would not have offered Catholic communion, as he did to the Britons, to any who disbelieved it. And had they disbelieved it, they would assuredly have given that as their reason for withholding obedience, instead of the frivolous one they did: whereas we see that, if he had chanced to comply with the arbitrary condition their hermit had taught them to seek for, they would have been content to acknow. ledge his authority. It is manifestly impossible, therefore, that there should have been a difference in doctrine between them upon this point. To claim the ancient Britons, then, as Protestants, is only to furnish another instance of how curiously indiscriminate Protestants always are in their selection of those whom they receive to the honours of brotherhood; hostility to the Catholic Church-it matters not on what groundis the one thing necessary. They may be thorough-going Catholics on every single point except the one in dispute; nay, on every point of doctrine, as was the case with these Britons; it matters not-they stood out against the Pope about something, and that is enough; even though that something be a matter in which Protestants of the present day agree with the Pope and disagree with them. Or, on the other hand, they may believe next to nothing of what all Christians-Protestants as well as Catholics-now be lieve; they may teach doctrines utterly unchristian and subversive of all morality, as was the case with the Albigenses; it matters not-they resisted the Pope, therefore they were witnesses against Antichrist. What does this argue, if we would but consider the question calmly and without prejudice? We all know that truth is one, but error is diverse; that there are many ways of missing a mark, and but one of hitting it. We know, too, that when false witnesses arose against our Blessed Lord, all were sufficiently united in hatred against Him and zeal for His destruction; but when they came to speak, their witness agreed not together. The Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary. WHEN a Protestant stands for the first time in a Catholic church, one can suppose how many things there must be to excite his wonder. He is at no loss what to think of the public ceremonial before him: the candles and the incense, the splendid dresses, and repeated genuflexions of the priest, have all from childhood been stamped on his mind as the mummeries of a lifeless superstition. These ceremonies, which please and amuse the eye, he may think, are the things which tempt Catholics to forget how little real benefit to the soul is derived from an outward form. Yet this is not all which is new and strange to him: there is much in the manner of the people themselves which cannot fail to strike him, in their attachment to this empty ceremonial worship, and the extreme devotion they exhibit in practices, to him the most unmeaning of all. For instance, if he looks through the kneeling congregation, he will probably see in many hands a little string of beads, which he knows is called a Rosary; and remembering to have heard that Catholics are accustomed to say certain very short prayers over and over again, as they touch each of these beads, he may repeat to himself the warning against vain repetitions, and class the Rosary among the unscriptural corruptions of Rome. Yet it is surely strange that "vain repetitions" are in general so devoutly said. It may be readily seen in Protestant churches how little power the English Liturgy has to keep alive a wandering attention, even though said in our own native tongue, and with all the additional impressiveness of tone and manner. These prayers, we are told, are precious to those who would worship, not with the lips only, but in spirit and in truth. And yet they are listened to without response by congregations who forget to kneel, and find time to be tired with a service, which they tell us is so impressive and so dear to them. It is, we repeat, strange that a spiritual worship should be attended to so carelessly, while all the marks of a deep and true devotion are to be found with those who utter an unmeaning form. But is the Rosary such? This is what we are now going to consider. Before we condemn a devotion so dear to many of God's saints, and they not common ignorant people who could not read, and so might be glad of a method of praying without a book, but many of them very learned men, it may be well to know a little more about it. Now, I suppose the idea which a Protestant generally attaches to "telling the beads," as it is called, is simply this: that there are a certain number of Latin prayers to be repeated over and over again as rapidly as one can count them off, without any particular intention in saying them, the prayers themselves being destitute of any real devotion, and mostly addressed to the Blessed Virgin. In short, he thinks it a mere exercise of the lips, in which we think "to be heard for our much speaking," but one in which it is wholly impossible that the heart can ever join. This, like most mistaken opinions, has in it a mixture of truth. The prayers are, for the most part, addressed to our Lady, and very frequently repeated, and the number of them is indicated by the number of the beads; and if the mere formal repetition of ten, twenty, or fifty of these prayers made up the devotion of the Rosary, Protestants might have some excuse for calling it an unprofitable exercise. But that this is very far from being the case, I think I shall be able to shew you. The mere utterance of certain prayers constitutes but a small part of the use of the beads. It is by no means an easy thing to say the Rosary well; but we may safely affirm, that any one who can do so has little more to learn in the science of devotion. Now as to the prayers of which it is composed, they are, as perhaps you already know, a certain number of "Our Fathers" and "Hail Marys," which are said by us to obtain blessings from God through the intercession of our Lady, and in honour of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. But besides these prayers, we are given fifteen meditations; that is to say, fifteen subjects which we are directed to think about and make real to our minds; and whilst so meditating on each subject, we have to say one "Our Father," ten "Hail Marys," and one "Glory be to the Father," &c. These meditations are called Mysteries: they are mostly taken from the history of our Lord's life, passion, and re'surrection, and are themselves divided into three distinct parts. The Church, in contemplating these different mysteries, delights to do so by associating herself in sympathy with her who loved our Lord best, and was nearest to Him, His blessed Mother. The first five are called the "joyful mysteries," because they refer exclusively to that season so joyful to Mary, and to the Church with her, when God was born into the world as a little child, and spent His divine infancy among men. They consist of the Annunciation, when the angel Gabriel first brought the glad tidings to Mary that she was to be the Mother of God; the Visitation, when she went to see her cousin, St. Elizabeth, and sung her song of rejoicing as she beheld the first fruits of the Incarnation in the sanctification of St. John Baptist in his mother's womb; the Nativity of our Lord in the stable at Bethlehem; His Presentation in the Temple; and His being found at Jerusalem, after having been lost three days by His sorrowing parents. The next five mysteries are called sorrowful, because they contain the awful history of the Passion. The first is the prayer and agony of Jesus in the garden, when His sweat" became as drops of blood trickling down upon the ground." His scourging at the pillar; His crowning with thorns; His carrying the cross, all weary and faint with loss of blood; and lastly His crucifixion and death. The last five are designated glorious mysteries. They begin with His resurrection from the grave; His ascension into heaven; the descent of the Holy Ghost on the disciples on the day of Pentecost; the assumption of the Blessed Virgin, by which we mean how, after her death, her divine Son received her to Himself, to be always with Him in the bosom of His glory; and her crowning in heaven, in which we commemorate the dignity which is conferred by our |