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POPERY.

now addressed myself to the wretched victim, but in vain. Stupified by grief, or fear, or opiates, or all combined, she answered as one half-dead already, and was unmoved by anything I could urge. I turned to the unhappy daughter, who had arrived at an age that enabled her fully to comprehend the import of my remonstrance, as she appeared about sixteen, and upon whom it devolved (as I was informed) to apply the fatal torch,-" Is it possible," I said to her, "that you are about deliberately to take away your own mother's life; the life of her to whom, under God, you owe your own? God, in his providence, has taken away your father; his lifeless remains are on the ground before your eyes; you are already fatherless: and will you, by your own wilful act, deprive yourself of your surviving parent, and render yourself motherless also, and thus an entire orphan?" "Alas!" she answered, "what can I do? If I refuse obedience to the requisitions of the Brahmins, I shall be utterly disgraced and ruined, and be unable to lift up my face in the neighbourhood where I live. I have no alternative. Painful as it is, I must proceed." Attempts to dissuade her from her purpose failing, I expostulated with the Brahmins.

Unable to defend themselves against the charge of violating the first principles as well of reason and humanity as of true religion, they and the crowd around them stood silent, and seemingly abashed. I seized the opportunity of addressing God aloud in prayer. They were yet more disconcerted, and evidently anxious that my brethren (by whom I had been joined) and myself should retire. This we were unwilling to do, so long as there was any prospect of preventing the sacrifice; and my companions now also used their efforts to preserve the unhappy widow's life, but without success. We at length took our stand at a short distance from the pile of wood, protesting, by our countenance and look, against their murderous procedure. After a pause of about half an hour, finding that we were resolved to stay, the bloody ritual went on. The widow was bathed in the river Ganges, whose waters were considered sacred and efficacious to purify the victim for the sacrifice. Red powder and flowers were scattered upon her person, and round about; incantations were offered by the Brahmins to

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their imaginary gods; and now the deluded
votary was led, with a faltering pace, thrice
round the fatal pile. She was then seized,
tied with cords to the emaciated corpse of her
husband, and both were placed on the wood.
Inflammable materials were thrown upon
them; long bamboo-poles were held across
the bodies to keep them down, and to prevent
the possibility of the unhappy widow's escape
when the cords were burnt. The sun had
set; the short season of twilight had given
place to a darkness that appeared better
suited to the fiendish work going on before
our eyes. All things being now in a state
of dreadful preparation, the torch was applied.
The combustible materials that had been
supplied in abundance caused it to burn with
terrific rapidity and fierceness. When I saw
the flames raging, and the smoke ascending
in dense and whirling volumes to the skies,
when I heard the beating of the drums,
mingled with the yells of the Priests and
spectators, to prevent the screams of the
scorched and frantic victim, now, by the
torture of the flames, fully awakened to the
discovery of her real situation, from being
heard,-when I reflected that it was one of my
own species whose life was being thus, amidst
excruciating agonies, extinguished, my heart
sickened: I said within myself, Surely the
exclamation of Jacob, when he saw the
vision of the ladder, and the ascending and
descending angels, must be reversed, to be
applicable to the scene I now behold; for
truly this is none other than the house of
Satan, this is the very gate of hell. Op-
pressed at the sad spectacle, my only comfort
was derived from the Gospel, and from medi-
tation on its glad tidings; and the anticipation
of the time when these and all other un-
hallowed flames should be extinguished by
the floods of mercy which it is destined to
pour forth upon India, as well as every other
land. That beautiful hymn of Watts espe-
cially came to the relief of my agitated nerves
and feelings:-
:-

"Salvation! O the joyful sound!
'Tis pleasure to our ears,-
A sovereign balm for every wound,
A cordial for our fears.

"Salvation! let the echo fly

The spacious earth around;
While all the armies of the sky
Conspire to raise the sound."

POPERY.

THE POPE EQUAL WITH GOD! "AND that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalted himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God." (2 Thess. ii. 3, 4.)

The place in which the person spoken of in this passage was to be manifested, was the visible church: the time of his appearance was subsequent to the first great apostacy from the faith and purity of the Gospel, and previous to the second advent of Christ. Beyond a doubt, the character pointed out

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is the Pope of Rome. The representation made in the above passage, and the account given of his mode of operation in the ninth and tenth verses, will apply strictly, letter for letter, to no other character of which we have any account.

