CHAPTER 66
Where shall I find words to express the sentiments of surprise, admiration and joy I felt when, after divine service, alone in my humble study, I considered, in the presence of God, what His mighty hand had just wrought under my eyes. The people who surrounded the Saviour when He cried to Lazarus to come forth, were not more amazed at seeing the dead coming out of his grave than I was when I had seen, not one, but more than a thousand, of my countrymen so suddenly and unexpectedly coming out from the grave of the degrading slavery in which they were born and brought up. No, the heart of Moses was not filled with more joy than mine, when on the shores of the Red Sea, he sang his sublime hymn:
"I will sing unto the Lord: for He hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and
his rider hath He thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and song, and He
is become my salvation: He is my God, and I will prepare Him an habitation: my
fathers' God, and I will exalt Him" (Ex. xv. 2).
My joy was, however, suddenly changed into confusion, when I
considered the unworthiness of the instrument which God had chosen to do that
work. I felt this was only the beginning of the most remarkable religious reform
which had ever occurred on this continent of America, and I was dismayed at the
thought of such a task! I saw, at a glance, that I was called to guide my people
into regions entirely new and unexplored. The terrible difficulties which
Luther, Calvin and Knox had met, at almost every step, were to meet me. Though
giants, they had, at many times, been bought low and almost discouraged in their
new positions. What would become of me, seeing that I was so deficient in
knowledge, wisdom and experience!
Many times, during the first night after the deliverance of my people from the
bondage of the Pope, I said to my God in tears: "Why hast not Thou chosen a
more worthy instrument of Thy mercies towards my brethren?" I would have
shrank before the task, had not God said to me in His Word: "For ye see
your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many
mighty, not many noble, are called; but God hath chosen the foolish things of
the world to confound the wise. And God hath chosen the weak things of the world
to confound the things which are mighty, and base things of the world and things
which are despised, hath God chosen; yea, the things which are not, to bring to
naught the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence" (I
Cor. i. 29 29).
These words calmed my fears and gave me new courage. Next morning, I said to
myself: "Is it not God alone who has done the great things of yesterday?
Why should I not rely upon Him for the things which remain to be done? I am
weak, it is true, but He is strong and mighty. I am unwise, but He is the God of
light and wisdom: I am sinful, but He is the God of holiness: He wants the world
to know that He is the worker."
It would make the most interesting book, were I to tell all the marvelous
episodes of the new battle my dear countrymen and I had to fight against Rome,
in those stormy but blessed days. Let me ask my readers to come with me to that
Roman Catholic family, and see the surprise and desolation of the wife and
children when the father returned from public service and said: "My dear
wife and children, I have, for ever, left the Church of Rome, and hope that you
will do the same. The ignominious chains by which we were tied, as the slaves of
the bishops and the Pope, are broken. Christ Jesus alone will reign over us now.
His Holy Word alone will rule and guide us. Salvation is a gift: I am happy in
it possession."
In another house, the husband had not been able to come to church, but the wife
and children had. It was now the wife who announced to her husband that she had,
for ever, renounced the usurped authority of the bishops and the Pope: and that
it was her firm resolution to obey no other master than Christ, and accept no
other religion than the one taught in the Gospel. At first, this was considered
only as a joke; but as soon as it was realized to be a fact, there were, in many
places, confusion, tears, angry words and bitter discussions. But the God of
truth, light and salvation was there; and as it was His work, the storms were
soon calmed, the tears dried, and peace restored.
A week had scarcely passed, when the Gospel cause had achieved one of the most
glorious victories over its implacable enemy, the Pope. In a few days, 405 out
of 500 families which were around me in St. Anne, had not only accepted the
Gospel of Christ, as their only authority in religion; but had publicly given up
the name of Roman Catholics, to call themselves Christian Catholics.
A few months later, a Romish priest, legally questioned on the subject, by the
Judge of Kankakee, had to swear that only fifteen families had remained Roman
Catholics in St. Anne.
A most admirable feature of this religious movement, was the strong
determination of those who had never been taught to read, to lose no time in
acquiring the privilege of reading for themselves the Divine Gospel which had
made them free from the bondage of man. Half of the people had never been taught
to read while in Canada; but as their children were attending the schools we had
established in different parts of the colony, every house, as well as our
chapel, on Sabbath days, was soon turned into a school-house, where our
school-boys and girls were the teachers, and the fathers and mothers, the
pupils. In a short time, there were but few, except those who refused to leave
Rome, who could not read for themselves the Holy Word of God.
But, however great the victory we had gained over the Pope, it was not yet
complete. It was true that the enemy had received a deadly wound. The beast,
with the seven heads, had its principal one severed. The usurped authority of
the bishops had been destroyed, and the people had determined to accept none but
the authority of Christ. But many false notions, drank with the milk of their
mothers, had been retained. Many errors and superstitions still remained in
their minds, as a mist after the rising of the sun, to prevent them from seeing
clearly the saving light of the Gospel, it was my duty to destroy those
superstitions, and root out these noxious weeds. But, I knew the formidable
difficulties the reformers of the fifteenth century had met, the deplorable
divisions which had spread among them, and the scandals which had so seriously
retarded and compromised the reformation.
I cried to God for wisdom and strength. Never had I understood so clearly, as I
did in that most solemn and difficult epoch of my life, the truth that prayer is
to the troubled mind what oil is to the raging waves of the sea. My people and
I, as are all Roman Catholics, were much given to the worship of images and
statues. There were fourteen beautiful pictures hung on the walls of our chapel
called: "The Way of the Cross," on which the circumstances of the
passion of Jesus Christ were represented, each surmounted with a cross. One of
our favourite devotional exercises, was to kneel, three or four times a week,
before them, prostrate ourselves and say, with a loud voice: "Oh! holy
cross, we adore thee." We used to address our most fervent prayers to them,
as if they could hear us, asking them to change our hearts and purify our souls!
Our blind devotions were so sincere that we used to bow our heads to the ground
before them. I may say the same of the beautiful statue, or rather idol, of the
Virgin Mary, represented as a child learning to read at the feet of her mother,
St. Anne.
The group was a masterpiece of art, sent to me by some rich friends from
Montreal, not long after I had left that city to form the colony of St. Anne, in
1852. We had frequently addressed our most fervent prayers to those statues, but
after the blessed Pentecost on which we had broken the yoke of the Pope, I never
entered my church without blushing at the sight of those idols on the altar. I
would have given much to have the pictures, crosses and things removed, but dare
not lay hands suddenly on them, I was afraid, lest I should do harm to some of
my people who, it seemed to me, were yet too weak in their religious views to
bear it. I was just then reading how Knox and Calvin had made bonfires of all
those relics of old Paganism, and I wished I could do the same; but I felt like
Jacob, who could not follow the rapid march of his brother, Esau, towards the
land of Seir. "The children are tender and the flocks and herds with young
are with me. If men should overdrive them one day, all the flock will die"
(Gen. xxxiii. 13).
Our merciful God saw the perplexity in which I was, and taught me how to get rid
of those idols without harming the weak.
One Sabbath, on which I preached on the Second Commandment: "Thou shalt not
make to thyself any graven image," ect. (Exod. xx. 4), I remained in the
chapel to pray after the people had left. I looked up to the group of statues on
the altar, and said to them: "My good ladies, you must come down from that
high position: God Almighty alone is worshipped here now: if you could walk out
of this place I would politely invite you to do it. But you are nothing but
mute, deaf, blind and motionless idols: you have eyes, but you cannot see: ears,
but you cannot hear: feet, but you cannot walk. What will I do with you now?
