Page:Free Opinions, Freely Expressed on Certain Phases of Modern Social Life and Conduct.djvu/66

France will not have the Jesuits; may it be asked why we are to have them? It is England's proud privilege to be an international workhouse for all the decrepit of the world, and for this cause a happy hunting ground is open to Rome among these same decrepit. There is no creed in the world which is better adapted for those who are morally weak, and frightened of themselves. All the millionaires who have gotten their goods by fraud, can, by leaving the greater part of these goods to Rome, secure a reserved seat in Rome's Heaven, with a special harp and crown. All the women with "soul-affinities" other than lawful, can, after a considerable wallow in social mire, enter the Church of Rome, and, after confession, be "cleansed" sufficiently to begin again a new life, approved of the saints. All the spiritualists and faith-healers can find support for their theories with Rome,—and the Roman hell, full of large snakes and much brimstone, is a satisfactory place to consign one's enemies to, when we have quite put aside Christ's command, "Love one another." Altogether Romanism is calculated to appeal to a very large majority of persons through the sensuous and emotional beauty of its ritual;—it is a kind of heavenly narcotic which persuades the believer to resign his own will into the hypnotic management of the priests. The church is made gorgeous with soft lights and colours,—glorious music resounds through the building, and the mind drowses gently under the influence of the Latin chanting, which we need not follow unless we like,—we are permitted to believe that a large number of saints and angels are specially looking after us, and that the