ears of Tmt mm 1 i : ■ • ' '1::';; ■': ': / * MAR 30 1900 *) Forty Years IN TheChurch of Christ Rev. Charles Chiniquy, D.D. Author of "Fifty Years in the Church of Rome," etc. Wi 1 ^&l fs Chicago, New York, Toronto Fleming H. Revell Company iqoo Copyrighted 1899 By Fleming H. Revell Company PREFATORY NOTE This book, " Forty Years in the Church of Christ," is now offered to the public with the belief that it is eminently adapted to interest as well as to instruct. For several years before his death. Dr. Chiniquy had in contemplation the preparation of an account of his life and career after he left the Church of Rome, and the last years of his life were largely devoted to this work, so that at the time of his departure it was substantially complete. While it abounds in striking incidents and events in the author's wonderful career, this book is not designed to be a connected autobiography. As may be easily inferred from what himself says in his preface, Dr. Chiniquy aimed to re- late only what he considered could be made subservient to the illustration and application of the great truths of the Gospel he so ardently loved. Had he lived longer, however, he would probably have added other matter at his command. In editing this work, there have been no essential changes made. It bears the impress throughout of the author's marked individuality and, as to matter and style, the flavour of his great soul permeates every page. Although each chapter is substantially complete in itself, there is a general stream of characteristic thought and feeling running through the whole. The responsibility of issuing this book having been committed to me by the author, my revered father=in=law, I have spared no pains to have the work as near perfection in every respect as possible, and, in this connection, I am glad to acknowledge the valuable assistance I have received from Rev. Prof. John Moore, of Boston, and Rev. Principal Mac Vicar, D. D., of Montreal. 3 4 . Prefatory Note I feel that this book cannot be better introduced to the readers than by the following character sketch from the pen of Dr. MacVicar, which incorporates his address to the thousands present at Dr. Chiniquy's funeral. J. L. MOBIN. 65 Hutchison Street, Montreal. INTRODUCTION CHARLES CHINIQUY: HIS LIFE AND WORK A Character Sketch, by the Rev. Principal D. H. Mac Vicar, D. D., LL. D, The death of Dr. Chiniquy on the 16th of January has called forth in the daily press, both French and English, in- numerable notices of his unique career. The general fairness by which they are characterized is in impressive contrast with the treatment he often received in his lifetime, and may be regarded as an encouraging sign of the times. It need hardly be said that good and great men are often misunderstood and misrepresented. It is a favourite method with the devil and his servants to direct their envenomed shafts against those who prominently represent and uncom- promisingly propagate the truth of God. So not a few of them are forced to pass through life in a tempest, but the end is peace. So it was with Chiniquy. His life has been so often sketched that it seems a work of supererogation to ofPer anything further regarding it. For beauty, for graphic and dramatic efiPect, I cordially commend the autobiography from his own pen. It covers the first fifty years of his life, and the manuscript recording the events of the remaining forty years he completed before his demise and forms the present work. If, to some, the record seems unduly voluminous, let them remember that the man and his work were extraordinary. Taken all in all, we shall not look upon his like again. To put ourselves in possession of the key to his conduct, and to' understand the foundation of his training for his great mission, we must begin with his childhood. It is in early years, when the faculties are pre=eminently plastic and recep- 5 6 Introduction tive, that lasting impressions for pood and evil are made. In the seclusion of home, more than in the bustling arena of the outside world, character is determined and moulded. It is there that boys and girls receive their life vocation. The ministry of "the church in the house " is usually most influ- ential. This was the experience of Dr. Chiniquy. He was born at Kamouraska, Quebec, on the 30th of July, 1809. His father passed through a full course of literary and theological training for the priesthood in his native city, Quebec, but never took holy orders. He studied law and became notary, and ultimately settled at Murray Bay. " That place," says Dr. Chiniquy in his autobiography, " was then in its infancy, and no schools had yet been established. My mother was, therefore, my first teacher." A wise and ad- mirable one she certainly was, and taught him the lessons which governed his course in life, and which, with boundless enthusiasm and singular success, he pressed upon the accept- ance of hundreds of thousands, especially during the last half of his career. Here I use his own words as descriptive of the religious and educational discipline he enjoyed in the home of his childhood : " Before leaving the Seminary of Quebec my father had received from one of his superiors, as a token of his esteem, a beautiful French and Latin Bible. That Bible was the fir.st book, after the ABC, in which I was taught to read. My mother selected the chapters which she considered the most interesting to me; and I read them every day with the great- est attention and pleasure. I was even so much pleased with several chapters that I read them over and over again till I knew them by heart. When eight or nine years of age I had learned by heart the history of the creation and fall of man; the- deluge; the sacrifice of Isaac; the history of Moses; the plagues of Egypt; the sublime hymns of Moses after crossing the Red Sea; the history of Samson; the most interesting event of the life of David; several Psalms; all the speeches Introduction 7 and parables of Christ; and the whole history of the suffer- ings and death of our Saviour as narrated by John." He then tells how his mother used to question him regarding the meaning of what he read, and how, one day when engaged in studying the scene upon Calvary, she suddenly burst into tears, and both wept for joy as the love of the crucified Son of God touched their hearts. " No human words can express what was felt in her soul and in mine in that most blessed hour: No, I will never for- get that solemn hour, when my mother's heart was per- fectly blended with mine at the feet of our dying Saviour." The evidence of the sincerity of these words, and of the spiritual light then shed upon his soul, is seen in his subse- quent conduct. God's Word does not fail in its mission, or return to Him void. Immediately the lad becomes a witness for the truth. He imparts to others the good word of life which he has himself received. And with the glimpses we possess of the history of the early life of Samuel and Jere- miah and Timothy, and of " the children crying in the tem- ple and saying, ' Hosanna to the Son of David,' " we need not doubt that boys and girls at eight and nine are capable of rendering such blessed services. Hence the narrative in young Chiniquy's case proceeds: " We were some distance from the church, and the roads, on the rainy days, were very bad. On the Sabbath days the neighbouring farmers, unable to go to church, were accustomed to gather at our house in the evening. Then my parents used to put me up on a large table in the midst of the assembly, and I delivered to those good people the most beautiful parts of the Old and New Testament. The breathless attention, the applause of our guests, and — may I tell it — often the tears of joy which my mother tried in vain to conceal, sup- ported my strength and gave me the courage I wanted to speak when so young before so many people. When my par- ents saw that I was growing tired, my mother, who had a fine 8 Introduction voice, sang some of the beautiful French hymns with which her memory was filled, "Several times, when the fine weather allowed me to than ten years to know on what text they are unanimously of the same mind, and on what texts they differ. "If, after that time of study, I find that they are unanimous on the question of orthodoxy on which I have to preach, all First Publication of the Scriptures in Canada 65 will be right with me, I will walk to the gates of eternity with a fearless heart. But if among fifty holy fathers there are forty=nine on one side and one of opposite views, in what awful distress I will be plunged! I shall be like a ship in a stormy night, after losing her mast, her sails, her compass and her helm! I shall be lost! "If I were allowed to follow the majority there would always be a plank of safety to secure me from the impending wreck. But my oath, my terrible oath, has tied me and every one of you, my venerable brethren, to the unanimity. If our faith and the doctrine we preach is not that of unanimity, we are perjured, lost men! "What a frightful alternative is put before us by that strange oath! "The holy prophet, speaking of the Word of God, tells us: ' Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a liglit unto my path.' (Ps. 119:105.) But what are we doing with that Divine lamp and that bright and precious light? " We put it under the bushel that it may not be seen ! We are sworn to ignore and deny its power and authority. ' I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ,' said Paul, ' for it is the power of God unto salvation, to every one that believeth.' (Kom, 1:16.) " But, by our conduct, do we not really make the people be- lieve that ' The Gospel is the power of the devil to damn the world?' "Not only we prevent our people from having any access to the Divine Book, but we violently take it from their hands and destroy it under their eyes when we have opportunity to do it. " By my advice, two years before I was curate of Beauport, four of the principal families of that parish had purchased, in Quebec, as many Bibles of Sacy, approved by the Cardinal Archbishop of Paris, " But my predecessor, Rev. Begin, who is just sitting here, at my right hand, having heard of it, went, without an hour of delay, wrenched the sacred volumes from their hands, and 66 Forty Years in the Church of Christ threw them into the fire, in the presence of the whole family. " What we respectfully ask from you is, not only to put an end to these sacrilej^ious acts, but to show our love and respect for the holy Gospel by giving it to our people with the commentaries approved by the Church. "It is evident that the fathers of the Council of Trent made those stringent laws against the reading of the Holy Scrip- tures almost in spite of themselves — with the understanding that those restrictions were deplorable things, and only to be in force for a short period of time. They wisely gave to every Bishop the right and power to destroy those barriers and to restore the natural right the people had to the Holy Book when they find it advisable. " Then, it is not a revolt against the holy council we de- mand, it is only a favour which the holy council has allowed your lordship to grant, that we demand, in allowing a Cana- dian edition of the Gospel. And, relying on the zeal, the piety and the high Christian intelligence of our Bishop, it is our firm hope that he will grant us that favour." The way my address had been received by the great ma- jority gave us the assurance that the God of the GosjDel was on my side. Rev. Grand Vicar Demers, ex=President of the Seminary of Quebec, was the only one who tried to refute me. But he did not dare to touch a single one of my argu- ments. His address consisted in the hundred times repeated prophecy that Mr. Chiniquy, the young curate of Beauport, would soon become a Protestant if he were not yet one. Thanks be to God, he was a good prophet. Rev. Charles Baillargeon, then curate and some years later Bishop of Quebec, defended my position and in a splendid address on the right of the people to read the Scriptures, he clostxl the discussion. When the votes were taken, only five dared to oppose us. The victory was complete. The Bishop at once named a committee to prepare the first Canadian Edition of the New Testament which was not finished until 1846. CHAPTER IV The Diarkest Hour of the Night Before the Bright Rays of the Day The 10th day of January, 1846, the large parlour of the Right Rev. Bourget, Bishop of Montreal, was filled by a great num- ber of priests, to whom he said, in substance, " I have in- vited you here to ask your advice on a most important and sad subject. " You all know the efforts made recently by the Protestants to destroy the faith of our dear people. At first, their per- fidious and underground work was so universally looked upon with horror by our countrymen that we hoped we had noth- ing to fear from those miserable apostles of error and irre- ligion. " But to-day a dark and threatening cloud is in the very heart of one of our most interesting parishes. " I have just learned that more than fifty young boys and girls, all children of our Catholic families, have been entered into the Protestant college of La Pointe aux Trembles at the very door of Montreal. "If, every year, those fifty or sixty young men and girls poisoned by the errors and impieties of Protestantism are sent back from that school into the midst of our honest but illiterate population, who cannot see that they will scatter the poison of heresy and Protestantism into hundreds, even thousands of families of our good but so unlearned country people ? Every one of those perverted boys and girls will be like sparks of fire which will soon be spread all over our dear Canada, and cause the ruin of our holy Church. " We must not lose a moment in extinguishing those threat- ening sparks of fire. 67 68 Forty Years in the Church of Christ " It was to ask you the help of your wisdom on the best way of couuteracting the first efforts of those heretics that I have invitt'd you to meet here to day." As I had been working then only a few months in the diocese of Montreal, I felt that my duty was to let my elder priests give their views and I kept silent, listening to what was said, for more than an hour. Then the Bishop told me, " Dear Father Chiniquy, though you have been among us only a few months, you have worked four years within the city of Quebec, four other years in the grand parish of Beauport, and as long in the still more important parish of Kamou- raska. "In every one of those places, I know that you have met a great many Protestants, and I have even learned from the Bishop of Quebec that you have laboured with such zeal and success among those heretics that you have persuaded ninety- three of them to give up their errors and submit themselves to the holy Church. We want the benefit of your experience. We would like to know your views about the best way of paralyzing the efforts of the Protestants in their diabolical project of spreading their errors in the midst of our dear Catholic people." Though this request took me by surprise, I was pleased with it. No words can give an idea of the preju- dices, the contempt, nay the hatred which my theological studies, and my personal natural wickedness had accumulated in my mind against Protestants from the very day I had entered the college of Nicolet to that very hour of the 20th of January, 1850. Though I am ashamed to do it, I really think it is my duty to confess that I was hating with a supreme hatred every English man and woman, for the simple reason that they were Protestants. Such was, in the days of my youth, the impressions of the education given in the family, in the schools and in the col- leges, that every Protestant was looked upon by me as a mon- ster, born enemy of ray religion, of my God and my country. Darkness Before the Dawn 69 The books I had read, the lessons of my teachers in the col- lege, and of my theologians in the Seminaries were all con- verging to the same result. These dark, infamous and dia- bolical sentiments made such an impression on my young mind, that, to=day, I am still filled with disgust and horror against my teachers as against myself when I think of them. Under the full pressure of those sentiments I reminded the Bishop that the dangers ahead for our dear country and our holy Church were greater than many suspected. I added, "This is a war to death between those infamous heretics and our holy Church. It is a hand to hand battle, every one of us has to fight against those soldiers of hell if we want to save our country. In all her councils and through all her theolo- gians of our holy Church, has she not forbidden us to have any communication with the heretics? Has not our holy Church told us that we must deal with them as with wolves which cross our fields to devour our lambs and our sheep? Does not our Jure Canonico tell us that it is not a sin to kill them, when we have our opportunity? What can I say on our duties and rights in reference to those miserable ambassadors of hell which you do not know? " Let every one of you listen to the word of his intelligence as well as to the voice of our Church about the best way of saving our dear Catholic people from the jaws of those roar- ing lions. I will say please let me go and preach to the peo- ple of La Pointe aux Trembles three or four days. Give me carte blanche to act and fight in my own way against those miserable ambassadors of hell, and, with the help of the blessed Virgin Mary, I will give you a good account of my humble efforts against them. My hope is that after those three or four days of crossing the sword with those ignorant and fanatical followers of Luther and Calvin, we shall not have much to fear from them." My short address was received with the most frantic ap- plause from the whole assembly. After a few approving remarks, Bishop Bourget told me, yo Forty Years in the Church of Christ " Go, and reuinin not only three days, but much longer, if you wish to confound and pulverize those heretics. We will pray the Virj^'in IMnry and St. John the Baptist, the patron Saint of Canada, to help you. But be prudent, do not expose your- self in any way which might put you in the hands of the law. " Do not forget that our misfortune is that we are a con- quered people ruled by Protestant England, and we have no fair play nor any justice to expect from those heretics." A week later I WJis the guest of the curate of La Pointe aux Trembles, who at the demand of his Bishop, had invited me to deliver a course of three days lectures to his people against Protestants. During the next three days the church of La Pointe aux Trembles was crowded to its utmost capacity, not only by the people of that parish, but by hundreds from the neighbour- ing parishes who wanted to know what I had to say against the Siriss, as the first French Protestants used to be called in Canada, because, likely, some of the first missionaries were Swiss. My memory and my mind were stuifed in a marvelous way with all the ridiculous, abominable, diabolical lies jjublished against Luther, Calvin, Zwingle, etc., and against all those who had accepted their reforms. All those lies and calumnies were sincerely believed by me as Gospel truth (as they are generally believed even to=day by the priests of Rome). I gave them to the people with all the epithets and expressions of contempt and wrath that fanatical and blind zeal could inspire me. My readers would hardly believe me to day were I to tell them the historical lies which I gave those poor people as Gospel truth. For instance, I told them how the Protestants of France, after having slaughtered thousands and thou.'^ands of defense- less priests, nuns and honest farmers, had sold their country to English Protestants who were coming to cover France Darkness Before the Dawn 71 with blood and ruin, if the good, honest, peaceful, French Catholics had not been forced in self=defense to slaughter those bloody and treacherous Protestants in the St. Barthol- omew night. For, let the Protestants of Canada and the whole world know that this is one of the Romish historical lies and calum- nies invented by the Jesuits, and accepted as Gospel truth by the great majority of the Roman Catholics. " Look at the miserable heretics," I said to the people, " how they look peaceful, charitable, humble, to=day. Their voice is like the voice of the dove in their manners when they visit with you with their falsified Bible under their arms; they look like lambs. But let them grow in number, and they will do here what they did in France, England, Scotland, wherever they are strong enough: they will turn your houses and your churches into ashes, and they will slaughter you to take possession of your beautiful farms, if you dare to resist them! " Really, the devil had taken possession of me, when I was proclaiming those horrible Jesuitical lies, which I believed then very sincerely. For, let the Protestants who read these lines remember that this is the history as the Jesuits and the greater part of the Roman Catholic writers have given it. What could be the feelings of my poor countrymen after three days of such horrible historical lies given them with a burning zeal by a priest in whom they had confidence? Shall I tell it again? Yes! The devil had really taken possession of my heart. I was breathing nothing but hatred, vengeance and death against those defenseless and humble ministers of the Gospel. My hope was that I would make the ground so hot under their feet, in that parish and every- where in Canada, that they could not dwell any longer in our land. The last address was hardly finished the third day, when I saw five or six of those humble and zealous ministers of the 72 Forty Years in the Church of Christ Gospel, or colporteurs, who had patiently and brav<^ly at- tended all my meeting's, with their Bibles in their hands, coming' to meet and challenge me to have a discussion with them, promisinj^ to refute me before my people. I was overjoyed when I heard them challenfi^ing me to a public disc-ussion. It was just the trap in which my hope was that they would fall. Instead of accepting their challenge, I turned towards the multitude, that had just come out of the church, — and I said: " Do you not see those miserable heretics, who come to chal- lenge and insult you and me, at the very door of your church? Why do you not give them a lesson which they will never forget?" A thought had evidently come from hell into my heart, in that hour, the darkest of my life. I do not like to confess it, but I must. The intelligent reader understands that my intention was to have them so cruelly beaten, that they would either die there, on the spot, or be so cruelly treated that they would run away from the place, never to come again. My cruel and cowardly intention was so well understood by the multitude that the words had hardly fallen from my lips, when forty or fifty young men, like furious tigers, threw themselves on those few defenseless men, and struck them without mercy. In a moment their clothes were torn into rags, and their bruised and bleeding bodies were rolling in the snow, which was two or three feet deep on the ground. Very soon the sncw was reddened with the blood of several of them. With a word of my lips or a movement of my finger I could have put a stop to that horror. But, alas, I was a true, a devoted priest of Rome! The blood of those heretics was the most pleasant tiling I had ever seen! I was saying to myself, " Surely if they are not killed they Darkness Before the Dawn 73 will run away, never to come again!" Very probably they would have been killed there, if the God of the Gospel had not come to the help of His heroic messengers. A noble Roman Catholic French Canadian farmer, moved with compassion at the horrible spectacle which was before his eyes, cried out, " It is a shame to beat so cruelly defense- less men — I cannot bear that." Then quick as lightning, throwing his coat and overcoat on the snow, he struck the nearest of the would-be murderers with his terrible fist, and sent him rolling down bleeding in the snow. In less time than I can say it, he had applied his terrible fist on the bleeding noses or the blackened eyes of half a dozen of his cruel and mistaken Roman Catholic countrymen. And who will not praise the Lord with me, to-day, when I say that this heroic action was applauded by most of the people? The wounded and bleeding, but heroic, servants of Christ were at once left free to pick up their ragged clothing and run back as fast as possible to their lodgings. Then, falling on their knees (as I learned ten years later from their own lips), they raised their supplicating hands to the Mercy Seat, and said to the dear Saviour as much with their blood as with their lips, " Dear Saviour, Thou seest our bruised bodies and bleeding wounds, and Thou knowest the one who has caused us to suffer as we do. We beseech Thee, look down on him in Thy mercy. Show him the error of his ways. Give him the saving light of the Gospel, that he may know and love Thee as his only Saviour; change that stone of the wilderness into a child of Abraham. Grant him to see the ignominious chains which tie him to the feet of the idols of Rome, that he may come with us to invite his poor Canadian countrymen to accept Thee as their only hope and Saviour for time and eternity." And, blessed be the Lord, the prayers of those modern and heroic martyrs were heard at the Mercy Seat. 74 Forty Years in the Church of Christ There has never been any doubt in my mind about the fact that, in the admirable providence of God, I owe my conver- sion to tlie fervent prayers of these six humble but admirable Christians, who had been so cruelly beaten at my instigation in January, 1850, at the door of the Church of Pointe aux Trembles. The ni^'ht after I had committed that criminal and shame- ful act, was spout in the parsonage of Longueil where I used, then, to reside with my intimate friend. Rev. Mr. Brassard. It was a sleepless night. I was hardly in my bed when a voice more terrible than the roar of thunder was crying within my soul: "Are you not ashamed of what you have done to-day? Though by a real miracle those defenseless and honest men have not been killed, the blood they have lost, the cruel wounds they have received, cry for vengeance to God against you." To silence those voices and excuse myself in my own eyes, I rose three or four times to read the theological books of my church and see again what she was teaching about the right of the Roman Catholics to persecute the Protestants. I read in St. Thomas Aquinas, Vol. 4, page 99, that not only we should " not tolerate them, but that we must deliver them into the hands of the secular j^ower to be exterminated." When reading these doctrines of the best and most approved theologians of my church, which were unanimous in assur- ing me that the heretics have no right to live, I persuaded myself that, after all, I had not committed any sin, when only beating men whom we had the right to kill. It was then, that, for the first time, I heard a new voice within my soul which caused me unspeakable distress from that night to the day of my conversion. " Do you not see that in your Church of Rome you do not follow the Word of God, but you follow the lying traditions of men?" It was for the first time in my life that the sugges- tion of leaving the Church of Rome had come to me with great force. Darkness Before the Dawn 75 There was no doubt in my mind bivt that all the powers of hell were combined for my perdition. I fell on my knees and prayed to God to silence these voices which were shak- ing my faith. From the bottom of my heart I swore I would live and die in the Church of Rome, out of which (I sincere- ly believed, then ) there was no salvation. But, to prove to myself again that I had done well to get those heretics punished, and that my holy Church was right to teach us to hate, maltreat and even kill them, I took my Bible, with the hope of finding some of the texts which would prove to me that such were the teachings of the Scrip- ture. Where can I find words to express my surprise and emotion when, on opening the Divine Book, my eyes fell on these words in Luke, Chapter 9: "And it came to pass, when the time was come that He should be received up. He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem, And sent messengers before His face; and they went and entered into a village of the Samaritans to make ready for Him. And they did not receive Him because His face was as though He would go to Jerusalem. And when His disciples, James and John, saw this, they said, Lord, wilt Thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did? But He turned, and rebuked them, and said. Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of Man is not come to destroy men's lives but to save them." I had hardly finished reading this last sentence when as formidable a thunderclap as I ever heard, before or since, struck the ears of my soul, saying, "Do you not see that in your Church of Rome you do not follow the Word of God but the lying traditions of men? Where do your Popes and theologians find the right to punish, beat, imprison and kill the heretics, when Christ says the very contrary? " What could I answer to my troubled conscience when hear- ing those awful rebukes from the very lips of Christ? I felt stunned and more than ever confounded. While sitting at the breakfast table the next morning, Rev. Mr. Brassard told 76 Forty Years in the Church of Christ me; "Your eyes are swollen as if you had spent the night in tears . . . What does that mean?" "You are not mis- taken when you think that I have wept, last night," I an- swered. "I have just passed through the most dreadful hours of my life. The cruel beating of those poor defenseless men has como to my mind and conscience under such colours all night, that I am really horrified at myself. In order to silence the voice of my guilty conscience I left my bed several times to read the pages of our most approved and learned theologians. Of course I have found them unanimous in telling me that the heretics are not worthy to live, that they have no rights which we are bound to respect, that it is the duty of the Catholic Church to deliver them into the hands of the secular power to be exterminated, that it is forbidden to speak to them, to work with them, or encourage them in any way. " In your volume of Jure Canonico I have read again, that, not only is it not a sin to kill a Protestant, but that such a holy action gives the assurance of the pardon of all his sins to the murderer. More than that I have found that the kill- ing of a Protestant by a Catholic is not murder. But this has not silenced the cry of my conscience. " But to my unspeakable confusion my eyes have fallen on the ninth chapter of Luke, where our Saviour is absolutely in opposition to the doctrines and practises of our church on that subject. Then a voice more terrible than that of a hurricane had shaken my very frame, when crying in my ears, ' D(^ you not see that in your Church of Rome you do not follow the Word of God, but the lying traditions of men?' " What could I answer when my conscience was telling me that this was the truth, the sad truth! But how can I picture to you my distress and desolation, when it seemed to me that God Himself with all His angels was crying to me: 'Come out, come out from that Church of Rome, whose hands are Darkness Before the Dawn 77 reddened with the blood of ten millions of men she has slaughtered to establish her power over this enslaved, blind, perishing world.' " Mr. Brassard answered me: "My dear Chiniquy, with the hope, nay, the assurance, that you will never betray me, I must tell you that there are many things in our poor Church of Rome which I cannot believe; for they look to me not only against the teachings of the Grospel, but against common^ sense. The right which our Church assumes to command the civil power to hang, burn, torture and kill the heretics cannot come from Christ. I am always struck with sorrow when I read the bloody pages of our Church history, which tell us how she has filled her dungeons with not thousands, but millions of honest men and women, and where they were starved to death or had to suffer tortures which would have horrified the savages of our forests. It is a fact that our Church has put to death millions of Protestants, because they could not believe certain doctrines which they, wisely or un- wisely (God only knows), thought contrary to the Scriptures. To my mind and conscience, this is such a dark spot on the face of our Church that all the waters of our vast rivers and bottomless oceans cannot wash it away. "I tell you my mind, my dear Chiniquy, far from admiring or approving you, when yesterday you told me how you had caused those brave and honest (though mistaken) Protes- tants to be so cruelly beaten, I silently condemned you from the bottom of my heart. ^' Continue to spread your admirable views on temperance, but let the Protestants alone. Convert them if you can, with scriptural arguments, but give up forever the idea that we Roman Catholics have any right to beat them or shed their blood, because they cannot see many things just as we do.'' When uttering these last words, the voice of my noble friend was trembling, yes, there were tears in his eyes, and, 78 Forty Years in the Church of Christ uniiblo to conceal his emotion, he abruptly left the table and ran to his room. This friendly rebuke found such an echo in my troubled conscience that I remained speechless, and then I also took to my priest's room. Leaving the table, I retired with the words rimming in my soul: " Do you not see that in your Church of Rome you do not follow the Word of God, but the lying traditions of men?' CHAPTER V A Macedonian Cry from Chicago. Auricular Confession Many are the opportunities we have had to understand what Paul felt, w^hen, in a vision, he heard the cry from Macedonia, " Come and help us." Hundreds of times we have heard that cry coming from Chicago to New York; from New York to San Francisco; from San Francisco to the Sandwich Islands, Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania, Eng- land, Scotland, Ireland, and more than five hundred towns and cities in the provinces of Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton, etc. Several large volumes would not suffice to tell the interest- ing episodes, the narrow escapes, the sorrows as well as the joys of our heart, when, to answer that cry, we had to pass through the most crushing humiliations, or we had to rejoice at the great triumphs of the Gospel over its implacable enemy, Popery, in those different places these last forty years. The first Macedonian cry, after our conversion, was from Chicago. There was then, in that city, a French Canadian, by the name of Ducharme, keeping a very resjiectable hotel. A Roman Catholic by birth and education, his faith had been shaken by the scandalous lives of the priests of Rome in that city. From him came the first Macedonian appeal: Come and help us! His invitation came to me as an order from heaven. To my unspeakable joy, I found that not less than five hundred of my countrymen had been gathered by him in a very large 79 8o Forty Years in the Church of Christ and decent hall, near the Hay market, to hear the Gospel message I had to give them. After the most hearty reception by that multitude, and a prayer addressed to our heavenly Father, I told them: " I do not come here to address to you any long speech. My only intention is to give you the explanations you want, and to answer your questions about our new religious posi- tion." After a few moments of silence, the President rose and said: "Dear Father Chiniquy, the news of that last religious event at St. Anne has come to us as an earthquake, which has shaken our religious views to their foundations. Yes, in many families, our religious convictions have not only been shaken, but they have been destroyed, completely ruined! To=day, many of us stand before the religious ruins you have made! But what does an intelligent man do when his house has been ruined, shattered, demolished by an earthquake? Does he remain with folded arms, motionless and discouraged be- fore his demolished house? No. After the first hour of desolation, lie looks to the best way he can build up a new home on those ruins. Nay, he looks how to make a better homo with the very ruins which the earthquake lias left. " It is with that in view that we are met here. You confess that you are the cause of these ruins. Have we not, then, the right to ask you to help us gather what we can from the ruins you have made to give us a renewed home, and more solid foundations? " In the name (jf this large assembly, I will ask you why you have abolished Auricular Confession. Is it not a Gospel institution? Has not Christ said to His apostles, ' What ye bind on earth shall l)e bound in heaven.' 'The sins ye shall forgive on earth shall be forgiven in heaven. The sins ye shall retain on earth shall be retained in heaven?' " What have you to give us to reconcile us with our God after we have sinned?" "To answer your questions from the Scripture, history, A Macedonian Cry from Chicago 8i and common^sense," I replied, " I would keep you here not only the whole night, but during all the hours of to-morrow. I cannot do it. I will then present only a few common-sense arguments against Auricular Confession, and with the help of God, you will be forever delivered from that degrading and infamous yoke. "Please tell me, is your wife still living?" "Yes, sir, thanks be to God, and she is just here sitting by me." "Have you any daughters?" " Yes, sir, I have two. You see them at your right hand." "Have you any boys?" "Yes, sir, three; and they are all here to hear you." " Now please allow me to address you a few other ques- tions. How long is it since you have been to confession?" " Well, well, you ought not to ask me that. I am ashamed to acknowledge that I have not been to confess for seven years." "And your boys, do they like to go to confess?" " I am sorry to acknowledge that they follow my bad exam- ple. They do not go to confess more than their poor father. ' "And your wife and daughters, if it is not an indiscretion to ask that question, do they go to confess very often? " " Yes, thanks be to God, my wife and daughters are very pious; they never let a month pass without going to confess to their priest. And I think if I had not objected to it they would go to confess every week." " Now, my dear sir, I must thank you for your answering me. But I have another question to ask you, and though it is of a very delicate nature, I hope that you will continue to deserve the respect and gratitude of this large meeting, by your -honourable and truthful answer. Suppose that instead of a man in that confessional there were a young lady to hear your confessions, would you be seven years without regarding her pressing appeals to come and confess to her?" 82 Fortv Years in the Church of Christ ]\ly quc'Htiou was followed by such a burst of laughter as I have never heard before nor since. My honest interlocutor answered me. " I'll lot you guess my answer l)y what you know of the human heart." "Yes, yes, you are right," I told him, "it is useless to insist; any one who has s(nno knowledge of human nature, would easily understand the consequences that would naturally fol- low from such a mode of Auricular Confession. Yet why would it be worse than llie mode which is now practised? " Women are more shrewd than men in these affairs. There is not a lady among you who would allow her husband to go and confess to a young lady. If a Roman Catholic lady saw her son going once a month, or once a fortnight, to the feet of a young lady, to speak to her for hours about all that is going on in his poor heart, and to tell her all his thoughts and desires, she would go and take him away, and tell him that it was not i^roijor for him to be there. She w'ould not permit her liusV)and to go to the feet of the most respectable woman and tell her all his thoughts; and if the husband urged that there was no danger, and that the lady was as pure as an angel, and that he w\as highly respectable, she would only laugh at him, and bring him out of the confessional box. But it is strange that the husband is not so shrewd. He is a stupid being, compared with his wife. He sees his wife going to the feet of that bachelor, and remaining alone with him for hours, telling him all her secret thoughts, but he says to himself that there is no danger as his wife is honest! And where is the difference between a man confessing all his sins to a woman, and a woman telling all her bad thoughts and actions to a man? You would not tolerate the former. It would be considered an offense against society, a public immorality. And in the latter case it is also a public immo- rality. It is an offense against the laws of God, and it ought to be an offense against the laws of man. "A Bishop, who was first cousin to the king of France, A Macedonian Cry from Chicago 83 Charles X., and also his secretary, came to Canada. His name was Forbin Janson, and he had been Bishop of Nancy, Lorraine, France. After confessing to me one day, he told me that there was a book I should have which would guide me in putting questions to the priests in the confessional; it is in relation to the sins of priests. He gave me a copy which I have brought with me to-day, and I ask some of you to come forward and read a portion of it, bearing on the sub- ject we now consider. It is a question the priest must ask to himself in his examination of conscience after he has been hearing confessions." Then the chairman read the following extract: " When hearing the confession of females, have I put to them questions about their sins, which brought answers by which my imagination has been filled with thoughts which have led me into great temptation and sin? The priests in general do not jjay sufficient attention to the bad effect which is produced by hearing the confessions of females. By these confessions, they are constantly tempted, and these tempta- tions weaken the soul of the priest to such a degree that his purity is entirely destroyed." " That is pretty clear," I said. "You see, it affirms that the priests are constantly tempted and induced to fall into sin through the confessional. ''Napoleon I., Emperor of France, knew so well, by his per- sonal experience, the corrupting influence of Auricular Con- fession on the minds of young people, that when his only boy was old enough to make his first communion, he wrote him- self the questions which the priest would be allowed to put to his young son, and he absolutely forbade that priest to put the immoral questions usually put to the young as well as to the old jjeople. "If le'ft to himself, the priest of Rome, as a general thing, would not put those infamous questions. But the priest of the Pope is not a free man who can act according to his honest conscience — he is a miserable slave, obliged to obey his Church. 84 Forty Years in the Church of Christ Aud that Church obli;^'eB him, under iDain of eternal damna- tion to put those demoralizing questions to the old and the young, to men and to women, to the boy and the girl who come to confess to him. " Has not the whole of France been struck with horror and disgust at the declaration made by the noble Catherine Cadi6re and her numerous young female friends, against their Father Confessor, John B. Girard, a French Jesuit? "The details of those villainies practised by that Father Confessor and several of his friends, Jesuit priests, with their penitents are such that I cannot tell them here. " Who among you has not read the history of Father Achaz- ius, Suijerior of the nunnery in the city of Duren, France? The number of his victims was so great, and their ranks in society so exalted that Naiwleon thought it was his duty to take that scandalous affair before him. "The way this holy (?) Father Confessor used to lead the noblest girls and married women as well as the nuns in the city of Aix Lachapelle, was revealed by a young nun who had escaped the snares of that confessor and had married a superior officer of the army of the Emperor of France. Her husband thought it his duty to direct the attention of Napoleon to the performances of that priest, through the con- fessional. But the investigations which were directed by the state councillor, Leclere, were comjDromising so many other priests and so many ladies of the highest ranks of society, that the Emperor, though not over scrupulous, was absolutely dis- heartened and feared that their exposure before the whole of France would cause the renewal of the awful slaughters of 1702 and 1793, when so many Roman Catholic priests had been mercilessly hung or shot as the most implacable enemies of morality and liberty. "He abruptly ordered the court of investigation to stop the incjuiry, under the pretense of saving the honour of so many families whose single and married women had been the vic- tims of their Father Confessors. He thought that prudence A Macedonian Cry from Chicago 85 and shame were urging him not to lift up more of the dark and thick veil behind which the Father Confessors conceal their hellish practises with their fair penitents. The Emperor of France found it was enough to confine Father Achazius and his co=priests in a dungeon for their lives. " But it is not only the Emperor of France with the law courts of that great country who tells you and me that Auri- cular Confession is the most demoralizing and degrading in- stitution; the Popes of Rome themselves have been forced by the providence of God to be the witnesses of that demoral- izing agency. Yes! The Popes themselves have given to the world the most unanswerable proof that Auricular Con- fession, far from helping the young and old girls and married women, is a school of perdition. "Not very long after Auricular Confession had been insti- tuted, rumours of the most horrible scandals between the Father Confessors and their penitents, spread everywhere. In order to put a stop to that state of things the Pope, Pius IV., in 1560, determined to make a public enquiry and to punish all the guilty Father Confessors, who would be accused by their fair penitents. A bull was published by him, by which all the girls and married women who had been misled by their Father Confessors, were ordered to denounce them. And a certain number of high church ofiicers of the Holy Inqui- sition was authorized to take the depositions of the fallen penitents. The thing was, at first, tried at Seville, one of the greatest cities of Spain. "When the edict was first published, the number of women who felt bound in conscience to go and depose against their Father Confessors, was so great that, though there were thirty notaries, and as many inquisitors to take the depositions, they were unable to do the work in the appointed term. Thirty days more were given them. But the inquisitors were so overwhelmed with the numberless depositions that another period of time of the same length was given. But this again was found insufficient! In the end it was found .86 Forty Years in the Church of Christ thnt the numbor of priests, who had their penitents through the confessional, was so great that it was impossible to punish them all without destroying the church. The in- quiry was given up and the guilty confessors remained un- punished. Several attempts of the same nature have been tried by other Popes with the same effect. " But if those honest attempts on the part of some well= meaning Popes to punish the confessors who destroy the purity of their penitents have failed to touch the guilty persons, there are, in the good providence of God, infallible witnesses to tell you that Auricular Confession is nothing else but a snare to the confessor and his penitents. Yes, those bulls of the Popes are irrefragable testimonies that Auricular Con- fession is one of the most powerful inventions of the devil to corrupt the heart, pollute the body, and damn the souls of confessors and penitents. "Auricular Confession was invented by the priests of Bacchus five hundred years before Christ came to save the world by shedding His blood for poor sinners. Those priests of Bacchus had to swear never to marry, just as the priests of Rome. And they made use of Auricular Confes- sion, just as the priests of Rome, to make their celibacy a most easy thing by the knowledge they have of the personal disposition and weakness of their penitents. Through the Auricular Confession they know those who are strong and those who are weak among their penitents — and you under- stand the consequences of that knowledge by your own com- mon sense. "When, at the beginning of Christianity, the priests of Bacchus had introduced themselves into the church and tried to establish Auricular Confession, they were coura- geously opposed by all the holy Fathers of the first centuries of Christianity. St. Bastile, in his commentary on Psalm 1 hi rty=^ seven, speaking against Auricular Confession says: ' I have not Ix'fore the world to make a confession of my sins with my lips; but I close my eyes and I confess my sins in A Macedonian Cry from Chicago 87 the secret of my heart. Before Thee, O God, I pour out my sighs, and Thou alone art the witness; my groans are within my soul: there is no need of many words to confess my sins: sorrow and regret are the best confession. Yes, the lamenta- tions of the soul, which Thou art pleased to hear, are the best confession.' "St. Chrysostom, in his homily ' De Poenitentia,' Vol. 4, Col. 901, says: ' You need no witness of your confession. Secretly acknowledge your sins, and let God hear them.' "In one of his homilies, he says: 'Therefore I beseech you always to confess your sins to God only. I, in no wise, ask you to confess them to me. To God alone you must show the wounds of your soul, and from Him alone you must ex- pect the cure. Go to Him, then, and you shall not be cast off, but healed. For, before you utter a single word, God knows your prayer.' "And in his commentary on Hebrews 12, he further says: 'Let us not be content with calling ourselves sinners; but let us examine and count our sins, and then, I do not tell you to go and confess them to a man, according to the caprice of some: but I will say to you with the prophet: Confess your sins to God: acknowledge your iniquities at the feet of your Judge: pray in your heart and your mind, if not with your tongue, and you shall be pardoned.' "In his homily on Psalm 1, the same St. John Chrysostom says: 'Confess your sins every day in prayer. Why should you hesitate to do so? I do not tell you to go and confess your sins to a man, a sinner as you are yourself, who might despise you if he knew your faults. But confess your sins to God, who alone can forgive them.' "The same St. John Chrysostom, in his admirable homily 4, says: 'Tell me why should you be ashamed to confess your sins? Do we compel you to confess them to a man who might one day throw them in your face? Are you commanded to confess them to some of your equals who could publish them and ruin you? What we ask of you is 88 Forty Years in the Church of Christ simply to show the sore s of your soul to your Lord and Master, who is also your friend, your guardian, your physician.' "In a small work of that St. John Chrysostom, ' Cathechisis ad Illuminandum, ' we read the following remarkable words: ' What we should most admire is not that God forgives your sins, but that He does not disclose them to anyone, nor wish us to do so. What He demands of us is to confess our transgressions to Him alone that He may forgive them.' " St. Augustin, in his beautiful homily on the 31st Psalm, says: ' I shall confess my sins to God, and He will pardon them all. And such confession is not made with the lips, but with the heart only. I had hardly opened my mouth to confess my sins, when they were pardoned; for God had al- ready heard the voice of my heart.' "I would keep you all the night should I repeat to you all that the holy Fathers have said to show us that Auricular Confession was not practised in their time and that they were opposed to it. We know the year and the day when it became a dogma in the Church or Rome, as we know the year and the day when the idolatry of the wafer god and the other recent idolatry of the Immaculate Conception of Mary -were invented. " When our Saviour said to His disciples, ' What ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and what ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven;' or when He said, * The sins you forgive on earth shall be forgiven in heaven, and the sins you shall retain on earth shall be retained in heaven,' He was speaking of the sins committed against each other. "St. Peter understood Him well, when, hearing our Saviour saying admirable words, he said: 'Good Master, how many times shall I forgive my brother the sins he has committed against me; shall it be seven times?' He answered, 'I do not say seven times but seventy times seven.' And He finished that address which was given to a multitude of peo- A Macedonian Cry from Chicago 89 pie, by saying: ' So will my Father do to you, if, from your heart, you do not forgive the sins your brother has committed against you.' Do you not say every day the admirable prayer which our Saviour Jesus Christ has brought from heaven for every one of us? Well, what are we taught to say about our sins in that prayer that God may forgive them? ' Forgive our trespasses, as we forgive those who have tres- passed against us.' "You see our Saviour does not teach us to say, * Forgive our sins as we confess them to the priest.' No! But He wants us to say, ' Forgive our trespasses, as we forgive those who have trespassed against us,' and He adds, ' If you forgive those who have offended you, I will forgive your sins.' Yes, if you forgive the sins of your neighbour against you, God Almighty will forgive your sins. It is Christ Himself who made that promise, and when God has forgiven you, what is the use of going to a priest to get your pardon? " Has our dear Saviour told us to go and confess our sins to a priest? No, never! When speaking to the poor sinners, Jesus said to them, ' Come unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.' 