my profession, my oath, compelled me to sanction it; and I did sanction it. The Lay Sister retired to New York, put on her female dress, and during some months following, acted as a chambermaid in several of the wealthiest Protestant families in that city. A few weeks after she obtained from me this character, the Rev. Mr. -, (I will give his name in full if necessary), President of the Jesuit College in Stonyhurst, to which I have alluded, and where this demon, now in petticoats, was a Lay Sister, called on me in Philadelphia. We were old acquaintances, he being Vice-President of the College of Maynooth for about twelve months.

"The misunderstanding between myself and the acting Superior of the Diocese of Pensylvania had just commenced, and my friend, the JESUIT, thought it his duty to call upon me. He hoped that I would abandon my schismatic course,-I was not then a heretic,-and cease to circulate the Bible among the people. He never alluded to the Lay Sister during our whole conversation, though he was the very man who caused her to be sent out to this country, and the one who first procured her the situation of Lay Sister at Stonyhurst. Both were relatives, and both natives of Dublin, in Ireland."*

Such is the agency which Rome employs in furthering her iniquitous conspiracy against the civil and religious liberties of mankind. The writer of this account was formerly pastor of St. Mary's Church, Philadelphia, in the United States. He appears, by the testimony of a number of his congregation, to have been a man of good character, a popular preacher, and a diligent instructor of the young in the faith of his Church. His zeal and good conduct were felt by his ghostly brethren as a reproach to them; the Bishop became jealous of his popularity, and accordingly deposed him, and deprived him of his living. He is now in the law.

In our next number we shall give an account of a LAY BROTHER who assumed a Female dress, and his awful disclosures.

"Auricular Confession and Popish Nunneries." By William Hogan, formerly Roman Catholic Priest. London: Dyer. Page 97, 100-107.

THE

CERTAINTY OF

CHRISTIANITY AGAINST

PAGAN AND PAPAL UNCERTAINTY.

"It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to WRITE unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, that thou mightest know the CERTAINTY of those things wherein thou hast been instructed."—Luke I., 3, 4.

"Have not I WRITTEN to thee excellent things in counsels and knowledge, that I might make thee know the CERTAINTY of the words of truth, that thou mightest answer the words of truth to them that send unto thee ?"-Proverbs XXII., 20, 21.

"I had some conversation with Manick, a Brahmin, who was baptized on the 16th of December. He had been for some time employed by different Missionaries. I asked him What he had seen in Christianity which led him to embrace it ?' He replied, 'In the Hindoo poorams and shasters there is NO CERTAINTY : one asserts one thing-another, another; but here is a clear way.'- In what way in particular ?' 'More especially in the way of worshipping GOD: in other systems a variety of ceremonies and rites must be observed; in this it is required only to pray to GOD alone. What have you learned to pray for ?' Daily I pray for pardon of sin, for this I daily require.'—'What do you understand by sin?' 'Whatever is not according to God's command.' He then, in answer, repeated briefly the substance of the Ten Commandments; and said that every one must labour to fulfil them to the utmost of his power, though no one could do it perfectly."— Corrie's Life of the Bishop of Madras, p. 405.

What is POPERY, but a system of contradiction and uncertainty; Council against Council; Pope against Pope; Creed against Creed; Father against Father. And what is its "way of worshipping GOD?" A system of posture and imposture, position and imposition, muttering words which few can hear, and using a language which the people cannot understand; a gross compound of idolatry, superstition, and vice, with gods and goddesses innumerable.

SISTERS OF PENANCE OF ST. DOMINIC.

In the Tablet, for 5th Dec., 1846, the following notice, respecting this body of Petticoat Missionaries, appeared, taken, professedly, from the Worcester Herald :-" BRISTOL.-For some time past, six Sisters of Mercy, living in a small house in Pritchard-Street, St. Paul's, have exerted themselves successfully amongst the poor of this city; encouraged by their success, they have lately removed to Harford-House, Dighton-Street, where they have trebled in number by fresh arrivals from Belgium. We hear also that the Sisters of Penance of St. Dominic, whose labours embrace the whole works of mercy, corporal and spiritual,' are about to settle in another portion of this city.'" Worcester Herald.

They have arrived, and settled themselves in a house, No. 19, Queen-Square.

In the Tablet, for the 6th Feb., 1847, is the following notice :"BRISTOL.-On Tuesday, four young ladies received the Novice's Veil, as Sisters of Penance, of the order of St. Dominic, at Bristol, at the hand of the Right Rev. Bishop Ullathorne, with the usual ceremonies. On the return to the Church of the young ladies, in the dress of the Novitiate, they were accompanied by a procession of about twenty young ladies, clothed in white, crowned with garlands, and each bearing a lighted taper, who officiated as bridesmaids.”Gloucester Journal.

