war. I have seen no animosity, but fraternal love, in the conduct of the priests of both sides. I have seen the same kind offices rendered without distinction to Catholic soldiers of the North and South. The very opposite with Protestant chaplains and soldiers.'

"What conclusion did you draw from this ?-these Catholics are not Freemasons,' said the Bishop.

"Well,' replied the doctor, I drew this from it-that there must be some wonderful unity in Catholicity which nothing can destroy, not even the passions of war.'

"A very right inference,' was the Bishop's rejoinder.” (p. 475.)

So too, about a lawyer of Louisiana, who had been imprisoned in Fort Warren, Boston Harbour, for sympathizing with the Confederates, and had in vain appealed to some on whom he had most relied, we read :—

"They-the friends of his youth-came not; but an Irish priest did. Attracted to the prisoner by feelings of compassion, he comforted and consoled him, and assisted him to the utmost of his means and influence. That lawyer learned to love the Church of which that priest was a worthy minister; and his own words may throw light on his conversion, which took place soon after:- Looking back upon the war, I see that the Protestants of the North were charitable to their own side, and that the Protestants of the South were very charitable to their side; but the Catholics are the only body of Christians who practised charity for its own sake, irrespective of politics, and who did so even when it was unpopular, if not dangerous for them to do so."" (p. 486.)

It is not until the reader has accomplished twenty-nine chapters very lively and full of information, notwithstanding the couleur de rose which sheds its hue over everything "Irish in America," that he comes to the real end of the book, in the last chapter. "More than one motive" (the author had told us, and caused the words to appear in capitals in the first sentence of the Preface)" influenced me in the desire to visit America, and record the results of my impressions in a published form."

If

The Author acknowledged to himself that he should thereby find a natural outlet to his views of the "feelings of the Irish in America towards England;" the causes of which he confidently assigns, and proposes "the only possible remedy." In no obscure manner does Mr. Maguire discover that he is a hearty sympathizer with Irish irritation, though not with "American" (or, we may suppose, Irish) Fenianism. the sting of the whole book has been reserved by the author for this last chapter, so in the chapter itself it is sharpened out in the last three pages which, read by his fellow countrymen in Ireland, cannot fail to inflame minds, already dangerously excited, to a greater degree of heat, if not of hate, towards England and her Government.

The facts, or what are asserted to be such, in Mr. Maguire's

book may be all true, his statistics and his figures correct, while yet the general complexion of the narrative may be (we suspect that it is) too highly coloured. This, however, is certain, that an ordinary reader would think that the Irish enjoyed the monopoly, if not of all the moral virtues, of all the religion, in America. We do not forget that it was in search of the Irish, and of none other, that the author took the trip; and we can therefore quite understand that, on landing, his eye would light first upon his own loved countrymen. But they seem to have filled his vision all through. An uninstructed foreigner, who should take up "The Irish in America," would, when he came to the end, be left with the impression that, instead of being emphatically the country of free trade in religion, the whole produce of America in things spiritual was due to Roman Catholic Bishops and Clergy, and Sisters of Mercy; and that all the great charitable institutions were established by Catholics: whereas we know that the Protestant Episcopal Church includes a large body of able and diligent ministers, while the other Protestant congregations, collectively taken, amount to a large number; and that in connection with. each of these two sections are found collegiate, scholastic, missionary, and benevolent institutions, almost innumerable.

"Sed nunc non erat his locus,"

Mr. Maguire would reply. But, then, his book presents no true picture of what is being done in religion and charity in America, and Who do it. Mr. Maguire lies spell-bound at the feet of Rome. To promote her interests, he brings forth her decoy ducks, the Sisters of Charity, and tells their stories, of course, as they tell them of themselves.

ON THE SUPERNATURAL:-PROPHECIES: MIRACLES.

THERE is no surer token of a partisan and inequitable spirit in controversy, than a resort to the practice of cutting an argument into portions, for the purpose of overcoming it in detail. An honest searcher after truth will always ask, "What is the most that can be said for any doctrine? Where shall I find the largest, the most comprehensive view of the case; so as to be enabled to estimate its whole weight and value?" But a controversialist who strives for a foregone conclusion will, in most cases, sever an argument into shreds; and will then gain the useless victory of appearing to demolish each portion by itself; when, if taken unitedly, an honest inquirer might be forced to admit, that their collective force was irresistible.

A notable instance of this kind was seen in the well-known Essays and Reviews. The subject was parcelled out among several writers. One undertook to depreciate and weaken the force of most of the prophecies of Scripture, so as to reach at last the conclusion, that though "some passages may be doubtful, one perhaps in Zechariah, and one in Isaiah, capable of being made directly Messianic, and a chapter in Deuteronomy foreshadowing the fall of Jerusalem; even these few cases tend to melt, if they are not already melted, in the crucible of searching inquiry."* Another addressed himself to the ques tion of Miracles; and boldly asserted, that "in nature and from nature, by science and by reason, we neither have nor can have any evidence of a Deity working miracles." And hence, that "if miracles were, in the estimation of a former age, among the chief supports of Christianity, they are at present among the main difficulties and hindrances to its acceptance."+