'I did not come to save the righteous but the sinners.' " Our Saviour has said and He does say it this very night to every one of us, ' All those who believe in Me and invoke My name shall be saved! ' Saved! and that without going to confess to a priest. " Then let us go to Him, believing in His love and His mercy, and invoking His name this very night, and our sins are forgiven, we are purified and saved by Him alone! " What does our merciful God say to every one of us this very night, by Isaiah? 'Let the wicked forsake his ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord and He will have mercy upon him, and He will abun- dantly pardon.' (Isa. 55: 7, 8.) "What does the prophet David say? ' I confess my sins unto thee, Oh my God, and I have not concealed my iniquities. I QO Forty Years in the Church of Christ have said I will confess my iniquities unto the Lord, and Thou forgavest my transgressions.' (Ps. 30: 1-5.) " What does our beloved Saviour tell you and me this very moment? Please listen to His sweet, saving, merciful words: " ' As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up. " ' That whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.' (John 3: 15.) " Read the fourteen epistles of St. Paul and you will see that that great apostle never thought of Auricular Confession. He has not a single word about it. When speaking to the sinners about the best, the only way to be reconciled to his God, he absolutely ignored that panacea of the Popes of Rome. He always sent the sinners to Jesus and Jesus alone for their pardon. "And St. John, that beloved one of Jesus, what does he say to the poor sinners to get their pardon? Here are his words: * These things we write you that your joy may be full. This then is the message which we have heard of Him, and I de- clare unto you, that God is light and that in Him there is no darkness at all. " ' If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not say the truth. " 'But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin. " * If we say we have not sinned we make Him a liar and His Word is not in us. "'My little children, these things I write unto you that ye sin not. But if any man sin we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. " 'And He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.' (St. John, 1st Ep. Vr. 1.) "You see how the Apostle John has absolutely forgotten to advise the sinners to go and ask pardon from their father A Macedonian Cry from Chicago 91 confessors. It is to Jesus and Jesus alone that he sends them. So that is what I do, to-day. Let us go to Jesus, let us invoke His name, repent and wash our souls in His blood. Then and then alone we shall be forgiven, absolved and purified from our iniquities. Yes, let us go to Jesus and Jesus alone, and we shall obtain pardon and peace in this world and eternal life in the next. But I will not separate myself from you without asking a great favour. Please let those of you who are determined never to go to confess their sins to the priests of Rome, and who will go only to their Saviour Jesus Christ for their pardon raise their hands." And with tears of joy I saw that every one of that great multitude had forever broken the heavy and ignominious yoke of the Pope to accept the blessed and sweet yoke of Christ. CHAPTER VI The Temptation I was not a little surprised, when, at the beginning of the second week of November, 1858, on opening my door to some one that was knocking, I found myself face to face with the Rev. Mr. Maillonx, the grand vicar of the Bishop of Quebec, who liad led Bishop O'Regan to our town on the never^^to^^be^ forgotten third of August of the year before. After the preliminary exchange of expressions of common politeness, he asked me if we were so absolutely alone that he could give me a confidential message from the Bishops of Canada. I gave him the assurance that we were absolutely alone, and that nobody would hear him, beside our God, myself, and our guardian angels. " Then," he said, " I feel happy to be the bearer of a message which I hope will put an end to the awful scandals and sad divisions of the last two years. . . . " You have not forgotten how dear you were to those Bishops, nor how kind they were to you. After the Bishop of Quebec had put you at the head of the two most important, beautiful and rich parishes of his diocese, Beauport and Kamouraska, the Bishop of Montreal gave you the greatest favour ever given to priests by allowing you to go and work in his whole diocese, whenever you liked, in union with his curates. That same Bishop of Montreal, after having obtained from the Pope the magnificent crucifix you keep as a public token of the personal esteem of the vicar of Christ, has given you the official title of ' Temperance Apostle of Canada,' not only that, but it is from his advice that the city of Montreal has given you the gold medal you carry on your breast. " Well, these venerable Bishops, who have overwhelmed you 92 The Temptation 93 with honours and dignities, when you were working with them, have sent me with the promise that they will do still more for you, if you come back and submit as a dutiful priest to our holy church! Oh, do not rebuke them. Do not rebuke me, for I am still your friend, as I was when you were in our midst. Forget and forgive what may have been wrong in what the last Bishop of Chicago, as well as myself, may have done against you. Come back, dear Father Chiniquy, to that Catholic Church of Canada, which has taken you in triumph from the lowest parts of the St. Lawrence river, to the shores of Lake Huron. We are ready to do still more for you! Come and dry the tears which are flowing on so many cheeks. Come back and rejoice so many friendly hearts which are so sad on account of your separation from us." When saying these last words, he took my hands into his, pressed them in the most friendly way, and bathed them with his tears. I would not be honest were I to deny that his words and his tears made a profound impression on me. My poor hu- man and sinful heart was not indifferent to the honours, dig- nities and riches which were there in store for the rest of my life, if I would only accept the message of peace from the Roman Catholic Bishops of Canada. I would have fallen a prey to the Tempter had not the dear Saviour come to my aid. But He was there to succour and save His poor, weak, half-conquered servant. In that moment, a grand, solemn, divine spectacle struck the eyes of my soul. I saw my Sav- iour " on the summit of that high mountain, where the devil had taken Him to show Him all the kingdoms and the glory of the world." It seemed to me that I was hearing the devil's voice, saying, "All these things I will give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me." But the answer whichT had heard from the lips of Jesus, thrilled my soul: " Get thee hence, Satan; for it is written: Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and Him only shalt thou serve." As a flash of lightning it passed through ray whole body, trans- 94 Forty Years in the Church of Christ forming,' me into ciuito a new bein^', I felt strong as an un- eontiuornble fjfiant, thouf^h I knew that the strength was not my own strength, and I anRv\'ered: "My dear Mr. Mailloux, I am nuu'h obliged to you for the interest you show nie, and I appreciate the sincerity of your motives in bringing that message from the Bishops of Canada. I would surely acceiDt your friendly otfer, if I had left the Church of Rome from any worldly motives. But my God knows that it is only for His sake and to obey Him, that I am what I am to=day. Please pardon me the disappointment I give you. Tell the good Bishops of Canada that I am very grateful for this last friendly effort they make to jKn-suade me to return to the Church of Rome; but tell them also that though they should offer me all the dignities and the incalculable treasures of the Church of Rome, I would not take them in exchange for the treasures I have found in the Bible." And when saying these last words, I presented him with the Divine Book. My last words had hardly fallen from my lips when his head fell into his hands, and he wept as a child for a few minutes which seemed to me an hour, for I felt exceedingly sad at such a strange and unexi^ected grief. After he had eased his feelings of disapijointment with his tears, he raised his head and looked at me. But his look was not the same as before, his face was like the face of a furi- ous Iroquois (I have been told since that there was Iroquois blood among his grandmothers). That Mr. Mailloux was by nature one of the most ugly specimens of humanity which can be seen. His lips, naturally too thick and large for a man, were rendered still more repulsive by a large black piece of raw flesh on the right part of the upper lip; his eyes were unsettled, and his very smile was nothing but au idiotic grimace. Rising suddeidy on his feet, he made a step towards me and brandishing his tists near my face, he said: "Miserable apostate! You sign your sentence of death by refusing the message of peace I have just delivered to you. You know The Temptation 95 the rights, the laws, as well as the duties of our holy Church. Our best theologians tell us that you have no right to live from this fatal hour. And our holy Popes in the compen- dium of our most sacred laws, in our Jure Canonico, tell us that it is neither a murder nor a sin to take your infamous life. If you have forgotten those laws, there will be some- one who will make you remember them very soon. You have not ten days to live! " And his rage was such when uttering these threats, that there was foam on his lips. I answered him, " I am not more shaken by your bloody threats than I was by your glittering promises of human glory and honour. I am the servant of a God who can protect me against the malice of all the Popes, the priests, and the slaves of Rome. If it is His will that my blood should be mixed with the blood of the millions you have already slain, I am ready to shed it for the cause of the Gospel." He was out of the house before I had uttered my last words. Taking his hat and cane he had left at the double quick, and he soon disappeared. Though I might write a volume to tell what I felt when alone after that dark hour, those who have never passed through such an awful experience could never understand me. When alone I fell on my knees to pray for more wisdom and courage at the approach of the terrible impending con- flict. On the table was the ninth volume of the theology of St. Thomas. I opened it and read that the Roman Catholics had as much right to kill me now, as to kill a wolf which was crossing their fields to eat their sheep! A little farther on, on the same table was the " Jure Canonico " where the Church of Rome says that it is neither murder nor a sin to kill me now; nay, I read that it was such a holy action to take away my life that the sins would be forgiven to the Roman Catholic who would risk his life in taking away mine. 96 Forty Years in the Church of Christ The next day, ju.st wheu going to take my dinner, two of our dear converts came to tell me, " Dear Mr. Chiuiquy, a rumour is spreading this morning against your character, more quickly and more disastrously than the xjrairie fires which came so near destroying the village some years ago. You must stop it at once; if you cannot do it, we come to tell you in the name of many that you will have to leave the colony." " What is the rumour"? I asked. " You know, we suppose," they replied, " that when Mr. Mailloux left you yesterday, he went directly to John B^langer's to spend the night and say his mass and preach to his people, this morning. Well, the few Roman Catholics of the place went to spend the evening with him; they remained till twelve o'clock hearing the ni -st shameful and scandalous stories against you. Among other things Mr. Mailloux told them that you had many illegitimate children in Canada; that you had been interdicted and forced to leave the coun- try on that account. Those who were there last evening, to the number of thirty, are publishing that story this morning against you. It goes with the rapidity and destructive jwwer of a hurricane. As soon as we hoard it, we thought it was our duty to come and acquaint you of it. Now you know what you have to do through respect for yourself and your numerous friends here." I answered them, "Dear Mr. Mailloux is very hard on his old friend! He ascribes to me gross imnu)ralitie8. Yesterday he told me that I should soon be murdered. Now I see that before taking away my life the Romanists wish to take away my honour. With the help of God, we must show to the Roman Catholic ambassador, once more, that he is not in the land of the Holy Inquisition, where injustice and cruelty have full sway against those called heretics. There are laws here to protect our honour as well as oiir life. Please, come with me to John Belanger's. where we shall probably find Mr. Mailloux, and then we shall see what we have next to do in the matter." The Temptation 97 Five minutes later, we were face to face with the Rev. Mr. Mailloux, whom we found, as we expected, in the company of John B61anger. Before any salutation, I said, " Mr. Mailloux, please tell me, before these two witnesses and Mr. B61anger who is here, if you know that, when in Canada, I had a great number of illegitimate children and if you have ever told that story anywhere." At this question he became as pale as a dead man and with a trem- bling voice, he replied, " No, sir, I have never said such a thing. I know that you were a good priest and that you never com- mitted such crimes." These words were hardly uttered when John Belanger, with a terrible oath, said, " Mr. Mailloux, are you not ashamed to deny such a thing? Last night in my presence and in the presence of about twenty witnesses you said that Father Chiniquy had about twelve illegitimate children in Canada." Mr. Mailloux then replied, " I did not say that he had, I said that I had been told that he had." Belanger, with another oath, said, "No, sir, you did not say that you were told, but you affirmed that it was so. You ought to be ashamed to deny it, this morning. Go away, and never put your foot in my house any more." "Now, Mr. Mailloux," I replied, " Tell me before these people if you be- lieve or know that I have been guilty of such crimes in Canada as you allege." He answered, " No, sir, I do not believe that. I believe you were a good, honest priest." " Now, sir, can you say in my face that I have been inter- dicted and turned out of Canada by the Bishops?" With a voice half suffocated with shame, he said, " I cannot say that, for I know the contrary. I know the Bishop has given you, as a token of his esteem, a silver chalice to say mass." Then Belanger again said, with another oath: " You are a d liar, for you told us last night that the Bishops had turned Mr. Chiniquy out of Canada." " Then," I said, " that is all I want to know. Good-bye, sir." When coming back with my two friends, they advised me to prosecute him, saying that they could find at least thirty 98 Forty Years in the Church of Christ witnesses who had beard him say it. '"No, my friends," I answered, " this is not the Christian way to act with my enemies. I prefer to follow the advice of Christ — to forgive. "Besides that, such calumnies of my enemies do not injure me at all. They do more harm to their cause than to ours. Those calunniit'H bear their refutation with themselves and they brin^ dis^n-ace only to their authors. You see how he was confounded and trembling in my presence, and how he has been turiu'd out from the house of his best friend." Just four days later the judMy Missionary Tour Continued. The Dagger of the Assassin on My Breast at Quebec The first Sabbath of February, 1859, at 3 o'clock, the large hall of the village of Napierville was filled by the intelligent Roman Catholics of that interesting town, who wanted to know why I had left the Church of Rome. Far from follow- ing the advice of their priest by giving me such a reception that I would never be tempted to come again, they over- whelmed me with all the marks of respect and friendship which they were able to give. It was the same thing next morning when their hall was again crammed by an audience to hear why a man could not make God with a wafer. In the afternoon the doctor of the village was sent by the priests to argue against me and to defend Auricular Con- fession. He tried to show us that our Saviour had established that sacrament of penance (Auricular Confession) as the only way to get pardon for our sins. But he was soon at the end of his arguments, and I asked him to tell us how long it was since he had gone to confess his sins to the priest. He was forced to answer, " Ten years." The people laughed at him to their hearts' content. This threw so much cold water on his fiery eloquence, that he found the only way to save his lost cause was by making use of a dozen rowdy Irishmen to drown my voice every time I tried to speak. Though the immense majority of the people wanted to hear more, we had to stop the meeting. But much of the good seed had fallen on that welbprepared soil. The Rev. Mr. Lafleur, Revs. Cyr and Roussy had faithfully worked before me in that precious part of the Good Master's vineyard. A good number of its families had already given up the errors of 165 1 66 Forty Years in the Church of Christ Rome and formed a very interesting congregation of Protes- tants. It was my joy in the evening meeting, in my host's house, to get. from ten lieads of Roman Catholic families, the assur- ance that they had also taken the resolution to accept the Gospel as their only guide and Jesus Christ for their only Saviour. The next day, Tuesday, it was my unspeakable joy to meet the honest and intelligent farmers of Lacadie, in their inter- esting village. For more than an hour they listened to the address I gave them on the Gospel as the only solid founda- tion on which a people should stand to become strong, happy and free. A notary having been sent by the priest to interrupt me was politely taken to the end of the village on the shoul- ders of six sturdy farmers and requested to be quiet, there, if he would not fare worse. I was not surprised at the friendly reception I received from the people of Lacadie, when I remembered that it was in the midst of this town that the Grande Ligne Mission was spreading floods of Gospel light and truth for the last ten years. There, again, a good number of families accepted the Gospel. From that place I came back to Montreal, in order to take the train for Quebec, where I was expected the very next day. In the Quebec Gazette of February 11th, 1859, was the fol- lowing: " ARRIVAL OF MR. CHINIQUY. " This gentleman reached Point Levis on Wednesday evening by the train, and was waited upon by a large number of the inhabitants of that locality, and also of this city, who went across for the purpose of receiving him. He remained at Frazer's hotel for that night, and came over to the city yes- terday forenoon, and took up his residence in Crown Street, St. Rock. The Dagger of the Assassin on My Breast 167 "We are informed that the number of persons who have visited him since his arrival cannot have been less than four thou- and. Twice he was obliged yesterday to speak to the multitude from his window. The people flocked from all the neighbouring parishes, and many had stayed since Monday to see him. Some on hearing of his arrival at Point Levis, the night previous, came up from St. Anne Chateau Richer and the Orleans Island. Not an offensive word was used by any one, but all evinced the extreme pleasure of having amongst them once more one for whom they entertained the most sincere affection. " Mr. Chiniquy addressed a public meeting in the lecture hall, St. Anne's Street, this afternoon, but the hour is too far advanced to admit of our giving particulars to=day. " We would just say, however, that the building was crowded to its utmost capacity, principally by his own countrymen; and that, up to the time that we left, the greatest decorum prevailed, the remarks of the reverend gentleman being fre- quently applauded with great enthusiasm." Just as the Quebec Gazette gives it, that address of Thursday was a glorious Gospel success, as well as those of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, which were all given at 2 P. M., for I did not like to wait till the night to address the people. There were not sufficient lights in the streets of Quebec to prevent the rough element from playing their mischief. The Quebec Gazette tells it, in the intervals of the ad- dresses the large room I occupied was filled with friends and enquirers, and the street before the house was so crammed with the multitudes of kind friends who wanted to hear the Gospel message I had to give them, that two or three times a day I had to address them in the open air from the window. Of course the priests were furious. You could have seen them running through the streets to stop the multitudes that were coming from every side to see and hear me, and asking i^)S I'^orty Years In the Church of Christ them: " Where are you going?" The answer was, invariably " We go to hear Father Chiniquy.'" " But don't you know lliat it is a crime, an abominable sin, to hear him? Don't you knDW tliat you are excommunicated if you speak to that alxMuinable heretic?" "Yes, we have been told that," said the crowds, "but have you not told us hundreds of times that you have the power to forgive all our sins?" "Yes, yes," answered the priests, "our Saviour has told us: All the sins ye forgive on earth shall be forgiven in heaven." "Well," rejoined the people, "after hearing dear Father Chiniquy, if our conscience is too much in trouble, we will go and confess to you again, and you will forgive the new sin with the rest." And the priests had to go to another corner with that sarcasm in their ears. The second day a band of brave men who were all among the five hundred who had invited me to come, told me that the priests were evidently preparing a mob to kill me during the night, and they otfered themselves to guard the house. I answered them to do as they pleased in that matter. As it was at their invitation that I was in Quebec, it was their business to prevent this trouble they were in fear of. And a guard of fifteen well- armed, intrepid young men was organ- ized to watch, during the dark hours of the night, around my lodging. The Sabbath address was, "Our Salvation Through Christ." Though the most terrible fulminations and excommunica- tions had been launched at the morning service against all those who would come to hear me, or would even talk a single word with me, the crowd was so great that we had to open the windows of the large hall, so that the multitudes who stood outside from the want of room could hear. The joy that filled my heart was such that, though I was exhausted, when the night came I did not feel the fatigue. The sight of those multitudes who were hungry and thirsty after the bread of Life, and to whom I was permitted to give that bread and that water, was such a marvelous thing The Dagger of the Assassin on My Breast 169 to me, that very often I could not speak to them except with my tears of joy. But at 10 p. M. two very respectable friends came to tell me: " Dear Father Chiniquy, you will surely be killed this night if you do not leave the city. We have just come from a meeting of the most desperate rowdies of the city which has been addressed by two of our priests. They have so in- flamed th6ir brutal passions, that more than fifty have sworn to set fire to your house this night, and to kill you when you try to escape; please leave the city. We have a good sleigh in readiness to take you to a safe place eight or ten miles away." I answered them: " I thank you for your kindness, but I cannot follow your advice. When I left the Church of Rome, as well as when I came to Quebec to preach the Gospel, I knew the cost. " I did not come here to run away. If it is the will of God that I should shed my blood this night for the cause of His Gospel, I shall have the whole eternity to bless Him for that favour." " Then," said my friends, " you cannot pre vent us from putting a double guard this night to protect you." " Do as you please in that matter," I answered. And they left me alone. The few hours before a man expects to die, under such cir- cumstances, are too solemn to allow him to sleep. The shores of eternity are so near, look so bright and grand, that one can hold his breath at their aspect. At about three o'clock in the morning one of my night guards came to me and said: "As the night is much advanced, and the first rays of the day are very near, we think that the danger of an attack from the mob is over. If you have no objection we will go home and take a few hours of rest, for we are all working men, and we must be at our different posts by seven this "morning." "All right, my dear friends, go and rest a few hours; may the dear Saviour bless you for your kindness towards me," I answered. And they left. lyo Forty Years in the Church of Christ I then went to the ^ood waiters, who were also watching, to ask them to give me a cup of cofFee. As I had not shut my eyes, I felt the want of some food to keep up my strength. I was just going to take that cup of coffee when we heard a terrible noise at the door. That door was evidently broken down, and a multitade of men were running upstairs to the parlour. They were the very ones who had prepared at the evening meeting of the priests, to set fire to the house, and to kill me when I would try to run away. Every one had a mask on his face. Too cowardly to approach the house when it was guarded by my thirty young friends, they had con- cealed themselves in a building at a short distance, wait- ing for the moment that my guardians would leave, at the dawn of day. I asked them: "What do you want here at such an hour of the night?" The leader, who had a long butcher^knife in his hand, answered: "Miserable apostate! we come to put an end to your infamous life, if you do not swear that you will never preach your d — d Bible any more." And seizing my right arm with his left one, he planted his knife on my breast. The half of his companions, armed with sticks and daggers, made a circle around me, and repeated what their chief had said: "D — d apostate! if you don't swear that you will never preach your d — d Bible again, you are a dead man." During that time the rest of the band filling the room with terrible imprecations, were breaking the chairs and threatening to kill the good man, who, with his wife, con- sented to lodge me during my stay in Quebec. I told them: " Let those people alone — if it is a crime to preach the Gospel of Christ here, I am the only guilty one — kill me — death has no terror for me, but do not molest those people." In that moment I felt the dagger so hardly pressed on my breast that I thought at every moment it would go through The Dagger of the Assassin on My Breast 171 and through. Raising my supplicating hands towards heaven, I said: "Dear Saviour! For my sake Thou hast shed Thy blood on the cross, if it is Thy will I should mine for Thy sake, may Thy will be done: but come and receive my soul into Thy hands." These words were hardly said when the would-be murderer, with a most awful imprecation, said: "Infamous apostate! We do not come to hear your heretical prayers, we come to put an end to your infamous life, if you do not swear that you will never preach your Bible." He then pressed his knife so hard that I felt blood running on my breast. Expect- ing every moment to fall a corpse, I again raised my hands towards heaven, and said: "My God! In a moment I will be in Thy presence and I bless Thee for it. But as they want an oath before I die, they shall have it; I swear that, as long as my tongue can speak, I will preach Thy Holy Word as I find it in the Holy Bible." And then opening my vest with both hands, I said, " Now, strike the last blow." But my dear Saviour was there to protect His poor, helpless soldier. The would be murderer began to shake from head to foot. The dagger fell from his hands on the floor, and with a trembling voice he said, " Well, Father Chiniquy, if you promise to go away we will not kill you." He evidently meant that I would promise to go away from the city. But I thought it was not very wrong to deceive him, when saying the truth. I answered, " Yes, I will go away," secretly meaning, "I will go away from your bad com- pany." And he left me alone. The snow had fallen more than two feet deep in the street during the night, and I had a pretty long distance to walk to reach the house to which I wanted to go. I felt my bodily strength pretty much exhausted by the trials of that night, and I thought it prudent, before leaving, to take my cup of cofiPee, which was there on the table. Besides that, I wanted to gain some time, in the hope that some of my friends or night- 172 Forty Years in the Church of Christ guards would know my iwsition and come to ray help, for I had seen one of the servants running away, probably to give the alarm. I told the mob, which was then silent, though their bloody eyes were watching me closely: " I have to walk quite a long distance in the snow to my knees; you will not find fault with me I hope, if I take a cup of cofiFee, with a mouthful of bread." And I sat at the table. But I had not drunk liiilf of the cup when a furious voice, which I had not yet heard, cried out: " Do you not see that he is deceiving us? He takes too much time. And he means to remain here." Saying that he upset the table, broke the cup and plates, and with a fearful blasphemy said, "Infamous apostate! Go away at once! No delay! Go Quick!" And he nearly brought me down with his fist. I felt I had to go. Putting on my overcoat and my cap I took my bag and walked to the door. It was still very dark and, as I said before, two feet of snow had fallen in the streets, iluring that night. I was not without anxiety how I could walk the long distance which was before me. But, by the good providence of God, a carter was just passing before the door with his sleigh. I asked him, " Can you take me to the pro mayor, Mr. Hall?" "Yes, sir," he answered. And soon I was safe under the roof of that noble Scotch Protes- tant. For, by the marvelous mercy of God, the mayor, Langevin, a most fanatical Roman Catholic, was absent for the few days I was in Quebec. I showed my bleeding breast to Mr. Hall, and I told him : " Sir, I am just escaping from the hands of a furious Roman- ist mob who have sworn to kill me if I continue to preach in Quebec. As I promised yesterday to give, to-day, my last address on the Bible and the right which every man has to read it, I will fulfil my promise even if I have to die for it. I come to put myself under the protection of the British flag, for the enjoyment of my rights and liberty." The Dagger of the Assassin on My Breast 173 " If you can swear upon that," said Mr. Hall, "I will pro- tect you. But I have a favour to ask of you. Please do not speak of the wound that you have on your breast, nor of the blood you have lost. You do not know the terrible effect that sight has upon me. Blood calls for blood. If it were known that you had received such a wound in Quebec, and that you have had to shed your blood from the hands of the priests, it might have the most terrible results. It might be difficult, if not impossible, to calm the rage of our Protestant soldiers and the other Protestants whom I must call to protect you. For I must put the city under martial law and gather all the powers I can lay my hands on, if I want to save your life, and perhaps my own, to-day, against the mighty and bloody power of Rome." Half an hour later the city of Quebec was proclaimed under martial law, and more than 1,000 English soldiers with their bayonets were around me to protect my life. It was between the two ranks of those soldiers of British liberty and fair play, that the mayor drove me, at noon, in his own sleigh, to give the last lecture I had promised on the Bible. When on my way to the hall between the two ranks of bayonets glittering in the sun, it was quite amusing to see the priests of Rome, half dead with terror, running through the crowds of their poor slaves who were massed all along the streets, saying: *' Do not make any demonstration, do not make any noise, do not move a finger against Father Chiniquy. The city is under martial law! The soldiers will fire at you and slaughter you at the least appearance of trouble. For God's sake, be still!" The large hall could not contain half of the people who wanted to hear what I had to say about the Holy Bible and the right of every one to have and read it. Several thou- sands who could have no place in the hall, were standing around and listening with breathless attention, through the windows which were opened. The day was splendidly bright and mild as a summer day. 174 Forty Years in the Church of Christ I had large boxes coiitaiiiiiig six hundred New Testaments wliich I distributed, to the last one, to my dear Roman Catholic countrymen, after the meeting. Thanks to God, the good seed sown in those days has not all been lost, and the blood shed has not been shed in vain. The modest evangelical work which our Protestant societies had begun there, some time before, under the Rev. Mr. Tetreau and Normandeau, two converted priests, has taken a new and rapid extension. Not far from that very spot where I was so cruelly wounded, a fine stone French Protestant church, for the Canadian con- verts, has been built. That church would be much too small to day, if our dear French Canadian converts from Rome could have remained in their own country. But, alas! many have been forced to take the sad way of exile. The cruel and unmanly persecutions they are subject to from the priests of the Pope have made it impossible for many to remain in their own country. Thousands of them are now eating the bitter bread of exile in the United States. CHAPTER XVI How Roman Catholics Understand Liberty of Conscience. My Letter to the Bishops of Quebec and the Priests of Canada "I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast . . . and decked with gold and precious stones, . . . 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 abomi- nations of the earth. "I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints." (Rev. 17:3-6.) If it were possible to awaken the Protestants of Canada from their deplorable and mysterious slumber, and to make them understand the anti-Christian and anti=social principles of the Church of Rome, the events of the fourteenth day of February, 1859, would have done it. Of all the daily and weekly papers edited by the Roman Catholics of Canada, not a single word was written to blame the rioters for having attacked violently and driven me from my house. They all said that I had no right to preach doc- trines contrary to the doctrines of Rome in Quebec, because the majority were Roman Catholics. Though unable to find a single word of abuse fallen from my lips, they, however, said that they had the right, it was their duty, to kill me if I refused to go away. They all declared that Mayor Hall was wrong to come to my help and protect me. They all proclaimed that he had no right to employ the civil and military fofees to save my life and protect me. His duty was to let the rioters come, break everything in the house where I was staying, pull it down, if I refused to obey them. 175 176 Forty Years in the Church of Christ Here are the very words of Mr. Audet, one of the council- lors of the city of Quel)ec, reproduced and apjiroved by the Roman Catholic press of Canada on this subject: " I acknowledge Mr. Chiniquy's liberty of speech when coming to speak against our holy religion, as I acknowledge the liberty of a thief to steal, and the liberty of an assassin to kill. " When I deny the right of the robber to rob, and of the assassin to assassinate, of the sacrilegious to commit sacrilege, I also deny Mr. Chiniquy the right of coming here to insult and outrage us." Let us now come to the affair of Monday last. " That day Mr. Chiniquy was to lecture in the hall of St. Anne St., and you, Mr. Pro^ Mayor, you had received deposi- tion affirming that there were to be disturbances at that lec- ture. Accordingly, by your order, all the civil forces were under arms! You knew that Mr. Chiniquy was the cause of all those troubles, and notwithstanding that, you, the first magistrate of the city, went yourself in search of Mr. Chini- (juy to deliver that lecture to you! Suppose, Mr. Pro-Mayor, that there had been a riot and a bloodshed, would you not havelaeen the cause of it? The Canadians have always re- spected every religious faith; but be assured that we will exact for ourselves the respect we bear towards others. " We demand protection, and let it be distinctly understood that if it be refused to the 45,000 Roman Catholics of this city, they will know how to protect themselves; and then evil be to those who dare attack them. This will interfere some- what with the Bible societies, but I warn them to seek some other field for the exercise of their zeal. "Have they not, for instance, India, China, and Japan where they can go and throw their Bibles?" These are some of the reflections of the " Quebec Mercury ' concerning the above harangue of Mr. Audet. " Mr, Audet has not only publicly uttered, but deliberately put on record, a declaration of war against the British popu- Liberty of Conscience 177 lation of this Province. His appeal to the 45,000 Koman Catholics of Quebec is a cry for blood. And in what a cause? This agent of the priesthood has deliberately propounded the principles of the Spanish Inquisition as applicable to those who boast themselves (however erroneously) the free Protes- tant subjects of a Protestant sovereign. " Mr. Audet boldly announces that opinion is a crime, — and that the magistrates are bound to restrain it. " A man, he says, has the same liberty to lecture against Komanism, as to be a robber! " The meaning is clear. He may be as liable to punishment in the one case as the other. The language of ' The Uni^ vers,' the Ultramontane organ in France, is nearly identical with that of Mr. Audet: it distinguishes liberty from right. He declares a man has no more right to be a Protestant than to commit a murder or a theft! " Liberty of sj)eech is to be forbidden, lest those it offends should deliberately break the law, and direful misfortunes for the whole world which must be subjected to the conse- quences of doing so! " Mr. Audet concludes his speech by calling on his Roman Catholic hearers to make a new St. Bartholomew's day of their Protestant neighbours ! And he finishes by a threat to the Bible societies, to which the treatment formerly received by Mr. Papin, gives the utmost significance." When I went back to Montreal, I thought it was my duty to address a letter to the Bishops and priests of Canada. In the first part of that letter I gave a faithful history of the riot, which I will not repeat here. I will give only the sec- ond part. " To the Roman Catholic Bishops and Priests of Canada: " You have thus an abridged but faithful history of your own work of the fourteenth of February. But before leaving Canada, I owe it to my fellow countrymen, I owe it to the cause of truth, to address you a few words more. " Within three years, look at the four riots you have caused lyS Forty Years in the Church of Christ to rid yourselves of those you call 'Protestants, apostates, and enemies of your holy church.' "Iacapal)le of meeting your opponents on the ground of argument, worthy descendants and supporters of the Holy Inipiisition, you have recourse to violence, to oppose and destroy the truth which makes you afraid; you have recourse to bloody riots to prop up your tottering power. It is well; continue; accustom the people to use the stick and the club for an argument. Discipline your adepts to shed the blood of those that you call the enemies of the holy Roman Church; applaud the murderers who knock down their victims, with cries of rage, and the robbers who violate the most sacred right of nations, that of the domestic hearth; you will then prove to all that you are the worthy successors of those who slaughtered thousands of their brethren on the night of St. Bartholomew; you will open the eyes of the blindest to the spirit and tendencies of the Romish Church; you will demon- strate to the most incredulous that you have completely re- nounced the Gospel which tells you not to do to others what you would not like done to yourselves; you will show to the most ardent of your zealots that you are the enemies of Him who said to Peter: 'Put up the sword in its sheath, for those who make use of the sword shall perish by the sword.' "You do not wish that those who differ from you in re- ligion shall have the right to speak; you excite against them the rage of riotous men; you cry for their blood. But really do you think that the people will leave you long in the pos- session of this power? " Do you not see that the shoulders of this poor people are bruised and bleeding under the heavy and odious yoke you lay upon them? Do you not hear the low and threatening murmurs that come from the breasts of this people, when they see you drag from them their last farthings, for the souls of your insatiable purgatory? Yes, all these confraternities, all these medals, these indulgences of five, twenty, forty sous, but for which you extract the money from the poor as well as the Liberty of Conscience 179 rich, will open the eyes of the people. Already many are persuaded that if you really did believe in the fires of purga- tory, you would not wait until you got twenty = five cents to take a poor suffering soul out of that purgatory, no more than you would demand twenty=^five cents to save a person drowning before your eyes. There are even those that blush for you, when they hear you say, in speaking of such a person, deceased, ' He is probably in purgatory, give me $10.00 $20.00, and I shall immediately try to get him out.' "This shameful traffic begins to be understood and to be despised. The people see that the enormous sums they give you for the souls in purgatory remain at the bottom of your purses and that the good souls do not get a fraction. Con- tinue your infamous commerce in prayers, indulgences and medals; build for yourselves with those funds, sumptuous pal- aces; rear up gigantic cathedrals; robe yourselves in purple and the finest garments; load your tables with delicate viands; knock down those who disturb your repose; and continue to elect in every country the enemies of the people. But mark well what I tell you: the people will soon awake from the profound slumber in which you have kept them. In spite of you, their eyes will be opened to the light which is coming in upon them on every side. " But this waking up will be terrible, like that of the lion. This people who till the ground, with the sweat of their brow, have not a cent left; the poor people are nearly naked, and their children are trembling with cold. Many are obliged to leave their own country to go and eat the bitter bread of exile, and to be the servants of other people. But they will soon awaken, and they will say, ' I have now nothing left, I am naked, hungry, without shelter! Where are the goods that God gave me? ' And a voice from heaven shall say to them, 'Behold them, there, in those magnificent palaces; there is the price of your hard labours, and the bread of your children. Under the cloke of religion, your priests have ruined you and made you their slaves. They have snatched away a thing i8o Forty Years in the Church of Christ more precious than eartlily treasure— the Word of God — the Divine Gospel that Christ has sent you to succour you in your wretchedness.' "And then a disturbance will take place, but a terrible dis- turbance, and a frif>:htful disturbance, such as is rarely seen on tlie surface of the globe. What you have done to others will be done to yourselves and in the same measure. In those days of agitation, of vengeance and retribution, the Canadian people, like the French people in 1792, will settle their accounts with you, and will make you pay dearly for your frauds, your impostures, your intolerance, and your tyranny. You will be dragged with violence from your pal- aces; and your mournful cries will be but the echo of the cries and desolation of your victims. Your blood will be mingled with the blood you have shed. Your reign, the reign of man, will be at an end, and the reign of Christ, the reign of God's Word, shall have begun." CHAPTER XVII A French Officer Saves My Life at Beloeil. Grande Ligne and Longuevil Visited. Rev. Theodore Lafleor To throttle the Church of Rome, which means not only to dare her fury but to bring down her sceptre into the dust in the greatest citadels of her power, Quebec and Montreal, could not be the work of Chiniquy, it must be the Lord's work. The mighty hand of my God was so visible in the com- plete humiliation of the haughty tryants under the feet of whom the people of Quebec and Montreal were crushed for almost three centuries, that there was no possibility for me to be tempted by the the demon of human pride. I had only to be humiliated and amazed when considering that such a work had been wrought through such a weak instrumentality. Protestants as well as Romanists were amazed that those so dreaded weapons — excommunication, interdicts, etc., ful- minated from all the pulpits, which, till then, had kept the French Canadian people at the feet of their haughty tyrants — had suddenly been turned into ridiculous child's play, and had become powerless and been thrown by the people into the muddy ditches, along the public roads. It was the first time, on the continent of America, that the Roman tiger had been so well shut up in his own den, and that the monstrous snake of Romanism had been so roughly handled without being able to bite the hand that was strik- ing it. ^ No words can give an idea of the humiliations of the Roman Catholic clergy, when they heard that I was determined to spend another month in Montreal and vicinity in exposing their frauds, their idolatries and their corruptions. 