Your reign has come to an end."
It suddenly came to my mind that when I had put these statues on their high
pedestal, I had tied them with a very slender, but strong silk cord, to prevent
them from falling. I said to myself: "If I were to cut that string, the
idols would surely fall, the first day the people would shake the floor when
entering or going out." Their fall and destruction would then scandalize on
one. I took my knife and scaled the altar, cut the string, and said: "Now,
my good ladies, take care of yourselves, especially when the chapel is shaken by
the wind, or the coming in of the people."
I never witnessed a more hearty laugh than at the beginning of the religious
services, on the next Sabbath. The chapel, being shaken by the action of the
whole people who fell on their knees to pray, the two idols, deprived of their
silk support, after a couple of jerks which, in former days, we might have taken
for a friendly greeting, fell down with a loud crash, and broke into fragments.
Old and young, strong and weak, and even babes in the faith, after laughing to
their hearts' content at the sad end of their idols, said to each other:
"How foolish and blind were we, to put our trust in, and pray to these
idols, that they might protect us, when they cannot take care of
themselves!" The last vestige of idol worship among our dear converts,
disappeared for ever with the dust and broken fragments of those poor helpless
statues. The very next day, the people themselves took away all the images
before which they had so often abjectly prostrated themselves, and destroyed
them.
From the beginning of this movement, it had been my plan to let the people draw
their own conclusions as much as possible from their own study of the Holy
Scriptures. I used to direct their steps, in such a way, that they might
understand that I was myself led with them by the mighty and merciful arm of
God, in our new ways. It was also evident to me that, from the beginning, the
great majority, after searching the Scriptures with prayerful attention, had
found out that Purgatory was a diabolical invention used by the priests of Rome,
to enrich themselves, at the expense of their poor blind slaves. But I was also
convinced that quite a number were not altogether free from that imposture. I
did not know how to attack and destroy that error without wounding and injuring
some of the weak children of the Gospel. After much praying, I thought that the
best way to clear the clouds which were still hovering around the feeblest
intelligences, was to have recourse to the following device:
The All Souls Day (1st Nov.) had come, when it was the usage to take up
collections for the sake of having prayers and masses said for the souls in
purgatory. I then said to the people, from the pulpit: "You have been used,
from your infancy, to collect money, today, in order to have prayers said for
the souls in purgatory. Since we have left the Church of Rome for the Church of
Christ, we have spent many pleasant hours together in reading and meditating
upon the Gospel. You know that we have not found in it a single word about
purgatory. From the beginning to the end of that divine book, we have learned
that it was only though the blood of the Lamb, shed on the Cross, that our
guilty souls could be purified from their sins. I know, however, that a few of
you have retained something of the views taught to you, when in the Church of
Rome, concerning purgatory. I do not want to trouble them by useless discussions
on the subject, or by refusing the money they want to give for the souls of
their dear departed parents and friends. The only thing I want to do is this:
You used to have a small box passed to you to receive that money. Today, instead
of one box, two boxes will be passed, one white, the other black. Those who,
like myself, do not believe in purgatory, will put their donations in the white
box, and the money will be given to the poor widows and orphans of the parish to
help them to get food and clothing for next winter. Those of you who still
believe in purgatory, will put their money into the black box, for the benefit
of the dead. The only favour I ask of them is that they should tell me how to
convey their donations to their departed friends. I tell you frankly that the
money you give to the priests, never goes to the benefit of the souls of
purgatory. The priests, everywhere, keep that money for their own bread and
butter."
My remarks were followed by a general smile. Thirty-five dollars were put in the
white box for the orphans and widows, and not a cent fell into the box for the
souls of purgatory.
From that day, by the great mercy of God, our dear converts were perfectly rid
of the ridiculous and sacrilegious belief in purgatory. This is the way I have
dealt with all the errors and idolatries of Rome. We had two public meetings
every week, when our chapel was as well filled as on Sabbath. After the
religious exercise, every one had the liberty to question me and argue on the
various subjects announced at the last meeting.
The doctrines of auricular confession, prayers in an unknown language, the mass,
holy water and indulgences, were calmly examined, discussed, and thrown
overboard, one after the other, in a very short time. The good done in those
public discussions was incalculable. Our dear converts not only learned the
great truths of Christianity, but they learned also how to defend and preach
them to their relations, friends and neighbours. Many would come from long
distances to see for themselves that strange religious movement which was making
so much noise all over the country. It is needless to say that few of them went
back without having received some rays of the saving light which the Sun of
Righteousness was so abundantly pouring upon me and my dear brethren of St.
Anne.
Three months after our exit from the land of bondage, we were not less than six
thousand French Canadian marching towards the Promised Land.
How can I express the joy of my soul, when, under cover of the darkness of
night, I was silently pacing the streets of our town, I heard, from almost every
house, sounds of reading the Holy Scriptures, or the melodies of our delightful
French hymns! How many times did I then, uniting my feeble voice with that old
prophet, say in the rapture of my joy: "Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all
that is within me, bless His holy name" (Ps. ciii. 1).
But it was necessary that such a great and blessed work should be tried. God
cannot be purified without going through the fire.
On the 27th of July, a devoted priest, through my friend, Mr. Dunn, of Chicago,
sent me the following copy of a letter, written by the Roman Catholic Bishop of
Illinois (Duggan) to several of his co-bishops: "The schism of the
apostate, Chiniquy, is spreading with an incredible and most irresistible
velocity. I am told that he has not less then ten thousand followers from his
countrymen. Though I hope that this number is an exaggeration, it shows that the
evil is great; and that we must not lose any time in trying to open the eyes of
the deluded people he is leading to perdition. I intend (D.V.) to visit the very
citadel of that deplorable schism, next Tuesday, the 3rd of August. As I speak
French almost as well as English, I will address the deluded people of St. Anne
in their own language. My intention is to unmask Chiniquy, and show what kind of
a man he is. Then I will show the people the folly of believing that they can
read and interpret the Scriptures, by their own private judgment. After which, I
will easily show them that out of the Church of Rome there is no salvation. Pray
to the blessed Virgin Mary that she may help me reclaim that poor deceived
people."
Having read that letter to the people on the first Sabbath of August, I said:
"We know a man only after he has been tried. So we know the faith of a
Christian only after it has been through the fire of tribulations. I thank God
that next Tuesday will be the day chosen by Him to show the world that you are
worthy of being in the front rank of the great army Jesus Christ is gathering to
fight His implacable enemy, the Pope, on this continent. Let every one of you
come and hear what the bishop has to say. Not only those who are in good health
must come, but even the sick must be brought to hear and judge for themselves.
