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by prayer

and supplica

And what a prayer was

he set his face unto the Lord God to seek it tions with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes. then uttered! how appropriate; and how full of the spirit of a great, and humble, and pious heart. The burden of it is contained in the following lines: "O Lord our God, that hast brought thy people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and hast gotten thee renown as at this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly. O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain; because for our sins, and the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us. Now, therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake. O my God, incline thine ear and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations and the city which is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies. O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God, for thy city and thy people are called by thy name."

How, then, must the heart of this aged servant of the Most High have rejoiced, when about two years after this, Cyrus published his decree for the emancipation of Israel, the restoration of the sacred vessels of the house of the Lord, and the rebuilding of the temple! How grateful he must have been, when he heard that the altar was again erected, the legal sacrifices offered, and the foundations of the temple laid on mount Moriah.

But the next year he was again clothed in sackcloth. "In those days, I Daniel was mourning three full weeks. I ate no pleasant bread; neither came flesh nor wine into my mouth; neither did I anoint myself at all, till three whole weeks were fulfilled."

Why this change? In many things he had been disappointed. Only a small portion of the twelve tribes scattered throughout the empire, returned to Jerusalem. These were generally of the poorest class. The rich were unwilling to leave their possessions in Assyria and Babylon. The Samaritans, by their opposition and misrepresen tations, were greatly retarding the work. The revelations concerning the future were dark, mysterious, and in some respects ill-forboding. In answer to his pathetic prayer for the restoration of Jerusalem, Gabriel had informed him that the walls of the city would be built in times of great trouble; that in sixty-nine weeks from the decree of Artaxerxes to restore and to build Jerusalem, the Messiah would come, but would soon be cut off for the sins of others; that a foreign prince would come and again destroy the city and the sanctuary; that

SERIES IV.-VOL. VI.

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the war would be attended with great desolations; and that on account of various abominations, the land would be a desolation even until the consummation.

These, and probably other causes, deeply affected the heart of the prophet. He was now about ninety years of age; and on the very verge of Jordan. Like Moses, he desired to go up to the top of Nebo, and view the distant future, and especially to see more clearly the fortunes of his brethren according to the flesh. For this he seems to have prayed; for this he fasted; and on this account, an angel, clothed like the Son of God, as he appeared to John on the isle of Patmos, was sent from the court of Persia to meet him, as he meditated on the banks of the Tigris.

The scene is very impressive. It reminds us of the conversion of the great apostle on his way to Damascus. The attendants of the prophet fled to hide themselves, and Daniel himself was much impressed by the vision. But the angel addressed him in the most kind and compassionate manner. He assured him, that from the first day that he set his heart to understand and to chasten himself before God, his prayers were heard; that he had now come to make known to him the desires of his heart, the fortunes of his people in the latter days; that neither he nor his brethren were forgotten by the God of their fathers; that they were the objects of the most tender angelie and divine solicitude; that Michael and himself were the ambassadors of heaven in the court of Cyrus, to plead the cause of Israel, and to give them favor in the sight of their political masters.

He then related to him their future history, chiefly through that of other nations with which they would be politically associated, or on which they would be, in any manner, dependent. He spoke briefly of some of the principal kings of Persia; the conquests of Alexander; the wars and exploits of his succecsors, especially of the kings of Egypt and Syria; the invasion of the Romans; the fall of Jerusalem; the labors and fortunes of the primitive Christians; their deliverance by Constantine; the corruptions of Christianity; the reign of Antichrist; the wars of the Saracens; the conquests of the Turks; the fall of their empire; the subsequent troubles and conflicts of nations; the return of the Jews to Palestine; their conversion to Christianity, and their agency in evangelizing the world; the commencement of the millennial reign; and the safety and security of Daniel, notwith standing the wreck of thrones and the fall of empires.

On these we

These were the angel's themes. These are ours. propose to write a series of articles for the readers of the Harbinger. And to the investigation of these subjects, we, therefore, invite the earnest attention of all who desire to understand the past, the present, and the future. R. MILLIGAN.

JESUITISM AGAINST FREE POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS.

IMPORTANT DECLARATIONS.

ROME and free institutions are irreconcilable. This is the clear conviction of every one who has studied Rome in its deeds and in its doctrines; in both of these it has chosen its position of eternal hostility to every liberal idea, religious or political. History may have some exceptions, in the conduct of some Romanists, to record: these exceptions prove nothing, as they are so small in their manifestations and consequences, and so rare in occurrence; and as they are, above all, so utterly inconsequent and at variance with the whole history, avowed policies, and doetrines of Rome. The most perfect embodiment, however, and the ripest fruit of the great Apostasy, is Jesuitism. This order is the full spirit and genius of Romanism brought into its most complete, normal developments and boldest activity. It is the puissant, trusty arm, on which Rome leans in the greatest hour of need. This dark order, in its amazing ubiquity, and activity of devotion, has its machineries and representatives, open or secret, all over the civilized world, watching and working unwearied to a single end.

By its original and unchanged constitution; this order is under the absolute control of one man-the General of the Jesuits;-he is absolute, except, only, as he bows before the Pope; yet even in that direction, he has often made his power felt. Every Jesuit has, from the moment he takes the awful oath of fidelity to the order, resigned, absolutely, all will, all individual thought, all action, on his part, into the absolute hand of his General. He becomes as the statutes of the order declare it, ut cadaver as a corpse,—that is, all his own free life and being dies, and he becomes, in this respect, as a dead instrument perfectly passive in the hands of his Superior. He knows now no further duty, law, or obligation, than the will and command of his General; this is to him the only guide in all things. Whatever his Superior commands him to do, be it to assassinate Henry IV. of France, poison a Pope, or strive to subvert a government to which he has sworn allegiance, he regards it his highest duty to do it with good will and readiness.

