national sacred book, our old, long-established, well-beloved, faithfully translated, English, Protestant Bible.

This third, then, was the only alternative; and proceeding on the ground that, as matter of fact, we were a Christian and a Protestant nation, it adopted the English Bible as a standard book, notwithstanding the objection of the infidel, who rejected its authority, and of Popish priests who treated it with still greater contumely, by refusing to have it taught to the people. This was the best compromise between sectarianism and infidelity that could be made. It represented the soul of the nation. It was carried to the extreme verge of liberty. The foreigner who came seeking protection among us, be he Mohametan, Pagan or Papist, was expected to conform to the spirit of this plan, or yield its benefits. The first had as good a right to demand the exclusion of any Bible, because the Koran was not also used, as the latter to raise his clamor about the infringement of rights which were never vested. It was not an infringement of your rights, as you deceptively represented it, but a determination to preserve our own national character, our own national religion, our own national Bible, against the attacks of those who thus repaid the liberality and protection which our laws, beyond those of any other on earth, held out to them. [TO BE CONTINUED.]

THE JOY OF ANGELS.

There was always something very delightful to me in the thought that there is joy among the angels when one sinner repents of his sins and turns to Christ. To know that there is

sympathy in heaven felt for fallen men-that our woesand our tears are objects of interest, intense and holy, among those who never sinned and never wept, is a thought that brings sweet comfort to the soul. And then to know that not only the mighty sum of human misery, the mass of sin and suffering under which the whole race groans, is an object on which the angels look with pity, but that they feel compassion for each and every soul that is in enmity to God, this thought it is that fills me with peculiar emotions, as I feel the relation in which one so obscure stands towards the inhabitants of another world.

A poor sinner; the world knows not my name; I shall live and labor, and suffer and die, and be buried, and few will know that such an one ever had a place on the footstool of God, or a grave in it. But if I repent of my sins and give my heart to the Saviour, the highest archangel in glory will clap his wings in ecstacy, and seraphs strike their golden harps to notes of loftiest praise. Me, a poor sinner, rejoiced over among the angels? The arches of heaven ringing with songs and shouts of triumph over me, a worm in the dust! Why is it?

The Church below makes but feeble rejoicing when one poor wanderer comes back. Nay; the saints on earth behold me in the broad road to death, an enemy of Christ, under the curse of the divine law, and they know that an hour hence, I may be in the world of rayless despair. But they put forth no hand to save me; they scarcely warn me of my danger, and perhaps would shed few tears over my final and hopeless fall.Why is it?

Angels must know more of the value of the soul, of the joys of heaven, of the glory of Christ in man's redemption, and when they hear that the most obscure of Adam's children, a despised and forgotten pauper, a Lazarus at the gate, has been delivered from the power of sin and the danger of hell, and sealed for immortal glory with God in heaven, THEY are filled with rejoicings, and they lift up their voices in anthems of praise to him who redeems and saves.

It is a great thing thus to be rejoiced over in heaven. It is a strange thing to me that Christians on earth do not rejoice more in the conversion of sinners, and labor more for their salvation. A SINNER.

The conclusion to which our mind was forced, on reading the detailed accounts of the last Philadelphia riot, and which at the time we mentioned to some of our friends, namely, that the excitement was desired by the Jesuits for Jesuitical purposes, has become very common among intelligent men, where the facts are best known. Ideed we know not that work of mischief in which Jesuits would not engage, if they could thereby subserve the interest of their Master the Pope. Would that honest, peaceable Roman Catholics would give a patient hearing to the truth on this subject, and learn some

thing of the character of the men who are sent here to lead them. It was not for nothing that the order of Jesuits was at one time suppressed by all the principal governments of Europe, as well Catholic as Protestant. The two following articles show the state of public opinion in Philadelphia:--

PHILADELPHIA RIOTS.-The following article is from the "Banner of the Cross," a religious paper of the Protestant Episcopal Church, published at l'hiladelphia. Its character is High Church, in the present division of sentiment existing in that denomination. The editor is the Rev. Mr. Coleman, a clergyman of the highest respectability of character, and rector of a church at Southwark, and residing in the very centre of the riotous movements. In every point of view it deserves marked and serious attention.

The U. S. Catholic Magazine complained at the time that we were altogether silent in reference to the dreadful outrages of May last, in a northern district of Philadelphia; and we had at first determined to leave also to the secular papers any notice of the awful scenes of last Sunday in Southwark, (our own parish and residence,) of which we were compelled to be an eye

witness.

