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penitents; and each priest vies with his fellows in rendering his own penitents more ridiculous than the rest. This breach of faith extends to the highest of Rome's degraded ecclesiasticism." History records that Pope Pius V, "saint" (1504-1572) "for the punishment of certain offences took advantage of the confessional, which ought to be an inviolable sanctuary." Pope Sixtus V (1521-1590) told the under clergy that "they could make a report to the Pontiff, without any danger attached to revealing a confession, he giving them absolution for the whole." Elliott, a former priest, in "Delineation of Roman Catholicism," says, “All our conversation ran upon the stories he [another priest] heard in confession. It is the ordinary discourse of the priests, when they meet, to inform one another of what they have heard in confession. I was often present at such conferences, where the conversation was so indecent that even an honest pagan would have blushed." "Every day they (the Dominican monks) came and talked most licentiously, relating things that had happened at the Holy office at Perugia, confessions they had heard, etc."-Scipione Ricca, Bishop of Pistoria, and an Italian reformer, 17411810.

Bishop Hugh Latimer, of England (1485-1555), whom the Romish ecclesiasticism caused to be burned at the stake, said: "And so they came to know all the secrets that were in men's hearts, so that neither emperor nor king could say nor do, nor think anything in his heart, but they knew it, and so applied all the purposes and intents of princes to their own commodities. And this was the fruit of their auricular confession." Finally, from De Sanctis, page 133, etc: "Confession in relation to society may be defined as an universal, spydom, organized and complete. Confessors are not content to krew the sins of those who confess; but they must learn the regulation and management of the family; and when an ingenuous youth or innocent maiden comes under the fangs of a knavish confessor (and which of them is not a knave?) they do not escape until they have first revealed the secrets of the family circle-without, however, being aware of it."

"De Sanctis" continues: "Encouragement is given to theft, as to every other crime, by the facility of obtaining pardon, and absolutions are given to robbers, usurers, murderers, without their having made any restitution what ever. They repair to the confessor, present him with a goodly offering for a mass; or, if they are robbers of celebrity, men abounding in wealth, they found a chapelry, a benefice, or something of the kind. At Rome, for instance, every one knows that Pius VII (1742-1823) granted

to all who hear confessions in the Holy house Ponterotto, the privilege of absolving from restitution all who have defrauded the Rev. Apostolic Chambers, or the government; and all defraud, and run there to receive absolution. But this is not enough. Leo X (1475-1521), in his bull beginning with "Postquam ad Apostulatus" gives confessors the privilege not only of absolving robbers, but of permitting them to retain in all good conscience, the fruits of their usury, robberies, thefts, etc., on condition that part of the goods be given to the church!"

Ecclesiasticism is a greedy robber: "By confession many families are immersed in poverty; because the grasping confessor, taking advantage of the weak moments of a dying man, has had the will made to the profit of the clergy; and facts of the kind may be reckoned by the million. The grasping cupidity of ecclesiasticism's willhunters, and the consequent ruin of innocent and helpless families, formed the subject of an indignant remonstrance of the German princes at the Diet of Nuremberg. To such a length was this execrable practice sometimes carried that the last sacraments were denied to the dying man until he consented to make a will in the priest's favor."

Ecclesiasticism's apostasy, in teachings and in life, has sown the seeds of the fiery harvest of anarchy: "The horrible consequence for religion is that infidelity advances with huge strides, especially in Roman Catholic countries. The enlightenment of the age no longer permits men to believe in the priests blindly, as in the times of ignorance. Free discussion alone could show that the doctrines of the Roman church are not those of the Gospel; discussion, as it would prove their falsehood to a demonstration, would establish the truth. Discussion being prevented, it follows that, seeing clearly the falsehood and iniquity of the Roman doctrines, men believe them, because they are not discussed, to be the doctrines of the Christian religion, and abandon them, and live in indifference and infidelity." Protestantism, ecclesiasticism, has been an apt follower of Papacy in suppression of discussion. Witness the systematic world-wide ban on any discussion of Present Truth as presented by God's watchman, Pastor Russell! Ecclesiasticism, priestcraft, had for ages supplanted the worship of God with paganism, and in the Gospel Age has insid iously transformed the Gospel of Christ, has tried to destroy liberty and progress and has built up a gigantic system of oppression and destruction of the friends of the Truth. The most ferocious of the popes are made the "saints" of Satan's church. And, says De Sanctis: "In canonizing such men, the Popes have canonized their doc

trines; hence it cannot be said that despotism, obscuration [suppression of Truth], oppression of nations, and hatred for any kind of progress, exist through the mal-practice of any one of the popes; they exist by the very system of the Papacy. The corruption of religion ought not to be attributed to abuse of it by the individual, but to the system; therefore the Gospel ought to reign in its purity, and ought to be delivered from this great enemy; and Italy and Rome ought to confer upon the world this great benefit of despoiling the popes of their usurped power." Why not reform, purge, cleanse ecclesiasticism? As well try to reform cancer. The sole safeguard is the destruction, excision of the germs. Any real reform would cause the prompt dropping out of the system-loving millions who would soon reorganize into another vicious system. The very constitution of ecclesiasticism forbids its ever being other than what the Wall Street Journal denominates, "that international nuisance, the church-state." Here are some of the articles of Papacy's present, past and future constitution (infallible):

