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‘ty in advance,
“Vol. VI.—No. Sh.
“THE CATHOLIC HERALD
IS PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY BY
M. FITHIAN,
No. 6L North. Second Street, Philadelphia.
Terms. —Three Dollars per annum, payable half year-
Five Dollars will be received for 2 copies,
or J copy for twoyears, All arrearages must be settled prior
to ordering a paper to be discontinued. All Communica-
tions, except from Agents, or Subscribers enclosing remit-
; tances, must be post ‘paid, and addressed * ‘T'o the Editor
of the Catholic Herald, Philadelphia, Pa.”
Poetry.
From the Knickerbocker.
A'SONG OF MAY,
BY W. G, CLARK.
The Spring's scented buds all around me are swelling,
There are songs in the stream—there’s health in the gale;
A senéa of Wetight i in each bosom is dwelling;
As float the pure day dreams o'er mountain and vale; “
The desolate reign of Old Winter is broken—
. The verdure 1s fresh upon every tree; ‘
Of Nature's revival the charm—and a token
Of love, oh thou Spirit of Beauty! tu thee.
"Phe sun looketh forth from the halls of the morning,
And flushes the clouds that begirt his career;
He welcomes the gladness and glory, returning
‘To rest on the promise and hope of the year.
He fills with rich light all the balm breathing flowers—
He mounts to the zenith, and laughs on the wave;
Ile wakes into music the green forest bowers,
And gilds the gay plains which the broad rivers lave.
The young bird is out on his delicatg, pinion—~
4.25. le tintidly sails in the infinite sky$ , &
A greeting to May, and her fairy deminion, ,
He pours on the west wind’s fragrant sigh ;
» Around, above, there are peace and pleasure—
The woodland is singing—the heaven is bright;
The fields are unfolding their emerald treasure,
And man’s genial spirit is soaring in light.
--:
Alas, for my weary and care-haunted bosom!—
The spells of the spring-time arouses it no more, .
"The song in the wild wood—the sheen of the blossom—
The fresh swelling fountain—their magic is o'er!
When 1 list to the streams—when I look on the flowers, ,
They tell of the past with so mournful a tone,
‘That I call up the throngs of my long vanished hours,
. And sigh that their transports are over and gone.
From the wide-spreading earth—from the limitless heaven -
There have vanished an eloquent glory and gleam;
To my veil'd mind no more is the influence given,
Which colyureth life with the hues of adream:,
“Phe bloom purpled landscape its loveliness keepeth—
_ I deem that alight as of old yilds the wave;—
But the eye of my spirit in heaviness sleepeth,
Or sees but my youth and the visions itgave. 5
Yet it is not that age on my years has descended—
* "Pig not that its snow-wreaths encircled my brow;
But the newness and sweetness of being are ended— :
I feel not their love. kindling witchery now:
The shadows of death o’er my path have been sweeping—
There are those who have lov'd me. debarred from the day,
The green turf is bright where in peace they are sleeping,
* And on wings of remembrance my soul is away.
* Iris shut to the glow of this present existence—
It hears, from the Past, a funereal strain;
And it eagerly turns to the high-seeming distance,
Where the last blooms of earth will be garnered again ;
Where no mildew the soft damask-rose cheek shall nourish ;
Where Grief bears no longer the poisonous sting;
Where pitiless Death no dark sceptre can flourish,
Or stain with his blight the luxuriant spring.
Itis thas, that the hopes, which to others are given,
Fall cold on my heart in this rich month of May;
T hear the clear anthems which ring through the heaven—
I drink the bland airs that enliven the diy;
‘Philadelphia, Thursday,
May 23, 1839.
And if gentle Nature, her festival keeping, *
Delights not my bosom, ah! do not condemn;
O'er the lost and the lovely my spirit is weeping,
For my heart's fondest raptures are buried with them.
ESSAY.ON CATHOLIC. COMMUNION,
Of the Invocation of Saints and Angels.
