It remained, however, for the name- | the pious multitude; fervour confounded all ranks and conditions; you might have thought the days of primitive zeal were returned, when the disciples met with one accord, and were one in heart and soul. take of the great Gregory, the late pope, to illustrate the unchanging powers of the miraculous portrait. Gregory XVI. was a special favourite of the Virgin. On the day of her annunciation in 1829, he obtained many votes in the conclave, then met to choose an occupant for the papal throne. On the feast of her purification in the following year, he was elected pope in the room of Pius VIII., whose reign was of ten months' duration only. On the day of the assumption of the mother of God, 1832, he issued his "immortal" encyclical letter, condemning bible societies; and on the 8th Sept. 1835, the day of the Virgin's nativity, he commenced the grand procession of her portrait to her honour, which averted the direful cholera from the eternal city, and caused its ravages to cease. The faithful were prepared for this great act of piety by a rescript of Cardinal Odescalchi, detailing the progress of the dreadful scourge. Even Rome had not escaped. She had betrayed, he said, the sacred cause committed to her; the holy name of God was blasphemed; the solemnities profaned; and vice marched with raised head in the very streets of the holy city. Yes; Rome had betrayed the cause of God and holiness. She had, therefore, been chastised. But Rome yet possessed a barrier to the plague, to which seas and mountains could not be compared. It was Mary. Let us have recourse to her aid. She opens to us the arms of mercy. Six of the principal churches dedicated to the Virgin, were opened for the devotions of the people. The numbers resorting thither to participate in the treasures of the church, the indulgences, of which the pontiff is the sovereign dispenser, soon necessitated the use of eight other temples dedicated to her honour The gates were besieged by The 8th of September was the day appointed for the procession to be formed, to carry the sacred portrait from its magnificent resting place to the church of St. Peter. Crowds of religious filled the basilica, where already was exposed, upon a litter in the form of a portable altar, the miraculous painting. The anthem, Holy Mary, succour the miserable, was chanted, prayer offered, and the procession began its march. Cardinals, bishops, soldiers, monks of innumerable orders, white and grey, cowled, barefooted, sleek, and holy, accompanied the virgin in her beneficent progress. Every street was crammed with numberless crowds, mingling with their recitations of the rosary hymns and prayers in honour of the mother of God. A tempestuous wind and a drenching rain, were unable to cool the ardour of the people. The Mother of Mercy, on this day of holy jubilation, received from her children striking proofs of their devotion; praises, blessings, and acts of thanksgiving, were laid in profusion at her feet. The procession at last reached the new church of St. Mary in Vallicella, and by a species of inspiration the holy portrait entered it. "In short, the litter, which served for the throne of Mary, entered this church triumphantly; as in ancient times the ark of the covenant entered into the house of Obed-edom. It was placed under the cupola. In an instant the altars were illuminated; the acclamations of the people and the sound of the organ rent the air; and the litanies of the holy Virgin were chanted." For eight days the sacred deposit rested there, each day being occupied in offering masses, prayers, and sermons, to satisfy the "pious avidity" of the multitude who thronged the church. Plenary indulgences were granted by the sovereign pontiff to all who visited the shrine: and he himself came to render his respect to Mary, and to edify the people by his presence. Images of wax and bouquets of choicest flowers were profusely offered, and Mary received the homage of the people in the midst of lighted torches and garlands of flowers. On the 15th of September, the procession was re-formed, and attended by the pope and his cardinals the sacred painting was brought to St. Peter's. During the ten days it reposed in the church of the prince of the apostles, similar services were kept on foot. The zeal of the faithful knew no bounds, and three confraternities each day proceeded to lay their homage before the virgin. At last, on the 24th of September, after invocations, veiled with clouds of incense, the sacred portrait proceeded on its return to its ancient abode, with similar acclamations and attendants. For seven days it rested in the superb Church of Jesus, illuminated and splendidly decorated. On the 30th it reached St. Mary Major, amid the enthusiastic shouts of the people. The ceremonies closed on the day of the solemnity of the rosary, when, after the chanting of the litanies, the intonation of the Te Deum, and prayer for the pope, the officiating cardinal gave the benediction with a relic of the holy Virgin. idolatries of Rome,-not written by the pen of an enemy, but by a loving and admiring child; showing that, whatever may be her theoretic denial of participating in the abominations of the heathen hero-worship, the honouring, serving, or bowing down before other gods than Jehovah is the unquestionable practice of her highest dignitaries, yea, of the pretended vicar of Christ himself. Nor less dreadful are the lying legends by which the people are led astray; nor less illustrative of the blasphemous and antichristian character of popery the ascriptions of divine majesty and power given to the virgin, as the following prayer to be "recited before the miraculous portrait" will show. "August Queen of Peace; I salute you, most holy mother of God. By the sacred heart of Jesus, your Son, the Prince