PRESENT DUTY. Ye Protestants of England. Your enemies insidious, Are spread throughout the land, And all your strength is needed, Their efforts to withstand. Their aim who would divide you, In vain upon the breakers, Their gleam the stern-lights fling When on the rocks beneath them, The ship is shivering. Rise to your solemn duty, By prayer to courage braced, Rise, rally round your charter, May not your mutual contests, Then put away the Achan, So 'gainst whate'er assailants, Will prove omnipotent. J. D. H. SCRIPTURE READER'S JOURNAL. Monday, December the 30th, 1850. I visited several Roman Catholics in the neighbourhood of Bermondsey New Road, who received me very kindly, and paid good attention to the word I read and explained. I called on Cornelius Caghlan, the man I mentioned in my Journal, whom the priest of Webb Street Chapel sent his visitor to, with a lie in her mouth, and offering to collect money in all parts for him if he would return to his old system again, and have no more to do with Methodists and Protestants, but send for the priest and become a Roman Catholic as he was before. I read to him and his family several portions of Scripture, that I believe will be profitable to him. When I had done reading and expounding the word, he said, "My friend, I must tell you that the priest from Webb Street Roman Catholic Chapel was with me last Friday night, just as we were about going to bed." I asked him what time was that, he said, "between ten and eleven o'clock at night.' I asked what did a priest want here, at that hour, or what did he say? he (Caghlan) said: "My mother and my two sisters came in and sat down, and very soon after the priest came in, accompanied by a very decent man, each having a small bottle in his hand, one containing I believe, wine or some sort of red liquor, and in the other was holy water. When the priest came in, he said, 'Does Mr. Caghlan live here.' I said, 'I do, Sir;' he (the priest) then said, 'Have you any holy water in the house, for the devil is in this room, and I am come to turn him out of it before I leave here, so that there will be peace and happiness in this house and in the neighbourhood, when I get the devil out.' I then said to the priest, 'We want no holy water here, but the blood of Jesus Christ is the holy water I want, for it will cleanse me from my sins and make me holy and happy for ever, and that is what your holy water cannot do.' He (the priest) then said, 'I believe in the blood of Christ too, but it will not do, for it must have other things to help it, good works.' I told him that faith will produce those good works, as a tree produces good fruit. He (the priest) then took the bottle that had the holy water in it, and pouring it on his hand, he sprinkled it all over the whole room, and on my mother and sisters; he then came to put some of it on my head, but I said, 'No, for if I want my head washed, I have got plenty of good fresh water in the butt, and it is better than that water you spoilt by putting salt in it.' He then lifted up his hand to throw the water on my head, but I covered my head with the quilt which he wet very much with the holy water. I then told my wife to call in a policeman that I might give the priest in charge, but my sister turned the key in the door, and my wife could not get out. The priest then said, 'Come now, confess your sins to me, and I promise you that they will be all forgiven you before I leave this room.' I told him I would confess my sins to God and not to man, for it is God only that can forgive me my sins, and not a priest nor any other man, and that I will prove it in an instant.' I then told my wife to hand me the Bible from the cupboard; the priest put the bottle on the form and clapped both his hands together, and said, 'That is the lad I came to turn out, that is the lad, the devil I want out of here; I must have him out and then there will be happiness and peace of mind in this house and among the neighbours. My sister also stood up in a great rage, and said, 'As soon as I see it I will tear it in pieces.' I then said to my wife, Leave the Bible where it is, for as it frightens them it is better not to shew it to them. The priest bent all his fingers on both hands like grappling irons, and said: 'Come, we must leave him with him, that has his crooks fast in him, and I am sorry that there is not a scraper at the door.' He then raised up his foot, knee high, and scraped his shoe against the door, when he was doing that wicked deed, the other man pulled the priest's leg away, to prevent him doing such a thing. This was on Friday night, by the Roman Catholic priest of Webb Street Chapel, Bermondsey, December the 27th, 1850. When I heard all this, I took from my pocket "The Glories of Mary," and I read a few pages, particularly the two ladders, one red and one white, to shew him how Roman Catholics trust more in the Virgin Mary and holy water than they do in Christ and his blood. While I was reading to Caghlan his landlord came in, and ordered him to quit the room, for he would have no more visitors, nor prayers, nor preaching in his houses, and that Caghlan should leave this week, for the neighbours would not have him among them. This appears to be another scheme of the priests to break up the prayer meeting he has opened in his room, as Father Kyne has done to my meeting in Angel Court, Long Acre, and he opened a school in my room, that continued only for three weeks, when a fever raged in the place and cut off all my enemies and persecutors, as it says in the 37th Psalm; and so it came to pass, and I saw it, for they were all cut off, and I am left to plead the cause of God my Saviour. This week I visited sixty-two Roman Catholic families, in the various courts and streets in Bermondsey, and out of the sixty-two I was only allowed to read in eight rooms. Jan. 14, 1851.-A Lecture was delivered in the St. George's National School room, Borough Road, Southwark, by the Rev. W. Clementson, Rector of Kimberley, Notts, Admiral V. Harcourt in the Chair. The place, which is large, was well filled with a very attentive auditory; the subject was the "Idolatry of the Church of Rome." The very able manner in which the Lecturer handled the subject, shewed that he was well versed in the controversy. The arguments against the worship of saints, the Virgin Mary, and the Cross, were most conclusive, whilst with great earnestness he implored the Romanists who were present, to read for themselves the Word of God, to come out from an idolatrous Church, and to seek to worship God in spirit and in truth. Tracts were distributed at the door. Mr. Clementson also preached to large congregations at Ewell and Epsom, with collections for the Society. THE BRITISH PROTESTANT. No. LXXV. MARCH, 1851. REFORMATION SOCIETY MEETINGS. (From the Edinburgh Advertiser, Jan. 31, 1851.) MEETINGS IN THE MUSIC HALL. The first of a series of Meetings of the friends of the Society for Promoting the Religious Principles of the Reformation was held in the Music Hall, on Tuesday, the 18th inst., at half-past twelve o'clock, on which occasion the Rev. Dr. Cumming, of London, and the Rev. R. P. Blakeney, Incumbent of Ison Green, Notts., were announced to attend as a deputation for the purpose of giving interesting and important information on the character and pretensions of the Church of Rome. On the platform, besides the reverend gentlemen, were→→→ Drs. Muir, Hunter, Paul, Glover, Arnott, and Innes ; Rev. Messrs. Nisbet, Smith, Bonar, M'Fie, W. Gray, and Boyd (Edinburgh), Graham (Newhaven), Muir (Dalmeny), Playfair (Abercorn), Tait (Kirkliston), Bell (Haddington), and Colvin (Cramond); Rev. Messrs. Ferguson and Coventry (Episcopal Church); H. J. Robertson, Esq., Sheriff of Renfrewshire; Professor Balfour; A. Pringle, Esq., of Whytbank; George Ross, Esq., Advocate; Andrew Tawse, Esq, W.S.; W. Young, Esq., W.S.; R. B. Maconochie, Esq.; Alexander Douglas, Esq., W.S.; W. B. Campbell, Esq.; John Hope, Esq., W.S.; John Macfie, Esq.; John M'Farlan, Esq.; Wm. Low, Esq.; John Macrae, Esq.; Charles Spence, Esq., S.S.C.; Claud Muirhead, Esq.; Captain Field, Dr. MacRitchie, &c. The hall was crowded in every part by a large and influential audience. D |