The accounts which have appeared in them have no doubt already acquainted all our readers with the shocking particulars; but those at a distance may not be so well informed of what we deem it a duty to make known; and that is, that the late disturbances were wholly provoked by Romanists. Whatever doubts may have existed as to the remote cause or immediate occasion of the Kensington riots, there can be none in the present case. During the whole of the great excitement consequent upon the former, Southwark remained peaceful and quiet: the same tranquility and good order continued afterwards to reign; and the deportinent of its citizens of all classes. was most pacific and exemplary It is perfectly absurd to pretend that the least danger to the Romish Church (St. Philip Neri) could really have been apprehended. Yet under all of these circumstances of order and peace, this church is armed in open daylight, and the most formidable preparation for a deadly conflict made, with muskets, pistols, gunpowder, slugs, balls, &c. Twentyfour hours before this became generally known, one of the most respectable gentlemen of the district predicted, in conversation with us, what the result would be; and it could not but

have been foreseen by any one of ordinary sagacity. Was it designed to exasperate the populace, and to bring about the subsequent scenes of violence and bloodshed? Such is, so far as we have heard it expressed, the universal opinion of this community; and the least that can be said is, that there is just ground for the suspicion. We must not omit to add, that throughout all the tumult and desolation, not a single Romanist sustained the slightest injury in person or property. Yet their periodicals are ringing with the ridiculous charges of "persecution" and "anti-Catholic riots."

The following is from the Evangelical Repository published in Philadelphia. On the closing paragraph of the Editor, we remark, that it has been painfully apparent to us that there was throughout this unhappy affair rather too much fondness on the part of some of those concerned for "military" movements, and "military" executions. We believe in the lawfulness of capital punishments, indeed; but we would that our citizens in their moments of cool reflection, were more willing to suffer them to take place in obedience to law and justice, and less disposed in times of high excitement to advocate the execution of them, in the form shooting down even misguided citizens. The right to call out the military in extreme cases may be admitted; but in this country, under our popular institutions, if the law fails, we are gone, gone. But let the laws be faithfully executed: let great crimes be visited with great punishments---after a riot, let a rigid investigation be made, and no guilty man spared---then may we hope that the officers of the law will be a sufficient terror to evil doers. There will be fewer of these popular outbreaks, and less occasion for the government of the military. Has our young country become, in a day, so old, so hardened in crime? Does it teem with that class of men who can only be governed by brute force? If so we repeat it, we are gone; and the sooner our eyes are opened to our true situation, the better. But we hope not. But we must have done with that sickly sentamentalism---that false clemency to evil doers, which is cruelty to society.

PHILADELPHIA RIOTS AND MURDERS.

Our readers will find in the following paper the testimony of those who were appointed on the committee to search the church

of St. Philip de Neri. We have inserted this article because it contains, in a condensed form, the most important intelligence respecting the mournful events that were transpiring at the time that our last number was going to press. We might, however, state that the testimony which has been taken before the grand Jury goes to confirm the statement made in this paper.

It will be perceived from these statements, that upon the Romanists of this city rests the blood of our slaughtered citizens. They converted their mass house into a magazine and arsenal, when there was no reasonable ground to apprehend danger, and at a time, too, when the scenes of Kensington were fresh in the mind. The only reason alledged by priest Dunn for apprehending danger, was an anonymous letter, which it appears was written by one of the female teachers of his Sabbath school. This was the plea urged in defence of this bloody act, as foolish as it was wicked-foolish, because, had it been designed to destroy their house, of what avail would their de fence have been before an infuriated mob?—and wicked, because the means which they used were calculated to create the very thing which they professed a desire to prevent. It is impossible for us to persuade ourself that priest Dunn and his party could be so blinded as not to know that this community would never suffer any churches to be filled with arms and ammunition; and much less an Irish popish church. After the most

mature deliberation, we are forced to the conclusion that the whole affair was a plot preconceived for the special purpose of having our citizens killed by the bullets of the military. If this were not so, why were not all his men there ready for the engagement? No; having succeeded in turning the military upon the citizens, they are among the missing, with the exception of priest Dunn and one or two others, whose object appears to have been to conceal their arms, and, if possible, slay their enemies in the night. It seems that among the scores of the killed and wounded, there is not to be found one Romanist.

The opinion which we have here expressed, is, we believe, that of the great mass of our most respectable and intelligent citizens. The priest, we understand, has fled from the city.

Numerous companies of military are still quartered in the city. It is the almost universal opinion, that their presence is wholly unnecessary. If the other popish churches were searched, the citizens would be satisfied, and no farther violence need be apprehended. Those who compose the mob are few in number, and if unsustained by the community would be powerless. - ED.