THE WORSHIP OF THE VIRGIN MARY.
The Churchman of July 27 has an illustrated article on this subject, describing what every intelligent traveler to Rome sees, namely, the fact that the Latin Church seems wholly given over to Mariolatry. The most prominent places in the interior of St. Peter’s are occupied by inscriptions narrating the giving of the decree of the Immaculate Conception. (This decree was made in 1864, in the time of Pius IX.) These inscriptions contain the names of all the cardinals and bishops present at the time. In the galleries of the Vatican there is a great painting reaching from floor to ceiling. The lower part represents the pope and St. Peter surrounded by his court and his bishops, in the act of promulgating this decree, which had been ordered at the Vatican Council. The upper part of the picture is an authoritative setting forth of the present idea of the Latin Church. The virgin is represented in heaven with God the Father on her left hand, God the Son on her right hand, God the Holy Ghost in the form of a dove above her. She is represented, says the Churchman, as the most prominent person of the “quaternity.” We looked upon that picture in the Vatican and shuddered, not so much at its blasphemy as at the proof it offers of the liability of all human beings to go to a terrible extreme, whatever the true limitations of the germ of truth, beauty, or religion inhering in their original idea. Many years ago we took up the “Ursuline Manual,” an authorized Catholic book of devotion, and in it was the following:— “Heart of Mary, I adore thee;
Heart of Jesus, I implore thee;
Heart of Joseph, pure and just;
In these three hearts I put my trust.” —N. Y. Christian Advocate.