Here then, my brethren, is indeed a noble field for Christian love and brotherly exertion.

These men would all, aye all, much love their God, did they but know him. Witness their strong devotion to these priests, merely because they think, they are true men of GOD. Must we not, then, grieve for these men's lost condition? And should not every man, in this blessed land of comfort, ease, and independence, strain a small point, just now and then, to aid this cause of God and man? Oh, yes; indeed we should !

My Christian friends, this is no common case : these are your countrymen, your kinsmen, as it werealmost your brothers in the flesh-would that they were your brethren in Christ Jesus our LORD!

And so they may become, and so assuredly they will, if you would be but faithful to your Master, as He is true to you.

Be it far from me-aye-very far indeed, to say a word to damp the zeal for foreign missionary labour; but, whilst we are thus active in our Christian benevolence for those we know not, shall we see those with whom we live, die in the want of that only bread, which springeth up to everlasting life?

May I ask, did you ever see this passage in St. Paul's First Epistle to Timothy, v.8?" But if any provide not for his own, and specially those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel!"

I make no comment on this injunction-I will not insult my Christian readers-others will not be open to conviction. All that I say to you, is, consider those of " your own house." Do not give less for the con

version of the foreign heathen, but give a little, now and then, for the salvation of the souls of your own native brethren.

And if you know of no society to which you can conveniently send your mite, and offer up your prayers for its particular success, let me recommend to your benevolence the "Irish Scripture Reader's Society," whose servants merely go into the cabins to read, just simply read, the Scriptures, to the longing ears of the poor debarred spirits; and who invariably, if left to themselves, gladly receive the tidings of great joy, and drink in deep draughts of comfort to their benighted` souls. My friends, will you not press forward to enable these poor prisoners of darkness to exclaim, as they shall hail the approach of your messengers"How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings-that publisheth peace -that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation! that saith unto Zion," Thy GoD reigneth!" Is. lii. 7. And oh, my friends, what rich reward should I experience, if it came to pass that these words, spoken in the weakness of the instrument, should be, through mercy and the grace of GoD, confirmed and perfected into strength, for the bringing in, directly or indirectly, even one stray sheep to the fold of the only true shepherd. And I would fain indulge an humble hope, that the devotion with which I have attempted here to advocate the cause of our benighted kinsmen, may, through the same grace, so be made to carry home conviction to the hearts of some of my benevolent and Christian countrymen, that thus, under the LORD'S

protecting sanction, that "Word" may here be given which shall increase" the company of the preachers !" Ps. lxviii. 8. Amen.

To conclude this unpalatable subject, viz. Invocation of Saints. For more information respecting the prayers of the Romanists to departed spirits, see Appendix, No. IV., being a reprint of part of another Irish Tract, and for the use of which, whilst I express my acknowledgement to the writer, I do not make apology to him, feeling assured that he will be gratified in procuring for it more extended circulation.

We now come to that 'part of this article which informs us that the relics of saints are to be had in veneration.

This, one would imagine, to be so perfectly ridiculous, that none but men in the last stage of idiotcy could harbour such absurdities, did we not know that there is scarcely a Romish family of any note in England, that has not got its golden box of some old musty relics. If you would know what the Romans mean by "relics," we learn (Cath. Doc. p. 71), that they are "The bodies or bones of saints, or any thing else that has belonged to them."

"Have you any instances in Scripture of miracles done by relics?"

"Yes, we read 2 Kings, xiii. 21, of a dead man raised to life by the bones of the prophet Elisha. And Acts, xix. 12. From the body of Paul were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs and aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them." (Because we read that it pleased GOD to

work special miracles by the hands of Paul; or as you have it in your Douay translation, "more than common miracles.")

Oh, ye blind leaders of the blind! when will ye cease to pervert Scripture, and wrest the sayings of the spirit to your own destruction?

"God can, doubtless, and has, wrought divers miracles, by the means that he pleases or was pleased to appoint. But does this consecrate the dead body of every (imaginary) saint to be a means of grace, a worker of miracles? Many miracles were wrought by the rod of Moses; is every rod of a saint therefore a means of grace, either ghostly either ghostly or bodily? But as to the relics in your church, many of them have been notoriously detected; and it has been found that the dead bodies of malefactors have been taken for the relics of saints, and that great miracles have been said to be done by them. The same relic of such a saint, the head or body, is shown in several places, and each contend that theirs is the right and genuine relic, and that the otherc an perform no miracles." Notwithstanding, never the fewer miracles are performed by either on this account; an exemplification of our homely adage, that 'Opposition always makes trade more brisk.'

In proof of this, we could give the reader a piece of information of which he may, very possibly, not be the least aware. Amongst the many absurd legends which their boundless faith of man's inventions enables Romanists to swallow, one there is altogether so impious, odious, filthy, and absurd (relating to a zone said to

have fallen from heaven upon the Virgin Mary, which has been preserved, and has performed miracles upon the continent for many hundred years), that we dare not incur the danger of damning our book with its recital. Sufficient it may be to say, that two zones are exhibited in different places, and that both shrines produce certificates from two different popes, to declare that theirs is the genuine zone !

In Heb. xi. 21. we have these words, "By faith, Jacob when he was dying blessed both the sons of Joseph, and worshipped (leaning) upon the top of his staff."

In the Douay Bible, we find the same verse given thus, "By faith, Jacob dying blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and adored the top of his rod."

At the bottom of the page, we find the following facetious note: "Ver. 21. Adored the top of his rod.' The apostle here follows the ancient Greek Bible of the seventy interpreters *, which translates in this manner: Gen. xlvii. [This is false, of which anon.] And alleges this fact of Jacob, in paying a relative honour and veneration to the top of the rod or sceptre of Joseph, as to a figure of Christ's sceptre and kingdom, as an instance or argument of his faith. But some translators, who are no friends to this relative honour, have corrupted the text, by translating it 'he worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff;' as if this

* Thence termed the Septuagint, which was translated from the Hebrew into Greek, by order of Ptolemy Philadelphus, 277 years B.C., in order to have a copy of the Jewish or Mosaic law in the library at Alexandria.