If the bishop fulfills his promise to show you that I am a depraved and wicked
man, you must turn me out. You must give up or burn your Bibles, at his bidding,
if he proves that you have neither the right to read, nor the intelligence to
understand them; and if he shows you that, out of the Church of Rome, there is
no salvation, you must, without an hour's delay, return to that church and
submit yourselves to the Pope's bishops. But if he fails (as he will surely do)
you know what you have to do. Next Tuesday will be a most glorious day for us
all. A great and decisive battle will be fought here, such as this continent has
never witnessed, between the great principles of Christian truth and liberty,
and the principles of lies and tyranny of the Pope. I have only one word more to
say: From this moment to the solemn hour of the conflict, let us humbly, but
fervently ask our great God, through His beloved and eternal Son, to look down
upon us in His mercy, enlighten and strengthen us, that we may be true to Him,
to ourselves, and to His Gospel, and then, the angels of heaven will unite with
all the elect of God on earth to bless you for the great and glorious victory
you will win."
Never had the sun shone more brightly on our beautiful hill than on the 3rd of
August, 1858. The hearts had never felt so happy, and the faces had never been
so perfectly the mirrors of joyful minds, as on that day, among the multitudes
which began to gather from every corner of the colony, a little after twelve
o'clock, noon.
Seeing that our chapel, though very large, would not be able to contain half the
audience, we had raised a large and solid platform, ten feet high, in the middle
of the public square, in front of the chapel. We covered it with carpets, and
put a sofa, with a good number of chairs, for the bishop, his long suite of
priests, and one for myself, and a large table for the different books of
references I wanted to have at hand, to answer the bishop.
At about two o'clock p.m., we perceived his carriage, followed by several others
filled with priests. He was dressed in his white surplice, and his official
"bonnet carre" on his head, evidently to more surely command the
respect and awe of the multitude.
I had requested the people to keep silence and show him all the respect and
courtesy due a gentleman who was visiting them, for the first time.
As soon as his carriage was near the chapel, I gave a signal, and up went the
American flag to the top of a mast put on the sacred edifice. It was to warn the
ambassador of the Pope that he was not treading the land of the holy inquisition
and slavery, but the land of Freedom and Liberty. The bishop understood it. For,
raising his head to see that splendid flag of stripes and stars, waving to the
breeze, he became pale to death. And his uneasiness did not abate, when the
thousands round him rent the air with the cry: "Hurrah for the flag of the
free and the brave!" The bishop and his priests thought this was the signal
I had given to slaughter them; for they had been told several times, that I and
my people were so depraved and wicked that their lives were in great danger
among us. Several priests who had not much relish for the crown of martyrdom,
jumped from their carriages and ran away, to the great amusement of the crowd.
Perceiving the marks of the most extreme terror on the face of the bishop, I ran
to tell him that there was not the least danger, and assured him of the pleasure
we had to see him in our midst.
I offered my hand to help him down from his carriage, but he refused it. After
some minutes of trembling and hesitation, he whispered a few words in the ear of
his Grand Vicar Mailloux, who was well known by my people, and of whom I have
already spoken. I knew that it was by his advice that the bishop was among us,
and it was by his instigation that Bishop Smith had refused the submission we
had given him.
Rising slowly, he said with a loud voice: "My dear French Canadian
countrymen, here is your holy bishop. Kneel down, and he will give you his
benediction."
But, to the great disgust of the poor grand vicar, this so well laid plan for
beginning the battle failed entirely. Not a single one of that immense multitude
cared for the benediction. Nobody knelt.
Thinking that he had not spoken loud enough, he raised his voice to the highest
pitch and cried:
"My dear fellow countrymen: This is your holy bishop. He comes to visit
you. Kneel down, and he will give you his benediction."
But nobody knelt, and, what was worse, a voice from the crowd answered:
"Do you not know, sir, that there we no longer bend the knee before any
man? It is only before God we kneel."
The whole people cried "Amen!" to that noble answer. I could not
refrain a tear of joy from falling down my cheeks, when I saw how this first
effort of the ambassador of the Pope to entrap my people had signally failed.
But though I thanked God from the bottom of my heart for this first success He
had given to His soldiers, I knew the battle was far from being over.
I implored Him to bide with us, to be our wisdom and our strength to the end. I
looked at the bishop, and seeing his countenance as distressed as before, I
offered him my hand again, but he refused it the second time with supreme
disdain, but accepted the invitation I gave him to come to the platform.
When half way up the stairs he turned, and seeing me following him, he put forth
his hand to prevent me from ascending any further, and said: "I do not want
you on this platform; go down, and let my priests alone accompany me."
I answered him: "It may be that you do not want me there, but I want to be
at your side to answer you. Remember that you are not on your own ground here,
but on mine!"
He then, silently and slowly, walked up. When on the platform, I offered him a
good arm-chair, which he refused, and sat on one of his own choice, with his
priests around him. I then addressed him as follows:
"My lord, the people and pastor of St. Anne are exceedingly pleased to see
you in their midst. We promise to listen attentively to what you have to say, on
condition that we have the privilege of answering you."
He answered angrily: "I do not want you to say a word here."
Then stepping to the front, he began his address in French, with a trembling
voice. But it was a miserable failure from beginning to end. In vain did he try
to prove that out of the Church of Rome, there is no salvation. He failed still
more miserably to prove that the people have neither the right to read the
Scriptures, nor the intelligence to understand them. He said such ridiculous
things on that point, that the people went into fits of laughter, and some said:
"This is not true. You do not know what you are talking about. The Bible
says the very contrary."
But I stopped them by reminding them of the promise they had made of not
interrupting him.
A little before the closing of his address, he turned to me and said: "You
are a wicked, rebel priest against your holy church. Go from here into a
monastery to do penance for your sins. You say that you have never been
excommunicated in a legal way! Well, you will not say that any longer, for I
excommunicate you now before this whole people."
I interrupted him and said: "You forget that you have no right to
excommunicate a man who has publicly left your church long ago."
He seemed to realize that he had made a fool of himself in uttering such a
sentence, and stopped speaking for a moment. Then, recalling his lost courage,
he took a new and impressive manner of speaking. He told the people how their
friends, their relatives, their very dear mothers and fathers in Canada were
weeping over their apostasy. He spoke for a time with great earnestness of the
desolation of all those who loved them, at the news of their defection from
their holy mother church. Then, resuming, he said: "My dear friends: Please
tell me what will be your guide in the ways of God after you have left the holy
church of your fathers, the church of your country; who will lead you in the
ways of God?"
Those words, which have been uttered with great emphasis and earnestness, were
followed by a most complete and solemn silence. Was that silence the result of a
profound impression made on the crowd, or was it the silence which always
precedes the storm? I could not say. But I must confess that, though I had not
lost confidence in God, I was not without anxiety. Though silent and ardent
prayers were going to the mercy-seat from my heart, I felt that that poor heart
was troubled and anxious, as it had never been before. I could have easily
answered the bishop and confounded him in a few words; but I thought that it was
much better to let the answer and rebuke come from the people.
The bishop, hoping that the long and strange silence was a proof that he had
successfully touched the sensitive cords of the hearts, and that he was to win
the day, exclaimed a second time with still more power and earnestness: "My
dear French Canadian friends: I ask you, in the name of Jesus Christ, your
Saviour and mine, in the name of your desolated mothers, fathers, and friends
who are weeping along the banks of your beautiful St. Lawrence River I ask it in
the name of your beloved Canada! Answer me! now that you refuse to obey the holy
Church of Rome, who will guide you in the ways of salvation?"
Another solemn silence followed that impassionate and earnest appeal. But this
silence was not to be long. When I had invited the people to come and hear the
bishop, I requested them to bring their Bibles. Suddenly we heard the voice of
an old farmer, who, raising his Bible over his head with his two hands, said:
"This Bible is all we want to guide us in the ways of God. We do not want
anything but the pure Word of God to teach us what we must do to be saved. As
for you, sir, you had better go away and never come here any more."
