ter their friend
had left them. On rising from their knees, they decided not to make the
attempt to escape.

"We cannot flee from the country, and the alguazils of the Inquisition
can as easily find us at our house as in the city of Valladolid, should
they suspect us of holding to the true faith," said Antonio, calmly.
"Our Heavenly Father knows what is best, and He may require us to
testify to the truth of the doctrine we have learned of Him through the
teaching of the Holy Spirit, and let us rejoice rather than grieve if we
are so honoured. Oh, my beloved Leonor, be firm, whatever happens;
cling to the truth as it is in Christ Jesus. Never allow that saint in
heaven or priest on earth has the power to come between us and our one
great loving Mediator, who stands at the right hand of God, pleading
that He paid once and for all a full and complete ransom for us. Never
acknowledge that by the word of a man bread and wine can be changed into
the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, of that Lord who is now in
heaven, standing at the right hand of God, pleading that body broken,
that blood flowing freely for all of us; pleading that all-sufficient,
all-perfect, all-complete sacrifice made once, and never to be repeated,
on Calvary. Never dishonour that Saviour, that precious blood-shedding,
by acknowledging that it was insufficient to wash away all stains of
sin, and that the fires of purgatory are required to cleanse the soul
from sin, and to make it pure and holy, and fit to enter the presence of
God. Oh, never acknowledge that any being in heaven or in earth has a
heart more loving, more gentle, more merciful than the heart of Jesus,
or that there exists a being, create or uncreate, who will more
willingly hear our prayers, and bear them to the throne of grace--not
even His mortal mother, who, though blessed among women, herself
required, as being a daughter of Adam, to be sprinkled by His blood to
obtain salvation. Do not own that sinful man, though he be called a
priest, can absolve his fellow-sinner from sin, or that prayers can
avail for those who have passed away without accepting the perfect
salvation offered them here on earth. Die rather than be guilty of that
gross idolatry of worshipping the elements of bread and wine, unchanged
and unchangeable as they must ever be; and above all things hold fast to
God's blessed testament to fallen man, and refuse to acknowledge any
doctrine which cannot be clearl