Both the name and works of God have been appropriated to the Pope by the highest authorities and most eminent theologians of the Romish Church.

I. The name of God has been given to the Pope. His Holiness has been complimented with the name of Deity, and the vicegerency of heaven been acceded to him.

Jacobatius, Durand, Gilbert, and Pithou, on the authority of canon law, style the Pontiff the Almighty's vicegerent, 66 who occupies the place not of a mere man, but of the true God."

Gregory II. says:- "The whole western nations reckoned Peter a terrestrial god: the Roman Pontiff, of course, succeeds to the title and estate." This blasphemy Gratian copied into the canon law. "The Emperor Constantine," says Nicholas I., "conferred the appellation of God on the Pope, who, therefore, being God, cannot be judged by man."

According to Innocent III., "The Pope holds the place of the true God."

The canon law in the gloss denominates the Roman hierarch, "our Lord God."

The canonists generally reckon the Pope the one God, who hath all power, human and divine, in heaven and in earth.

Marcellus, in the Lateran Council, and with its full approbation, called Julius, “God on earth."

II. The works as well as the name of God have been ascribed to the Pope by Innocent, by distinguished Catholic writers, by the canon law, and the Lateran Council. According to Innocent, Jacobatius, Durand, and Decius, "the Pope and the Lord form the same tribunal, so that, sin excepted, the Pope can do nearly all that God can do."

Jacobatius and Durand say, "The Pontiff possesses a plenitude of power, and none dare say to him any more than to God, What doest thou? He can change the nature of things, and make nothing out of something and something out of nothing."

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These are not the views of these writers alone they are found, in all their absurdity and blasphemy, in the canon law, which represents the Pope as responsible to no being in the universe, and attributes to him the power of performing the works of God, and making something out of nothing. Pope, according Lainez, at the Council of Trent, "has the power of dispensing with all laws, and the same authority as the Lord."

The

An Archbishop, in the last Lateran Synod, called Pope Julius, "Prince of the world."

Another orator styled Leo," the possessor of all power in heaven and in earth, who

presided over all the kingdoms of the globe."

This blasphemy the holy, infallible Roman Council listened to without expressing their disapprobation or dissent, and the haughty Pontiff himself, doubtless, with great complacency. The man of sin then "sat in the temple of God," or that which was called so, and both by his silence and his state "showed himself that he was God."

"Some Popes," says Coqueville, "have allowed themselves to be called Omnipotent."

-The Protestant.

MAXIMS OF POPE GREGORY VIII. 1. THE Church of Rome is the only one founded by God.

