Books and other items printed in Gaelic from 1871 to 1900 > Feamaim Earraghaidhiell = Argyllshire seaweed

86 BIBLE SOCIETY.
treasure to which it opens—what shall we say ? Let
us not look on it in anger, although it may well
provoke it, when we think of the fields of blood, the
massacres of Languedoc, Piedmont, and the Nether¬
lands, the stakes of England and the fagots of Spain,
the circumcision of St. Bartholemew ! Alas for the
blindness of humanity! Nay, was not our Blessed
Lord Himself the victim of this attempt to maintain
spiritual truth by force ? It was in defence of Moses
and the prophets, as he thought no doubt, that the
High Priest delivered up Jesus to Herod, calling in
the secular arm of his day, even as now we see another
" Herod" (as Louis Napoleon has been called by a
Roman bishop) called in by another High Priest.
But I would not dwell so much upon this subject
were it not that the Papacy is the great representation
and embodiment of the conception that spiritual truth
may be established by force, or ascertained by mechan¬
ical methods,—a system which now finds favour, alas !
among ourselves. But can it be so ! Is it so known ?
Alas ! I remember when I lived in Rome being much
pressed by a friend, who was in intimacy with the Pope,
to go and see His Holiness; for, he said, "he is head of
the Christian religion." "Then," said I, "I shall go,
for I wish to ascertain much on the nature of the
Atonement."—"Ah, but," said my friend, "he does
not know about that—he does not know about these
things—but he will tell you where to go for them."—
"Ah," said I in return, "then I need not go."—"You
should go," he said, " however."—" Why," I asked.—
" Oh, because he is so very agreeable ; he is quite
charming." I do not doubt a good man, the victim of