Deception in Christian preaching highlights the danger of falsehoods that mislead others and ultimately entrap the deceiver in their own lies. It often uses images of hidden traps or misinformed victims to warn believers against spiritual ruin and emphasizes the call for truthfulness and vigilance (John 8:44; Proverbs 12:22).
Satan's greatest trick is promoting false assurance of faith without true repentance.
There is a story that Satan once had a conference in order to devise some effective method to harm the Lord's work on earth. One demon suggested, "Let us go down and persuade men that there is no God." This, however, was rejected by the majority of the demons and by the archdemon, Satan, who stated that it was impossible for any intelligent man not to believe in the existence of God. How could they persuade men of the non-existence of God when they themselves believed that there is a God? Another demon proposed that they should tell the people that Jesus Christ never really existed. This also was rejected since historical facts are historical facts, and Jesus Christ as a historical figure could not be denied. Then another demon suggested that they persuade everyone that death ended it all and that they should not worry about life after death. But this also was rejected because man would conclude that God must be a fool to have created man for this earth only. Finally the most intelligent of the demons got up and said, "I'll tell you what we'll do. We'll go down and tell everybody to believe that there is a God, that belief in Jesus Christ saves, but you can get by just by professing faith and go on living in sin as you used to." Immediately this proposal was unanimously acclaimed, and ever since, the demons, Satan's agents, have been telling people to believe, but to live the way they want.
The devil entices many to destruction by dropping tempting bait along the way.
Rowland Hill began his sermon one morning by saying, "My friends, the other day I was going down the street, and I saw a drove of pigs following a man. This excited my curiosity so much that I determined to follow. I did so; and, to my great surprise, I saw them follow him to the slaughter-house. I was anxious to know how this was brought about; and I said to the man, 'My friend, how did you manage to induce these pigs to follow you here?'—'Oh! did you not see?' said the man. 'I had a basket of beans under my arm; and I dropped a few as I came along, and so they followed me.' Yes," said the preacher; "and I thought, so it is the devil has his basket of beans under his arm; and he drops them as he goes along: and what multitudes he induces to follow him to an everlasting slaughter-house! Yes, friends; and all your broad and crowded thoroughfares are strewn with the beans of the devil."
Deceptive appearances can mislead, as shown by a painted fly tricking an art patron.
When Holbein determined to quit his native town Basil, in order to enhance the value of his works, which were becoming too numerous there, he intimated that he would leave a specimen of the power of his abilities. He had still at his house a portrait of one of his patrons, which he had just finished. On the forehead he painted a fly, and sent the picture to the person for whom it was intended. The gentleman, struck with the beauty of the piece, went eagerly to brush off the fly, and found the deceit. The story soon spread, and made more impression than efforts of greater excellence. Orders were immediately given to prevent the city being deprived of so wonderful an artist; but Holbein had already gone. Percy.
Deceptive schemes to gain possessions dishonor true charity and trust.
In the tribe of Neggdeh, there was a horse whose name was spread far and near; and a Bedouin of another, by name Daher, desired extremely to possess it. Having offered in vain for it his camels and his whole wealth, he hit at length upon the following device, by which he hoped to gain the object of his desire. He resolved to stain his face with the juice of an herb, to clothe himself in rags, tie his legs and neck together, so as to appear like a lame beggar. Thus equipped, he went to wait for Naber, the owner of the horse, who he knew was to pass that way. When he saw Naber approaching on his beautiful steed, he cried out in a weak voice, "I am a poor stranger: for three days I have been unable to move from this spot to seek for food. I am dying; help me, and Heaven will reward you." The Bedouin kindly offered to take him upon his horse and carry him home; but the rogue replied, "I cannot rise: I have no strength left." Naber, touched with his distress, dismounted, led his horse to the spot, and with great difficulty set the seeming beggar on its back. But no sooner did Daher feel himself in the saddle than he set spurs to the horse, and galloped off, calling out as he did so, "It is I, Daher: I have got the horse and am off with it." Naber called after him to stop and listen. Certain of not being pursued, he turned, and halted at a short distance from Naber, who was armed with a spear. "You have taken my horse," said the latter. "Since Heaven has willed it, I wish you joy of it; but I do conjure you never to tell any one how you obtained it."—"And why not?" said Daher. "Because," said the noble Arab, "another man might be really ill, and men would fear to help him. You would be the cause of many refusing to perform an act of charity for fear of being duped as I have been." Struck with shame at these words, Daher was silent for a moment, then, springing from the horse, returned to its owner, embracing him. Naber made him accompany him to his tent; where they spent a few days together, and became fast friends for life. Lamartine.