And more than five thousand voices said "Amen!" to that simple and yet
sublime answer. The whole crowd filled the air with cries: "The Bible! the
Holy Bible, the holy Word of God is our only guide in the ways of eternal life!
Go away, sir, and never come again!"
These words, again and again repeated by the thousands of people who surrounded
the platform, fell upon the poor bishop's ears as formidable claps of thunder.
They were ringing as his death-knell in his ears. The battle was over, and he
had lost it.
Bathed in his tears, suffocated by his sobs, he sat or, to speak more correctly,
he fell into the arm-chair, and I feared at first lest he should faint. When I
saw that he was recovering and strong enough to hear what I had to say, I
stepped to the front of the platform. But I had scarcely said two words when I
felt as if the claws of a tiger were on my shoulders. I turned and found that it
was the clenched fingers of the bishop, who was shaking me while he was saying
with a furious voice: "No! no! not a word from you."
As I was about to show him that I had a right to refute what he had said, my
eyes fell on a scene which baffles all description. Those only who have seen the
raging waves of the sea suddenly raised by the hurricane can have an idea of it.
The people had seen the violent hand of the bishop raised against me; they had
heard his insolent and furious words forbidding me to say a single word in
answer: and a universal cry of indignation was heard: "The infamous wretch!
Down with him! He wants to enslave us again! he denies us the right of free
speech! he refuses to hear what our pastor has to reply! Down with him!" At
the same time a rush was made by many toward the platform to scale it, and
others were at work to tear it down. That whole multitude, absolutely blinded by
their uncontrollable rage, were as a drunken man who does not know what he does.
I had read that such things had occurred before, but I hope I shall never see it
again. I rushed to the head of the stairs, and with great difficulty repulsed
those who were trying to lay their hands on the bishop. In vain I raised my
voice to calm them, and make them realize the crime they wanted to commit. No
voice could be heard in the midst of such terrible confusion. It was very
providential that we had built the scaffold with strong materials, so that it
could resist the first attempt to break it.
Happily, we had in our midst a very intelligent young man called Bechard, who
was held in great esteem and respect. His influence, I venture to say, was
irresistible over the people. I called him to the platform, and requested him,
in the name of God, to appease the blind fury of that multitude. Strange to say,
his presence and a sign from his hand acted like magic.
"Let us hear what Bechard has to say," whispered every one to his
neighbour, and suddenly the most profound calm succeeded the most awful noise
and confusion I had ever witnessed. In a few appropriate and eloquent words,
that young gentleman showed the people that, far from being angry, they ought to
be glad at the exhibition of the tyranny and cowardice of the bishop. Had he not
confessed the weakness of his address when he refused to hear the answer? Had he
not confessed that he was the vilest and the most impudent of tyrants when he
had come into their very midst to deny them the sacred right of speech and
reply? Had he not proved, before God and man, that they had done well to reject,
for ever, the authority of the Bishop of Rome, when he was giving them such an
unanswerable proof that that authority meant the most unbounded tyranny on his
part, and he most degraded and ignominious moral degradation on the part of his
blind slaves?
Seeing that they were anxious to hear me, I then told them:
"Instead of being angry, you ought to bless God for what you have heard and
seen from the Bishop of Chicago. You have heard, and you are witnesses that he
has not given us a single argument to show that we were wrong when he gave up
the words of the Pope to follow the words of Christ. Was he not right when he
told you that there was no need, on my part, to answer him? Do you not all agree
that there was nothing to answer, nothing to refute in his long address? Has not
our merciful God brought that bishop into your midst today to show you the
truthfulness of what I have so often told you, that there was nothing manly,
nothing honest, or true in him? Have you heard from his lips a single word which
could have come from the lips of Christ? A word which could have come from that
great God who so loved His people that He sent His eternal Son to save them? Was
there a single sentence in all you heard which would remind you that salvation
through Christ was a gift? that eternal life was a free gift? Have you heard
anything from him to make you regret that you are no longer his obedient and
abject slaves?"
"No! no!" they replied.
"Then, instead of being angry with that man, you ought to thank him and let
him go in peace," I added.
"Yes! yes!" replied the people, "but on condition that he shall
never come again."
Then Mons. Bechard stepped to the front, raised his hat, and cried with his
powerful voice; "People of St. Anne! you have just gained the most glorious
victory which has ever been won by a people against their tyrants. Hurrah for
St. Anne, the grave of the tyranny of the Bishops of Rome in America!"
That whole multitude, filled with joy, rent the air with the cry: "Hurrah
for St. Anne, the grave of the tyranny of the Bishops of Rome in America!"
I then turned towards the poor bishop and his priests, whose distress and fear
were beyond description, and told them: "You see that the people forgive
you the iniquity of your conduct, by not allowing them to answer you; but I
advise you not to repeat that insult here. Please take the advice they gave you;
go away as quickly as possible. I will go with you to your carriage, through the
crowd, and I pledge myself that you will be safe, provided you do not insult
them again."
Opening their ranks, the crowd made a passage, through which I led the bishop
and his long suite of priests to their carriages. This was done in the most
profound silence, only a few women whispering to the prelate as he was hurrying
by: "Away with you, and never come here again. Henceforward we follow
nothing but Christ."
Crushed by waves of humiliation, such as no bishop had ever met with on this
continent, the weight of the ignominy which he had reaped in our midst
completely overpowered his mind, and ruined him. He left us to wander every day
nearer the regions of lunacy. That bishop, whose beginning had been so
brilliant, after his shameful defeat at St. Anne, on the 3rd of August, 1858,
was soon to end his broken career in the lunatic asylum of St. Louis, where he
is still confined to-day.
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CHAPTER 67 Back
to Top
The marvelous power of the Gospel to raise a man above himself
and give him a supernatural strength and wisdom in the presence of the most
formidable difficulties has seldom been more gloriously manifested than on the
3rd of August, 1858, on the hill of St. Anne, Illinois.
Surely the continent of America had never seen a more admirable transformation
of a whole people than was then and there accomplished. With no other help than
the reading of the Gospel, that people had suddenly exchanged the chains of the
most abject slavery for Christian Liberty.
By the strength of their faith they had pulverized the gigantic power of Rome,
put to flight the haughty representative of the Pope, and had raised the banners
of Christian Liberty on the very spot marked by the bishop as the future citadel
of the empire of Popery in the United States. Such work was so much above my
capacity, so much above the calculation of my intelligence, that I felt that I
was more its witness than its instrument. The merciful and mighty hand of God
was too visible to let any other idea creep into my mind; and the only
sentiments which filled my soul were those of an unspeakable joy, and of
gratitude to God. But I felt that the greater the favours bestowed upon us from
heaven, the greater were the responsibilities of my new position.
The news of that sudden religious reformation spread with lightning speed all
over the continents of America and Europe, and an incredible number of inquiring
letters reached me from every corner. Episcopalians, Methodists,
Congregationalists, Baptists, and Presbyterians, of every rank and colour,
kindly pressed me to give them some details. Of course, those letters were often
accompanied by books considered the most apt to induce me to join their
particular denominations.
