The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-11-01 00:00:00

COMMERCI

AL ADVERTT

DR. CAHILL
ON Friday
. .

AND PROTESTA

in conne

IN IRELAND,

re, entitled " PrOtestan
Reformation in Ireland.

by the Special Missiona

audience,

ISEP.

EA.D.

;cture in the Market-street School
reply to Dr. Cahill's recent lec

ail: having been taken

IWCARTIty, who was received with hearty cheer-
My Christian friends, in appearing before
the principles

circulated, and expressed, by an individual calling himself
a man of God, calling himself a minister of Christ,—in

coming before you, after between two and three months'
labour now in Birkenhead, I desire to express my gratitude
to God, and my thankfulness to him, for the support

wad also foi

the inquiry that, by the grace of God, has been planted
amongst our Roman Catholic brethren. This - inquiry

has been one of no common nature. When I deli-
vered lectures here at first, the Roman Catholics would
not come forward ; but they found, after a few weeks,
that it was absolutely necessary that they should present
themselves to defend their church, and one by one they
came upon the platform, and as fast as they came went
awa

Mr. M`Eiven and Mr. M`Donald were brought over
from Liverpool, and they, too, have got the right about.
Then comes Dr. Cahill amongst us. Well, what does he
do ? He publishes on a placard that a number of lectures
are to be delivered in the Romish chapel, and he declares
that one of his subjects shall be "Protestant Conversions ;
or the late attempt at Reformation in Ireland." The late
attempt at reformation in Ireland ! Now, the Protestant
clergy of this town, when they saw those placards, at once
wrote to Dr. Cahill, in a spirit of mildness and Christian
love, asking him to come forward and, before an enlightened
_, give such proofs as would enable him to sub-
Aantiate the charge contained in the subject of his lec-
ture. It is clear, and I will show to-night, that there has
not only been an attempt at reform in Ireland, but that a
reformation has been successfully going on there which
can even be said to equal the glorious reformation of the
sixteenth century. (Applause.) It is a second reforma-
tion ; and I trust, before I leave this platform to-night, to
prove that to you. I published in a small placard this
week the following letter to my Roman Catholic brethren.

love and kindness, and I
am glad to say, and I care not who hears it, that they are
now beginning to have a different impression of me frcoal
what they had at first. Calumny, as well as every other
possible instrument that could be used, was adopted,
either to deface my character or to place me before them
as black, aye, as the very devil himself. (Laughter.) But
they have found that, at all events, I am sincere ; that I
love them, and many of them have told me so. A few are
inquiring, and one has been brought out of the Church
of Rome, and is now ready to come forward before the
whole of Birkenhead, and declare that the Church of
Rome is the apostacy, and that that apostacy he is ready to
give up (loud cheers). Yet, in the face of all this, we see
placards about the walls, headed, the " Soupers Routed ;"
and just the sort of routing, I believe, in a measure, that
they have a right to, if it be the Roman Catholic Soupers
that are meant. The lecturer then read the following
letter, which prefaced a published correspondence between
himself and Mr. M`Donald

"MY DEAR ROMAN CATHOLIC BRETHREN Ina spirit of
Christian love and kindness, I call your attention to the fol-
lowing correspondence, and I ask you as fellow-sinners, What
is the reason that your priests, or the intelligent of your laity,
will not defend your Church? Is it that they fear the conse-
quences of free and fair discussion? Are they afraid to allow
the novelties they palm upon you as God's truth to be exposed,
and their hideous deformities laid bare to the intellectual gaze
of thinking people? If this be not the case, call upon the
champion of your cause, Dr. Cahill, en masse, and persuade
him, ,f you can, to defend your religion. The ministers of
the Church of England are ever reacy "earnestly to contend
for the faith once delivered to the saints ;" and those who
have not that faith to contend for will always fear to teat their
doctrines by the 4-ritten Word of God. This, my dear friends,
stands to reason. Dr. Cahill has been treating you, for the
past week, to a course of lectures, containing one undiluted
stream of misrepresentation and unqualified assertion, which,
had be truth on his side, he would be too g!ad to step forward
and prove; but I trust you will act upon that principle,
which comes from St. Paul as a command, " Prove all things."
—1 Thess. v. 21.—1 remain your obedient servant for Christ's
sake. "CHARLES P. M`CARTHY."

