It were superfluous here to attempt the proof of this position by a long-winded, learned treatise. The fruits of the Romish Hierarchy have been proving it for centuries, and it is in the power of every man to convince himself, who wishes to be convinced. Or is it perhaps in consequence of the _blessings_ emanating from Rome, that a portion, and not a small one, of our people, languish in the most abject poverty?! while another portion, and within it many preachers of religion, especially the higher prelates, are rolling in superfluous wealth? Are these the fruits of a Church in which alone is salvation, that some should be kept by spiritual oppression and ignorance in superstition and insensibility, and even degraded to a level with the brutes, in order that others, and among them many consecrated servants of the Pope, may be the lords and drivers of the dishonoured horde! How then can the injunction of love to our neighbour find a place in such a Christian Church, in such a society of Christians? Where then is the succour of alone-saving Rome, amid so deep spiritual degradation, amid so great bodily want among our people? Where is the practical working of brotherly-love! where does she labour for the elevation and improvement of the people! Where is the right understanding of the Lord's Supper, the feet-washing! and where the living exemplification of so many others of the essential doctrines of the New Testament? Has it not all degenerated into form and pretence! Has not religion been degraded to a system of usury and hypocrisy, which aims alone at the enriching and aggrandizement of the Church of Rome! The Church, as the Romish Hierarchy exhibits and teaches, is but a phantom of falsehood and dissimulation, which floats unseen above the nations, keeping them in constant dread and blind obedience. Hence comes the alienation from the priests, the horror and bitterness of feeling unanimously entertained by the considerate and right-thinking portion of mankind, towards the so-called Romish Church! And the animosity is well deserved; for what efforts do the priesthood make for the temporal and spiritual amelioration of the suffering people? The greater number of them pass coldly by, as the priests and Levites passed by the poor Samaritan of old. We grant that hundreds of the priests are not aware, or are careful to avoid the knowledge of the game they play, and the Power they serve as blinded instruments. They speak, His true, of the spirit of _reconciliation_ and the _Church_, but they halt by the dead letter. They know not, and they do not desire to know, that _the Church means all mankind, and mankind here on earth!_ That the need of reconciliation is indeed most pressing, for mankind in its present condition--I mean a reconciliation and approximation of the educated and uneducated, the moral and immoral, portions of mankind. Yea, more, I mean a reconciliation between the rich and the needy portions of humanity. This