Feeling too young and inexpert in the ways of God to give a correct appreciation
of the Lord's doings among us, I generally answered those kind inquirers by
writing them: "Please come and see with your own eyes the marvelous things
our merciful God is doing in the midst of us, and you will help us to bless
Him."
In less than six months, more than one hundred venerable ministers of Christ,
and prominent Christian laymen of different denominations, visited us. Among
those who first honoured us with their presence was the Right Rev. Bishop
Helmuth, of London, Canada; then, the learned Dean of Quebec, so well known and
venerated all over Great Britain and Canada. He visited us twice, and was one of
the most blessed instruments of the mercies of God towards us.
I am happy to say that those eminent Christians, without any exception, after
having spent from one to twenty days in studying for themselves this new
religious movement, declared that it was the most remarkable and solid
evangelical reformation among Roman Catholics they had ever seen. The Christians
of the cities of Chicago, Baltimore, Washington, Philadelphia, New York, Boston,
ect., having expressed the desire to hear from me of the doings of the Lord
among us, I addressed them in their principal churches, and was received with
such marks of kindness and interest, for which I shall never be able
sufficiently to thank God.
I have previously said that we had, at first, adopted the beautiful name of
Christian Catholics, but we soon perceived that unless we joined one of the
Christian denominations of the day, we were in danger of forming a new sect.
After many serious and prayerful considerations, it seemed that the wisest thing
we could do was to connect ourselves with that branch of the vine which was the
nearest to, if not identical with, that of the French Protestants, which gave so
many martyrs to the Church of Christ. Accordingly, it was our privilege to be
admitted in the Presbyterian Church of the United States. The Presbytery of
Chicago had the courtesy to adjourn their meeting from that city to our humble
town, on the 15th of April, 1860, when I presented them with the names of nearly
two thousand converts, who, with myself, were received into full communion with
the Church of Christ.
This solemn action was soon followed by the establishment of missions and
congregations in the cities and towns of Chicago, Aurora, Kankakee, Middleport,
Watseka, Momence, Sterling, Manteno, ect., where the light of the Gospel had
been received by large numbers of our French Canadian emigrants, whom I had
previously visited.
The census of the converts taken then gave us about six thousand five hundred
precious souls already wrenched from the iron grasp of Popery. It was a result
much beyond my most sanguine hopes, and it would be difficult to express the joy
it gave me, if left alone, to distribute the bread of life to such multitudes,
scattered over a territory of several hundred miles. I determined, with the help
of God, to raise a college, where the children of our converts would be prepared
to preach the Gospel.
Thirty-two of our young men, having offered themselves, I added, at once to my
other labours, the daily task of teaching them the preparatory course of study
for their future evangelical work.
That year (1860) had been chosen by Scotland to celebrate the centenary
anniversary of her Reformation. The committee of management, composed of Dr.
Guthrie, Professor Cunningham, and Dr. Begg, invited me to attend their general
meetings in Edinburgh. On the 16th of August, it was my privilege to be
presented by those venerable men to one of the grandest and noblest assemblies
which the Church of Christ has ever seen. After the close of that great council,
which I addressed twice, I was invited, during the next six months, to lecture
in Great Britain, France, and Switzerland, and to raise the funds necessary for
our college. It was during that tour that I had the privilege of addressing, at
St. Etienne, the Synod of the Free Protestant Church of France, lately
established through the indomitable energy and ardent piety of the Rev. Felix
Monod.
Those six months' efforts were crowned with the most complete success, and more
than 15,000 dollars were handed me for our college by the disciples of Christ.
But it was the will of God that I should pass through the purifying fires of the
greatest tribulations. On my return from Europe into my colony, in the beginning
of 1861, I found everything in confusion. The ambition of the young man I had
invited to preach in my place, and in whom I had so imprudently put too much
confidence, encouraged by the very man I had chosen for my representative and my
attorney during my absence, came very near ruining that great evangelical work,
by sowing the seeds of division and hatred among our dear converts. Through the
dishonest and false reports of those two men, the money I had collected and left
in England (in the hands of a gentleman who was bound to send it at my order)
was retained nearly two years, and lost in the failure of the Gelpeck New York
Bank, through which it was sent. The only way we found to save ourselves from
ruin, was to throw ourselves into the hands of our Christian brothers of Canada.
A committee of the Presbyterian Church, composed of Revs. Dr. Kemp, Dr. Cavan,
and Mr. Scott, was sent to investigate the causes of our troubles, and they soon
found them. Dr. Kemp published a critical resume of their investigation, which
clearly showed where the trouble lay. Our integrity and innocence were publicly
acknowledged, and we were solemnly and officially received as members of the
Presbyterian Church of Canada, on the 11th of June, 1863. We may properly
acknowledge here that the Christian devotedness, the admirable ability and zeal
of the late Dr. Kemp in performance of that work, has secured him our lasting
gratitude.
In 1874, I was again invited to Great Britain by the committee appointed to
prepare the congratulatory address of the English people to the Emperor of
Germany and Bismark, for their noble resistance to the encroachments of Popery.
I addressed the meetings held for that purpose in Exeter Hall, under the
presidency of Lord John Russell, on the 27th of January, 1874. The next several
Gospel ministers pressed me to publish my twenty-five years' experience of
auricular confession, as an antidote to the criminal and too successful efforts
of Dr. Pusey, who wanted to restore that infamous practice among the Protestants
of England.
After much hesitation and many prayers, I wrote the book entitled: "The
Priest, the Woman, and the Confessional," which God has so much blessed to
the conversion of many, that twenty-seven editions have already been published.
I spent the next six months in lecturing on Romanism in the principal cities of
England, Scotland and Ireland.
On my return, pressed by the Canadian Church to leave my colony of Illinois, for
a time at least, to preach in Canada, I went to Montreal, where, in the short
space of four years, we had the unspeakable joy to see seven thousand of French
Canadian Roman Catholics and emigrants from France, publicly renouncing the
errors of Popery to follow the Gospel of Christ.
In 1878, exhausted by the previous years of incessant labours, I was advised, by
my physicians, to breathe the bracing air of the Pacific Ocean. I crossed the
Rocky Mountains and spent two months lecturing in San Francisco, Portland,
Oregon, and in Washington Territory, where I found a great many of my French
countrymen, many of whom received the light of the Gospel with joy.
After this, I visited the Sandwich Islands, where I preached on my return,
crossed the Pacific and went to the Antipodes, lecturing two years in Australia,
Tasmania, and New Zealand. It would require a large volume to tell the great
mercies of God towards me during that long, perilous, but interesting voyage.
During those two years, I gave 610 public lectures, and came back to my colony
of St. Anne with such perfectly restored health, that I could say with the
Psalmist: "Bless the Lord, O my soul." "Thy youth is renewed like
the eagle's" (Ps. ciii. 1,5).
But the reader has the right to know something of the dangers through which it
has pleased God to make me pass.
Rome is the same today as she was when she burned John Huss and Wishart, and
when she caused 70,000 Protestants to be slaughtered in France, and 100,000 to
be exterminated in Piedmont in Italy.
On the 31st of December, 1869, I forced the Rt. Rev. Bishop Foley, of Chicago,
to swear before the civil court, at Kankakee, that the following sentence was an
exact translation of the doctrine of the Church of Rome as taught today in all
the Roman Catholic seminaries, colleges, and universities, through the
"Summa Theologica" of Thomas Aquinas (vol. iv. p. 90). "Though
heretics must not be tolerated because they deserve it, we must bear with them
till, by a second admonition, they may be brought back to the faith of the
church. But those who, after a second admonition, remain obstinate to their
errors, must not only be excommunicated, but they must be delivered to the
secular power to be exterminated."
