then tabulates a series of questions in reference to lust so disgusting that I cannot transcribe them. "The Young Catholic's Guide directs the penitent thus: "If you find any difficulty in acknowledging any sins, or any similar fault, tell your confessor that you feel this difficulty; ask him to assist you, and then answer his questions with candour and simplicity." The natural modesty of the female sex is thus subdued; and though the young lady's cheek blushes scarlet, aud big drops of perspiration thickly cluster upon her marble forehead, and tears bedim her eyes, and her whole frame trembles with acute mental agony, yet her merciless confessor presses her with his obscene questions. She must pass through this demoralizing ordeal every time she visits the confessional, and answer all its heart-rending interrogatories. The great apostle of the Gentiles could not have pourtrayed the abominations of Rome's confessional more accurately, nor with greater vividness, than in that fearful description which he gives of the vices of the heathen world: "It is a shame even to speak of those things that are done of them in secret." (Eph. v. 12.) Could Satan, under the aspect of religion, invent anything more degrading to society, or more calculated to corrupt the moral sensibilities of our common humanity, than the confessional?

5. THE CONFESSIONAL IS ANTAGONISTIC TO THE SOCIAL RELATION OF FAMILIES.—The priest, in ascertaining the wife's sins, must know everything connected with the husband's faults, that he may decide whether the husband's conduct aggravates or diminishes the sins of the wife, and so regulate the nature and extent of the penance to be inflicted upon her in connection with her absolution. Everything that concerns the husband is, through the wife, made known to the priest. M. Liguori's Theologia Moralis are specimen questions of the most unchaste kind to be used by the confessor in interrogating wives concerning their husbands. All that a husband whispers in the ear of his wife, if in any way connected with moral sin, is necessarily carried to the priest as to God. The priest is far more the husband of a man's wife than the lawful husband is, for he knows everything connected with her whole history. Whatever the priest may command as penance for her sins, she must do, for he commands as Christ, and Christ's commands must not be disobeyed. Should the husband's commands contradict those of the priest, she will obey the priest, and scorn the husband's authority. All, therefore, that the priest may counsel her to do against her husband she must at the peril of her soul fnlfil, for his counsel is Christ's counsel. Contentions are thus generated in families, and the law of Christ, which says, "Ye wives be in subjection to your own husbands is violated. The husband, in contrast with the superior authority of the confessor, is but a second husband-a sort of subordinate cavaliere servente.

If the sons and daughters, as well as the wife, of this refractory husband attend the confessional they will become the obedient slaves of the priest, and set paternal authority at defiance, and that injunction of Scripture, "Children obey your parents in the Lord," is disobeyed. The Church says "obey your priests," and the Church prevails.

Next come the servants. If the priest's commands run counter to those of the master, they will side with the priest. In all cases of collision, the priest is lord paramount; and in that family, however the master may fret, and rage, and threaten, he discovers that the priest is supreme ruler in his house. Thus we see that, though the head of a household may not confess to a priest, yet all his habits, opinions, tempers and injunctions are under the priest's eye. Go where he will and do what he may, the Catholic master is ever under the surveillance of the priest; for wife, children, and servants are the priest's spies. In the bosom of his family all his disaffection and suspicion, just because he has a good understanding, a manly character, respects liberty of conscience, is a patriotic citizen, can appreciate, perchance, the virtues of Protestants and the excellence of a Scriptural education, and, above all, hates priestrule and priestcraft. The confessional renders miserable thousands of prosperous families, and the priest sits amidst the havoc he has made as a vice-god, wielding the thunderbolts of Rome, striking terror into the entire neighbourhood, enslaving his penitents, corrupting their morals, and reducing them to the condition of a stick or corpse. By means of the confessional the priest can plague and humble the individual, or even a government that dares to oppose his dominion; and fill the parish chapels with prostrated, obedient crowds, though his sermons have neither sense nor compassion for the afflicted, and though the prayers are offered in an unknown tongue. This is the grand secret of the priest's power in Ireland, and, indeed, in all Roman Catholic countries. No wonder the Papal Hierarchy toils hard to keep the Catholic millions to the confessional, to oppose a liberal education and free circulation of the Bible amongst the superstitious masses, and to decry all Protestant missions.

Will the Protestant members of the English Established Church tolerate the introduction of Rome's nefarious confessional within the pale of their denomination? Will Englishmen connive at their wives and daughters being secretly dragged off to the confessional, to have stolen interviews with wandering Jesuits? Let England's laity rise up as one man, and purge the Established Church of those clergy who take such pride in Popish genuflexions and glittering gew-gaws, and tinselled robes. Let them think of that martyred bishop who cheered his brother bishop, as they were being led to the stake, with the mighty assurance that "they would that day

light a candle in England, which, by God's grace, would never be put out." Will the descendants of that "noble army of martyrs" permit the Ritualists, under the mask of a spurious Protestantism, to extinguish this lighted candle? British Christians of every denomination, come up to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty! Jesus is our only High Priest. Our Heavenly Father no more needs us to confess our sins to a sinful man, than the father of the returning prodigal directed his penitent son to confess his sins to one of the servants before he would receive him. "I will confess my transgressions to the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.' Portadown, Ireland.

JOHN DOUGLAS.

ART. VI.-WEEKLY OFFERINGS.

