Free Opinions, Freely Expressed on Certain Phases of Modern Social Life and ConductCorelli, Marie
Religion
Free Opinions, Freely Expressed on Certain Phases of Modern Social Life and Conduct
Corelli, Marie
English essays -- 20th century; Great Britain -- Social life and customs -- 20th century
France will not have the Jesuits; may it be asked why _we_ are to have
them? It is England’s proud privilege to be an international workhouse
for all the decrepit of the world, and for this cause a happy hunting
ground is open to Rome among these same decrepit. There is no creed in
the world which is better adapted for those who are morally weak, and
frightened of themselves. All the millionaires who have gotten their
goods by fraud, can, by leaving the greater part of these goods to
Rome, secure a reserved seat in Rome’s Heaven, with a special harp and
crown. All the women with “soul-affinities” other than lawful, can,
after a considerable wallow in social mire, enter the Church of Rome,
and, after confession, be “cleansed” sufficiently to begin again a new
life, approved of the saints. All the spiritualists and faith-healers
can find support for their theories with Rome,--and the Roman hell,
full of large snakes and much brimstone, is a satisfactory place
to consign one’s enemies to, when we have quite put aside Christ’s
command, “Love one another.” Altogether Romanism is calculated to
appeal to a very large majority of persons through the sensuous and
emotional beauty of its ritual;--it is a kind of heavenly narcotic
which persuades the believer to resign his own will into the hypnotic
management of the priests. The church is made gorgeous with soft lights
and colours,--glorious music resounds through the building, and the
mind drowses gently under the influence of the Latin chanting, which
we need not follow unless we like,--we are permitted to believe that
a large number of saints and angels are specially looking after us,
and that the sweet Virgin Mary is ever ready with outstretched hands
to listen to all our little griefs and vexations. It is a beautiful
and fascinating Creed, hallowed by long antiquity, graced by deeds
of romance and chivalry, sanctified by the memories of great martyrs
and pure saints, and even in these degenerate days, glorified by
the noble-hearted men and women who follow it without bigotry or
intolerance, doing good everywhere, tending the sick, comforting the
sorrowful, and gathering up the little children into their protecting
arms, even as Jesus Himself gathered them. It would need an angel’s pen
dipped in fire, to record the true history of a faithful, self-denying
priest of the Roman Church, who gives up his own advantage for the sake
of serving others,--who walks fearlessly into squalid dens reeking
with fever, and sets the pure Host between the infected lips of the
dying,--who combats with the Demon of Drink, and drags up the almost
lost reprobate out of that horrible chasm of vice and destruction.
No one could ever give sufficient honour to such a man for all the
immense amount of good he does, unostentatiously and without hope of
reward. But many men like himself exist equally in the English Church
as the Roman,--in the Presbyterian Church, in the Greek Church, in the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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