THE CONCLUSION.

RITUALISM and POPERY have in an abridged form, passed in review before us.

Some of their latent, subtle, and powerful principles have been uncovered and exposed. Soon after the days of the Apostles the professing Church began, as we have seen, to set aside some of God's Commandments, and the teaching of Christ and his Apostles as set forth in the New Testament, under the idea of offering to him a more acceptable service; to ascribe an undue efficacy to religious and bodily performances, and to assign an unwarranted power to the doings of her official ministers, both spiritual and temporal.

In the course of ages, the fruits of the poisonous seeds of error duly appeared. The moral law was trifled with and trampled upon. Ceremonies were multiplied as far as the most slavish patience would endure, and their efficacy was magnified as much as man's perverted heart could desire.

A human priesthood occupied such a position in the Church as to fill, always and everywhere, every sinner's eye; while a selfstyled infallible Church, deeply stained with every impurity, overloaded to exhaustion, and disfigured to burlesque with an infinitude of "beggarly elements," and leaning on the broken crutch of a sinful mortal priesthood, having sealed the Book of God, and cast it on the ground, dared to set thereon an impious foot, and raise her unblushing face to Heaven.

The picture of the Papacy was drawn by the finger of God himself, before the foul reality had offended the Divine Majesty, by opposing the Gospel of Christ; and, adding new bitterness to the curse of fallen men, has been exhibited for our instruction in the light of History.

Is the reader one of those who can dispense with every form of religion, or of those whose religious form, be it Protestant or Popish, hangs loosely on their person? Such individuals will think that the points in dispute have been magnified, and that the zeal of the contending parties is most unreasonably excessive; they will plead that a compromise is desirable, for to sacrifice domestic concord, or even social good fellowship, in discussing such questions, savours more of fiery bigotry than of manly wisdom.

They forget, however, that every man must take the one side. or the other in this discussion, or abjure religion altogether : they practically deny man's immortality. If man did not believe himself to be immortal, there would have heen no martyrs, nor inquisitors either. Popery has exceeded all other false systems in cruelty, because of all these she has had the clearest views of eternity. All the motives that the perishing world supplies could never have led to the cruel atrocities of popish torture, nor sustained the priestly persecutor in his horrid occupation. This is no unauthorized fancy; for it is written, "Yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you, will think that he doeth God service." (John xvi., 2.)-(See also Acts xxvi., 9, 11.)

Man's spiritual nature and eternal destiny, then, are clearly revealed in the flames of martyrdom; they are proclaimed by the shouts of the frenzied spectators, no less than by the groan of the dying saint. The quivering flesh of Rome's excruciated victim proves not more satisfactorily than the trembling hand of his tormentor, or the haggard features of his ghostly judge, the solemn truth, that we are all hastening to a future and unending state. Where is the man, then, that does not believe in his eternity? Where is the reasonable man that will not be controlled and governed, always and entirely, by this belief?

Our argument has certainly failed if we have have not succeeded in proving that between Popery and pure Christianity there yawns an awful gulf, which can neither be spanned nor fathomed: on the one bank of which are growing the beautiful and fragrant plants of truth, love, liberty, purity, and bliss; on the other, the rank and noxious vegetation of error, envy, thraldom, vice, and

misery. To deny or disregard the existence of this gulf, as is frequently done, indicates a thoroughly irreligious temper of mind. The man who, under the mask of philosophical calmness or political shrewdness, can sneer or smile at the zeal both of Romanists and Protestants, is either far above or far below the average type of human nature. His composure seems, at first sight, to be allied either to angelic wisdom or to infernal wile. Nor is it hard to say to which of these it more nearly approaches. When a conflict arises, on the result of which all that is dear to a man is suspended, even though the choice of a side may involve some nice considerations, cool neutrality is the lowest depth of dastard cowardice. On the broad arena of Christendom a religious battle is now waging, and on the issue of the strife is suspended, as we have seen, all that mankind can prize, in time or in eternity. To choose the wrong side, implies the most criminal ignorance or the deepest hallucination; but to choose no side at all, or to choose a side as a stranger turns to the right or to the left on entering a church porch, is to cast vilely away the better part of humanity-it is unutterably base.

