The simultaneous and eloquent reply of the three was to throw themselves, suffocated by their sobs, into the arms of the good old man.
"Alas! then," he proceeded, "if your own hearts do not tell you, it is my cruel duty to declare it."
The youths regarded each other for a moment, and then, with one impulse embracing each other, exclaimed with one voice:
"Father, we will not know it!"
The father raised his hands and eyes to heaven. "My God," he cried, "I thank thee! I die contented. My sons, my sons! may the satisfaction of having hidden for ever an unhappy secret, may the remembrance of having covered with a mantle of holy fraternal love the misfortune of one of yourselves, make your lives as happy and tranquil as you have made my death."
And laying his hands upon the heads of the three brothers, who had knelt at his bedside, he said: "Let my last words be your recompense. My sons, I leave you my blessing!"
Mercersburg Philosophy.
By A. Protestant.
[As allusion having been made in the article on Dr. Bacon, which appeared in our April number, "to the German Reformed Presbyterians and Dr. Nevin," has called forth the following communication. We publish it as interesting to our readers who will bear in mind in its perusal that it is from a Protestant source, and while making, therefore, an allowance for some of its statements, will at the same time be not a little surprised that one who sees so much Catholic truth should fail to identify what he sees with the Catholic Church.—Ed. C. W.]