CHAP. XI I.] PUnoATon?. 307 In the Western Christian Advocate for Octobor 28, 1836, there is copied a curious narrative from the Ohio Observer, which gives a striking example of this superstition. A child, whose father was a Protestant, but whose mother was a Roman Catholic, was refused burial by the priest in the Roman Catholic burying ground in Hudson, Ohio, because the child was unbaptized, or because its father was not a Romanist. Multitudes of such examples could ? given; but our limits do not permit us to enlarge. 9. The doctrin,e, of purgatory is an amazing ?ource of proj;t to the Roman clergy. l'hey have diligently inculcated that the sufferers in purgatory have their pains d?minished by the suffrages of the living, as we have already seen. Hence this doctrine is a eonstant revenue, by masses for the dead and indulgences, besides �Q?ualties, legacies by dy- ing persons or their friends, in hopes of a speedier release out of the pains of purgatory. For no plan could be better con,.rived to extort the largest gifts from those whose riches were as great as their sins, than to Persuade them that by this means they would be the ?ooner delivered out of the flames of purgatory, and undoubtedly admitted to heaven in the end. A readier method of filling the coffers of the church .could not have been invented. That they have been so filled even to repletion is an historical fact which cannot be denied. W? have seen already that the dying sinner, if he be a rieh man, amy compuund for ages of misery by bequeathlag his wealth to the church. His spiritual guides do not always say for �o't?n that so much money will effectually deliver a soul f'mm purgatory. Though it should be thousands of pounds, and as many masses as these could purchase, the utmost that can be effected by them is only a certain relief, mitigation, or abridgment of' the duration of the torments of pur- gatory. Those who are rich may' purchase ? mitigation of their torments, but those who have nothing to pay must suffer in their own persons all the torments of purgatorian fire, until they shall have made full satis- literion to divine justlee by paying the uttermost farthing. It is true, they may comfort themselves with the belief that their surviving friends will pay money to have masses said for them; but when they retteet how poor their friends are, and what monstrous debt stands against them, no poor sinner can derive much comfort from this reflection. To the foregoing view may be objected what Gother says, "that such as have no relations or friends to prey for them, or give alms, or procure masses for their relief, are not neglected by the church, which makes a general co__m_memoration of all the faithful departed in every mazs, and in every one of the canonical hours of the divine office." From this we infer that those who have friends need expect no relief but by their fr?z?s and their a/m,?, that is, by procuring masses for them; which is neither more nor less than paying money to the priests. By this arrangement the poor who have no friends are in a bad condi- tion. They are declared to be in purgatory; but the church takes no particular interest in any one of them, just because there is no one to pay money for them. They are brought in in mass, by a general eommomoration of a/J tA?fmtAful; which must be of little avail when there is no spoci?c reference to any individual case. In thin general ' 1 ,Goocle
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