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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 48

No Girl Should be Allowed by Law

No Girl Should be Allowed by Law

to take the veil and renounce the beauties of the world (loud applause) until she is at least 25 years of age. (Laughter.) Wait until she knows what she wants. (Laughter and applause.) I am opposed to allowing these spider-like priests to weave webs to catch the flies of youth. (Applause.) There ought to be a law appointing Commissioners to visit such places at least twice a year and release page 12 every person who expresses a desire to be released. (Loud applause.) I do not believe in keeping penitentiaries for God. (Applause.) No doubt they are honest about it; that is not the question. Now, this Church, after a few centuries of thought, made a creed, and that creed is the foundation of orthodox religion. Let me read to you:

"Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic faith. Which faith, except every one do keep entire and inviolate, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly. Now the Catholic faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity." Of course you understand how this is done, and there is no need of my explaining it. (Laughter.)

Neither confounding the persons, nor dividing the substance." You see what a predicament that would leave the Deity in,—if you divide the substance. (Laughter.) "For one is the person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost. But the godhead of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is all one, the glory equal, the majesty coeternal. Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Ghost. The Father is uncreated, the Son is uncreated, and the Holy Ghost is uncreated. The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy Ghost incomprehensible." And that is the reason we know so much about them. (Laughter.)

"The Father Eternal, the Son Eternal, and the Holy Ghost Eternal. And yet there are not three Eternals, but one Eternal. As also there are not three uncreated, nor three incomprehensibles, but one uncreated, and one incomprehensible, In like manner the Father is Almighty, the Son Almighty, and the Holy Ghost Almighty. And yet there are not three Almighties, but one Almighty. (Laughter.) So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God. And yet there are not three Gods, but one God. So, likewise, the Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, and the Holy Ghost is Lord. And yet there are not three Lords, but one Lord. For, as we are compelled by the Christian truth to acknowledge every person by himself to be God and Lord, so we are forbidden by the Catholic religion to say there are three Gods or three Lords. The Father is made of no one, neither created nor begotten. The Son is from the Father alone,—not made, nor created, but begotten. The Holy Ghost is from the Father and the Son, not made nor begotten, but proceeding. So there is one Father, not three Fathers;" why should there be if there is only one Son? (Laughter.) "One Son, not three Sons; one Holy Ghost, not three Holy Ghosts. And in this Trinity there is nothing before or after; nothing greater or less; but the whole three persons are coeternal to one another and coequal. So that in all things the Unity is to be worshipped in Trinity, and the Trinity in Unity. He, therefore, that will be saved must thus think of the Trinity. Furthermore, it is necessary to everlasting salvation that he also believe rightly the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now the right faith is, that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is both God and Man. He is God of the substance of his Father, begotten before the world"—that is, a good while before his mother lived (laughter); "and He is a man of the substance of His mother bora in the world. Perfect God and perfect Man; of a rational soul and human flesh subsisting; equal to the Father according to His Godhead, and less than the Father according to His manhood; who, although He be both God and Man, yet He is not two but one Christ; one, not by the conversion of the godhead into flesh, but by the taking of the manhood unto God." You see, that is a great deal easier than the other way. (Laughter.) "One altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by unity of person, For as the rational soul and the flesh is one man, so God and man is one Christ, who suffered for our salvation, descended into Hell, rose again the third day from the dead. He ascended into Heaven; He sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead."

In order to be saved it is necessary to believe this. What a mercy it is that man can get to Heaven without understanding it! (Laughter and applause.) In order to compel the human intellect to get upon its knees before that infinite absurdity, thousands and millions have suffered all agonies, thousands and millions have perished in dungeon and in fire; and if all the bones of all the victims of the Catholic Church could be gathered together, a monument higher than all the pyramids would arise, in the presence of which the eyes even of priests would be suffused with tears. (Applause.) That Church covered Europe with Cathedrals page 13 and dungeons; that Church robbed man of the jewel of the soul; that Church had ignorance upon its knees; that Church went in partnership with the tyranny of the throne and between these two vultures, the altar and the throne, the heart of man was devoured. (Applause.)

Of course I admit—cheerfully admit.—that there are thousands of good Catholics But catholicism is contrary to human liberty; Catholicism bases salvation upon belief; Catholicism teaches man to trample his reason under foot; and for that reason it is wrong.

Now the next Church that comes along in the order that I wish to speak is the Episcopalian. That was founded by Henry VIII.—now in Heaven. (Laughter.) He cast off Queen Katherine and Catholicism together, and he accepted Episcopalianism and Anne Boleyn at the same time. (Laughter). That Church if it had a few more ceremonies, would be Catholic; if it had a few less, nothing. (Laughter.) We have an Episcopalian Church in this country, and it has all the imperfections of a poor relation. (Laughter.) It is always boasting of its rich relative. In England, the creed is made by law, the same as we pass statutes here; and when a gentleman dies in England, in order to determine whether he shall be saved or not, it is necessary for the powers of Heaven to read the acts of Parliament. (Laughter.) It becomes a question of law; and sometimes a man is damned on a very nice point—(laughter)—lost on demurrer! (Laughter and applause.) A few years ago a gentleman by the name of Seabury—Samuel Seabury—was sent over to England to get some apostolical succession. We hadn't a drop in the house. (Laughter.) It was necessary for the Bishops of the English Church to put their hands upon his head. They refused; there was no act of Parliament justifying it. He had then to go to the Scotch Bishops, and, had the Scotch Bishops refused, we never would have had any apostolic succession in the New World. God would have been driven out of half the world, and the true Church never could have been founded. But the Scotch Bishops put their hands on his head; and now we have an unbroken succession of heads and hands, from St. Paul to the last Bishop. (Laughter.) In this country the Episcopal Church has done some good; and I want to thank that Church for having on the average less religion than the others (laughter); on the average you have done more good to mankind. (Laughter and applause.) You preserved some of the humanities, you did not hate music; you did not absolutely despise painting; and you did not abhor architecture. You finally admitted that it was no worse to keep time with your feet than with your hands; and some went so far as to say that people could play cards, and that God would overlook it all, or look the other way. (Laughter.) For all these things, accept my thanks. When I was a boy, the other churches looked upon dancing as the mysterious sin against the Holy Ghost; and they used to teach that when four boys got together in a hay-mow playing seven-up, that the eternal God stood whetting