Some use deceit and broken promises in business, worse than non-Christians.
Lysander taught, that children were to be deceived with trifles, as rattles and gewgaws, but old men were to be gulled with oaths, and held with fair promises: and it is now grown almost a trade for men to be so slippery in their dealings, that they can find loop-holes to wind out of the most cautious contracts for advantage, break faith, promises, bonds, run away with men's goods; so that Turks and Jews are more trusty than such hollow Christians. Spencer.
The world blinds people to their true condition, preventing them from seeing the way to escape.
As they who walk in a mist cannot see well, so it is concerning the deceits and dissimulations of the world, the property of which is to blind them that come to it, that they may not see their own estate; even as a raven first of all striketh out the poor sheep's eyes that it may not see the way to escape. Cawdray.
People wrongly blame external forces for their sinful behavior instead of personal responsibility.
This is the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we are sick in fortune (often the surfeit of our own behavior), we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars: as if we were villains by necessity; fools by heavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves, and treacherous by spherical predominance; drunkards, liars, and adulterers by an enforced order of planetary influence; and all that we are evil by a divine thrusting-on. Shakespeare.
Error often appears attractive but ultimately leads to ruin and destruction.
Error is a thing that does not always discover itself to the first view: it is often fair as well as deceitful; and therefore that understanding that will sell its assent to first appearances is in danger of the snare, and to mistake an imposture for an oracle. An error may look speciously in a principle, which will betray ugliness enough in the consequences. It may be honey in the mouth, and wormwood in the belly; delicious to the first apprehensions, but found destructive upon after inquiry and experiment. Dr. South.
Belief in falsehood leads to destruction, just as false faith leads to spiritual ruin.
When the English army under Harold, and the Norman under William the Conqueror, were set in array for that fearful conflict which decided the fate of the two armies and the political destinies of Great Britain, William, perceiving that he could not, by a fair attack, move the solid columns of the English ranks, had recourse to a false movement in order to gain the victory. He gave orders that one flank of his army should feign to be flying from the field in disorder. The officers of the English army believed the falsehood, pursued them, and were cut off. A second time, a false movement was made in another part of the field. The English again believed, pursued, and were cut off. By these movements, the fortunes of the day were determined. Although the English had the evidence of their senses, yet they were led to believe a falsehood: they acted in view of it; the consequence was, the destruction of a great part of their army, and the establishment of the Norman power in England. It is an incontrovertible fact, that the whole heathen world, ancient and modern, have believed in and worshipped unholy beings as gods. Now, from the necessities of the case, the worshipper becomes assimilated to the character of the object worshipped. In consequence of believing falsehood concerning the character of God, all heathendom, at the present hour, is filled with ignorance, impurity, and crime. J. B. Walker.
Falsehood can be used strategically to gain power, but reveals true strength once achieved.
Pope Sixtus, when cardinal, counterfeited sickness, and all the infirmities of age, so well as to deceive the whole conclave. His name was Montalto. Both parties supposed that he would not live a year; and, on a division for the vacant apostolic chair, he was elected. The moment he had won the desired power, he threw away his crutches, and began to sing the Te Deum, with a much stronger voice than his electors had bargained for; and, instead of walking with a tottering step, he marched in their presence with a firm gait, and perfectly upright. On some one commenting on his sudden change, he replied, "While I was looking for the keys of St. Peter, it was necessary to stoop; but, having found them, the case is altered." E. L. Magoon.
Falsehood is fleeting and leaves no lasting substance, like fire in dry grass.
