which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me at that day." Oh, what a contrast between the truth of God, as contained in the Scripture, and the perversion of God's truth, contained in the system of Rabbinism !

With reference to purgatory, or something like it, though the name is not used, the Jews have an idea that after death they must undergo a trial of fire, and every Jew is to roll under the earth to the valley of Jehoshaphat, where they suppose he will rise again. But, leaving this, I now come to Romanism. You know it is laid down there, that it is a holy and pious custom to pray for the dead, and that Romanists may acquire great merit. The Pope issues a great number of indulgences very frequently; and by means of these, and by means of penances, and mortifications, and flagellations, and almsgivings, the Romanist has an idea that he will be all right for eternity. But yet, when he comes to die, there is purgatory before him; none are excluded from it, except, as we are told, apostles and martyrs; and we are told that some must be in purgatory till the day of judgment. Now, when we see what inconsistency there is here, can one wonder that there are such things as purgatorial clubs, where poor people are encouraged to put their pence together that masses may be said for the relief of their souls from purgatory?

The

And here is another point of similarity. Every time a Jew offers a prayer for his deceased friend, he must give something to the Rabbi. So with the Romanist. Every time he offers up prayer for his deceased' friend, or hears mass for him, there must be a fee to the priest. "No penny, no paternoster" is a common proverb. existence of the purgatorial clubs has been denied; but they are notorious in Dublin, and I am not sure whether there are not some nearer to us. But what struck me as most remarkable is what I will mention to you. You know O'Connell was a great man amongst the Romanists in Ireland. In his last sickness he set out to visit Rome, accompanied by the Rev. Dr. Miley, who wrote home as follows: :- "The glory and wonder of Christendom is dead! Dead! no! I should say rather O'CONNELL IS IN HEAVEN. HIS DEATH WAS HAPPY; he received in the

most fervent sentiments the last rites, and up to the last sigh was surrounded by every consolation provided by our holy religion. The spirit took its flight so peacefully, that all who were there, except the angels who were in waiting for it, were in doubt if it had departed." Now, this is beautiful language; and from this it would seem that O'Connell was really admitted into the realms of the blessed; but some months after this, the people of Ireland were informed in the newspapers, that O'Connell was still in the place of torment, for there must be grand masses performed for the release of his soul out of purgatory. How inconsistent this is !

I will sum up this part of the subject, by just reminding you, that the secret of a true faith is the setting forth the Lord Jesus Christ as the one hope of sinners, and directing the poor sinner to Him; and every form of religion which does not set forth Christ Jesus as the one only hope of a sinner, does not come from God; and if it does not come from God, then we know there is some one else who has something to do with it. An enemy sows tares amongst the wheat. When, then, modern. Rabbinism excludes Christ, and offers to the sinner a substitute for Him; and when modern Romanism includes Christ, but, at the same time, does so in such a way as to put in other substitutes for Him, or additions to Him; I say that both Rabbinism and Romanism are perverted representations of God's truth, and perverted, I fully believe, by the great enemy of souls.

There is one part of my subject which I must still bring forward; and that is, some of the practices of Rabbinism and Romanism. The amulets and charms which the systems encourage, I just want to call your attention to for a moment.

It would appear that there are two sorts of amulets, one containing some written words, the other made of roots of various kinds; the object of wearing them is either to prevent sickness, or to effect a cure. The following is an example of a Rabbinical charm :—

"For a bleeding at the nose, let a man be brought who is a priest, and whose name is Levi, and let him write the word 'Levi' backwards. If this cannot be

done, get a layman, and let him write the following words backwards :-'Ana pipi Shila bar suncki,' or let him write these words, Taams dli bemi keseph, taam li bemi paggan,' or let him take a root of grass, and the cord of an old bed, and paper, and saffron, and the red part of the inside of a palm-tree, and let him burn them together, and let him take some wool, and twist two threads, and let him dip them in vinegar, and then roll them in the ashes, and put them into his nose. Or, let him look out for a small stream of water that flows from east to west, and let him go and stand with one leg on each side of it, and let him take with his right hand some mud from under his left foot, and with his left hand from under his right foot, and let him twist two threads of wool, and dip them in the mud, and put them into his nostrils. Or let him be placed under a spout, and let water be brought and poured upon him, and let them say, 'As this water ceases to flow, so let the blood of M., the son of the woman N., also cease.

