seldom be fearful to those who behold him as a messenger sent from a reconciled God to convey them to an eternity of happiness; and as such did Norah contemplate his approach. According as her mortal lamp waned towards extinction, even so the brightness of immortality dawned with clearer radiance upon her happy spirit, until at length it burst its bonds, and fled to its Father's home.

Two days after her removal, my mother and I stood within the venerable walls of the old Abbey of Moyne. The cold blasts of early spring pierced our frames, but we heeded not, for they conveyed to our ears the wild funeral cry of lamentation for Norah. We soon perceived the blue cloaks and white caps of the female part of the procession, and a few moments after, the whole crowd came in sight. It proceeded very rapidly, almost at a running pace, and frequently the mourners turned round as if to watch some object in pursuit. The cry ceased as the procession advanced still more rapidly, and we heard a voice from the gate exclaim, 'Never heed, boys, ye're time enough. Tim Doolan's berrin is a long way off yet.'

While my mother led me up the stairs of the belfry, in order to escape the crowd, I asked why the Glencarra people seemed so anxious to outstrip the other funeral.

'The poor creatures believe,' she replied, 'that the person last interred in a church-yard is obliged to attend all those who have been buried in the same locality, and must constantly supply them with water, while they are enduring purgatorial torments. The Morans are naturally anxious to spare Norah so wearisome an office, which they now believe will devolve upon Tim Doolan. They little think what a different

career our happy Norah has entered upon, where her only employments will be the service and praises of her God.

Norah had expressed her wishes that a Protestant minister should perform her last rites, but her family would not accede to the proposal. She was therefore interred, like most of our poor, without any funeral service whatever, for the expenses of her wake left her poor relatives without means to purchase a mass, even at the low rate of seven shillings and sixpence; they were therefore obliged to content themselves, according to custom, with placing in her coffin some clay which had been blessed by Father Barret. The burial was soon concluded, and as soon as the people dispersed, after having repeated prayers over their respective friends' graves, we descended from the belfry and returned to the carriage.

It was at my earnest entreaty that my mother had permitted me to witness this scene, and, in after years, the contrast enabled me to value more highly the beautiful service which our church has provided for the dead.

On the following market-day, Mrs. Moran purchased two pairs of shoes of the size which had suited her deceased daughter. These she gave away in charity, thereby, as she fancied, enabling the ghost of Norah to perform its nightly wanderings, unhurt by rough roads or thorny paths. The mind of the bereaved mother was as yet enwrapped in darkness; it could not be expected that superstitions which had enthralled her from infancy to mature age, should at once loose their bonds, and leave her unshackled.

Some evenings afterwards my father visited the cottage, and after speaking for some time in commendatory terms of its late inmate, he wished to turn the footsteps

of her parents into the path which she had trod, and after some introduction, enquired from her mother, 'On what did her hopes of reaching heaven rest?'

'Shure, and then, yer honour, afther I lave purgatory, I'll go and wait outside the door of heaven, and shure I wont be long there before my little boy Kieran 'ill see me, and he'll open the door for his own mother quick enough.'

'And do you also depend upon little Kieran's opening the door for you?' asked my father, turning to Moran.

'Oh no, yer honour, shure a gossoon could only open for the mother, and I've no little girl there before me, young enough to lift the latch for me, but shure I'll be anointed by the priest, an' when Christ sees the mark of the oil on me, he'll let me in.'

While my father set before the poor couple the way of life, I could not help reflecting on what I have sometimes heard, that if a Romanist acts up to what he believes, he is as likely to be saved as if he knew the truth! Then, if he believes that clay and oil will save him, and applies that clay and oil, he will be saved. Strange doctrine truly, and one that scarcely harmonizes with the doctrine of the Almighty Saviour, "No man cometh to the Father, but by me."

GLEANINGS.

SPEECH-MAKING has become so much in vogue, and the calls upon our pious orators are so many, the topics on which they are expected to descant so few, that it is quite refreshing to mark the rousing, animating effect produced on them, by being called on to plead, not a novel cause, but the most ancient in existence; not on new grounds, but on a foundation older than the foundation of the world. The cause is that of brotherly love; its groundwork and argument, that "God so loved us."

At the recent Conference in Exeter Hall, some very striking, beautiful, and original things were said, of which we purpose selecting a few, merely as specimens of the delightful whole, and in proof of our remark, the Chairman, Mr. Bevan, adverting to the injunction not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, said,—

'I conceive that the not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, refers especially to such a union of Christians, and that it refers not merely to public worship, for whereas public worship as at present conducted is not for the sake of provoking one another to love and good works, but to hear the Gospel, and to pray together, I conceive, that the "assembling of ourselves together," indicated in the Epistles, is just such a meeting as we hope to hold; and it is worthy of remark, that the Greek word there used for " assembling of yourselves together," is used, I believe, only in

one other place in the New Testament, and that is where the Apostle Paul, in 2 Thess. ii., says, "Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him," &c., intimating, I think, to those who hope to be of that blessed number who shall be gathered to him at his coming, that they ought visibly to unite together on the earth. I think also that this union will be exceedingly useful as being a practical protest against the errors of the day. It will brave the reproach which violent persons of either side seek to cast upon those who are of a Catholic spirit. The clergy will have to brave the reproach, that joining with Dissenters is just as bad as joining with Popery; and some Dissenters, perhaps, will have to bear the reproach from some of their brethren, who will say that Episcopacy is nothing better than slightly modified Popery. Again, it will be a practical testimony in the face of the whole world of the power of the Gospel, and to the fact that there is a common ground beyond that of mere party spirit. It will, also, I trust, be a rallying-point in those times of trouble which may yet try the Church; and it will at least facilitate and go much to cement that perfect union which shall be brought about when that which is perfect shall have come, and that which is in part shall be done away.'

The Rev. Dr. Leifchild, who has been an eminently active instrument in this blessed work, remarked that'They already began to feel the blessed effects of that association. They had come to an understanding with one another; and in proportion they lost their shyness and distrust and jealousy, and learned "to esteem one another very highly in love for the truth's sake." They would not speak harshly of any who refused to join