Falsehood is fire in stubble: it likewise turns all the light stuff around it into its own substance for a moment, — one crackling, blazing moment, — and then dies; and all its contents are scattered in the wind, without place, or evidence of their existence, — as viewless as the wind which scatters them. Coleridge.
Telling lies causes loss of credibility even when speaking the truth.
When Aristotle was asked what a man could gain by telling a falsehood, he replied, "Never to be credited when he speaks the truth."
Half-truths and insinuations can be worse than outright lies, as Doeg's false testimony shows.
Often are the most painful wrongs inflicted through the medium of covert innuendoes and malignant insinuations. Half of a fact is a whole falsehood. He who gives the truth a false coloring by a false manner of telling it is the worst of liars. Such was Doeg in his testimony against the priests. He stated the facts in the case, but gave them such an artful interpretation as to impart to them the aspect and influence of the most flagrant falsehoods. It was through the same mode of procedure, that our Lord was condemned. A perverse misconstruction was given to his words, so that what was spoken in loyalty to the highest truth was transformed into treason worthy of death.
— E. L. Magoon
Partial truth can be more deceptive and misleading than complete falsehood.
Falsehood is never so successful as when she hails her book with truth. No opinions so fatally mislead us as those that are not wholly wrong; as no watches so effectually deceive the wearer as those that are sometimes right. Colton.
People naturally love lies even when they bring no pleasure or advantage.
It is not only the difficulty and labor which men take in finding out truth, nor again, that, when it is found, it imposeth upon men's thoughts, that doth bring lies in favor, but a natural and corrupt love of the lie itself. One of the later schools of the Grecians examineth the matter, and is at a stand to think what should be in it, that men should love lies when neither they make for pleasure, as with poets, nor for advantage, as with the merchant, but for the lie's sake.
— Lord Bacon
True Christ is recognized by his wounds, not by pride or dazzling appearances.
To a saint who was praying, the evil spirit showed himself radiant with royal robes, and crowned with a jewelled diadem, and said, "I am Christ; I am descending on the earth; and I desired first to manifest myself to thee." The saint kept silence, and looked, and then said, "I will not believe that Christ is come, save in that state and form in which he suffered, — save with the marks of the wounds of the cross." And the false apparition vanished. The application is this: Christ comes not in pride of intellect, or reputation for ability. These are the glittering robes in which Satan is now arraying. Many spirits are abroad, more are issuing from the pit: the credentials which they display are the precious gifts of mind, beauty, richness, depth, originality. Christian, look hard at them, with the saint in silence, and ask them for the print of the nails. Dr. Howson.
Sin's beauty is deceptive and deadly, unlike the healing leaves of Calvary.
We have heard of a singular tree, that forcibly illustrates the deceitfulness of sin. It is called the Judas tree. The blossoms appear before the leaves, and they are of brilliant crimson. The flaming beauty of the flowers attracts innumerable insects; and the wandering bee is drawn to it to gather honey. But every bee that alights upon the blossoms imbibes a fatal opiate, and drops dead from among the crimson flowers to the earth. Beneath this enticing tree, the earth is strewed with the victims of its fatal fascinations. That fatal plant that attracts only to destroy is a vivid emblem of the deceitfulness and deadliness of sin. For the poison of sin's bewitching flowers, there is but one remedy: it is found in the "leaves of the tree of life" that groweth on Mount Calvary. Cuyler.
Sin deceives like a traitor, appearing pleasant while secretly harming the soul.
It hath many secret ways of insinuating; it is like a Delilah; it is like Jael to Sisera. Sin is a sweet poison, it tickleth while it stabbeth. The first thing that sin doth is to bewitch, then to put out the eyes, then to take away the sense and feeling; to do to a man as Noah's daughters did to him, — make him drunk, and then he doth he knoweth not what. As Joab came with a kind salute to Abner, and thrust him under the fifth rib, while Abner thought of nothing but kindness, so sin comes smiling, comes pleasing and humoring thee, while it giveth thee a deadly stab.
— Anthony Burgess
Sin deludes people into false happiness while they remain enslaved under God's wrath.