of Peace, appease his anger, that he may still reign over us in peace. Remember, O most pious Virgin Mary, that it has never been said that you have abandoned whosoever has sought your protection. I come to you, animated by a like confidence. Be pleased, O mother of the Word, not to reject my prayer; but show yourself propitious, and hear me, O pious, O clement, O tender Virgin Mary.” Popery is truly unchanged. Rome is still the parent of superstition. And if such scenes of fraud, such lying legends, such blasphemous prayers, are not prominent features of her presence here, it is only because she fears and flees the light of truth-the knowledge Such is an authentic narrative of the and presence of the word of God. CHRIST PURIFYING THE TEMPLE. A SERMON DELIVERED AT MAZE POND, SEPT. 12, 1802, BY THE LATE REV. JAMES DORE. "And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up." -GOSPEL BY JOHN ii, 17. MEMORY, like every other power of | Its exercise is intimately connected with the mind, has been injured by the fall. that of all the others; and in conse quence of the depraved state of our hearts we have cause to lament the imperfection of its exercise, peculiarly with reference to religious concerns, that while other things are retained those are very easily lost. God has graciously furnished us with various means whereby to stir up our pure minds by way of remembrance. The Holy Spirit is given to bring to our remembrance the things of Christ, and we see this exemplified in the experience of the disciples, for they remembered that it was written, "The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up." So John, no doubt, called to mind all the prophecies respecting Jesus Christ when he received the message, "Go and tell John what things ye have seen and heard: how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and to the poor the gospel is preached," he would immediately compare the account which his disciples brought him with the prophecies, and no more doubt that he was the Christ than if he had in word declared at once, "I am he." Four things will engage our attention: -the action of our Saviour, the prophecy of this action,—the remembrance of this prophecy,-and the occasion of its remembrance. The circumstances are themselves remarkably interesting. We cannot pass by the fact that the Saviour taught us by his example the importance of attending the public services of religion. We are told that the Jewish passover was at hand, and he went up to Jerusalem. The first place in which we find him is the temple. "He found in the temple those that sold oxen, and sheep, and doves, and the changers of money sitting and when he had made a scourge of small cords he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overthrew the tables, and said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence, make not my Father's house a house of merchandise." The Saviour never drove any into the temple, but we find him driving these individuals out; and he did it by means of the very cords they had themselves provided for fastening the cattle. Thus, as Matthew Henry remarks, the sinner prepares the scourges with which divine justice will visit him. Oh that sinners would reflect upon this before it is too late to seek for mercy! It is surely a remarkable circumstance that the Saviour, unassisted, should engage in such a work, and that no one should offer the least resistance. Does not this show that the sinner's own conscience is the reformer's best friend? "The word of the Lord is a hammer and a file." "The wicked flee when no man pursueth." The wicked man is always in fear; but why should that man be afraid who is conscious of the goodness of his cause, and who feels himself to be a worker together with God? There is, however, something peculiar in this instance, for it displays the power and the majesty of our Lord Jesus Christ. We cannot help calling to mind that which we read in the close of this gospel. The Saviour was in the garden when the soldiers entered to seize him: he was poor and defenceless; but when he came forward and announced, "I am he," they went back and fell to the ground. Here we see him expelling those who were polluting the temple without the assistance of a single friend, or the resistance of a single enemy, though those whom he expelled had a common interest in opposing him; for their property was in danger, though they must have had the connivance of the Jewish rulers, without which they could not have been permitted to profane the temple: though he had no acknowledged authority or office among them he drove these men before him, and they yielded without the slightest worldly advantage or profit. Secondly, resistance. Surely we cannot explain when worshippers appear in the sancthese circumstances without believing tuary with their minds filled with that a commanding dignity and an over-worldly cares and business, of which whelming glory must have appeared in the they have taken little or no pains to character and the person of the Saviour, divest themselves. Such were the such as to confound his adversaries. hearers of Ezekiel. << They come unto And, my dear hearers, if such was his me," saith God by the prophet, "as my power and his glory in the days of his people cometh, and they sit as my humiliation, what will they be when he people sit, but their hearts go after comes in the clouds of heaven? If his their covetousness." Such were the woranger was so tremendous when furnished shippers in the days of Amos, who said, only with a scourge of small cords, what "When will the new moon be gone that I will it be when he is revealed from we may sell corn, and the sabbath that heaven in flaming fire, with all his we may set forth wheat, making the mighty angels, taking vengeance on ephah small and the shekel large, and those who know