To this order all means are sanctified that tend to the end in viewperjury and murder avowedly not excepted. We say avowedly; for it has so been avowed by them.

The order, so under the absolute control of, and embodied in onesingle head, has but one idea for its mission. This idea is, the abso

lute and entire subjugation of all to the Pope of Rome. It has, and claims no other mission; it never labors for any thing else, but its own glory in this total triumph of the idea of absolute Papacy. We say it aims at the subjugation of all to the Pope of Rome. This is what we mean: Its notion of the Papacy is not the moderate one of many of the better Romanist clergy and laity,-a mere spiritual control. Its beau ideal is the Papal idea of Hildebrand, the bringing of all things, religious and political, as of old, under the sceptre or foot of the Pope. The whole world at the feet of Rome's monarch, is the ideal of the hopes and labors of Jesuitism.

We have thus referred to the fact, that the Jesuit order all over the earth is under the control of one absolute head. We have an object in this; it is to impress upon the reader's mind that the ideas and aims of this order everywhere must necessarily be the same; in Europe and America, in Asia, in Africa, and the islands of the sea;-one genius alone guides, inspires, and controls it. What its principles and aims are in Italy, Spain, they are in England and the United States. These it will not everywhere, for policy's sake, avow; it will even deny them; for its laws of policy allow dissimulation, falsehood, perjury, any thing that will conduce to the end,-"to the greater glory of God," as it is termed. Its real ideas and aims are only to be undisguisedly seen in its statutes and constitution, in its standard unrestrained writings, its deeds, and finally in its avowals where it has nothing to fear, and where such avowals are only to its advantage. This latter point brings us immediately to the particular object of this article.

It is well known that the terrible lengths to which Jesuitism often pushed its machinations, made it not seldom obnoxious to the ill will of intensely Catholic governments, causing these to tremble for their political safety, and finally to expel the order from their borders. By the general solicitation of the Catholic powers once, the Pope was obliged to dissolve the order; though pressed by necessity, another Pope re constituted it again in our own age. There is not on earth a more absolute tyrant than the Bourbon King of the Two Sicilies, Ferdinand II. of Naples. Yet the intrigues of the Jesuits, and the demands of the people, momentarily free, caused the order to be expelled from the kingdom of Naples. As soon as the perjured assassin, Ferdinand, regained the full power of his tyranny, these Jesuits returned in triumph. It appears now that the preaching and teaching of this order, laboring constantly to inculcate the idea of the Pope's supremacy over all Kings and Potentates, has given offense to the Neapolitan government. Ferdinand's ideas of his own absolute authority over the bodies and souls of his subjects, are encountered by this ex

treme doctrine inculcated constantly by the Jesuits. A serions difficulty has consequently ensued between the government and the order. The director of the police, Signor Mazza, sometime since sent for Padre Giuseppe, the chief of the Jesuits in the Neapolitan dominions, and signified to him that his order, who had the public instruction in its hands, must cease to inculcate the obnoxious doctrine. The Minister of Police further advised Father Giuseppe to remember 1848; and that while they were then politely sent out of the kindom in coaches, if they persisted in this course, the government would this time send them out differently,-novi i caceremo a calci,' said the minister; that is, in plain terms, it would kick them out.

This was terrible news for Father Giuseppe. He hastened to his convent and immediately got up a protest, which was signed by all the Jesuits to whom it could be got in haste. This protestation was presented to the King; and two days after was published at Naples. We do not yet know how the matter terminated. The address, however, as a document of rare interest to Americans, we give from a French paper, soliciting for it a careful reading and reflection from the reader. Learn the mission of the Jesuit.

To his Royal Majesty Ferdinand II., King of the Two Sicilies:

ROYAL AND SACRED MAJESTY!-Sire! It is with much surprise that we learn that our sentiments are suspected on the subject of absolute monarchy. For this reason we believe it to be our duty to lay our views before you in this protestation. Majesty!-not only an ciently, but also very recently, from our establishment in 1821 until the present, we have always inculcated respect, love, and devotion to the King our Lord, to his government, and to the form of his government, that is, to absolute monarchy.

We have done this, not only from conviction, but also because the Rev. Doctors of our company, Francesca Suarez, Cardinal Bellarmine, and many other theologians and publicists of our order, have publicly taught that an absolute government is the best form of government,

We have done it, also, because the internal economy of our company is monarchical; and thus we are by maxim [principle] and by education, devoted to absolute monarchy, in which alone Catholicism can have a defense and a certain prosperity by the wisdom and zeal of a pious King.

Majesty!-the doctrine which we believe and maintain, namely, that absolute monarchy is the best government, is demonstrated by the damage we received in 1848. We were the victims of the liberals, because the liberals were then, and are now also, well persuaded that the Jesuits are the supports of absolute monarchy.

These matters, O Majesty! are well known; and the liberals would sooner believe that the sun could not rise to-morrow, than to admit that the Jesuits would favor them; therefore, also, every time that they attempt a revolution, their first object is to despoil the Jesuits.

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