It is on account of this law of the Church of Rome, which is today in full
force, as it was promulgated for the first time, that not less than thirty
public attempts have been made to kill me since my conversion.
The first time I visited Quebec, in the spring of 1859, fifty men were sent by
the Bishop of Quebec (Baillargeon) to force me to swear that I would never
preach the Bible, or to kill me in case of my refusal.
At 4 o'clock a.m., sticks were raised above my head, a dagger stuck in my
breast, and the cries of the furious mob were ringing in my ears: "Infamous
apostate! Now you are in our hands, you are a dead man if you do not swear that
you will never preach your accursed Bible."
Never had I seen such furious men around me. Their eyes were more like the eyes
of tigers than of men. I expected every moment to receive the deadly blow, and I
asked my Saviour to come and receive my soul. But the would-be murderers, with
more horrible imprecations, cried again: "Infamous renegade! Swear that you
will never preach any more your accursed Bible, or you are a dead man!"
I raised my eyes and hands towards heaven and said: "Oh! my God! hear and
bless the last words of Thy poor servant: I solemnly swear, that so long as my
tongue can speak, I will preach Thy Word, as I find it in the Holy Bible!"
Then opening my vest and presenting my naked breast, I said: "Now!
Strike!"
But my God was there to protect me: they did not strike. I went through their
ranks into the streets, where I found a carter, who drove me to Mr. Hall, the
mayor of the city, for that day. I showed him my bleeding breast, and said:
"I just escaped, almost miraculously, from the hands of men sworn to kill
me if I preach again the Gospel of Christ. I am, however, determined to preach
again today at noon, even if I have to die in the attempt." I put myself
under the protection of the British flag.
Soon after, more than 1,000 British soldiers were around me, with fixed
bayonets. They formed themselves into two lines along the streets through which
the Mayor took me, in his own sleigh, to the lecture room. I could then deliver
my address on "The Bible," to at least 10,000 people who were crowded
inside and outside the walls of the large building. After this, I had the joy of
distributing between five and six hundred Bibles to that multitude, who received
them as thirsty and hungry people receive fresh water and pure bread, after many
days of starvation.
I have been stoned twenty times. The principal places in Canada where I was
struck and wounded, and almost miraculously escaped, were: Quebec, Montreal,
Ottawa, Charlotte Town, Halifax, Antigonish, ect. In the last mentioned, on the
10th of July, 1873, the pastor, the Rev. P. Goodfellow, standing by me when
going out of his church, was also struck several times by stones which missed
me. At last, his head was so badly cut, that he fell on the ground bathed in
blood. I took him up in my arms, though wounded and bleeding myself. We would
surely have been slaughtered there, had not a noble Scotchman, named Cameron,
opened the door of his house, at the peril of his own life, to give us shelter
against the assassins of the Pope. The mob, furious that we had escaped, broke
the windows and besieged the house from 10 a.m. till 3 next morning. Many times
they threatened to set fire to Mr. Cameron's house, if he did not deliver me
into their hands to be hung. They were prevented from doing so only from fear of
burning the whole town, composed in part of their own dwellings. Several times
they put long ladders against the walls, with the hope of reaching the upper
rooms, where they could find and kill their victim. All this was done under the
very eyes of five or six priests, who were only at a distance of a few rods.
At Montreal, in the winter of 1870, one evening, coming out of Cote Street
Church, where I had preached, accompanied by Principal Mac Vicar, we fell into a
kind of ambuscade, and received a volley of stones, which would have seriously,
if not fatally, injured the doctor had he not been protected from head to foot
by a thick fur cap and overcoat, worn in the cold days of winter in Canada.
After a lecture given at Parramatta, near Sydney, Australia, I was again
attacked with stones by the Roman Catholics. One struck my left leg with such
force that I thought it was broken, and I was lame for several days.
In New South Wales, Australia, I was beaten with whips and sticks, which left
marks upon my shoulders.
At Marsham, in the same province, on the 1st of April, 1879, the Romanists took
possession of the church where I was speaking, rushed towards me with daggers
and pistols, crying: "Kill him! Kill him!"
In the tumult, I providentially escaped through a secret door. But I had to
crawl on hands and knees a pretty long distance in a ditch filled with mud, not
to be seen and escape death. When I reached the hospitable house of Mr. Cameron,
the windows were broken with stones, much of the furniture destroyed, and it was
a wonder I escaped with my life.
At Ballarat, in the same province, three times the houses where I lodged were
attacked and broken. Rev. Mr. Inglis, one of the most eloquent ministers of the
city, was one of the many who were wounded by my side. The wife of the Rev. Mr.
Quick came also nearly being killed while I was under their hospitable roof.
In the same city, as I was waiting for the train at the station, a well-dressed
lady came as near as possible and spat in my face. I was blinded, and my face
covered with filth. She immediately fled, but was soon brought back by my
secretary and a policeman, who said: "Here is the miserable woman who has
just insulted you: what shall we do with her?" I was then almost done
cleaning my face with my handkerchief and some water, brought by some
sympathizing friends. I answered: "Let her go home in peace. She has not
done it of her own accord: she was sent by her confessor; she thinks she had
done a good action. When they spat in our Saviour's face, He did not punish
those who insulted Him. We must follow His example." And she was set at
liberty, to the great regret of the crowd.
The very next day (21st of April) at Castlemain, I was again fiercely attacked
and wounded on the head as I came from addressing the people. One of the
ministers who was standing by me was seriously wounded and lost much blood. At
Geelong, I had again a very narrow escape from stones thrown at me in the
streets. In 1879, while lecturing in Melbourne, the splendid capital of
Victoria, Australia, I received a letter from Tasmania, signed by twelve
ministers of the Gospel saying:
"We are much in need of you here, for though the Protestants are in the
majority, they leave the administration of the country almost entirely in the
hands of Roman Catholics, who rule us with an iron rod. The governor is a Roman
Catholic, etc. We wish to have you among us, though we do not dare to invite you
to come. For we know that your life will be in danger day and night while in
Tasmania. The Roman Catholics have sworn to kill you, and we have too many
reasons to fear that they will fulfill their promises. But, though we do not
dare ask you to come, we assure you that there is a great work for you here, and
that we will stand by you with our people. If you fall, you will not fall
alone."
I answered: "Are we not soldiers of Christ, and must we not be ready and
willing to die for Him, as He did for us? I will go."
On the 24th of June, as I was delivering my first lecture in Hobart Town, the
Roman Catholics, with the approbation of their bishop, broke the door of the
hall, and rushed towards me, crying, "Kill him! kill him!" The mob was
only a few feet from me, brandishing their daggers and pistols, when the
Protestants threw themselves between them and me, and a furious hand-to-hand
fight occurred, during which many wounds were received and given. The soldiers
of the Pope were overpowered, but the governor had to put the city under martial
law for four days, and call the whole militia to save my life from the assassins
drilled by the priests.
