The _décousu_ principles of the day can hardly be carried farther than this. A rope of sand is the only fitting emblem for a congregation so constituted; and, like a rope of sand, it must of necessity fall asunder, for there is no principle of union to prevent it. After I had finished my studies on the subject, I heard a sermon preached in the church,--not, however, by M. l'Abbé Auzou, who was ill, but by the same person with whom we had conversed at the _Secrétariat_. His sermon was a strong exposition of the abuses practised by the clergy of the Church of Rome,--a theme certainly more fertile than new. In reading some of the most celebrated discourses of the Abbé Auzou, I was the most struck with one entitled--"Discours sur les Plaisirs Populaires, les Bals, et les Spectacles." The text is from St. Matthew,--"Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest ... for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." In this singular discourse, among some things that are reasonable, and more that are plausible, it is impossible to avoid seeing a spirit of lawless uncontrol, which seems to breathe more of revolution than of piety. I am no advocate for a Judaical observance of the Sabbath, nor am I ignorant of the fearful abuses which have arisen from man's daring to arrogate to himself a power vested in God alone,--the power of forgiving the sins of man. The undue authority assumed by the sovereign pontiff of Rome is likewise sufficiently evident, as are many other abuses justly reprobated in the sermons of the Abbé Auzou. Nevertheless, education, observation, and I might say experience, have taught me that religion requires and demands that care, protection, and government which are so absolutely essential to the well-being of every community of human beings who would unite together for one general object. To talk of a self-governing church, is just as absurd as to talk of a self-governing ship, or a self-governing family. It should seem, by the reprobation expressed against the severity of the Roman Catholic clergy in these sermons, as well as from anecdotes which I have occasionally heard in society, that the Church of Rome and the Church of Calvin are alike hostile to every kind of dissipation, and that at the present moment they have many points of discipline in common--at least as respects the injunctions laid upon their congregations respecting their private conduct. M. l'Abbé Auzou says, in speaking of revolutionary reforms,--