scriptural examples,
and the divine command of the Founder of Christianity himself. The
Eunuch was _reading the scriptures_, searching for, and inquiring after
divine truth, when Philip received a commission from heaven to "join
himself to his chariot." The Saviour gave an authoritative command to
the Jews to "_search the scriptures_," and it is recorded of Timothy
that "_from a child he had known the Holy Scriptures_." They are the
means of affording that instruction which man's wisdom cannot teach,
while they bear every mark of a divine revelation, in a manner worthy
of God, and plain to the meanest capacity.

I had given a French Testament to one of the Canadians, whom I married
to a Swiss Protestant, which excited the farther active prejudice of
the Catholic priest. He called on him, and requested that he might have
it, but the Canadian objected, saying, that as his wife was a
Protestant, she wished to read it. He then asked to borrow it,
promising to return the Testament in a few days, and took it home with
him. I had written on the inside of the cover--

The man's name.
From the British and Foreign Bible Society.
"Sondez les Ecritures." St. Jean, v. 39.

A short time after it was returned, the Canadian shewed me the remarks
which the priest had written, and gave me the Testament, at my request,
in exchange for a Bible.

Over the above text, the Catholic priest wrote, "Lisez avee soin les
Ecritures, mais ne les explicuez point d'apres vos lumieres," and
immediately following my name, which I had put at the bottom of the
cover: "Si _quelquun_ necoute pas l'Eglise regardez le comme un Paien,
et un Publicain." Matth. xviii. 17; adding the following observations:
"Dans ce livre, on ne dit pas un mot de la penitence qui afflige le
corps. Cependant il est de foi qu'elle est absolument necessaire au
salut apres le peche, c'est a l'Eglise de J. C. qu'il appartient de
determiner le sens des Ecritures."

The prejudices which the Canadian priests at the Colony express against
Catholics marrying Protestants must tend to weaken the religious and
moral obligation of the marriage contract, as entered into between
them. I have known the priests refuse to marry the parties of the above
different persuasions, at the time that they were co-habiting together,
as though it were better for them to live in fornication, than that
they should violate the rigid statutes of the Papal see.

I married a couple a short time