"Come out with me and minister with your own hands to the aged and
dying!" pursued Manuel, "And so shall you grow young! Command that
the great pictures, the tapestries, the jewels, the world's trash of
St. Peter's, be sold to the rich, who can afford to set them in free
and open places where all the poorest may possess them! But do not
You retain them! You do not need them--your treasure must be
sympathy for all the world! Not ONE section of the world,--not ONE
form of creed,--but for all!--if you are truly the Dispenser of
Christ's Message to the earth! Come--unprotected, save by the Cross!
Come with no weapon of defence--'heal the sick, cleanse the lepers,
raise the dead, cast out devils! Freely ye have received, freely
give! Provide neither gold nor silver nor brass in your purse,'--
come, and by your patience--your gentleness--your pardon--your love
to all men, show that 'the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!' Walk
fearless in the thick of battles, and your very presence shall
engender peace! For the Holy Spirit shall surround and encompass
you; the fiercest warriors shall bend before you, as they never
would if you assumed a world's throne or a world's sovereignty!
Come, uncrowned, defenceless;--but strong in the Spirit of God!
Think of all the evil which has served as the foundation for this
palace in which you dwell! Can you not hear in the silence of the
night, the shrieks of the tortured and dying of the Inquisition? Do
you never think of those dark days, ten and twelve hundred years
after Christ, when no virtue seemed left upon the earth?--when the
way to this very throne was paved by poison and cold steel?--when
those who then reigned here, and occupied Your place, led such
infamous lives that the very dogs might have been ashamed to follow
in their footsteps!--when they professed to be able to sell the
Power of the Holy Ghost for so much gold and silver? Remember the
words, 'Whoso shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost it shall not be
forgiven him, either in this world or in the world to come.
Pages:
631
632
633
634
635
636
637
638
639
640
641
642
643
644
645
646
647
648
649
650
651
652
653
654
655