ho wore the blue, tells
us that if war should break again upon the country, the sons of Virginia
and Massachusetts would, as in the olden days, stand once more shoulder
to shoulder, with no distinction in the colors that they wear. It is
fraught with tidings of peace on earth, and you may read its meaning in
the words on yonder picture, "Liberty and union, now and forever, one
and inseparable!"

CORRUPTION OF PRELATES

GIROLAMO SAVONAROLA

When the demon sees that man is weak he gives him a blow with a hatchet,
to make him fall into sin, but when he sees him strong he strikes him
down with an axe. If there be a young woman, honest and well brought up,
he sets an immoral youth near her, and with all kinds of flattery
deceives her, and makes her fall into sin. Here the devil has dealt a
blow with an axe. Here is an honorable citizen, he enters the courts of
the great lords; there is the axe, and so well sharpened, that no
strength of virtue can resist it. But we are in these days in a sadder
plight; the demon has called his followers for the harvest, and has
struck terrible blows upon the doors of the temple. The doors are those
which lead into the house, and the prelates are those who should lead
the faithful into the church of Christ. It is because of this that the
devil has dealt his great blows, and broken the doors to pieces. It is
for this that good pastors are no longer to be found in the church. Do
ye not perceive that they are bringing everything to ruin? They have no
judgment. They can make no distinction between good and evil, between
truth and falsehood, between sweet and bitter. Things good appear to
them evil, things true to them false, the sweet are to them bitter, the
bitter sweet. Ye see prelates prostrating themselves before earthly
affections and earthly things; they no longer lay to heart the care of
souls; it is enough for them if they receive their incomes; the sermons
of their preachers are composed to please princes, and be magnified by
them. But something worse yet remains; not only have they destroyed the
church of God, but have erected one according to a fashion of their own.
This is the modern church, no longer built with living stones, that is,
by Christians established in a living faith, and so formed of love. Go
to Rome and through all Christendom, in the houses of the great prelates
and the great lords, nothing is thought of but poetry and the art of
oratory.

Go and see, and y