Transport yourself to such scenes as Hogarth painted. Here is a man in a damp, dark cell, seated on a heap of straw, and chained like a wild beast to the wall. He smiles, sings, laughs; the straw is a throne; his bare cell, a palace; these rough keepers, obsequious courtiers; and he himself, a monarch, the happiest of mortals, an object of envy to crowned kings. Strange delusion. Yet is that man not more beside himself, who, with a soul formed for the purest enjoyments, delights in the lowest pleasures; who, content with this poor world, rejects the heaven in his offer; who, surest sign of insanity, hates in a heavenly Father and a Saviour those who love him; who, in love with sin, hugs his chains; lying under the wrath of God, is merry, sings, and dances on the thin crust, that, ever and anon breaking beneath the feet of others, is all that separates him from an abyss of fire?
A trumpeter's deceptive signals caused an enemy retreat, illustrating the danger of false teaching.
In the war on the Rhine, in 1794, the French got possession of the village of Rhinthal by a very curious ruse de guerre of one Joseph Werck, a trumpeter. This village was maintained by an Austrian party of six hundred hussars. Two companies of foot were ordered to make an attack on it at ten o'clock at night. The Austrians had been apprised of the intended attack, and were drawn up ready to charge on the assailing party. On perceiving this, Werck detached himself from his own party, and contrived, by favor of the darkness, to slip into the midst of the enemy; when, taking his trumpet, he first sounded the rally in the Austrian manner, and, next moment, the retreat. The Austrians, deceived by the signal, were off in an instant at full gallop; and the French became masters of the village without striking a blow. Percy.
People often indulge in disguised vices that appear more refined or acceptable.
Men often abstain from the grosser vices as too coarse and common for their appetites; while the vices which are frosted and ornamented are served up to them as delicacies. Beecher.
The world is a trap set by the devil with enticing pleasures leading to ruin.
Hunters dig pits in the earth, then cover them over, and place a bait or lure near them to attract the prey, that they may venture upon the treacherous place, and fall in to their utter ruin. Thus the Devil makes this world his fatal vault, which he strews over with pleasures and delights: the way seems smooth; but it is slippery, that man may the surer and the sooner fall.
— Spencer
Deceit in death and legal matters is sinful and dishonors God's ordinances.
The Gazette de Lyons published the following fact; it happened at Chenas not far from Lyons.—A rich widow, without children, had promised to make her will in favor of her niece.
The aunt fell sick, and the niece, as much through attachment as interest, lavished upon her the tenderest as well as the most assiduous cares; however, the aunt died without making a will.
The niece was in despair for the loss of her friend and her hopes. She went around, told her story, and asked what could be done. Her perfidious counsellors engaged her to play the old trick of hiding the death, and placing herself in bed, calling for a notary and witnesses, and dictating a convenient testament. She did her part well, and it succeeded wonderfully in a room that was partially darkened. The young girl, sunk in a pillow and curtains, pronounced with a feeble and broken voice, the last will and testament of the aunt;
the notary wrote, and the victory was nearly sure, when one of the witnesses, who knew a little more than the others, declared, he would sign no such act;
for that the pretended testatrix had been dead for several hours, and he would not be the accomplice of a like decepline, by which we open or shut the way to the sealing ordinances of the faith. Both are Christ's gift, and neither is to be resigned without sin."
Deception and false claims cause conflict and reveal true character under scrutiny.
