leads to the altar of Mary; captives without number came there to hang up the chains they had borne among the Moors; and St. Ignatius of Loyola, after having consecrated there his Spanish sword, passed two years in one of the hermitages composing his Spiritual Exercises." MY SCRAP-BOOK.--PROTESTANT AND CATHOLIC WORSHIP. No. 5. Catholicism has certainly a much stronger hold over the human mind than Protestantism. The fact is visible and undeniable, and perhaps not unaccountable. The fervour of devotion among these Catholics, the absence of all worldly feelings in their religious acts strike every traveller who enters a Roman Catholic church abroad. They seem to have no reserve, no false shame, false pride, or what ever the feeling may be, which, among us Protestants, makes the individual exercise of devotion, private, hidden-an affair of the closet. Here, and everywhere in Catholic countries, you see well dressed people, persons of the higher as well as of the lower orders on their knees upon the pavement of the church, totally regardless of, and unregarded by the crowd of passengers in the aisle moving to and fro. I have christian charity enough to believe, and I do not envy that man's mind who does not believe that this is quite sincere devotion, and not hypocrisy, affectation, or attempt at display. It is so common, that none of these motives could derive the slightest gratification from the act-not more than a man's vanity could be gratified by his appearing in shoes, or hat, where all wear the same. In no Protestant place of worship do we witness the same intense abstraction in prayer, the unaffected devotion of mind. The beggar-woman comes in here and kneels down by the side of the princess, and evidently no feeling of intrusion suggests itself in the mind of either. To the praise of the papists be it said, no wordly distinctions, or human rights of property, much less money-payment for places in a place of worship, appear to enter into their imaginations. Their churches are God's houses open alike to all his rational creatures, without distinction of high or low, rich or poor. All who have a soul to be saved come freely to worship. They have no family pews, no seats for genteel souls, and seats for vulgar souls. Their houses of worship are not let out, like theatres, or opera-houses, or Edinburgh kirks, for money rents for the sittings. The public mind is evidently more religionised than in Protestant countries. Why should such strong devotional feeling be more widely diffused and more conspicuous among people. holding erroneous doctrines, than among us Protestants, holding right doctrines? This question can only be solved by comparing the machinery of each church.-Laing. "Protestantism, in its excessive rationalism, in its rejection of sentiment of inspiration, has deprived the temple service of nearly all its power. In its churches there are a few dry forms and much barren logic; very little that speaks to the soul and kindles love. Puritanism knows nothing of the power of love. It has not learned that the road to men's conviction lies through their hearts and that we are raised to God effectually, only by the purification and exaltation of our sentiments. It places the affection under ban, and regards all emotion as the fruit of the flesh, and is even enthusiastic against enthusiasm, inspired against inspiration."-Boston Quarterly Review. The celebrated sceptic Diderot gives the following striking testimony in favor of religious ceremonies. In his work entitled D'Essais sur la peinture, is this remarkable passage. "Absurd rigorists have never known the impressive effect of exterior ceremonies upon the people: they have never beheld the adoration of the Cross on Good Friday, or witnessed the enthusiasm of thousands at the procession of the Fete de Dieu, an enthusiasm which has frequently even deeply impressed me. That vast multitude with foreheads bowed in the dust, that long line of priests clothed in their sacerdotal vestments, those young acolytes robed in spotless white and scattering flowers before the holy sacrament, that breathless crowd which proceeds and follows in religious silence, fills the mind with an indiscribable awe. "No, I have never" he exclaims, "heard those solemn and pathetic hymns, entoned by the priest and re-echoed by their infinity of voices of all sexes and ages, without feeling in my soul an irresistible emotion, which melted me to tears-Suppress"-writes the philosopher-" suppress the ceremonials, abolish the sensible symbols of religion, and the rest becomes metaphysical folly, which embodies itself in a thousand ridiculous forms." "There is something extremely touching in the material, accessible, and poetical character of Catholicism; and the soul finds a constant asylum in her quiet chapels, before the Christmas candles, in the soft purifying atmosphere of incense, in the outstretched arms of the heavenly mother, while it sinks down before her in humility, filial meekness, and contemplation of the Saviour's love. The Catholic churches, with their ever-opened portals, their ever-burning lamps, the ever-resounding voices of their thanksgiving, with their masses, their ever-recurring festivals and days of commemoration, declare with touching truth, that here the arms of a mother are ever open, ready to refresh every one who is troubled and heavy laden; that here the sweet repast of love is prepared for all, and a refuge is found by day and by night. When we consider this constant occupation of priests, this carrying in and out of the Holy of Holies, the fulness of emblems, the ornaments, varying every day, like the changing leaves of the flower; the Catholic Church will appear like a deep, copious well in the midst of a city, which collects around it all the inhabitants, and whose waters, perpetually cool, refresh, bless, and pervade all around."