can she be the representative of our race to Jehovah. The sacred historian does not say that her prayers and supplications in the upper room were more acceptable and efficacious than those of any other worshipper; and it is nowhere written or suggested in the inspired volume that she has greater power than other saints with God. If she hear any who pray to her, is she able to lend her attention to more than an individual at once? If she pray for human beings, can she give her advocacy to more than one case at a time? Whether she intercedes for us or not, the Bible says nothing about her doing so, and never directs us to seek her intercession. It is one of the proofs of the heavenly origin of the Scriptures, that they contain no such intimations. We look for much above reason, but nothing contrary to reason, in the teaching of divine revelation. It is a marvel that sane people can use such language as the following:-"We are to conclude that Mary, like the angels, may, and does in a still more distinct manner, see and know perfectly, in God, all our prayers." There is the previous difficulty to conclude that the angels have such knowledge. The supposition is absurd that every or any angel perceives the thoughts of every human being, nay, that any angel knows all the thoughts always of any single soul. There is one only God, and "there is no searching of His understanding."

"1

To regard the Virgin, however excellent, as more than a finite creature, is impossible; and to pay religious worship to a person not divine is useless and irrational. As the Lord said, she is a "woman." Before we pray to the good woman, let us find out what it is in her power to do for us, where she chances to be at the moment, if she can hear what we say, and whether any one else is

1 Melia.

engaging her attention. multitudes to succour, according to the Popish theory, and so many are crying to her in different countries at the same time, that there is but little possibility of her noticing our voice and meeting our wishes. Does she know all languages, or only Latin? How is it possible for a human. creature to perceive the wants and hear the supplications of all other human creatures? Dr Melia says, "It is certain that Mary hears our prayers and sees our wants, though," he has candour enough to add, "we do not know by what means." Dr Newman knows. Jesus tells her what prayers are offered to her, that she may offer them to Him! "Nor need she hear us by any innate power, or any personal gift; but by His manifestation to her of the prayers which we make her." But may her worshippers be sure that Jesus does manifest to her their prayers, especially when, as we shall be told, they go against His will and wrath? Would she not be dismayed and confused by the continual multitude of petitioners outside the door of her finite power and presence of understanding? Better not wait to secure. her good offices, lest we wait for nothing. The Roman Christian himself may depart this life, and be long among happy spirits, before she will see him, or he will distinguish Mary. It is a roundabout invention. Be not diverted from true prayer. Pray to Christ at once. Look and speak to the "one Mediator between God and men," Who beholds us now, and will observe us always. Go to the almighty and omnipresent Father, by the almighty and omnipresent Spirit, through our omnipresent and almighty Redeemer. As Mary does, worship God. Have her for your pattern, not your idol. To honour her is, through the grace from which she derives her excellence, to resemble her in lowliness, thoughtfulness, faith, obedience, patience,

She has in all the world such

P

prayerfulness and perseverance. She has a lofty seat among saints; but look far above her for the footstool of the Divine Saviour. Pain her not by worshipping her, as the brethren and sisters in the upper room would have done if they had fallen down to invoke and adore her; but, if she may know anything of you, please her, as they did, by humbly worshipping with her. Not permitted, and having no wish, to claim you as her votary, she is, as you must be, a servant of your and her Deliverer.

The last lesson Mary gives us is in the upper room. Not spoken by her lips, but by her disposition and acts, her parting words are these:-Wait with Christ's people. Do not expect from them too much attention. Cleave to them humbly for the ascended Master's sake. Be one with them by faith in the common Saviour. He has redeemed you all to God with His blood, promised all of you His Spirit, and commanded you all to pray. He is with you in your assemblies. To forsake His followers is to leave Him. To be among them without being of them is, so far as you are concerned, to drive Him away. Cease from earthliness. The upper room belongs to the Lord. Keep the world shut out. Let heathenism have no admission. Build no altars to creatures. Put no seat for an imaginary queen. Make no niches for idols. Let the temple be filled with Christ. Your system is lifeless, if He is not its Heart; your church worthless, if He is not its Head; your discipline useless, if He is not its Soul; your salvation unreal, if He is not its Rock. Invisibly present, He is also gloriously coming. "Christ, Who is our Life, shall appear." Persevere in faith and fellowship and worship, looking for His promise. "Continue in the grace of God," "praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.”

CHAPTER XV.

APOCRYPHAL STORIES.

"I marvel that ye are so soon removed from Him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ."-GAL. i. 6, 7.

HAVING looked at the portrait, we turn to pictures. Our examination of all the truth concerning the Virgin known to be truth will help us in estimating the changing caricatures of her encountered in the galleries of the Marian heresy. The superiority of the New Testament writings to others following them is a mark of their divine inspiration. Next to them in time, the productions of the Apostolic Fathers are far remote in character, being in language comparatively diffuse and feeble, containing fanciful interpretations of portions of the Old Testament, betraying in some instances ignorance of Hebrew laws and ceremonies, and complacently relating fictitious stories. As inferior to these treatises in truthfulness and style as they to the Canonical Scriptures, are the Apocryphal Gospels, Acts and Revelations. These were written considerably later than the last sentence penned by the long-lived Apostle John. The title given by Tatian to his work published in the middle of the second century, “DiaTessaron, or Harmony of the Four Gospels," implies either

that the other so-called gospels had not then appeared, or that whatever existed of them was rejected and ignored. If a small part of them crept into the light in the course of the second century, most were composed in the fourth and fifth; and additions, improvements, corrections, and adaptations have been freely made in them to suit convenience and taste down to recent centuries. They include, as do the Koran and the Book of Mormon, a measure of truth derived from the Old and New Testaments, and there may be in them a few real traditions; but it is impossible, excepting by comparison with the pages of the earlier Fathers, to distinguish their honest stories from their shameless inventions. Like flowers overwhelmed with noxious weeds, their truth is choked by falsehood. They lack coherence and consequence, offer absurd and trifling interpretations and applications of Scripture, give coarse legends in language not refined, and abound in mistakes, inconsistencies, and contradictions. Let any one try to write a harmony of them, and our experience testifies he will find them remarkably inharmonious. Greed to gratify the curiosity that would know more than Matthew and his co-evangelists tell us, especially concerning the early days of Jesus Christ and the connections and members of the holy family, was partially their origin. It is as if unscrupulous Jews, to meet popular demands, had variously supplied novels about Melchizedek or Jethro. With an air of simplicity, their authors seem also to betray a spirit of proud and envious scepticism. Are they not playing with the poor people in burlesque and satire, and not only in imitation ? Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith."

"As