he Pope has sacrilegiously written the word "Life" on
that cup of "Death." She has believed the Pope: the terrible mystery of
iniquity is accomplished!

"The mystery of iniquity doth already work ... whose coming is after the
working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all
deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they
received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this
cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure
in unrighteousness" (2 Thess. ii. 7-12).

Yes: the day that the rich, well-educated lady gives up her self-respect,
and unconditionally surrenders the citadel of womanly modesty into the
hands of a man, whatever be his name or titles, that he may freely put to
her questions of the vilest character which she must answer, she is lost
and degraded, just as if she were the humblest and poorest servant-girl.

I purposely say "the rich and well-educated woman," for I know that there
is a prevalent opinion that the social position of her class places her
above the corrupting influences of the confessional, as if she were out of
reach of the common miseries of our poor fallen and sinful nature.

So long as the well-educated lady makes use of her accomplishments to
defend the citadel of her womanly self-respect against the foe--so long as
she sternly keeps the door of her heart shut against her deadly enemy--she
is safe. But let no one forget this: she is safe only so long as she does
_not_ surrender. When the enemy is once master of the place, I emphatically
repeat, the ruinous consequences are as great, if not greater, and more
irreparable than in the lowest classes of society. Throw a piece of
precious gold into the mud, and tell me if it will not plunge deeper than
the piece of rotten wood.

What woman could be nobler, purer, and stronger than Eve when she came from
the hands of her Divine Creator? But how quickly she fell when she gave ear
to the seducing voice of the tempter! How irreparable was her ruin when she
complacently looked on the forbidden fruit, and believed the lying voice
which told her there was "_no sin_" in eating of it!

I solemnly, in the presence of the great God who ere long will judge me,
give my testimony on this grave subject. After 25 years' experience in the
confessional, I declare that the confessor himself enco