181 1 82 Forty Years in the Church of Christ Superhuman .tforts were made by Bishop Bourget to bribe me, but he lost his time. He felt more aud more every day that I was not only terribly in earnest, but absolutely proof against his threats, his perfidious flatteries, and his impotent rage. By his orders, the priests invented and published the most horrible calumnies against my character. But in the good providence of God, these calumnies were invariably destroy- ing themselves by their own absurdity and want of every one of the elements on which their fabrication could stand. The gold medal they had put on my breast, the title of " Apostle of Temperance of Canada," they had so solemnly given me, the sacred silver vases they had presented me with the very day I had left Canada for the United States, the echoes of my voice which were still vibrating within all the walls of their cathedrals, the tears I had dried, the hearts I had consoled, the marvelous reformations I had wrought all over our country, the giant enemy of Canada, intemperance, which, by the help of God, I had conquered, were facts which, not I, but my God, was bringing to the memory of my countrymen, as an infallible antidote against the poisoned arrows thrown at me by the Bishop and priests, which poisoned arrows were wounding only those who were throw- ing them. The whole week I spent in Montreal, after my return from Quebec, it was my unspeakable joy to see again my parlour constantly filled by the 6lite of my dear countrymen, who wanted to hear the Gospel message the Good Master was sending to them. I had also to bless God for the daily marks of Christian regard and kindness I received from the Prot- estants of all denominations. The evening lectures continued also to be attended by as many people as the large hall could contain, and this, without a single mark of public bad feeling from any quarter. Friends and foes, Protestants as well as Roman Catholics, were equally astonished and glad at such an unexpected Further Experiences in Preaching 183 triumph of the great principle of liberty against slavery; of fair play against brute force; and of truth against error; since, till then, the most deplorable as well as the most bloody riots had so often been a dark s^^ot on the fair name of Mon- treal. To the many who asked me how such a change could be seen, I answered, " This is the Lord's work. The hour is coming fast when the dark night of Popery will have to dis- appear before the shining sun of the Gospel. What you see now is the dawning of that blessed day. This is not my work, it is our merciful heavenly Father's work. Let us bless Him for it." It would be too tedious to give the details of the different evangelical missions of the next month, in the district of Montreal. I will only mention two or three on account of some interesting circumstances connected with them. A great number of Beloeil, Chambly, and St. Mathias peo- ple had requested me to give them a week of my time, and they had selected the splendid hotel of Beloeil Mountain for the place of the meetings, for that hotel had a very large parlour where several hundreds of people could easily be accom- modated. Its manager was a true gentleman who had been an officer in the French army. He had attended several of our meetings in Montreal, where he had bravely and publicly given up the errors of Rome to follow the Gospel. I was then sure to find in that hotel the protection I wanted for myself and those of my dear countrymen who would come to hear me. I was not mistaken. The success of those meet- ings was again above my most sanguine expectation. The large and si)lendid parlour was filled from morning till night, by inquiring people of every condition, coming from every point of the compass. But on the last days, a respectable farmer came from St. Mary to tell me that one of the priests had said in his pres- ence to some of his people: "Just as you have a right to kill a wolf when crossing the prairie to slaughter your sheep, 184 Forty Years in the Church of Christ so you have the right to kill that miserable apostate, Chini- quy, who is destroying our holy religion." "Do not betray me," said the good farmer, " but be on your guard when you see a man with a red collar around his neck. He will have a pistol to shoot you if he finds his opportunity, for he is a good shot." I thanked him, and I gave my secret to the fearless French ex=oflBcer, that he might see the best way of protecting my life, though I asked liim not to do any harm to the would=be murderer, if possible. Among my hearers that evening (it was Saturday), I noticed a strong, tall man just before me not more than ten feet distant, with a red collar around his neck. His manners indicated that he was half drunk, and several times he made so much noise that I had to stop speaking on account of him. I had hardly given the last word of my address, when he made a quick movement through the crowd and stopped when not more than five feet distant from me. Then, with a horrible oath, he said, "This is your last heretical address." Drawing then a pistol from his coat pocket, he pointed it towards me, uttering a new blasphemy. But the French oflBcer had watched all his movements and had remained close by him since he had entered the room. Quick as lightning, he drew his sword, and struck such a blow under the pistol that it flew almost to the upper floor from the hand of the woukbbe murderer, after the ball had gone and broken a pane of the opposite window. This rash and daring act was followed by an indescribable confusion. Some of the women fainted, some were crying, but I had a number of friends who did not lose their presence of mind. With the sword at his back, that miserable tool of the priests was quickly driven, or rather roughly car- ried away to a long distance, where he received such a lesson that he was not tempted to come again. The next few weeks were given to St. Pie, St. Mary, St. Athenase, St. Gregory, with the same crowds of Roman Further Experiences in Preaching 185 Catholics who were trampling under their feet with the utmost contempt, the f ulminations, excommunications and interdicts of their religious tyrants in their eagerness to hear the preaching of the Gospel. At St. Mary it was my joy to address the large and so admirable congregation of converts which the zealous and fearless Baptist ministers of the Grande Ligne Mission had gained from Rome. That congregation, composed of thirty families, was then under the care of the late Reverend M. Roussy, whose name will be blessed as long as there will be a disciple of the Gospel in Canada. I could not contain my tears of joy when I saw so many of my dear countrymen who had broken the yoke of Rome gathered in their comfortable chapel. These interesting con- verts, with their pastor, were among those I had most cruelly abused and persecuted when I was a priest of Rome. How happy I was, then, to have the opportunity of asking and obtaining their pardon! And how my heart was filled with joy when I could unite my feeble voice with theirs to bless the dear Saviour for His mercies towards us all. The last place in Canada I laboured in before leaving for my dear colony of Illinois, was Longueuil. In the midst of that important village, the Baptists had, then, a thriving mission school for Protestant and Catholic young ladies, under the superintendence of the Reverend Theodore Lafleur. In the good providence of God, the Reverend Mr. Lafleur had been brought to the light of the Gospel many years be- fore me, when he was quite a young man; and some wealthy Protestant, admiring his piety and his rare talents, had sent him to Switzerland to pursue a complete course of study. Having returned to Canada several years since, he had con- secrated himself to the preaching of the Gospel to our coun- trymen, with remarkable success. Though I had bitterly persecuted him, when I was a priest of Rome, I had become the object of his fervent prayers at the Throne of Mercy. He i86 P'orty Years in the Church of Christ had addressed me several letters full of Christian logic in the beginning of my public conflict with the Bishops, to show me that the only way to possess the glorious freedom and the Divine truths, which Christ had brought from heaven to save the world, was to entirely break the yoke of the Pope and accept the Gospel. More than that, his burning zeal for my conversion had in- duced him to cross the thousand miles which were between us, in order to come to St. Anne, Illinois, and spend several days in friendly discussion with me. Among the many gifts which Mr. Lafleur has received from G(xl, is a wonderful treasure of kindness and affability to which his terse logic and truly admirable Christian spirit gave him an irresistible power over me. When alone, after having spent one or two hours with him, I had to confess to myself that there was, in that so-called heretic, a perfume of piety I had never met in my church. I was also confounded by the irresistible power of his argu- ments, and the teachings of history to which I had nothing to oppose. I am happy to say that the letters and the private conver- sations of the Rev. Mr. Lafleur are among the providential things which, by the mercy of God, helped me much to ac- cept the truth when it came to my mind with its splendour. I was, then, happy to have an opportunity of showing the Christian esteem and the gratitude I felt towards that true servant of God, in the two days I was his guest in his literary and evangelical institute of Longueuil. Many citizens of Longueuil availed themselves of my pres- ence in their village to come and ask me a thousand questions about what they called my new religion, and this gave me the golden opportunity of presenting to them the saving truths of the Gospel. During the first night, a few Roman Catholic boys, sent by the priests, had caused us some trouble, by throwing stones through the windows and breaking the glasses. But the respect- Further Experiences in Preaching 187 able part of the population were indignant at that act of brutal cowardice. The next evening they came in great num- bers to hear the address I gave them, in the large hall of their village. And though they were excommunicated and thrown out of the Church of Rome by that very fact, they were so pleased with the jproofs I gave them that their Pope, with his cardinals, bishops and jDriests, was a fraud, that it was twelve o'clock at night when they consented to be dismissed, Very few of that large meeting left the hall without shaking hands with me and heartily thanking me for what they had heard. And the perfect silence and tranquillity of that whole night, told us clearly that we were in the midst not only of a respectable and intelligent people, but among true friends, when in the village of Longueuil. So it was that, alone, and, humanly speaking, without pro- tection, I had been able to dare the power of Rome in her strongholds, Montreal and Quebec, for two months. But I was not alone. No! For the protecting hand of my God had been a visible shield over my head all the time. The Gospel of Christ had been preached to at least 50,000 people, many of whom had never heard it. Several thousand Bibles or New Testaments had been distributed to people who had never seen them before. And the Holy Book was to remain there to feed the hungry souls, and quench the thirst of my dear countrymen. Where could I find words to express my gratitude to my God for such a visible and constant protection through so many dangers and obstacles? When going back to my dear mission of Illinois I could say with the prophet: "1. If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, now may Israel say; " 2. If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men rose up against us: "8. Then they had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us: 1 88 Forty Years in the Church of Christ "4. Then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul: "5. Tlien the proud waters had gone over our soul. " 6. Blessed be the Lord, who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth. " 7. Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped. " 8. Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth." (Psalm 124.) CHAPTER XVIII Admitted into the Presbyterian Church with the Bible Alone in My Hand The fifteenth of April, 1860, ought to be a day never to be forgotten by the French Canadian disciples of the Gospel at St. Anne, After we had broken the fetters which had kept us chained to the feet of the idols of Rome, in order to become the happy followers of Christ, we felt that we could not honestly con- tinue to call ourselves Roman Catholics. We had to change our church name. In a general meeting of all our dear converts, where every one was invited to give his views, we unanimously adopted the beautiful name of Christian Catholics, and we determined to give the hand of fellowship to all the difiPerent denomina- tions of Protestants who would tell us that they were looking to Christ as their only Saviour, that they accepted the Gospel as their only rule of life. From the beginning of our religious change my fear was that we were to make a new branch of the Christian Church and that sooner or later the new branch would be called Chiniquy's Church as had occurred more or less in the days of Luther and Calvin. I was horrified at the thought and possibility of such an oc- currence, and we determined to avoid it at any cost. We felt that there were already too many separate branches in the Church of Christ. It was not long before we saw that our fears were too well founded; every one, even amongst the Protestants, instead of calling us by the beautiful name of Christian Catholics, called us Church of Chiniquy. The only remedy to this threaten- 189 190 Forty Years in the Church of Christ in^ drn\vl)ack, was to connect ourselves with some of the neif^hbouring venerable churches, and we soon made our choice of the Presbyterian Church. For our intention was to form a sacred link with the martyred Christians of France known and blessed all over the world as Huguenots for hav- ing so heroically shed their blood for the Gospel cause. I showed to our dear converts that many among them were bearing the very names of those heroic soldiers of Christ, that probably the blood of many of those blessed martyrs was running in their veins. Six elders were chosen to accompany me to Chicago, in order to respectfully ask the Presbytery of that grand city to give us the hand of fellowship and allow us to connect our- selves with that noble Presbyterian Church whose branches extend from one end to the other of the earth and whose shining Christian faith is a terror to Popery all over the world. How happy every one of those venerable ministers felt, when, after the many questions everyone of them had to put to us, they found that our religious views were perfectly cor- rect, and that the great religious movement we were in- augurating was perfectly Christian. They unanimously con- sented to receive us into the great Presbyterian family and oflPered their Westminster Confession of Faith for us to adopt, and thus declare ourselves faithful children of the Presbyterian Church. They were, however, not prepared for the disappointment they were to meet, when I respectfully requested them to withdraw that book and to put the Bible in its place, as the only standard of our faith and life. With an emotion which he could not conceal the modera- tor answered me, " My dear Mr. Chiniquy, we cannot do that. Our custom is that our venerable Westminster Book of Faith is the standard to which the new members we receive subscribe as the pledge they give us that they wish to become Presbyterians. We cannot change that rule." Christian Catholics 191 I answered him, " Mr. Moderator, please do not forget that you have here to deal with babes in the faith. You must bear with children when they request you to give them the food which you are not accustomed to give to fulhgrown people. We do not come here to teach you any lesson, we want to be taught by you. However, we respectfully ask you to allow us to give you the reasons why we want the Holy Bible to be the only key which will open to us the gates of that Church of Christ of which He is not only the corner stone, but which is the blood of His blood and the flesh of His flesh. When we ask you to grant us the honour and privilege to become Presbyterians, it is not in a narrow, sectarian sense of the word, it is the large, broad sense of Christianity. We do not want to press only the Presby- terians to our breasts, we want to press all those who love and serve our Saviour Jesus Christ, and look upon Him as their only hope and their only Saviour, by whatsoever name they may be called. We do not want to be on the narrow platform, for instance, on which the Old and New Schools stand, and on which they fight against each other as wild cats. We want to belong to that large. Divine platform which our adorable Saviour presented to the young man who asked him, 'Good Master, what must I do to have eternal life?' We want a platform, in a word, on which we shall love as brethren, and press to our breasts as brethren and sisters, all those who, repenting of their sins, look to Christ and love Him as their only Saviour. Allow me to tell you that after reading many of the books published by the most learned men of your different denominations, we have come to the conclusion that your differences are more in appearance than reality. Do not find fault with us, if we respectfully ask you to allow us to believe that our adorable and merciful Saviour was indicating your different denominations when saying, *I am the vine; ye are the branches; and My Father is the husbandman.' There is no need at all that the branches should be of the same form and the same size to bring good 192 Fortv Years in the Church of Christ fruits. The only thing necessary is that they should be well united with the vine. I got that assurance a few days ago, when rondini.? that marvelous fifteenth chapter of St. John, under the shadow of a splendid vino which I have j^lanted in my garden, and which I cultivate with my own hands. After reading with a prayerful attention these marvelous and mysterious words addressed by Christ to His disciples, ' I am the vine; ye are the branches,' I observed for the first time that there was not a single one of the branches like the other branches. I noticed for the first time a branch, a very near one, which was very large, just as your noble and great English and American Episcopal Church, and just at a very short distance I saw a small branch resembling your modest, though much to be admired Congregational Church. A little farther on there was a fine branch going straight up towards heaven, our ardent enthusiastic Methodist brethren, and just by its side I much admired another branch which was de- scending like our Baptist friends when they go down in their water baths. And last, though not the least, I had to admire some very crooked branches, as the beloved Presbyterians with whom we want to unite ourselves. But I remarked that, though all the branches of that vine were quite different in appearance, they were all loaded with splendid grapes: for they were all perfectly united with the vine! " Evidently there are some varities of views between the many different denominations which form the Church of Christ. But so long as Jesus, and Jesus alone, the Son of God and the Saviour of the world, is their only hope, their only refuge, their only life, and His Gospel their only rule of faitli, we want to press them all to our hearts as our brethren on earth, and our co-citizens in heaven. " This is the reason that, though we entertain great respect for your Westminster Confession, we ask you as a favour to allow us to lay our hands on the Bible as the only door through which we wish to enter the grand and noble Presby- terian Church." Christian Catholics 193 No words can give an idea of the attention and kindness with which my address was received and my request granted. The next morning found every one of the members of that Presbytery on their way to Kankakee City, by the Illinois Central Railway. There they found good carriages in wait- ing to drive them to the village of St. Anne, about twelve miles distant. The day was splendid and the grand scenery of the boundless and rich prairies, sjjreading on every side as far as the vision could extend, was magnificent. Our large chapel was more than crowded. Multitudes of our dear converts had come from all the surrounding towns and cities, even from Chicago, to the number of more than 2,000. It was as much with their tears of joy as with the words of their lips that the members of the Chicago Presbytery ad- dressed them and received them all as the new-born children of the great Presbyterian family. Words are inadequate to express the sentiments of joy and gratitude to God which were filling every heart in that solemn and never-to=be=forgotten day. A new and glorious page in the history of the Church of Christ was written. The melodious voice of our bell was proclaiming far and wide the new victory of the Gospel. The angels of God were again singing their harmonious chorus — their hymn of joy: " Glory be to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men! " CHAPTER XIX Muskegon — On the Borders of Lake Michigan If you want to have aii idea of the marvelous lumber in- dustry of the United States, go and see the numerous saw^ mills which are around the city of Muskegon, and count, if you can, the piles of lumber, of every size, which stand like giant sentinels along the shores of Lake Michigan. In the year 18(52 the greatest number of those saw^mills were manned by our French Canadian emigrants who, to the num- ber of hundreds of thousands, had to leave the country of their birth, in order to go and eat the bitter bread of exile in the United States. The Archbishop of Quebec, Bishop Baillargeon, had a near relative among those emigrants, who addressed me the following letter at the end of September, 1862: '• Dear Father Chiniquy: — " Though I have not met you for several years, I hope that you will remember me when I tell you that I am the near relative to the present Archbishop of Quebec, Bishop Baillargeon, who visited you in the autumn of 1843 when you were curate of Kamouraska. Obliged, as so many of our countrymen, to exile myself, I am keeping a large boarding house here in Muskegon, on the borders of Lake Michigan. Many of our countrymen have emigrated here with me. Like yourself, we were born and raised in the Roman Catho- lic Church, but you understand that our faith has received a serious shock by your so public and solemn step of passing to the side of the Protestants. However, I would not be honest if I were leaving you under the impression that our own faith in the Church of Rome had not been shaken be- fore you left it. 194 On the Borders of Lake Michigan 195 " Our last two priests have done more here than yourself to cause us to suspect that the religion of the Pope of Rome is not the religion of Christ. " One of them was almost constantly drunk. Several times it has been my sad duty to pick him up when lying drunk along the streets. "We complained to the Bishop, and, at our request, he gave us another one. But we fell into bad hands again, for this last one was making use of the confessional to corrupt his female penitents. His life was a public scandal which forced us to blush. The shameful conduct of those priests is, to many of us, a sure indication that they do not believe in the religion they preach, and we ask ourselves : Is it not a su- preme act of folly to believe in it? " There is no need to tell you that the scandalous lives of those priests, with your public exit from our church, have so shaken our faith that many of us have absolutely ceased from attending any religious services. However, that state of things cannot last long. We want a religion for ourselves and our children. But how can we make the choice of the true re- ligion of Christ, without the help of some one who is wiser than we are? " Please do not rebuke us when we ask you to come to our help in these days of supreme anxiety and distress. In the name of our common Saviour, come and give us the benefit of your experience and knowledge in the choice we must make of the religious way which will lead us to a happy eternal life, after the sad experiences of these few days of tribulations through which we have to pass in this land of exile and misery." The only answer I could give to that so pressing request was to go without any delay to the help of those dear, but so distressed, countrymen. A few days later it was my privilege to be the guest of my old friend, Baillargeon, and to shake hands with the multitude of my dear countrymen by whom he was surrounded. 196 Forty Years in the Church of Christ The news of my arrival had been quickly spread, and I was hardly half an hour in the hall of the hotel, when it was crowded to its utmost capacity. I saw at once that I was in the presence of a great diffi- culty. Every one of that multitude had his private and per- sonal difficulties. Some wanted me to tell them how it was possible that a priest could make God with a wafer, others wanted to know how it was possible that a drunken priest, whose name was connected with sins, could forgive the sins of his penitent, whose life, very often, was more moral than that of his Father Confessor. I told them: " My dear friends, we should avoid a very fatal mistake. If you speak all together with the hope of getting the answers at once, we shall have a renewal of the confusion of the builders of the tower of Babel. Please let only one of you alone put his questions, and when I shall have answered him, another one shall have the same privilege." This being agreed, Mr. Baillargeon said: " As it is my privilege to have you in my humble house, I will take the liberty of opening the meeting by calling attention to the article of our religion which I consider the most puzzling of all. "We are told that when our Saviour Jesus Christ took the bread in His hand at the supper with His disciples, ' After He had given thanks, He brake it and said, Take, eat; this is My body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of Me. " ' After the same manner also He took the cup, saying, This cup is the New Testament in My blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of Me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till He come.' (1 Cor. 11: 24-26.) " Our Roman Catholic Church teaches us that, by this cere- mony and these words, our Saviour Jesus Christ not only changed the bread and the wine into His body, soul, and divinity, but that He gave to His apostles and to all our priests the power to perform the same stupendous miracle. " Now, Mr. Chiniquy, you had to believe that, and to teach On the Borders of Lake Michigan 197 it, before you left our church — but we know that you do not believe it any longer. Now please give us the reasons you had for changing your faith on that subject." "Yes! yes!" repeated every one of the multitude which surrounded me. " Tell us why you have changed your views on that solemn question." I replied, " Before answering you, let me read you the first and second commandment of God as they were given to Moses on Mount Sinai, " 'And God spake all these words, saying: " ' I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before Me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jeal- ous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the chil- dren unto the third and fourth generations of them that hate Me; And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me, and keep My commandments.' " In the second commandment our God forbids to take a created thing, — to make an image of it — to make a god of it, — and adore it. " But what does the Poj^e of Rome order his priests to do every morning? He orders them to change those wafers into gods! Does he not give them the power to make as many gods as there are wafers before them? But do you not see that this is an imposture? The very moment that you have said that there is only one God, you are sure that the Pope is an impostor when he says that the priest has the power to make as many gods as there are wafers about him ! Surely our Saviour, when holding the bread, said, ' This is My body,' but He immediately added, ' Do this in remem- brance of Me,' that we might understand that it was not His body, but only a remembrance of His body. 198 h'orty Years in the Church of Christ "In the Gospel of St. John, chapter 10: 9, Christ says, 'I am the door,' and in chapter 15:1, He says, ' I am the true vine.' Will the Pope nnike us believe that our Saviour was really a door and a vine? No. Our Saviour M-as neither a vine nor a door. When He called Himself a vine, a door, it was oidy in a fiijurative way; it was to show us that it was through Him alone that we could have any hope to enter into heaven. " St. Paul, speaking of the rock which Moses struck with his rod in order to quench the thirst of the Israelites in the desert, says, ' That rock was Christ ! ' " Will the Pope persuade you that that rock was really Christ? You understand that it was only through a figure of language that Paul said, 'That rock was Christ.' It was only to make us understand that it was only to Christ alone we must go to find the spiritual favours we are in need of for our salvation. So our beloved Saviour called the bread of the holy communion His body, that we might, when receiving the bread of the communion, forever remember that His body was nailed to the cross, and He died the horrible death of Calvary, that by His sacrifice we might have our sins for- given. " Is it necessary to address you a long speech to prove to you that the Pope and his priests are impostors the very moment that they assure you that they make as many gods, every morning, as they have baked wafers before their eyes? Transubstantiation is an imposture; the mass has been in- vented to make money. Paul, speaking to the Athenians, said, ' God cannot be made with gold and silver.' If the great apostle had been questioned on that subject, he certainly would have denied that God Almighty can either be made with the cakes baked by the servants of the priests. The ceremony of the masses, for which you have to pay from twenty- five cents to one dollar, or more, is an imposture in- vented to fill the purse of the Pope and his priests. "The moment our Saviour has said: *I do not come to break On the Borders of LaKe Michigan 199 the commandments of My Father, but I come to fulfil them,' He could not take a created thing, a wafer, a small piece of bread, into his hand and make a god of it. We see that the doctrines as well as the practices of the Church of Rome about the Communion are not the same that we find in the Gospel; for, in that Holy Book, we see that the apostles, and Christ Himself, received their first communion after supper. But, according to the teachings of the priests, it is a mortal sin to receive the Holy Communion after breakfast, and still more after supper. If the teachings of the Pope and his priests are correct on that subject, we must believe that Christ and His apostles were guilty of a mortal sin for dar- ing to receive the great sacrament after supper! And, as they never repented of that sin, we must believe that they are for- ever lost for having made such a sacrilegious first commun- ion." It pleased the Good Master to give such a blessing to my few clear and simple arguments that it was evident the huge fabric of the teachings of Rome on that subject had crum- bled down before their candid minds. It was then nearly ten P. M., I added: " You have all worked hard to=day, you want some rest. Come again to-morrow evening, and with the help of God I will continue to answer your questions and to show you some of the errors of Rome." And I dismissed them after a short prayer. CHAPTER XX Second Day at Muskegon. A Narrow Escape The bright sun had hardly spread its rays on the peaceful waters of Lake Michigan the second day of my evangelical work at Muskegon when two of my dear countrymen knocked at my door to warn me of an imminent though unsus- pected danger. " Among your hearers last night, " they said, " there was a young man called Bowker who, though half drunk, knew well what he said. He had not walked fifty feet out of the door last night, when we heard him swearing that your address against his Church was the last one you would give. He swore that he would shoot you dead, this evening, if you dared to continue to speak as you did last night. We come to warn you before it is too late. But please, when you will make use of our warning to protect yourself, do not speak to anyone of the friendly message that we bring you, this morn- ing, for there is Indian blood in that young man. His great=grandmother was an Iroquois squaw, and he is as cruel, merciless and blood-thirsty as his savage ancestors were. He will kill us if he is aware that we have warned you against his vengeance." I answered them: "No doubt he has got from his priest the notion that it is his right and duty to kill me. In authentic Popish books it is positively said that it is not a sin for a Koman Catholic to kill a Protestant. More than that, it is said that it is such a good and holy thing to kill a her- etic that all the sins of the man who would kill me would be forgiven instantly. When I left the Church of Rome I knew the cost. They have already tried several times to iiiurd(>r me, but they have failed. My hope is that the same 200 A Narrow Escape aoi merciful heavenly Father, whose mighty hand has protected me, will be still my shield to=night. However, we must be prudent and take the precautions of common sense and wis- dom against the threatening danger, I see that you are among the few soldiers who have been honourably dismissed from the army after serving your time. Please grant me the favour to follow my advice. I have been told that you have a half =dozen young French Canadians, honourably discharged from the army, in this town. Try to meet two or three others of them as friendly to me as you are, carry your guns well concealed under your coats when you come this evening to the meeting. Put yourselves around that young man and watch him closely. If you see that he makes any demon- stration to do mischief, as quickly as a welhdrilled soldier can do it, put the muzzles of your guns to his face, and sternly tell him, ' You are a dead man if you move a finger against Father Chiniquy or anyone else here!' " You will see that the vision of those guns so near his face will soon change his mind; you will at once turn that wolf into a lamb. Do not do him any harm, but wrench his pis- tol or his dagger from his hand, and deliver him into the hands of one of the magistrates of the town, whom you will engage to come to the assembly for that purpose. Follow my advice with wisdom and see that he may not have any suspicion of what you are doing." Those brave young countrymen followed my advice to per- fection. In the evening the meeting was, if possible, still more crowded with my dear fellow countrymen who wanted to know why I had left the Church of Rome. My object that evening was to show them the sacrilegious and idolatrous worship of Mary in the Church of Rome. After telling them that we should respect the memory of the mother of Christ as the most blessed woman who has ever existed, we ought not to call her the mother of God. I showed them that God being eternal and having no begin- ning could not have had any mother. That she was the mother 102 Forty Years in the Church of* Christ of Christ only as a man. That He had really taken His flesh from her flesli and His blood from her blood — but He could not have taken His Divine nature and His Divine person from her. No woman can be the mother of her fa- ther. The father must be born before the daughter. And Christ, as God, had no beginning — He had created this world. He was the creator of Adam and Eve. Christ could not be the son of any man or woman. " It is a remarkable thing," I added, " that in the Gospel Christ never, never called Mary His mother. When addressing her or speak- ing of her, He always called her woman. More than that," I said, "in two of the most solemn circumstances of His life, He refused to acknowledge her as His mother. There is that strange fact as narrated by St. Matthew and St. Mark . . . Here are the very words of the Gospel of Christ. When Jesus was speaking to the people, His mother and His broth- ers, who were outside, wanted to speak to Him. Someone told Him, there are your mother and your brothers stand- ing outside who want to speak to you. But He answered the one who had told Him that. Who is My mother and who are My brothers? And stretching His hands toward His dis- ciples, He said, here is My mother and here are My brothers. For anyone who shall do My Father's will, is My brother^ My sister, My mother. (Matt. 12: 46-50; Mark 3: 31-35.) " If it is such a holy thing to worship Mary as the Roman Catholics do to obey their Church, how is it that Peter, speak- ing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, said: * He is the stone which has been rejected by you.' He is that principal corner stone which you have rejected. There is no salvation by any other one. For, under heaven, no other name has been given through which man can be saved. " When the Holy Ghost, through Peter, tells us that the name of Jesus is the only name through which we can be saved, what right has the Pope to tell you that the name of Mary must be invoked to be saved." These last words had hardly fallen from my lips when the A Narrow Escape I03 wliole assembly was convulsed by the furious cries, " Infamous apostate: those are the last blasphemies which will fall from thy cursed lips!" No words can give an idea of the terror and the confusion which followed, when the people heard these threatening words and saw the muzzle of a pistol aimed at me at such a short distance, that it nearly touched my face." "My God! My God! Stop him! Stop him!" was cried from every corner. But quick as lightning the would-be murderer saw the muzzles of four guns so near his face that some of them even touched his skin; he heard at the same time voices tell- ing him, "You are a dead man, if you move a finger. Let that pistol drop from your hand immediately, or your brain will be scattered to the four winds." These words were hardly heard by the would-be murderer when the pistol was dropped on the floor and putting his hands to his face, he cried with a supplicating voice, "For God's sake do not kill me! O My God! O My God spare me!" My four young, brave friends, putting their hands on his collar told liira, " You are our prisoner. Here is a magistrate who has been the witness of your criminal intention. We deliver you into his hands that he may deal with you accord- ing to law." Trembling from head to feet, the young criminal answered: "For God's sake, do what you please with me, but spare my life. I confess that I am guilty of a great crime against you, dear Father Chiniquy, but I ask your pardon. Do not get me punished as I deserve." I answered him, " I do not want you to be punished as you deserve. But you cannot find fault with us if we ask the protection of the laws of our country to save our lives." In less time than I can say it, by the order of the magis- trate the hands of the young criminal were tied, and he was ordered to be marched to the common jail to wait for the course of the law about his criminal action. The pistol having been picked up by the magistrate, it was 2Q4 Fortv Years in the Church of Christ found that it cunlained four bullets which were to be lodged in my breast, if my merciful God had not protected me in Huch a visible way. Of course the indignation of the crowd knew no bounds, and the unfortunate young man would not have gone back with his life, if I had not i)leaded for mercy and stopped the arms of those who thought that the proceedings of the law were too slow for such a visible and public crime. It was only through exerting my influence to the utmost I had on that multitude that I prevented a deplorable new case of lynch law. I had with me the ninth volume of the Theological works of St. Thomas. I opened it at the page ninety and I read them the following words of that author, which are notliing but the expression of the Church of Rome: "Though heretics do not deserve to be tolerated we must wait till they are twice admonished, but if after a second ad- monition they refuse to repent and submit to the Holy Church, they must not only be excommunicated, but they must be delivered to the secular power to be extermi- nated."— St. Thomas Aquinas, Vol. 4, p. 90. After reading this law of the Church of Rome, I told my dear countrymen, "It is not against that unfortunate young man that you must express your just indignation to=day, it is against the Church of Rome. It was only to obey his Church and follow its teachings that he wanted to take away my life. " I know on good authority that he spent the greater part of yesterday with his jpriest. There is no doubt that his nerves were strengthened to commit that crime, even at the risk of his life, by w^hat he heard from him. He was told, wliat all the priests say of me, that I am a monster, unworthy to live, H cursed man, condemned to hell by Almighty God as well as by his holy Pope. He was probably promised the forgive- ness of all his sins if he would put an end to my life. " Whenever the Church of Rome has the power to do it she has persecuted the Protestants to h er utmost capacity. She A Narrow Escape 205 has sent them to jail, she has confiscated their goods, she has sent them into exile, or even put them to death. Before the conquest of Canada by the English, it was forbidden to Protestants to live in that country. They had the choice between going to gaol or becoming exiles, if they per- sisted in their Gospel religion. In France, thousands have lost their lives, and have been forced to go and die in exile for becoming Protestants. In a single night, and the four or five months after the St. Bartholomew massacre, seventy = five thousand Protestants were slaughtered in France by the order of the Pope. " The whole night would not be long enough to tell you the tortures, the persecutions, the slaughters of the Protestants, by the order of the Pope, in Italy, France, Spain, England, Holland, and all other countries where the Church of Rome was strong enough to execute the laws of blood and death she had passed against those who refused to worship her idols and prostrate themselves at the feet of her Pope and Bishops. You have seen with your own eyes, this very evening, one of the acts engendered by the bloody and cruel laws of Rome. Is it your desire to continue to belong to such a church?" There was a universal cry: "No. We do not wish to be any longer the slaves of such a system of tyranny and in- tolerance." It was my unspeakable joy to see the whole crowd of my dear countrymen give up the heavy and ignominious yoke of the Pope in order to accept the Gospel of Christ for their only rule of faith. CHAPTER XXI The Assassination of Lincoln Several years ago in my book " Fifty Years in the Church of Rome," I had n chapter on the assassination of President Abraham Lincohi. I charged that on the Jesuits, which took the world by surprise. Many of my best friends thought that that was the weak point in the book. They thought that it was hardly possible that the emissaries of Rome should commit such a horrible crime. The Jesuits, for three hundred years, have been guilty of many black crimes; but it was thought that to charge this to them was more than they deserved. But I had most conclusive evidence of the truth of what I alleged, and felt confident that I stood on solid ground. I did not arrive at my conclusion hastily, and was not warped by my hatred of the papal system and by my con- viction that Jesuits were capable of anything, according to the principle that the end justifies the means. There is no man living who has had so good an opportu- nity of knowing Mr. Lincoln, under most trying circum- stances, as I had. There was no man who had taken so much pains to investigate and understand the real circumstances and facts relating to his murder. I procured documentary proof at an expense of $2,000, which I have now in my pos- session, before I reached a positive conclusion, and announced it to the world. I add here on this bloody tragedy a few considerations to be followed by a statement of facts brought out under the most searching investigations by others, all of which go to con- firm the truth of what I had written on the subject. At the time of the murder of Lincoln the American Repub- 206 The Assassination of Lincoln 207 lie had just passed through the most terrible civil war in the world's history. Slavery was the cause of the conflict, which held in its grasp a vast multitude of human beings, Abraham Lincoln was President when the conflict broke out, and to its end. He seemed to be the man raised up by provi- dence for the time that tried men's souls. He foresaw with prophetic eyes that slavery must come to an end if the national life would be preserved. After waiting for some time till circumstances became favourable, he issued the proc- lamation of the emancipation of 4,000,000 human beings from slavery. The captives thus liberated were more in number than had ever been liberated at any one time in the history of the world. The negroes often called Lincoln their Moses, before and after their freedom. On the first of Janu- ary, 1863, the commanding officer of the Union forces ap- pointed a meeting in a grove on old Fort Plantation, Port Eoyal, S. C, at which the declaration of emancipation would be read. There was quite a programme marked out, but which was somewhat interrupted by a remarkable incident. When the proclamation was read, the many negroes present suddenly broke out singing the national hymn: "My Country 'tis of Thee; Sweet Land of Liberty." That hymn they could never sing before, but now that they were free they sang it with swelling hearts; but how they learned it was unknown. Their hearts thrilled with joy at the thought of being free, and rose in gratitude to God. In their joy and gratitude they did not forget Lincoln, their Moses, who led them from bondage to liberty. In the United States, slavery was a controlling power, which was confined to what was called the Southern States. The aim was, on the part of the slaveholders, to make slavery national, and to extend it into new territories which would be gradually added as states. They saw that their plans were likely to be thwarted by the opposing sentiment in the free states. They determined to secede from the Union and set up a nation where slavery would be the corner-stone. 