The-papacy-its-history-dogmas-genius-and-prospects-wylie

—POPEDOM A MORAL WRECK. 473Continent that the Sabbath has disappeared: matters are nobettor in the country. " It so happened," says a traveller," that we reached Orleans,—a day's journey from Paris,on a Saturday afternoon. My relatives forgot the fact thatit was Saturday; and no external indication making Sundaypalpable to the eye, I did not undeceive them, beinganxious to return to Paris without delay. We started,then, the following morning, as usual, and travelled seventyor eighty miles through towns, villages, and hamlets, till wereached Paris, without my friends discovering that we hadbeen travelling on Sunday."* This speaks volumes, and requiresno comment. To the south of the Alps matters areno better, and they could scarce be worse. The fact is toowell known to require either illustration or proof.Such is the condition into which the Papacy has reducedwestern Europe : it has withdrawn men from the greatfountain of morality—the Bible ; it has throvi'n down thegreat bulwark of morality—the Sabbath ; it has made thegood of the Church the supreme law, and has thus confoundedthe essential distinction between virtue and vice ; it hasconverted religion into a mere ritual, and government intoa system of coercion ; it has introduced corruption into publiclife, and fraud into private society ; it has covered theContinent with concubinage, assassination, robbery, andgambling ; it has eradicated from the minds of men allsense of obligation and duty. The Church now seeks in vainfor faith, and the State for loyalty ; and both have beenbrought to rest their continued existence upon the precarioustenure of military fidelity.* Continental Confessions of a Layman, p. 61.