Question I. Whether the church of J2ome teaches
those of hercommunion to forsake Christ, and notto
trust in him as their only mediator ?
Upon a full enquiry made into this matter, I tind
those of the church of Home place their trust and con-
fidence in God, and in’the mediatorship of Christ,
hoping for no salvation, but through the merits of his
sacred passion, inthe same manner as we do in our
charch, ‘This may be seen in the ordinary books of
devotion, and instruction’ used by them, and particu-
larly in those books, which having been writ by them,
we have re-printed for the common use ofall in our
church. Such are the Following of Christ, or the
the Christians Pattern, by Thomas a Kempis: F.
Parson’s Directory, or Resolutions: .The Introduc-
tion to a Devout Life: Devotions after the Ancient
Way of Offices, with others, in which they teach all to
put their whole trust in God, through Christ. ‘But this
[ found most fully delivered in Roderiguez, who
(Treat. 3. of Humil. c, 33.) declares, that all the
operations of grace in us, are freely added to us by
God, who of objects of wrath, has made us his chil-
dren. Notmoved thereto by any former merits of
ours, or in consideration of future services ; but by his
own pure mercy and the merits of our only mediator
Jesus Christ, (these are his words.) Since according
to the words of the apostle * We are justified freely
by the grace of God, and by the redemption that is in
Christ Jesus.” And the, game againin their Cathe-
chism ad Parochos,in which the pastors of thatchureh
are enjoined to instruct they lock in all that belongs
to the mysteries of Christ’s passion, in the effects and
benefits of it to mankind. Lzplic. Creed Art. 4.
which article is. thus concluded: ‘+1 with these
mysteries were daily in our minds, that we may learn
to suffer and die, and be buried together with our Lord ;
that so, all the filth of sin being cast off, we may rise
again logether with him to anew life, and by his grace
and vnerey be at length made worthy to partake of his
heavenly glory.” And in the explication of the Lord's
prayer, Petit. Par. 5.. 25.' Wherein the pastor is thus
ordered to teach his flock ; That we are not only debt-
ors to Gad, butalso, that we are not eapable of dis-
charging our debt; Since a sinner‘of himself is not
able to make avy satisfaction. * Wherefore we must
flee to the mercy of God ; and because his justice is
equal to his mercy, therefore we must make use of the
intercession, and patronage of the passion of our Lord
Jesus Christ, without which none has ever obtained
pardon of their sins.” ‘The same*docirine I find fre-
quently delivered in the. council of ‘rent. * ‘Those
who are born of Adam, if they were not regenerated in
Christ, could never be justified 5 ; Since that grace, by
which they are justified, is given them by the merit of
his passion in whom we have redemption, and remis-
sion of our sins.” Sess. 6. c.'3. And again: Be-
lieving in the first place, that by God, the sinner is
justified by his grace through the redemption which is
in Christ Jesus, and turning themselves to consider
the mercy of God, they are raised up in hope, confi-
ding that God, through Christ, | willbe’ propitious to
them, and then begin ‘io love i bin, as the fountain of
all righteousness. e. 6. Again in the first Canon de
justific is this Anathema pronounced > If any one
shall say that man is justified before God, by © his own
works, done either by the impulse of nature, or the
instruction of the law, without the divine grace through
Jesus Christ, let him be anathema.” ' Many other places
have I read of this kind in their own books, so plaig and
full, that I dare affirin it upon my own knowledge, that
in this point there is no difference between the two
churches, and that those in. communion with the Roman
church, place as firm a confidence in Christ, and in the
merits of his passion, confessing that nothing can be
obtained but through him,’ as those do of the refor-
mation. Segneri, the famous Italian Jesuit, may help
We
Ou
Whole Number 333,
tears, fasts and prayers of all the saints with the Bles-
sed Virgin, and the blood of all the Matrys were put
togetber, they are not sufficient to satisfy for the least
part ofa mortal sin, without the blood and passion of
Christ. Penit. Instruct. p. 133. The eharge then
of forsaking Christ, as for all I can discover, is a conse-
quence of ours from their calling upon the saints to pray
for them, which many of our divines say, they cannot
do, but by forsaking, or wronging the mediatorship of.
