"You have set yourself against the usurer, but the world will practise usury, and you practise usury with the world. Thus are you the ape and the servant of the world. "Where you have rivals, you show yourself discreet; but where you are without competitors, there as ever you corrupt the land. "You follow after the world, as a captive shark follows a sailing ship. You turn and twist, but the world points out the way--not you. "Like a kettle tied by mischievous boys to the tail of a dog, so do you rattle with hollow menaces behind the course of the world. You scare, but do not guide. "Yes, you strive against the sanctifying of the world, for with your hands you would conceal the godlike fire of knowledge; but the flame bursts through your fingers, and consumes you. "What have you done for the sheep committed to your care--for the poor and bereaved--for the oppressed and the disinherited? "Submission you have taught them--ay--submission to Mammon. You have taught them to bow meekly to Satan. "God's light--the light of knowledge--you have withheld from them. Woe be to you! "You have taught them to beg, and to kiss the rod that smote them. You have cloaked the shame of alms-receiving, and have prated of honor in servitude. "Thus have you humbled man, and disfigured the human soul. "With the fruit of their hands you have decorated your churches and adorned your unworthy bodies. "You have aroused the devil in the heart--the devil of fear--fear of hell and everlasting punishment. The aspiration of the free heart toward God you have deadened; and with indulgences and the confessional have you lulled the waking conscience. "Of the love of the Father you have made commerce--a sinful merchandise. Not because you love virtue do you preach it, but because of the sweet profit. You promise deliverance to all who follow your counsel; but as well can you make a present of moon and stars. "Are you not told to recompense evil with good? And is God less than man that He should do otherwise? "It is well for you that He does not do otherwise, for where then were your salvation? "For you, and you only, are the brood of vipers against whom is kindled the wrath of Him who was gentle with adulterers and murderers." * * * * * While speaking, the man had risen to his full height, and he now appeared, to all there assembled, impressively tall. When he had spoken, reaching his right hand backward he grasped the foot of the great golden crucifix. It snapped off like glass, and he threw it on the marble floor at the feet of the priest. The fragment broke into many bits. It was apparently not wood, but plaster. "Sacrilege!" cried the priest, in a stifled voice, as if the sound were wrung from his throat. His eyes seemed to be starting out of his great purple face. The man quietly replied: "No, but my right; for you are the sacrilegist and the blasphemer who makes of the Son of man a hideous caricature."