portion of Scripture to the people: and this method possesses, in my opinion, two advantages over what are now termed sermons-discourses grounded on single texts.

"In the first place, the preacher will be compelled to consider passages of Scripture in connexion with the context, and with reference to their whole scope and intention, and be less likely to fall into the too common error, of wresting them to meanings which never entered the contemplation of the writer. In the next, a large portion of the preacher's address will necessarily consist of the language of Scripture; and how highly soever we may be disposed to estimate the productions of our own talent and labour, we may be assured that the language of Scripture is more acceptable and more edifying to the majority of our congregations, than the finest bursts of human eloquence, or the most skilfully conducted trains of reasoning. It is the language with which their ears are most familiar, and which finds, in consequence, the readiest access to their understandings and their hearts. Let it not, however, be supposed that I wish the practice of grounding discourses upon single texts to fall into disuse. I deem it, on the contrary, the most convenient mode of explaining the nature and obligation of moral duties, to the enforcement of which a large share of the Christian minister's attention ought always to be directed. But the running comment on Scripture, the homily of the ancient Church, while it affords him an opportunity of blending the doctrines with the moral precepts of the Gospel, prevents him from dwelling so long upon any one point as to become wearisome to his hearers."-Charge, 1828, p. 17-19. Penrose's Explanatory Lectures on St. Matthew, Preface, pp. iii., iv.

That some such expedient as is above recommended, is greatly needed, to attract the people to more regular attendance on public wor→ ship, is apparent from the lamentable thinness of many congregations on Sunday afternoons-an irregularity and indifference which it is to be hoped would yield (as Dr. Paley found it to do) to skilful efforts on the part of their ministers to awaken their interest.

In the present day, the prevalence of the Tractarian controversy, and the too exclusive attention of many clergymen to inculcate the authority of the Church, and the other extreme views of the Tracts, must have an inevitable tendency to obscure the clear-sightedness with which a calm and impartial mind would read, interpret, and enforce the universal volume of holy Scripture; to induce a one-sidedness unfavourable to the declaration of "all the council of God," and the "right division of the word of truth;" and to engender a tedium and indifference in the hearers, whose attention the faithful exhibition of Scripture truth, in its multiform applications and varied phases, would rivet and occupy. In reference to this subject, the following remarks of a profound writer are well deserving of notice :-"That there must be a way of setting forth the scheme revealed in holy Scripture agreeably to such persuasion, so as to convey real, spiritual, and undisguised truth, without either suppressing or exaggerating peculiar doctrines beyond their just proportion, as vital, yet still relative parts of a consistent whole-this also must be certain, how few soever may attain to it. Nevertheless that, as things are, all do not follow the most excellent way, cannot

admit of doubt either. We cannot be following the best way either of teaching or of learning, so long as party differences are suffered to break down respectively the fences of forbearance and of duty; and an almost exclusive attention to special points of controverted doctrine usurps that first place in our contemplations, and in our affections too, which ought to be devoted to the whole revelation of divine mercy—to universal Christianity.

"By which expression of universal Christianity,' I do not mean Christianity divested of its mysteries, or peculiar doctrines, or precepts, to render it a vapid object of universal acceptation, or rather nonresistance-God forbid! But entire Christianity-that one continuous dispensation of divine mercy, which is the subject of both Testaments -which, as the method of restoring fallen man to his Maker's favour, is adapted to the state and nature of man; which, therefore, to study at the fountain head and in its continuity, must needs instruct us best in the mode of administering its truths to others, since it will best teach us to know ourselves."- Miller's Bampton Lectures, Lect. i, Pp. 21, 22.

A detached suggestion may be added, viz., whether ministers of the Gospel sufficiently urge arguments from natural reason (where this can with propriety and reverence be done), in support of the various points embraced in their instructions; whether, for instance, eternal life is sufficiently set forth as a thing infinitely desirable-i.e., whether sufficient attempts are made to show it to be so, not only from Scripture, but from reason, as being designed by God to be the perfection of that happiness of which we are capable-the only good which God, the giver of all good in which we rejoice, has pronounced deserving of our highest regard, &c.; and to convince those who are insensible to its excellence, that though they cannot now feel its attractions, they may acquire the requisite capacity by prayer for divine aid, and by cultivating the higher powers and nobler aspirations of their nature. May, 1843.