A jeweller who carried on an extensive trade, and supplied the deficiencies of one country by the superfluities of another, leaving his home with a valuable assortment of diamonds, for a distant region, took with him his son, and a young slave, whom he had purchased in his infancy, and had brought up more like an adopted child, than a servant. They performed their intended journey, and the merchant disposed of his commodities, with great advantage; but while preparing to return, he was seized by a pestilential distemper, and died suddenly in the metropolis of a foreign country. This accident inspired the slave with a wish to possess his master's treasures, and relying on the total ignorance of strangers, and the kindness every where shown him by the jeweller, he declared himself the son of the deceased, and took charge of his property. The true heir of course denied his pretensions, and solemnly declared himself to be the only son of the defunct, who had long before purchased his opponent as a slave. This contest produced various results. It happened that the slave was a young man of beautiful person, and of polished manners, while the jeweller's son was ill-favored by nature, and said to be injured in his education, by the indulgence of his parents. This superiority operated in the minds of many to support the claims of the former; but since no certain evidence could be produced on either side, it became necessary to refer the dispute to a court of law. There, however, from a total want of proofs, nothing could be done. The magistrate declared his inability to decide on unsupported assertions, in which each party was equally positive. This caused a report of the case to be made to the prince, who having heard the particulars, was also confounded, and at a loss how to decide the question. At length, a happy thought occurred to the chief of the judges, and he engaged to ascertain the real heir. The two claimants being summoned before him, he ordered them to stand behind a curtain prepared for the occasion, and to project their heads through two openings, when, after hearing their several arguments, he would cut off the head of him who should prove to be the slave. This they readily assented to; the one from a reliance on his honesty, the other from a confidence of the impossibility of detection. Accordingly, each taking his place as ordered, thrust his head through a hole in the curtain. An officer stood in front with a drawn cimeter in his hand, and the judge proceeded to the examination. After a
### 142. DISINTER
Dishonest people often deceive themselves and are ultimately outwitted.
There is no end to the dishonest tricks of professional gamblers. One of these gentry will often deal himself six or seven cards when he should have but five, and if he can make a good hand by laying out the two poorest in his lap he will do so; or if he cannot make a good hand, he will take the two best to help him in his next hand. The following case, which occurred on a western steamboat, shows how men will play more than their number. A gambler was playing with a man whom he mistook for a green Hoosier that knew nothing of playing scientifically. But he was sadly deceived. The gambler, from the beginning played somewhat carelessly, supposing it needed no science to beat the Hoosier; but the gambler lost and commenced playing as scientifically as he could. He still lost, and finally lost nearly all he had, before he quit; and after quitting they went to the bar to drink. The gambler said to the Hoosier, "You beat any man for luck I ever played with; I've lost my money with you, and it makes no difference; I will be honest with you; you did not know it, but I played six cards all the time and your luck beat it." "Well," said the Hoosier, "since you have been so frank, I will also be frank; I have played seven cards all the way through from the word go; besides stocking and palming occasionally for the sake of variety. The gambler was greatly surprised and swore that he would not have supposed, that he much more than knew one card from another; but he was deceived in the man, and it entered the tent, he threw himself between them and Byrd, and said to the warriors, 'This man is my friend; before you can get at him, you must kill me.' On this they returned, and the council respected the principle so much as to recede from their determination.'
# LING.
would not have done for him to have shown any anger, as he first confessed having cheated the Hoosier, who was in fact a most expert gambler, and had purposely assumed that disguise.
Dishonest schemes can manipulate outcomes for personal gain in lotteries.
The proprietors of lotteries are sometimes swindled through the unfaithfulness of their agents; and thus it happens that a large prize is sometimes drawn and trumpeted forth, which the craft of the proprietors would otherwise have retained. A case, says Mr. Green, came to my knowledge, of a man who drew a capital prize. The mode of effecting this was as follows:—An agent who was stationed in a town some distance from the principal establishment, made two confidents, who doubtlessly acted readily with him from the hope of gain. One of these was the post-master of the town, and the other an acquaintance, a patron of the lottery. The duty of the agent was to transmit to the principal office all unsold tickets, by the first mail that left after the known hour of drawing. This mail also conveyed the lists of the drawing; but, in a regular manner of proceeding, they would not have been accessible to the agent before the departure of the agent with his unsold tickets. By making a confident of the post-master, however, he received the lists as quick as possible after the mail arrived and before it had been assorted. He then examined his unsold tickets, and if any considerable prize remained, he would take it from among the unsold tickets, and despatch the remainder to the principal office, and give the prize to the other confident, each one giving out that the ticket had been sold to him; and ac cordingly the prize would be claimed and paid though fraudulently obtained.
In this particular case the capital prize was drawn, and it appeared that the ticket-holder appropriated all the money to his own use, as he was known to buy much property shortly afterwards. It is believed also by those who were acquainted with the incident that he never divided with the rascally agent; and thus was the cheater cheated, who in his wrath, let out some of the secrets of the manner in which the prize was obtained.