In a dark night, as I was leaving the steamer to take the train, on the Ottawa
River, Canada, twice the bullets of the murderers whistled at no more than two
or three inches from my ears. Several times in Montreal and Halifax the churches
where I was preaching were attacked and the windows broken by the mobs sent by
the priests, and several of my friends were wounded (two of whom, I believe,
died from the effects of their wounds) whilst defending me.
The 17th of June, 1884, after I had preached in Quebec, on the text: "What
would I do to have eternal life," a mob of more than 1,500 Roman Catholics,
led by two priests, broke the windows of the church and attacked me with stones,
with the evident object to kill me. More than one hundred stones struck me, and
I would surely have been killed there had I not had, providentially, two heavy
overcoats, which I put, one around my head, and the other around my shoulders.
Notwithstanding that protection, I was so much bruised and wounded from head to
feet, that I had to spend the three following weeks on a bed of suffering,
between life and death. A young friend, Zotique Lefevore, who had heroically put
himself between my would-be-assassins and me, escaped only after receiving six
severe wounds in the face. The same year, 1884, in the month of November, I was
attacked with stones and struck several times, when preaching or coming out from
the church in the city of Montreal. Numbers of policemen and other friends who
came to my rescue were wounded, my life was saved only by an organization of a
thousand young men, who, under the name of Protestant Guard, wrenched me from
the hands of the would-be murderers.
When the bishops and priests saw that it was so difficult to put me out of the
way with stones, sticks, and daggers, they determined to destroy my character by
calumnies, spread everywhere, and sworn before civil tribunals as Gospel truths.
During eighteen years they kept me in the hands of the sheriffs a prisoner,
under bail, as a criminal. Thirty-two times my name has been called before the
civil and criminal courts of Kankakee, Joliet, Chicago, Urbana, and Montreal,
among the names of the vilest and most criminal men. I have been accused by
Grand Vicar Mailloux of having killed a man and thrown his body into a river to
conceal my crime. I have been accused of having set fire to the church of
Bourbonnais and destroyed it. Not less than seventy-two false witnesses have
been brought by the priests of Rome to support this last accusation. But, thanks
be to God, at every time, from the very lips of the perjured witnesses, we got
the proof that they were swearing falsely, at the instigation of their father
confessors. And my innocence was proven by the very men who had been paid to
destroy me. In this last suit, I thought it was my duty, as a Christian and
citizen, to have one of those priests punished for having so cruelly and
publicly trampled under his feet the most sacred laws of society and religion.
Without any vengeance on my part, God knows it, I asked the protection of my
country against these incessant plots. Father Brunet, found guilty of having
invented those calumnies and supported them by false witnesses, was condemned to
pay 2,500 dollars or go to goal for fourteen years. He preferred the last
punishment, having the promise from his Roman Catholic friends that they would
break the doors of the prison and let him go free to some remote place. He was
incarcerated at Kankakee; but on a dark and stormy night, six months later, he
was rescued, and fled to Montreal (distant about 900 miles). There he made the
Roman Catholics believe that the blessed Virgin Mary, dressed in a beautiful
white robe, had come in person to open for him the gates of the prison.
I do not mention these facts here, to create bad feelings against the poor blind
slaves of the Pope It is only to show to the world that the Church of Rome of
today is absolutely the same as when she reddened Europe with the blood of
millions of martyrs. My motive in speaking of those murderous attacks, is to
induce the readers to help me to bless God, who has so mercifully saved me from
the hands of the enemy. More than any living man, I can say with the old
prophet: "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want" (Ps. xxiii. 1).
With Paul, I could often say: "We are troubled on every side, yet not
distressed: we are perplexed, but not in despair: persecuted, but not forsaken:
cast down, but not destroyed: always bearing about in the body the dying of the
Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be manifest in our body" (2
Cor. iv. 8 10). Those constant persecutions, far from hindering the onward march
of the evangelical movement to which I have consecrated my life, seem to have
given it a new impulse and a fresher life. I have even remarked that the very
day after I had been bruised and wounded, the number of converts had invariably
increased. I will never forget the day, after the terrible night when more than
a thousand Roman Catholics had come to stone me, and on which I received a
severe wound, more than one hundred of my countrymen asked me to enroll their
names under the banner of the Gospel, and publicly sent their recantation of the
errors of Rome to the bishop. Today, the Gospel of Christ is advancing with an
irresistible power among the French Canadians from the Atlantic to the Pacific
Oceans. We find numbers of converts in almost every town and city from New York
to San Francisco. Rallied around the banners of Christ, they form a large army
of fearless soldiers of the Cross. Among those converts we count now twenty-five
priests and more than fifty young zealous ministers born in the Church of Rome.
In hundreds of places, the Church of Rome has lost her past prestige, and the
priests are looked upon with indifference, if not contempt, even by those who
have not yet accepted the light.
A very remarkable religious movement has also been lately inaugurated among the
Irish Roman Catholics, under the leadership of Revs. McNamara, O'Connor, and
Quinn, which promises to keep pace with, if not exceed the progress of the
Gospel among the French.
Today, more than ever, we hear the good Master's voice: "Lift up your eyes
and look on the fields, for they are white already to harvest" (John iv.
35).
Oh! may the day soon come when all my dear countrymen will hear the voice of the
Lamb and come to wash their robes in His blood! Will I see the blessed hour when
the dark night in which Rome keeps my dear Canada will be exchanged for the
bright and saving light of the Gospel?
At all events, I cannot but bless God for what mine eyes have seen and mine ears
have heard of His mercies towards me and my countrymen. From my infancy, He has
taken me into His arms, and led me most mercifully, through ways I did not know,
from the darkest regions of superstition, to the blessed regions of light, truth
and life!
From the day He granted me to read His divine word on my dear mother's knee, to
the hour He came to me as "the Gift of God," He has not let a single
day pass without speaking to me some of His warning and saving words. I have not
always paid sufficient attention to His sweet voice, I confess it to my shame.
My mind was so filled with the glittering sophisms of Rome, that many times, I
refused to yield to the still voice which was almost night and day heard in my
soul. But my God was not repelled by my infidelities, as the reader will find in
this book. When driven away in the morning, He came back in the silent hours of
the night. For more than twenty-five years, He forced me to see, as a priest,
the abominations which exist inside the walls of the modern Babylon. I may say,
He took me by the lock of mine head, as He did with the prophet of old, and
said:
"Son of man, lift up thine eyes now the way towards the north. So I lifted
up mine eyes the way towards north, and behold, northward at the gate of the
altar, this image of jealousy in the entry. He said furthermore unto me: 'Son of
man, seest thou what they do, even the great abominations that the house of
Israel committeth here, that I should go far off from my sanctuary? But turn
thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations.' And he brought me to
the door of the court; and when I looked, behold a hole in the wall. Then said
he unto me, 'Son of man, dig now in the wall;' and when I had digged in the
wall, behold, a door. And he said, 'Go in and see the wicked abominations that
they do here.' So I went in and saw; and behold every form of creeping things
and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed upon
the wall and round about. And there stood before them seventy men of the
ancients of the house of Israel, and in the midst of them stood Jaazaniah, the
son of Shaphan, with every man his censor in his hand; and a thick cloud of
incense went up. Then said he unto me: 'Son of man, hast thou seen what the
ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his
imagery?' for they say, 'The Lord seeth us not; the Lord hath forsaken the
earth.' He said also unto me: 'Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater
abominations that they do.' Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the
Lord's house, which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping
for Tammuz. Then said he unto me: 'Hast thou seen this, O son of man? Turn thee
yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these.' And he brought
me into the inner court of the Lord's house; and, behold, at the temple of the
Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with
their backs towards the temple of the Lord, and their faces towards the east;
and they worshipped the sun towards the east. Then he said unto me: 'Hast thou
seen this, O son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they
commit the abominations which they commit here? for they have filled the land
with violence and have returned to provoke me into anger; and lo! they put the
branch to their nose. Therefore, will I also deal in fury; mine eye shall not
spare, neither will I have pity; and they cry in mine ears, with a loud voice,
yet will I not hear them" (Ezek. viii. 5 18).
