Royalty, Ritual, and the Decline of Simplicity
There was a time when the people of this country were not particularly struck with the tawdry pageantry of royalty or paganized religion. But that day is past. The trappings of royalty wherever displayed always reveal that the spirit of democratic equality is passing away by the increasing admiration and imitation they always excite. And now the ornate service of the Roman Church finds increasingly its admirers and imitators. Rome well knows how to pander to this taste in humanity. Her winter school just opening at New Orleans, with an imposing pontifical celebration, with two cardinals in attendance, is an illustration of this. Jesus, the Man of Calvary, if he were here would be considered too plain. Would that mankind loved the simplicity and beauty of the intrinsic worth of truth.