The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1880-08-25

SINGING THY MERoIEs FOR ALL ETER-
NIFTY. AMEN"
1 leave it to "Rufus" himself whether
blessing the Virgin Mary and singing
her mercies for all eternity is honor and
praise lawful in a creature" l ask
him if this is to be the occupation of
" Father Muller" Z" for all eternity" what
time there will be to worship God? And
is it not remarkable that in all the Wis
ions of heaven given in the Book of Rev
elation, there is no mention of singing
the rhercies" of the Virgin Mary, though
she had been there then for half cen
tury. l would rather not bind myself to
sing the mercies of creature for all eter-
nifty even with the reward before me of
an indulgence of 800 days"
But leave" Rufus" as l hope on the
stool of repentance, and pass to the PUR-
GAToRIAN CoNsoLER-A MANUAL" (as
the title page informs u.s. originally pre-
pared for the use of the members of the
Pttrgator1oa, Arch C6nfrateymity, enlarqed
and adapted to general use by Rev. M5-
chaeI Muller, C. s. S. R." 1t is published
in New York in 1879, by the " Printers
to the Apostolic See, and has the I'm
p1lnaatow of the Archbishop of Baltimore.
No one then will gainsay its authority.
And now if any poor soul is in dread of
Purgatory, and seeking for CoaSoley,
| warn it away from this one, for it will
cry out after reading it, as Job did to his
friends, Miserable comforters are we all.
First, as to the suferings of Purgatory,
the teaching is awful, hell itself could
not be worse, than the Purgatory here
described. Listen to but a single ex-
tract: They (the souls in Purgatory) are
buried under waves of fire. 1t is from
the smallest spark of this purgatorial
fire that they suffer more intense pains
than all the fires of this world put to-
gether could produce. In this fire they
suffer more than all the pains of distem-
pers, and the most violent diseases; they
suffer more than all the most cruel tor
ments undergone by malefactors or in
vented by the most barbarous tyrants
they suffer more than all the tortures of
tie martyrs summed up together. Could
these poor souls leave the fire of Purga-
tory, for the most frightful earthly fire,
they would, as it were, take it for pleas
ure garden; they would find fifty years
stay in the hottest earthly fire, more
endurable than an hours stay in the fire
of Purgatory." PIP. 34-35.
could multiply passages-but this is
enough. Think of being buried under
aOoveS of fire, of which one spark causes
more suffering than all the fires of this
a0or6 put together could produce, fire
in comparison with which Nebuchadnez-
zar's furnace was a pleasure garden If
that is not hell, only one of Hudibras'
celebrated theologians could "learnedly
divide betwixt the two.
But let us ask our author, who are the
miserable souls allotted to this awful in
conceivable torture? Surely they must
be the worst enemies of God No, says
our author:
The souls in Purgatory are holy souls.
They are confirmed in grace and no long
er in condition to offend God, or to
forfeit heaven. They love God above
every thing. All their disorderly af-
fections and passions have died away,
and as they love God, so are they loved
by God IN an unutterable manner, -
page 95.
And this does not describe their con-
dition after purifcation in Purgatory,
but on their entrance into it, for the
author in another place speaking of the
soul of the believer, says:
No sooner has the soul departed this
life than it x finds it altogether i'm
possible to wish, to seek, and to love any
thing but God. 1t experiences at once
an Unsuitable hunger and thirst after
God. 1t pants for its Supreme Good with
most violent desire. God God
must be with God is its constant cry.
But in the very moment in which the
! soul is endeavoring to unite itself to God,
1t as repuLSed By the Lord, and sent to
Purgatory to expiate for its sins not
sufficiently cancelled in this life" Pp.
3O-31.
Nothing astonishes us more in reading
this work than to find in Purgatory en-
during these torments of which one hour
is equal to fifty years, in the hottest
flames of earth, the souls of the purest
and holiest Of those who were saints on
earth. Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots,
Canonized saints, monks Of great piety
and perfection all come back to earth
to tell Of their merciless torture in these
flames. And to see for what trivial Of
fenses they suffer such awful penaltiesl
There is for instance, "St. Severimus
Archbishop of Cologne, prelate Of great
sanctity, so much so that God wrought