2. The title of Universal belongs to the Roman Pontiff, who alone can take the name of Pope.

3. He alone can dispose and absolve the Bishops.

4. His Legate presides over the Bishops in all Councils, and can depose them.

5. The Pope can depose those absent. 6. Those who have been excommunicated may not be dwelt with.

7. He can make new laws, create new churches, divide a bishopric into two, or unite two bishoprics in one.

8. He alone may assume the attributes of empire and bear the signs of it.

9. All Princes must kiss his feet. 10. His name is the only one to be pronounced in churches.

11. It is the only name in the world.
12. He may depose Emperors.

13. He can, according to his pleasure, transfer Bishops from one See to another.

14. He can in any church ordain a Priest.

15. Those ordained by him can govern other churches, and can receive no superior rank of any other Bishop.

16. No Council can be termed a General Council unless the Pope have so ordered it.

17. No chapter, nor any book, can be received as canonical without his authority.

18. None may annul the sentences of the Pope, although he may quash those of all others.

19. He neither may nor can be judged by

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MEMOIR OF MR. HENRY RISHTON. HENRY RISHTON, the subject of this notice, was born near Haslingden, in the year 1775. His parents were in the habit of attending the ministry of the Established Church, but his early days were spent in ignorance of the vital, saving truths of the Gospel. When about twenty years of age, however, he was led by the good Spirit of God to see and feel the necessity of a change of heart, and at length determined to accompany the Methodists, then "the sect every where spoken against," to their place of worship. On his way thither he met with a number of his wicked companions; who, upon seeing him turn towards the Wesleyan chapel, set up a shout of ridicule. He has often said that that shout thrilled through his very soul, and he at once resolved to renounce his former associates, and to connect himself with those who his heart assured him were the people of God. The word came home to his conscience, and for nine months he continued seeking "the pearl of great price:" he was at length enabled to exercise simple faith in the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world, and found redemption in his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. He immediately began to declare to his family and friends how great things the Lord had done for him, and to exhort them to "flee from the wrath to come." For a time his wishes and prayers on their behalf appeared to be in vain, until his mother, being visited with severe affliction, became anxious for the salvation of her soul; and after witnessing a good confession before many witnesses, she died triumphantly in the faith and hope of the Gospel. From this time his father and other members of the family saw that there was something real about religion, of which they were destitute; and most of them became subsequently fellow-heirs of the grace of life, and are now, we doubt not, with him before the throne of God, praising Him day and night in his temple. Soon after his conversion, a vacancy occurring, he was appointed Leader of a class, an office which he filled for several years, until his removal to Preston, and

afterwards in that place till the close of his life; a period altogether of about fifty years. During the whole of that time he endeavoured to walk worthy of his high vocation, and to adorn the doctrine of God his Saviour in all things. Though, like others, subject to various infirmities, those who knew him best can bear record that his sincere and paramount desire and aim was to glorify God in his day and generation. His attachment to the doctrines and discipline of Methodism was strong and unwavering; and notwithstanding the divisions which at various times agitated that body, he continued firm and unshaken in his adherence to its first principles. His love to the means of grace, and his regular attendance thereon, were indeed exemplary. Until the last few months of his life he was favoured with remarkably good health; and when at length confined to the house of affliction, he longed for the services of the sanctuary, " as the hart panteth after the water-brooks." The members of his class had a large share in his affectionate regards, and during his illness he remarked that parting from them was one of his greatest trials.

On the 1st of January in the present year, when retiring to rest, he was suddenly seized with an inflammation of the chest, and for a short time his life appeared to be trembling in the balance. He rallied a little, however, and hopes were entertained of his recovery for nearly a fortnight. During this period many of his Christian friends visited him, and to all of them he expressed his firm reliance upon the atonement of Christ, and a calm trust and confidence in him as his Saviour. For a few days before his death, his strength visibly declined, and it was evident to those around him that his race was almost run. On Friday morning his complaint returned with redoubled violence, accompanied with slight convulsions. During the day he suffered greatly, but patience had in him her perfect work; not a murmur escaped his lips: and though, through extreme weakness, almost unable to articulate, he repeated, with peculiar animation, those lines,

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THE GOD RIMMON.

IN the wood-cut above, Naaman is represented as supporting the King in the house of Rimmon. This name does not elsewhere occur in the Bible, nor is it mentioned by any ancient writer. It is, therefore, wholly uncertain what idol it denotes; but there has been no want of conjecture, which, in the absence of more certain data, has proceeded chiefly on the meanings which might be etymologically extorted from the name. The usual and proper signification of the word is that of a "pomegranate," though, by breaking it up, and speculating on its component syllables, other meanings may be found. A meaning

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implying "elevation or "exaltation," in some form or other, is that which is usually elicited by this process. Of all the opinions, the most probable seem to be those which make Rimmon to have been either the sun, or the planetary system collectively taken; and, in either case, the pomegranate may have been the sacred and denominating symbol. Its figure,-that of an orb surmounted by a star,-with the peculiarities of arrangement and appearance exhibited by its granulated contents, offered good materials for such a symbolization as the ancient idolaters were accustomed to employ.-Knight's Illustrated Commentary.

MISCELLANY OF EXTRACTS AND CORRESPONDENCE.

THE FROZEN DEAD AT THE
HOSPICE OF THE GRAND
ST. BERNARD.

