THE CONFESSIONAL by J. A. Wylie

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 9, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 47.

THE CONFESSIONAL.

By J. A. Wylie

The confessional is an ancient institution, suffered to languish in the last century, but which is again starting into new life, working with greater intensity and daily widening its range. Think of that tribunal, set up in every city, in every family, high and low, and in every bosom, and you will see what a power there is here to mould society, to write on the conscience of Europe the doctrines of the syllabus. And think of the moral weakness of the men and women of Popish countries, their manliness and virtue sapped by the teachings of their church, and their patriotism and loyalty undermined by the pretended divine supremacy of the spiritual over the temporal power. Such a population is powerless to resist the organization and wiles of Rome. As clay in the hands of the potter, so are such men and women in the hands of the confessor.

The revival of pilgrimages is another sign of our times, prognosticating trouble. Nothing is better fitted to fan into a flame the fanaticism of the masses of Popish Europe, than these pilgrimages. Lines of pilgrims on the roads of Europe have, in former times, been the sure prelude of the march of armies for the extirpation of heresy. Nothing is easier than to transform a band of devotees, with rosary and palmer-staff, into a host of crusaders, who recite their breviary, or sing their aves, clad in shirt of mail, and begirt with consecrated sword for the rooting out of heresy. A signal from the Vatican, and lo! where pilgrims are now seen every summer wending their way in peaceful guise to some favorite shrine, armed warriors would be seen marching to fight the battles of the church.—Rev. J. A. Wylie, LL.D., of Edinburgh.