shade the richest descriptions of the traveller, and most glowing inventions of the poet.

No feelings can be so delightful as those which are called into exercise by the engagements of the Sabbath. We separate ourselves from a world of sin and misery, and we wait upon our God without distraction. A Sabbath-frame, in its specific sense, is a foretaste of heaven. We are conversant, not with the low affairs of the present state, but with immortal interests. The glories of redemption, the gracious visitations of God, the great spiritual work, the whole range of divine truth, and the concerns of our undying souls, are offered to our meditations; and if they impress us rightly, if they affect us deeply, in a word, if our relish for the things which be of God is decided and sincere, we shall hail the recurrence of the day of the Lord with grateful feelings to Him who hallowed it, we shall rejoice in it and be glad. No communions can be so exalted as those of the Sabbath. The fellowship of the saints, oneness of heart in prayer, in praise, and in meditation; the knowledge that we are uniting with the church above in the same happy and glorious work; above all, the consciousness that our fellowship is with the Father and the Son, and that the communion of the Holy Ghost is with us— -These are privileges beyond all human estimation, condescensions which should fill us with humble and adoring thankfulness.

There are no hopes so glorious and so animating as those which are inspired by the services of the Sabbath. It was mercifully given to man that he might be led by it to a holy disengagement from the things of time, and a hopeful anticipation of eternal felicities. It is at once the commemoration of the wisdom, the power, and the good ness of God, and a looking for

ward to the glory that shall be revealed. As it was the completion of the work of creation, so shall it terminate the processes of spiritual renovation, and finish the great work of man's salvation. Christian! are these thine hopes? Then cherish the day which is set apart for their contemplation, and for the cultivation of those graces which give them reality and vigour. Hallow thy Sabbaths; let them be days of prayer and meditation, of worship, and of praise. Give nothing to the world on that day which is sacred to the Lord. away the vain and carnal thought, the wandering eye, the spirit of indolence. Remember that it is a day of rest, not of slothfulness, and forget not that the best tranquillity, the most perfect exemption from care and perturbation, is to be found in those blessed ṣervices which diffuse throughout the heart the peace which passeth understanding.

Put

Such is the Sabbath-The day of man; given to him for repose and refection, for those divine services and blessed exercises which, rightly felt and performed, give calmness and quiet, while the storms and billows of a tempestuous world are rushing and heaving in fearful commotion all around us- -The day of the Lord; set apart for Himself, and consecrated to His service; claimed by Him who is a jealous God, and who will not suffer any of his institutions to be neglected or contemned with impunity-The day of time, marking with a spiritual distinction the periods of its lapse. Light and darkness, with the revolutions of the great orbs of the universe, mete out the natural divisions of time, but the Sabbath directs us to Jehovah, not only as the Lord of nature, but as the Searcher of hearts, and the Judge of all; it refers to a higher agency, and points us to a wider range and to loftier aims-The day of eternity,

in which we more peculiarly press forward our traffic with the skies, review our transactions, deplore our losses, and reckon up our gains. It belongs to eternity, inasmuch as here we have only shreds and fragments of it, while in heaven, it will be possessed entire, all there will be blissful rest, the high, eternal, Sabbath of our souls.*

་་་་་་་་་

PRINCE HOHENLOHE'S

MIRACLES.

(To the Editors.) GENTLEMEN,-There are few subjects of greater difficulty or importance, than that which is included in the investigation of miraculous appearances. Believing, on evidence which to disbelieve requires the sacrifice of every rational faculty, the miracles which, at its first establishment, attested the truth and the divine origin of Christianity, I confess myself much inclined to scepticism, when supernatural agency is alleged in support of modern claims to inspiration or infallibility. I can see an infinitude of reasons, all bearing, with irresistible weight, upon the necessity for special interference, when the glorious Gospel of the blessed God was promulgated to blessed God was promulgated to the world. A system of divine government, framed by eternal wisdom, and enforced by superhuman sanctions and manifesta

*We shall avail ourselves of this opportunity to call the serious attention of our readers to the awful levity with which the Sabbath is continually and shamelessly profaned. If the legally ap: pointed guardians of the public morals will not or cannot interfere, it becomes necessary for private individuals to inquire how far they may be able to correct this deplorable abuse. A large portion of it is, no doubt, completely out of reach, but there is one source of influence which is too much neglected. If 'religious families would announce, and act upon, a resolution not to deal, either directly or indirectly, with any tradesman who might countenance breaches of the Sabbath, much would be gained.

tions, was to be superseded, and had not the new dispensation been attended by equally decided proofs of the intervention of the same Almighty and Omniscient Being, the Jews would have been well justified in their refusal to surrender their high station, as the possessors of Jehovah's law, and the Gentiles would have had a specious plea for the retention of their cunningly devised fables. Once completely established, however, once sufficiently authenticated by direct and manifest indications of a celestial origination, it should seem, not only that the necessity for these interferences must cease,

But

but that their continuance would be a mere gratuitous concession to human caprice, and consequently, that miracles of attestation could the cessation of this species of exno longer be vouchsafed. traordinary interposition does not by any means include the entire obliteration of the visible marks of an immediate and special working of heavenly power. The miracles of faith have never ceased, and God; the answer to prayer is as will never cease, in the church of emphatically, and sometimes, I firmly believe, as obviously and tion of sight to the blind, or the tangibly miraculous, as the restora

resurrection of our Saviour from the tomb.