THE scene of the greatest interest at the Hospice, a solemn, extraordinary interest

indeed, is that of the Morgue, or building where the dead bodies of lost travellers are deposited. There they are, some of them as when the breath of life departed, and the death-angel, with his instruments of frost and

TABLE-TALK.

snow, stiffened them and embalmed them for ages. The floor is thick with nameless skulls, and bones, and human dust, heaped in confusion. But around the wall are groups of poor sufferers in the very position in which they were found, as rigid as marble, and in this air, by the preserving element of an eternal frost, almost as unerumbling. There is the mother and a child, a most affecting image of suffering and love. The face of the little one remains pressed to the mother's bosom, only the back part of the skull being visible, the body enfolded in the careful arms, careful in vain, affectionate in vain, to shield her offspring from the elemental wrath of the tempest. The snow fell fast and thick, and the hurricane wound them up in one white shroud and buried them. There is also a tall, strong man, standing alone, the face dried and black, but the white unbroken teeth firmly set and close, grinning from the

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fleshless jaws. It is a most awful spectacle. The face seems to look at you from the recesses of the sepulchre, as if it would tell you the story of a fearful death-struggle in the storm. There are other groups, more indistinct; but these two are never to be forgotten and the whole of those dried and frozen remnants of humanity are a terrific demonstration of the fearfulness of this mountain-pass, when the elements, let loose in fury, encounter the unhappy traveller. You look at all this through the grated window; there is just light enough to make it solemnly and distinctly visible, and to read in it a powerful record of mental and physical agony, and of maternal love in death. The little child, hiding its face in its mother's bosom, and both frozen to death,-one can never forget the group, nor the memento mori, nor the token of deathless love.-Dr. Cheever's Wanderings.

EXPENSIVE CLOAK.

TABLE-TALK.

His Majesty Kauikeaouli has still in his possession the Mamo, or feather war-cloak of his father, the celebrated Tamehameha. It was not completed until his reign, having occupied eight preceding ones in its fabrication. It is four feet in length, with eleven and a half feet spread at the bottom. Its ground-work is a coarse netting; and to this the feathers, which are very small and exceedingly delicate, are skilfully attached, overlapping each other, and forming a perfectly smooth surface. The feathers around the border are inverted, and the whole presents a beautiful bright yellow colour, giving it the appearance of a mantle of gold. Indeed it would be difficult for despotism to manufacture a richer or more costly garment for its proudest votary. Two feathers only (such as are used wholly in its manufacture) are obtained from under the wings of a rare species of bird inhabiting Hawaii, which is caught alive with great care and toil. Long poles, with an adhesive substance smeared upon them, and well baited, are placed near their haunts. The bird alights upon it, and unable to disengage itself from the adhesive matter, is secured, the much-prized feathers plucked, and the bird set at liberty. A piece of nankeen, valued at one dollar and a half, was formerly the price of five feathers of this kind. By this estimate the value of the cloak would equal that of the purest diamonds in the several European regalia, and, including the price of the feathers, not less than a million of dollars' worth of labour was expended upon it, at the present rate of computing wages. The war-spear accompanying the cloak is ten and a half feet in length, of a

dark red wood, flattened to a point, and finely polished. It possesses an additional interest when we reflect that it was the favourite weapon of a savage conqueror, and deeply stained with the blood of many a Hawaiian warrior.-Hawaiian Spectator.

THE POPE'S GIRANDOLA AT

ROME.

This

THE next night after the grand illumination is the "Girandola," or fire-works of His Holiness; and we must say that he does far better in getting up fire-works than religious ceremonies. This "Girandola" does credit to his taste and skill. It is the closing act of the magnificent farce, and all Rome turns out to see it. About half-way from the Corso (the Broadway of Rome) to St. Peter's, the famous marble bridge of Michael Angelo crosses the Tiber. The castle of St. Angelo, formerly the vast and magnificent tomb of Adrian, stands at the further end. castle is selected for the display of the fireworks. None of the spectators are permitted to cross the bridge, so that the Tiber flows between them and the exhibition. Towards evening the immense crowd begin to move in the direction of St. Angelo; and soon the whole area, and every window and house-top, is filled with human beings. About eight the exhibition commences. The first scene in the drama represents a vast Gothic cathedral. How this is accomplished I cannot tell. Everything is buried in darkness, when suddenly, as if by the touch of an enchanter's wand, a noble Gothic cathedral, of the size of the immense castle, stands in light and

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