Florence seated herself as near the water as possible, and then
tightly clasping the hand she held, asked in a voice of suppressed
emotion; "Tell me, Mary, is there a purgatory?"

"No, Florry; I think there is less foundation for that doctrine than
any advanced by your church."

"Mary, you speak truth, and all that you say I can implicitly believe.
Tell me what grounds support the theory?"

"You remember the words of our Saviour. 'All sin shall be forgiven,
save blasphemy of the Holy Ghost; that shall not be forgiven, either
in this world or the next.' Now Papists argue in this way: Then other
sins can be forgiven in another world; there is no sin in heaven, in
hell no forgiveness, consequently, there must exist a middle place,
or, in other words, a purgatory. Florry, you smile, yet I assure you I
have seen this advanced as unanswerable. In the book of Maccabees is a
very remarkable passage authorizing prayers for the dead, and on this
passage they build their theory and sanction their practise. Yet you
know full well it is one of the Apocryphal books rejected by the Jews,
because not originally written in their language. It was never quoted
by our Saviour, nor even received as inspired by your own church
till the Council of Trent, when it was admitted to substantiate the
doctrine of purgatory, and sanction prayers for the dead. I admit that
on this point St. Augustine's practise was in favor of it; though it
was only near the close of his long life that he speaks of the soul
of his mother. Yet already history informs us that the practise of
praying for the dead was gaining ground in the church, along with
image worship. St. Cyprian, who lived long before him, and during