-Count Isidore von Loben, Lotosblatter, 1817. Part 1. "If the pilgrim, after the completion of his pilgrimage, weary, but full of pious joy and devotion, kneels down on the steps of the church, and returns thanks to Him who has smoothed his way, and guided and protected his steps; if the mother, in the still, vacant temple, lies sunk at the foot of the altar, and commends her infant to the care of the saint invoked; if the evening sun glimmers through the dim, yet gorgeous colouring of the Gothic window, and sheds its last rays on those individuals who select for their devotion the quiet hours after the completion of the day's work; if the altar-lights, at vespers, allume the dark vaults, and the organ murmers forth its tones in holy chorus; if the hours of midnight and of sun-rise are announced by the convent-bell, which calls the monks from their cells to praise the Lord by day and by night, and to pray for all sufferers near and remote ;- -so it is clear and evident, (and the Catholic Church has the merit of rendering this truth still more evident,) that life should be a continued worship of the Deity; that Art and Nature possess an eternal and universal language for the expression and awakening of the highest feelings of the human breast; and we must esteem that Church as happy, which is enabled to appropriate this language in its whole extent.-Clausen c. 1, p. 790. RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE. STATISTICS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES. ARCH-DIOCESE.--Baltimore, DIOCESES.-New Orleans, Louisville, Boston, Philadelphia, New York, Charleston, Richmond, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Mobile, Detroit, Vincennes, Dubuque, Nashville, Natchez, Pittsburgh, Little Rock, Chicago, Hartford, Milwaukie, VICARIATE-APOSTOLIC.-Oregon Territory, BISHOPS-including the Coadjutor Bishops and the Bp. elect of Oregon, PRIESTS. Augustinians, in the Dioceses of Philadelphia and N. York, Dominicans, in the Dioceses of Louisville, Cincinnati, Milwaukie, and Nashville, Jesuits, in the Dioceses of Baltimore, Philadelphia, Boston, St. Louis, New Orleans, Cincinnati, Louisville, and in the Vicariate Apostolic of Oregon, Lazarists, in the Dioceses of St. Louis, New Orleans, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, New Nork, Louisville, about Redemptorists, in the Dioceses of Baltimore, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New York, Detroit, Eudists, in the Dioceses of Vincennes and Mobile, Priests of the Order of Preliosissimi Sanguinis, in the Diocese of Cincinnati, Priests of the Cross, in the Dioceses of Vincennes, Secular Clergy, Total, RELIGIOUS BROTHERS.-Brothers of St. Joseph, in the Dioceses of Vin cennes, Detroit, and Dubuque, Brothers du St. Viateur, in the Diocese of St. Louis, RELIGIOUS FEMALES.-Nuns of St. Dominic, in the Dioceses of Cincinnati and Louisville, Carmelites, in the Dioceses of Baltimore and New Orleans, Sisters of Charity, of Emmitsburg Community, in the Dioceses of Baltimore, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Richmond, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Cincinnati, St. Louis, New Orleans, Mobile, Sisters of Charity, of Nazareth Community, in the Dioceses of Louisville and Nashville, Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin, in the Diocese of Dubuque, Sisters of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin, in the Dioceses of Baltimore, Mobile, and St. Louis, Sisters of Mercy, in the Dioceses of Charleston and Pittsburgh, Sisters of Loretto, in the Dioceses of Louisville, St. Louis, and Little Rock, Sisters of the Good Shepherd, in the Diocese of Louisville, Sisters of Providence, in the Dioceses of Baltimore and Vincennes, 35 36 44 141 368 65 19 162 29 156 8 14 46 13 Sisters of the Order of Pretiosissimi Sanguinis, in the Diocese of Cincinnati, 4 ST. LOUIS.-On the 22d Jan., the Sisters of Charity entered the new and beautiful female Orphan Asylum lately erected near the corner of 10th and Biddle streets, on a lot measuring 125 by 240 feet. The main building, which is neatly finished and surmounted by a cross, is three stories high, 70 feet front by 45 deep, and contains twenty rooms. It is sufficiently spacious to accommodate one hundred and fifty orphans. At present there are forty of these destitute children in the institution, being the number transferred from the temporary dwelling heretofore occupied by the Sisters on Broadway. Much praise is due the citizens of St. Louis, who have contributed liberally to the erection of the building, especially Mrs. Ann Biddle, who not only made a donation of the lot, valued at $6,000, but has contributed $3,000 in cash towards the completion of the building. It is the intention of the Sisters not only to increase the number of orphans, but to open within a few weeks, a free-school for girls attached to the German Church of St. Joseph, which is being erected in the immediate vicinity of the Asylum. ILLINOIS.-Chicago.-On the 30th of November, (feast of St. Andrew) the Right Rev. Wm. Quarter, conferred the Minor Orders, and Sub-deaconship on Mr. John Faughnan, in the Cathedral of St. Mary. On the 1st instant, (First |