Now, it would be a waste of time to follow these writers into the sort of argument touching "prophecies" and "miracles" in which they have indulged: an argument which aims solely at "getting rid" of inconvenient facts by tearing them piecemeal. The real object at which these writers are aiming, is identical with that of Theodore Parker: to clear away all belief in the Supernatural, and to leave us only a " Rational Christianity." And we meet them, at the very threshold, by a plain assertion, that the Bible is a history of the Supernatural, a theology built on the Supernatural; and that the man who endeavours to purge out all supernaturalism from that book, would act more frankly and more reasonably, if he cast it aside altogether. A late writer, who in some respects sympathizes with the Essays and Reviews, has acknowledged this of the later books of the Bible;-truly observing that, "on the whole, miracles play so important a part in Christ's scheme, that any theory which would represent them as due entirely to the imagination of his followers or of a later age, destroys the credi bility of the documents, not partially but wholly, and leaves Christ a personage as mythical as Hercules."+

Every single page in the opening book of the Bible is full of supernatural facts, or else of absurd fables. What do these writers hold concerning the Fall of Man? If they disbelieve the fact, they disregard not only the statements of Moses, but the traditions of the human race in every quarter of the world. And when they see, all over the world, lying, stealing, ravishing, murdering, constantly going on, do they suppose that a bene volent and wise Creator made man with such a nature? When they observe their favourite race, the Greeks, actually perishing from off the face of the earth by the natural operation of

Essays and Reviews, p. 82. + Ibid. pp. 168, 170. Ecce Homo, p. 43.

sins which God bad forbidden, how do they account for such a destruction, if the Fall of Man is to be disbelieved? So, again, of the Deluge,-they find the tradition of that fact, as a Divine Judgment, in all lands. What was it, if not supernatural?

Proceeding onwards through the books of Moses, we find, at every step, God appearing, speaking, acting, guiding, directing. Are all these supernatural appearances fables? If half of them are to be disbelieved, upon what ground can the remaining ones be credited? Yet if we erase all these narratives from the Bible, how much shall we have remaining? In short, how childish is the whole proceeding. If the Supernatural is to be rejected, nothing properly called Christian will remain ;-we may as reasonably call ourselves Buddhists as Christians.

But some one may reply, "No, I do not go that length. I cannot make up my mind to reject the whole Mosaic history. I think that, in the earlier days of the human race, God must have spoken, acted, and in some visible or audible way made himself known."

A man who does not believe as much as this, is a self-deceiver if he adopts the name of Christian at. all, or if he troubles himself at all about the Bible. But supposing him to believe, as the author of Ecce Homo believes, that a good deal of the Bible is true, and that miracles are not to be entirely rejected, then we have some common ground on which it may be possible to carry on an argument. And, first of all, we advance the fact, that, for thousands of years before his actual appearance, a Messiah, a Saviour, a Christ was promised, and was expected by the whole Jewish nation.

Abraham was chosen of God to be His "friend," (James ii. 23,) and to him God said, "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." (Gen. xxii. 18.) Here was a promise which looked a long time forward. "All the nations of the earth" could not be blessed in Isaac, or in Jacob, or in Jacob's sons. This was the promise to which Christ himself referred, when he said, "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it (in faith) and was glad." (John viii. 56.)

But how should the seed, or children, of a Syrian chieftain be recognized 2000 or 4000 years after? Where are the seed, or children, of Nimrod, or Nebuchadnezzar, or of Cyrus, or of Alexander? Where are the descendants of Cecrops, or of Romulus, or of the Pharaohs? All have vanished; and of one family alone can it be said that we certainly know them. We cannot behold a Jew in this sixth millennium of the earth, without being able to say, "There is a descendant of Abraham; that man sprang from one of the twelve sons of Jacob." The promise was given, we know, almost 4000 years ago, and its fulfilment, in the preservation of a "seed of Abraham" up to

this hour, is a fact within every man's personal knowledge. But it is a supernatural fact; it is a fact not usual or common, but the reverse. Nor is it an unimportant feature of the case, that, having been first given to Abraham, the promise is repeated to Isaac (Gen. xxvi. 4) and to Jacob (Gen. xxviii. 14), and in enlarged terms, distinctly shewing that its fulfilment was then in the far-distant future.

A particular family of mankind had thus been singled out as the channel through which blessings should flow to man, and that family has, we know, been visibly and wondrously preserved for almost four thousand years. But a further foreshadowing was, by degrees, to be vouchsafed. Eight hundred years after the days of Abraham, another prophet-prince was given to the nation which had sprung from Abraham, and to David it was evidently shewn that the promised "seed of Abraham" should appear in his (David's) line. In his last prayer, he looks forward to a son, or descendant, of whom it may be said, "All kings shall fall down before him; all nations shall serve him." "His name shall endure for ever; his name shall be continued as long as the sun; and men shall be blessed in him; all nations shall call him blessed." (Ps. lxxii. 11, 17.) And hence, reading these and other passages in the Psalms as a prophecy, when the Jews were asked by Jesus, "What think ye of Christ? whose son is he?-they answered, The son of David." Thus, a thousand years before the days of Augustus and of Herod, the plain predictions of Scripture had taught the Jews to look for a Messiah, "of the seed of Abraham, and of the family of David." Again, nearly twelve hundred years after the time of Abraham, and seven or eight centuries before the birth of Christ, another prophet, Isaiah, is enabled to give many outlines and descriptions of the promised blessing. In his eleventh chapter he denotes the line of David as that in which the Deliverer shall appear, and gives some glowing descriptions of the blessedness arising from his appearing (ch. xi. 1-4, 9, 10). Just before, he had described the coming Deliverer as being none other than "the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace" (ch. ix. 6). But in a later chapter, the fifty-third, he adds some lineaments to the prophecy, which, until explained in the life of Christ, must have been very perplexing. For this "servant" of the Lord is pourtrayed in humiliation: "despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief." "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all" (ver. 5, 6). "He hath poured out