what our celibate priests will reduce our growing children; for any one knows that children and young persons, up to about five-and-twenty years old, need all the good, healthy food they can get to make bone and muscle; but then this is just what the priest does not want. His system demands that the coming generation shall be weak in body, and that thus the vigour of the mind being impaired, and his dogmatism early instilled into the child's brain, he shall ALWAYS maintain his supremacy, and end by preaching a religious life. Parents, beware! the Ritualist Jesuits are after your children, failing yourselves, that they may wield despotic

being interrogated whether he has any impediment, can deny that he has any impediment if that is not such that may impede." [The result of all this is obvious-no reliance can be placed on the word of a Roman Catholic, nor, it is hard to say, on that of a Ritualist. Lying is permissible, perjury not a sin, and dissimulation a virtue. Thus governesses and tutors are accepted, and behind our backs our children are liable to be contaminated with pernicious doctrines. The Romanist has woefully lamented his fate that he was mistrusted in State and home, and the Ritualist likewise; but, in the name of common sense, is there not justification for it? And now, as we reserve the most fragrant flower to the last, that its sweet scent may not detract from its humbler sisters, so we reserve the most nauseous dose to the last, that full attention may be given to the high god-like and noble doctrines just propounded.]

Quæritur 2. "An adultera possit negare adulterium viro intelligens ut illi revelet? Potest æquivoce asserere se non fregisse matrimonium quod vere persistit. Et si adulterium sacramentaliter confessa sit potest respondere: Innocens sum ab hoc crimine, quia per confessionem est jam ablatum.” "Imo si crimen sit vere occultum probabiliter cum Bus., etc., potest mulier negare cum juramento et dicere non commisi!"

"It is asked 2: Whether an adulteress can deny adultery to her husband, understanding that she may reveal it to him? She is able to assert equivocally that she did not break the bond of matrimony, which truly remains; and if sacramentally she confessed adultery, she can answer, I AM INNOCENT OF THIS CRIME, BECAUSE BY CONFESSION IT WAS TAKEN AWAY. "Yea, if the crime may truly be concealed, probably with Bus., etc., a woman can deny with an oath and say, I DID NOT COMMIT THE CRIME!"-Quoted in The Confessional Unmasked, by C. B., pp. 13-20.

وو

Probably the reader will agree that this is enough of this holy and noble Saint; but seeing whence the Ritualists draw their arguments and teachings by other quotations, it behoves us to slumber no longer, but to arise and seat reason on her throne, and cast out superstition and priestcraft which will thus demolish the bulwark of liberty, of conscience, and of THOUGHT.

power, if not through the present generation, then by the means of the coming one.

"Penance is to be regarded in two ways: It is an acknowledgment before God of our readiness to bear any chastisement which He may see it to be needful to inflict for the sins which we have just confessed. It is also a remedy against sin for the future. When Penance

is meant to fulfil only the first object, it is usually a Psalm or Prayer which you will be told to repeat (this is the writer's experience). When the last object is contemplated, you will be advised to do something PAINFUL or disagreeable."-Pardon Through the Precious Blood, p. 37. "You should take whatever penance is advised, whether hard or light, cheerfully, without questioning its ADVISABILITY. You did not appoint it for yourself, but asked for it ;* and what is given you is best." "Penances in general are simply mere nothings as regards hardship or difficulty in performing them. A little token to show the readiness for self-revenge; something a little sharp to make you remember your fall and your good resolutions in repentance." "You should not mention your penance to any one." "If your confessor advises you to do so"; "you may practise some little act of mortification or penance; but consult with him first; he may, perhaps, give you a general sanction to impose some penance on yourself after any sin or, perhaps, he may advise you only to do so after some sins in particular. "Besides appointing a prayer to be said, some act to be done should also be advised which will cause the penitent to attempt the performance of some duty he confesses he has failed in."-Hints to Penitents, Pp. 171-173.

Again :

"It is the opinion of the best and wisest, I believe, that stricter discipline would be good for us all. That confession is too easy and mild in its tone and routine, and many desire that under due and proper control a more definite and strict system of discipline could be established."Ibid., p. 175.

