unbeliever, and attaches quite different ideas to the mass, and in his private devotion, interprets it otherwise than prescribed by his Church. But all ceremonies, grounded on erroneous ideas, which must be interpreted in a different sense, if they are to excite devotion, and not to give offence, are false, improper, and superstitious, and ought not to be admitted into the worship of Christians. A ceremony is the allegorical representative of an idea, and ought, therefore, to correspond to it, as the garment fits to the body. It receives dignity and force only when it is founded upon truth; otherwise it is empty and injurious.

Henry. I feel that you are in the right. I myself have, for my own edification, generally attached other ideas to the mass, and have viewed it as an image of the omnipresence of God.

Bernhard. The magnitude and presence of the Deity display themselves more forcibly to you when you contemplate the starry heaven, with its radiant host, than when you see the Priest at the altar of the Church. And have you not felt the loss of our beautiful hymns in the Catholic Church?

Henry. I cannot deny that the singing in Protestant Churches, through the composition and form of the hymns and psalms, surpasses all our liturgy in the Catholic Church, and that it is peculiarly adapted to excite devotion. I confess that several of our hymns, which were still floating in my memory, afforded me, even in Rome, sincere edification.

Bernhard. You must likewise allow the powerful influence of our Church prayers in public devotion: prayers offered in a language which all can understand, and in which the whole congregation joins in loud responses. And consider the impression made by our sermon. We have certainly obtained a wonderful advantage over you by substituting a sermon in the place of the mass. By this, pulpit eloquence has with us attained to a perfection which has had the most beneficial influence on the extension of Chris

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tian knowledge and morality. Our ministers han become models to Roman Catholic Germany, and single sermon of Reinhard, Dräseke, &c. affords mor salutary nourishment to a pious mind, than the eterna sameness of the most solemn mass. Tell me, whe sermons have you heard in Italy that have edified an: improved you?

Henry. All this I must concede to you, for it s but too true, that the sermons which I have heard in Italy, far from edifying me, were often, in a high de gree, offensive to me. In Roman Catholic Germany this is not the case; but I believe that the clergy ther owe their superiority to the vicinity and influence a the Protestant ministers.

My dear Henry," said Antonio, the next morning, I am rid of a very great fear, which has hitherto often tormented me, and I feel new-born, free as the bird in the air."

Henry, (smiling.) I suppose it is again some discovery in your New Testament, which puts you in such ecstacy.

Antonio. And can there be any harm in that, dear Henry? Has not this book been given to us that we may search in it? Oh, I bless the hour that gave it into my hands! It has turned the darkness that surrounded me into light, and instead of the fetters which bound me to the earth and to the mercy of the Priesthood, it has given me wings which raise me to God, who is also my Father, and who does not, like the Priest, treat me as a slave: it has made me feel His mercy, of which no power of man can deprive me.

Henry. Well, and what is it that you have discovered?

Antonio. That there is no purgatory, in which my soul is to be tormented.

Henry. But what idea do you form of purgatory? You certainly view it in a gross and physical light, as if it were a coal fire, in which your soul will endure all the pain which you feel when you burn yourself. But many good Catholics form a more refined idea of purgatory. They only regard it as a purification of the soul from all the dross of sin, but do not determine the process by which this is performed. For the

holy Council of Trent has certainly established that a purgatory exists, but it has not determined what conception we are to form of it.

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Antonio. That is a mere subterfuge, my dear Henry. The Holy Council cannot have attached any other idea to the term, than what had, till then, been generally understood by purgatory, viz. absolute fire: wherefore, it says, that the soul shall be "tormented” therein. The so called refined idea, is, therefore, nothing but a subterfuge, by which they endeavour to evade a doctrine, the falsehood of which manifests itself but too evidently. If it be a state of torment, and if compassion induce us to have a number of masses read for the deliverance of the soul from this torment, we must consider it as fire, or as some state of acute pain.

Henry. You are right; the Church considers it as such a state.

Antonio. But is not the prospect of a purgatory, in which pious souls are to be tormented after death, something terrible, which must not only embitter the hour of death to a good Christian, but must haunt him with fear during his whole life? And how dreadful the idea, when a friend, a husband, a father, a mother dies, that, notwithstanding the pious life they have led, we must expect them to enter a state of torment, the very idea of which fills us with horror!

Henry, But, Antonio, you are aware, that the Church has the means of delivering souls from purgatory, namely, the mass for departed souls!

Antonio. Very true! After the Church has made us fear and tremble, she offers us her helping hand. Does it not appear as if men were terrified, only in order to be again comforted, and as if purgatory had been invented for the sake of soul-mass, and not the mass for purgatory? But of what avail are soul masses for a poor creature like me, as they cost money? The Church does not make it easy to get out of purgatory, for one soul-mass does not suffice: for the rich, who

can afford to pay for many masses, numbers are read; for sovereign princes even thousands are held. But if one mass were sufficient to deliver from purgatory, it would be a sinful prodigality to offer the body of our Lord, hundreds, yea, thousands of times, when the first offering had already produced the desired effect. If, therefore, so many masses-how many I cannot even tell-be required to escape the torments of purgatory, you see that the consolation of the Church is only a consolation for the rich and great, who can afford to pay for many masses, but not for the poor, who must abide their time in purgatory. "The poor have the Gospel (glad tidings) preached to them," says our Saviour, when he, (St. Matt. xi. 5.) answers the messengers of John. But purgatory is not glad tidings, and for the poor it is fearful tidings. But, throughout the New Testament, not one single word is said of purgatory.

Henry. Perhaps you do not know, Antonio, that the passage 1 Cor. iii. 13, 14. usually is quoted in proof of purgatory.

Antonio. I know that very well; but only read the passage from ver. 9-17. in connexion, and the purgatory of the soul will immediately disappear. St. Paul warns the Christians not to raise parties, nor to follow one noted teacher more than another. All labourers, he says, build at the temple of God, that is, at the Christian community, by their doctrines, but whether the foundation be stone, wood, or stubble, the fiery ordeal of distress and persecution will decide. Then the building raised on wood and stubble will be burned, and the master-builder, namely, the teacher, even if he save himself, will only save himself by fire, that is, not without great danger. Here St. Paul does not speak of departed souls, but of Christian communities on earth, during the time of persecutions. The fire is the image of severe trials, but it does not signify real fire; for the building also allegorically refers to the Christian community, and stone, wood, and stubble,