6

Joshua, Let others choose, I and my house will serve the Lord,' more zealously than heretofore, neither I nor he shall have lost our labours. A lively picture casts its eye upon every one that comes near it; such is the Word with whom, and with which, we have to do. Let him that is now cold, grow colder and colder; but let him that hath an ear, hear what hath been said to the Churches, and be zealous and amend. The Lord give us not only understanding, but zeal in all things; let Him baptize us with fire; let Him breathe on us, and inspire into us the spirit of life, and power, so shall we run the way of His commandments."

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LYING WONDERS.

(To the Editor of the Bulwark.)

SIR,-I send you the following from a local newspaper. It is quite plain that Romish craft and cunning are not yet extinct; and it is the "bounden duty" of all who love the Lord Jesus to "cry aloud and spare not ", against the system which Cecil has well called "the Masterpiece of Satan."

Rome is unchangeable-doomed to an everlasting overthrow at the brightness of the coming of Christ. Protestant Christians should. earnestly call upon her deluded people to come out and be separate, lest they be partakers of her plagues.-Yours, &c., T. H. ACTON.

BIRMINGHAM PROTESTANT ASSOCIATION,

49 Ann Street, Dec. 2, 1871.

AN EXTRAORDINAY MIRACLE.

The Rev. Father Ubald has sent a letter to one of his colleagues, the following passages of which are quoted by the Bulletin Religieux of Versailles : "I arrive from Belgium; this time I have seen Louise Lateau. I do not know whether you ever heard of her, but at present the name is in everybody's mouth in Belgium and Northern France. Louise Lateau is a girl of twentyone, who carries the sacred stigmata of the Passion, and every week on Friday is in a state of profound ecstacy. It was half-past eleven when we entered her little room, which is like one of our cells. She was sitting in a corner near the bed, and her hands were wrapped up in cloths covered all over with stains of blood. At the request of F. Séraphin, she was kind enough to show me stigmata on her hands, which were quite red with blood. At a certain distance it looks as if she had received a bullet-shot in each hand. Dr Lefèvre, professor of medicine at the University of Louvain, has published a medical examination, in which he says, 'The flow of blood begins in the night, from Thursday to Friday generally, between midnight and one o'clock.' It took place for the first time on the 21st of April 1868. On that day the young girl became aware that she was losing blood on the left side of her chest. On the Friday following hemorrhage was observed at the same place, and moreover blood oozed out from the top, or instep of the foot. On the third Friday, viz., the 8th of May, blood came out at the left side and from the feet during the night. Towards nine in the morning blood rushed out copiously from both hands, back and palm. Finally, on the 27th September, a percolation of blood also set in on the forehead, as if the young girl had been crowned with thorns. Since then the marvellous phenomenon never missed a Friday, except once or twice. Doctors affirm that Louise thus loses from 5 oz. to 10 oz. of blood every Friday. I myself have seen by her side a big bundle of cloths soaked in blood, with which she had wiped her hands since midnight. In spite of this loss of blood, and albeit she has not taken food for the last six months, she has, I assure you, quite ruddy cheeks (teint vermeil), and seems to enjoy capital health (santé florissante)." Thus runs the father's extraordinary story, but as we are locally severed from

poor Louise, and not being in holy orders, and very little inclined to send a special commissioner for the purpose across the "silver streak," we must content ourselves with merely repeating the statement, and do like Ariosto, when in critical cases he refers to his episcopal bondsman, "Turpin' lo dice."

IN the quiet village dwelling
Where the world's life-light had shone,
Deepening shades of death descended
And the common light seemed gone.
For the angel no man welcomes

Save when Christ is seen with him,
Came alone, and from his dark wings
Fell great shadows, dread and dim.
Swift went forth the word to Jesus,
"He whom Thou dost love is sick;"
He will come they said with healing
Though our night of gloom be thick.
"Not for death shall be this sickness,"
Life's majestic Lord replied;
But for great Jehovah's glory,
That His Son be glorified.