Reader, which side have you taken? Are you a sincere and earnest Roman Catholic Christian? Then we address you as a brother-immortal, seeking the way to eternal life. Have you examined the whole subject carefully, and are you persuaded, on good grounds, that you are right? Doubts you must have had, if you have thought at all; have these doubts been satisfactorily resolved? Is it after forethought and deliberation that you trust the statements of your Church, rather than the declarations of the word of God. Is it your intelligent conviction, that you would rather anchor your eternal prospects upon a decree of a General Council, or upon a bull from the Vatican, than upon a promise of the Lord Jesus Christ? When vivid thoughts of death and eternity chase one another across your troubled mind; when the dread day of impartial and final reckoning and judgment rises in terror and solemnity to your view; when you tremble at the wrath to come, and think with breathless anxiety of Paradise and its glorious blessedness, would you rather look with confidence to the priest in the confessional, than to our Great High Priest at

God's right hand? Would you, when realizing such overwhelming thoughts, rather commit your body and spirit to the keeping of Pope Pius the Ninth, than to the care of the glorified Son of God and man, who is wielding the sceptre of universal empire? Would you trust the intercession of the Virgin Mary, rather than the gracious aid of God's Holy Spirit? When your conscience is bleeding with the wound of conscious guilt, where are you likely to find the more healing balm, in a corruptible wafer, or in the blood of God's incarnate Son? When you feel yourself suspended over the brink of the bottomless pit, whither are you likely to find the stronger life-rope-in the absolution of your confessor, or in the invitation of your Redeemer? In canonical baptism, in episcopal confirmation, in death-bed unction, or in the believing prayer of your awakened trembling soul, to Him who is the hearer of prayer, the Friend of sinners, and the Saviour of the lost- "Lord Jesus save me, or I perish ?"

If you feel any force in these suggestions, your position, we are fully aware, is encompassed with numerous and formidable difficulties. The system with which you are connected may seem to you so complete in itself, so unerring and unchangeable, so perfect in its religious provisions, for every event in life, so ready to soothe and allay every fear of conscience, so abundant in its preparation for the future world, that to acquiesce in its claims, and to remain in passive submission, offers rest and peace of a certain kind to the mind. This rest and peace, however, you may be now experiencing to be hollow and deceptive. But to dispute your Church's claims, to question her authority, to reject her principles, and to resist her power, will involve you, you are ready to plead, in an endless controversy, and compel you to oppose the settled convictions of the society in which you move, to break up all former associations, and expose yourself to the ridicule of your friends, the execration of your priest, and probably the sword of the magistrate.

What then?-Weigh heaven and earth-and make your choice. If God be for you, who can be against you? Let the words of Him who loved you and gave Himself for you, be the strength of your arm and the solace of your heart: "In the world you shall

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have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." John xvi., 33. "And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partaker of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues." Rev. xviii., 4.

Is the reader a sincere and earnest Bible Christian? Then you cannot but be zealous. If you feel yourself to be a sinner, redeemed from the woes of hell, by the blood of Jesus, your heart cannot but warm with grateful love to your Divine Redeemer, with pure affection to your fellow-believers and with self-denying compassion to those that are out of the way. To suppose otherwise were to suppose fire without heat, or salt without savour. Still it is specially needful at this time to "exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints." Jude 3.

Let your zeal be intelligent. It was ignorance, conjoined with depravity, that laid the strong and ample foundations of the Papacy. It is also the want of clear and accurate conceptions of Divine truths to which many of the serious mistakes of the Reformed Churches must be traced. Some excuse may be urged by both parties for their imperfect knowledge. Our Protestant ancestors

had to wrest the Word of God from the impious grasp of spiritual despotism. Translations were slowly made and printing was an infant art; the materials for disseminating the Bible were costly. The sale of the Bible was often a contraband trade, and the hardwon trophy frequently served as fuel for a Pontifical bonfire.

How different are Protestant Christians of the nineteenth century placed on their probation! Translations of the Scripture are greatly improved, and copies are multiplied without number. The pearl of great price may be purchased for a trifle. Little marvel if our forefathers wandered from the highway of truth; but if we, with sign-posts so many and so plain, shall lead the Church into another bye-way, what account shall we render to our successors, or to our God?

Study not only the Bible, but the authentic history of the Church of Christ. Let not your attention be limited to one section of that Church; for nothing has done more to nourish