2o8 Fortv Years in the Church of Christ Several of the leaders of the conspiracy, including JefiFerson Davis, were officers under the federal government. They were thus the more favourably situated to frame and prepare to carry out their plans. They had taken the oath of loyalty and were drawing their salaries from the treasury of the United States, while at the same time they were plotting to break up the nation. Davis and other conspirators, while concocting their diabolical conspiracy, could make Union speeches and loud professions of loyalty. Davis came to Boston and spoke in Faneuil Hall at a union meeting, while at the same time he came on from Washington for the pur- pose of dismantling forts and making other preparations for the prosecution of his nefarious plans. It was well known that the Roman Catholic Church was in sympathy with slavery and with the political party chiefly rej)resenting it. The hierarchy never raised its voice against the system, but gave it their countenance and practical support. The general sympathy between the Romanists and the rel)els was manifest, and the slaveholders knew it, and relied much on that fact to help them in accomplishing their object. The Democratic party of the country, as it was called, was known as the pro=slavery party, and Roman Catholics, mainly through the influence of their clergy, were almost ex- clusively the members of that party. Thus Popery and the slave system by aSinity and through policy became allied. Any professions that the Roman hierarchy might make at that time of course were not sincere, but intended tc blind peo- ple's eyes, so that the end might be more readily gained. The union of Popery and slavery came closer as tin'e went on and the rebellion progressed. When the war broke out Archbishop Hughes professed to be a friend of the Union. President Lincoln thought that he might render valuable service abroad in favour of the North, which he gave assurance he would render. He went abroad, but evidently with the object in view the direct opposite to The Assassination of Lincoln 209 that he professed. He saw the Pope and we know what soon after followed. The Pope addressed a letter to Davis, couched in the most friendly and endearing terms. This was in fact a recognition of the slave^confederacy. Let it be remembered that the only foreign potentate that recognized the Confeder- acy with Davis at its head was the Pope. Soon after this the Roman Catholic soldiers of the Union army began to desert by wholesale, as they soon learned that the voice of the infallible pontifif must be regarded. In the document received from the pension department, which was published in the papers, it ajjpeared that there were 144,221 Irishmen that enlisted, and 104,000 had deserted, making the percentage of Irish Roman Catholics who de- serted during the war, seventy4wo, while that of the natives of the United States was five per cent., and of Germans ten per cent. " This," as a prominent living writer has said, " is a sufficient basis of the charge heretofore made, that a good Roman Catholic can be loyal only to the Pope, and can never be loyal to our government and to our institutions." Soon after the visit of Archbishop Hughes to the Pope, the terrible riots occurred in New York, when it became necessary to fill up the ranks which had become thinned, largely through desertions. The rioters were made up of Irish Roman Catho- lics, and it was evident that they were acting under tlie aus- pices of their chief clergy. For three days and nights there was a reign of terror right under the shadow of the palace of Archbishop Hughes. It was evident that he had proved himself a traitor, and was informed by President Lincoln that for the continuance of the bloody riot he would be held responsible. He then became concerned for his own safety. Then he broke the silence and gave a short address to the mob, calling them his friends, and the rioters dispersed and order "was restored. Thus it was evident that Hughes was carrying out the orders of the Pope and was at the bottom of the whole trouble. 2IO Forty Years in the Church of Christ Before I speak directly in regard to the assassination of Lincohi, there is another subject to which I must invite at- tention, pointing in the same direction. During the civil war in the American Republic, the French Emperor Napoleon and the Pope conceived the idea that dur- ing that conflict there was a good opportunity to establish an empire in Mexico. The expectation was that such an empire would be a great Roman power in this continent, and be like- ly to become part of the slave and Romish nation to be found- ed on the ruins of the Republic of the United States, and the ultimate control of North America. Maximilian, an Austrian prince, came over to found an empire in Mexico. He came over directly under the auspi- ces of Napoleon and the Pope. He and his wife Carlota went to Rome immediately before leaving for Mexico, where they had an audience with the Holy Father, and received his blessing to help and give them success in their undertaking. After they arrived in Mexico, Maximilian found the way to the dazzling empire before his mind to be a hard road to travel; matters were going against him. Maximilian seems to have been naturally amiable, and not being of a strong mind he could be easily influenced and con- trolled by Napoleon and the Pope for their own purpose. The historian, John Lothrop Motley, who at that time, 1863, was the American ambassador at Vienna, in his correspondence with Dr. O. W. Holmes thus wrote: " There is no glory in the grass nor verdure m anything. In fact, we have nothing green here but Archduke Maximil- ian, who firmly believes that he is going forth to Mexico to establish an American Empire and that it is his Divine mis- sion to destroy the dragon of democracy and re=establish the true Church, the right Divine, and all sorts of games. Poor young man." Maximilian's tastes and religious notions were such as might be exjjected from his mother and his priestly advisors. Mr. Motley further writes: The Assassination of Lincoln 211 "Maximilian adores bullfights, rather regrets the Inquisi- tion, and considers the duke of Alva everything noble and chivalrous and the most abused of men. It would do you good to hear his invocation to that deeply inspired shade, and his denunciations of the ignorant and vulgar Protestants who defeated him. You can imagine the rest." It is true he had just been at Rome and had just received the papal benediction. Pius IX. felt highly gratified with the recognition of his approbation and blessing in a cause which he thought would result in much for the holy Church. By "Divine right "he could originate a dynasty, and promise "perpetuity" to it, and "secure to it the blessing of heaven upon his enterprise." The Pope had done a great deal of blessing and cursing in his time; but the results showed that his blessings were worse than his curses. Such was the results in this case. Popes have been very successful in getting people into trouble, but never did much to get them out of it; this finds a striking illustration in the case of Maximilian, The time had now come for the United States to take a decided stand. On the seventh of March, 1864, Mr. Seward wrote to the American ambassador at Paris, for the inform- ation of the French government: "A resolution passed the House of Representatives by a unanimous vote, which de- clares the opposition of that body to a recognition of a mon- archy in Mexico." He adds in his letter these decisive words: " I remain now firm as heretofore in the opinion that the des- tinies of the American continent are not to be permanently controlled by any political arrangement that can be made in the capitals of Europe." The Confederate States looked with a great deal of interest on the French intervention. Napoleon had a strong desire to recognize the Confederacy, and urged the British goA^ern- ment to join him in such a move. Jefferson Davis said: " Napoleon was anxious to go beyond this, and so was the Pope of Rome; and they alone entertained those views on. 212 Forty Years in the Church ot Christ that question. Napoleon's efiPorts looking towards the break- ing of our blockatle met with refusal from England, the country whose artisans were the chief suJEferers by the cotton famine." The letter of Mr. Seward representing the deter- mined position of the United States, produced a weakening and frightening etfect on Napoleon. The French emperor had announced that he would with- draw his troops from Mexico, which, with other drawbacks, made the cause desperate for Maximilian. Carlota left very suddenly for France and Rome to secure help in the trying circumstances. When she arrived in Paris and visited Na- poleon, she met with a cold reception, and was told that he could do nothing. She then hastened to Rome to see the Pope, but he promised no practical help, and she, seeing that ruin was inevitable, became suddenly insane, and has remained so. Maximilian, as a last resort, after the surrender of Lee, at- tempted to strengthen his position by offering large induce- ments to the Southern rebel leaders to colonize Mexico, and join him. The idea struck very favourably many of the con- federates. It was noticeable how readily they could become the adherents and champions of monarchy and the Pope. Maximilian utterly failed in his enterprise, and was executed by being shot. It was as evident as anything could be that a gigantic con- spiracy had been formed for the destruction of the American Republic, the two chief movers of which were Jefferson Davis and the Pope. As that had thus far been an evident failure, it was concluded to take the most desperate measures to accomplish the end. It was decided to strike directly at the head of the government, the President to be put out of the way, and the other chief othcers to be assassinated, so that everything would be in confusion; none at the head of the government and the army, and the way blocked for a new election. Then the conspirators would step in and have their way, and Davis and the Pope rejoice. The Assassination ot Lincoln 213 In my " Fifty Years " I gave au extended statement of facts in regard to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. In that work I stated that I had warned Mr. Lincoln long before the assassination that such an event was likely to take place, and to be on his guard. The conspirators, including Booth and John Surratt, were accustomed to meet at the house of Mary Surratt, in Washington. Romish priests were frequent visitors there. Those who met there were known as enemies of the government, and rebels. The assassination had been announced some hours before it actually occurred, in a town in a distant state, showing that the plot was known among certain Romanists beforehand. John Surratt was specially looked after and harboured by the priests while a fugitive from justice. After I had published to the world my account of the as- sassination of Abraham Lincoln, a full history of it was pub- lished, written by General T. M. Harris, who had been a member of the military commission, before which Mary Surratt had been tried and convicted. Through a certain chain of circumstances this gentleman had been led to write a full history of that event. There is no man in America who has so extensively inves- tigated the subject as he. He availed himself of all the sources of information within his reach. His work is a vol- ume of over 400 pages. It is a perfect Gibraltar, and the Romanists have not attempted to challenge its statements. Since the publication of that work, Gen. Harris prepared a smaller book bearing the title, "Rome's Responsibility for the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln." I have held an extensive correspondence with the author while preparing his books, and I found that there was a com- plete agreement between him and myself on the subject. His investigations and their results go to confirm what I wrote in my "Fifty Years." I quote extensively from his books, which I feel assured my readers will appreciate not only for the in- formation, but as confirming what I had previously published 214 Forty Years in the Church of Christ on the subject, and the proof of the truth of the terrible charj^e which I first publicly made amounts to an absolute demonstration. I now proceed to quote from the writings of Gen. Harris: " It is my purpose now to review the facts connected with the assassination of President Lincoln, and the attempted assassination of Mr. Seward, and the purpose to assassinate Vice-President Johnson, Secretary Stanton and General Grant. The object of this scheme of wholesale assassination of the civil and military heads of the government, was to throw the country into a state of chaos, and thus retrieve the fast failing fortunes of the Confederacy. These facts, as de- veloped on the trials of the conspirators before a military commission, and on the trial of John H. Surratt two years later, before a civil court, together with evidence secured by Father Chiniquy, and given to the world in his book, ' Fifty Years in the Church of Rome,' show conclusively the hand of Rome in this stab at our nation's life. I will now proceed to pass these facts in review, in their proper order, and to show their significance. " We will take as our starting point the fact, well estab- lished, that the headquarters of the conspiracy in Washing- ton City was the house of a Roman Catholic family of which Mrs. Mary E. Surratt was the head; and that all of its in- mates, including a number of boarders, were devoted mem- bers of the Roman Catholic Church. This house was the meeting place, the council chamber of Booth and his co=con- spirators, including Mrs. Mary E. Surratt and her son, John H. Surratt, who, next to Booth, were the most active members of the conspiracy in the preparation of the execution of the plot. " Booth, the ring-leader, was born and reared a Protestant. He was only a nominal Protestant, however. " He was a man of the world, a drunkard and a libertine, and utterly indifferent to matters of religion. "That, under the influence of his associations in the con- The Assassination of Lincoln 215 spiracy plot, he had become a pervert to Catholicism, was shown, however, by the fact that on the examination of his per- son after his death it was found that he was wearing a Catho- lic medal under his vest and over his heart. " The wily Jesuit, sympathizing with him in his political views, and in the hope of destroying our government, and establishing the Confederacy, which had already received the Poije's recognition and expressions of good will and sym- pathy conferred upon it, had been able to pervert him to Catholicism, and to deceive him into the belief that this medal would conduce to his jDersonal safety, and to the suc- cess of his enterprise. He had, no doubt, been baj)tized into the Catholic Church. This medal at once marked and identi- fied him as a pervert to Catholicism. " Now we have Mary E. Surratt, John H. Surratt, J. Wilkes Booth, Dr. Samuel Mudd, and Michael O'Laughlin, five of the leading spirits in the execution of the plot to assassinate, belonging to the Eoman Catholic Church. " My impression is that Herold and Spangler were also members or adherents to that church. Be this as it may, they, together with Atzerot and Payne, were the mere tools and hired agents of Booth and Surratt, and so stood ready to serve their purpose; and so it boots not to inquire into their faith or want of faith. " Our inquiry then, thus far, has established the fact that five of the conspirators were members of the Roman Catholic Church, and that these five were its leaders, to whom the execution of the plot had been confided. We have also seen that their meeting place, or council chamber, in Washington, whilst engaged in perfecting their arrangements for the as- sassinations that had been determined upon, was the dwell- ing place and under the control of Mrs. Mary E. Surratt and John H. Surratt, her son, both of whom were zealous slaves of the Pope, and clearly proven, by the evidence given before the commission and by that given two years later, on the trial of John H. Surratt in the civil court, to have been lead- ai6 Forty Years in the Church of Christ ing and active members of the conspiracy. Mrs. Surratt was a faithful and diligent attendant upon church services; and, from the evidence given by three or four priests in her behalf before the commission, she had established, in their estima- tion, a high character for devotion and Christian piety. " It was a noteworthy fact, however, that of all these priestly witnesses but one of them admitted that he had been on specially intimate terms with her during the five months in which the plans and preparations for the assassinations were being made. " Most of them had been acquainted with her for many years, and seemed to be well acquainted with her church reputation, but they had only seen her casually during these latter months. One of these, Father Wiget, was noted for his disloyalty, and could hardly been supposed to have spent many hours with her, at different times, without having heard her express her views in relation to the one all-absorbing topic of the time, that was uppermost in the mind of all, and formed the chief topic of conversation. He could only say that he did not remember having heard her utter a loyal sentiment since the beginning of the rebellion; nor could he remember having heard any one speak of her as notoriously disloyal, until since her arrest. He said he had become acquainted with her through having had the care of two of her sons as his ijupils; one of these was serving in the rebel army, and the other, John H. Surratt, had been a rebel emissary and spy for three years, passing back and forth between Washington and Richmond, and from Richmond to Canada and back, as a bearer of dispatches, and yet the Jesuitical priest endeavoured so to shape his testimony as to leave the impression that the tojpics of conversation between himself and Mrs. Surratt. whilst all this was going on, and much more, was confined to such topics as the state of her health, the weather, etc. He was very positive as to her good Christian character, which he had been summoned to prove, but had very little recollection of anything else. The Assassination of Lincoln 217 " Father Boyle, resident at St. Peter's Church, Washington City, had made the acquaintance of Mrs. Surratt eight or nine years previously, but had only met her three or four times since. He had always heard her well spoken of; never had heard anything to her disadvantage; had never heard her utter any disloyal sentiments. " Father Stonestreet, pastor of St. Aloysius Church, Wash- ington City, had made her acquaintance twenty years before; had only occasionally seen her since; had scarcely seen her at all during the last year or two; had always looked upon her as a proper Christian matron. At the time of his acquaint- ance with her (which he was locating twenty years back), there was no question of her loyalty. Replying to a question by the Judge advocate: He did not remember having seen her, though he might have done so transiently, since the com- mencement of the rebellion ; and knew nothing of her charac- ter for loyalty, only what he had seen in the papers. "Father Lanihan, a Catholic priest living near Beantown, in Maryland, testified that he had been acquainted with Mrs. Surratt for about thirteen years; intimately for about nine years; that he had been very familiar with her, staying at her house. He regarded her as a good Christian woman, highly honourable; he had frequently talked with her about current events and public affairs, since the rebellion, but could not remember ever having heard her express any disloyal senti- ments; neither had he heard her reputation for loyalty spoken of. " Finally, Father Young, of St. Dominick's Church on Sixth Street, Washington City, was called in her behalf; he had been acquainted with Mrs. Surratt about eight or ten years, but not intimately; he had occasionally seen her, and visited her; passed her house about once a month, and gen- erally'called there, staying sometimes an hour. He, like the the others, was a good witness for her as to her character, but could say nothing as to her loyalty, or disloyalty; he had never heard her speak as to current events one way or another. 21 8 Forty Years in the Church of Christ How can vre credit, the testimony of this witness? Is it credi. ble that he could have spent an hour in conversation with a rebel woman of such positive character and convictions, once a month, during the heat of the conflict, and yet never have heard any expressions from her on the subjects that filled the minds and hearts of all, and formed the chief toj)ics of con- versation, in all classes of society? Such silence between a rebel woman and a rebel priest, who were on intimate and confidential terms, is too incredible to be believed. We can- not help thinking that all these holy or unholy fathers testi- fied under the understood mental reservations of the Jesuits. Father Wiget was, as we have said, her pastor, and so, we take it, was her confessor. We cannot think it at all probable that she would have engaged in a conspiracy fraught with so much danger to her, and such grave consequences hereafter, without having confided to him her terrible secret; nor with- out his approval. It certainly is rather strange that she should have broken her relations with him after her convic- tion, and taken Father Walter for her confessor and spiritual guide in her preparation for death. " There must have been some grave reasons for this change; and it was made for her, by these Jesuit priests, for some very important reasons. It is not at all likely that at such a time, and under such solemn circumstances, she would have made this change from her pastor to another priest with whom she had not had any previous acquaintance of her own vo- lition. Had she been innocent, her trusted pastor would have been the one to whom she would naturally have looked for consolation. But Wiget had no doubt told her that she would incur no guilt in aiding the conspiracy, and so to Walter she could declare her innocence, having the faith of a Catholic in Wiget's power to grant her this dispensation. Father Walter could say 'that whilst his priestly vows would not allow him to reveal the secrets of the con- fessional, he could say, that from what there came to his knowledge, he knew her to be an innocent woman.' There The Assassination of Lincoln 219 was to be a great effort made to get a commutation, or reversal of her sentence; and the strong plea of the Father was to be based on this assertion of her innocence. Failing in this, Father Walter for thirty years persisted in his efforts to fix upon the government the stigma of having murdered an in- nocent woman. "In its uniting with Father Walter to fix upon our govern- ment the stigma of a great crime, to its eternal disgrace, the Roman Catholic hierarchy assumed, with him, the responsi- bility of perverting the welhestablished truths of history, and of thus manifesting their hatred of our government, and their chagrin and bitter disappointment at the failure of their ef- forts for its overthrow. " So deep and bitter was their disappointment at the sig- nal success of the government in the vindication of its au- thority and its right to exist, that, for a quarter of a century* it never ceased its efforts to fix upon it the stigma of this alleged crime, and it was only stopped from this effort by the publication of my " History of the Great Conspiracy" to overthrow our government by a series of assassinations, when, fearing that its further agitation might tend to give publicity to my book, and that thus the facts of this conspiracy would become more widely known and the truth of history vindi- cated, that the agitation of this charge and contention against the government were dropped as if it had become a hot potato. We must not forget that, in all this they acted under a full knowledge of all the facts in the case. These had been fully displayed to the world through the evidence produced by the government on the trial of the assassins in 1865, and two years later, still more fully, on a trial of John H. Surratt in a civil court. These things were not done in a corner but openly before the world. Their sympathy with the conspirators and assassins, and their enmity toward the government, were thus openly proclaimed before the world; and the attitude of the hierarchy toward the assassination of the nation's head was made clearly manifest. It is Abraham Lincoln, it is true. 220 Forty Years in the Church of Christ that was slain, but it was the life of the nation that the blow was aimed at. The scheme to aid the rebellion by the assas- sination of the President, the Vice-President, the Secretary of State, and Secretary of War, and the General in command of our armies, was concocted by the emissaries of the rebel government, who kept their headquarters in M(jntreal, Canada. These emissaries held a semi official relation to the Confed- erate government. The whole run of the evidence makes it clear that the Roman hierarchy kept itself in close relation with these emissaries; and it is highly probable, from a considera. tion of all the facts, with the head of the government in whose service they were employed also. It kept itself in these close relations for a purpose, and was most likely the original source of the inspiration of the assassination plot. These rebel emissaries were Jacob Thompson, of Mississippi, Clement C. Clay, of Alabama, and Beverly Tucker, of Vir^ ginia. These had associated with them, as helpers, George N. Sanders, Dr. Blackburn, and others; men who preferred to fight in the field of political strategy rather than on the field of battle. "These agents of the rebel government entered into a con- tract with J. Wilkes Booth and John H. Surratt to carry out their scheme, and also aided them in the selection of their subordinates. Whether these emissaries were Protestants or Catholics, I am not informed. My impression, however, is that they were nominally Protestants. They were all, how- ever, wicked men, evidently accepting the maxim that, 'all is fair in war,' and having no conscientious scruples as to the means that they employed to give aid to their cause. That the Jesuits had their ear, and aided them with their sugges- tions, is made probable by the fact, that in his efforts to enlist as a helper to Booth and Surratt, a young man who was sent before the commisson as a witness on the trial, Thompson used the Jesuitical argument, that to kill a tyrant was no murder; and so, assuming that President Lincoln was a The Assassination of Lincoln 221 tyrant, it would be a glorious and praiseworthy act to take him off. " That the assassination plot was known to the Bishop of Montreal (Bourget) and a number of his priests before its accomplishment, and received their sanction, was made plain by their subsequent conduct. As soon as the assassination of the President was flashed over the wires, Fathers Boucher and La Pierre kept themselves on the lookout, and ready to help any of the conspirators who might make good their escape to Canada, John H. Surratt and a companion, whose identity was never discovered, returned to Montreal on the early afternoon of the 18th of April, the fourth after the assassination. The unknown conspirator then sank out of sight. Surratt was spirited away from the hotel within fifteen minutes after he had registered, on his return. He had registered on the same book on his return from Rich- mond to Canada, on the 6th of April, had gone back to Wash- ington and played his part in the conspiracy on the night of the 14th of April, and now, on the 18th, had gotten back to Montreal, and was so carefully watched for, that almost at the instant of his arrival he was spirited away and kept hidden carefully in the house of Porterfield, one of Thomp- son's assistants, who, for his greater security, had relinquished his American citizenship and had taken the oath of alle- giance to the British crown. Porterfield told him that the detectives were on the alert, and lost no time in hiding him away. " Porterfield, deeply exercised for the safety of his charge, as also for his own, only kept him until he could communi- cate with Father Boucher, a Roman Catholic priest, who lived in an out of the way country parish, forty=five miles from Montreal. Father Boucher immediately sent his serv- ant to bring Surratt to his place for further hiding. Du Tilly, Father Boucher's man, arrived before the house of Porter- field late in the evening of the 21st of April, and, taking 222 Forty Years in the Church of Christ Surratt into his carriage, drove him away under tlie cover of darkness, and placed him in the keeping of his master. Fa- ther Boucher. Here he remained for two months, under the most careful watch and guide of his keeper. Whilst here he was fre(iuently visited by some of his friends in whose em- ploy he had incurred his guilt; and by another Father, La Pierre. This La Pierre was canon to Bishop Bourget, ate at his table, and was the same to him as a hand and arm, " A circumstance having occurred that made it necessary for Father Boucher to unload his charge, he sent him back to Montreal, as secretly as he had taken him away from there, and placed him in the care of Father La Pierre. " This Father provided Surratt with an upstairs chamber in his own father's house, right under the shadow of the Bishop's palace. Here he kept him for three months, never permitting him to leave his room in the day time, and never at night but in company with himself and in disguise. Thus was Surratt kept hidden away for five months, in the care and in the charge of the Roman Catholic Church; two of its priests keeping watch and ward over him, with a full knowl- edge of his crime, thus making themselves accomplices, after the fact, as they also no doubt were before its accomplish- ment. But how about Bishop Bourget? He stands behind the scenes, it is true, but was he not equally guilty? The organization of the hierarchy is a complete military despot- ism, of which the Pope is the ostensible head; but of which the Black Pope is the real head. The Black Pope is the head of the order of the Jesuits, and is called the general. He not only has the absolute command of his own order, but directs and controls the general policy of the church. He is the power behind the throne, and is the real i)otential head of the hierarchy. The whole machine is under the strictest rules of military discipline. The whole thought and will of this machine — to islan, propose and execute — is found in its head. There is no independence of thought, or of action, in its subordinate parts. Implicit and unquestioning obedi- The Assassination of Lincoln 223 ence to the orders of superiors in authority is the sworn duty of the priesthood of every grade, just as it is the duty of officers in the army; and as much the duty of the laity to their priest as it is of the rank and file in an army to their immediate commanders. There is a complete chain of re- sponsibility, extending from the head all the way down to the membership. Thus the whole vast organization can be wielded, as a unit, to accomplish the plans and purposes of its head. The priest is virtually an intellectual slave to his bishop, the bishop to his arch=bishop, and these again to the cardinals, and all finally, to the Popes, white and black. This being the case, it is clear that no priest would have dared to take on himself such grave responsibilities as did Fathers Boucher and La Pierre, involving so much danger to themselves, as also to the character of their church, without the knowledge and assent of their Bishop. It would have been held to be an act of insubordination, fraught with the most serious consequences to themselves. But the canon occupies a peculiar relation to his bishop, and is supposed to have no other duty but to carry out the order which he receives from his superior. In this view of the case, which represents truly the relations between Bishop Bourget and his canon, La Pierre, can we rationally come to any other conclusion than that Bourget was, in a moral point of view, also a member of the conspiracy ? Neither would Bishop Bour- get have dared to give his consent to this crime on his own independent responsibility. He knew he was acting in har- mony with the desire and purpose of the hierarchy for the destruction of our government. " The Jesuits plan with the utmost art and cunning, un- hampered by any moral restraints, and always with the utmost secrecy; and carry out their plans in the dark. We think, however, that in this case we have succeeded in tracing the Jesuit through all the devious wanderings of his dark and slimy path, and in fixing upon him the responsibility for the assassination of President Lincoln. 2 24 Forty Years in the Church of Christ "But we are not done yet. In the early part of September, 1865, these unholy fathers thought it safe to unload their charge to their brethren in England; and so made arrange- ments for sending Surratt across the Atlantic, under an as- sumed name, and in disguise. "For this purpose they arranged for his passage on a British steamer, the Peruvian, which was to sail from Quebec on the 16th of September, 1865. "A physician with whom Boucher was well acquainted, by the name of McMillan, had just gotten the jiosition of surgeon to this vessel, and they arranged with him to take under his especial charge a man by the name of McCarthy, who for certain reasons wished to cross the Atlantic under an as- sumed name and in the most secret manner. The day before the Peruvian was to sail from Quebec these two unholy Fathers conveyed Surratt in a covered carriage to the steamer that was to carry passengers for the Peruvian from Montreal to Quebec. They had disguised Surratt by colouring his hair, painting his face, and by putting spectacles over his eyes. Father La Pierre went also in disguise of a citizen's dress. Arriving on board the steamer, Surratt was immediately stored away in a stateroom, from which he did not emerge during the voyage; La Pierre remaining in his room with him. Reaching Quebec, these two uidioly fathers placed their charge in the care of Dr. McMillan, and then took their final leave of him. "They had confided him to the care of their friends in Liverpool by the hands of Dr. McMillan, and through whose aid Surratt succeeded in placing himself under the care of the Roman Catholic Church in a foreign land. Rome is everywhere, and always the same, and he can feel safe as long as he is in the custody of the church. Here he waited for the Peruvian to make another voyage and return. He sent by the surgeon, to his rebel employers in Canada, a request to send him some money, but only to receive the answer that they had no money for hira. The expense of sending him The Assassination of Lincoln 225 across the continent to Italy thus fell on the Church. His rebel friends had now forsaken him, but his Church stood by him. He was sent to Italy, and was mustered into the army of the Pope. Here he remained safely hidden away for a year or more, but was finally discovered by a government detective who had been sent in search of him, and who went voluntarily, hoping to get the offered reward, and who had enlisted in the same company to which Surratt belonged. This detective informed our government of his discovery, and through the agents of our government the Pope was in- formed that his soldier, who had enlisted under the name of Watson, was none other than the notorious John B. Sur- ratt, who was a member of the conspiracy that accomplished the assassination of President Lincoln. " With a shrewd show of virtuous innocence, the Pope has- tened to clear his skirts, and those of his underlings, by or- dering his arrest and rendition to our government, without waiting for its requisition. He was arrested by the Pope's authority, but was allowed to escape by his guards, and thus given another chance for life and liberty. " The story was that he made his escape by a bold leap over a precipice, at the risk of his life. ' Tell this to the marines; the old sailors will not believe it.' He was finally captured at Alexandria, Egypt, and was brought home in chains, where he was held to answer for his crime. " Let us here pause for a moment to consider the relations of the heirarchy to this crime. The testimony given on the trial of John H. Surratt clearly convicts two of its priests, Boucher and La Pierre, of being accomplices in the con- spiracy; and, by implication, as clearly convicts the Bishop of Montreal, Bishop Bourget. This testimony was spread before the world, and so must have been known to the So- man Catholic hierarchy, yet it never called any of these priests to accountability, or held them responsible for this crime— the crime of the ages. No one of them was ever held to have forfeited his standing or good character in the 226 Forty Years in the Church of Christ Church on account of his connection with this conspiracy, and so the hierarchy stands before the world to day as having given its approval to their conduct in this matter. "We now come to the trial of John B. Surratt, before a civil court. It is not our purpose to go into a general re- view of the trial, but only to show the interest taken in it by the Koman Catholic priesthood; the animus of the de- fense toward the government; and the means resorted to, to make sure of his acquittal. The hand of the Jesuit is every- where traceable throughout the history of this trial, and, by that hand, one of the most important trials that the his- tory of American jurisprudence records, was well-nigh turned into a farce by the skill and cunning of the defense. The cunning of the Jesuit was exercised in the preparations made in advance to make sure of acquittal of the accused, " A most noteworthy fact in connection with this trial, as bearing upon the subject of our investigation, was the deep interest manifested by the Roman Catholic priesthood of Washington in this trial, and their sympathy with the ac- cused. There was scarcely a day, during the trial, but that one or more of them was found in the court^room. They also made it manifest that they were there in behalf of the prisoner of the bar; and that they were ready to aid in his defense was very apparent. " Whenever the prosecution brought a witness on the stand whose testimony was particularly damaging to the accused, a witness was always found to rebut his testimony, and was always a member of the Roman Catholic Church. It was also a very significant fact, that no one of all those witnesses was able to pass the ordeal of Judge Pierrepont's cross=examination unscathed. It looked as though the task of these priests was to aid the prisoner's counsel by finding the witness that they needed, and stuffing them with the needed testimony. It was thus made manifest, during the trial, on more than one occasion, that witnesses had been hunted up and furnished with a cooked'Up testimony to meet the requirements of the The Assassination of Lincoln 227 case. It is worthy of note that, whenever the prosecution thought it important to rebut any testimony, a witness was always promptly found for them, and was always a Catholic. The manner of these witnesses in testifying, and the fact that they never could stand the test of Judge Pierrepont's searching cross-examination, justly gave rise to the suspicion that they had been suborned, and were delivering a cooked=^ up testimony. And these facts gave rise to the suspicion that it was the special business of some one to find and stuff witnesses for the occasion. " John H. Surratt had been a student at St. Mary's college for a year or two, at the breaking out of the war. He had commenced a collegiate course, having the priesthood in view. His sympathies were so strongly for the South that he left the college, gave up his priestly aspirations, and engaged actively in the secret service of the Confederate government. "As a student he was very popular at the college, and seemed to have won the favour of the president and faculty. The summer vacations at the college occurred during the progress of the trial, and the president took occasion to spend a day in the court=room, and sat, all day, at the side of the prisoner at the dock. His presence there was, no doubt, intended to have its effect on the Roman Catholic members of the jury. It was as much as to say: 'You see which side I am on.' Many of the students of the college took occa- sion to visit their former fellow student during the trial, and always manifested their sympathy for him by the warmest friendly greeting, taking their places at his side. One important witness was Dr. McMillan. It will be re- membered that this witness was the surgeon of the Peruvian, and that it was to his care that Surratt had been committed, under the name of McCarthy, by his co- conspirators, Boucher and La Pierre. " The voyage across the Atlantic occupied seven or eight days, and as the doctor was the only man on board in whom Surratt 228 Forty Years in the Church of Christ could contide, and as he was carryin<^ in his breast the secret of the great crime that was weighing heavily on his conscience, and being all the time haunted by the spectre of detectives, it was natural that he should seek relief in the confidential companionship of McMillan. He became very communica- tive, and related the difficulties that he experienced and over- came in making good his escape from Washington, and in getting back, to Canada after the assassination; the parts taken by Porterfield, Boucher and La Pierre in keeping him hidden away in Canada for five months, and many other things relating to the conspiracy; and, finally, he revealed to him his identity. The testimony of this witness was en- tirely conclusive as to his guilt, and so he was particularly obnoxious to the prisoner's counsel. "He was treated by them, from the start, just as they would have treated a witness who had been convicted of perjury, although they were unable to discredit him by the legal methods. They could not look at him, or speak of him, but with the air and language of scorn and contempt. So impor- tant did it seem to discredit this witness that Priest Boucher voluntarily came all the way from Canada to rebut his testi- mony. His man, DuTilly, was also brought; but notwith- standing the fact that they showed themselves to be swift witnesses, of the most ready kind, they failed to discredit this witness. Under the searching cross=examination of Judge Pierrepont they were made to corroborate the testimony given by the doctor in all of the most essential and important par- ticulars, and the unholy father was made to convict himself of being equally guilty with the prisoner. " It would seem that the Jesuits had had it in mind, from the beginning of the war, to find occasion for the taking off of Mr. Lincoln. Early in the war they set a paragraph going the rounds of the press, as far as they had it under their con- trol, to the effect that Mr. Lincoln had been born in the Catholic Church, and had been made a member of the Church by his baptism into it, and that he had apostatized, and be- The Assassination of Lincoln 229 came a heretic. Mr. Lincoln had seen this statement going the rounds of the press, and believed that such a gross false- hood would not have been published without a j)uri3ose. On the occasion of a visit from Father Chiniquy about this time, Mr. Lincoln called his attention to this paragraph, saying he had been greatly perplexed in trying to discover the object of its publication; and asked him if he could give any clue to the motive that had inspired such a falsehood. I will give Father Chiniquy's own account of his interview with the President on this subject: " 'The next day, I was there at the appointed hour, with my noble friend, who said, " I could not give you more than ten minutes yesterday, but I will give you twenty to-day; I want your views about a thing which is exceedingly puzzling to me, and you are the only one to whom I like to speak on that sub- ject. A great number of democratic papers have been sent to me lately, evidently written by Roman Catholics, publish- ing that I was born a Roman Catholic, and baptized by a priest. They call me a renegade and an apostate on account of that; and they heajj upon my head mountains of abuse. At first I laughed at that, for it is a lie ; thanks be to God, I have never been a Roman Catholic. No priest of Rome has ever laid his hand on my head. But the persistency of the Romish press to present tliis falsehood to their readers as a Gospel truth, must have a meaning. Please tell me as briefly as pos- sible what you think about that." "My dear President," I answered, " It was just this strange story published about you that brought me here yesterday. I wanted to say a word about it; but you were too busy. Let me tell you that I wept like a child when I read that story for the first time. For, not only my impression is that it is your sentence to death, but I have it from the lips of a converted priest that it is in order to excite the fanaticism of the Roman Catholic murder- ers, whom they hope to find, sooner or later, to strike you down, they have invented that false story of your being born in the Church of Rome, and of your being baptized by a priest. 