I have briefly stated this distinction, in my view a very important one, by way of introduction to a few strictures on a very absurd interference, by a Dr. Badeley, of Chelmsford, in behalf of a miraculous cure wrought by the prayers of the notorious Prince Alexander Hohenlohe. My knowledge of the Doctor is limited to the contents of his pamphlet, unless he be the same gentleman who stated in evidence, some time ago, that copperas was a preparation of copper; but I cannot say, that he to possess culties of investigation and per

appears

the fa

suasion in any very extraordinary degree. Like Don Quixote, he couches his lance, dashes at windmills, and gets unhorsed in the

encounter..

Dr. Badeley states, in his "Authentic Narrative of the extraordinary Cure performed by Prince Alexander Hohenlohe, on Miss Barbara O'Connor, a Nun, in the Convent of New Hall, near Chelmsford," -a title by the way which at once marks out the Doctor as a

partizan, and, to a certain extent,

lessens the value of his evidencethat

"On the 7th of December, 1820, Miss Barbara O'Connor, a nun, in the

convent at New Hall, near Chelmsford, aged thirty, was suddenly attacked, without any evident cause, with a pain in the ball of the right thumb, which rapidly increased, and was succeeded by a swelling of the whole hand and arm, as far as the elbow. It soon became red, and painful to the touch. Mr. Barlow, the skilful surgeon to the convent, was sent for; and applied leeches, lotions, blisters, fomentations, poultices, long immersions in warm water, and every thing that was judged proper, a long time, without much benefit. One cold application diminished the swelling, but occasioned acute pain in the axilla and mamma. Leeches were applied to the axilla, and the same cold lotion; by which means the pain was removed from the axilla, and the hand and arm became as bad as before.".

Incisions and other remedies were employed without relief, ex-cepting that mercurial frictions produced an evident, though transient, good effect, and that the general health was perfectly re-established. A year and a half having elapsed, Mrs. Gerard, the superior of the convent, employed a friend to request the aid of the German thaumaturgus, Prince Hohenlohe, of Bamberg, who forwarded the following letter.

"TO THE RELIGIOUS NUN IN ENGLAND.

On the 3d of May, at eight o'clock, I will offer, in compliance with your request, my prayers for your recovery. Having made your confession, and communicated, offer up your own also, with that fervency of devotion and entire faith which we owe to our Redeemer Jesus CONG. MAG. No. 65.

Christ. Stir up from the bottom of your heart the divine virtue of true repentance, belief, that your prayers will be favourof Christian charity to all men, of firm ably received, and a stedfast resolution to lead an exemplary life, to the end that you may continue in a state of grace. Accept the assurance of my regard.

"PRINCE ALEXANDER HOHENLOHE." "Bamberg, March 16, 1822."

This is an incorrect translation. "Christian charity to all men," is not the meaning of the original: by amour chretien, the Prince

means

clearly, love to God. "Firm," is an inadequate rendering of sans bornes. And these are by no means slight changes, for they materially affect the character of the note, which is well adapted to keep up that mental excitation which, on a favourable view of the case, existed in the. mind of Miss O'Connor. It is, however, with satisfaction that I find in this document no traces of the vulgar necromancy of Romish jugglery, no clamorous invocations of the blessed Virgin, no appeals to the calendar, no touching of rotten rags or mouldering bones; though my gratification would be more complete, could I divest myself of a suspicion, that this absence of the customary charms and incantations may be designed to give a more plausible air to the transaction, and to administer a soporific to the vigilance of Protestant incredulity. The result must be given in Dr. B.'s own words.

"Miss O'Connor's general health

being re-established, and the surgical

treatment of the hand being out of my province, I did not see her for some weeks; but having occasion to visit some of the ladies on the 2d of May, I was requested to look at Miss O'Connor's hand and arm, which I found as much swollen and bad as ever I had seen them. The fingers looked ready to burst, and the wrist was fifteen inches in circumference. I did not then know the reason of my being desired to see the. hand and arm on that day, not having heard of the application to the Prince.

"On the next day, the 3d of May,

2 I

(a day of particular notice by the Catholics) she went through the religious process prescribed by the Prince. Mass being nearly ended, Miss O'Connor, not finding the immediate relief she expected, exclaimed, "Thy will be done, oh, Lord! thou hast not thought me worthy of this cure." Almost immediately after, she felt an extraordinary sensation through the whole arm, to the end of her fingers. The pain instantly left her, and the swelling gradually subsided; but it was some weeks before

the hand resumed its natural size and shape. Now, I can perceive no difference from the other. The general reports that the arm was paralytic, and that both hand and arm were again as bad as ever, have not the least founda

tion."