We shall see presently the kind of penances used by the Romanists even in England, the so-called land of the free, with its laws against assaults common and assaults against the person, both of which are, it seems, freely committed within the holy, peaceful, and Heaven-blissful convent walls. Then, in confirmation of the necessity of severe discipline, St. Augustine is quoted :—

"Exercise severity on thyself, that God may intercede for thee and not condemn thee. For sin is certainly to be punished. This is due to sin, punishment, condemnation. Sin is to be punished either in thee or by thee. If it is punished by thee, then it will be punished without

*See page 91.

thee; but if it is not punished by thee it will be punished with thee.”Hints to Penitents, p. 169.

And to conclude the specimens of the teaching of the Ritualist priest to his penitent anent penances, a few quotations are given to show that the tocsin of purity is not needlessly sounded, seeing how clever are these Jesuits in twisting texts and quotations to suit their own ends, and what manner of men they be.

Behold, I stand before Thee, poor and naked, begging Thy grace and imploring Thy mercy. Feed Thy hungry suppliant; inflame my coldness with the fire of Thy love; enlighten my blindness with the brightness of Thy Presence; teach me to look upon all earthly things with indifference, to bear all things which grieve and afflict me with patience, and to look upon all creatures with indifference."—Churchman's Guide to Faith and Piety, p. 113.

This is a fit preparation for the convent or sisterhood ! One's father, mother, and relations are all to be looked upon with indifference, though how we should get into the world without our mothers, history, in the form of the priest, sayeth not. At any rate, gratitude demands in return for the pains which our patient, loving parent bore for us [had the priest one spark of nobility in his composition ?], our lasting love, care, tenderness. and gratitude; but, forsooth, he treats the dear mother that bore him with "indifference"! One word anent the "nakedness." This prayer is in preparation for Holy Communion, and, in accordance with the instructions on p. 12, part I., is to be used kneeling before the crucified form of the young God-man, nearly nude, and in the full vigour of manhood. If it be right, Mothers, for your daughters to use such expressions, I crave pardon for suggesting evil, but, as a mother myself, I should prefer no evil thought, be it of God or man, to enter the pure minds of my daughters; and methinks it is not to be commended that she should offer herself nude to a God personified in the form of a man. It is thus that the priest taints the female mind by insensibly familiarising it with indecency. We shall see ere long what rapturous expressions, and how full of voluptuousness, he places in the lips of girls and young women towards their Saviour and Spouse.

The subject is however, so sickening that I close it with a

finishing touch taken from a letter to Madame de Chantal on self-renunciation, by St. Francis de Sales (the English Catholics' Library, I remind you, again).

"Oh! dear Lord, what a blessing and consolation it is to me to see our Mother thus renouncing herself before Thee. .. Yes, dear mother, I bless the Lord Who has stripped you. My heart rejoices to see you in so hopeful a state, and with Isaiah I say, 'Walk naked and barefoot before the Lord;' do not heed making acts of devotion unless they arise within your heart; be content to say, 'Naked came I forth from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither.' Do not constrain yourself, but go, as you determined yesterday; 'hearken and incline thine ear, forget also thine own people and thy father's house.''So shall the King have pleasure in thy beauty,'-in your simple selfrenunciation. Abide therein, and ask no more.' -pp. 188, 189.

وو

Now for examples of the mortification practised by the saints, and which it is suggested that the devout should imitate. St. Bernard, it is said, for a penance threw himself naked into the briars, and here, about 1853, we have a specimen of a modern saint, Père Besson, held up as a model to Ritualists:

"The sole furniture of his cell was a deal table, on which his theological books were generally lying open, two common chairs, and in one corner a coffin-like box, which was his bed-the bottom covered with stones and pieces of wood, a folio volume of St. Augustin his pillow, and a rough blanket, which served to hide his discipline and to cover him at night. Ill or well, he had no more luxurious resting-place."Dominican Artist, p. 181.

We now proceed to show what penances the Romanist undertakes or is subjected to, and how, in mild form, the Ritualist copies him :

ROMANIST.

"6. To wear sandals and haircloth; to inflict punishment upon ourselves with our girdles in imitation of a Saint.

"7. To sleep on a hard mattress or couch with one coverlet.

"8. To walk with pebbles in our shoes, or walk kneeling, until a wound is produced. Never to touch anything without permission."-Six Months in a Convent, REBECCA REID, p. 25.

H

RITUALIST.

"Another time I recollect how he (Father -) ordered a young and delicate sister, who was very ill and consumptive, to walk barefooted in the snow up and down the garden."-Nunnery Life in the Church of England, by SISTER MARY AGNES, p. 58.

This should be noted as showing the way the spirit is broken, the body weakened, and spiritual obedience to superiors arrived at.