some
friends of the patient are there, whose scrutinizing eyes and attentive
ears make it _impossible_ for the physician to say or do any improper
thing.

But, when the poor deluded spiritual patient comes to be treated by her
so-called spiritual physician, and shows him her diseases, is she not
alone--shamefully alone--with him? Where are the protecting ears of the
husband, the father, the mother, the sisters, or the friends? Where is the
barrier interposed between this sinful, weak, tempted, and often depraved
man and his victim?

Would the priest so freely ask _this_ and _that_ from that married woman,
if he knew that the husband could hear him? No, surely not; for he is well
aware that the enraged husband would blow out the brains of the villain
who, under the sacrilegious pretext of purifying the soul of his wife, is
filling her honest heart with every kind of pollution and infamy.

Fifthly, When the physician performs a delicate operation on one of his
female patients, the operation is usually accompanied with pain, cries, and
often with bloodshed. The sympathetic and honest physician suffers almost
as much pain as his patient; those cries, acute pains, tortures, and
bleeding wounds make it morally impossible that the physician should be
tempted to any improper thing.

But the sight of the spiritual wounds of that fair penitent! Is the poor
depraved human heart really sorry to see and examine them? Oh, no! it is
just the contrary!

The dear Saviour weeps over those wounds; the angels are distressed at the
sight. Yes. But the deceitful and corrupt heart of man, is it not rather
apt to be pleased at the sight of wounds which are so much like the ones he
has himself, so often been pleased to receive from the hand of the enemy?

Was the heart of David pained and horror-struck at the sight of the fair
Bath-sheba, when imprudently and too freely exposed in her bath? Was not
that holy prophet smitten and brought down to the dust by that guilty look?
Was not the mighty giant, Samson, undone by the charms of Delilah? Was not
the wise Solomon ensnared and befooled in the midst of the women by whom he
was surrounded?

Who will believe that the bachelors of the Pope are made of stronger metal
than the Davids, the Samsons, and the Solomons? Where is the man who has so
completely lost his common sense as to believe that the priests of Rome are
stronger than Samson, holier than David, wiser than Solomon? Who will
believe