I should be sorry to exclude substantially valuable matter, by citing any of Dr. Badeley's speculations on this affair, except that I must dissent from the opinion, which is "very much his own," that "nobody would wish for stronger evidence upon other occasions." I can see nothing more than the fact of cure, consequent upon the re-establishment of the general health by common sanative means. Every thing beside rests upon the evidence of the inhabitants of a nunnery, and, no offence to the ladies, I pay no more respect to the statements of a hive of nuns, buzzing their attestation of a Romish miracle, than I should do to the affidavits of men-of-straw at the Old Bailey. To my mind there is a complete air of getting up in the whole business. Mrs. Gerard, and Miss O'Connor are, no doubt, very respectable persons, but I have great misgivings about their testimony, when I recollect certain old and pithy passages in the history of popery, and when I think of the facilities which absolution, and the doctrine of venial sins, afford to trespassers, especially when their transgressions are in behalf of the honour and glory of the "Catholic Church." Dr. Badeley, who, I should have stated, is a Protestant, seems to think that his evidence is decisive of the

whole series of facts, whereas it is conclusive to nothing but to the existence of disease, the employment of a vigorous curative process, partial but transient specific benefit, the entire renewal of general health, and, ultimately, the gradual restoration of the affected limb to its original soundness. Every thing else is, what may be called in the language of the Scotch lawyers, vicious intromission, and rests merely on the evidence of the Superior and the Nun, liable, putting out of sight the possibility of collusion, to all the objections that a Protestant may urge against superstitious predisposition, and voluntary selfdelusion. The Doctor is pleased to assume that "all must agree that the cure was effected by perfect faith and confidence in the remedy." I take leave to dissent from this sweeping and gratuitous ultimatum; that the cure might have been so effected, I shall not question-that the cure was thus performed-non liquet.

Leaving, however, the farther dissection of this marvellous attempt at a miracle, and conceding for the moment all that can possibly be conceded, what do the Catholics gain by the concession. The cure, supposing it to be as real, and as much of a miracle, as they would have it,-what does it amount to? It is neither more nor less than an answer-a miraculous answer if they please-to the prayer of faith. It is, in short, a miracle of faith, one of those instances of direct interposition, which the Almighty is, at all times, graciously vouchsafing to believing supplication. the Papists say that the power of working miracles is confined to the true Church, and would thus change this divine interference into a miracle of attestation. This is as good a specimen of the circulating syllogism, as you shall see in a summer's day. Our fair

But

dealing antagonists first assume the exclusive genuineness of their church, for the purpose of giving specific character to the miracle, and then plead the miracle in proof of the exclusive genuineness of their church. Commend me to reasoning in a circle, in the absence of syllogistic argument! It saves time and trouble, and is the less liable to refutation, inasmuch as it refutes itself.

They

The war of miracles is a very doubtful mode of contest. Every party may buy them cheap. are like goods at Bankrupts' sales, plenty, of bad quality, and not honestly come by. The serious Christian, in his own experience, and in that of those like-minded with himself, will often recognise the wonder-working hand of God in answer to prayer, and to the confident reliance of humble faith; but in proportion as he receives, with joyful awe and gratitude, these glorious manifestations, he will reject the miserable succedanea of interested parties. He will accept the pure gold as the current coin of heaven, but the Dutch metal, the lacquered brass, he will cast aside or trample under foot.

Before I close, one word as to the noisy pretences of the Romanists to the unassailable genuineness of their church, and the false candour of those of our Protestant brethren, who have so far yielded to their clamour, as to allow them, though not exclusively, the possession of the marks of a true church of Christ. I shall take leave to record my protest against this untenable claim, and this unreasonable concession, in brief parliamentary phrase.

Dissentient, 1. Because the true church of Christ is, in all its parts and all its principles, established for the destruction of idolatry, and idolatry is directly chargeable on the self-styled church of Rome.

2. Because will-worship is equally

at variance with the constitution of the great Christian communityan error woven into the warp and woof of the Romish system.

3. Because persecution is a fell and fatal essential of the Catholic Institute, while the religion of Him who came to seek and to save, employs no weapons but persuasion and argument, and looks for success, not to the secular arm, but to the power of God. The persecuting spirit is at eternal variance with the spirit of Christ. QUIDAM.

ON COMMUNION WITH GOD. (To the Editors.) GENTLEMEN,-The following is a copy of a letter from one friend to another, on maintaining communion with God.

The first object of solicitude to an awakened soul, is safety. The law speaks, the sinner listens and. fears; a holy God is revealed, the sinner sees and trembles; every false hope is swept away, and an earnest inquiry takes place— "What shall I do to be saved?" In proportion as faith is given, Jesus is discovered as the only Saviour; and as faith increases, fear subsides, and a comfortable hope of life and immortality grows as we grow, and strengthens with our strength.

When we have thus a good hope, through grace, that heaven shall be our home, I think the next inquiry should be, how we may possess as much of it by the way as is possible. I am persuaded this is the point that lies nearest your heart, and therefore shall make it the subject of this letter. It is plain from Scripture, that all our abatements, declensions, and languors, arise from

a

defect of faith. If we had apprehensions of Christ suitable to his character in the word of God, all doubts and fears would cease, a strong and abiding sense of his power would ever influence our minds, and our hearts would be