Page:Dr Stiggins, His Views and Principles.pdf/78

 the shock it gave me to turn from his simple undenominational piety to the work of the Popish poet, Dante. Ah! what a change. See; I open the volume at haphazard. What does my eye light on? The scene is in Hell, and Dante hears the sighs

rising from a great multitude of people. His guide informs him that none of these persons had sinned:

"—and if they merit had, 'Tis not enough, because they had not baptism, Which is the portal of the Faith thou holdest."

But what is this but the sacramentalism of the Church Catechism? To what end have we strained every nerve and sinew to put a stop to the teaching of such doctrine as this in the People's Schools if we are to encourage our young men and maidens to subject themselves to the same contagion in another form, under the specious pretext that this work we are examining is a literary masterpiece. But