ols of any
kind. There are thousands of the people whose homes can be reached only
by bridle-paths. They lack schools, roads and railroads. Seventy-six per
cent of the children and youth are unable to read and write. In Spain,
Mexico and South America, Romanism has proven itself to be, but little
more than a pious form of paganism, an oppressive and widespread relic
of ancient, pagan Rome.

During the two hundred years preceding the Revolution in France no one
was ever persecuted for being an atheist, deist, infidel or Roman
catholic, but all of these united in suppressing the general use of the
Bible and the presence of Bible readers, to the great injury of the
public welfare. If that country had not foolishly and wickedly
exterminated the people, that were fast becoming Bible readers at the
time of the Reformation, it would no doubt have been saved from many of
the blind and bloody scenes of the period of the Revolution.

Romanism, by suppressing the Bible, encourages ignorance, superstition
and bigotry. It also tends to break down the sanctity of the Sabbath as
the Lord's day; winks at the liquor traffic, and by its confessional
strikes at the very foundation of free manhood, freedom of thought and
liberty of conscience.

This contrast, shows clearly that Romanism, whatever good it may have
done, is now many centuries behind the times. This is a very serious
defect. It has the Bible, a Latin version called the Vulgate which it
claims as its own. It has the New Testament and for that reason it is
classed as a christian religion. It has however, opposed and suppressed
the reading of the Bible by the people, lest the spread of intelligence,
through a personal knowledge of its contents, would lessen the respect
and obedience of the people to the false claims of the pope, clerical
orders and priesthood.

Several generations of slave holders in this country gave this same
reason, as a good one for not providing educational facilities for their
slaves, fearing that intelligence, which greatly increases the value of
the workman, would tend to lessen their authority over them. It serves
to illustrate the old worn-out adage, that "might makes right," instead
of the newer and better one, "God is with the right."

The ability to rule, in both cases, is based on the ignorance, instead
of the intelligence of the subject. When thus expressed in plain words,
it certainly does not sound very creditable, or as if it were the best