Southern Christian Advocate

MARIOLATRY.

A French correspondent of the "Presbyterian" gives us the following facts in reference to the increase of Papal influence and superstition in France.

I regret to say that the influence of Popery and Popery too, of the very worst kind, is on the increase in this country, and in favour with government. A gentleman, whose position and intelligence enables him to form a pretty correct judgment, wrote to me a few days ago: "We are advancing towards a difficult period. The government throws itself, every day, more completely into the arms of Rome. For a long time this movement has disquieted me; but I had not imagined that it would be so rapid. Let us be prepared for every event." Here is a significant fact. Since the Revolution of July, the court of Rome had not sent into France an apostolic nuncio but one has been sent recently, who must needs as formerly, preside over the diplomatic body (le corps diplomatique.)

I have said that the Romanism which is making progress in France, is of the worst kind. You will judge of this, by the last mandatory letter of M. de Bonald, archbishop of Lyons. The object of this mandamus is to recommend to the faithful of the diocese of Lyons the worship of the holy virgin, and particularly the devout celebration of the immaculate conception. The prelate ordains, 1 that the feast of the immaculate conception be held throughout his diocese on the 8th of December; 2, that the litanies of the holy virgin be sung, neither in public nor in private, without the addition of this invocation: Regina, sine labe concepta, ora pro nobis, ("O queen, conceived without spot pray for us;") 3, that the parish priests should labour to extend in their parishes, the worship of Mary, immaculate in her conception. A plenary indulgence is granted by the Pope for the new feast day. Let us here quote the beginning and close of this strange and deplorable document, and a fragment taken from the middle of it.

It commences thus: "When the Christian religion was born on Calvary, of the blood of Jesus Christ, she appeared to the world with an aspect as austere as her language; and she, the daughter of the Man of sorrows, had received, as her inheritance, only a crown of thorns. Her hands bore no other sceptre than the cross. But this equipage would have been too terrifying to the human heart, if the Lord had not given religion, from her infancy, a companion whose sweetness would temper her severity, whose charms would cause the rigour of her laws to be forgotten, and render the weight of her yoke supportable. This companion, beloved brethren, was the worship of the holy virgin. United by the bond of a common origin, and the same vocation, these two sisters, hand in hand descended together from the holy mountain, to proceed together in conquering souls. From that time, wherever the standard of salvation was hoisted, there the ensigns of Mary were seen displayed. When Jesus takes possession of a heart, he makes his mother reign there along with him; and these two sacred names become inseparable on the lips of the Christian as, in the highest heavens, they are in the songs of angels."—Further on:-—"Why is it, that in the times in which we live; the worship of Mary is propagated in the Christian world, with greater lustre and rapidity? Why these ardent invocations of the faithful to the immaculate Mary, and wherefore this recourse, at every instant, to her powerful intercession? The true Catholics no longer, as it were, supplicate Jesus but through Mary; there are no longer feasts for them, without her; it might be said, that apart from her, they have no hope. Her name is constantly upon their lips, and her image upon their hearts; far from opposing, the church applauds these transports of filial piety; and from his storm-tossed bark, Peter turns continually his gaze toward the Star of the Sea. It seems as if God had committed his omnipotence to his mother, and the hand of the pure virgin alone can dispense to Jew and Gentile, the beams of truth, and the waters of grace." The closing lines of this mandatory epistle follow: "Let Mary be to us all, the confidant of our joys and sorrows; let our life, with its conflicts and vexations, be consecrated to her, and let it glide away under her maternal protection. May our last sigh breathe the dying words of saint Thomas of Canterbury, when falling under the steel of his assassins: To God and Mary."