Like life itself came now the answer,
Like a song in the solemn night;
Like the shout of a king in battle
When he wins and ends the fight.

But in Bethany's low dwelling
It was Azrael who won ;
For loved Lazarus died slowly
Though his life-work was not done.

At the hour Christ spake of glory
Saying,
"It is not for death,"
Dark Azrael, wondering, triumphed
As he caught the last faint breath.

"BE

ONLY ONE

Two days longer still Christ tarried,
Calm and active, self-possessed;
With the look of One Almighty,
Compassed round with clouds for rest.
Then He spake-" Our friend is sleeping,
But I go to wake him now;"
And a light of tears that gathered

Shone upon His care-worn brow.
Who shall wake the sleepers covered
With the folded wings of death?
Words we fain would whisper to them
Die upon our mortal breath.
Christ Himself, the One who liveth,
Christ, the Resurrection, cried,
"Lazarus, come forth," and straightway
God and Christ were glorified.
Now the sickness of His people
Never is for death again;
His beloved never perish,

Never die like other men.

Close your eyes, and rest, beloved,
Sweetly sleep, as well ye may;
Love keeps watch, divine and human,
We remember you alway.

Heads that drooped, and hearts that sor-
rowed,

'Neath the folded feathers hide ; Then arise, for lo! He calleth ; God and Christ are glorified.

MEDIATOR.

D. S. S.

E informed how great an evil it is to join any other mediators, either of reconciliation or meritorious intercession, with Jesus Christ. Oh, this is a horrid sin, and that which both pours the greatest contempt upon Christ, and brings the surest and sorest destruction upon the sinner? I am ashamed my pen should English what mine eyes have seen in the writings of Papists, ascribing as much, yea more, to the mediation of Mary than to Christ, with no less than blasphemous impudence, thus commenting upon Scripture: What is that which the Lord saith, "I have trod the wine press alone, and of the people there was no man with me." True, Lord, there was no man with Thee, but there was a woman with Thee, who received all these wounds in her heart, which Thou received in Thy body.' I will not blot my paper with more of this. . . . How do they stamp their own sordid works with the peculiar dignity and value of Christ's blood, and therein seek to enter at the gate which God hath shut to all the world, because Jesus Christ, the Prince, entered in thereby, Ezek. xliv. 2, 3. He entered into Heaven in a direct immediate way, even in His own name, and for His own sake: this gate, saith the Lord, shall be shut to all others. And I wish men would consider it, and fear, lest, while they seek entrance into heaven at the wrong door, they do not for ever shut against themselves the true and only door of happiness."-Flavel.

A GRAVE FOR IDOLATROUS TRACTS.

IN speaking of the efforts of Duncan Matheson, when acting as a missionary to the soldiers during the Crimean War, his excellent biographer says:

"He was very careful in respect of the matter contained in the tracts he put into circulation. By whomsoever issued he cared not, provided only they contained the truth as it is in Jesus. A great heap of Popish trash, full of Mariolatry, coming into his possession, he was at a loss how to dispose of them. By the help of a party of soldiers he dug a deep trench. 'There,' he says, 'we gave them decent burial;' adding, with grim humour, 'We read no burial service over them, and dropped no tears, but quietly said in our hearts, "Let the memory of the wicked rot.""-Life and Labours of Duncan Matheson, pp. 87, 88. London : Morgan, Chase, & Scott.

THE DEAN OF CARLISLE AND THE POPISH BISHOP OF LIVERPOOL.

