natural feelings," returned Katherine, "were it but true! but until that be proved, I shall be contented to pray for myself, feeling the deepest sense of my coldness, my wanderings, my utter unworthiness to be heard, but still trusting to Him, who is touched by my infirmities, and who will never reject the prayer of a sinner. 'Nothing in my hand I bring, Let me hide myself in Thee. " "Katherine," said Geraldine earnestly, "you have witnessed this evening how Christ our adorable Lord and Master, is the life, the hope, the centre, of Catholic worship; the well-known and beautiful hymn you have just repeated, does not convey this more than the one we first heard in the chapel : and what could surpass, or even equal, that contrite Litany?" : "It was beautiful," said Katherine, "I have told you so already, and it required no additional prayer to the Virgin for when we have the privilege of access to the Father through the all-sufficient merits. of the Son, why trust to, or care for, such inferior assistance as that of the prayers of saints and angels ?-When Christ maketh intercession for us, what need we more?" "Then why do you pray?" said Geraldine; "what can your poor thoughts and words avail, when He, who is at once God, to grant, and Man, to plead, prays for you? Do you not, by the very act of prayer, suppose an insufficiency in the intercession of Christ ?" Katherine paused, and at length said,-"Certainly, were we to trust to our own reason on the subject, we should fear to intrude our imperfect and often guilty petitions on the throne of grace. We should, as you say, deem it an acknowledgment that the intercession of our High Priest was not all-sufficient and shrink from the blasphemous conclusion. But we are not authorised in trusting to our weak judgment on this or on any subject, where the Bible calls on us simply to obey. We are told, it is true, that Christ maketh continual intercession for us, which, indeed, seems all-sufficient: but we are also told to pray always,' doubtless to keep us in continual mindfulness of our dependance on God for all things." "Then, your objection to the intercessory prayers of our deceased brethren whom we believe to have been raised to glory, arises not, after all, from the usual plea, that they are unnecessary, if not presumptuous, when Christ our intercessor is sufficient for us, but from the belief that you are a far greater favourite with God than the 'just made perfect,' and that the supplications of that pure creature, whom the Holy Ghost thrice pronounced Blessed,' the chosen Mother of your God, are held as nought, compared with those of Katherine Graham!" "You are severe, Geraldine," replied Miss Graham. "No, Katherine, I only want you to perceive, that prejudice, and not reason, makes you reject the prayers of others, from a dread of encroaching on the intercession of Christ, when you do not dread this with your own prayers. You must therefore, suppose a greater efficacy to attend the latter; but why?" "Why, because," replied Katherine, "the Bible commands one, and says not one word about the other." "Pardon me," replied Geraldine, "the Bible says a great deal, both plainly and by implication, respecting our prayers for each other: for instance, the great apostle, who was favoured with the assurance of being a vessel of Election, yet disdained not to entreat the prayers of the Church at Rome."* "Ah!" said Katherine, hastily, "they were his brethren still in the flesh, there was no superstition to be dreaded there." "Then," said Geraldine, smiling, "the benefit or danger of intercessory prayer, after all, depends on our body of corruption, our frail and perishable flesh; so that mind may commune with mind, spirit sympathize with spirit, so long as both are encumbered with matter; but directly that one of the two is freed from these fetters, all commune and sympathy must stop, as superstitious, and dangerous, and derogatory to the perfect mediation of Christ!" Katherine Graham, not having, as usual, an answer to give, was grave and silent, and, on arriving at the Hall, the friends parted. *Romans, chap. xv. verse 30. 18* CHAPTER XVII. If stubborn Greek refuse to be his friend, COWPER. A FEW days after this Sunday evening's excursion, which, notwithstanding all her precautions, had not been effected with all the secrecy she supposed Geraldine again sought Mr. Everard, informing him that she was in a fresh controversial difficulty, and had come to him, as usual, for assistance. "I must first tell you, my dear sir," said she smiling, "that I wrote, some time ago, what I consider a very able essay, to prove, from Scripture and from history, that the Papacy was not antichrist. This paper, in the exultation of my heart, I showed to my uncle, a day or two before he went away, and what think you he said?" "He said that you had wasted your time," replied Mr. Everard. "Exactly so! His reply was, 'What sensible Protestant ever said that the Pope or Papacy was antichrist? Your essay is well enough, but a victory over shadows is but a poor feat. You must not judge of the Protestant cause by the folly of some of its members. Protestants, as well as Papists, may sometimes write or say foolish things; but you must go to the learned and accredited Fathers of the English Church for your Protestant ism, not at all those modern writers and speakers, who soon get beyond their depth in argument, and endanger the cause they pretend to support!" "Well!" said Mr. Everard," and why does the good sense and candour of this reply cause you any difficulty?" "Because this very good sense and candour are completely at variance with the authorities to which he bids me listen. Just come to this table, on which I have collected all the books to which he refers me, and have marked the passages which treat of the subject in question. Look here," added she, opening an old volume containing the writings of Bishop Jewel,-" Thus we have seen who shall be antichrist, and in what Church he shall be: that he shall be a bishop, and shall be stalled or placed in Rome.' "Then again," said Geraldine,-"The Man of Sin, and his errors, are revealed: men see and know, and detest the blindness wherein they were led the people forsake him over and over the world. Antichrist shall sit in Peter's chair, and Rome shall be the seat of his kingdom.' "Now then for the Homily,-So that laity and clergy, learned and unlearned, all ages, and sects, and degrees of men, women, and children, of whole Christendom, a horrible and most dreadful thing to think, have been at once drowned in abominable idolatry, of all other vices the most detested of God, and most damnable to man, and that by the space of eight hundred years and more!'" "Well done Homily," cried Mr. Everard; "and here I see you have opened its title-deed in the thirty-fifth article of the Church of England.” "The second book of Homilies, the several titles whereof we have joined under this article, doth contain a godly and wholesome doctrine, and necessary for these times, as doth the former book |