Danger in the Dark - ZseZse

244 DANGER IN THE DARK.
wretchedly poor, and the country -overrun with banditti-revolutions
and insurrections of frequent occurrenee!
Spain stands before the world an instructive I
example of the withering, ruinous and damning infl.u~
ence of Popery. I need not go further-casting your
eye over the map of the world, you will find, that
wherever Romanism has put down her foot, there
misery, darkness and degradation appear. Shall the
iron heel of the hideous monster be brought down
upon American institutions 1 Most unquestionably,
Romanism is seeking to make this country what Italy
is. Do you doubt it 1 Allow me to read you a brief
extract from the last bull of his Holiness the Pope,
addressed to the Bishops and other clergy in America.
It runs thus:
" 'General education promotes infidelity, and checks
the progress of Catholicity; Bible Societies are engines
of mischief; the freedom of the press is a most
foul plague; liberty of conscience a prolific source of
heresy and crime! Demolish these, and Catholicism
has nothing to fear in America.'
"Do such sentiments look friendly to the institutions
of this country, the principles of Republicanism
and the genius of our government 1"
"You, perhaps, too much overlook the fact, that
Papists in the United States, particularly the Olergy,
are very different from what they are in most other
countries."
" I know they are different, at least so in outward
act ; and wherefore j for a very good reason-they are