E gladly insert the following vigorous letter:

WE

"SIR,-There appears to me, as an old watchman in Israel, a dulness of apprehension prevalent regarding the manifold dangers which are gathering thickly around us, which amounts, in my judgment, to little less than dementation or judicial blindness. That a trumpet of alarm and warning against Romish intolerance should be heard sounding out of the camp of the Secularists, and that Professor Huxley from the platform of a School Board should blow a blast of war to the knife with Ultramontanism, is enough to surprise and arouse us! Surely he must have had some hint from a spiritualist of what was passing in the mind of an English Roman Catholic Bishop-Dr Goss, Bishop of the enlightened, wealthy, and world-connected monster town of Liverpool! At all events, that modern Popish Bishop-I call him Popish designedly, because his opinions are worthy of the darkest ages of Romish ascendancy, is reported in the public press, let us charitably hope incorrectly, to have said, in a SERMON recently preached in Liverpool, that

"Catholics would prefer the exclusion of the Bible rather than the authorised version; and as it was a violation of freedom to force Catholics into Protestant schools, such a course ought to be resisted to rebellion, since rather that a Catholic child should perish, Catholics should be willing to see Liverpool a charred mass like Chicago.'

"Let all our liberal and enlightened legislators, who are billing and cooing with Rome, draw near and study her true modern character, as drawn by one of her own chosen and accredited masters! Let them learn, if it is possible to teach them, that that dark and mysterious power-the mystery of iniquity '-is totidem verbis et agendis. The same, identical, unchanged, intolerant, and murderous power she ever has been!

"1. That Rome would rather have 'no Bible in our schools than our accredited authorised version.'

"That is, that she prefers infidelity to Protestantism.

"2. That she believes that, if a Roman Catholic child is forced to

attend a Protestant School, and is taught to read the Protestant Bible, that child must' PERISH!'

"[What, then, is to become of us all?]

"That to prevent such an act' REBELLION' would be justifiable! "[Upon how slight a thread does the continued loyalty of Romanists depend!]

"4. That rather than that one Catholic child should perish'-that is, should be forced to attend a Protestant school, and read the Protestant Bible-'CATHOLICS WOULD BE WILLING TO SEE LIVERPOOL A CHARRED MASS LIKE CHICAGO !'

66

'Astounding confession of faith! Marvellous Christian charity! Why, the 'gunpowder-plot' is child's play to this! Rather that Liverpool, with all its wealth, all its teeming population, all its unprepared souls, its strong men, its tender mothers, its helpless children, should be blown up into the air, and men, women, and children, merchandise, and churches, all become one 'CHARRED MASS,'-than-than what? Why, than one of Bishop Goss's blind lambs should have its eyes opened by reading a Protestant Bible! It may be said, 'Oh, this is only hyperbole!' Granted; and hyperbole which could hardly be outdone in the phraseology of Brother Jonathan. It is only a figure of speech!' Granted. But what is the conviction, the idea, the savage intolerance, which underlies these figures? Where is their birth-place? Whence the bitter, cursing fountain from which they flow? Trace them to that unhappy old man who, sitting in the temple God, shows himself that he is God;' and by grasping the Divine attribute of Infallibility,' has branded himself with the last characteristic needed to prove him to be THE MAN OF SIN!'

"Our men of science, scorning our theology, and smiling at our prophetic dreams, have, by the rules of common sense, and the 'infallible' proofs of history, arrived at our conclusion. We can only pray that our rash and headlong politicians may, in like manner, have their eyes opened to the same conviction! For once, the Church of Rome has betrayed her true, unalterable principles, through the mouth of one of her Bishops Let the deaf hear, and the blind see!'-Your faithful servant, "FRANCIS CLOSE."

WE

ROMISH PLOTS AGAINST BRITAIN.*

THILE the rulers of France and Spain were making these desperate efforts to crush the principles of the Reformation in their dominions, the Protestants of England regarded their proceedings with no small degree of apprehension and alarm. Though the Reformed faith had made considerable progress in the English towns at the period of Elizabeth's accession to the throne in 1558, it was still in a considerable minority throughout the country. The great body of the nobility, the landed gentry, and the rural population, adhered to the old religion; while there was a considerable middle class of Gallios, who were content to wait the issue of events before declaring themselves on either side.

*

During the reigns which had preceded that of Elizabeth, the country

From the able work, "The Huguenots." By Samuel Smiles. Second edition. John Murray, Albemarle Street, London.