he coinage affair, which, by depreciating the value of Papal coins in the hands of the French peasants, set them against the Pope. It is also connected with a dimly-understood conception of the Infallibility dogma. The peasants say that God wanted to be on the side of France, but that the Pope prevented Him. The notion here is that the Pope had acquired a sort of divine power, so that, by a species of sorcery, could thwart the designs of the Deity. These are ideas which can only have their birth amongst the peasantry themselves. Like the wine of the country, they taste of the soil from which they spring. They are not invented in towns. Please observe that for eighty years the sceptical party in France has been endeavouring to render the clergy unpopular in the country districts, and has not succeeded. That party could no more render the clergy unpopular with the peasantry than it could cause a downfall of natural rain. The notions which pass current among the peasantry-the notions which have vitality, and spread fast like a contagion-arise in the minds of the peasants themselves in a thousand places at once. The peasants who are separated even by a few miles hold no communication with each other, and as they do not read, they do not derive ideas from a common source; yet they all think and say exactly the same thing. The truth is, that as their heads are all in the same state, when a fact is presented to them they all find the same solution. They had been prepared to distrust the Pope by that coinage business; the announcement of the Infallibility dogma had given them a sort of notion that the Pope had made himself equal with God; consequently, distrust of his Holiness and a vague dread of his supernatural power, led to the conclusion that he thwarted the Divine intentions in favour of France. Please remember that the peasants here are all believers in sorcery, and that the Pope may easily appear to them as a very majestic and terrible sort of sorcerer, thwarting and hindering providence.-Globe. Reaction against Romanism and the Priests. A MARSEILLES correspondent of the Gazette de France, speaking of the state of affairs in that city, says : "For nearly a fortnight the Jesuit priests have been detained as political prisoners. They have been not only deprived of their clerical vestments, under the pretext of not exposing them to the insults of the malefactors, with whom they remain constantly mixed, but also of their breviaries and rosaries. One of them who was insufficiently clad was obliged to roll himself up in a blanket. So much for the respect shown to persons. Sacred things have met no better treatment. Since Sunday, the 15th of September, the Church of the French Mission has been constantly intruded into. The Civic Guards, those citizens who ' have merited well of their country,' following out a proclamation of M. Delpech, have abandoned themselves to all sorts of excesses in presence of the consecrated clements, which the priests, dragged away without warning, had not time to protect from this scandal. They brought women into the place, and drank, ate, and slept in it. The men and women joined in procession with lighted tapers and clerical dresses, singing alternately loose songs and hymns of the Church. The Bishop at length braved the fury of these madman. He came and took away the consecrated elements, which by good chance had not been meddled with. It was some days before the National Guard, the true inhabitants of Marseilles, came and put a stop to these disgraceful proceedings, and imprisoned the offenders. It must be added that this band was composed of workmen, who, having abandoned their work, are dependent on the allowance made them, no doubt, by those who seem to place them on the same level with the heroes of Strasburg, by awarding to them the same recognition of patriotic gratitude. If this is not the case, the Administration should explain how those people live. If, in conclusion, their previous history were inquired into, it would be found that most of them are strangers to Marseilles." The municipal council of Lyons have resolved on "the entire re-adoption of the law of the year 9, which prohibited every religious manifestation outside churches in places where several sects are tolerated." They have also forbidden the various religious congregations to engage any longer in the instruction of children. 66 The Emperor Napoleon and the War. A CORRESPONDENT of the Daily News at Cassel says that, according to a person worthy of attention," the Emperor Napoleon ascribes the war to the machinations of the party that was dominant in the Ecumenical Council, and chiefly to the scheming of Father Rothan, whose orders the clergy and the religious orders in France are wont to obey in political matters. The destruction of Prussian ascendency in Germany had been made the condition of the further support of the Empire by the Church. The war for this purpose was to take place while the Ecumenical Council was sitting, and the Ecumenical Council was summoned for no other purpose than to be sitting during the war. The Catholic population in Germany was reckoned upon and represented to the ignorant statesmen of the Empire as the