My dear friends (Mr. M`Carthy continued), Di.Cahill
commenced his lecture on this night week, by setting
before his audience the different countries that received
Christianity, and the dates thereof : Ireland, through
the instrumentality of St. Patrick, in 432. The whole
of his discourse attempted to show that the Christianity
which St. Patrick brought to my native land was
that which he (Dr. Cahill) represents now to be the
religion of the Church of Rome. -Here I join issue at
once with Dr. Cahill, and I tell him that St. Patrick
knew nothing about Popery; that St. Patrick was as
staunch a Protestant as I am ; and that if St. Patrick had
the same things said to him, and heard the same doctrines
promulgated, he would as boldly and as honestly protest
against them as do the Protestants of the present day. And
why ? Because they are not only anti-scriptural, but
they are diabolical in their nature. They are demoralising
and soul-destroying, and that is the reason that Pro-
testants protest against doctrines that are leading
souls to hell: and, through the love that they bear
for their fellow-creatures, they come forward and
proclaim the truth, so that they may be able to
count themselves before God as doing their duty, and
to their fellow men, ae telling them the awful state of de-
lusion that they are existing in. Now, what are my
proofs as to St. Patrick being no Roman Catholic ?—they
are as follows :—St. Malachy was the first Irish saint
who ever won the honours of canonisation from that
church, and not St. Patrick. lam now going to quote
from "St. Patrick's Confession," a little work written by
him before his dissolution. He commences by telling
them who he was, his parentage, and where he was born,
and he says in this little work—(which is genuine, and
there is in existence at this present day a MS a thousand
years old, and Dr. Lanigan quotes from it constantly in
writing the ecclesiastical history of Ireland,)—he says,
first : " I, Patrick, a sinner, had for my father Calpurnius,
a deacon, and for my grandfather Politus, a priest."—Now,
we know very well he was no Papist, for his father was a
deacon and his grandfather a priest. That is not the case
in the Church of Rome : they don't allow their priests to
have children ; at least, they don't allow them to marry.
All their children, to use a vulgar expression, must be
bastards ; and I have no doubt there must be a great
many of that sort. (Laughter and cheers.) Well, then,
this is one proof, I say, that St. Patrick was not a priest
of the Church of Rome; and the second I give is the
lying tales that are placed before the public in the works
written by Probus, in the 10th century ; by Jocelin, a
priest, in the 12th century ; and O'Sullivan, last of all, in
the 17th century. I will give you a specimen of some of
these. This is from Jocelin

" When his mother Conchessa was pregnant of him, poison
was administered to her; but it was found, at his birth, con-
verted into a stone, which he was holding between his fin-
gers. The stone, also, upon which he was laid when born,
partaking of his sanctity, possessed many wonder-working
powers, especially that of detecting perjury."
Another is as follows :

" A man called Gormas, blind from his mother's womb,
took, in consequence of a divine command in his sleep, the
infant saint's hand. immediately after his baptism, and made
the Sian of the cross with it upon the ground; when instantly
a fountain of water sprang up in the place touched, which,
like another Siloam, not only gave the blind man the power
of vision, but also enabled him to read and understand the
Scriptures !"