ROMANIST IMPOSITIONS AT YOUGHAL;

OR, THE REVIVAL OF POPISH MIRACLES.*

J. M.

THE work before us contains a very full and particular documentary account of an instance of that strange impiety which has lately been enacted at Youghal, in Ireland.

At, or previous to the beginning of 1843, it was rumoured that certain inmates of the asylum (at Youghal) were the subjects of miraculous visitations; the popular version at first being, that a female in the asylum died every Friday, and rose again every Sunday. This, however, was not the true version of the story. The following is quoted from the Tablet (Roman Catholic newspaper), and may be more safely relied upon :

"The Estatica of Youghal compared with the Wonders of the Tyrol; in a Letter to the Right Hon. the Earl of Shrewsbury." By the Rev. John Aldworth, Rector of Youghal, Ireland. Dalton, Cockspur-street.

"The miraculous virgins (Magdalene included) of Youghal are three in number. The principal show-girl is a relation of Father Foley, the president of the asylum: her name is Mary Roche, a virtuous girl, were it not for her little impieties in this singular case. The second

is a relapsed Magdalene, who is shown indeed, but makes much less show than her virtuous sister. The third is of a more retiring disposition, and, being equally favoured internally with the others, has made it her prayer to Almighty God that he would be pleased not to make his favours public by any external marks. To do justice to this girl's common sense, her prayer has been most punctually attended to, and the Almighty has heard her prayer in this particular. The great sight, however, is the first of the three: she is marked with the stigmata on her hands and feet, and is dotted over her body with other stigmata, and with miraculous representations of a sacred heart, and of a seraph with six wings. She is supposed to go through, in a tolerably continuous state of extasy, or contemplative rapture, the stages of our Lord's passion, &c., from Thursday night till-we believe-Sunday morning. On Thursday night and Friday morning, when our Lord's hands are supposed to be bound, her hands are miraculously bound together, without cords; and when our Saviour is supposed to be loosed again, her hands are loosed, and her wrists bear the miraculous impression of cords, as if they had been so fastened."

Such is the description of the pretended miracle given in the Tablet, Roman Catholic newspaper. "The Very Rev. John Foley, the President of St. Mary's Catholic College for Foreign Missions all over the world," and "selected by the bishop of the diocese to direct a pious community of nuns in Youghal," was either the dupe of these girls, or else was a partner in the imposture. He protests, in the strongest possible terms, to the truth of the miracle.

"I consent (says he) that if it can be found out that any cheat, deception, roguery, or villany whatever, be practised in this asylum, let, I say, every man in the surrounding parishes come and level every stone in the castle with the ground, and put an end to its existence for evermore. It is now sufficiently proved by ME that there is no such imposition. My testimony ought to be preferable to the testimony of the man who got only two peeps at the humbug. It rests now with the bishop of the diocese, or with those whom he shall depute, to examine if there be fraud, impiety, or hypocrisy here."-Father Foley's Letter, Youghal, Feb. 1, 1843.

Another priest has, in like manner, published his testimony to the truth of the pretended miracle. "Cir Aubert, P.R., O.M., T.M., D.D., lately Professor of Divinity at Marseilles, but then an inmate of St. Mary's Missionary College at Youghal."

"I think (says he) that MY testimony will be free from the objection of being hearsay evidence, and nobody can refuse to admit what my eyes have witnessed. I must tell you that I am qualified better than any other to attest these facts, by my residence at the college of the Rev. Mr. Foley. Several times have I seen the punctures of the crown of thorns, the stigmata of the hands and feet, and the blood flowing fro them in a manner which could happen neither by nature

nor by art."-Cir Aubert's Letter, St. Mary's College, Youghal, Jan. 31, 1843.

And more than this, Father Foley says:-" I have written to the bishop of this diocese, and invited his lordship to come and see what I have witnessed; I have written to the court of Rome, and given a fair statement of the Estatica at Youghal."-Father Foley's Letter, Feb. 1, 1843.

