IN the performance of the various ritualistic observances in a large Romish chapel in Ireland, three priests were constantly engaged, and as each of these required to be paid for his services, and the immediate neighbourhood was a very poor one, they must needs set their wits to work to devise plans whereby to secure for themselves the amount they deemed requisite for their own personal benefit.
Accordingly, one plan they adopted was to charge a good round sum for the burial of every parishioner, though the amount charged varied according to the position of the relatives of the departed. The result was, in cases where these latter were too poor to furnish the required amount, many were buried without a priest being present to read the Burial Service.
Another plan was to fix upon a certain amount, also varying according to the applicant’s station in life, without the payment of which no one could procure the priest’s absolution.
I suppose these plans proved insufficient to meet their supposed requirements, for they presently adopted the expedient of levying toll to the amount of one penny per head upon all attendants at Mass.
To collect this latter, as the hour drew near for the celebration of Mass, each priest took by turns his stand with three helpers at the entrance, and remained there while the poor peasants were thronging in. And when, because of their extreme poverty not a few failed to produce the required penny, they were either flatly refused admission, or their clay pipes and tobacco were taken as a pledge, until the price for admission was paid. And great was the chagrin, and very bitter were the invectives that ever and anon escaped the lips of those who, having no penny, and their pipes, etc., already in pledge, were unable that day to enter the chapel.
Can any wonder that vice enslaved very many in that locality, while their would-be shepherds were occupied in feeding themselves, instead of feeding the flock.
He who commanded the light to shine out of darkness would not suffer those precious souls to continue to grope about in gross darkness, and to cry out in vain, “Who will show us any good?”
There came one day a little company of men to that chapel, dressed in a peculiar garb. My informant did not appear to know by what name they were known, and I was not curious to ascertain, but this one thing is certain, from her report of their testimony, they were the servants of the Most High God, and very earnest evangelists.
Far and wide the news soon spread that “the Missioners are come,” and from many miles round the poor villagers flocked to hear the word of God. Many of the tradesmen gave away tickets of admission. On the other hand, in the face of the earnest protests of God’s servants, the crafty priests charged all who had no tickets one shilling each for admission to the gallery of the chapel. Yet so great was the concourse of people, that the gallery had to be propped up for fear lest it should give way under their weight, and the pressure of people therein one against the other was so extreme, that a farmer’s daughter, then present, assured me it was only occasionally that she could touch the floor with her feet.
In the name of the Lord Jesus the preachers besought their hearers to “buy wine and milk without money, and without price.”
“We want not your money,” said they; “God wants you each one to give to Him your hearts.”
“As I was passing down the street,” said one, “I saw a lady frown on a poor little girl, all clad in tatters, as she passed her; yet the soul of that poverty-stricken child is worth more in God’s sight than all the gold of California.”
And as they went on to speak of Him who on Calvary’s Cross suffered, the lust for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, and of that precious blood which He shed, the price of our redemption, and which alone avails to purge away sin, many were moved to tears, yea, many hearts were touched.
Reader, it may be from your earliest infancy you have heard a free gospel proclaimed. Allow me to ask, Has God’s message of love touched your heart? Has it ever opened to receive the truth as it is in Jesus? If not, much as you may be inclined to pity the ignorance of those poverty-stricken Irish peasantry, who hearing it proclaimed during one short week received the same gladly, it is yourself who is the most to be blamed. Have you not heard? why do you not believe?
In that Romish chapel in Ireland was one poor woman, who was known to be a very clever butcher, and in this capacity often earned a good stun of money, quite outside of her husband’s weekly earnings. She would work, and work hard, until she was overtaken by an insatiable craving for drink, and then she would go on until not only her own stock was completely exhausted, but until she had nothing left upon which she could lay hands to sell to procure drink.
At one time her husband was so exasperated with her, that in a frenzy of wrath he hung her up on a wall upon a nail by the hairs of her head. And she, when released from this agonizing position, cruelly maltreated her husband’s pig. So that both were sent to prison, the husband for his cruelty to his wife, and the wife for her cruelty to a dumb animal. While they were in prison, five of their children died.
He Who deviseth means that he that is banished be not an outcast from Him, brought this poor sorrowing mother, at that time a wretched and helpless captive, in the bondage of sin and death, within the sound of the good tidings of deliverance by the Lord Jesus Christ. Her eyes were opened; she saw the light that then shone in a dark place. Her ears were unstopped; she heard words of love proclaimed in the name of the Lord Jesus. In her heart the word preached found an entrance, (as it did in the hearts of many others also at the same time and plate), and this captive was set at liberty. Old things bad passed away; behold, all things became new; all things being of God.
While she yet groaned in fearful bondage, her own good resolutions, and her husband’s utmost efforts, alike failed to accomplish her deliverance. Not by paying the sum fixed by the priests as the price of their words of professed absolution, but by the grace of God, she that believed was justified from all things, and with gladness she bought wine and milk of God’s own providing, without money, and without price.
Reader, thou canst not purchase eternal life — it is the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Ask of Him, and He will give thee living water. A. J.