" As the saint was setting sail for Ireland, from a British
port, a poor leper on the shore besought a passage from the
mariners ; but in vain. Patrick, however, pitying his case,
and having no other way to relieve him, dung into the sea a
stone altar, which had been consecrated and given him by the
Pope; and he commanded the leper to sit thereon :—when,
lo! to the great amazement of all the beholders, the stone
began to float, kept pace with the ship, and arrived with full
sail in the Irish harbour at the same moment with it."
Now let me read yon one snore :
- - - -

" When the cruel' Lord of Dunbarton confined his aunt,
and employed her to cleanse the stalls and stables of his
castle, the child (Patrick) performed the task for her miracu-
lously. And ever since, says Joceline, the dung continues to
be cleared away, invisibly; insomuch, that if all the cattle of
the country were driven into the stables, no dirt could be
found after them."

Now, allow me to turn your attention for one moment
to a passage from Patrick's own confession, which I have
already quoted from, for it gives the lie to these legends.
" When made captive"—for he was made captive twice
in Ireland. Through the agency of God he was pe-
culiarly fitted in early life to be an apostle to the Irish;
for in God's providence he was so situated as to become
acquainted with the manners, customs, and language of
the Irish, though he was a Scotchman horn. He says in
this confession, after giving his parentage, and where he
was born.: " When made captive I was scarcely sixteen
years of age ; but I was ignorant of God, and therefore it
was that I was led captive into Ireland with so many
thousands."

I was ignorant of God, and yet Jocelin says his little
hand performed miracles; that he went into a nobleman's
stable and cleaned it out miraculously as a child, and that
all the animals in the country could not dirty it after-
wards. (Laughter.) St. Patrick gives the lie to these in-
ventions—inventions of priests for the purpose of estab-
lishing, or endeavouring to establish that he was a Roman
Catholic Saint. Now, then, I will give you one more
proof; and this coming from an undoubted authority on
the part of the Church of Rome, must be held, at all
events by Roman Catholics, in great regard :

" But the most wonderful of all—if we except the raising
of many to life who had been long dead—was, that while tra-
versing Ireland, the saint sent packing off to Cruchan-Aichle
(a high conical mountain on the western coast, now called
Crosgh.Patrick) all the tribes of serpents, and venomous
creatures of every name and kind, from every part of the
country. there to wait his pleasure. Whither, when he came,
and ascended the mountain, innumerable demons flocked
screaming around him, in the form of unsightly birds : upon
which the saint, in a very great choler, of course, (like Meta-
clly,) drove them—serpents, toads, demons, and all—into the
ocean, at the foot of the mountain. And hence it is, (say
they,) that Ireland has never, from that day to this, been
infested with the presence of any poisonous creatures."
I would add—except the noxious fabricators and foun-
ders of such lying tales. (Cheers.) Now, listen to what
Dr. Lanigan says. Dr. Lanigan apologises for this lying,.
He says (Vol. I, p. 252, of his Ecclesiastical History of
Ireland,)—" Jocelin was the inventor of this story ;" and
the Doctor seems to regret that from Jocelin's book the
story made its way into some breviaries,—into the bre-
viaries that the Roman Catholic priest uses. It is said
again, that St. Patrick was sent to Ireland by the Pope.
I deny this : there is not one single tissue of evidence in
the whole of history to prove it. I will show you what he
says himself upon this subject. Jocelyn tells us, and so
does Probus, very gravely, that he went to Rome a second
time after the conversion of the Irish, laid the results of
his labours at the feet of the Pope, and reverently asked
his Holiness for the confirmation of them. This is what
they declare,—" His Holiness (they add) received him
most graciously; granted him all he wished; decorated
him with the pallium; and appointed him his legate for
Ireland."—Now listen to what St. Patrick himself says:—
" Therefore, though I wished much, and most earnestly
desired to go to Britain, as if to my country and kindred ,•
and not only so, but to proceed even as far a.; Gaul—the Lord
knew how much I wished it ; yet, bound in the spirit which
declares me guilty if I should do so, I fear lest 1 shnuld uee
ought of my labour—nay. no& mine, but Christ my Lord'
and• s'
who commanded me to come to his people be with them
during the residue of any life."
It was Christ commanded him; and in another place