Thus was the foundation laid for the future canonization of the two nuns at Youghal. No doubt Father Foley contemplated with much selfcongratulation the future glories of his asylum. Doubtless he had pictured to himself the consistorial advocate in the Papal court at Rome, giving a long and particular account of the life and miracles of his dear relative, Mary Roche. No doubt he had often been favoured with extatic visions, in which he beheld the long train of patriarchs, archbishops, bishops, prothonotaries, and auditors of the rota, and train-bearers dressed in purple, all met in consistory to decide, by the plurality of the voices of the prelates, whether Mary Roche should be made a saint, and be worshipped as an intercessor. And doubtless the flattering tale had a fair prospect of being realized; for if Father Foley could have kept off over-busy eyes for a time, he might have said that this virtuous girl had been again restored to an ordinary mortal; and so she might have ended her days in peace, and, when fifty years had elapsed after her death (which time is required to elapse before she could be canonized), the written testimony in the letters of Father Foley and Cir Aubert to the holiness of her life, and the sincerity of her faith, and eminency in working miracles, must have obtained her a place in the calendar.

But so it was, that the Protestants of Youghal were so determined to get at the truth, that it became absolutely necessary to allow some investigation to take place. Accordingly, three Romanists were introduced to the Youglial asylum-two of them priests, and the third a layman (F. Lucas, Esq., the editor of the Tablet newspaper). They soon discovered, that instead of the blood flowing spontaneously from the forehead, as was pretended, it was smeared on by the fingers; and when the fingers were examined, it was found that the tips of the fingers had been punctured with needles. It would exceed our limits to give a lengthened detail of the discovery of the fraud. The whole has been described in the Tablet in an article headed, "The Diabolical Imposture at Youghal," and has been reprinted from the Tablet in the Tract now before us.

The editor of the Tablet was (it appears) strongly remonstrated with in presuming to exercise his private judgment, as a layman, in the investigation and exposure of frauds sanctioned and approved by two Roman Catholic priests. The editor thus defends himself :-" Observe the position of this affair. We three visitors had been-so Father Foley told us-appealed to by heaven itself, which worked a miracle to remove our individual incredulity. We had, without a tittle of provocation, been publicly denounced by Father Foley as scandalous for our incredulity. We saw a Catholic priest publicly appealing to the press and the public, and offering to prove upon oath the truth of his

miracles. We saw this clergyman taken at his word by his Protestant neighbours, who tax his miracles with fraud, and openly challenge him. to a rigorous and impartial investigation. Will any man tell us that we had so much as an option to keep silence under these circumstances, when we were in possession of facts known to no others but ourselves, and almost proving to demonstration the existence of the grossest and most abominable deception? Leave the matter to the bishop! Leave the matter to the proper authorities!—that is, leave to the bishop the odium of entering upon an investigation to which he has been dared by the malignants around him, with the positive certainty that the investigation will lead to a detection, and the detection be made the foundation of every species of calumny against the bishop and the proper authorities to boot. Leave the matter to the bishop! Would to God it had been left to the bishop. We did not meddle nor make in the affair until it had first of all been deliberately taken from the bishop, handed over to the public at large, and at length a formal appeal made by the clergyman himself to the press,' and the judgment of an enlightened public. We beg respectfully to reply to those who blame us for interfering, that we have no apology for so doing, but rather humbly conceive that we have done good service to the Church."

At length the case was referred to the bishop; and on the 2nd and 3rd of March a commission, composed of several Roman Catholic priests and medical gentlemen, examined into the affair; and this commission decided that the whole was an imposture.

And what was the result? Why a simple announcement from the altar of the Romish chapel at Youghal, that it was found to be No MIRACLE;—no denunciation of the cheat, the lic, the imposture, the blasphemy; but simply-"It is no miracle." The arch impostor, Father Foley, has no mark of Church censure passed upon him: he still remains President of his College, and the members have been cautioned from the altar against committing sin by speaking on the subject. And now may we not ask our readers, are these pretended miracles of Mary Roche one whit more incredible than those which have actually obtained the sanction of the Roman Church, and which every devotee of her communion prays daily he may have grace

to beli eve

"Grant! O God, that we may humbly receive and securely hold fast all those truths which Thou hast revealed, and thy Church has proposed to our belief."-Garden of the Soul, p. 334.

Let us but compare them with the miracles recorded in the Bullarium, in the decree for the canonization of St. Rose, for instance, as the miracles on which her claims to be canonized were admitted, and to the truth of which the infallibility of the Roman Church is pledged.

Rose was born in May, 1586, at Lima, in Peru. She is said to have been favoured with sundry revelations of Jesus Christ. She had frequent visions of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary. She was scen to hold familiar intercourse with Jesus Christ; and when her spouse (Jesus Christ) did not appear to her at the accustomed hour, she admitted an angel (who was always visibly present as her guardian) into her most intimate confidence (ut pura mira aut veredurisem). But