Ss X ST "I LOVE THOSE THAT LOVE ME: AND THOSE THAT SEEK ME EARLY SHALL FIND ME." PROV. VIII, 17. VoL.III. ROCHESTER, SEPTEMBER, 18 55. No. 9. GOD OUR FATHER. stir in some quarters, and well-nigh overturned the pope's authority. The archbishop of Treves A HYMN FOR CHILDREN. did not like to play that game over. ' Ah, I'll Blest are children who have taken show the holy coat, and cause. the people to come God to be their God and guide; and confess their sins to that and get healed,' said They shall never be forsaken, In his keeping they abide. he; ' yes, and pay for the sight too.' "The holy coat, the Romanists declare, is the He will be their God forever, Watching o'er them all the day ; seamless robe which Jesus Christ wore when he Nothing from his love can sever, lived upon the earth, and which the soldiers cast None can turn his love away. lots for at his crucifixion. You remember about "Come to me," the invitation it, do you not? The archbishop of Treves said Free, he offers to us all ; he had that very coat sacredly stowed away in " Come, partake my full salvation, the church. So he caused it to be published, far Hear your heavenly Father's call." and wide, that in the Summer of 1844, the holy God of mercy, take us to thee, coat was to be exhibited over the high altar of Guide our hearts to seek thy grace ; the great church, and that whoever desired to be May we as our Father view thee, Grant us all the children's place. blessed by looking at it, or cured by touching it, must come ready to pay for so great a privilege. Through this world while here we wander, It seems strange to us that people could believe Till we reach our home and thee, In the world of glory yonder, in such things even from the mouth of a bishop. Our eternal Father be .—London leis. Rep. But they did, because their minds were blinded by idle stories, instead of being enlightened by The Moly Coat. true Bible knowledge. As soon as the news pass- ed from village to village, the men could think of " Children, have you heard about the holy nothing else; they began to leave their farms and coat ?" work-shops, the women their houses and babies, "Holy coat.' you will exclaim. "I know and scraping together all the money they could, about coats, but not holy ones; we don't call coats flocked towards Treves. The roads in all direc- holy." tions, east, west, north and south, were crowded "I mean the holy coat which, the Romanists with pilgrims—some sick, some lame, some in- say, cures lame, and blind, and sick people." firm—all eagerly longing to behold the holy coat, "No, indeed! a coat turned doctor? a new and all expecting to be made better by the sight. thing indeed! a coat cure sick folks! what can The city was filled. At certain hours the great you mean ? There is no such coat really, I am doors of the church were thrown open, and the sure; is there!" people marched in solemn procession up to the "Let me tell you about this coat, said to be so altar, where the robe in a glass frame was hung wonderful. There is a Doman-catholic city in up in broad view. On casting their eyes upon Germany called Treves—perhaps you had better it, ' Holy coat, hear us,' holy coat, save us,' ho- find it on the map; it contains a large Roman- ly coat,' issued from their lips: they stop a mo- catholic church many hundreds of years old, with ment, look anxiously at it, then fling down their an archbishop at the head of it. A few years money to a priest who stands near to receive it, ago the bishop was out of money, and how he pass around and go out. So great was the press should get some was a very important question. that the church was open from morning to mid- I suppose he was in the same plight pope Leo night, and every day there was an enormous heap was, three hundred years before. The pope was of money collected, which showed that the coat poor, and wanted money. Do you know what plan was a very profitable one at least. It was calcu- he hit upon to fill his purse ? ' I will make peo- lated that more than a million of men, women, ple pay me for pardoning their sins,' said he; a and children, paid a visit to this relic, and a great pardon for small sins, I will sell cheap—large sins many stories were told of the wonderful cures must cost more.' Now the Bible was a very wrought by touching it; but I believe it was al- scarce book; so the poor people were ignorant, ways very difficult to hunt up the cured people: t and believed the pope could pardon their sins. they were not to be seen, as those were whom the A great many pardons were sold, and the pope Saviour cured in so sudden and wonderful a man- became very rich. But the affair made a great ner. If you asked, ' Where are they ? I want to I I II 11r.111 . I S134V<---• 66 YOUTH'S INSTRUCTOR. talk with somebody whom the holy coat has heal- been sold and re-sold at great prices. It is said ed,' you would be told, Away off somewhere; that wood enough has been sold as the cross of could not say certainly just where.' Christ, to build a great seventy-four gun ship of "' How did it look, the holy coat?' some one war. These relics are foolishly supposed to heal may ask. It was of a reddish brown color, the sick, and preserve their possessor from all the stretched over a piece of white silk in the form of ills of life. Men and women believe these things; the letter T. It seemed to have been made of and yet, in a country where the Bible is read and flax, with no collar, and a hole for the head to studied, there is not a child in the Sabbath-school pass through, and the whole was cased in glass, but knows enough to laugh at such idle stories: as I just told you. they know it is only God in Jesus Christ who can " Thus this vast body of people were led to pardon sins, who can raise the sick, and defend us forsake their farms and families, and in the Sum- from harm—not an old coat, or a piece of wood, mer also when the fields and flocks needed their or saint's toes. Thank God, children, for the Bi- care, and take a long and tedious journey, a great ble, for it brushes away all such cobwebs from the number of them on foot, to Treves, to be pardon- mind, and points to the blessed Lamb of God, ed and blessed by the sight of an old coat. Par- who taketh away the sins of the world." don and blessing can only come throngh the knowledge of Jesus Christ and the influence of THE TWO BOORS. the Holy Spirit; an old coat can have noth- "SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES." JOHN V, 39. ing to do with it. But such, children, is the ig- TILE great and good God has given us a book norance and folly in which Romanists are brought to teach us his will, and how we may learn to up. How much we ought to pity them, and how please him and lead good and holy lives, so that anxious ought you and I to be to give them the we may finally be with him in heaven. ow ev- word of God, and not the word of priests and ery child knows what God's book is—that it is the bishops, in order to make them truly wise. Holy Bible; and all of you have seen it, and most " But how came the holy coat at Treves? what of you have a copy of it for your • own, that you story do they tell about that ?' some one may may read and study it when you please. And ask still. ought you not to be thankful to have God's "I will tell you, if my story is not already too book ? How many peopl3 in other countries long. More than three hundred years after Jesus have never seen this blessed book, to show them Christ died, when a Christian empress named the way to heaven. Now let us consider this Helena began to think the forms of religion more book. important than piety in the heart, she paid a vis- It is the oldest book in the world, for parts of it to Jerusalem for the purpose of hunting up rel- it were written long ages before Christ came into ics of Jesus. It was pretended that among other the world. Other book not near as old, are now things, his cross and coat came to light. Jerusa- lost, or very scarce and hard to find ; but God lem, after his death, was totally destroyed and has caused his book to be kept safely all this trodden under foot by the Roman soldiery. How time, and its numbers to be more and more in- these, for so long a period, and through such creased for our benefit.