CEREMONY OF TAKING THE VEIL..

A THREE-PENNY PEEPSHOW AT ST. MARY'S THEATRE, ON THE QUAY, BRISTOL.

On Tuesday last the ceremony of "taking the veil" was performed at the Roman Catholic Chapel of St. Mary's, on the Quay, in this city. The young lady, whose name we have not been able to learn, was, we understand, born of Protestant parents, and came to Bristol with the sisters forming the "Order of Penance," recently established in King

square. She is, we have been informed, convert of Dr. Ullathorne's, the Roman Catholic Bishop.

The chapel was nearly filled with people, the majority of whom, from their apparent ignorance of the mode of worship, were Protestants, attracted by the novelty of the ceremony, and who were not deterred by the price of admission !!!—threepence and sixpence. The candles upon and near the altar were tastefully decorated with flowers.

Shortly after ten o'clock in the morning, the hour at which the service was appointed to commence, a youth in a long black coat lighted the candles upon the "altar," (twelve in number,) and perfumed the front of the "altar" with incense. This done, a procession of priests, including the celebrant Bishop, Dr. Ullathorne, issued from a door on the right of the altar. The Bishop was conducted to his throne by the Revs. Messrs. Vaughan and Cullinan, and Mr. Edward Edmund Estcourt, the Bishop's Secretary, who also acted as Master of the Ceremonies. The Bishop having been clad in a rich robe, wearing his mitre and bearing his jewelled crozier, proceeded to the altar, which he purified (we suppose) by sprinkling it with holy water. About this period a door at the right of the altar was opened, and the Postulant young lady, attended by several "Sisters of Penance" and accompanied by two bridesmaids, novices, and about 14 young ladies, beautifully clad in white, with crowns of flowers and bearing lighted tapers, entered the chapel and arranged themselves in front of the altar. Some chanting was then performed by the choir (led by the Rev. P. O'Farrell), and a portion of the service proper to the occasion performed, when the celebrant Bishop addressed the young lady, who had (according to her own declaration, which she signed) of her own free will, and without persuasion or force, sought for admittance into the holy profession of religion. The Bishop founded his remarks upon the 116th Psalm,* a canticle, he observed, particularly applicable to her case; dwelling chiefly on the following verses :- "I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits towards me. I will take the chalice of salvation; and will call upon the name of the Lord. I will

*Psalm CXV. in the Douay Version. It will be well if the ladies have not too much cause to sing the first and second verses.

pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all His people, in the courts of the Lord's house, in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem." The Bishop, in the course of his address, observed "that it had been his duty to watch by the side of the Postulant, and to administer to her the extreme unction and the grace of God; he was the first to break unto her the body of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; he had afterwards admitted her to the holy rite of confirmation, and it was now his consolation to receive her into the holy profession of religion, and henceforth she would be praising God day and night.(?) The angels in heaven were described as praising God day and night, and in her case it might be said that she had begun the pleasures of heaven upon earth. He trusted that as it had been his privilege thus far to bring her on her way, that he might be situated in some humble corner among the happy number who would receive her into heaven."

The ceremony was then proceeded with. It is almost impossible for us to describe the different movements made by the priests; suffice it to say that the Bishop robed and unrobed several times, and repeatedly walked to and fro from the altar to his throne. The Postulant, "Sisters of Penance," bridesmaids, and the assistant bridesmaids, proceeded towards the altar, and care was taken that the grouping of them should be done in an artistical manner; the effect, to say the least, was certainly picturesque. The Postulant lay down in front of the altar, and was covered with a black velvet pall with a crimson border; after remaining some minutes in this posture (to signify, we presume, her death to this world), she rose up, and was presented with the black veil by the Bishop, who put a ring upon her finger, signifying her marriage to Christ and his Church, and gave her a crucifix, which she is constantly to wear upon her heart. The Postulant then signed her declaration, which was sealed; the Bishop, Priests, Nuns, Postulant, Bridesmaids; &c., formed themselves into procession and left the church by the door on the right of the altar, the choir chaunting Veni Creator.

Thus ended a ceremony, which, with all our respect for sacred observances and free toleration, we cannot otherwise view than as an exhibition of mummery, which one can only regret has been revived in England in the nineteenth century, amidst the boasted advance of intellect and the clearer light of evangelical truth.