not God and obey not falsifying the balances by deceit." My the gospel of his Son? dear friends, remember that He who purified the temple of old is here; he discriminates the heart of each; he knows all our principles; he weighs all our motives; and if he was so offended when he found buyers and sellers in his Father's temple, what must he think of those who, living under the clear light of the gospel, profane the house of God by bringing into it, if I may so say, their oxen and their sheep? The action appears to be marked with great severity. We are ready to ask, Is this the Prince of peace? Is this he who said, "Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart?" Is this he of whom it was prophesied that he should come down like the rain on mown grass? Yes; it is he who gave his back to the smiters, and his cheek to him that plucked off the hairs. It is he who went about doing good; who forbade his disciples commanding fire to come down from heaven to consume the Samaritans. But there are times when it becomes the Saviour to display his anger, and the most dreadful expectation we can form as to future punishment is conveyed by the representation that it is "the wrath of the Lamb." What makes those eyes which have always beamed with compassion to flash upon his enemies? It is that his holy temple is profaned: the place of devo-bered that it was written, The zeal of tion is made a place of infamous merchandise; the house of his Father is polluted. But let us ask, Has this never been the case since that period? Yes; this crime is repeated when the offices of religion are performed, or attendance is given in the house of God merely for Secondly, this action of the Saviour was the subject of prophecy. The prophecy is contained in the sixty-ninth Psalm, at the ninth verse :-"The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up, and the reproach of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me." The apostle, in the fifteenth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, at the third verse, applies the latter part of the verse to the Saviour as the disciples here apply the former. "Then the disciples remem thine house hath eaten me up." My brethren, all the excellences and all the graces found in the Old Testament saints are to be found also in their Lord. In them they were separate; in Him they were united. In them they were imperfect; in Him they were complete. Various were the characters raised up in succession in the Jewish | Does our zeal for the house of God conchurch to typify the Messiah. Perhaps sume our other desires, or, on the conthere was no type so full as that of trary, do not a thousand other things David. Now, there was nothing more eat up our zeal for the house of God remarkable in David than his warm and the service of God? Let us propose attachment to the house of God. Wit- these questions to our own hearts, and ness his resolution to build a house for endeavour, as in the presence of God, to God. Witness his earnest concern to ascertain how matters stand in these enjoy the privilege of attending the respects. sanctuary. "One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord for ever." Witness his regret when he was deprived of the privilege. "When I remember these things I pour out my soul in me, for I had gone with the multitude: I went with them to the house of God with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holy day." But all this was more than realized and surpassed in the Messiah; and the words have far superior glory when applied to the Son of David, David's Lord, "The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up." Let us inquire, Do we resemble our Saviour in this? Are we like-minded with him? Can we say, "I have loved the habitation of thy house and the place where thine honour dwelleth?" Can we say, "A day in thy courts is better than a thousand: I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness?" Do we avail ourselves of all opportunities of appearing there, not merely on the sabbath, when a sense of decency prevents our attending to the common business of life, but at other seasons also? Is our loss of those opportunities, when it occurs, a source of distress to us? Are we willing to deny ourselves in order to maintain the house of our God? Do we deplore the little efficacy of the gospel as dispensed there, and rejoice when it is increased? Are we warmly attached to the saints of God who assemble there, and the Saviour whose presence is enjoyed there? Thirdly, the disciples remembered this language of David and applied it to the Messiah. From this we learn the advantage of being, like the disciples, well versed in scripture, so that it may easily recur to the mind as we require it for use. Joshua, in the name of the Lord, gave an injunction to the Israelites:-"This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that I have written therein; for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success ;" and the apostle, in addressing the Colossians, says, "Let the word of God dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord." How many instances are there in which the importance of our being well versed in the scriptures is seen! If we are Christians we shall say with David, “I hate vain thoughts." Where is there any method of excluding them to be compared with this? for this will furnish us with a succession and variety of subjects of reflection and meditation. Our minds being pre-occupied, no room will be left for the intrusion of other subjects, which would be injurious. Acquaintance with the scriptures will also tend to preserve from temptations. They arise from various causes, and continually present themselves. They arise in relation to our trials as well as our mercies, and unless we are watchful we shall be overcome by them. How im |