1. All human power is evil, and must therefore be under the Pope. 2. The temporal powers must act unconditionally, in accordance with the orders of the spiritual. 3. The Church is empowered to grant or take away any temporal possession. 4. The Pope has the right to give countries and nations which are non-Catholic to Catholic regents, who can reduce them to slavery. 5. The Pope can make slaves of those Christian subjects whose prince or ruling power is interdicted by the Pope. 6. The laws of the Church concerning the liberty of the Church and the Papal power are based upon Divine inspiration. 7. The Pope has the right to practice the unconditional censure of books. 8. The Pope has the right to annul state laws, treaties, constitutions, etc.; to absolve from obedience thereto, as soon as they seem detrimental to the rights of the Church, or those of the clergy. 9. The Pope possesses the right of admonishing, and if needs be of punishing, the temporal rulers, emperors and kings, as well as of drawing before the spiritual forum any case in which a mortal sin occurs. 10. Without the consent of the Pope no tax or rate of any kind can be levied upon a clergyman or upon any church whatsoever. 11. The Pope has the right to absolve from oaths, and obedience to the persons and the laws of the princes whom he excommunicates. (Note. All Protestants are excommunicated.) 12. The Pope can annul all legal relations of those in ban, especially their marriage. 13. The Pope can release from every obligation, oath, vow, either before or after being made. 14. The execution of Papal

commands for the persecution of heretics causes remission of sins. 15. He who kills one that is excommunicated is no murderer in a legal sense."-The Canon Law, by Dr. G. F. von Schulte, Professor of Canonical Law at Prague. Here the crafty and wicked Mother of Harlots, eccle siasticism, asserts her infallible right to permit, directly or indirectly, any and every crime possible for depraved humanity to commit.

ECCLESIASTICISM A HOPELESS CASE

Protestantism longs for the old-time power of the clergy. It has the spirit, disposition, of spiritual fornication, goes to the limit in its efforts to control affairs through local, state, and national governmental agencies, and now is ready and willing to ally itself with liberty-destroying papal ecclesiasticism. It displays its true nature and its indifference to the good of the people in its willing eagerness to unite in any manner with the force which has for centuries throttled liberty, banished the Word of God, and stifled freedom in blood. Let not the people of Christendom overlook this when the Protestant clergy advocate church union, as they will. What can be done with such an organization as apostate ecclesiasticism? The truly Christian individual's answer must be to obey the Divine command, "Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers [partners in] of her sins [outlined foregoing ad nauseam] and that ye receive not of he plagues." (Rev. 18:4.) The Lord's people, all that really have the Holy Spirit, will and must "come out of her," clear away from this unhallowed partnership and federation with iniquity. Ecclesiasticism, however, may rest assured that she will not suffer greatly in loss of members or of persons of wealth and power; for but few of the Lord's people are in her. Each ecclesiastic can be assured that "his people," the tares, the worldly church members, the Babylonians, the spiritual idolators and fornicators, the congregation of Molech, will stick by him until the heat of the fiery trials of the time of trouble drives even "the clergy's people" out into the open of worldliness.

Verse 13 shows that, in view of the enormity of ecclesiasticism's iniquity, both Roman and Protestant, their partnership in criminality, and their stubborn and willful persistence in evil, "For his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die."

33:20. Yet ye say, The way of the Lord is not equal. O ye house of Israel, I will judge you every one after his ways. O house of nominal churchianity, the time has

come for God to judge you, to recompense you double, according to your ways!-Rev. 18:6.

PASTOR RUSSELL HEARD AGAIN

33:21. And it came to pass in the twelfth year of our captivity, in the tenth month, in the fifth day of the month, that one that had escaped out of Jerusalem came unto me, saying, The city is smitten.-In 24:25-27, after having cited the skepticism of the Jews as to Ezekiel's message, it was stated that from the time of Jerusalem's fall until the tidings of the fall should arrive, Ezekiel was to be dumb, having no new message to be heard by the people. The intervening prophecies, chapters 26 to 32 are not against the Hebrews, but against the heathen nations. The city fell in the eleventh year of Zedekiah's reign, the fourth month, the ninth day (2 Kings 25:2, 3), from which to the coming of the tidings of the city's fall, on the twelfth year, tenth month and fifth day, was one year, five months, twenty-six days. On that momentous day came the tid ings, "The city is smitten!" Pastor Russell's voice was stilled in death on October 31, 1916. If an application of Ezekiel's period of dumbness is valid here as a time feature, the tidings, the realization that Christendom is smitten by the onslaughts of revolution, might be expected to flash throughout the world on or about April 27, 1918, a year, five months and twenty-six days after the death of God's great watchman. As in Ezekiel 24:27, this would be a sign, an indication to Christendom of the truth of Pastor Russell's commission from the Almighty.

33:22. Now the hand of the Lord was upon me in the evening, afore he that was escaped came; and had opened my mouth, until he came to me in the morning; and my mouth was opened, and I was no more dumb.-The Lord made good His promise while the news was approaching, and removed Ezekiel's dumbness half a day before, in the evening, before the morning when the tidings arrived. It was on the same day; for in the Hebrew system of time, the evening began the day. This signifies that per haps half a year prior to the general realization of Christendom's downfall, Pastor Russell, though dead, shall again speak through this, the seventh volume of his Studies in the Scriptures-for this is but the completion of his great work of admonition and warning for the Church and for Christendom.

33:23, 24. Then the Word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, they that inhabit those wastes of the land of Israel speak, saying Abraham was one, and he

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