use which
_was_ toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz.

15 Then said he unto me, Hast thou seen _this_, O Son of man? turn thee yet
again, _and_ thou shalt see greater abominations than these.

16 And he brought me into the inner court of the LORD'S house, and, behold,
at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar,
_were_ about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the
LORD, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward
the east.

17 Then he said unto me, Hast thou seen _this_, O Son of man? Is it a light
thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they
commit here? for they have filled the land with violence, and have returned
to provoke me to anger; and, lo, they put the branch to their nose.

18 Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither
will I have pity; and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, _yet_
will I not hear them.

* * * * *

CHAPTER I.

THE STRUGGLE BEFORE THE SURRENDER OF WOMANLY SELF-RESPECT IN THE
CONFESSIONAL.

* * * * *

There are two women who ought to be the constant objects of the compassion
of the disciples of Christ, and for whom daily prayers ought to be offered
at the mercy-seat--the Brahmin woman, who, deceived by her priests, burns
herself on the corpse of her husband to appease the wrath of her wooden
gods; and the Roman Catholic woman, who, not less deceived by her priests,
suffers a torture far more cruel and ignominious in the confessional-box to
appease the wrath of her wafer-god.

For I do not exaggerate when I say that for many noble-hearted,
well-educated, high-minded women to be forced to unveil their hearts before
the eyes of a man, to open to him all the most sacred recesses of their
souls, all the most sacred mysteries of their single or married life, to
allow him to put to them questions which the most depraved woman would
never consent to hear from her vilest seducer, is often more horrible and
intolerable than to be tied on burning coals.

More than once I have seen women fainting in the confessional-box, who told
me, afterwards, that the necessity of speaking to an unmarried man on
certain things, on which the most common laws of decency ought to have for
ever sealed their lips, had almost killed them! Not hundreds, but thousands
of times I have hea