230 Forty Years in the Church of Christ They want by that to brand your face with the ignominious mark of apostasy. Do not forget that in the Churcli of Rome an apostate is an outcast, who has no place in society, and who has no right to live. The Jesuits want the Roman Catholics to believe that you are a monster, an open enemy of God and the Church, that you are an excommunicated man. For every apostate is ipso facto excommunicated. I have brought to you the theology of one of the most learned and approved of the Jesuits of his time, Bussambaum, who, with many others, say that the man who will kill you wuU do a good and holy work. More than that, here is a copy of a decree of Gregory VII. proclaiming that the killing of an apostate, or a heretic, and an excommunicated man, as you are declared to be, is not murder; nay, that it is a good, a Christian action. That decree is incorporated in the canon law, which every priest must study, and which every good Catholic must follow. " ' " My dear President, I must repeat to you here, what I said when in Urbana in 185G. My fear is that you will fall under the blows of a Jesuit assassin if you do not pay more atten- tion than you have done till now to protect yourself. Re- member that because Coligny was a heretic, as you are, he was brutally murdered in the St. Bartholomew night; that Henry IV. was stabbed by the Jesuit assassin, Ravaillac the four- teenth of May, 1610, for having given liberty of conscience to his people, and that William the Taciturn was shot dead by another Jesuit murderer, called Girard, for having broken the yoke of the Pope. The Church of Rome is absolutely the same to-day as she w^as then; she does believe and teach, to-day, as then, that she has the right and that it is her duty to punish with death any heretic who is in her way as an obstacle to her designs. '" "The unanimity with which the Catholic hierarchy of the United States is on the side of the rebels, is an incontroverti- ble evidence that Rome wants to destroy the Republic, and as you are, by your personal influence and popularity, your love of liberty, your position, the greatest obstacle to their The Assassination of Lincoln 231 diabolical scheme, their hatred is concentrated on you; you are the daily object of their maledictions; it is at your breast they will direct their blows. My blood chills in my veins when I contemplate the day which may come, sooner or later, when Rome will add to all her iniquities the murder of Abraham Lincoln.' " " The charge that Rome was responsible for the assassina- tion of Abraham Lincoln was first made, so far as I am ad- vised, by Father Chiniquy; and was founded not only on the fact which I have here given, but on facts that came to him as a result of his own personal research. His charge is dis- tinctly and explicitly made in his book, entitled, 'Fifty Years in the Church of Rome.' He there shows that Mr. Lincoln had incurred the deadly enmity of the Jesuits by foil- ing and disappointing them in the effort they had made to convict Father Chiniquy of a crime of which they had falsely accused him; and which, had they succeeded in convicting him, would not only have ruined his reputation, but would have secured his incarceration in a prison. "Mr. Lincoln defended Father Chiniquy, and being fur- nished, apparently by a special providence, with evidence that revealed their wicked conspiracy to destroy him, and con- victed them of perjury, he was able triumi^hantly to defeat their wicked scheme; and gave them such a scathing as made them tremble with rage, and slink away with vows of ven- geance in their hearts. " Father Chiniquy i n making his warm acknowledgement to Mr. Lincoln could not refrain from shedding tears. Upon Mr. Lincoln's expressing surprise at this, and saying to him that he ought to be the happiest man in the world. Father Chiniquy replied that it was for Mr. Lincoln, and not for himself, that his tears were falling. He then exijlained the cause of his emotion, sayi ng that, knowing the Jesuits as he did, and reading a purpose of vengeance in their murderous eyes, he knew that they would never rest until they had com- passed his death. "This occurred at Urbana, 111., in 1856. In the providence 232 Forty Years in the Church of Christ of God, the duty fell on Mr. Lincoln of putting down a for- midable rebellion, and of maintaining the authority of the government by its military arm; and Father Cliiniquy, realiz- ing that a state of war would afford the Jesuits the opportu- nity that they sought to at once wreak their vengeance or. personal account, and give a stab at the life of the government, made three different visits to the President, during his admin- istration, to give him warning of his danger, and to put him on his guard. As Father Chiniquy has kindly given me the liberty to use his book freely for the purpose of this book, I have given above the result of one of these visits, and shall make still further use of his book in closing up this inc^uiry. " We have now traced the history of this assassination as revealed by the testimony given before the military commis- sion, and before a civil court, two years later; and we find ourselves coming in contact with the Roman Catholic Church at every point, and always as a deeply interested party, thus showing its relation to the crime. Its sympathy was always with the assassins, wherever we came in contact with it. Its animus toward the government was always seen to be that of the bitterest hatred and scorn. Its manner, that of a lion robbed of its prey. Its every effort was to shield, and give aid to, those on trial; and when it failed in this, to cast obloquy on the government, and to bring it into contemjpt. Thus the history of this great crime reveals to us Rome's responsibility for the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, not as an in- dividual man, however much of personal hatred on the part of the Jesuits might have led them to plan for his death, but as the head of the nation they desired to destroy him. But we shall now proceed to give the most positive and unequivocal proof of the complicity of the Romish hierarchy in, and its responsibility for, this crime." I have thus quoted fr(^m General Harris on the subject, to give not oidy the main facts, but to show that the very ex- tensive research of another goes to corroborate what I stated in my " Fifty Years." CHAPTER XXIl A Great and Good Institution: The Presbyterian College, Montreal. The Rev. Dr. MacVicar. During my mission work in Montreal in the winter of 1870, walking one day on St. Catherine Street with a city pastor, a friend of mine, we happened to pass by Erskine church. That friend, knowing the interest I always took in matters relating to education, asked me: " Would you not like to see the class of students for the ministry which the Rev. MacVicar and Rev. Gibson are teaching?" " I never heard that there was such a class of students in Montreal," I answered. "Yes, there is one," said my friend. " Rev. MacVicar is so much impressed with the insufficient number of ministers for the Protestant population of Quebec that he is determined to teach all the young men who have a desire to consecrate them- selves to the ministry. As there is no college and no place for such a work in Montreal, he has gathered his pupils in the basement of Erskine church." When inside the basement room, I found it small, low, badly ventilated, badly lighted. But, if the material aspect of this newly improvised class-room was as humble and poor as it could be, it was not so with the appearance of the teacher. Nothing could be more pleasant than to look at his honest face. He was the very personification of health, strength, intelligence, and Christian enthusiasm. No king on his throne ever looked more happy than the Rev. D. H. MacVicar, in that very first hour that I made his personal acquaintance. His high stature, nearly six feet, his 233 234 Forty Years in the Church of Christ broad shoulders, fine and perfectly well^formed chest, his splendid forehead, the evident dwelling-place of very high in- telligence, all the fine and regular but stern lines of his face, were telling me that I was in the presence of one of those few men whose marble statues will some day adorn the public places of their grateful country. After saluting me in that gentlemanly manner which is his own, he continued his lesson. It was the explanation of the Binomial Theorem of Newton. When young, the study of mathematics had not only been a pleasure to me, but it was a real passion, and I felt so pleased and so full of admiration for his ease and lucidity in explaining the most difficult parts of that remarkable problem that the sweet remembrances of my college days were revived within my heart. After taking leave of the Rev. Mr. Mac Vicar, I said to my companion, " I am filled with admiration for the high capacity of that young mathematical teacher. Sooner or later the Protestants of Canada will acknowledge his unparalleled capacity. Such a treasure of learning and zeal will not be left in the low and obscure basement of this church." " The Rev. Mr. MacVicar is surely an able mathematician," answered my companion, "but his enormous ambition will destroy him. Do you not know that his dream is to have a large Presbyterian college in Montreal? We have already enough, if not too many, of these institutions for the small means of our young and struggling churches. The theolog- ical colleges of Kingston, Toronto and Halifax are as much as Canadian Presbyterian Churches can support. Even Mr. MacVicar would see this if his unquenchable ambition were not blinding him. He evidently aims at being called ' the founder of the Montreal Presbyterian College.' But he will be disappointed. I am very sorry for that, for I like him; he is one of our best working men, full of zeal and piety, but his ambition is almost boundless, and it will destroy him." " Allow me to differ with you," I answered. " If there is a Presbyterian College, Montreal 235 thing that is needed in Montreal, to-day, it is a college where our Christian young men will be prepared to spread the Gos- pel among the French population of this Province of Quebec, as well as among the English speaking people. A battle must be fought, to=day, in this province, of far more impor- tance than the battle of the Plains of Abraham by the soldiers of the Gospel, if they want to be true to themselves and to the God who gave them the vast regions of the Dominion of Canada. The ambition of the Rev. Mr. MacVicar is a noble one. It is the grand ambition of a true Christian. I hope and pray that the day will soon come, when, in the very heart of this Roman Catholic province, there will be a Presbyterian college, which will be as the lighthouse from which the blaz- ing light will show to the mariners how to save the ship from the rock concealed under the perfidious waves of the stormy sea. I would give up, this very day, the blessed evangelical work in which I am engaged among my Roman Catholic countrymen, if I had not in my heart the hope that, before long, there will be a Protestant college where the more intel- ligent of the young men, whom we bring to Christ, will be trained to preach the Gospel. Before long I will be in my grave with the few evangelists who are helping me and whom I am helping in this precious part of the Lord's vineyard; and who will take our places if there is no college where new recruits will be trained to continue our evangelical work? Surely Mr. MacVicar is too poor to build that college, but the God who has put into his heart the noble and holy ambition of raising it, is rich enough to do it. The gold and silver of the whole world are His and there are enough noble and rich Christian men to do that blessed work, when the hour ap- pointed by the providence of God will sound from the clock of heaven. And, blessed be the Lord, that great and glorious work is already done. Come and see it! and tell me if it does not look like a miracle. Yes! come and see the magnificent Montreal 236 Forty Years in the Church of Christ college — look at its elegant steeple, pointing to heaven, where dwells the God whose will is that "every man should be saved through the preaching of the Gospel!" See the vast and magnificent rooms prepared for the happy young men whom the Good Master is calling to work in His blessed vine- yard! See the beautiful and vast chapel whose walls resound with the hymns of praise of those to whom it has been said, " Go and teach all the nations . . . Lo, I will be with you to the end of the world!" That college, whose foundations were laid in 1872, is situ- ated on a most beautiful spot, on the flank of the mountain whose foot is washed by the waters of the majestic St. Law- rence river, and whose top is crowned with the grandest pub- lic park. From the upper part of the college, your vision will embrace some of the most magnificent scenery the world can give you. At your feet is the mighty St. Lawrence river, rolling its deep and rapid waters as far as your eyes can see. Count, if you can, the splendid steamers or other ships ar- riving from Europe, or starting with their rich cargoes for the different parts of the world. Will not your mind be filled with admiration at the sigh t of the marvelous Victoria Bridge, two miles long, spanning the giant river from the top of its twenty=four piers, each one hundred feet high? If, from the top of the upper part of that college, you raise your eyes towards the south, you will see the vast and rich plain, cut in two by the beautiful Richelieu river; and you will have to admire the mountains of Rouville, Bel^oeil, St. Pie, which look like giant sentinels to watch over the grand destinies of Canada. Now let your eyes survey the nearer prospects and you will see, a little to your right hand, the princely palace of the Canadian Pacific R. R. station; listen and you will hear the thundering cars, which, night and day, are in motion to pour the incalculable treasures of Asia and Europe into the bosom of each other. Look again and you will see a part of that marvelous steel chain which binds the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans together, holding them as Presbyterian College, Montreal 237 prisoners to the feet of our dear Canada. It is that marvelous railroad, 4,000 miles long, which is destined to make only one nation of all the people of the globe. Yes, it is through that marvelous Canadian Pacific R. R. that the divers nations of Asia, Africa, the Islands of the Sea and Europe will now shake hands and embrace each other with the fraternal em- brace of peace, common interest and Christian love, on the very spot where you stand. From those marvels of the work of God, so well blended with the marvels of human intelligence and industry, go and see the library — and there you will not be less filled with admiration at the number of the rare and precious books that it contains, from the magnificent edition of the church fathers to the Codex Sihiaticus. The value of that college library, though so young, is already more than $100,000, given by the generous citizens of Montreal, and others. The college has already endowed chairs to the amount of $800,000, given by Joseph McKay, Edward McKay, Robert McKay, Hugh McKay, James McKay, Mrs. Redpath and several unknown Christian benefactors. The whole value of that splendid college is almost half a million of dollars, the fifth part coming from Mr. David Morrice. And that you may better appreciate the noble character of the English Protestants of Montreal, let me tell you that at the same time they were erecting that monument of their Christian zeal and intelligence, they were giving three millions of dollars for the endowments and princely build- ings of McGill University, which are only a few rods from the Presbyterian college. Now, from the material survey of that Christian and so noble an institution, let us spend a moment with the one who is the soul and the inspiring spirit of the whole — the Rev. Dr. D. H. MacVicar, born in Dunglass, Argyleshire, Scot- land. He came to Canada in 1836. He studied in Toronto Academy, Toronto University and Knox College. His first charge, when a minister, in 1859, was Knox Church, Guelph; 238 Forty Years in the Church of Christ his second was the Free Church, C6t6 Street, Montreal. He became thus, the successor of the eloquent Donald Fraser, who was called to London, England. In 1868, in the humble basement of Erskine Church, he began to gather and to teach the young men who desired to consecrate themselves to the holy ministry. He was moderator of the session of C6t6 Street Church when that congregation moved to the west and built the splendid Crescent Street Church, which may be called the first grand monument of his zeal and Christian ambition. It is to his indomitable energy and zeal, after Grod, we owe the grand success of the French Canadian Evangelical Society, of which he has been president from its founda- tion. His remarkable business capacity and vast literary acquisi- tions caused him to be chosen as one of the Protestant School Commissioners, which board he has served twenty years, and of which he is chairman. He was sent as a deputy to the Pan=Presbyterian councils held in America and Europe. He has been considered one of the ablest teachers in all the branches of theology and philosophy, and has lectured in other departments, such as classics, ethics and pedagogics. In McGill University, he lectured on logic a whole ses- sion. He has occupied the position of Moderator of the General Presbyterian Assembly, and there has never been an important subject discussed in those assemblies where his eloquent voice has not been heard and listened to with a pro- found interest. He received the dignity of D. D. from Knox College, Toronto, and McGill University conferred on him the honour- ary title of LL. D. Besides the immense details of his various duties as prin- cipal, and professor of systematic theology of the Montreal Presbyterian college, he has written several learned treatises on Arithmetic, as well as a large number of very able articles for " The Quarterly Review" and other public periodicals. Presbyterian College, Montreal 239 For two years he fought like a giant against the infamous theft of the $400,000 given by the government (Mercier) to the Jesuits. But I would have to write a volume, instead of a short chapter, had I to say all I know about the zeal and Christian labours of Dr. MacVicar. However, I will not omit to say that several times his great learning, eloquence and zeal have so much attracted the attention of the rich congregations of New York and other parts of the United States, that large sums of money have been offered him if he would consent to leave his position in Canada to go and work among them. He has always refused these mundane inducements. He preferred to be poor with his own people rather than rich in a strange land. Dr. MacVicar has understood that there is something more precious and desirable than gold or silver, and he was not mistaken. The 250 ministers of the Gospel who have already come out of his college, with the view of preaching the Gospel, are treasures worth more than all the gold which the mountains of California and Australia have given to the world. The splendid Montreal Presbyterian College is a gem to the crown of Dr. MacVicar more precious than all the pearls and precious stones in the crown of the Queen of Eng- land. Through that grand Christian institution, Dr. Mac- Vicar has become one of those shining lights which cannot be put under the bushel, but stand on the candlestick, that men may see it and glorify the Father which is in heaven. CHAPTER XXIII Antigonish Riot of the J 0th of July, 1873 At a meeting of the Synod of the Presbyterian Church of the Lower Provinces, held in Truro in 1873, while the subject of the mission to the French Roman Catholics was under con- sideration, I was invited to address the Synod, and in the course of my remarks spoke at length on the subject of Romanism, and also of my recent and past work. At the close of my address I received the thanks of the Synod, and was authorized to visit any of the congregations of the church, with whose pastors I might make arrange- ments, and to receive onedialf of the collections which might be taken up at any of my meetings, the other half to be ap- plied for the benefit of the Synod missions. Under this arrangement I visited a large number of the congregations connected with the Presbyteries of Pictou and Prince Edward Island. I was invited by my kind friend, Dr. Goodfellow, pas+or of Antigonish, one of the most thriving towns of Nova Scotia, to give an address to his people. In this invitation he warned me that the great majority of the town was composed of Roman Catholics, but he said, " You have nothing to fear here. There is a Roman Catholic Bishop, a college and a nunnery, and a good number of priests, but they are all my personal friends." I answered him, that I would go with pleasure though I had no confidence in the tolerance and liberality of the Scotch Roman Catholics, and that the Protestants would do very well to be on their guard; but I was ready to face the rioters if we were to have a riot as I expected. Two days before leaving New Glasgow, where I 240 Antigonish Riot 241 was lecturing, I received a letter dated from Antigonish, with the picture of a skeleton and a coflSin, with these words: "In- famous apostate! this is what you may expect if you dare to come and profane by your presence the Catholic town of Antigonish," When in Mr. Goodfellow's parsonage I showed him that letter; it made him laugh. "Ha! ha!" he said, "this is some schoolboy's trick to frighten you. The Catholics are all my friends here, priests and people, and many have told me that there is not the least danger." " You do not know the priests of Rome. They are, in gen- eral, the greatest hypocrites and the most deceitful men you can imagine. It is when they tell you there is no danger, that there is the greatest danger; it is when they cry, peace, peace, that you must prepare yourself for war. They are not only deceitful men, but they are cowards, they want to attack you only when you are not on your guard, and unprepared to defend yourself." This made him laugh outright. "I have been told," he said, "that you were brave, but I fear that you are not as brave as I expected, for you see danger where there is no danger at all." " Well, when the riot comes and the stones fly round our heads, we will see who is the braver, you or I." We dismissed the subject till the hour of the meeting. When it was time to leave, I asked Mr. Goodfellow to give me some strings. "What for?" said Mr. Goodfellow. "To tie my hat to my head so well that I will not lose it when the sticks hit it." He laughed to his heart's content and said: " I see that you have a terrible fear of the stones. I thought that you were more brave than that." "When the sticks and stones come you will wish to have my strings to keep your hat solid on your head." " Dear Father Chiniquy," he an- swered, "a brave man is not used to see danger where there is none." "You will understand the meaning of your words when your hat will go. I have been in the fire so many times that I know what I say. And no doubt you will be wiser on 242 Forty Years in the Church of Christ the subject before the dawn of next day." Then like the old warriors who never went to war without their shield, I took my thick shawl which I always carried with me, and as it was a very warm evening Mr. Goodfellow could not understand why I wanted such a heavy garment. He only laughed at the reasons when I told him he would understand why when the stones would come on our shoulders. "That plaid has already saved my life several times, and it will probably save it again to-night. There is nothing like heavy wool to ward off the power of the stones when they strike the shoulders." I never heard a heartier laugh of contempt than his, at my unreasonable fear, but I was not disturbed by his jokes and I kept my shawl. We found the church crowded and evidently one=third of the audience were Roman Catholics. I had not spoken twenty minutes, when an old woman rose on her feet, and cried out, "At him, boys!" and instantly a number of young men rushed towards me, filling the church with their cries, " That's a lie!" Fortunately there was a good number of Protestants in front of the pulpit who at once formed an impassable wall between me and the rioters. At the same time cries of " Fire! Fire!" were heard outside and inside the church, and the bells began to ring. Address- ing myself to Mr. Goodfellow, I said, " You see, my friend, it is just as I expected, I cannot continue the meeting, the only thing we have to do is to go back home." In vain Mr. Goodfellow tried to show the rioters the infamy of their con- duct, his voice was covered with the cries of "Fire! Fire!" A few friends having come around me, with Mr. Good- fellow, we walked towards the door, in the midst of the cries "You are a liar! kill him! kill him!" At the door were several bloodthirsty Roman Catholics crying, " That is the liar! kill him!" Then eggs began to be thrown at me from every direction. In a little while dozens had been disposed of. The reader may understand that I looked more like an omelette than a man. I was covered from head to foot; but fortunately they Antigonish Riot 243 were fresh eggs. Then I said to Mr. Goodfellow: " When the eggs are finished, we shall have stones." He answered me, " Oh, I hope not." The words were still on his lips, when a stone struck me on the breast, and I would have fallen on the ground had not two friends prevented me. A moment after a Protestant lady, who had stood by me all the time, hoping that her presence would make the rioters less brutal, was struck with such force with a stone that we thought that her leg was broken. She was carried into the first house by two friends who were near us. During this time the stones were falling upon me from every side like hail in a storm, but my hat was well secured on my head by the strings, and the shawl, well wrapped around my shoulders, prevented the stones from cutting the skin and breaking the bones. Then Mr. Goodfellow, frightened by the horrible cries and hail of stones, took me by the arm and said: "Let us run; they will kill us." I answered him, " Surely they will kill us. We will probably die to-night, but we must die like Christian soldiers, facing the foe. There is no use, they can run as fast as you or I." At that moment a big stone missing me struck his silk hat and it went like a feather before the wind. Then his head being uncovered was so badly struck with another stone, that he fell down, his face in the mud, crying: "My skull is broken! I am killed!" We helped him to get up. His face was covered with blood and the skin was torn. I was horrified at the sight and I thought that he would die. I turned towards the rioters and said: "You are a band of cowards!" I saw, then, very near us, four priests encouraging the rioters and laughing outright. We would evidently have been killed there, if providentially we had not been at the door of a Protestant merchant, called Cameron, who, hearing the cries and seeing the rioters around us, opened his door and said: "You and Father Chiniquy come in and save your lives." Mr. Goodfellow could hardly stand on his feet, but. though bruised from head to foot myself, I could with other friends 244 Forty Years in the Church of Christ help him into the house, which was immediately closed to the rioters, who began to throw stones in the windows, smashing every pane of glass, and threatening Mr. Cameron to set fire to his house if he did not give me up to be hanged. Mr Cameron said to me: " Do not fear, the cowards w\\\ not set fire to my house, for the strong wind now blowing from the sea would turn the whole town into ashes." We immediately went upstairs on entering the house, and w^hile waiting for the doctor, who had been sent for, I asked one of the elders to read the fifteenth chapter of John. My soul had never been filled with such joy as then, when, bleeding and bruised for the dear Saviour's sake, we were hearing His sweet voice telling us, " Abide in Me; I will abide in you. I am the vine, ye are the branches. I will not call you any more My servants, but My friends. The servant is not above his master. If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you." And on our knees we were answering Him : " Yes, dear Jesus, we will abide in Thee; come and abide in us, when wounded and bleeding we are suffering for Thy sake." When the doctor was examining the wound of Mr. Good- fellow and washing off the blood, the rioters fixed a ladder up to the window, and three times came up with a rope to hang me. But every time brave young men with axes repulsed them, telling them that if they came up an inch higher they would split their heads. And the sight of the axes brandished above their heads was eloquent enough to persuade them to pass down the ladder. We were besieged in that way until after one in the morning. Then they began to disperse, and Mr. Goodfellow, supported by friends, was taken back to his house, where his poor wife was half dead with fright. She had heard the cries and seen the excited multitudes running and crying, "Kill him! kill him!" The fact is that she died not long after from the effects of that terrible night. It will be imagined what an effect such a brutal attempt at liberty of conscience produced on the public mind. Antigonish Riot 245 Indignant at such intolerance practised by the Roman Catholics in a Protestant province, nay in a Protestant country, the Presbytery of Pictou, voicing public opinion, protested publicly against that brutal assault, revealing such bloodthirsty hatred; took up the affair and instituted law pro- ceedings, all against my will, for I told them: " So long as you give liberty of conscience to the Roman Catholics, it is their right to stone, persecute, and kill you. It is the law of the Church of Rome that they must exterminate the Protes- tants. It is not only their right, but it is their duty to kill you when they have the opportunity. You find this law in the decisions of their councils and their Popes, which has never been repealed. Besides you can never get the truth out of a Roman Catholic when his Church is in jeopardy, because he is ordered by his Church to lie, according to the Jesuitical doctrine, that the end justifies the means. The result of the lawsuit proved that I was right. The Presbytery took decided action in relation to the matter. The members made a strong effort to have the leaders in the riot legally punished; but it failed, as I foresaw and felt. Of course there were witnesses on hand who were ready to give testimony under oath, such as would suit the purpose of those who aided negatively and positively the cruel persecution. That reacted terribly against the Roman Catholics, and the Bishop and priests saw not long after that they had committed at least a great blunder against themselves. The Romanists have felt the disgrace and the bad effects of it ever since, and I venture to say that if I had gone to Antigonish several times since, there would not have occurred a repetition of the scenes I have described. No doubt that riot, and the persecution I suffered in Halifax, which I will give an account of, resulted in preventing any serious trouble of the kind since, in Nova Scotia, and other Maritime Provinces. I may say here that the wrath of man seems in this case to have been overruled for good. Such conflicts may be regarded as so many battles for libetty of conscience and free speech. CHAPTER XXIV My Re-Baptism Baptism is recognized in the Romish Church as an ordi- nance, and one of her seven sacraments. But, like other dogmas of that Church, it has been grossly perverted and cor- rupted. It was originally a simple and expressive ordinance sanctioned by Christ. It was designed as a symbol to repre- sent a fact — the inward spiritual change effected by the Holy Spirit. But in the Church of Rome the reality has been buried and lost sight of in the mere form. There is no spiritual efficiency in the water itself, nor is there any evi- dence of any necessary supernatural power attending its ap- plication. Baptismal regeneration is not taught in the Bible, and is a corruption held among Romanists and ritualists. In Popery it is taught that when the infant is baptized all the guilt and defilement of original sin are taken away and it becomes as pure as Adam when created. The facts, we see, are against this, for the children who have this excellent start have an unspeakable advantage above others, if Ro- manist teaching be true, and they ought to be very good, at least much better than others who have not been validly bap- tized. But we know that this is not the case, as they show the same natural depravity that others do. It is amazing how this Divine ordinance has been abused and perverted. I give here some examples of this in connec- tion with the work of the early Jesuit missionaries in Can- ada. These seemed to be so foolish as to think that some drops of water sprinkled on infants made them Christians, fitted them for heaven, without which they would be lost. Among these missionaries was Father Le Mercier, whom I 246 My Re=Baptism 247 allow here to speak for himself. In the Jesuit Relations of 1637, he writes: *' On the third of May, Father Pierre Pijart baptized, at Anonatea, a little child two months old, in manifest danger of death, without being seen by the parents, who would not give their consent. This is the device which he used. Our sugar does wonders for us. He pretended to make the child drink a little sugared water, and at the same time dipped the finger in it. As the father of the infant began to suspect some- thing, and called out to him not to baptize it, he gave the spoon to a woman who was near, and said to her, ' Give it to him yourself.' She approached and found the child asleep; and at the same time Father Pijart, under pretence of seeing if he was really asleep, touched his face with his wet finger, and baptized him. At the end of forty^eight hours he went to heaven. " Some days before, the missionary had used the same de- vice for baptizing a little boy six or seven years old. His father, who was very sick, had several times refused to re- ceive baptism; and when asked if he would not be glad to have his son baptized, he answered. No. ' At least,' said Father Pijart, ' you will not object to my giving him a little sugar.' 'No, but you must not baptize him.' "The missionary gave it to him once, then again; and at the third spoonful, before he had put the sugar into the water, he let a drop fall on the child, at the same time pro- nouncing the sacramental words. A little girl who was look- ing at him cried out: ' Father, he is baptizing him!' The child's father was much disturbed, but the missionary said to him: 'Did you not see I was giving him sugar?' The child died soon after, but God showed his grace to the father, who^is now in perfect health.'' The historian Parkman writes: " Nothing could divert the Jesuits from their ceaseless quest of dying subjects for bap- tism, and above all, of dying children. They penetrated every house in turn where, through the thin walls of bark, 248 Forty Years in the Church of Christ they heard the wail of a sick infant; no menace and no insult could repel them from the threshold. They pushed boldly in, asked to buy some trifle, spoke of late news of Iroquois frays — anything, in short, except the pestilence and sick child — conversed for a while till suspicion was par- tially lulled to sleep, and then, pretending to observe the suf- ferer for the first time, approached, felt its pulse, and asked of its health. Now, while apparently fanning the heated brow, the dextrous visitor touched it with a corner of his handkerchief, which he had previously dipped in water, mur- mured the baptismal words with motionless lips, and snatched another soul from the fangs of the 'infernal wolf.'" Here was fanaticism combined with deception — a lack of truthfulness which is characteristic of Jesuitism in which the end justifies the means — and thus relying on a few drops of water to save a soul, and that applied by lying, in words and act. Yet those Jesuit missionaries are often eulogized and represented as model, self=denying and heroic Chris- tian men, while at the same time practising dark superstition, and that by the most flagrant deception and lying. The false and superstitious use of baptism is carried on at the present time by the Romanists, and this is an essential element in their missionary operations. I give here a marked example of this. The apostolic vicar of Su=Tehuen, in China, after reporting the baptism in six years of over 112,815 pagan children in danger of death, and the salvation of twothirds of these who actually died the same year they were baptized, proceeds: " We pay faithful persons, men and women, who are ac- quainted with the diseases of children, to seek and baptize those who are found dangerously ill. It is easy to meet at fairs a crowd of beggars with their children in extreme dis- tress. They may be seen everywhere, in the roads, at the gates of the towns and villages, in the most needy condition. Our male and female baptizers approach them with soothing, compassionate words, and offer pills to the little sufferers, My Re=Baptism 249 with expressions of the most lively interest. The parents willingly permit our people to examine the condition of their children, and to sprinkle on their foreheads some drops of water, securing their salvation, while they pronounce the sacramental words. Our Christian baptizers are divided into two classes: those who travel about seeking for children in danger of death, and those who remain at their posts in the towns and villages, and devote themselves to the same work in their respective neighbourhoods. I intend to print some rules for their direction, and to stimulate them all in their work. "The expenses of the traveling baptizers are 150 francs ($27.90) a year, including his medicines and board; 100 francs ($18.60) are sufficient for a stationary male baptizer, and 80 or 85 francs ($15.00 or $16.00) for a female; and yet the number of baptizers is so great that the whole ex- pense this year (1847) amounts to 10,000 francs ($1,860.00)." Rev. Jacob Primmer, in his deeply interesting book on Romanism, gives a graphic description of a baptism he wit- nessed in Rome, which will illustrate the character of the Popish superstition. This I here insert, which presents to the mind of the reader a picture that deserves the name of pagan, rather than Christian: A BAPTISM IN ST. PETER'S " On the left, when entering St. Peter's, is a small chapel, called the baptistry. The font consists of a marble cover of a pagan sarcophagus with a bronze top. Everything in popish ceremonial is connected in some way or another with paganism. As we were leaving, at 5:30 p. m., preparations were being made for a baptism. We got near, note^^book in hand, >as usual, and record as follows: Baptism— purses out and payment made to priest, who puts on white cotta, kisses cross on red stole and puts it on— gets his book and goes at it with rattling speed— he remains outside the baptistry rails —blows on the face of the child to drive out the devil— takes 2.50 Forty Years in the Church of Christ spittle and puts it on chin, brow and mouth, goes up to the font, anoints the child's head — this is how Papists are fab- ricated— continues his harangue at the same high speed — the parents and godmother also rattle away as fast as the priest; holy oil, holy salt, holy crossings, very many; and holy blow- ing on the face of the infant, in order to dislodge the devil supposed to be in the infant instead of in the priest. The priest changes the red stole for a white one, and the father of the child holds a large bit of candle lit, in his hand, while the priest still harangues with great rapidity; the godmother holds the child's head over the font and the priest pushes it under the water (not sprinkling the head but immersing it). Responses follow, the whole concluding with 'Amen,' and the Papist farce of manufacturing a Christian is over — another coin is given to the priest and off the parties go. The amazing thing is that the child, while this performance was going on, never cried. The time taken would be eight minutes. All a farce. No sincerity, no earnestness. Evi- dently the endeavor was to see how quickly they could get through with it." When I left the Church of Rome I was kindly advised by the Presbytery of Chicago to be re^baptized. But it seemed to me then, as it seemed to Luther, Calvin, Knox and many others, that my baptism in the Church of Rome was validly conferred. And, after having heard my reasons, the Presby- tery unanimously resolved to let me go free on that subject. After that time many venerable brothers in Europe, as well as on this continent, pressed me to be re-baptized; and, though they did not entirely decide me to do it, I confess that they much diminished my confidence in the baptism of Rome. I had many hours of anxiety on that subject for more than three years. And the dear Saviour knows that I shed many tears at His feet, when imploring Him to give me more of His saving light on that important matter. When I preached in Antigonish, the Romanists determined to kill me; and I was most cruelly stoned by several hundred My Re=Baptism 251 of them. Bruised and wounded and staggering, I expected at any moment to fall down and die by the side of my mar- tyred friend, the Rev. Mr. Goodfellow, who was himself ter- ribly cut on the head, and profusely bleeding; when I heard in my conscience, a voice telling me, "You die! and you are not yet baptized!" That thought distressed me much in that solemn hour. I escaped from my murderers in a most providential way. I promised to God to study the question of my baptism more seriously, with His help; and He knows that I did it. But though it seemed to me more and more every day that the reason for being re=baptized was stronger than I thought at first, the reason for considering my baptism valid in the Church of Rome was remaining the strongest in my mind. On the twelfth of August, 1873, having heard that many citizens around St. Anne were to meet to meditate the Word of God, pray, and praise Him, it came to my mind that it would do me good to pass a few hours with them, at the feet of the dear Saviour, to look with more attention than ever to His bleeding wounds and to all that He had done and suf- fered for me, that by His grace I might love Him more and more. I had never seen a camp-meeting before, though I had heard much said against, as well as in favour of, such gather- ings. But God knows that I went there only with the de- sire of drinking some drops of those precious waters of life, which our Saviour never refuses to the thirsty soul who goes to Him. When I went to that meeting, the question of my baptism was absolutely out of my mind. I heard several very good sermons from various Protestant ministers; but not a word was said, that I remember, about baptism, except that at 3 p. m. we were invited to pray for those who were to be baptized at 4 p. M. There were between two and three thousand people on that most beautiful spot; they all knelt and prayed. It was a most solemn thing indeed to see that multitude prostrated 252 Forty Years in the Church of Christ before the throne of grace and to hear their ardent prayers their sobs; to see the tears of those penitent and repenting sinners crying for mercy. There was no confusion, as I had expected; there were no contortions, as I was prepared to see. But there was the most sublime and soul=stirring harmony I had ever seen in the humble and earnest supplications of the multitudes. The noise was grand and sublime, as the noise of the deep waters when the winds from heaven blow upon them. All was grand, there, as the works of our God are grand and sublime every- where. In the midst of that multitude I was praying with all my heart for those who were to be baptized, when a thought flashed through my brain and chilled the blood in my veins: " You are not baptized, and you pray for others, when you ought to pray for yourself, and be baptized to=day." I tried to repulse that thought as I used to by saying to myself, "A priest of Rome has baptized me." But that day the voice of my conscience spoke as it had never spoken. It said as loud as thunder, "The priest of Rome is not the priest of the true, but of the false Christ. He is the priest of the Christ kept in the secret chambers (tabernacle). Matt. 24:23-26. The priest of Rome is the priest of an idol of bread made with a little flour mixed with some water, afterwards baked. Have you not made that christ, yourself, with your hands, when a priest of Rome? And that god made with your hands was he not your only saviour and god ? Do you think the priests of the idols of China and JajDan can administer the sacrament of baptism? Would you believe in the validity of your baptism had that sacrament been administered to you by a priest of the heathen Emperor of China? But what is the difference between a priest of the Pope of Rome who worships a god made with a piece of bread, and a priest of the Emperor of China who worships a god made with a piece of wood? Is it not the same monstrous and damnable idolatry?" My Re^Baptism 253 At first, I remained absolutely mute before this new light, for this light had never come to my mind with such an irresistible power. But a moment after, I said, "Oh, my God! I understand that I am not yet baptized. At the first meet- ing of my presbytery I will receive that sacrament." But more quickly than lightning the voice of my conscience answered: "Will you see the next meeting of your presby- tery? Are you certain that you will live tos morrow? Canyon not be carried away this very night? And when you know that your God wants you to be baptized to-day will you resist His will? Do you want to expose yourself to die the death of a rebel?" This last thought filled me with distress. I could not con- sent to risk to die a rebel. I determined to be baptized with- out any delay. But I was away from my own people, and it seemed to me unorderly to be baptized by a Methodist when I was a Presbyterian, I foresaw so clearly the scornful, the perfidi- ous, the false and unchristian interpretation, the profane remarks which would flow as a deluge upon my devoted head from those who would not or could not understand my exceptional position. For a moment I felt such a distress in my soul at the thought of the unkind and unchristian things which would be said, not only by my enemies, but by my mis- taken friends, that I again determined to postpone it to the next meeting of my presbytery. But my accusing conscience spoke again: "Will you have more consideration and fear for your friends and your foes than for your God? That God says, ' to=day be baptized,' To please the world, will you answer, to>morrow?" I felt so ashamed at my sorrow that I put my hands on my face to conceal the tears of regret which were flowing on my cheeks, and more with my sobs than with my words, I said, "May Thy name forever be blessed, O! dear Saviour, for Thy long patience; yes, to-day, with Thy grace, I will be bap- tized. But before I receive that baptism of water — Oh! Oh! 2 54 Forty Years in the Church of Christ do baptize me np^ain with Thy Holy Ghost and Thy blood; fill my heart with more love for Thee." I rose up, and requested the people to sit for a moment; then, addressing; the Rev. Mr. Foster, the respected Methodist pastor of Kankakee, I told him, "Can you baptize a Presby- terian without affecting his connection with his own church?" He answered, "Yes, sir, undoubtedly." I then said, " Mr. Foster, I am a Presbyterian minister, connected with the noble Canada Presbyterian Church, and I hope that nothing will ever break the ties so sweet and so blessed which unite me with that Church. If I were among them, to=day, I would ask them to baptize me, and they would grant me that favour; but I am far away from them. And I must be baptized to=day ! In the name of our common Saviour, please do baptize me. I was baptized by a priest of Rome, the thirtieth of July, 1809; and till this day I sincerely be- lieved that my baptism was valid. But I was mistaken. My dear Saviour has done for me what He did for the poor blind man of the Gospel. At first I was perfectly blind; He touched my eyes, and I could see men as if they were trees; but Jesus has just now touched my eyes again, and I see the things about the priests of Rome just as they are. The priests of Rome make their own gods and their own christs them- selves every morning with a little piece of bread — they shut up that wafer=christ in ' secret chambers ' as was prophesied by the Son of God (Matt. 24: 23-25). There the wafer^christs are often eaten by rats and mice. The priests of Rome carry that wafer=clirist and god from house to house in their panta- loon and vest pockets, through the streets in their own private buggies, and in the railroads, to fulfil the prophecy of Jesus, who says, ' beware of the false christs. Lo, here is Christ or there; believe it not.' (Matt. 24: 23.) " The priests of Rome eat their christ every morning, and often after they have eaten him, they vomit him out of their sickly stomachs, and they are bound to eat him again. The My Re=Baptism 255 priests of Rome are idolaters. The Son of God cannot allow them to administer the sacraments of His Church. " Besides that, the baptism which Rome gives is not the bap- tism of Christ; it is quite another thing. Christ has ordered that sacrament that, by receiving it, we confess and declare that our souls have been purified by His blood, shed on the cross. But the priests of Rome administer the baptism to take away by it the sins already committed before its recep- tion. Then, the baptism of Rome is not a sacrament; it is a sacrilegious caricature of a sacrament; it is an insult to Christ and His Church." A few minutes later I was kneeling in front of the multi- tudes, in the midst of a great number of people who wanted to be baptized with me. And the Rev. Mr. Foster baptized us all. I will never sufficiently thank my God for what He has done in me and for me, in that most blessed hour. After we were baptized, the ministers who were there of- fered most fervent prayers for every one of us; they put their hands on our heads, not as a sacramental sign, but as a mark of fraternal Christian feeling. But my emotions were too great and too sweet at that solemn moment to pay any atten- tion to that circumstance. What I can say is that if all the brethren and sisters who were there praying around us had wished to lay their hands on our heads when sending to the throne of grace their ardent supplications, I would not have been able to find any fault in that; and even to=day, it is im- possible for me to see any impropriety, scandal, or any ridi- cule, when, under the eyes of God and man, such things oc- curred in the midst of us, children of that great merciful God. I do not say this as an apology. An apology is unnecessary regarding such a solemn and sacred action. My baptism was an affair between my God and me alone — my only regret was that I had postponed it so long, and that uncontrollable and providential circumstances had prevented me from being bap- tized by one of our Presbyterian brethren. But it was the 256 Forty Years in the Church of Christ will of God that in this, as well as in many other things of my life, I could not do my own will, but I had to do His will. The ways of God are not the ways of men. Since that time it was my privilege to attend, as a deputy, the admirable (I might say the marvelous) meetings of the Evangelical Alliance in New York. There the Presbyterians, the Methodists, the Baptists, and the Episcoijalians have pulled down, and I hope forever, the walls of division which Satan has raised up among the children of God, They have all eaten of the same bread, and they have all sat at the same table, that it might be said of them: "They are one bread, one body, one heart, one Church." And the whole world has blessed the sublime spectacle of that unity. Our dear Canada Presbyterian Church, which has tasted of the delicious fruit of that perfect unity, through her representation at the Evangelical Alliance in New York, will not find fault with her weakest child, if, in one of the most blessed hours of his life, he has thought that there is no more difference or division among the Methodist and the Presbyterian Churches of this land of exile than there will be when, around the throne of the Lamb, they will sing together the eternal Alleluia. CHAPTER XXV The Stratagem In the winter of 1873, all the priests of the city of Montreal had received the order from the Bishop to prove, on the same Sunday, from their pulpit, the proposition of their catechism: " That Mary, the mother of God, is the most powerful inter- cessor men have in heaven; and we must address ourselves to her, if we expect to receive the favours we ask." The next Thursday the citizens of Montreal could read on fifty large placards, placed in the most conspicuous parts of the city: "Mary cannot be the mother of God: God has no mother. Jesus, and not Mary, is the only one to whom we must address ourselves if we want to receive the favours we are in need of. This truth will be proved next Sabbath even- ing at the French Protestant Church of Craig Street, by Father Chiniquy." When on my way to church that evening, one of the head men of the police stopped me on the street, and said: "Fa- ther Chiniquy, please change the subject of your address. The French Canadians cannot allow you to speak against ' The Holy Virgin Mary.' There will be a terrible riot this night to silence you, and your life is in great danger." I answered him: " I will not say a word against The Holy Virgin Mary in my address, I will only refute and protest against the awful blasphemy of your catechism, that Mary is the mother of God, and most powerful intercessor man has in heaven. If there is a new riot to take my life, the Lord will again protect me. My trust is in Him. Let the police of Montreal do their duty, and I will do mine." I found the church crowded to its utmost capacity. To 257 258 Forty Years in the Church of Christ the best of my ability I protested against the impious doc trine of Rome about the power of Mary in heaven, and the title of Mother of God given her. Then I read to them the story of THE GOOD SHEPHERD AND THE WANDERING vSHEEP. "Then Jesus spake this parable unto them saying, What man of you having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost until he find it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends, and neigh- bours, saying unto them. Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost." (Luke 15.) I said, in substance: Let UB weigh each of these words of Jesus, and meditate on them with the aid of His grace. The good shepherd hath counted his sheep; but oh! un- fortunately, one of them misses the call; one of them has wandered away and is lost on the way. This discovery is a thorn which pierces his heart. He can no longer rest; he is uneasy and troubled; and he leaves there his ninety and nine sheep that he loves so much, he seems no longer to think of them, that he may think only of the sheep that has gone astray. He runs after it; he searches every place regardless of trouble ; and neglects no measure that may put him on the track of his dear sheep. He is wearied and exhausted in the search, but no obstacle stops or disheartens him. He loves his dear sheep so much that he thinks of nothing else. He courageously continues to seek until he finds it. He sees it at last, but in what a state! Half dead with fatigue, lacerated with thorns, its limbs torn by the brambles, and not able to go another step. What does the good shepherd do at the sight of his guilty, but still dear sheep? Does he load it with reproaches? Does he drive it with a lash to make it walk and return to the fold? No, no; the good shepherd has The Stratagem 259 not one thought of anger, not one bitter word against his dear sheep. Its errors have not in the least diminished his love for it. This guilty sheep has done much to sad- den and grieve the heart of the good shepherd ; but his heart, though crushed with grief, has remained full of love and compassion. He would say, on the contrary, that the errors and misfortunes of the poor sheep have only increased the love of the good shepherd towards it. He sees well that it is too much exhausted to walk and return to the fold. What does he do? He stoops down to it; he takes it in his arms; he presses it to his heart. Then he puts it on his shoulders, and behold him, bowed under his precious bur- den, carry back his poor deluded sheep to the fold! But this is not all. The joy of the good shepherd is so great, his happiness so sincere, that he can no longer contain himself. He shouts, he calls his friends, he wishes that the joy which he tastes may be shared by all the world; he does not allow any one to remain indifferent. " Rejoice," says he to them, " for my sheep, which was lost, is found." Behold the Good Shepherd of the Gospel! Behold Him described by Himself — this Saviour of the world, whose blessed name makes every knee to bow in heaven, on earth, and under the earth! The Good Shepherd — the crucified Jesus — whose Gospel we preach, is the mercy of God, the boundless and the be- nevolence of the Eternal, incarnate in the person of the Sav- iour. The Saviour of the Gospel is not angry, is not in- censed against His flock, even when they go astray. He loves them with a love so great, so true, that never, no never, will saints, angels or virgins be capable of loving them so much. The Shepherd — the Jesus of the Gospel — never met among His friends any one who could love His dear sheep as much as He Himself does. He has never permitted, either on earth or in heaven, any one to put himself between Him and His sheep to stimulate Him to love them. The modern doctrine of Kome which tells us that the heart 26o Forty Years in the Church of Christ of the Grood Shepherd is so cooled and irritated against His erring sheep that He would forget them or cast them off, if the Holy Virgin or some of the other saints were not there to remind Him of what He has suffered for them, is so absurd and so wicked, that one cannot understand how so many people of intelligence allow themselves to fall into that snare. For what reason does the Holy Virgin interest herself in the salvation of sinners, more than Jesus Himself? Why should the heart of Mary in heaven be more compassionate towards miserable sinners than the heart of Jesus? And why should her ear be more attentive to our prayers than that of the Saviour? We can never find answers to these questions within the laws of common-sense. Never shall we be able to find, in the Holy Scripture, a single word that can, in any manner, serve as an excuse or cloak for this monstrous doctrine; and it certainly insults the saints in heaven, as well as Jesus Christ Himself, to believe and say, with the Church of Rome, that our salvation does not depend entirely on the love and mercy of our Saviour, but that this love and this mercy of Jesus Christ, being paralyzed by our sins, must be, as it were, incited and revived by the compassions and by the more active and the more efficacious mercy of the saints. To render the sacrilegious worship which she offers to the saints acceptable, and to induce sinners to put all their con- fidence in the Holy Virgin Mary, the Church of Rome assures us that our sins have the effect of cooling the love and compassion of Jesus Christ for us. But, then, the Church of Rome ought to tell us how it is that our sins have not the same effect of cooling the heart of the Holy Virgin and of the saints who, according to the Church of Rome, know all that we do, If, as is no doubt the case, the saints in heaven are united in will and sentiment with God, that which displeases God, ought also to displease His saints; that which saddens and cools the heart of Jesus Christ, ought equally to sadden and The Sfratagem 261 cool the hearts of the saints (always supposing the system of Rome to be true, about the pretended knowledge that the saints have of everything that transpires on the earth), and then, whilst Jesus is excited and angry in heaven, as the Popes of Rome assure us, the saints, and especially the Holy Virgin, ought to partake and approve of His wrath, instead of oppos- ing it and hindering its effects. Behold the misfortunes of the Church of Rome, having left the Word of God, which is the only guide of the human mind, to follow the fables and traditions of men. She has forgotten that Jesus is our intercessor in heaven; not only the inter- cessor for saints, but for sinners; she has forgotten that this intercessor is sufficient, and that consequently there is no need for another; she has forgotten that thousands and thousands of times, Jesus has said to sinners, " Come to Me and ye shall be saved." And that He never said, " Come to My mother, or such or such a saint, and ye shall be saved." The Church of Rome has forgotten that the name of Jesus is the only name that we can call on to be saved. She has forgotten that St. Paul, or rather the Holy Spirit, by the mouth of St. Paul, said, "For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us there- fore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." (Heb. 4: 15, 16.) The Church of Rome having, then, forgotten that Jesus was always good and merciful; but believing and preaching to the people, whom she had deceived, that Jesus Christ was often angry with the sinner, and seeing that sinners need to have a Saviour always good, and always merciful, a Saviour, in a word, always ready to receive those who come to Him, is bound, then, to invent and try to find another Saviour than this Jesus, whom she tells us is always angry. Then she creates other saviours in heaven; she seeks other friends — other intercessors — other advocates, to whom she 262 Forty Years in the Church of Christ has sacrilegiously accorded all the goodness, mercy and unfailing kindness of which she has robbed the true Saviour. But let us hope that our brethren of the Church of Rome will soon understand that they are deceived by their Popes. It is not Mary, but Jesus, who is the " gate of heaven, the hope of sinners, and the salvation of the world." Nothing could surpass the respectful attention of my audi- tors, though more than the half of them were Roman Cath- olics. My hope was that the threatening storm had vanished and that there would not be any trouble. But I had again to be disappointed. When I was just entering into my peroration, I felt as if the ground was shaken under my feet. It was evident that a great multitude of furious men were rushing towards the church. The air was filled with the cries of, "Kill him! kill him!" and a volley of big stones broke almost all the glass of the windows, and fell on my auditors as well as on me. As at the beginning of the address, I had warned the people that there might be some cries heard outside, and some stones thrown at me, the excitement was not so great as might have been expected. I said to them: "Be calm, I am the only one the rioters want to strike, and kill, if they can. Do not trouble yourselves. They will not molest you if you go out of the church, without any hurry, as fearless men and women. Trust in the protection of the God of the Gospel, of whom, I hope, every one of you is a true servant and believer. No doubt you will find some brave policemen at the door who will protect you." But, as the stones were falling upon us thick as hail in a storm, there is no need to say that everyone was rushing to the doors as quickly as possible. In a very short time I found myelf almost alone in the church with the chief of the police. "You see, Father Chiniquy, that you should have followed The Stratagem 262 my advice, and changed the subject of your address, or not have spoken at all this evening. I do not conceal from you that your life is in great danger. Look through this small aperture of the door and you will see that there are more than a thousand furious men whose determination is to kill you. Do not go out of the church, for I have only twenty police- men with me to protect you. Remain in the church the whole of the night and I give you my word of honour that nobody will injure you; with my men, well drilled, I can repulse the multitude of rioters, if they want to come into the church; but my men will be powerless to protect you if you go out, they will be overpowered by the thousand blood:= thirsty would-be murderers you see in the street." I answered him, " I see that you ignore that my God is my keeper. He is stronger than all those furious men. He has saved me already from great dangers. He will not forsake me this night. " That merciful God has just given me a plan which, I hope, will save me and confound my would=be murderers, the priests. For I know it — these poor, blind people are sent by their priests. " I cannot consent to spend the night here; though I do not know where I can sleep. You see that I am completely disguised. I have changed my fur cap and my fur coat with a friend to more easily fulfil my j^lan. The entire crowd of rioters is behind your twenty policemen, just opposite the door of the church, in the midst of the street. My intention is to go straight to them, when leaving the church. They all expect, no doubt, that I shall go right or left of the door and keep myself at the greatest distance possible from them. When I go straight to them, not one of them will suspect that I am Father Chiniquy. They all think I am too wise or too cowardly to throw myself into the lion's jaws. Follow me at a distance of twelve to fifteen feet to protect me, if you see any danger, though I do not exj)ect any. I will go through the crowd of rioters, penetrate their ranks by pushing, and they 264 Forty Years in the Church of Christ will open and allow me to pass as one of your personal friends." The chief of police looked at me with a smile, and said: " You would have made a good general. I think your strata- gem is as good as it is daring. Let us try it." And, without a word more, after asking the dear Saviour to protect me, I left the church at the double quick and turned my face to the rioters who were packed, crying like wild beasts, filling the air with the most awful imprecations against me, brandishing their sticks above their heads, and asking each other, "Where is he? Where is he?" The first I met was a giant man, swearing like a demon against the Apostate Chiniquy. I seized him by the arm as roughly as I could do it, shook him and pulled him out of my way, with as much rudeness as was possible, saying, " What are you doing here, you band of fools? Open your ranks to let people pass. W^liat right have you to obstruct the street? What is the matter with you all? " He answered me with a curse, " We are looking for the in- famous apostate, Chiniquy. I want to dash out his brains with this stick. But, the coward; he is probably concealed in the church under some pew." "Chiniquy! Chiniquy!" I said, "I have seen him going out of the church in disguise. He is laughing at you all. You had better let him alone, and go back to your homes." I had to push the next and the next, in the same rough way, and exchange words of about the same kind, till I had passed through the whole crowd, and reached the file of patient hackmen who were peacefully waiting behind the rioters for customers. Addressing myself to one of them, I said, " Take me to St. Catherine Street, and when there go to the Rev. Monro Gibson. Do you know the number of his house? " " Yes, sir," said the good hackman, and ten minutes later I was knocking at the door of the Rev. Mr. Gibson, whore I met with the most fraternal and Christian reception, and where I spent one of the most peaceful nights of my life. CHAPTER XXVI Deplorable and False Liberality in High Protestant Quarters with Respect to the Church of Rome The general indifference on the part of Protestants to the real character and evils of Romanism arises largely from the idea that there is a sufficient amount of truth and good in that system to justify its being regarded as a Church of Christ. Cardinal Manning truly stated that " the Roman Catholic Church is either the kingdom of the Son of Grod or the masterpiece of Satan." As it is most manifestly the lat- ter, it is certainly not Christianity. The conviction of this must be deepened before much efficient work is done against the diabolical system. It is sad to see some prominent Prot- estants taking a wrong position on this subject. Rev. Charles Hodge was a professor in the Presbyterian Theological Seminary at Princeton for about half a century. He was a man of a powerful intellect and undoubted piety; but on this subject he was weak, and as his opinions had very great weight with many ministers and others, his influence in that direction was, to say the least, unfavourable. Virgil gives us the history of a skilful mariner, who, de- ceived by the sweet, but perfidious voices of the Sirens, per- ished on the rocks of Sylla; so, when traveling on the sublime and bottomless sea of Christianity, it has been my sad lot to see more than one shipwreck caused by the sweet but decep- tive voices Of the Siren of the man of sin. The venerable Dr. Hodge was an example of this. I give here^his letter followed by my reply. "My Dear Sir:— " The question proposed in your letter is one to which wise and good men have given different answers. 265 266 Forty Years in the Church of Christ " Some say that the Romish Church teaches serious error. As the influence of that Church is everywhere, and from its nature, hostile to civil and religious liberty, therefore it is wrong to grant it any voluntary support or direct encourage- ment. "Others say that, inasmuch as the Roman Catholic Church teaches truth enough to save the souls of men (of which I have no doubt); inasmuch as it proclaims the Divine author- ity of the Scriptures, the obligation of the decalogue and the retributions of eternity; and inasmuch as it calls upon men to worship God, the Father, Son and Spirit, it is unspeakably better than no Church at all. And, therefore, when the choice is between that and none, it is wise and right to encourage the establishment of Churches under the control of Catholic priests. " For myself, I take this latter view. The principle cannot be carried out that no Church should be encouraged that teaches error. For then we could help none but our own. And the principle involves the absurdity that a little error is more powerful for evil than a great deal of truth for good. "Of course public men should act on Christian principles, and if it is wrong for a private Christian to help a Catholic Church, it must be wrong for a corporation to do so. " While, therefore, I dread the influence of the Romish Church, and recognize its corruptions in doctrines and wor- ship, I nevertheless believe that it is better that men should be Roman Catholics than infidels or atheists. Romanists teach people to worship Christ, and to regard and acknowl- edge Him as the Salvator Hominum. " Very truly your friend, etc., "Charles Hodge." "Dear Sir:— "Since I accepted, by the great mercy of God, the truth as it is in Jesus, and renounced the errors of Rome, I have, now and then, heard many strange things about the doctrines of that Church, but nothing looks to me so strange and sadden- False Liberality 267 ing as the letter which Dr. Hodge, of Princeton, has written to approve the Protestants who build up the Churches of Home. I have just read that letter in your issue of the 24th of August. And though it seems an act of folly, on my part, to publicly protest against the views of such a learned theo- logian, my conscience tells me it is an imperious duty to raise my voice against the manifest and most dangerous errors con- tained in the document. " If Dr. Hodge had not so many titles to the respect and gratitude of the Protestant community, if he were not truly one of the most shining lights of our firmament, and if his long and matchless service in the defense of the truth had not given him such a title to the confidence of us all, his error would not be so fatal and deplorable, and I would remain silent. "My humble position, my very insignificance, would be my excuse, in my own eyes, for remaining as a mute dog in the presence of danger. Even to=day I am tempted to say to my alarmed conscience: 'Hold your tongue; be still and quiet — you are in the presence of a giant — with a knock of his little finger he can pulverize you — let these errors go their way and spread — you can't help: these ugly stones, coming down from a high mountain, roll wnth irresistible force — you will surely be crushed down if you are foolish enough to put yourself in the way and try to stop them.' " I see too clearly the errors of Dr. Hodge. I know too well the incalculable injuries they will do to the cause of Christ, to allow myself to be guided by any selfish fear. Though the humblest and weakest soldier of Christ, I have heard Him say, to all those who were enrolled under His banners, 'Fear not.' Many times the humblest sentinel, from the ignored outpost, has saved the army by sounding the alarm in time. "Dr. Hodge gives three principal reasons for approving the Protestants who build the churches of Rome: 1st. The Church of Rome teaches truths enough to save the souls of men. 2nd. It proclaims the Divine authority of the Scrip- 268 Forty Years in the Church of Christ tures — the obligations of the Decalogue, etc. 3rd. The Romanists teach people to worship Christ and acknowledge Him as the Saviour of the world. "If these assertions are correct, Luther, Calvin, Knox, etc., would be the most guilty men of modern times, and the millions of martyrs whom Rome has slaughtered would be nothing else but rebels justly punished. If the Church of Rome's teaching can save souls, why should we continue to protest against the great soul^saving Church (?) and why do we not go to the feet of the Pope to make our peace with him? " Dr. Hodge is a mighty logician, I know it, and he has, probably, many brilliant theories in store to support his posi- tion. But the more arguments he will bring to prove that Rome is a souhsaving Church, and that she is a true wor- shiijer of Christ, the better he will prove that Luther and Calvin, with their millions of Protestant followers. Dr. Hodge included, were, and are, to=day, the greatest fools and the most wicked of men for having made so much noise, caused so much shedding of blood, to get out of the chains of Rome; the more he will prove the verity of the Rev. Mr. Ecker: ' Protestantism is a failure.' And if the learned theologian of Princeton can persuade the Protestants that they do well to build churches for the Romanists, the surer he will make the prophecy of the same Ecker good: 'Before twenty^five years the United States will be Roman Catholic!' " Had Dr. Hodge been, as I have been, a priest of Rome a quarter of a century, he would have spared his friends and admirers the surprise and sadness we have felt at his strange views on the matter. " I do not pretend to say I am perfectly sure of what the learned divine means by ' truth enough to save the soul,' and I would like to know his mind more positively on the subject. But before I have that favour, I must bear testi- mony to the truth, and say, * After twenty=five years of ex- perience and study as a priest of Rome, I do not know a sin- False Liberality 269 gle truth which that apostate Church has kept intact and un- mixed with the most diabolical and damnable errors.' Let us take the nature, eternity, holiness and independence of God, for instance, as revealed in Christ and by Christ. What is the god of the Roman Catholic Church, seen or known through the doctrine of Transubstantiation? A god made with a piece of bread by a man! Just as Aaron took the bracelets and the earrings of the Israelites, melted them, turned them into a golden calf, and said to the people: ' These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt,' so the priest of Rome says to his servant girl: ' I want to carry the good God (le bon Dieu) to a sick man to-morrow, but there are no more wafers in the taber- nacle; make me fifty wafers or little cakes that I may con- secrate them.' And the domestic mixes the flour with some water, bakes the whole between two red irons, on which there is a cross engraved with the abridged name of Jesus. Then she takes her scissors and cuts those cakes, which are origin- ally about five inches large, cuts them into small round wafers about one inch large, and respectfully hands them to the priest. The next morning that same priest takes those small round wafers to the altar, pronounces five magic words, and showing to the people the wafers, which are now turned into as many gods, he says: ' This is our God; this is the Lamb of God which takes away the sins of the world; adore Him,' and the whole people, with the priest himself, falling on their knees with their faces in the dust, adore and worship the new-born or new-made god. •' I ask it — where is the difference between this modern abomination and the idolatry of the Israelites? The only difference is that the Jewish idolatry was of short duration; they did not stick to it, they gave it up the next day, and shed tears of repentance. But the iniquity, the awful idola- try of Rome is a permanent fact. Their wafer=god, their god made by a priest, with the help of the servant girl, is the basis, the life, the grand, constant and public object of their i']0 Forty Years in the Church of Christ adoration. I know that the Romanists and Jesuits have very curious though very ridiculous arguments to bind the poor slaves of the Pope, and to prove to them that the adora- tion of the wafer=god is not idolatry. But I hope that Dr. Hodge will not prostitute his high intelligence in attempting to help the sophists of Rome in the efforts they make to prove to the world that a man can make a wafer, tur7i it into God, and worship that god which he has just made himself, without being an idolater. But if Dr. Hodge confesses that the worship of the wafer-god is an idolatrous act, how can he say that Rome teaches truth enough to save the soul? " Through her sacrilegious and idolatrous sacrifice of the mass, the Church of Rome has not only dragged back the modern world to the idolatry of paganism, but she has added the brutalizing and degrading dogmas of the priests of Ju- piter and Venus. "During the twenty^five years I was a priest of Rome, almost every morning I had to turn into a god a wafer made by my servant girl. I was assured by my Church that that was my true Saviour and my true God. After that, I had to eat it in the same way that I eat the food which is on my table. And there are more than 200,000 priests of Rome who, to=day, believe, and do preach, the same monstrous things. "Nay, you do not probably see a single priest in the streets, or in the cars, who does not carry a dozen of those wafer= gods in his vest or pantaloon pockets. And we are gravely told that the church teaches saving truth about God! Well, if the reverend theologian of Princeton really believes that the priests of Rome have the power to change the wafer into his very Saviour and God, why does he not go to worship Him at the feet of their altars? But if, as I am certain of it, that great Christian man would prefer to be thrown into a burn- ing furnace rather than to adore the wafer-god of Rome, how can he tell us that it is no sin to build temples for such a sacrilegious and idolatrous worship? " We are gravely told in that letter that the ' Romanists False Liberality 271 teach Christ, and regard Him as the Saviour of the world.' Into what strange delusions good and learned men are apt to fall. In writing these lines the celebrated theologian, no doubt, consulted more the kind disposition of his Christian heart than his vast erudition. When the Protestants meet their Roman Catholic neighbours, when they listen to the in- teresting lectures, or read some of their learned books, when they see their smiling lips, their refined manners, they like to conclude that such amiable and learned men are true wor- shipers of Christ. It does them good to live in that illu- sion; they do not even like to hear anything contrary to what they consider the only charitable and Christian way to think of their neighbours. " So Rome has many ways to deceive even the most intelli- gent and learned ones — she is so expert in the art of entrajD- ping and bewitching souls! Is it not written of that wonder- ful Church that it will ' come after the working of Satan, with all power and signs, and lying wonders, with all deceiv- ableness of unrighteousness ' ? "But the kind and Christian though mistaken feelings of Dr. Hodge and some other Protestants toward the Roman Catholics, will not change the awful truth. The apostate Church of Rome has, long since, forsaken and forgotten the real Divine Christ of the Gospel, and has forged another christ to suit her pride, her lust and her unquenchable thirst of power and human glory. " The Christ of the Gospel is the only corner-stone of His church. The Church of Rome has granted that privilege to Peter. The Christ of the Gospel is the head of His church — but the christ of Rome, said, ' It is the Pope that is the head of the Church.' The Christ of the Gospel had promised His Holy Ghost to all His disciples, even to the humblest ones, to guide them in all their ways and teach them the sense of His holy words. But the christ of Rome has promised his holy ghost only to the Pope, who alone has the understand- ing of the Scriptures, and the knowledge of the truth. The 272 Forty Years in the Church of Christ c-hrist of Rome says to the sinner, ' Go to Mary and you shall be saved.' The Christ of the Gospel is the incarnate love toward sinners. He loves them; He likes to be called their friend, He constantly prays for them with a love and mercy that no human language can express. But the christ of Rome is constantly angry against sinners — he would not listen to their prayers: he would shut his ears to their humble suppli- cations, if his mother were not constantly reminding him of the price he had paid and the blood he had shed for them. The Christ of the Gospel is God and man; as God He is as eternal as His Father, He could have no mother. But the christ of Rome is quite a modern god; he was born about 1900 years ago; his mother is Mary, who everywhere is invoked and called the Mother of God by the Romanists. "As Dr. Hodge is a good logician, he will easily find that if Mary be the mother of God, Saint Anne, who is the mother of Mary, and Joachim, who is her father, must be truly the grandmother and the grandfather of the god of Rome, and Adam his great grandfather! A most marvelous fact, which, when well understood, will make it more Christian for the Protestants to raise temples to a god who has such glorious grandmothers and grandfathers, " It is true, as Dr. Hodge says, that the Church of Rome calls her christ, ' the saviour of the world.' But this is just as when her executioners called Him, ' King of Israel.' It is mockery. For, the very moment she has called Christ ' the Saviour of the world,' she goes to Mary and calls her, also, ' the saviour of the world.' "Rome says most eloquently in many of her books, that Jesus is the hope, the refuge, the salvation of sinners. But this is only to throw dust in the eyes of such good and un- suspecting men as Dr. Hodge. Turn the page and you will see, that, with still more eloquence, she calls Mary ' the only hope, refuge and salvation of sinners— the door of heaven.' "If some Popes tell you it is through Jesus that every grace comes to man, and that He is the surest foundation of our False Liberality 273 hope, that glorious truth in the Church of Rome is only a blind to deceive — for many more infallible Popes will as- sure you, in their infallible encyclicals, that it is Mary who is the surest foundation of our hope. I will not insult Dr. Hodge by giving the names of the Popes and the docu- ments which proclaim those plain, clear, blasphemous doc- trines, for he knows them very well. "The true Christ was meek, and humble, and merciful. He rebuked His apostles when they wanted to punish those who rejected Him. He proclaimed liberty of conscience among men. But the christ of Rome is a bloody monster, who, through his infallible vicar, the Pope, has approved the slaughter of St. Bartholomew, and covered Europe with rivers of blood and tears. "No! the christ of Rome, with his hatred of liberty, his constant oppression to every human progress, his infalli- ble Pope, his holy inquisitions, his hatred of the Bible, can- not be the true Christ, who is worshiped at Princeton seminary. It is an old, false god, smuggled by the Pope from the old Pantheon of Rome, presented to the world under the name of Christ. "No! the christ whom I have made, during the twenty=five years, with the help of my servant girl, and with a wafer — the christ, who, through his vicar, the Pope, has made me be- lieve the most monstrous lies, who has persuaded me that his body, his blood, his divinity, could be verily and substanti- ally eaten by me, cannot be the Son of the God of truth. He is the father of lies and deception; and the disciples of the true Christ, who raise temples to the spurious christ of the Popes, may be good, honest, sincere Christians, but they are mistaken. They give a helping hand to the greatest enemy of the Gospel; they build up the Bible^burning Church; they strengthen those who, after having destroyed the Bible, will not rest until they destroy every vestige of liberty and true Christianity on earth, even if they have to wade up to their knees in the blood of the disciples of the Gospel. The Prot- 274 Forty Years in the Church of Christ estants who build up the Church of Rome give help and strength to the enemy. "Rev. Dr. Hodge says of the Church of Rome: ' She pro- claims the Divine authority of the Scriptures,' and he takes that as his ground for approving those who build up the churches of the Pope. What would the good doctor think and say were I to go to him with a golden cup half filled with the purest water, but after having put as much arsenic as there is water in the cup, I would tell him : ' Please, sir, drink, this is good and refreshing water'? Would he not repulse me with horror, and justly call me a murderer? '* Now, what is the Church of Rome doing with the Gospel? Does she not oflPer it to the people only after she has mixed it with her poisonous tradition? Does not the Church of Rome, in the most absolute and positive way, say that the written Gospel (which we call the Scriptures) is only a part, an unfinished fragment, of the Gospel? Can Dr. Hodge ig- nore that the Council of Trent has put the tradition (which they call the unwritten gospel) on a level with the written Gospel; that the one is of as much Divine authority as the other; and that the Roman Catholic is not allowed to drink the waters of life, except when mixed with the deadly poison — arsenical preparations — of Popery? " The learned theologian says that Rome proclaims the Di- vine authority of the Scriptures, but he forgets that it is only on condition that we receive the Holy Scriptures in the light of Romish tradition. For Rome proclaims the Divine authority of the Scriptures, but only with the condition that, under that name, we accept the Divine origin and authority of the traditions about Purgatory, Transubstantiation, Indul- gences, Auricular Confession, Immaculate Conception, Infal- libility of the Pope, etc. Does he really accept the meaning which that Church attaches to the Word of God — Holy Scriptures? Does he believe that by rejecting the authority of the one, he rejects the authority of the other? Then he is a good Roman Catholic; he is all right when he takes the False Liberality 275 side of the priests of Rome, and approves the Protestants who spend money in building the churches of the Pope. But if he rejects with horror, from his lips, the golden cup which Rome offers her blind slaves, then he is wrong. The mistake of Dr. Hodge is very common among the honest and unsuspecting Protestants of the United States. They too easily forget that the Church of Rome very often says one thing and means another quite different. When she speaks of the Holy Scriptures with an apparent respect, and pro- claims their divinity, many think that she means only that blessed Word of God which is contained in the Holy Bible, such as they have at Princeton College. But it is not so. " When Rome speaks of the Word of God, the Holy Scrip- tures, she means the Scriptures transmitted through the written and unwritten tradition. She means the Apocrypha, purgatory, celibacy, absolution, mass, holy water, works of supererogation, worship of Mary, infallibility, etc. " She pretends to have the greatest respect for those two things when perfectly united in one body of doctrine. But she does not conceal her implacable hatred of the true Scrip- tures, the Bible, as Dr. Hodge has it in his hands. That learned man seems to ignore that the Scripture, the Bible, separated from the traditions and the Romish commentaries, is absolutely declared a dangerous, a soul-destroying book by Rome, and the Council of Trent has forbidden the people to read it in their mother tongue. He also seems to have forgot- ten that the Bible Society, whose object is to give the Holy Scriptures unmixed with traditions, notes and comments, has been, time after time, declared by the infallible Church of Rome to be an instrument of the devil to destroy the souls of men. No doubt the book of the index expurgatory of Rome is in the library of Princeton. Then let him consult the long list of books forbidden for their impiety and immorality and he will find that his Bible stands at the head of the list. Let him consult the pages of the history of France, Italy, Spain, Ireland, England, Canada, and even the history of the 1276 Forty Years In the Church of Christ United States, and he will see that Rome, as often as she has found her opportunity, instead of proclaiming the Di- vine authority of the true and unmixed Scriptures, has burned and destroyed them, as we burn and destroy a viper. Yes, let him open the store of his memory and vast science, and he will remember that, not only Rome has destroyed the true and undefiled Holy Scriptures every time she could do it safely, but she has invariably condemned to death those who have been found guilty of reading the Bible. " The memory of Dr. Hodge cannot be so bad as to have made him forget that the Madiai of Florence, and the twelve noble young men in Spain, only yesterday, were condemned to death by the Holy Inquisition for the unpardonable crime of having the Bible and reading it. " That great theologian, following more the instincts of his kind nature and Christian feelings than the teachings of history, assures us that the Church of Rome * proclaims the Divine authority of the Scriptures' ! Yes, by putting the Holy Scriptures in the ' Index,' at the head of the most damnable books which hell ever inspired! " Rome proclaim the divinity of the Scriptures! Yes, by torturing in her dark and filthy dungeons; slaughtering on her gibbets; burning, in her auto da f6, the disciples of the dear Saviour, who dare to read, love and follow those Holy Scriptures. Rome proclaims the authority of the Scriptures, says Dr. Hodge. Yes, says the history of these last thousand years; yes, answer millions of martyrs, she proclaims and acknowledges the divinity of the Scriptures, just as the Jews acknowledged and proclaimed the divinity of Christ, by spitting in His face, nailing Him on a cross as a criminal, and killing Him between two thieves. " There are many deplorable things to be seen among the Protestants of the United States. But one of the most deplorable is the fatal tendency of so many to ignore the great apostasy and abominations of Rome. In Europe, where Rome is better known. Principal Cunningham called that False Liberality 277 church ' the master-piece of Satan ' — and surely she is the master^piece of Satan. But what a sad spectacle we have under our eyes on this continent! Almost everywhere the Bible==burning Church of the Pope, instead of being sternly opposed by the children of God, is petted, helped and enriched, encouraged, strengthened, and praised by the greater part of them. Everywhere, with very little exception, the Protestants, shutting their eyes to the silent but rapid progress of Rome, sleep when the enemy is raising and arming his impregnable citadels, training his skilful legions, and sharpening his sword for the approach of the inevitable contest. " But there will soon be an awakening, and it will be a terrible one. When the Protestants see the extent of their incredible folly in so betraying the interests of truth and liberty into the hands of their greatest enemy, it will be too late! There will be then a Roman Catholic President in Washington. The armies of the Great Republic will then be commanded by Roman Catholic generals and officers; the fleets will be commanded by Roman Catholic admirals, and the fortresses will be in the hands of Roman Catholic traitors. Then the treasure and the immense resources of this magnifi- cent country will be at the mercy of the Jesuits, at the service of the Pope, and the flag of liberty will be trampled in the dust. Then the American people, who are, to=day, sold into the hands of Rome by their politicians, and lulled to sleep by their theologians, will understand that when Rome speaks of the Divine authority of the Scriptures it only means that the Bible must be dragged out of the schools, and torn away from the hands of the old and young, to make a bonfire. " There are two things which Rome hates with an implacable hatred. They are the Bible and liberty. At any cost, Rome is bound to fight down these two things, till they are com- pletely destroyed. But the more she hates our dear Bible and our glorious liberty, the more she conceals her hatred 278 Forty Years in the Church of Christ under the most deceptive words, and the most fictitious demonstrations of love and respect. It is just when she lays the surest and most perfidious plans to drag away the Bible from tbe school and the private house that she proclaims most eloquently its Divine authority, just as the murderer puts on a smilini^ face at the approach of his victim the better to prevent him from being on his guard. Thanks to the betrayals of the politicians, and the delusions of the theolo- gians, except God makes a miracle of it, the Bible and liberty are doomed in the United States. " Till lately I have had my doubts about that deplorable issue. But these last few years study of things and men here makes it impossible to entertain any doubt about it. Blind, indeed, must be the man who does not see the portentious signs which foretell that the days of liberty are numbered, and will be very short. With the hundred thousand Protestants, who give their daughters, their sons, and their money to the Jesuits, and with the connivance, the silence, if not the pub- lic approbation of thousands of ministers who dare not speak out, Rome is raising her proud banner on every hill, in every valley, of the United States. "See how Rome is ruling in the midst of all our great cities, from New York to San Francisco; from Quebec to San Jago. It would require the united efforts, the stern energies, of all the disciples of the Gospel to put a stop to the giant power and aggressive work of Rome; but, instead of trying to defeat the public and grand conspiracy of Popery against liberty and the Bible, the Protestants, with few exceptions, are vying with each other who will most efficiently give aid and comfort to the enemy. " Does Dr. Hodge take the ground that the Church of Rome proclaims the Divine authority of the Scriptures? But there is not a student at Princeton who does not know that the faith of Rome in the Holy Scriptures, and the so=called proc- lamation of their Divine authority, are founded on what the logicians call a vicious circle. False Liberality 279 " Does not Rome boast that she receives the Holy Scriptures because they point to her as the only infallible Church, when, in the meantime, she refers us to those Scriptures to prove the title she has to the supreme respect and submission of the nations? I ask my intelligent readers, what is all that bom- bast of Rome about her faith in the dignity of the Scriptures, if it is not a castle built in a misty cloud high in the air? Who can believe in the divinity of a thing in favour of which not a single reason can be given which can be accepted by common=sense? Who will believe Rome, proclaiming the Divine authority of the Scriptures, when she has no other argument or reason to our intelligence than a vicious circle ! " Though there is a great deal of show in the Church of Rome there is no real faith even among the priests. The little faith which remains has no more solidity than the building raised on quicksand. From the highest to the lowest ranks of Rome, with very few exceptions, infidelity and skepticism are the rule; very few, to=day, even among the priests of that apostate Church, care anything for the Scriptures. "They do not ask, 'What saith the Lord?' but they ask, ' What saith the Pope?' It is not necessary to be so pro- found a logician as the celebrated theologian of Princeton to understand that with an ' infallible Pope ' there is no need of an infallible Bible. It is just because the Scriptures ceased to be an authority in the Church of Rome that it was found necessary to provide another authority to guide the human intellect. As the Holy Bible had ceased to be the oracle, the source of truth among the Roman Catholics, it was a question of life or death to find or invent a new oracle, a new fountain of truth and life. Yes, it became a necessity to proclaim an infallible Pope the very day that the Holy Scrip- tures had ceased to be an infallible guide. Many have mis- understood the terrible logic which forced the Roman Catho- lics, almost in spite of themselves, to proclaim the infallibil- 2 8o Forty Years in the Church of Christ ity of the Pope. To every serious thinker, the proclamation of the dop;ma is the most natural and most logical fact. These last ten centuries the Roman Catholic nations have sternly, but in vain, tried to resist the logical consequences of the false and anti^Christian principles which their Church had accepted as Divine truths. The proclamation of the infallibil- ity of the Pope is not only the logical consequence of the re- jection of the Divine authority of the Scriptures in the Church of Rome, it is also the last and ultimate effort of that ai)ostate Church to get forever rid of the Holy Scriptures, in every page of which she finds her condemnation written. From the pro- found thinker, Bossuet, to the learned Montalembert, many intelligent Roman Catholics had foreseen and foretold that the proclamation of the infallibility would be a death blow to the authority of the Scriptures, and would sweep away the last Christian principle from their Church. " But logic is stronger than men. When men, in a moment of blindness, have accepted a false principle to replace a Christian one, which they have rejected, they are dragged, in spite of themselves, into its fatal consequences. By admit- ting the divinity of traditions which were opposed to the Holy Scriptures, the Roman Catholics had prepared for the rejection of the authority of those infallible oracles, and the necessity of finding some other infallible guide. " From one abyss the Roman Catholics had fallen into a profounder one, with the same fatal necessity and irresistible law by which a stone must roll to the bottom of the pit the very moment the crumbling support on which it rested on the side of the precipice had been removed. "By proclaiming the Divine authority of the tradition which gives an infallible Pope, and by accepting that man as equal to God in wisdom and science, the Roman Catholic Church has fallen to the bottom of an unfathomable abyss. Human folly and depravity could not go further. The last link which united Rome to the Christian world has been cut. It is no more from Christ, speaking to him through the Holy Ghost False Liberality 2,81 in the Scriptures, that the Roman Catholic will receive the truth — it is from the Pope. By taking away the corner-stone, Christ, whom the Father had laid as the foundation of His Church, in order to give place to her infallible Pope, Rome has renewed on earth the awful rebellion of Lucifer in heaven. "And the Protestants who build the church of this modern Lucifer, like those who approve them, may be honest and learned but they are mistaken men. They give help and comfort to the enemy. They are of those for whom Christ said on the cross: 'Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.' "C. Chiniquy." CHAPTER XXVII A Presbyterian Minister Approves. The Romanists Condemn and Persecute In 1876 I spent some days in Halifax, N. S., where I spoke in Fort Massey Presbyterian Church. The Pastor was the Rev. R, F. Burns, D. D., and his con- gregation was large and influential in the city. He was thoroughly in sympathy with me and my work, and was made up of the stern material which characterized his ances, tors in Scotland, the Covenanters. He had no sympathy with the name Protestantism which does not earnestly and prac- tically protest. He was told before the meeting in his church that there would be a disturbance from the Romanists, which he was reluctant to believe; but, let the apprehension of trouble be what it might, he was not going to shrink from having a Presbyterian minister speak in his pulpit, in a city and country where the British flag waves, which means civil and religious liberty. The people came pouring into the church at the appointed time until it was packed, and there being a large crowd at the the doors, who could not find room, it was concluded to close them. A crowd of Romanists collected around the church for the avowed purpose of preventing the ajwstate Chiniquy from preaching against Popery. During the service there was constant commotion, there was 8tone4hrowing, and panes were smashed. Again and again large stones crashed through the windows. The Pastor, Dr. Burns, declared that such at- tacks were a scandal upon the common freedom of speech and worship. After other plain and pointed remarks from the doctor, I arose and said that what we needed was a dozen of Orangemen to go out and clear the street. The disturbance 282 Friends and Foes 283 continued, but the meeting, though disturbed, was not broken up, and, after a collection was taken, it closed about ten o'clock. There was intense excitement inside and outside the church. A band of ruffians laid wait by the front door. Dr. Burns, myself, and several friends passed out by a side door. The rioters soon discovered this and followed, throw- ing stones and snowballs. I was struck several times. Dr. Burns with several friends took refuge in a friendly house at the head of Tobin street. The crowd increased and two hun- dred of my friends, principally orangemen, formed in close order and came to the rescue. We proceeded to the Halifax Hotel, pursued by a howling mob. When we were about half way the rioters resorted to a ruse, and separated, so as to more successfully close in on me and my friends, and if possible hustle and crowd us into the harbour. Near the hotel the cry was raised, " Chiniquy is here!" Then stones and sticks were freely used, by which I was struck several times. I entered by a private door, and the stones came showering after me as I went in. An empty bottle struck a young man and cut him badly. My head and arms were bruised, but my injuries were not serious. No arrests were made at the time. Of course this persecution, though not openly defended by the Roman Catholic priesthood, was " allowed," and was not frowned down as might and ought to have been, were the priests true friends of liberty and order. Such is a fine example of the freedom Romanists claim for themselves but deny to others, even in a land where they have full freedom to worship without molestation. It is with satisfaction I record that public opinion in Nova Scotia so emphatically condemned my ruthless persecutors that, though afterwards I revisited Halifax frequently and addressed many