Within the limits of the church nothing is to be hoped for, nor can anything be expected, except the greedy grasping of the hard-earned money of the ignorant laboring classes, the fanatical devotees, to sustain and uphold a mercenary priesthood, a rotten supernatural system that has proved so pernicious to mankind. Europe, at one time the rich pasture for the holy Roman Catholic apostolic church, no longer pours the milk and honey into the supreme pontiff's lap as of yore. In a letter dated "Rome, Feb. 3d," Ledochowski writes of Leo XIII.'s solicitude for the good of religion in these parts: "The supreme pontiff has many reasons of sadness on account of the distresses which the impudent endeavors of wicked men are trying to bring upon Christianity, especially in Europe. On the other hand, it is a great consolation to him to see the increase of Catholicism, with God's aid, elsewhere in the world." Of course Ledochowski signifies the pope's great admiration for the wonderful resources--for this flourishing, prolific, and generous American milch-cow. The Roman administration, with that marvelous business tact so characteristic of that church, turns its tender attention, with all its pontifical flummery and grotesque maneuvers, to insinuate its methods upon this republic, to overawe us with a blaze of stupefaction, profounder ignorance and superstition, by honoring America with a resident tax-collector, and to save Gods, their divinities, with the Christ, Holy Ghost, Virgin Immaculate, saints, angels, and all the other theological absurdities. Is it not high time for man and woman to learn that their dependence on any supernatural aid is futile, their prayers and appeals to an imaginary God worse than useless, their cringing fear for the so-called sacred authority cowardly, their submission to priestly rule and authority slavish, and the inculcating of biblical church lore stupefying? Is it not time for man and woman to comprehend themselves, their powers, the uses of their several organs, their functions, and the natural laws that govern them? That ideas, thought, consciousness, intellect, understanding, imagination, knowledge, etc., etc., are but the functions of nervous matter? That everything we know, have discovered, developed, or produced, is the natural product of nerve tissue. In reviewing the history of this theologico-ecclesiastical organization--this Jehovistic Christianized system, from the very beginning to the present time, we find that this many-shaded, ever-changeable, greedy, grasping creed has done during the four thousand years of its existence a vast amount of mischief and little or no good. It had to be civilized instead of civilizing. Instead of elevating their followers, priests rather made every effort to keep them in subjection, steeped in ignorance and superstition.