Thirty Years In Hell | Page 6

bands of iniquity and walk out upon the plains of Protestantism, regardless of the deep feelings of respect that I had for my early training.
If God is an intelligent God, then we are expected to worship Him in an intelligent manner, and if he is not an intelligent God, it is impossible for Him to be a God, and if the Lord of Hosts is an intelligent Creator and expects us, as His children, to worship Him in an intelligent manner, the Catholic Church and all of her followers are sinning against God every day, as her mode of worship is steeped in the drugs of heathenish superstitions.
In this volume I propose to set forth nothing but absolute truths, and I call upon an intelligent God for my witness, and I am qualified to make oath before any official that is qualified to bind me under oath that every word that appears in this volume shall be the truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God.
I will give $5,000.00 to any charitable institution named by any state of the United States if any Catholic priest, bishop or cardinal will prove by any of their church doctrines that I have misstated or misrepresented the teachings of Catholicism in any letter, word or sentence.
I want to thoroughly impress the reader with the truthfulness of this volume, so when he or she has perused these pages they may know that it has been written by one who has served in the capacity of a Catholic priest for the past thirty years, but who, to-day, stands out upon the broad plains of spiritual emancipation, and from this time forward will always be found upon the side of spiritual liberty and following the doctrines of an intelligent God, and when my earthly race is run I hope and pray to be ushered into the presence of an intelligent God.
[Illustration: "THE TWO INSPIRATIONS." PROTESTANTISM looks to the Holy Bible for Wisdom--CATHOLICISM to the Pope!]
Chapter II.
Some of the Abominations of Catholicism Carried On in the Name of Blessed Saviour.
What I will now relate is not hear-say nor something that I have read about, but it is something that I know about, and which I witnessed.
It is a well-known fact that Catholicism endeavors to impress her subjects with the miraculousness of latter day miracles, as she will hold up the bones of some supposed Catholic Saint, and declare to her benighted followers that if they worship these relics, they will work wonders and cure the ailment of any affliction they may be possessed of.
For instance, they will take the bone of some Catholic Saint (?) and admonish the followers of Catholicism to touch this bone, or to kiss it, and declare to them that by so doing they will become entirely cured of any malady that may rack their person with misery.
In fact, Catholicism will resort to all kinds of nonsensical practices in order to completely keep their subjects in darkest ignorance, which will enable the officials to "hoodwink" their followers and make them believe anything the officials see fit to teach them.
I will now relate what I saw in Munster, Germany. The news spread all through Germany that the "Mother Superior" of the house of Saint Clement was living upon "Holy Communion" only.
Now that the reader may understand what "Holy Communion" is, I will here state that it is a thin wafer, used for sacramental purposes, which would not weigh more than the one-hundredth part of an ounce, and this is what they claimed the Mother Superior of the house of Saint Clement was existing upon, she only taking one of these wafers every twenty-four hours.
Of course, this was given out by the dignitaries of the Catholic Church in order to blind their followers, and I desire to state right here that I also believed that this was the fact until it was demonstrated thoroughly that it was an infamous lie and that the instigators were infamous impostors. However, pilgrimages started from all directions to see this "Mother Superior," and when they could not see her, they fought for the opportunity of praying in her chapel. Some stayed for weeks and weeks to see her. Applications for intercessions of all kinds of misery were sent to her, as these simple "dupes" of Catholicism actually believed that this impostor had the power to heal any ailment that might afflict them.
There were thousands of fanatics who visited Munster and hung their crutches on the chapel walls and declared they were cured of their ailment. The blind claimed to see by her intercessions. It was claimed that all, possessed of every kind and description of ailments, could be cured if the one who was afflicted only had faith in this Mother Superior's wonderful power?
"The finger of God is