WHAT HAPPENED AT THE DONATION-PARTY.
"Did you go to the donation party at our minister's last night,
sister C----? I was so sorry that I couldn't go! My little girl had
such a bad cold, I did not dare to leave her."
"Yes, I was there; and, don't you think! Mrs. H---- was there too,
with her daughter. Would you have believed she would dare to show her
face among the Methodists, after what has happened?"
"No, indeed, I should not! But wonders will never cease. How did she
appear?"
"As pleasant and gentle as ever; and just as much at home as if she
had never left us to join the Catholics. Sister J---- would not speak
to her at first, or look at her; and our good old brother L----, who
used to be her class-leader, you know, quite turned the cold shoulder
upon her; but she was not to be put off so easily; and after a little
while, her kind and winning ways had thawed all the ice, and we
couldn't help being pleasant with her."
"Well, I always did love sister H----; hence I don't want to meet her
now. I am glad I was not there! Did any one speak to her about her
change?"
"Yes; brother L---- could not help telling her how sorry we were to
lose her; and she said, 'You have not lost me, brother L----; I shall
never forget my dear Methodist friends, and shall never cease to
love and pray for them!' 'Pray for them!' brother L---- said with
great contempt; 'we don't thank people for praying to the saints
for us; we can pray to God for ourselves. Ah Sister H----! if you
would only pray to him as you used to, when you were a warm-hearted
Methodist, that would do!' Her answer to this was what puzzled me.
I remember every word of it, she looked so grieved, and so sweetly
earnest, while the tears fairly came to her eyes as she said, 'Pray
to God as I used to, Brother L----! Why, I never knew the meaning
of the word prayer until I was a Catholic! I then entered the very
atmosphere of prayer! My life, my breath, my every thought, my every
action, became one continual prayer to an ever-present God from that
hour. The saints united with me, assisted me--at my request prayed
for me--and for those for whom I desired their prayers in union
with my own; and of that perfect union and communion with them, I
can give you no idea. O brother L----! believe me, there is no home
for a 'warm-hearted Methodist' but the Catholic Church! Don't you
remember, in our class conferences, how I used to say I was happy,
but not satisfied; I felt that I was still a seeker. I had been first
a Congregationalist, then an Episcopalian, and at last a Methodist;
but had not found all I was seeking for. You thought I never would
until I reached heaven; but'--and how I wish, dear friend, you could
have seen and heard her as she said it, for I cannot describe her
impressive manner--'but brother, I have found it all in the Catholic
Church! The blank is filled. The yearning of my soul is satisfied so
entirely that there is nothing left to desire!'
"'All a delusion, sister H----!' exclaimed brother L----. 'You'll
wake up some time and find it so, and then you'll come back!' She
looked perfectly dismayed at the very thought, as she replied,
'Come back to what? To content myself with the shadow, when I have
possessed the substance? to satisfy my hunger with the husks of
the stranger, when I have feasted at the continual and overflowing
banquet of my Father's table! O my Methodist friends! if you could
but taste for once the sweetness and fulness of that banquet, you
would never cast one backward look upon what you had left, except
to mourn for those who remain contented there, when they might be
feasting on the bread of angels!' I confess to you, Mrs. M----, that
I could not help being moved by her earnestness to wish that I was
even as she is! No one can doubt her entire sincerity who listens
to her. Brother L---- asked her if it could be possible that she
believed all the absurdities taught by the Romish Church? She replied
that she believed no absurdities, and that he had not the slightest
idea as to what the Catholic Church really did teach; a tissue of
absurdities had been invented by its enemies, and palmed off upon the
too credulous Protestants as its teachings, when they were entirely
foreign to it, and baseless misrepresentations. 'But,' she added, 'I
believe all that my church really does offer to my belief, as firmly
as I believe that there is a sun in the firmament of heaven!'"
"Well, how strange it all is, to be sure! Now, I met Mrs. L---- the
other day, and I was so provoked at the way they are going on, that
I could not for my life help asking her why, in the name of common
sense, if they wanted to be Romanists, they didn't all go together
like sensible people, and not string along, one to-day, another
to-morrow, and so on, as they do? And what do you think was her
reply? 'Why, you know, Mrs. M----,' she said; 'that we read of the
olden time that, "The Lord added _daily_ unto the church of such as
should be saved"!' There is one thing, as you say, that cannot be
doubted or denied: right or wrong, they are solemnly in earnest, and
heartily sincere. You know little Kitty S---- had a terrible fit
of sickness before they became Catholics, (some think her sickness
hastened that event,) and has been a great sufferer ever since.
Sister W---- has taken care of her through it all, and I should not
wonder if she should go off on the same road. She is all taken up
with it now, and justifies their course; says all the evils we have
been accustomed to hear of the Catholic religion are slanders, and
that if the S----s, and especially little Kitty, are not Christians
of the true stamp, she does not rightly understand the gospel of
Christ."