in the nineteenth century too! It is really too bad. We talk of the progress of things. But here is retrocession with a witness. In the first century the rule was, according to the practice of the publican, to pray, "God be merciful to me a sinner;" but now in the

nineteenth, the sinner is directed to say, "O wheat of the elect, have mercy on us!"

I think we have found, with reference to the Catholic religion, what Archimedes could not find when he wanted to move the world. He said he could move it, provided he could have a place to stand on, from which he could with his lever act upon the world. But as no such place could be found for him, the world was not moved. I think, however, that I have discovered a spot from which we can not only move, but utterly subvert the Roman Catholic religion. We pass over her absurdity and her intolerance, and plant ourselves on her idolatry. Here we will stand, and from this place we will carry on our operations against her. If the Roman Catholic church is idolatrous, can she stand? Must she not fall? What! a church that is plainly idolatrous maintain its ground as the church of Christ! It is impossible. It is but for the eyes of mankind to be opened to see her idolatry, and her reign is over. The common sense of the world cannot long brook prayers and hymns to creatures, and supplications for mercy to that of which bread is made. I would not have it persecuted; I would not have one of its adherents harmed in the slightest degree; but there are some things which the enlightened intellect of man cannot tolerate; and this is the chief of those things which are intolerable to reason. It must go off the stage, even though infidelity should come on and occupy it. The religion that is not of the Bible, and that scoffs at reason, must come to an end. I have no fears of its rising to any higher ascendancy than that it now occupies. My hope is in God; but if it were not, it would be in man.

24. Image Worship.

If there be any truth in phrenology, I judge that Catholics must have the organ of veneration very largely developed. There are no people, unless it be some Pagans, who are so inclined to worship. They worship almost every thing that comes in their way, with scarcely any discrimination. The value of worship with them seems to depend on the variety of objects worshiped. What a pity it is they cannot confine their worship within narrower bounds! What a pity they are not satisfied with one object of religious veneration—the great and glorious God! But no. Besides him, they must have a host of creatures, angels, saints, and what not, as objects of adoration. Nor are they satisfied with these beings themselves. They must have visible representations of them to bow down unto, and worship. They want something to worship which they can see. In the profession of faith which I find in the little book published in Baltimore under the sanction of the archbishop, from which I have quoted so freely already, and to which I love to appeal, seeing it is published so near home, and there can be no dispute about its authority, I find this paragraph among others: "I most firmly assert, that the images of Christ, of the mother of God, ever Virgin, and also of the saints, ought to be had and retained, and that due honor and veneration is to be given them." This doctrine sounds a little different from that promulged from Sinai, and written with the finger of God on the tables of stone. They look to be at variance, to say the least; and I think I shall be

able to show presently that they have that aspect to Catholics as well as Protestants. The voice that shook the earth, after saying, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me," said, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above," &c. Now Christ, the virgin, and the saints are in heaven above, unless any choose to surmise that some of those reckoned saints are elsewhere. Consequently no likeness of them may be made. The law proceeds: "Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them." But do not Catholics bow down or kneel before likenesses of the saints and others? I ask the question. I know they used to do so, and I suppose I may infer that they do so now, since it is their grand boast that their religion is every where and always the same. The doctrine delivered from Sinai is the old notion on the subject, and it would seem to be against every kind and degree of image worship. But, says the modern "guide to heaven," what the authoritative Council of Trent had said many years before, "the images of Christ, of the mother of God, and also of the saints, ought to be had and retained, and due honor and veneration given them." Here are Baltimore and Trent against Sinai; or, in other words, the archbishop and council on one side, and he who came down on the mountain which burned with fire on the other. My hearers must range themselves on either side, as they see fit.

But cannot the two things be reconciled somehow ? Can they not be so explained as to remove all appearance of inconsistency? Perhaps they can, if one of them be explained away, that is, be made so clear