FINANCE is an important element of Church organization. It

is needful as a means of spiritual development, and of extending the kingdom of Christ in the earth. So long as the mission of the Church remains unfulfilled, its monetary economy will be a necessary element of its constitution. And as every arrangement of its organic structure has an influence on its spirituality and advancement, it is important that that mode of finance be adopted which will most successfully secure these ends.

We think it must be admitted by all careful observers that the present mode of contributing to church funds has partially failed. It has not to any high degree developed the spirit of liberality; it absorbs the attention of the members and officials too much with the secular, to the injury of the spiritual; and its results are not adequate to the needs of the age. It is not denied that by it much good work has been done in the past; but we believe the time has come when it must give place to a mode more conducive, not only to the replenishing of the various church funds, but also to the deepening of the spiritual life.

Such a system we have in the ancient but long-neglected and recently revived practice of privately storing for God, according to the amount of our income, and publicly and weekly offering a portion of that fund to Him when we go to His house to worship. It was originally enjoined by Paul on the Galatian and Corinthian churches; and, according to the testimony of the fathers, it was practised by the early churches far into the second century, but declined with the degenerated church into monthly offerings in the third, and was entirely lost in the darkness and corruption of the Middle Ages, and not heard of, except in individual cases, for

many hundred years. With a revived Church it has risen again as from the dead. It commenced its resuscitated life in the Episcopal Church of this country, when, in the year 1858, the "National Association for promoting Freedom of Worship" was formed; the objects of which were, that the church was to be free to all, and weekly offerings to be received in place of seat-rents and collections. In the subsequent fifteen years, the principles which the above-named Society for the first time in modern church life publicly announced have made great progress; the result being that, not only in the Establishment, but also in the nonconforming churches of this country, and in the churches of other countries, they are being extensively adopted as the only Scriptural and certain method of church finance.

Its manner of working is exceedingly simple; all public collections, except for a few special objects, are discontinued; boxes are placed in conspicuous positions at the entrance to the sanctuary, and the people deposit their offerings in them in coming to or leaving service. These boxes are opened by authorised persons, the contents announced to the congregations, and appropriated to church uses, a full account being publicly given. In some churches, envelopes, bearing certain numbers, known only to the secretary and the parties who receive them, are distributed to the congregation, who engage to deposit in the boxes a certain amount weekly; but the more preferable plan of dropping into the box the offering without any sign by which the giver may be known is most extensively adopted.

For success in the practice of this system, it may be divided into two parts:

1. Storing for God. That is, having a separate fund for benevolent purposes, sustained from the income we receive from all sources, and looked upon as sacredly devoted to God. At the time of receiving our income, the first business should be to set apart a portion of it for this fund, out of which all gifts are to be taken. This is necessary to the successful working of the system; necessary if we would act justly to God and to ourselves. And thus we shall ever have a store commensurate with the amount of our secular funds; and when it is exhausted, provided a just proportion be set aside, we can honourably refrain from giving until it is replenished; but the probability is that it will seldom be exhausted, for as we are constantly receiving, it will as constantly secure its share. It is not for the writer to say in this paper what proportion of his gross income each person should set aside for God; that should be left to his own decision. It will, of course, vary according to the amount of his income and his needs. One thing, at least, may be said, and that is, that all who have money are expected to contribute to the cause of God, and their contributions should be pro

portionate to their income. The Mosaic directions to the Israelites distinctly enjoined the duty of proportionate giving on all who were self-ststained, while the rate was left to be determined according to their circumstances. It has been said that in ordinary circumstances they devote at least one-fifth of their gross revenue to God. Our own opinion is that in the common walks of life, onetenth should be the lowest rate-which can easily be done if proper attention be paid to the practice of it, and especially if needless and unchristian expenses be avoided-and as the income grows, the proportion should be also increased, else the poor would give more than the rich, which, unfortunately, is often the fact.

2. Systematic and public offering to God out of this "store.”Having a fund sustained by proportionate donations out of his ordinary income, the worshipper simply takes a portion of it with him to the sanctuary, and offers it to God. The storing is private, the giving is public; the storing is accumulating a fund, the giving is circulating for benevolent use. Both are necessary if we would properly perform the duty. Storing without giving is useless; inasmuch as that for which it is stored is not accomplished; giving without storing is better than not giving at all; but it is often fitful, and is seldom a true percentage of our income, and does not thoroughly educate us in this important element of religious work, but when both parts of the work are performed it is perfect. Such is the mode of church finance which is being extensively adopted, and which, we believe, is destined to become the universal method. There are one or two reasons why it should be adopted by us :

1. It is the only divinely appointed system. Any system which is stamped with divine authority is obligatory upon all Christians; and that this is will be seen if we carefully study the teachings of Scripture on this subject. The duty of presenting sacrifices to God when going to worship Him is distinctly enjoined. Said God, when commanding the Israelites to assemble at Jerusalem three times a year to keep the feasts, "and none of you shall appear before me empty." The custom of tithing the land was an acknowledgment of the truth that all belonged to God, and that the people received it from him, and held it subject to his will. Abraham gave tithes to Melchizadeck as the priest of God. Jacob vowed to present a tenth of all his possessions; and in addition to stated and regular levies. there were "free-will offerings" for special objects, which sometimes amounted to very large sums. Coming to the New Testament, we find the same principle taught with greater emphasis in relation to the spirit, if not to the particular amount, which each person is to offer; because, in the first dispensation, the church was in its infancy and needed to have its duties detailed; but in the second it has arrived at a more mature age, and therefore the New Testament teaching does not