Now, this excites a smile; and one wonders how any Jew of common sense can really submit to a system that enjoins charms of this kind. But is there anything in Romanism like this? Why, if I were to read to you what I have often read in the Romish Pontifical, and what I have been refreshing my memory with to-day, you would have such an amount of exorcisms and charms as, perhaps, would astonish you. You would be surprised to hear the numerous devices, for example, for mastering and expelling devils, out of oil, out of water, out of garments, a child that is being baptized, and many other things. Their books are filled with recipes or spells for the exorcising of demons, and doing all manner of extraordinary feats. Wylie, in his Essay on the Papacy," gives the following free translation of the exorcism of water for the purpose of baptism :

66

"I exorcise thee, thou creature of water,
By the living t†, by the true †,
By the holy †, person who,

By a word, without a hand,

Parted thee from the dry land."

And so on; and then, after a time, the direction is:"Let him with his hand divide the water, and then

pour some of it outside the edge of the font, towards the four points of the world."

Be thou, holy water, blest;

Cleanse the foul and guilty breast;

Wash away the filth of sin;
Make the bosom pure within.
And ye devils, every one,
Let what I prescribe be done.
Where this water sprinkled flies,

There eradicate all lies;

Every phantasm put to flight;

Every dark thing bring to light,” &c.

Then follow certain other ceremonies, such as blowing three times into water, incensing the font, pouring in oil in the form of a cross, and then the incantation concludes:

66 Mingle, O thou holy chrism;

Blessed oil, I mingle thee;

Mingle, water of baptism,
Mingle, all ye sacred three;
Mingle, mingle, mingle ye,

In the name of †, and of †, and of †.”

Well may the writer exclaim,-"This appears to us to embody the very soul of magic." But the parallel between the two systems is closer still. Here is a little tract called "Erin's Pilgrims," containing an account of their doings at Crough Patrick, which I would recommend you to read; it only costs a penny, and may be had of Wertheim and Macintosh. I find the following statement:

"About six years ago, I went from Sillerney, near Clifden, county Galway, accompanied by my wife, and many of my neighbours, to the lake of St. Keerane, in the county Mayo, a distance of seventy or eighty miles, to perform a station for a sick cow. We started about the 4th of September, and arrived, weary enough, the second day, in the town of Balla. Each of us carried a small quantity of the cow's butter, and the spancel the cow had on while milking.

"We lodged in the house of a Protestant, who had

great compassion for us when he heard the distance we travelled. He strongly advised us to eat the butter ourselves, and return home.

"We proceeded on the morning of the third day, to perform the station, a distance of six miles; and during that way the road was crowded with people from all parts of Ireland, going and coming from this lake. When we arrived at the lake, which is in a little bay, there were a great many tents erected there, selling whisky, every one filled with people; some drunk, some singing Irish songs, and others dancing. There was not a spot but there was a woman having a jar, selling spirits. At these tents we had to take off hat, shoes, and stockings, and travel about fifty yards on our bare knees, through mud and dirt. When we arrived at a place where there were seven little green hillocks, we went round them seven times, repeating one Pater, fifteen Ave Marias, and a Creed. At another little monument we had to undergo the same task, and pay the priest's clerk a penny; then proceed into the lake, where we were up to our waist in water; turn round to the right three times, in the name of God and the holy St. Keerane; throw out the butter into the lake as far as we could, in the name of the cows, -we had to throw the spancel in another direction, and pick up a strange spancel to carry home. We then went to another dirty pool to wash our feet; we took a little bottle of the water, to give to drink to the cows at home, and a small stone out of the pool to be kept safe in remembrance.

"All this being done, we had again to pay the clerk twopence."

Now, that is only one of numerous things I might read, respecting the system of charms. We know, that at the time of the famine in Ireland, when the potatoes were rotten, the people obtained what they thought a charm, to keep away the rot; which charm was, of course, ineffectual. I remember meeting with an Irish girl, who was a servant; and she told me she had a charm about her which was a cure for the toothache; and I believe firmly that many of the Romanists carry about them such charms as these; because here are things which are to be