Cheating in gambling can involve elaborate tricks to secure unfair victory.
RACE.—Cheats are used in horse-racing as in other species of gambling. There was a man in Kentucky noted for making match races; and a club of men went to the expense of procuring a fast horse in order to beat one he boasted much of.
The jockey closed the agreement for the race, with a bet of about two thousand dollars; and the club was very certain of beating the jockey. When the day arrived for the race, and the horses started, the club horse went ahead of the jockey's immediately, and took the inside track nearest the fence. At the first turn, he fell to his knees, and while recovering himself, the slow horse got ahead of him, and after running some distance, the fast horse fell again, and the slow horse won the race. The fast horse became lame from his fall;
his owners were much chagrined at their misfortune, and on the next morning, went to the jockey's lodgings in order to close another race with him. The landlord informed them that he had left the night before, soon after the race was over. His sudden departure, after a successful race, excited their suspicions of foul play. They then examined the track and found the jockey had dug a number of small holes on the inside of the track, placing gourds in them and spreading a little loose dirt over them;
and when the fast horse ran close to the fence he would tread on these gourds, and would sink and stumble; thus giving the slow the advantage. When this discovery was made, they decided on having a race at all events, and so chased the jockey nearly a hundred miles, but did not succeed in overtaking him.
A gambler's cheating table with a hollow leg shows hidden deception in business.
There are men apparently engaged in business, whose stores are, in the upper apartments, extensive gambling establishments. Of those who go to such places, few ever come out winners; because there are fixed contrivances for cheating those who are invited in to play, of which they are wholly ignorant. A reformed gambler states that he became acquainted with a merchant in New Orleans, who had in his store such a room. He had a great number to play with him, and all of them continually lost. Men who were professed gamblers, here found their tricks and artifices set at nought, and themselves losing at every trial. They became dissatisfied, and suspected some extraordinary trick being used. They combined for the sake of ascertaining, and soon learned from some person in his employment, the whole secret. His table was constructed with a hollow leg, and in that leg, where the knee would rest against it, was fixed a small peg, which would strike against his knee on a small wire being pulled, which was attached to the peg, and passed out under the bottom of the leg and under the floor to the side of the room, thence up stairs directly over the table. And from the centre of a fine moulding in plaster, hung a rich lamp; the moulding was hollow, and so constructed that a man who was a secret partner, could be overhead, and see into the hands below, and give his partner signs from above, previously agreed upon by pulling the wire. This advantage was sufficient to ruin any man who played with him, and enabled him to make money faster than by mercantile business, which in fact he cared nothing about only as a cover for his gambling. This man's establishment was broken up and he fled.
# 151. Destroys Natural Sensibility.
A man feigning death was found truly dead, warning against trifling with God's judgment.
One day, as Archbishop Leighton was going from Glasgow to Dumblane, there happened a tremendous storm of lightning and thunder. He was observed, when at a considerable distance, by two men of bad character. They had not courage to rob him; but wishing to fall on some method to extort money from him, one said, "I will lie down by the way-side as if I were dead, and you shall inform the archbishop that I was killed by the lightning, and beg money of him to bury me." When the archbishop arrived at the spot, the wicked wretch told the fabricated story: the archbishop sympathized with the survivor, gave him money, and proceeded on his journey. But when the man returned to his companion, he found him really lifeless! Immediately he began to exclaim aloud, "Oh! sir, he is dead! Oh! sir, he is dead!" On this, the archbishop, discovering the fraud, left the man with this important reflection: "It is a dangerous thing to trifle with the judgments of God!"
Repeated lies cause people to distrust even solemn oaths invoking the gods.
When De-nades the orator addressed himself to the Athenians, "I call all the gods and goddesses to witness," said he, "the truth of what I shall say;" the Athenians, often abused by his impudent lies, presently interrupted him by exclaiming, "And we call all the gods and goddesses to witness that we will not believe you."
Papacy deceives nuns with false visions and spiritual experiences.
