Slocum next dwelt much on the expression of St. Paul already quoted.

"Thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation. Wise unto salvation! Dear Popish brethren! again I ask you most impressively, What more do we require than to be made wise unto salvation? The Scriptures, we are here informed, are sufficient to accomplish this purpose; and, therefore, the teachings of what you call the Church' are totally unnecessary."

Whereupon Mary thus commented:

"If Mr. Slocum's argument be good for any thing, it totally upsets the New Testament. For Timothy, from his childhood, had only the Old; not one line of the New being then written. Yet St. Paul assures him, that the Scriptures which he knew from his childhood—namely, the Old Testament-were able to make him wise unto salvation. Upon Mr. Slocum's principle, then, we might hereupon ask, What more do we require than to be made wise unto salvation? But Saint Paul tells Timothy that the Old Testament is sufficient to accomplish this purpose; and, therefore, the New is totally unnecessary!!! The argument is just as good against the New Testament as it is against the authority of the Catholic Church; we may, therefore, dismiss it altogether as a Protestant absurdity."

Slocum's next "Reason" was drawn from the praise bestowed on the Bereans (Acts, xvii. 11).

"These were more noble than those of Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, ‘and searched the Scriptures daily whether those things were so.'

Here," remarked Slocum, "we distinctly see that the inspired Evangelist praises the Bereans for exercising their private judgment on the Scriptures, in order to test the truth of the doctrines taught by Paul.”

Upon which Miss O'Hara thus commented:-

"The Bereans are justly praised. But, let it be noted, that they did not act upon Protestant principles. For we are told, that in the first place, they received the word (as orally preached by St. Paul) with all readiness of mind : and THEN, in the second place, when they had so received it, they searched the Scriptures to look at the proofs to which we are informed (in verse 2) that St. Paul had directed their notice. Now this is precisely the reverse of the process which a thoroughgoing Protestant would use. Instead of in the first place receiving any doctrine with all readiness of mind from any person's preaching, a thorough paced Protestant would have first searched the Scriptures whether those things were so;' and then he would have either adopted or rejected the doctrine, according as he fancied it was sanctioned or unsanctioned by Scripture. Far different from this Protestant process was the ready docility of the Bereans!"

Slocum thought his text afforded such powerful support to the "divine right of private judgment," that he dwelt upon it in the following

terms:

"Mark well, my Romish brethren, what the Holy Evangelist tells us. They searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so. Now, this implies doubt, and the exercise of private interpretation to remove that doubt

and what is the blessed consequence? Hear the Evange

list: Therefore many of them believed.'"

Mary's comment ran thus :—

"Fallacious reasoning: firstly, because doubt cannot have existed among those who had already 'received the word with all readiness of mind;' and,

Secondly, because even supposing they had entertained doubts, the holy evangelist cannot possibly have approved of those doubts. How could he approve of men for doubting the word of St. Paul, or for doubting the divinity of the Messiah whom St. Paul announced, or for making their reception or rejection of their Saviour contingent on the private conceptions they might happen to form of the meaning of Scripture? I need scarcely remark, then, that any argument in favour of private judgment, which assumes the propriety of a process, which the evangelist must have condemned, is abundantly worthless. Let it also be noted, that the doctrine propounded by St. Paul, was one respecting which no controversy can ever arise among Christians; it was the fact, that Christ had really suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that the Jesus whom St. Paul announced, was the veritable Christ. The Protestant argument, then, when stripped of its tinsel, stands thus: The Bereans are praised, in point of fact, for their ready reception of the preaching of St. Paul, and of the exposition of Scripture orally propounded by the same infallible interpreter, on a certain question which never can arise among Christians. Therefore, (0! what an exquisitely logical inference!) therefore every ignorant Protestant ploughman, rejecting all notion of an infallible expositor, is entitled to exercise his blundering judgment on the Scriptures, respecting those knotty and difficult controversies, which have divided and perplexed the Christian world!"

Slocum's third "Reason" was founded on the fact, that when Our Lord was tempted by the Devil, He confounded the tempter by thrice quoting the written Word of God; saying "Ir IS WRITTEN," &c. Mary's reply was as follows:

"Christ, the infallible God-man, quotes, and stands ready to expound that Scripture which he himself, as God, inspired: and, therefore, according to Mr. Slocum, every illiterate tinker or cobbler possesses a divine right to exercise his cramped, uninstructed, and incompetent judgment on the Bible!"

Slocum's next text was from Isaiah, xxxiv. 16.

"Seek ye out of the book of the Lord, and read.' Aye! let all men read that; and let them make their own religion out of it."

Mary thus replied :—

"Seek ye out of the book of the Lord, and read.' Read what? Why a list of wild beasts of the desert, the owls, and the vultures, that shall breed among the dilapidated habitations of the wicked; and, therefore, (according to the sagacious Mr. Slocum) every ignorant hind is divinely authorized to pronounce upon the meaning of Scripture! What a logical inference!"

Slocum proceeded to quote Christ's words,―

"Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye eternal life, and they are they that testify of me."

Mary's commentary was simple :

have

"The passage may, with equal grammatical propriety,

and closer accordance with the context, be translated thus: "Ye search the Scriptures.' Our friends cannot, therefore, extract from it any positive command in behalf either of private judgment or of anything else."

As Howard continued to read, the darkening sky reminded him that if he did not wish to be too late for vespers, he must not linger in the dwelling of Mary. He accordingly mounted his steed, and took the direction of the monastery. On reaching it, he entered the porter's hall, where he found Shane Mahony and his friend Peter Kelly, who had just arrived with the purpose of attending vespers; for which, however, they were unfortunately too late.

It was impossible for any lover of pure ecclesiastical Gothic architecture to stand for a minute in that fine old hall, without feeling his admiration and interest warmly excited. Its roof was groined, and embellished with substantial dropwork, massive, but not rich; and, therefore, perhaps more in character with the purpose to which the chamber was applied. Each compart ment of the groined ceiling was adorned with the arms of the monastery, carved in freestone,