Christ. But this being a consequence, which they ea-
pressly disown, therefore, aecording to our fourth rule,
itis what we ought never to charge upon them, and
consequently, it is a question, which ought not to hin-
der communion. ~ Now, that they expressly disown
this consequence isevident in the council of Zrent,
Sess. 25 de Invoc. Where acknowledging in St.
Paul's words, One mediator between God and Men,
Christ Jesus, they condemn all those, who say, that
the invocation of saiits is injurious to the honour of,
this ane mediator, ent expressly enjoin all pastors. to
teach their flock, that itis good and profitable to ask
the prayers of the saints for obtaining blessin ga of God,
through Jesus Christ his son, our Lord, who alone i is
our redeemer and saviour.”
. HI, Whether there be not many phrases and ex-
pressions in their ordinary prayer-books, in which they
seem to confide in the saints, and injure the media~
torship of Christ 2
The general and most authentic address to the saints
pressions are found in their books, since,they mean no
prayers of the saints, and declare their abhorrence 0)
all thatis injurious to the mediatorship of Christ, hence:
the difliculty here comes to no more than’ about words
and phrases: And since, according to our third ‘rule,
such quarrels ought not lo be advanced, but sid by,
by ‘all lovers of peace, pence this question ‘ought not to
be made an exception against communion, esp ecially,
too, since their church pbliges none’ to ‘make" use of
such books, wherein such expressions are ; and there-
fore being not-imposed by the church, “according to
our second rule, this question ig not to obstruct a come,
mon peace
Q. MIL.
” Whether those in communion with ‘the
pecially to the Virgin Afary, than to God?
I have made a very particular enquiry into this
matter, and find, that throughout their whole 'Afissal,
(which is their book of divine service) and Breviary,
there is not one collect, or prayeri to any one saint
whatever, but every one is expressly directed tu God,’
and all ending with the same conclasion as we have.’
Through our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son. On all
Sundays i in the year, their Collects are generally the’
very same with ours; va St. Michael's day the Col.’
lect is the same, ‘and on the Saints days the Collects
are ever addressed io God, and only begging, that by
granted what they ask,’ but still concluding their whole
petition with their confidence in Jesus Christ, Through’
ovr Lord Jesus Christ; So that in the solemn’ wor-
ship of the church, at which all are obliged 10 be pre-’
sent, it cannot be observed, that they. directly desire
the prayer of any Saints, except only in the Confiteor,
which is very short, and in Litanies,. which «are said
only twice in the whole year; and even then the peo
ple are not obliged to be present at them.
Besides these buoks of ‘solemn or public worship,
they have a private devotion of the Rosary, in which
there are ten Hail Mary's for ‘one Lord's l’rayer.
This is indeed approved, butno where commanded by
the church: Nor is itimposed on any ever to, say it
throughout their whole lives. And even in ‘the di-,
rection for such as think fitto say it, L find particular
instructions given for performing that devotion,
memory of Christ’s incarnation, and’ of the principal
mysteries of his death and passion. *But’ this I un-
dertake not here to justify ; itis enough to answer my
purpose, that it is not imposed on any by what church :
but those who are of that communion, are equally at
toclear this point, who says, That if all the ‘labours,
* Our readers will bear i in mind thet this is written bya Protetant
clerey mon pd.
is only this, Pray for us: And whatever other ex-.”
more, as they declare themselves, than to beg-the .
see of Rome, do not pray more to’ the saints, but es-)
(which is their daily office, or devotion of their priests)
the prayers and intercessions of the Saints, may be”
in
ART, pene
—.