The following appeared in 183—, in various religious journals of this country. No place in Kentucky is more famous among papists, and no place more detestable in part to Protestants than Bardstown in Kentucky. It is the hotbed of all popish abominations.
Not long since, a young lady of Kentucky, whose parents reside in the vicinity of Bardstown, was induced to enter upon the noviciate for a conventual life: and finally she became a nun. The "Lady Superior" immediately began to explain the secrets of the priestcraft—and among other delectable things inculcated for the young lady's belief, the vast superiority of a nun's enjoyments over those of common women, for that they were often visited by angels in white robes, with whom they had holy intercourse; and persuaded the thoughtless and credulous girl to believe it. When the nun was fully prepared, the Abbess informed her victim, that she had a revelation from heaven, and that the nun might speedily expect a visit from one of the angels, cautioned her not to be alarmed, and above all to submit herself to the "White robed Angel's" commands. Almost immediately after, at night, while in her bed, she saw by the moonlight, a figure dressed in white enter her dormitory. She instantly sat up, and began to cross herself, and to mutter her Ave Marys. The "White robed Angel," proceeded towards her, and the nun instantly perceived that instead of a white robed visitant from heaven her associate was real flesh and blood,—even a priest from the neighboring Jesuit seminary. By some means, she suddenly extricated herself from his grasp; and before he could execute his nefarious design, she escaped from the nunnery, whether by the window or by the door I do not remember; and with the fleetness of a deer, in her night dress, she fled to her father's house; and for ever abandoned all intercourse with those who, to use her own expression, represent themselves as "White robed Angels from heaven."
Discovery of infants' bones under a Catholic nunnery exposes dark secrets.
A captain of a vessel, says the Philadelphian for 184—, stated some time since, that when in port in a Catholic country, an old nunnery was torn down, for the purpose of rebuilding, and although every exertion was made by the holy father to suppress the curiosity of the people, a number flocked round the ruins, and some few examined them, when it was discovered that a large vault was under the building, wherein was a large number of INFANTS' BONES. When this discovery was made known, the populace insisted that they should be brought out; the bones were then laid out on a plain near the ruins, and examined by several physicians, who at once pronounced them to be human bones. Our informant, whose name we possess, states that he was among the number who witnessed the dreadful sight.
A Catholic nunnery is abandoned after a father finds his daughter with an infant hidden.
"In the rear of Alleghany town," says the Richmond Telegraph for 184—, "and in full view of Pittsburg, is a Catholic Nunnery, one of those schools of superstition, tyranny, and pollution, which are rising up, as by enchantment, in every part of the West. An event has recently occurred which has induced the whole sisterhood, with the priest, to abandon the buildings. A gentleman, residing at the East, had a daughter in the nunnery to be educated, with the expectation that she was to visit him occasionally. Much time elapsed, no visit was made, and not being able to get any satisfactory information respecting his daughter, he came to the nunnery to see her. The lady superior told him she was not at home; he insisted on knowing where she was, and was finally told that she was sick in bed, and could not be seen; he demanded a sight of her in a spirit which the lady superior thought it imprudent to attempt to resist; and being shown to her room, behold, there was his once healthy and promising daughter, with an infant. His indignation was so aroused, that he uttered some threats in regard to the safety of the establishment; and the next morning not an individual was found there."
Jesuits use disguise and deceit to convert Protestants to Roman Catholicism.
The following anecdote is current in Germany, and illustrates the disguises often assumed by Jesuits to forward Popery. When the Duke and Duchess of Anhalt Cothen embraced the Romish faith, the court followed their example, with the exception of one maid of honor, who adhered to her Protestant principles. Shortly after, a young gentleman arrived from Vienna, who won the affections of the lady, but informed her, that being a Roman Catholic, he could not ally himself to a heretic. She consented, after a struggle, to forsake Protestantism, but fainted when her recantation was made. The lover then informed her, that he had paid his addresses to her for the good of her soul, marriage being out of the question, as he was a priest and a Jesuit—a fact of which she was convinced, when taking off a wig which he wore, he showed her the tonsure or shaven crown, which is a distinguishing mark of popish priests.
# 310. Miscellaneous.