most important and trustworthy ally of France in the war. French Mission to Palestine. M. THE Second Report is dated Jerusalem, 1st of July 1870. Guérin in this gives the account of the rest of his explorations in Samaria; he studied the western portion with the same care as the eastern, and with more important results. The most interesting discovery is that of the famous mausoleum of the family of the Machabees, hitherto searched for in vain, which M. Guérin discovered at Kirbet el Medieh, the true Modin, or Modicim, of the Holy Scriptures, the country of this celebrated family. After a careful consideration of all the passages in the books of Maccabees in which the monument which Simon raised over the tombs of his father, mother, brothers, and others, at Modin, and an examination on the spot of the conjectures of several religious inquirers, M. Guérin arrived at the conclusion that, on the one hand, Modin was really El Medieh, and that the ruins there found determine the site beyond question; and, on the other hand, and in opposition to the opinions recently stated in an English review, the monument of the Machabees should be looked for not at Kirbet el Ichoud, but at Kirbet el Gherbaoui, towards the N.N.W., on a fine plateau, where are to be seen the level courses of a rectangular edifice measuring 28 mètres by 6.20. After several visits to this spot, M. Guérin caused the whole of the structure to be excavated methodically under his own eye, and discovered the entire plan of the edifice, the existence of seven sepulchral chambers for seven members of the illustrious family, and surmounted by seven pyramids placed in a line, each covering the ceiling of one chamber. Finally, in the midst of the ruins of Mussulman habitations built near the edifice were found numbers of pieces of monolithic columns, much mutilated, all of the same diameter (47 centimètres), remains of the magnificent colonnade which decorated the front of the building, the last confirmation of the discovery. The tombs were explored. The floors were covered with small mosaic cubes, in some cases still adhering together, in others separate, and one of them contained five or six human bones, which were carefully respected. Poetry. THE SEAMLESS RAIMENT. "If I may but touch His garment, I shall be whole."-MATT. ix. 21. HEM of the seamless robe, Through which the virtue pour'd, Which told that He from whom it came With tremulous eager hand, Thee would I touch and grasp; No force of man, nor wiles of hell, Hem of the seamless robe, Which clothed our High Priest here, He trod our earthly sphere; When, with His priestly hand, He came, and cleansed, and heal'd; He all that cleansing seal'd! True health, through thee from Him The health of heaven, the life of God, Strength shall my portion be; One touch of that fair robe Who touches it is free! His chains are snapt in twain; Instead of mortal stain. It makes the bruisèd whole. Through it pours royal strength, It wakes the sleeper from his sleep, This priestly-royal robe, The robe without a seam, Has wrought strange miracles on earth, Beyond the dreamer's dream. Thrown o'er the soul it works To quicken and to save; Thrown o'er the tomb-enshrouded dust, It disenchants the grave. Thrown over this sad earth, As yet its folds shall be, It shall wipe out the wasting curse, Ages of sickness then Shall in a moment go; Shall be begun below. Ages of darkness end; Light, with its fair array, Long veil'd within the seamless robe, Shall burst forth into day. PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND COMPANY EDINBURGH AND LONDON THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF PROPHECY JULY 1871. ART. I.-THE BOOK OF THE LAST DAYS. THE title of this last and most wondrous of inspired books is "the Revelation (uncovering, unveiling*) of Jesus Christ." It is He who here "unveils," and who is here UNVEILED to us, and shines out with transfiguration-brightness before the Church's eye. The spirit and sum of this book is "testimony to Christ" (ch. xix. 10). He is its Alpha and Omega. We find Him everywhere,-in description, in song, in symbol, in prediction; in things past, present, and to come. Here Christ is all and in all. This last book completes the "unveiling" which was begun in the Gospels and carried on through the Epistles. The last fragment of the veil is here taken from His face. We see Him as He is, on the Father's right hand, on the throne, through the rent veil. The heavens are opened, and we are made to see Him (as Stephen did) in His present glory and in the glory of His second coming. Which God gave unto Him.—This unveiling is given to Him by the Father that He may give it to us; for even on the throne is He subject to the Father (1 Cor. xv. 28), waiting on His will and doing it. This revelation is God's gift to Him, * The noun and the verb, both in the Septuagint and the New Testament, have this as their meaning. Gen. viii. 13: "Noah uncovered the roof of the ark;" Num. v. 18:"He shall uncover the head of the woman;" Luke ii. 32: "A light for the uncovering of the Gentiles." In our version it is " a light to lighten the Gentiles." But the reference is to Isa. xxv. 7, as much as to xlii. 6. VOL. XXIII. Р |