meetings in the city and in very many churches throughout the country, no attempt was ever made to disturb my meetings or to injure me in any way. Even 284 Forty Years in the Church of Christ the Orangemen have safely marched in i^rocession through the streets of Halifax; and freedom of speech and religious liberty have thus been happily vindicated. What is, thus, true of Halifax and Nova Scotia, is true of many other places — cities and rural districts in Canada, in Australia, in the British Isles and even in the United States. Dr. Burns preached and published a sermon, soon after, called out by the riotous demonstration. It was on the text: " Be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image thou hast set up." In the discourse he drew a comparison between the Babylon of Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylon of Popery. He proved that there was a close correspondence between them. This sermon of Dr. Burns was so timely and outspoken, that I give several ijassages from it which I feel sure my readers will appreciate. If we had more such fearless and heroic men in our pulpits, Rome would not stalk forth with such a bold front as she now does. " Even now may the handwriting on the wall of the Vati- can be discovered — distinct as that which formerly paled the faces and paralyzed the frames of the giddy and godless revellers in the palace of Babylon. When she is saying — ' Peace and safety, sudden destruction will come upon her,' and the world echoes the doleful dirge, ' Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen.' May the Lord hasten it in His time. " Our subject admits of a ready application to the scenes of Monday evening — a night much to be remembered in the history of our city and Church. How singular the contrast a few brief hours brought round! " We thought not last Sabbath, when encircling so peace- fully and profitably a communion table, that it was to turn out a table spread for us in the presence of our enemies, and that our blood was so near being mingled with our sacrifice. "Hitherto we had known nothing but peace within and around these walls, but it seemed as if the Lord were coming not to send peace but a sword, and as if judgment were going Friends and Foes 285 to begin at the house of God. Should the uppermost feel- ing with us be, ' An enemy hath done it,' let us feel it right to be taught even by an enemy. Nor let us be unmindful of the higher uses, for, ' Is there evil in the city, and the Lord hath not done it? ' He permits what He does not sanction. And, 'We have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy.' For we have found abundant reason to sing of mercy as well as of judg- ment, and to conclude that the things which have hap- pened to us will turn out rather to the furtherance of the Gt)spel. " Very plainly has it been made to appear that the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God, and with equal distinctness that God can make the wrath of man to praise Him, while He restrains the remainder thereof. " We are thankful that the venerable preacher was un- harmed during the service, and sustained no very serious in- jury afterwards. We are thankful that the audience behaved so well, considering the noisy demonstrations outside and the repeated assaults made on the building. In circumstances less critical, and with no such dense masses collected, there have arisen panics that have issued in results most disastrous. We feel thankful that the hostile elements inside were kept under control through the force of superior numbers, and the fear of immediate exposure and expulsion. We are thank- ful for the part the press has taken, and the determination evinced by our public authorities to prosecute the investiga- tion, and to bring the perpetrators of the outrage to justice. We are thankful for the efficient aid rendered by those out- side ourselves, and for the sympathy expressed by the other churches throughout the city. We are thankful that the Protestant pulse amongst us beats stronger than it did a week ago; that the blood flows purer and freer. We have been at ease in Zion. We need arousing. In our simplicity, we had thought the voice Jacob's. We have found the hand Esau's. 286 Forty Years in the Church of Christ " The features of the ancient Babylonians came out in their modern representatives with a somewhat repulsive promi- nence, especially that spirit of bigotry and intolerance which could not put up with the frank outspokenness of the Hebrew heroes, and their fearless protest against the popular preva- lent idolatry. Wherever our modern Babylon is thoroughly in the ascendant, the minority have no rights which the majority are bound to respect. The faithful protesters must be hustled out of the way. Away with them, away with them! The spirit that worked on the banks of the Euphrates is re- produced on the banks of the Tiber and of the St. Lawrence, too, and it is the same that has startled and surprised us here in our fair city by the sea. Then and there it was three young men. Here and now it has been one old man. Against them were kindled the flames of the furnace. Against him were directed brickbats and bottles and blud- geons. In both instances, freedom of speech and freedom of action were sought forcibly to be put down. I suppose those lads were looked on by most as fools and fanatics — disturbers of the general peace, and deviators from the general practice. And so by some, even from whom better things might have been expected, our ' old man eloquent ' has been regarded. It is easy to criticise him — to take exception to his sayings and doings — to pelt him with paper pellets soaked in vinegar and smelling of brimstone, from snug offices or cosy arm* chairs; but it's not so easy to run the gauntlet as he has done — to take one's life in one's hand and to face, for nigh a score of years in succession, the kind of weapons that have been wielded against him. And what has been the head and front of his offending? Simply this — that ever since com- plying with the command, 'Come out of her, my people, he' has continued to be a courageous and consistent protester against the sins of our modern Babylon, and ceased not to * teach and to preach Jesus Christ.' Simply this — that he has kept ringing out the ancient battle cry: 'Be it known unto thee, O Pope, that we will not serve thy gods, nor Friends and Foes 287 worship the golden image which thou hast set up.' This is true Protestantism. The Protestant who does not protest against Rome is unworthy of the name. " The very lif e=blood of the Protestant faith oozes out when there is no protesting. For over eighteen years this remark- able man has been in close grapple with this ' mystery of iniquity,' and it is not to be wondered at if one of his tem- perament, and with his surroundings, and with the intimate knowledge which a quarter of a century behind the scenes has given him of Rome's inner life, and with the rough handling he has got from those he has left; I say it is not to be wondered at if he should occasionally ' speak unadvisedly with his lips.' "Through all these years the most industrious and insidious efforts have been made to smirch and to stain his character in accordance with Rome's customary policy towards those who abandon her communion. From the fiery ordeal he has come forth like gold. *' He may have been at times hasty in word or deed, but so were the reformers, and so were the apostles and the prophets which were before them. Nevertheless, while a man of like passions with ourselves, and compassed with kindred infirmi- ties, no breath of slander has dimmed the lustre of his character, or moral stigma been fastened upon his good name. From 1833, on through the twenty-five years of his priestly life, his character was of the best. He was a pure priest, and has in his possession the most undoubted testimonials to this effect, from the highest dignitaries of Rome. He was for years by far the most popular priest in Lower Canada — the very idol of the people. He was known as the great Apostle of Temperance — the Canadian Father Matliew. Within the ten years of his wonderful crusade, no fewer than 200,000 of his countrymen were certified as having received the pledge from his hands. The change thereby effected was without parallel. He had the offer of being made Bishop of the great Norths west, but had the humility to decline it. So devoted was he 288 Forty Years in the Church of Christ however, to the interests of his order, that he received a spe- cial commission to gather into one fold those of his country- men that were 'dispersed among the Gentiles.' Going, as he did, from one place to another in the States, he was not a lit- tle surprised to find that not less than 150,000 French Cana^ dians had left their native country to live in that great Repub- lic, and he was truly sorry to see that the greater part of them were in deadly danger of losing the Roman Catholic faith, from their being scattered among the Protestants, and from there beingsomany denominations of Protestants who were try- ing to convert them to their religious views, and to bring them into what he then called the Protestant net. On going back to Canada he brought this under the notice of the Bishops, who empowered him to throw himself into this department of missionary work. " In 1851 he settled in the great Prairie State, Illinois, and 12,000 of his countrymen gathered round him. Some seven years later the Damascus scene was repeated. * There shone a light from heaven above the brightness of the sun, and there fell from his eyes as it were scales.' It was principally the entrance of the Word which gave him light. Into this marvelous light he sought at once to lead his people. This has been his life-work since. He has led out from Rome six or seven thousand of his countrymen in Illinois, and at least as many more in Canada, and other portions of the States. " During the past six months it is certified that after deduct- ing some 200 who were deemed unworthy, 500 families, em- bracing 2,000 individuals, have come out from Rome, in and around Montreal. Considering the unusually strong foot- hold Romanism has got in Lower Canada, and the uncom- mon devotion of the French Canadian Catholics, such a re- sult is truly surprising. When the Lord turned the cap- tivity of these people, we were like men that dreamed. " It was on the tenth of June, 1862, that Father Chiniquy applied for admission to the Canada Presbyterian Church. I had the honour and privilege of making the motion in our Friends and Foes 289 Synod expressive of our deep interest in himself and his work and appointing the committee to adjudicate on his application I was a member of the first committee. "The following year (on the 11th of June, 1863), he was formally received, amid great enthusiasm, so that he has been for nearly thirteen years a minister of our Church. During my residence in Chicago I repeatedly visited the St. Anne settlement, and, as a member of the Kankakee commit- tee and convener of the French Evangelization Committee (they are now united), I had ample opportunity for forming a judgment regarding him. "While in Montreal he often occupied my pulpit, and audiences of ten and twelve hundred, principally of his own people, hung upon his lips. His power in French is amaz- ing. No one in our Dominion can come near him in reach- ing the ear and the heart of the French people. When he came, therefore, to our great city, I hailed him as an old friend, and gladly welcomed him to this sacred desk, in com- mon with my beloved brethren in the ministry. " It seems passing strange to me that such a man, who has had access to the best circles of British and American society, and to the leading pulpits and platforms of Christendom, who led a blameless and useful life for twenty^five years under Pajpal and for over eighteen years under Protestant auspices, who emancipated 200,000 from the slavery of alco- hol and some twelve or fifteen thousand from the slavery of Rome, and who has for thirteen years made full proof of his ministry in our Church, should have been here branded as a fugitive and a vagabond, stigmatized as a liar in our pulpits, howled at as by a pack of wolves swarming round our holy and beautiful house, and hooted and hounded for half a mile along our streets, as if he were the filth of the world and the ofPscouring of all things, under the shadow, too, of a garrison of British soldiers, and beneath the folds of that glorious flag which throws the impenetrable shield of her protection around the obscurest subject and the humblest slave. 290 Forty Years in the Church of Christ " It seems passing strange, too, that all this should have occurred in the clear moonlight, and only two or three of these hundreds have been recognized. It seems almost stranger still that those respectable gentlemen, of whose order the old man was once a most distinguished ornament, should not have publicly testified against such cruel and cowardly behaviour, and thrown themselves in the forefront of those who are trying to bring the perpetrators to justice. One of them could have accomplished more than our entire police force, without disparaging its members in the least. Of this I feel persuaded, and I know I can speak for my brethren as well as myself, that were it possible to conceive of hundreds of our people surrounding a Koman Catholic church, break- ing many panes of glass, and disturbing by their yells, for an hour and a half, the service going on, and then assaulting, with murderous intent, the officiating priest, we would have been promptly out to try and check them. The first papers of the morning would have published our indignation. We would have at once tendered our sympathy, nor slept till we had lent our influence, to the making an example of some of them. " Let our Protestantism get a healthier tone from this ex- perience. Let our generous youth imbibe the spirit and imi- tate the example of those blessed young men and say boldly of Roman and every other species of corruption, ' Be it known unto thee,' etc. But let no grudge rankle in our breasts, for the religion we profess is a religion of love, and ' Love work- eth no ill to his neighbour.' Let us ever keep the line drawn between persons and principles. We loath Rome. We love Romanists. Let us live as the noble Argyle died — when he said on the scaffold, ' I die with a heart=hatred of Popery.' ' Which thing I hate,' as the blessed Master says of the doc- trines and deeds of the Nicolaitans. With a generosity and magnanimity his enemies would do well to imitate, Chiniquy says: 'There are, in the Church of Rome, many millions of sincere and respectable men, and we must seriously pray the Friends and Foes 291 Lord to send them His light — but we cannot go further. We must not abuse them.' How can I more fittingly close my discourse than in the words of his yesterday's letter to me? 'Let every one of my friends unite their fervent prayers to yours to the throne of mercy for the conversion of the mul- titudes of the blind followers of the Pope, who want to take away my life. Oh, let the dear Saviour look down in His mercy upon them all, to give them His saving light that they may come with us to His feet, to find light, peace and eternal life!'" Dr. Burns, in an appendix to the sermon from which I have taken these extracts, offers some true and pertinent thoughts in regard to the method of dealing with Romanism. They are certainly in place in this connection. My methods may at times seem severe, and to border on irreverence, but they appear to me to be such as the subject needs. The wafer^^god of Rome is so utterly ridiculous, ludicrous, idolatrous and absurd, that it should be dealt with accordingly, which I have not hesitated to do. The author of this sermon shows very forcibly that my style in this respect is fully sustained by examples found in the Bible. "Mr. Chiniquy has been taken severely to task, even by some Protestants, for breaking the wafer in pieces, which, after the priest's consecration, is believed by the Romanists to contain in it the ' body, soul and divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ.' This infallible authority declares that a single con- secrated wafer makes only one god, but that if you break that consecrated wafer into a number of fragments, the 'body, soul and divinity' of the God- man is in each separate frag- ment, so as to contain as many gods. On Rome's principle, ' once a priest, always a priest,' Mr, Chiniquy has still this great power. It was to show the folly and blasphemy of sucb an assumption, that Mr. Chiniquy acted as he did. He meant not the slightest disrespect to a sacred ordinance for which, in the true Scriptural view of it, he entertains the pro- foundest reverence. The irreverence lies with those who 292 Forty Years in the Church of Christ thus desecrate and travesty it, Chiniquy's mode of proced- ure may not precisely suit our modern ideas of propriety, but it is an ancient Bible way which has repeatedly ' received Divine endorsation.' It was substantially the way of Moses and Elijah, and Isaiah, and Hezekiah, when exi^osing the folly and falsity of the idolatries with which they had to com- bat. When the Israelites worshiped the golden calf, Moses, their leader, burnt it with fire, ground it to powder, strewed it in the water and made them to drink of it. (Ex. 32: 20.) " Was the calf =god treated thus, then why may not a cake=god be treated in like manner? Was Moses chargeable with ' bad taste ' in treating so contemptuously the object of the peo- ple's blind veneration? " Elijah, in like manner, poured contempt on the Baal worshipers at Carmel and brought the sharpest irony, the most scathing sarcasm, to bear against them. ' Elijah mocked them and said. Cry aloud, for he is a god; either he is talk- ing, or he is pursuing, or he is on a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth and must be awaked.' (1 Kings 18:27.) Was it counted ' bad taste ' in this holy man thus to 'make fun' of these worshipers who evinced their sincerity by their continual crying and ' cutting themselves with knives and lances' (like the flagellants) 'till the blood gushed out upon them.' " As a ' take=off ' on idolatry, we know nothing to equal the vivid and graphic portraiture of Isaiah. (Chap. 44:9-20.) The man cutting down the cedar, using part of the wood for warming himself, part for cooking his food, etc., then em- ploying the residue in making a god. * He burneth part thereof in the fire, with part thereof he eateth flesh ; he roast- eth roast and is satisfied; yea he warmeth himself and saith, Aha, I am warm; and the residue thereof he maketh a god, even his graven image; he falleth down unto it and worship- eth it, and prayeth unto it and saith. Deliver me, for thou art my god.'— Verses 16 and 17. " From the standpoint of our modern critics, Isaiah (or the Friends and Foes 293 Spirit of God speaking through him) showed the extreme of 'bad taste ' in violating the religious sensibilities of so many, and turning into ridicule their conscientious convictions. " And how did the good king Hezekiah act towards the brazen serpent? It was the time^honored relic whose preser- vation seemed pardonable as a quickener to gratitude. But when undue homage began to be rendered to it, it was treated by the king as our modern iconoclast has been treat- ing the wafer; ' He brake in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made; for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it; and he called it Nehushtan — a piece of brass.' (2 Kings 18:4.) " The parallel supplied by these four cases is perfect. If Mr. Chiniquy violated the proprieties, he did so in good com- pany. Moreover, his action was intended as a test. If Deity resided in that thin, tiny cake and every portion thereof, would He not avenge His own honour thus sacrilegiously in- sulted by the prompt and signal punishment of the aggres- sor? That no harm came to him so impressed the beholders that thirty of them, the morning after the wafer was subjected to this test, abjured their allegiance to Rome. " We are far from saying that Mr. Chiniquy's modes of procedure are always what we or our brethren would adopt. But he knows thoroughly the people with whom he has to deal, and adapts his treatment accordingly. In such mat- ters 'let every one be fully persuaded in his own mind,' and the best criterion, probably, after all, by which to judge his measures, is the wonderful success with which they have been attended." CHAPTER XXVIII Rebuked by a Prominent Presbyterian Minister. Approved by His Congregation My Christian readers would be much mistaken if they were thinking that the lecturer on Romanism is constantly walking among sweet briers and roses, and that he is sure to be fed with sugar plums when working among the Protestant population of America and Europe. More often than is suspected his paths are among thorns, and his bread is mixed with the bitterest gall. I am, as the dear Saviour was, looked upon as an impostor and a disturber of the peace by many of those very Israelites He wanted to enlighten and to save; so, very often, the brother who is called by God to open the eyes of the Protes- tant people to the errors and idolatries of Romanism has nothing to expect from many of them but unkind and ungen- erous and utterly disappointing treatment. After I had been, several times, so kindly invited by dif- ferent Christian ministers of Halifax to address their congre- gations, it was remarked that I had never been seen within the walls of St. Matthew's Presbyterian Church, of which Rev. Dr. Grant was pastor. To the question several times asked me by elders of that Church, why I had never addressed them, I invariably an- swered: "Your good pastor possesses more historical and theo- logical knowledge in his little finger than I have in my poor brain about the errors of Romanism; he feels as I do, that he does not want me to teach you anything on that subject. He can do that himself better than anybody else." They answered: "You may think and say what you please about our minister, but the fact is that we have never heard a 291 Rebuked and Approved 295 word from his lips against Romanism. It is the very contrary. Not only do we see him in company with the Bishop and priests of Rome, but he is ready enough to show us that he is in sympathy with that Church in many things. "We would not admire him less cordially, if he were a little more frank in dealing with Rome. Remember that we do not think that our pastor is such a traitor as to try to lead us into the sink of errors of Romanism. We only regret that he is absolutely mute about the past and present errors of that system. As Protestants we want, not only for ourselves, but for our children also, to hear some warning words from our pastor against the snares of Popery. "Now and then we have the sad and shameful spectacle of some of our Protestants in Halifax turning Romanists. This would never occur if our ministers were more attentive to warn us against the snares of those wily and implacable foes of the Gospel. Would you accept an invitation to give us an address in our church, if you were invited by our pastor?" I answered, " I will accept such an invitation from your good pastor with the utmost pleasure, for there is not a Protestant minister in the whole of Canada for whose talents I have greater admiration." The result of this conversation was, that, later on, in 1876, after the riot of Fort Massey Church, I had the honour to sit at the tea table of Mr. Grant, previous to the address which he had requested me to give, that same evening, on a subject of my own choice, about Romanism. Those who are acquainted with the gentleness of Dr. Grant need not be told that noth- ing could surpass the courtesy with which he presented me to his people before the address. I took for my text the second chapter of the second epistle to the Thessalonians, where St. Paul, speaking of the future enemies against whom they would have to protect themselves, mentioned, " that man of sin, that son of perdition, who op- poseth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he as god sitteth in the temple 296 Forty Years in the Church of Christ of God, showing himself that he is God." (2 ThoBs. 2: '.i, 4.) Among other things I said, were these: "After having been twenty=five years a priest of the Church of Rome, no doubt remains in my mind that that anti = Christ, that man of sin, who sits in the temple of God, and who does not only believe but makes the people believe that he is above God, is the priest, the Bishop and the Pope of Rome. "Yes! Popery or Romanism is the embodiment, the per- sonification of the power, the religion, of the church of anti= Christ. " Go where you please from one end to the other of this terrestrial globe, and I ask you to show me any persons, who, more than the Pope with his bishops and priests, persistently and publicly say, before all the nations of the earth as well as the angels of God, that they have such mighty jjower that the eternal and almighty God, who created heaven and earth, is absolutely powerless in their presence. "Please pay attention to what I say here, and understand that which I want you never to forget. " As soon as a priest is ordained by the imposition of the hands of his Bishop, he is to believe that he is more above God than the heavens are above the earth; he is obliged to believe that in his presence the Word of God and God Him- self, Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, who with a word of His lips has created the sun which was so bright to=day, with that beautiful moon and those millions of stars which are so bright over our heads to=night, does absolutely lose His power in the presence of a priest. Yes, He must obey the priest more submissively than the vilest slave has ever obeyed his master. He must submit Himself to the will of the priest more quickly, more absolutely, than the little dog need obey you when you have tied a rope to his neck and obliged him to follow you. " I know you are amazed and horrified when you hear me telling you these things. You are tempted to think and say Rebuked and Approved 2,97 that I exaggerate. But please give a moment of attention, and you will see that these are no exaggerations, but that I am telling the simple but the most frightful truth you ever heard. " Look at these small cakes which I hold in my hands. This small one is for the use of the people, and the large one for the use of the priests. " These cakes are made with a little wheat flour by the servant girls of the priests or by the nuns, between two well= heated irons. Every day, some of them, to the number of ten, twenty or sometimes to the number of a hundred, ac- cording to the number of communicants, are put by the priest into a silver box, called ' cibarium,' and placed on the altars where he performs, every day, a ceremony called the mass. " About the middle of that mass, taking that silver box in his hands, he pronounces upon it the following words in Latin, just as I will pronounce them in your presence, ' Hoc est enim corpus meum.' " Then he must believe and every one of his people must believe that there is such a marvelous, such a divine power given him by the Pope, that more quickly than lightning, the second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, the Son of God and God Himself, has been forced by him to come down into his hands — and change Himself into those wafers — and change every one of those wafers into body, soul and divin- ity. He must believe and make his people believe, that there are no more wafers in his hands or in the silver box, but that every wafer has become Christ, God and man, whom you must accept, love and adore as your Saviour and your God. " As soon as the priest has performed this wonderful mira- cle, he lifts up this newly created god above his head, and says to his people, 'Come and adore your god; who to save you was made man and died on the cross.' " And the whole people, falling on their knees, bring their faces to the dust and adore the god whom their priest has ■298 Forty Years in the Church of Christ just made before their eyes with that wafer baked by his ser- vant girl between two well=heated irons. " I was an lionest man when I was a priest, just as I hope that all the priests who live in Halifax, to=day, are honest; but I was cruelly deceived, as they are, by the devil. " I made and adored that newly made god every morn- ing of my life during the twenty=five years I was a priest, as all the priests of Halifax made and adored their ridiculous, execrable and contemptible idol, this very morning. " I do not say these things that you may have any con- tempt or bad feeling for the Roman Catholics. I do not give you these awful details about their idolatrous worship that you may say to each other when you go out of this temple, after this address, 'How stupid and blind are those poor, ignorant Roman Catholics.' No; our dear Saviour did not come from heaven to teach us to despise our neighbours — He came to teach us how to love and save them. " The Roman Catholics are no more stupid than you are; but they are in the dark, and it is your fault! Yes; Protes- tants, it is your fault, it is your sin if your friends and neighbours of the Church of Rome are in the dark regions of Popery! You have the light and you keep it for yourselves. You have the truth about those solemn mysteries of the Gospel and your neighbours have it not! And what do you do to give them the light and the truth? I ask it in the name of the great God you adore: What have you done to show the truth and to give the light to the Roman Catholics on these great and solemn mysteries? If you have done anything, it is so small that it is almost an insult to God. " The Church of Rome would have been a dead thing long ago, if you soldiers of the Gospel had fought it as you should have done. Yes; the Roman Catholics would have accepted the light long ago if you had done your duty towards them! " You have forgotten that you are the soldiers of Christ, enrolled under His sacred banner to silence and conquer His enemies! Rebuked and Approved 299 " Why has the great God of heaven granted you to con- quer Canada if it were not that you might bring its people into the ways of the Gospel? "Have you done it? All the echoes of heaven and earth answer: No! " Do not speak of the difficulties which you have to encoun- ter: it is neither British nor Christian to be frightened and paralyzed by difficulties, when the great Captain of Salvation calls you to conquer the French Canadian people to the Gospel. " Were your heroic ancestors frightened when the Parlia- ment and the King of England said, ' We must conquer Canada?' No! From one end to the other of Great Britain the heroic cry was heard: ' We must conquer Canada! ' " Some people said: ' But to conquer Canada we will have to shed rivers of blood — we will have to expend millions and millions of pounds.' " Your heroic fathers answered: ' We must conquer Canada at any cost — let the blood flow — let the millions of pounds go — at any cost we must wrench Canada from the hands of our foe, France.' And Canada was conquered! " Be true soldiers of Christ, to-day, as your fathers were true to their king and their country. Go and fight Rome as British men know how to fight. Go to the conquest of Canada with a British heart, a British intelligence, a British pluck and a British liberality, and Romanism will melt and disappear as the French colours had to fall and disappear at the roaring of the British lion on the Plains of Abraham, September thirteenth, 1759. '* But it is not with carnal weapons that we must fight Rome. It is not by hating or abusing the Roman Catholics we shall convert them. The only weapons which will give us the victory against Rome are the weapons of love which Christ 'has brought from heaven to save the world. "The first weapon which will break the doors of the New Babylon and cause her strong walls to totter and fall into dust is the prayer of our hearts. 300 Forty Years in the Church of Christ " ' Anything which you ask My Father in My name will be granted,' said our adorable Saviour. One of the great sins of tlie Protestants in Canada is that they do not pray as they ought for the conversion of the poor idolaters whom the Pope of Rome keeps enchained to the feet of his idols in Canada. Oh! let the day come when every disciple of the Gospel, every true servant of God, among you will raise his supplica- ting hands to the Mercy Seat, and then the walls of the modern Babylon will crumble, and on their ruins the angels of God will sing, 'Praise the Lord, Babylon is fallen!' " The second weapon is to send the Gospel of Christ into every family, through faithful and intelligent Christians. " There is an irresistible power in the Word of God. As the dark hours of the night are changed into the bright hours of the day when the rays of the bright sun come down from from the skies, so the dark night of Popery will disappear, whenever you persuade our honest but cruelly deceived Roman Catholic countrymen to read the Word of God! " The third infallible weapon to destroy Rome in Canada is, to give good example. " Let the day soon come when the Protestants in Canada will everywhere give examples of a holy and Christian life, and you will see how my dear Roman Catholic country- men will soon break the heavy and ignominious yoke of Popery. " The eyes of the Roman Catholics are sharper than you suspect. When they look at you, they too often see your shortcomings. They see many who desecrate the holy day which the Lord has put aside to serve and glorify Him in. They see too often men who have a Christian name forget the respect they owe to themselves and to their God in the infa- mous saloons. They too often hear of the dishonesty in the ranks and files of those who have a Christian name in your midst. "The result is that they say to each other: 'Why should we leave our ranks in order to go among people who are ac Rebuked and Approved 301 bad as we are.' Yes; the scandalous lives of too many Prot- estants in Canada constitute a wall so high and so thick that my poor Roman Catholic countrymen can neither go over nor through it. " But let every disciple of the Gospel in Canada be true to Christ, and give the example of a holy life, and very soon the Roman Catholics will see it not only to admire, but to follow you. At the sight of your Christian life, my dear country- men will say: 'How beautiful are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel!' " They will say to each other: ' Let us go into the midst of that people, for surely the Lord is their shepherd.' " They will come to you, brought by that irresistible attrac- tion of your Christian virtues; and you will take them by the hand to the feet of the Lamb who will make them pure with His blood and free by His word. And, after having given up the false Christs of the Pope to follow the true Christ of the Gospel during the few days of their earthly pilgrimage, they will go with you to the Eternal Kingdom, where, during the whole eternity, we will bless our God for having so much loved the world that He sent His eternal Son, Jesus, to save the world." My last word had hardly gone from my lips when the Rev. Mr. Grant rose and addressing his people, said something to this effect: "Now I understand why we almost constantly hear of tumults and riots wherever the Rev. Mr. Chiniquy gives his lectures. His language is by no means soothing or conciliatory towards Roman Catholics. He has no right to call them blind idolaters as he does. ... If I were a Roman Catholic, after hearing him, I am not sure that I iould meekly accept his teaching. I might even be glad if ;m' were silenced." After a short tribute to my mission work in Montreal, Mr. Grant sat down. I thought my duty was to answer him. I rose and said, as calmly as I could: 302 Forty Years in the Church of Christ " My dear sir, you are mistaken if you think that I shall accept in silence the judgment you have just passed upon me. I believe with my whole heart what I have said; and I have not spoken in an unkindly spirit. Let me appeal to your people who have just heard every word that fell from my lips." Then turning towards the multitude who had listened to my address with breathless attention, I said: "Ladies and gentlemen, after listening to my address with such a kind attention, you have just heard the sentence passed upon me by your pastor. If you think that I deserve that public rebuke and that want of confidence, I will accept it as well merited. I want you all to give me your mind just as it is before God. Please let those of you who are of the same mind as your pastor lift up your hands, and, if you do it, I will confess guilty and ask pardon for what I have said. Please let those of you who are approving the censure which I have received in your presence lift up your hands." But, though I requested that great gathering twice to lift up their hands in approbation of their pastor's views, not a single hand was raised: Then I said: " Ladies and gentlemen, I appeal again to your Christian consciences and intelligences to know what you think of my address. "Let those of you who disapprove the unfavourable sen- timents uttered by your pastor raise their hands." And all the hands, without exception, were raised. I then turned towards the Rev. Mr. Grant, and told him, " My dear sir, there is the sentence of your people, and I bless God for it. Please let us sing the Doxology: 'Praise God.' And the Doxology "Praise God" was sung by the angels of God, I hope, as well as by that intelligent and noble people. CHAPTER XXIX On My Way to Australia, California, Oregon and Washington Territory My sixty=nine years of age, with the incessant labours of the last four years in Montreal, had so much impaired my lungs, that my physicians advised a voyage on the Pacific Ocean as the only remedy which could give me a chance of working a few more years in spreading the Gospel among my coun- trymen. My noble Presbyterian Church, in 1878, granted me a whole year of rest. Without losing any time I crossed the vast plains of Illinois, Iowa, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada and California to breathe the bracing atmosphere of the Pacific Ocean. I will leave to others to speak of the innumerable marvels which the hands of God have sown, and which we meet at every step from the Mississippi river, so well called by the Indians the "Father of Great Waters," to San Francisco, that so young but already so mighty Queen of the West. It would require a large volume to give the history and descrip- tion of that gigantic railway which encircles the whole of the United States and binds the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific with steel chains; and it would take a more eloquent pen than mine to tell what the heart feels when the thundering iron horse, as rapid and daring as the eagle, carries us up to the very top of the Rocky Mountains, nearly 9,000 feet above the sea. How pure is the air we breathe, how beautiful are the blue skies, how everything takes new, strange, gigantic forms at that elevation! It is when soaring from the top of one of those giant mountains to the top of a still more gigantic one that man feels and realizes that he is created in the image of God — that the Almighty has breathed upon him the breath 303 304 Forty Years in the Church of Christ of an intelligence before which mountains and seas, winds and storms, light and lightning, the whole earth, have to humble and submit themselves as to their legitimate king. Ah! why is it that that mighty king so often forgets that he has himself an Almighty, Eternal King and Master to love and serve? No M^ords will ever give an idea of the magnificent spectacle of the mountains, whose tops are constantly covered with ice and snow, when they present their brow to the sun. The per- fect peace and calm which surround them, the millions of glittering diamonds which cover their white robes, give more the idea of an angel of heaven, adoring his Creator and ex- tending his wings over the earth to bless and protect it, than a cold and lifeless mountain. No: this cannot be a heap of brute stones. What magnificence is in that white satin man- tle! What a grand, sublime, mighty being is there before me at the horizon! How reverently its noble brow looks to heaven above the highest clouds! Is not this one of the Seraphims whose twofold duties are to protect the earth and sing the eternal Alleluia? Do you not hear his voice: "Come and see the works of God. Who is like our God? Let the nations praise Him. By His strength He setteth the moun- tains, being girt with power"? But suddenly dark clouds rise behind the mountain; and, quicker than I can say it, the magnificent vision has disap- peared, to be replaced by the most terrific one which the eyes can see. The earth trembles under our feet; our ears are deafened by peals of thunder such as we never heard; our eyes are dazzled and blinded by such lightnings as we never saw. It seems that the doors of hell are just opened, and all its armies hurled against the seraph whose silver wings were spread over the world. For more than half an hour we are the witness of a battle without mercy of all the elements against the mountain. Surely its flanks will be torn and blackened under the blows of the infernal artillery; the white snow will drift away, scatter and disappear before the On My Way to Australia 305 hurricane; the mountain will melt under the hail of brim- stone and those torrents of fire which flow from the clouds, With a breathless attention, throut^h the closed windows of the cars, we contemplate that sublime and terrible conflict. But suddenly the noble mountain shows, again, its gigantic head above the dark clouds. It has conquered. The storm= clouds are torn and broken into fragments; they roll at the feet of their conqueror, to disappear in the plain below. The white robe looks whiter than ever, and the rays of the sun come as messengers of God to place on the conqueror's head a diadem of gold, silver and precious pearls. And if your soul has to pass through great tribulations — if you see dark clouds at your horizon— even if you find yourself struck by the hurricane, my Christian friend, you will surely hear a sweet voice whispering into your ear, " Fear not, I am with thee. In the world ye shall have tribulations; but I have overcome the world. Abide in Me, and I will abide in you to be your strength and your joy and your life eternal." I wish I had time and ability enough to describe the wonderful walls, the high, strong towers, the marvelous castles and the impregnable citadels — the works of the hands of God — whose ruins are scattered all over those wonderful Rocky Mountains. I would also like to say a word about that marvel of marvels, " The Devil's Slide," through which surely his Satanic majesty alone can pass without losing a liberal portion of his apparel; and the "Hell Gates," and Col- fax Mountains, which no traveler can see without losing his breath. But I must hurry on, pass around Salt Lake, cross the Mormon cities and villages — that dark spot of American civilization — without saying a word, in order to take a moment of rest at San Francisco, so well called the " Golden City." But here, again, I am at a loss what to say. Shall I speak of its magnificent banks, some of them built of Chinese gran- ite, imported from the "Flowery Land"? Shall I describe the marvels of the " Safe Deposite Block," with its 4,600 steel 3o6 Forty Years in the Church of Christ safes, built at the cost of more than two millions? Shall I expose to the profane eyes of my readers the numberless gold and silver vases, the gold and silver bars, the untold treas- ures, concealed behind the wall of that steel palace? Shall I lead you, by the hand, through the numberless chambers of that multitude of princely mansions, called hotels, one of which, "The Palace Hotel," is almost a whole city by itself ? Those giant works of a giant people must be seen to be well understood. I will not, either, speak of the material prosperity, or rather, the untold miseries, which the incalcu- lable treasures of gold and silver, dug out from the mines of this marvelous country, have produced. But I will not con- ceal my disappointment and sadness, when, lifting up the deceitful gold curtain which the hand of man had spread over everything here, I tried to find how many of my fellow^men were really happy behind the shadow of those marble and gilded walls. Ah ! do not come to San Francisco if you want to see cheer- ful faces and hear hearty laughs. You will, indeed, be more lucky than I am, if you can find many in those multitudes you meet in the streets, on the public squares, or in the hotels, who look cheerful and happy. The deep furrows of anxiety are traced on every brow; the sure indications of trouble, if not of despair, are painted in almost every eye; and the tortures of a broken heart have sealed and discoloured almost every lip. Hour after hour I stood at the corner of the most thronged streets, or the most frequented public squares, to study that page of this wonderful people's history; and I could hardly refrain from tears, when, alone in my closet, in the presence of God, I recalled in my mind the infallible marks of human misery and deep despair I had seen on the faces of those beings whom God had created to be happy, and for whom Christ died that they might forever live with Him. Oh! how few of those multitudes I met ever listened to the dear Saviour's voice: " Come unto Me, all On My Way to Australia 307 ye who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Nowhere, as here, have I seen, as written with letters of tears and blood on so many men's brows: "The love of riches is the source of every evil." There is probably not a single spot in this world where so many have suddenly passed from a state of comparative poverty to the height of fortune; and, in conse- quence, there is not a spot where all are so anxiously bent on the fortune's wheel with the hope of soon reaching its top. But, alas! how many, instead of rising to the summit of for- tune, roll down, every day, to the bottomless abyss of the most hopeless misery. And among the few lucky ones, who have so suddenly become millionaires, how many, every day, see their treasures melt, fade away, and disappear almost as suddenly as they came. When, in 1852, it became evident that my plan of forming a colony of French Canadian Catholics on the fertile plains of Illinois was to be a success, D'Arcy McGree, then editor of the " Freeman's Journal," the official paper of the R. C. Bishop of New York, wrote me to know my views; and he immediately determined to put himself at the head of a simi- lar enterprise in favour of the Irish Roman Catholics. He published several able articles to show that the Irish people, with few exceptions, were demoralized, degraded and kept poor around their groggeries, and how they would thrive and become respectable and rich, if they could be induced to ex- change their city grogshops and low saloons for the fertile lands of the West. Through his influence a large assembly, principally composed of priests, to which I was invited, met at Buffalo in the spring of 1858. But what was his disap- pointment, when he saw that the greater part of those priests were sent by the Bishops of the United States to oppose and defeat his plans. He vainly spoke with the most burning eloquence for the support of his pet scheme. The majority coldly answered him: " We are determined, like you, to take possession of the United States and rule them; but we can- not do that except by acting secretly, and making use of the 3o8 Forty Years in the Church of Christ utmost wisdom. If our plans are known they will surely be defeated. What does a skilful general do when he wants to conc^uer a country? Does he scatter his soldiers over the farm lands and spend their time and energies in plowing the field and sowing the grain? No; he keeps them well united around his banners, and marches at their head to the con- quest of their strongholds —the rich and powerful cities. The farming countries then submit and become the price of the victory, without moving a finger to subdue them. So it is for us. Silently and patiently we must mass our Irish Roman Catholics in the great cities of the United States; remembering that the vote of our poor journeyman, even though he be covered with rags, has as much weight in the scale of power as the millionaire Astor, and that, if we have two votes against his one, he will become as powerless as an oyster. Let us, then, multiply our votes; let us call our poor but faithful Irish Catholics from every corner of the world, and gather them in the very hearts of those proud citadels which the Yankees are so rapidly building under the names of Washington, New York. Chicago, Buffalo, Albany, Troy, etc. Under the shadow of these great cities, the Americans consider themselves as a giant and unconquerable race. They look upon the Irish Roman Catholics with the utmost con- tempt, as only fit to dig their canals, sweep their streets, and work in their kitchens. Let no one awake those sleeping lions to=day; let us pray God that they may sleep and dream their sweet dreams a few years more. How sad will be their awakening, when, with our out=numbering votes, we will turn them all, forever, from every position of honour, power and profit. What will those hypocritical sons and daughters of the fanatical Pilgrim Fathers say, when not a single judge, not a single teacher, not even a single policeman, will be elected, if he is not a devoted Irish Catholic? What will those so callecl giants think and say of their matchless shrewdness and abil- ity, when not a single senator or member of Congress will be chosen if he is not submitted to our Holy Father the Pope? On My Way to Australia 309 What a sad figure those Protestant Yankees will cut, when we will not only elect the President, but fill and command the armies, man the navy, and keep in our hands the keys of the public treasuries! It will then be time for our faithful Irish people to give up their grogshops in order to become the judges and governors of the land. Then our poor and hum- ble mechanics will leave their damp ditches and canals, to rule the cities in all their departments — from the stately man- sions of mayor to the more humble, though not less noble position of schoolteacher. "Then, yes, then we will rule the United States, and lay them at the feet of the Vicar of Jesus Christ, that he may put an end to their godless system of education and sweep away those impious laws of liberty of conscience which are an insult to God and man." Poor D'Arcy McGee was left almost alone when the votes were given. From that time the Catholic priests, with the most admirable ability, have gathered their Irish legions into the great cities of the United States, and the Americans must be very blind indeed if they do not see that the day is very near when the Jesuits will rule their cities, from the magnificent White House of Washington to the humblest civil and mili- tary department of this vast Republic. They are already the masters of New York, Baltimore, Chi- cago, St. Paul, Milwaukee, St. Louis, New Orleans, Cincin- nati, San Francisco. Yes, San Francisco, the rich, the beautiful, the great Queen of the West, is in the hands of the Jesuits! From the very first days of the discovery of the gold mines of California the Jesuits got the hope of becoming masters of those inexhaustible treasuries, and they laid their plans with the most admirable ability to succeed. They saw, at first, that the immense majority of the lucky miners, of every creed and nation, were going back home as soon as they had enough to secure an honourable comfort to their families. It became evident that, of those multitudes 3IO Forty Years in the Church of Christ which the thirst of gold had brought from every country of Europe and America and even Asia, not one in fifty would fix his home in San Francisco and become her citizen. The Jesuits saw at a glance, then, that if they could persuade the Irish Catholics to remain and settle, they would soon be the masters and the rulers of that gold city whose future was so bright and so great. And that scheme, worked day and night with the utmost perseverance and wisdom, has been crowned with perfect success. When, with few exceptions, the lucky Frenchman, who had become wealthy, was going back to his " Belle France," with a cheerful heart, and when the intelligent German, the indus- trious Scotchman, the shrewd New York and New England diggers, or the honest Canadian, suddenly made rich, were gladly bidding an eternal farewell to San Francisco to go and live happily in the dear old home, the Irish Catholics were taught to consider San Francisco as their promised land. The consequence is that where you find only a few Ameri- can, German, Scotch, or English millionaires in San Francisco, you find more than fifty Irish Catholic millionaires in that city. The richest bank of San Francisco, Nevada Bank, is in their hands, and so are all the street railways. The principal of- fices of the city are filled with Irish Roman Catholics; al- most all of the police is composed of the same class, as well as the volunteer military associations. Their compact unity in the hands of the Jesuits, with their enormous wealth, makes them almost the supreme masters of the mines of California and Nevada. When one knows the absolute and abject submission of the Irish Roman Catholics, rich or poor, to their priest — how the mind, the soul, the will, the conscience, are firmly and ir- revocably tied to the feet of their priests — he can easily under- stand that the Jesuits of California form one of the richest and most powerful corporations the world has ever seen. It is known by every one there that those fifty Irish Cath- olic millionaires, with their myriads of employees, are, On My Way to Australia 311 through their wives, and by themselves, continually at the feet of the Jesuits, who, here, more than in any other place, really swim in a golden sea. Nobody, if he is not a Koman Catholic, or one of those so- called Protestants who give their daughters and their sons to the nuns and the Jesuits to be educated, has much hope of having a lucrative or honourable position in San Fran- cisco. Entirely given to quench their thirst for gold, the Ameri- cans of San Fransisco, with few exceptions, do not pay any at- tention to the dark cloud which is rising at the horizon of their country. Though it is visible that that cloud is filled with rivers of blood and tears, they let the cloud grow and rise without even caring how they shall escape from the im- pending hurricane. It does not take a long residence in San Francisco to see that the Jesuits have chosen this city for their citadel on this continent. Their immense treasures give them a power which may be called irresistible, in a country where gold is everything. It is to San Francisco that you must come to have an idea of the number of secret and powerful organizations with which the Church of Rome prepares herself for the impend- ing conflict, through which she hopes to destroy the system of education and every vestige of human rights and liberties in the United States, as she has repeatedly and bravely boasted in her most popular organs. I might give hundreds of those extracts; but, to be brief, I will give only two: "The Catholic Church numbers one4hird of the American people, and if its membership increases in the next thirty years as it has for the thirty past, in 1900 Rome will have a majority, and be bound to take this country and keep it. There is; ere long, to be a state religion in this country, and that state religion is to be Roman Catholic. "The Roman Catholic is to wield his vote for the purpose of securing Catholic ascendancy in this country. 