I can say with John:
"And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and
talked with me, saying unto me: 'Come hither: I will show unto thee the judgment
of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters; with whom the kings of the
earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been
made drunk with the wine of her fornication.' So he carried me away in the
Spirit into the wilderness; and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast,
full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was
arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones
and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness
of her fornication: and upon her forehead was a name written: 'Mystery, Babylon
the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations Of The Earth.' And I saw the
woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of
Jesus; and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration' (Rev. xvii. 1 6).
And after the Lord had shown me all these abominations, He took me out as the
eagle takes his own young ones on his wings. He brought me into His beautiful
and beloved Zion, and He set my feet on the rock of my salvation. There, He
quenched my thirst with the pure waters which flow from the fountains of eternal
life, and He gave me to eat the true bread which comes from heaven.
Oh! that I might go all over the world, through this book, and say with the
Psalmist: "Come, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what He hath done
for my soul."
Let all the children of God who will read this book lend me their tongues to
praise the Lord. Let him lend me their hearts, to love Him. For, alone, I cannot
praise Him, I cannot love Him as He deserves. When look upon the seventy-six
years which have passed over me, my heart leaps for joy, for I find myself at
the end of trials. I have nearly crossed the desert.
Only the narrow stream of Jordan is between me and the new Jerusalem. I already
hear the great voice out of heaven saying: "Behold, the tabernacle of God
is with men, and He will dwell with them, and be their God, and God shall wipe
away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither
sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things
have passed away....He that overcometh shall inherit all things" (Rev. xxi.
3, 4, 7).
Rich with the unspeakable gift which has been given me, and pressing my dear
Bible to my heart, as the richest treasure, I hasten my steps with an
unspeakable joy toward the Land of Promise. I already hear the angel's voice
telling me: "Come: the Master calls thee."
A few days more and the bridegroom will say to my soul: "Surely I come
quickly." And I will answer: "Even so, come Lord Jesus." Amen.
.
.
.
.
Foot Notes
CHAPTER 13
Page 73 - 78 [All Latin]
CHAPTER 20
* "Hence Sanchez teaches, n. 19, with Cajet. Sot. Covar. Valent, that it is
lawful to persuade a man, determined to slay some oen, that he should commit
theft or fornication." (Mor. Theol. lib. iii. t. ii. cap. 2, p. 175, p.
157. Mech. 1845.)
CHAPTER 32
* In order to be understood by those of my readers who have never been deceived
by the diabolical doctrines of the Church of Rome, I must say here, that when
young I had learned in my catechism, and when a priest I had believed and
preached what Rome says on that subject. Here is her doctrine as taught in her
Catechism:-
"Who are those who go to heaven?"
Ans. "Those only who have never offended God, or who, having offended Him,
have done penance."
CHAPTER 41
* "The Pope, the Kings, and the People" (Mullan & Son, Paternoster
Square), pp. 269-70. Also see (London) Standard, 7th April, 1870.
CHAPTER 46
* Latin
CHAPTER 54
* Those who would like to know all about the abominations of auricular
confession should have my volume "The Priest, the Woman and the
Confessional." It is probably the only book ever written on that subject
which completely unveils the mask of Rome, by telling the whole truth.
CHAPTER 57
* Psalm xlii. 7, "Deep calleth unto deep." - A.V.
* Those gentlemen, with the exception of Mr. Allaire, are still living, 1885.
* Canon of the Church, by Pope Gelasius.
CHAPTER 58
* Vol. iii., page 139.
** Eccl. Laws, by Hericourt, c. xxii., No. 50
***Pope Gelasius.
****Eccl. Laws, by Hericourt, c.xxii., No. 51
CHAPTER 59
* The Shepherd of the Valley, official Journal of the Bishop of St. Louis, Nov.
23, 1851.
**New York Freeman, official journal of Bishop Hughes, Jan. 26, 1852.
***Catholic World, Arpil, 1870.
****Catholic Review, June, 1865.
*****Catholic World, July 1870.
******Father Hecker, Catholic World, July, 1870.
*Pope Pius VII, Encyclical, 1808
**St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologia, Vol. iv. p. 90
*Latin
**Tablet, Oct. 9, 1864.
*Brownson's Review, May, 1864.
**Pittsburg Catholic Visitor, July 1848, official journal of the Bishop.
***Boston Pilot, official journal of the Bishop.
****Brownson's Review, 1849.
*****Brownson's Review, June 1851.
******Roman Catholic Chief-Justice Tany, in his Dred Scot Decision.
*******Western Tablet, official paper of the Bishop of Chicago.
*Encyclical Letters of Pope Pius IX., August, 15, 1854.
**Daniel O'Connell.
***Taledo Catholic Review.
****Suarez, Defensio Fidei; Book VI. c. 4, Nos. 13, 14.
*****Tamburini; General of the Jesuits.
******Busembaum. - Lacroix, Theologia Moralis, 1757.
*Latin
** Spiritual Exercise, by Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits.
***Ignatius Loyola, Spiritual Exercise.
****Pope Gregory XVI., Incyclical, August 15th, 1832.
*****Gladstone, Letter to Lord Aberdeen.
*Saint Liguori, The Nun Sanctified.
**Decree of Pope Urban XIII.(signed) by Cardinals Felia, Guido, Desiderio,
Antonio, Belligero, and Fabricius.
***Newton's Principia, by Fathers Lesueur and Jacquier, vol iii, p. 450.
****Univers, the official Catholic paper of the Bishop of France, March 28th,
1868.
*Bishop Vaughan's address to the Catholic Club at Salford, England, January 2nd,
1873.
**Secret Plans of the Jesuits, revealed by Abate Leon, p. 127.
***Sully's Memoirs, tom. ii. chap. iii.
****The Secret Plan, pp. 127-128
*****Brownson's Essays, pp. 282-284.
*Memorial of the Captivity of Napoleon at St. Helena, by General Montholon, vol.
ii. p. 62.
**Memorial of the Captivity of Napoleon at St. Helena, vol. ii. p. 174.
***Rambler, one of the most prominent Catholic papers of England, September,
1851.
CHAPTER 61
*The Inner Life of Lincoln. By Carpenter. Pp. 193 - 195.
*Six Months in the White House. By Carpenter. P. 86.
**Ibid.
*History of the Civil War. By Abbot. Vol. ii., p. 594.
CHAPTER 63
*These two gentlemen are still living in Chicago, 1885.
CHAPTER 65
*That same Mr. Dunn was also excommunicated not long after by his bishop, and
died after publicly refusing to be relieved from that sentence.
* [?] "All ye shall be offended because of Me this night" (Matt. xxvi.
31; Mark xiv. 27).