312 Forty Years in the Church of Christ " All legislatures must be governed by the will of God, un- erringly indicated by the Pope. " Education must by conducted by Catholic authorities; and under education the opinions of the individual and the utterances of the press are included. Many opinions are to be punished by the secular arm, under the autlun-ity of the Church, even to war and bloodshed." — Catholic World, July, 1870. " While the state has rights, she has them only in virtue and by permission of the superior authority; and that au- thority can only be expressed through the Church. "Protestantism of every form has not and never can have any right where Catholicity has triumphed; and, therefore, we lose the breath we expend in declaiming against bigotry and intolerance, and in favour of religious liberty or the right of any man to be of any religion as best pleases him." — Cath- olic Review, July, 1870. In order to more easily drill the Roman Catholics, and prepare them for the impending conflict, the Jesuits have organized them into a great number of secret societies, the principal of which are: Ancient Order of Hibernians. Irish American Society. Knights of St. Patrick. St. Patrick's Cadets. St. Patrick's Mutual Alliance. Apostles of Liberty. Benevolent Sons of the Emerald Isle. Knights of St. Peter. Knights of the Red Branch. Knights of Columbkill. Almost all these secret associations are military ones. They have their headquarters in San Francisco, but their rank and file are scattered all over the United States. They number 700,000 soldiers who, under the name of U. S. A. Volunteer Militia, are officered by the most skilled generals On My Way to Australia 313 and officers of the Republic. For it is a fact, to which the Protestant Americans do not sufficiently pay attention, that the Jesuits have been shrewd enough to have a vast ma- jority of Roman Catholic generals and officers to command the armies and man the navy of the United States. Who will be able to stand against a power supported by 700,000 soldiers, well drilled, armed with the best modern arms, officered by the most skilful military men of the country, and whose treasurers will not only have the keys of the public treasuries of this vast Republic, but who will be, in great part, the masters of the untold millions dug out in the mountains of California and Nevada? That you may know the Christian feelings of the Jesuits of San Francisco towards Protestant England, I give you here an extract of the address of Rev. Father Rooney on St. Patrick's Day: " Irish Catholics, trust your priests, as you ever have, as a nation; and when the propitious moment comes to settle the accounts of brutal old England, the murderer of your priests and forefathers, the murderous despoiler of your sanctuaries, the pilferer of your possessions and the starver of your people, those priests will bless the swords that you use, that it may cut more keenly; the bullet, that it may perforate more deeply; your hands, that they may wield the weapon more powerfully; and your nerves, that you may the more steadily avenge your injured mother and your noble ances- tors. Never trust an enemy that has deceived us so often as England, and violated every treaty made with us. You may expect nothing from her except through the cannon's roar, the whizzing bullets, and the flashing scimitar. But let us be sure that we are ready and well prepared for the fray." Though the Jesuits rule supremely in San Francisco, and though the deleterious atmosphere of Romanism, which is felt everywhere, coupled with that thirst for gold which rages as a plague in almost every stage of society, are uni- versally visible, the Lord has kept there for Himself many 314 Forty Years in the Church of Christ faithful servants, and the great Captain of our salvation counts several intrepid soldiers of the Gospel around His banner. The Rev. Messrs. Hemphill, Fells, Taylor, Verrue, Stone, Guard, etc., are working with faithfulness in this deserted Gospel field, and they are gathering very precious fruits of their labours. Two missions have been established for the conversion of the Chinese, which God has already blessed by the conversion of more than one hundred souls. Some of those converts have already gone to China to preach the Gospel to their countrymen. Let us pray and hope that among those converts there will be a Paul whose voice will shake and pull down the old idols of that remarkable people. I have also found in San Francisco and Oakland a good number of my dear countrymen who have given up the errors of Rome to accept the Gospel of Christ. Three of them are near relatives of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Canada. By the great kindness of the Rev. Mr. Verrue, I have been able to give two addresses in French to the inter- esting congregation of French speaking people which his admirable zeal has gathered. Rev. Mr. Verrue himself is a convert from Romanism, and his labours have been much blessed here. But if San Francisco presents a sad spectacle to the eyes of the Christian, it is not so in Portland, the most thriving city of Oregon, through which I had to pass on my way to the prairies of Washington Territory. I spent there what I can call one of the most delightful Sabbaths of my life. After a voyage of three days from San Francisco on the Pacific Ocean, and one day on the magnificent river Co- lumbia, I arrived in Portland, Oregon, on Saturday, the tenth of August. It was late in the afternoon, and the Presbyte- rian pastor, the amiable, zealous and learned Mr. Lindsay, being absent, my heart was a little heavy and my mind cloudy, for I knew nobody in that city. But when the steamer was just moored to the wharf, and as I was inquiring to know the name of the most respectable hotel, I saw a gen- On My Way to Australia 315 tleman who was very actively engaged in looking for some one he wanted to meet. I said to myself: " Oh, if my merci- ful God had heard my feeble prayers, and sent that gentle- man, whose face looks so kind, to be my guardian angel, and take me by the hand in this strange city ! " Just then I heard his voice addressing some one of the crowd of passengers, saying: " Is not Father Chiniquy here?" " Yes, sir," I answered; " here I am." " Well, please come this way," replied with a smile, my new, kind friend. A moment after I was by his side, in a beautiful carriage, drawn by two splendid horses, going to his mansion, about a mile up town. On the way I learned that the name of this noble hearted Christian brother was William Wadham, and when I entered his house it was easy to see that he was one of the most wealthy merchants of the State of Oregon. After "he had introduced me to his wife, who is a descendant of the Pilgrim Fathers whom God has chosen as the funda- mental stones of this great Republic, he introduced me to his mother=in4aw, Mrs. Skinner, who has this last ten years lost the use of her eyes, but whose spiritual eyes see day and night the bright lights which flow from the bleeding wounds of the Lamb. I felt so overwhelmed by the floods of mercies which my heavenly Father was pouring upon His unworthy child that I asked that Christian family to kneel with me and bless Him. But the words were half suffocated in the tears of joy and gratitude which I felt for having been taken into such Christian and good quarters. The next day was a Sabbath. I accepted the privilege of speaking of the mercies of God towards us poor perishing sinners. But what I want to say is what I have seen of the manner in which our Christian brother, William Wadham, spends his Sabbaths. After his breakfast, from eight to nine, he reads to his ven- erable mother'in4aw some of the most interesting parts of the Scriptures, with the most edifying commentaries, and 3i6 Forty Years in the Church of Christ they talk together about the great truths of Christianity as I never heard any one talk. Every word they exchange to- gether about the love of Christ is like burning coals brought by the angels of God from the altar which is before the throne. At ten Mr. Wadham goes to prepare everything in the church for the Sabbath=school and the choir; for the Sabbath-school is his favourite work, and he is the leader of the choir. But we must see his cheerful face and the beam of joy which illu- minates his eyes when he is going to and fro, almost running up and down the stairs, in order that everything may be in good order and ready for the hour of worship. "I prefer one hour passed in Thy house, O Lord, to a thousand passed in the tents of sinners." During the singing at the Divine service, you constantly hear his beautiful voice, and you feel that his heart is in it. The public morning service is hardly finished, when you see him rushing to the large basement, crowded by the young people of every age and sex, for the Sabbath=scliool. It is there that he feels at home, surrounded by the teachers and pupils of the Sabbath = school. With what exquisite politeness and piety he addresses that multi- tude! With what Christian enthusiasm he leads the hymns and mixes his voice with the voices of his hundred pupils, old and young, to praise the Lord! It seems as if that man had never done anything but that in his whole life. He is, there, in his element, as the eagle who soars on his wings to the sky. After the Sabbath school he hurries home to take a hasty dinner with his family. But the meal is hardly finished, when his carriage is at the door for a new excursion. "Have you any objection to coming with me, Father Chiniquy?" said he in his smiling way of talking. " Where are you going?" I asked. " Fishing in the streets and lanes," he answered. "Yes, please take me with you; I am a fisherman also," I replied. On My Way to Australia 317 And quickly the splendid horses take us to the door of the Young Men's Christian Association. " Please," said he, " go to the other side of the street; you will be in the shade; the sun is too hot here. And, to obey him, I crossed the street, not understanding what would come next. But I had not waited there two minutes in the shade, when I saw coming over after me twenty or thirty young gentle- men and ladies, who surrounded him. After he had saluted and welcomed them in his unique and amiable way, he drew from his coat one of the Moody and Sankey hymn==books, and started, with his powerful and melodious voice: " Rock of Ages, cleft for me," etc., which the others sang with him with a power and effect that I had never witnessed before. You may imagine the magical power of such singing in the open street of a large and thriving city, crowded with strangers from every country, not only from America, but from Asia and Europe. Nothing could be more amusing and pleasing to me than to see the young and the old, the poor and the rich, the loafer and the half=drunken man, with the most pious ladies and gentlemen, running from every side to hear the beautiful concert in the street. Two hymns had not been sung before that street was literally filled with people drawn, some from curiosity, some by the mere exam- ple of others, some to take part in the songs and unite them- selves with the choir. After Mr. Wadham had sung half an hour at the head of that selected choir, which had more than doubled dur- ing that time, he stopped, and said: "Now, my friends, we have sung the praises of our God, let us go upstairs and hear what He has to say to every one of us. Oh ! do come and spend a few moments with us in meditation and prayer." There is no need to say that five minutes later the large hall of the Young Men's Christian Association was filled to its utmost capacity by the multitude whom the Lord had brought there, from every corner of the globe, to speak to them words of love, peace and mercy. 3i8 Forty Years in the Church of Christ And who was there again to preside over that new meeting and lead the choir? Mr. Wndham. But this time his face was more than ever beaming with joy, and his voice had a power and a melody which seemed to me superhuman. That meeting, where a dozen short and very touching ad- dresses were given, generally by new converts, lasted one hour, and was the most interesting one I ever attended. Among the speakers we heard three young sailors who had recently found their Saviour, and whose words fell on us with a power which verj' few can forget. Oh! who could refrain their tears of joy, when we heard one of those young British sailors telling us that the whole crew of their magnificent ship, with their captain, had lately found the Saviour; how they had asked Him to tarry with them, and how, since. He had been their most precious treasure, their strength and their joy. I cannot sufficiently express to you my joy when I saw several of our dear French Canadian converts from Rome in that crowd of redeemed souls! One of those French Canadian converts, an old traveler of the Hudson Bay Com- pany, a well=educated man, had been, during several years of his life, the most infamous and public scandal of Portland — a drunkard, a blasphemer, an atheist. He was looked upon as an incarnate demon, the terror of the Christians, the pillar and strong fortress of all the wicked doers of the country. But one day some Christian ladies said to each other: " Should we not do something for the conversion of this sin- ner? or shall we let him continue to spread the pest of his impiety and scandal without an efiPort to save him? Let us go and pay him a visit." A few hours later, half a dozen of the most respectable ladies of the city knocked at his door. " Walk in, ladies, walk in," said the notorious man, " what is it you wish, I am at your service?' " We come to see you, and pray with you, my dear sir," answered one of the visiting angels. "Pray with me! Pray with me! Ah! ah! ah! You are On My Way to Australia 319 mistaken, my good ladies. Here we don't pray, but we drink and curse and lead a jovial life; please go and pray with my neighbour." " But we will pray here, and sing the praises of the Lord with you, my friend," sweetly answered one of the daughters of Christ. "You are too much of a gentleman to insult ladies in your own house, and turn them out." And the ladies, on their knees, with their faces and hands raised to God, and burning tears flowing down their cheeks, made such prayers as Christian ladies only can send to the Mercy Seat. The desperate sinner tried at first to make some jokes with some of his companions of debauch. He turned the ladies into ridicule, and laughed at them, in drinking to their their health. But nothing could stop the angels of mercy, who were on their knees, from sending the arrows of burning Christian love to the heart of the guilty man through their ardent suppli- cations to the seat of mercy. Little by little, the crowd of drinkers left, one after another, and our prodigal son remained alone in the midst of that choir of seraphims who had taken possession of his house. When alone with these ladies, whose prayers and sublime hymns were filling his rooms, he tried in vain to shut his ears, in order not to hear: but his ears were opened, and so widely that floods of new light were flowing through them on the hardened heart and the guilty soul. " Is it possible," said he to himself, "that there is a God; that He has seen all my crimes and that He will sooner or later call me to account for them? But is it possible, also, that that God sends to me these praying ladies to call me to repent, and will forgive me?" With these thoughts in his mind, he leaves the ladies and rushes to another room. He shuts the door, and, abso- lutely beside himself, he falls on his knees, and, not daring to raise his eyes to God, but prostrating his face to the floor, 320 P'orty Years in the Church of Christ he cries: "Oh! my God! my God! If Thou art here to hear my cries, have mercy upon me. If Thou canst forgive such a sinner, forgive me. If Thou canst save me. oh do save me. I come to Thee." He had no sooner finished talking these few words, than his heart burst. Torrents of tears rolled on his cheeks. A new name had been written in the book of life, and the angels of God were once more rejoicing in heaven over the conver- sion of a sinner. But let us come back to our dear Christian brother Wadhfim and follow him the rest of his Sabbath day. The meeting in the Y, M. C. A. rooms ended at 4 p. m. Then, turning himself towards me, he said again, with a smile, " Would you be so kind as to accompany me in my visits to our poor, dear sick people?" "With pleasure," I answered. And on we went through the city, drawn, again, by the splendid horses, in his beautiful carriage. By the singular providence of God, the first poor sick man whom we visited was from Montreal, a very dear friend of mine, an Orangeman, who had been wounded when fighting hard one evening to prevent the Roman Catholics from killing me. He was then lying on a bed of suffering; but that bed, with the rest of the house, was a model of neatness. You may imagine his joy and mine, when we met together, there, so far from Canada. On his right hand was his Bible and at his left the Weekly New York Witness, published by a venerable Christian. After spending an hour in that way, exhorting the sick and dying to repentance, and praying with them, we had to come home to take our tea at about six. But this was hardly finished, when my Christian host said, with one of his unique smiles, "I hope you M'ill not rebuke me if I ask you to accompany me to another meeting, where many like to prepare themselves for the evening service by praying and singing. As you will give us the evening address at 7:30, On My Way to Australia 321 you will be on the spot and join with us in these preparatory exercises." I went again with him to this last gathering of Christian men and women, where, for a whole hour, I saw and heard things that filled my heart with joy. Then I gave my address to one of the most crowded and intelligent au- diences before which it has been my privilege to speak of the mercies of God. During the evening service it was still the magnificent voice of our devoted Christian brother which led the choir. It was nearly ten at night when we were back home. I was in fear lest he should look broken down and exhausted after such a day of work. But he never looked so happy and cheerful as at the end of such superhuman labour. He asked me to help him to thank God for His mercies towards us during that day. Oh! when will the day come when, in every city of the United States and Canada, the rich and the wealthy will put themselves at the service of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ as completely as that Mr. Wadham. In 1858, not long after the greatest part of my colony of Illinois had given up the errors of Popery, I heard that one of our most respected families was to leave Kankakee for the coasts of the Pacific, in the state of Oregon. I did all that I could to dissuade them, but in vain. In those days there were no railways to cross the plains; there was no other way but to travel nearly 3,000 miles; a journey which generally occu- pied six months, I put before the eyes of my friend (his name was Joseph Goyette) the dangers of every kind for himself, his wife and young children, not only from the fatigue, but from attacks of wild Indians who were constantly lying in wait for the emigrants, to plunder and kill them. I showed him that he was not only exposing his life, but that he was ruining himself by that long and costly journey. He listened to my observations with a respectful and breathless attention, and answered me: "Mr. Chiniquy, you are right when you say that I expose my life and the very existence of 322 Forty Years in the Church of Christ my family; you are also correct when you say that the ex- pense of crossing that immense territory will ruin mo; but God knows the motives which prompt me to leave this place and go so far away from you, and I hope He will jirotect me. I will tell you those motives: so long that you were faithful to your oaths, and a good priest of Rome, you know I was among your most devoted friends, and noth- ing was more pleasing to me than your presence in my house. I liked your company, and I was among the most punctual, with my family, to attend your church; but now you are an apostate. I know very well that it is your inten- tion to make us all Protestants. My family is already shaken. I feel myself unable to answer your sophisms and resist your efforts. I see only one way of escape from your perverse influ- ence and example. It is to put such a distance between you and me that I shall not hear any more of you. When there will be the whole continent between us, I shall have nothing to fear from your proselytizing efforts. If I lose my fortune, I shall save my faith. If I have to die on the plains of the West, God, who knows why I go there, will give me and my family a better life." Though my heart was broken at the deplorable illusions of that dear friend, I could not but admire his noble sentiments. I left him but day and night I prayed God for him and his family. It seemed that they had become even dearer to me after that conversation. Two or three days before his leaving I paid him a last visit I brought with me a Bible (the Roman Catholic edition, of Sacy), and presented it to him, saying: "My dear Goyette, please accept from me this Bible as a last token of our long friendship. It is a Roman Catholic Bible; you are allowed to read it by your Church." Looking at me, with visible marks of indignation, he answered: " It is because you have too much read that dangerous book that you are lost to=day. I will never read it; you may keep it." These words struck me as if they had been a two-edged sword. I fell on my knees at the feet of my unfortunate On My Way to Australia 323 friend, and with tears trickling down my cheeks, I said: " My dear Goyette, for God's sake, do not refuse such a gift. It is the very testament of our Lord Jesus Christ. Do not re- ject it." By the great mercy of God, my friend, with a trem- bling hand, accepted the gift, and in pressing our hands for the last time, he mingled his tears with mine. One or two days later, he left Kankakee for Oregon; and for many years I heard nothing of him, except that on the way he was at- tacked by Indians, and that his horses and waggons, with his furniture, had been stolen by the merciless savages. But though I heard no news from him, I never passed a day with^ out sending my humble but ardent supplications to the Mercy Seat for that so interesting family. How can I tell you my joy, when twelve years later, I re- ceived a letter from Mrs. Goyette saying: " Help us to bless the Lord for His great mercies towards my husband and my family. We have read the precious Bible you gave us before we left Kankakee, and through that reading, the saving light as it is in Jesus has come to us. We have detected the abominable errors of the Church of Rome, and we have given them up. It is no more to the feet of the priests or the idols of the Pope that we shall go to be saved, but it is to the feet of Jesus. Not only my family have given up the errors of Popery, through that Bible, but a great number of French Canadians who are settled around us are shaken. They say that if you would come and visit uc they would also accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ as the only rule and guide of their lives. Can you not come yourself, or send us a missionary? for we are here like sheep without a shepherd." I have no words to tell you of my joy at the reception of such glorious news. In my answer I promised a visit, if in my power; either to go and visit them myself or send them one of "our missionaries; but insurmountable obstacles had constantly made the accomplishment of my desire impos- sible. Year after year I had to postpone my so desired visit, till 324 Forty Years in the Church of Christ the doctor told me that the best, if not the only, way of reno- vating the strength of my exhausted lungs was to make a long voyage on the Pacific Ocean. One of the principal reasons which determined to turn my steps towards the Pacific Ocean was that it might give me a chance to visit that family, with the numerous neophytes they were preparing to follow Christ. When I was in San Francisco I learned that I had only to travel north 800 miles to reach the settlement of the Goyette family, and that five or six days navigation, on one of the splendid steamers of the Pacific, would land me near the place where they had gone with the hope that they would never hear any more of the apostate Chiniquy, and that they would be forever out of the reach of his pernicious influence. No! you will never have any idea of their joy and mine, when I entered their happy home and knelt with them to thank and bless God for the great things He had done in their midst. I spent thirteen days among those dear countrymen, going, day after day, from house to house, to carry the good tidings of salvation; and I do not exaggerate, when I tell you that these days must be put among the happiest of my life. As the roads were very bad in those new regions, I had to walk the greater part of the time. But to walk through those forests of giant pine-trees, measuring more than twenty=five feet in diame- ter, and whose gum filled the air with such a perfume that one stops at every minute to enjoy and express his admira- tion, is the most pleasant one can imagine. Several times, the road bringing me along the shores of the Cowlitz river, I had only to throw my line for a moment into the water to catch some excellent trout, which were a welcome offering to the families I was visiting. Had I not all the manners of the true apostle of old, when at the setting sun, I was knock- ing at the door of some of those dear countrymen, bearing a Bible in my right hand, and a dozen fishes in my left? What delicious hours— I should better say nights — I spent in explaining the Scriptures and showing the mercies of God who has so much loved us that He has sent His eternal Son, On My Way to Australia 325 Jesus, to save us by dying on Calvary. How can I tell you the breathless attention, the unspeakable joy, of those families in listening to the simple, but so sublime, teachings of the Gospel. And when between two and three o'clock, after mid- night, they were asking me, " What must we do to be saved? We reject forever the errors of Rome, and will accept Jesus as a gift. In that great gift alone we put our trust and sal- vation. Let Jesus, the great gift of God, make us pure with His blood and eternally happy with His Word." Yes! when it became evident to me, not only by their burning words of faith, but by their tears of joy, that salvation had entered into that house just as formerly it did into the house of Zaccheus, and that their conversion was as prompt, as sincere, will you be surprised if I tell you that I was beside myself with joy? CHAPTER XXX On Board Steamer City of Sydney. Honolulu I left San Francisco for Australia on the second day of September, on the magnificent steamer, City of Sydney. That ship is one of the giants of the sea by her size and strength, measuring 334 feet, with engines of 3,000 horse power. She was commanded by Captain Dearborn, one of the most ijolished gentlemen and brave sailors who ever manned a ship. We were about three hundred fifty passengers on board, one hundred fifty of them on the firstclass list. I have never seen anything more solemn and sad than the few moments which preceded our departure. When the first signal was given to those who had followed their friends or relatives to leave and clear the deck, an indescribable scene of desolation took place which would have melted the hardest heart. There were not less than one thousand people on board then, in the midst of whom I was an absolute stranger. As I was perfectly alone, and free to hear and see everything, I chose a commanding place from which, as much as possible, nothing could escape my eyes and my ears. Who can depict the sudden rush of that crowd into the arms of each other, when the whistle had given the orders to leave? Who can tell the tears and sobs, the convulsive embraces and the deso- lating separations of that hour? Here, a tall lady, surrounded by half a dozen children, was bathing with tears the face of her husband as if she had no hope to see him again. There, sisters and brothers were press- ing each other to their bosoms, unable to speak except with their sobs and their cries. A little further on, a young married lady had her face almost buried on the breast of her desolated husband. She could not utter a single word; but 326 On My Way to Australia 327 the rivers of tears which were trickling down her cheeks told me more eloquently than any words that she would have preferred death to such a long separation. Very near to me a beautiful little girl about eight or nine years old was hang- ing convulsively to the neck of her pale and sickly mother, crying: "Dear mother! Dear mother! Oh, do not leave me alone here! I will be dead when you come back! Take me with you, dear mamma! I cannot let you go alone! I will never see you any more! What have I done that you forsake me to-day? You have always been so kind to me!" And the tears of the poor mother were mixed with the tears of her darling child when she was pressing her, evidently for the last time, on her heart. An elder brother, himself bathed in tears, had to take by force his little sister out of his fainting mother's grasiD. Dear little girl! Unfortunate young man! You may weep and cry, it is more than probable that you will never see, any more, your loving mother on this side of the grave; for merciless death has already put on her face the signs of an incurable consumption. Old and young were parting from friends dearer to them than life. No! Never a more touching spectacle can be put before the eyes of a man; and when that man himself has to leave, far away, behind, his own beloved children, his home, his friends, his country, that he fears lest, perhaps, he will never see them again, you may believe me, a very dark cloud comes over that man's soul. Happy is he, then, if, putting his trust in God his Father, he throws himself into His arms, and goes to shed his silent tears at the feet of the One who has said to the dis- tressed children of Adam, "Come unto Me, all ye who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." The distance we had to run from San Francisco to Aus- tralia was more than seven thousand miles, over a sea where myriads of men have already found a watery grave through shoals, rocks, waves and storms, by which thousands of noble ships have been wrecked. In vain the traveler who starts on such a voyage arms himself with a strong courage. In vain 328 Forty Years in the Church of Christ he hopes for the best. A sudden, a terrible vision of wrecks, storms and horrible deaths flashes through his mind in that touching hour. Slowly the giant steamer left her moorings, and with maj- esty she crossed the waters, which bathes the feet of the proud Queen of the Pacific, to turn her bow towards the ocean. In less than half an hour we had passed the Golden Gates of the magnificent port of San Francisco. It was there that, three weeks before, when going to the Cowlitz prairies of Washington Territory, on the steamer Idaho, I was the witness of one of the most sublime and heroic deeds. The sixth of August, we were just entering the Pacific Ocean, when every one on board was struck, as by a thunder^bolt, by the cry: " A man overboard! " And, indeed, there, in the midst of the furious waves, we saw the distressing spectacle of a man struggling to save his life, and calling for help. The rapid steamer was going at full speed, and in a few minutes she had made a serious distance between us and that unfortunate man. The order was immediately given by the captain to stop the engines and launch the life=boat to the sea. But before this could be done, what was our surprise and admiration to see a young man, apparently feeble and powerless, throw down his overcoat, and jump from the upper deck into the foam ing sea to save his perishing fellow=man. Oh! what a spectacle of unsurpassed grandeur and sublimity to see him fighting the furious waves, and swimming with superhuman efPorts after the perishing one. The wind was very stormy and those who have passed the Golden Gates know how terrible and irresistible are the waves of the Pacific on that very spot. Again and again we were terror-struck as we saw, from the deck, those furious waves thundering and roll- ing like mountains over the young hero. Sometimes he disappeared from sight, and we thought he was drowned and forever buried under the roaring billows. It was not surprising to see tears coming down the cheeks of the hardest men, nor to hear the heartfelt cries that came from all- On My Way to Australia 329 both men and women. But suddenly, the hero's head was seen again over the furious waves; he was swimming with all his might to save the drowning stranger. He, really, like a giant, when raising his noble head above the white crests of the furious waves, was fearlessly struggling against the bottomless and raging Pacific Ocean to wrench a victim from its fury. But how our sentiment and admira- tion increased when we learned that that young man was newly married in England and immensely rich. He had then forgotten his fortune, his wife, his friends, his country; he had forgotten himself to save a stranger. But that stranger was a fellow^man — a brother — to him. In vain we cried to him that the unfortunate man whom he was trying to save had sunk down and disappeared for- ever. The noise of the wind and the waves prevented him from hearing anything. He continued to struggle for half an hour till exhausted and out of breath, nearly perishing himself, he was rescued by the life-boat and brought on board. The name of that young English man was Thumburg Cropper. So long as noble England will train her sons to such heroic deeds, she will be worthy to march at the head of the civilized world, and God will make her glorious flag respected and feared on every land and sea. Honolulu, where we landed on the ninth, and stopped ten hours, means, " The Paradise of the Pacific," and it deserves its name. After seven days of seeing nothing but the blue sea and the skies, the traveler feels inexpressible sentiments of pleasure in going around the grand and majestic promontory of Diamond Head, and passing at the foot of the volcanic mountains, which border the ocean, to reach the "Earthly Paradise," which the mighty and merciful God has made there in the very midst of the ocean. Our steamer had to pass very near the coral reef, against which the ocean breaks her mighty waves with a thundering noise from one end of the year to the other, before we entered the narrow passage which 330 Forty Years in the Church of* Christ leads us into the port. I confess, here, my perfect inability to do justice to the subject on which I have to write. One of the first thinjjjs which struck us was a multitude of objects, which we took at first for the heads of big fishes swimming around the shiiD. They moved with such rapidity, plunging and coming to the surface with such amazing ease, that it took some time before I could persuade myself that those were not fishes, but young boys from twelve to eighteen years old. More than fifty twenty=five cent pieces were thrown by ladies and gentlemen from the deck into the deep waters, and not a single one of them was lost. They had hardly touched the surface of the sea when, as quick as lightning, every swimmer plunged and disappeared, making the waters boil over them as if a thousand big stones had been thrown into them. But, within one minute, we were amazed by the sight of the swimmers coming up to the surface with the twenty= five cent pieces between their teeth. At last I took two ten= cent pieces, and threw them over their heads as far as I could, thinking that the smallness of those pieces of money would make it impossible to see and grasp them below the big waves. But in less than half a minute two of the swimmers were laughing on the surface with my ten-cent pieces between their white teeth. " You told me," I said to a gentleman of Honolulu who was among the passengers, "that there are at least 15,000 people in your city; but where are the houses to lodge so many peo- ple? With the exception of the steeples of two churches we see almost nothing but trees." He answered me with a smile. " It is just so. Our houses are invisible. They are so well covered with flowers, and surrounded by shades trees and fruit, that you cannot see them. But come on shore and you will find them." And it was so; those houses were like the humming=bird's nests, concealed behind a real forest of passion flowers, roses, orange, banana and cocoanut trees; algoraba, hibiscus, breadfruit, mango, unirola trees, and other trees and flowers the names of wliich are uidinown to me. Fair On My Way to Australia 33 1 city of the most happy homes! Bright and fragrant blossoms of every clime unite to add charm to this gem of the Pacific. Every one you meet in that city has a smile on his lips, and kind words on his tongue, and a friendly wish in his heart for you. I never saw such cheerful faces, never heard such joyous laughter, never felt my hand pressed with such warm-hearted feeling as in Honolulu. It seems there is a smile on every flower you touch, on every fruit you taste, and in every tree you see. Nay; you see or feel a smile in every breath of air you breathe in Honolulu. The atmosphere is very pure; the air from the sea and the mountains is very fragrant and perfumed. When one is in Honolulu with its heaps of oranges, bananas, watermelons, muskmelons, strawberries, apples, plums, pineapples and cocoanuts, with its air per- fumed by flowers of every hue and color — rose, orange, car- mine, and primroses blue as the sea, or white as snow, — he is tempted to say with Peter: "Lord, it is good for us to be here; let us build here a tabernacle." It is said that these islands were discovered by Captain Cook on the 19th of January, 1778, but it is well proved that the intrepid Spanish sailors, Quiros and Manita, had visited them in 1696. Nevertheless, it is well authenticated that the celebrated Captain Cook was killed on one of these islands, called Hawaii, on the 14th of February, 1779, a few days after having consented to be worshiped as a god by the heathen inhabitants in one of their temples. But if these islands are remarkable for their incomparable beauty, salu- brity of climate, the incredible fertility of their soil, the almost infinite variety of their fruits, and the unsurpassed grandeur and magnificence of their sceneries, and the terrible and almost daily eruptions of volcanoes of their mountains, they are still more remarkable for the marvelous evangelical work which has made them Christian, to day, when they were all plunged into the darkest night of idolatry only seventy years ago. The history of the conversion of that nation is one of the most admirable pages of the history of the Church 332 Korty Years in the Church of Christ of Christ. It has been my privilege to be the guest of one of the apostles of that nation, the venerable Mr. S. C. Damon, and I have heard from the very lips of that apostle of the islands the following thrilling facts. I am sorry that I can- not enter into the details of that marvelous transformation. I must content myself to give a few extracts of the memoirs of one of the gospel ministers whom God had chosen for the instruments of His mercies towards that nation. The islanders cast off their idolatry in 1819, but it was not till 1835 that Mr. and Mrs. Coan arrived in Hilo, where Mr. and Mrs. Lyman had been working day and night for some time, and had produced a marked change in the social and religious condition of the people. Mr. Coan was a fervid speaker and a strong man morally and physically. There were 15,000 natives, then, in the district of Hilo, and its extremities were one hundred miles apart. As there were no horses, the whole distance had to be traveled on foot or in canoes, which could not be done without perils of every kind to limbs and life. He had sometimes to climb with his hands and feet, or to be let down by ropes from tree to tree and from crag to crag in the mountainous district. Many times he swam across the rivers with a rope to prevent him from being carried away. His smaller weekly number of sermons was six or seven, and the larger from twenty = five to forty. Before the end of the year Mr. and Mrs. Coan had made the circuit of Hawaii, a foot and canoe trip of 300 miles, in which he nearly suffered canoe wreck twice. In all, he had admitted into the Christian Church, by baptism, 12,000, besides 4,000 infants. But let us hear him speaking, himself, of the first com- munion he administered to his dear converts: " The old and decrepit, the lame, the blind, the maimed, the paralytic, and those afflicted with diverse diseases and torments, those with eyes, noses, lips and limbs consumed, with features distorted and figures deformed and loathsome, came hobbling upon their staves, or led and borne by others, to the table of the On My Way to Australia ^^3 Lord. Among the strong, you might have seen the hoary priest of idolatry, with hands but recently washed from the blood of human victims, together with thieves, adulterers, highway robbers, murderers and mothers whose hands reeked with the blood of their own children. It seemed like one of the crowds the Saviour gathered, and on which He pronounced the words of healing." Now, let me give the history of the conversion of one of the most celebrated and blood-thirsty priests of the idols, in the simple but so interesting language of Mr. Coan: "That priest was six feet five inches in height, and his sister, who was co=ordinate with him in authority, had a scarcely inferior altitude. His chief business was to keep Pele appeased — Pele being the goddess of the Volcanoes, the most merciless and revengeful goddess of the world. He lived on the shore, but went often to the top of the volcano Kilanea with sacri- fices. If a human victim were needed, he had only to point to a native, and the unfortunate wretch was at once strangled. He was not only the embodiment of heathen piety, but of heathen crimes; robbery was his pastime. His temper was so fierce and so marked that no native dared to tread in his shadow; for treading on his shadow was immediate death to the guilty one. More than once he had killed a man for the sake of food and clothes not worth fifty cents. He was a thoroughly wicked savage. Curiosity attracted him into one of our Christian meetings, and the giant fell under the resist- less, mysterious influence which was metamorphosing thou- sands of Hawaiians. ' I have been deceived,' he said, ' and I have deceived others; I have lived in darkness, and did not know the true God. I worshiped what was not God. I re- nounce it all. The true God has come. He speaks. I bow down to Him. I wish to be His son.' "The'priestess, his sister, came soon afterwards, and they remained here several months, for their instruction. They were then about seventy years old, but they imbibed the spirit of the New Testament so thoroughly that they became 334 Forty Years in the Church of Christ as