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But now perhaps you say: so, it does not help your case, though it does make a point against us. For if the worship of images is condemned in what you admit to be the word of God, you are all the worse in practically sanctioning and allowing it."

Still, I think any one keeping up the attack on these lines would begin to lose courage a little. For he would see that when you look at the matter closely, it is getting to be a little hard to show that we are sinning against this law of God.

For surely this law cannot mean that we are not to make images of any kind. If so, there has been a fearful disregard of it in almost all Christian countries. If that is the sense of it, the sculptor's business is wrong all the way through, and ought to be most severely prohibited by law. Those statues of great men ought to be removed from our streets and public squares; you ought to smash the little statuettes you probably have in the house and throw the pieces in the ash-barrel; you ought not, if you value your soul, to buy a Noah's ark for your children; for the man who got this up broke this commandment in the most wholesale way.

Oh, no! you will say, we are not so foolish as to think that we may never make images of anything at all. What everybody understands

by this law of God is, that we must not worship images. And that is just what you Catholics are doing all the time. Why, you cannot go into a Catholic church but you see some woman, or perhaps even a man, who ought to have more sense, kneeling down before one of these images you have, and praying to it as if it were God. If that is not idolatry, I don't know what is."

No doubt it seems to you now that you have a good certain charge against us. Let us see. After all, one should not judge entirely by appearances. If there is any doubt, every one is entitled to the benefit of it before having to bear the grave charge of idolatry. According to the principles of law, one should be considered innocent until his guilt is proved.

The only real fact the charge is based on is, that the woman is praying, and that while praying she is kneeling before a statue. Now, I suppose that when you pray yourself you are kneeling; that is the posture which is generally considered proper for prayer, though some advanced Christians pray, or at any rate join in the minister's prayers, without leaving their seats, perhaps bending the head a little, or putting their hands or hats before their faces. Still, I hardly think even these would claim that kneeling was an inappropriate position, or showed too much respect.

Well, then, if one is kneeling, he must kneel before something, and probably look at something, unless it is of obligation to put one's head down on a chair or a bed (which, I am sorry to say, even Catholics are too apt to do), or to close one's eyes. The difficulty, you see, about either of these methods is that one is quite apt to go to sleep. So it is better to keep one's eyes open and the head straight up, though this does require some effort.

If, then, one does this, is it best to look at a blank wall, or at some other object? It seems naturally best to look at something which in some way suggests pious thoughts and keeps the mind from wandering. If the mind has no picture presented to it, it will make one of its own, probably. So if we are praying to our Lord Jesus Christ, which the immense majority of Christians, believing in His Divinity, consider it perfectly lawful to do, is there any harm in having a representation of Him before our eyes; a picture of Him such as even Protestants often have, as He appeared at some time during His life here, or as we may imagine Him to appear now in heaven? Will not this

Really, it is

help to fix our thoughts on Him? not very easy to see why Protestants should not help themselves in this way to pray well and fervently. And even if one is praying, as we generally do, to the Eternal Father Himself,

why not have before our eyes a representation of His well-beloved Son, and especially of His Sacrifice on the Cross, through which our prayers become efficacious with God? Why there should be any objection to praying before a crucifix is really a puzzle; still more is it a puzzle why Christians should object to having a crucifix in their house, when they would willingly have a picture or a statue of George Washington or Abraham Lincoln.

Well, now let us go a step farther. Suppose you had some dear friend whom you confidently believed to be now in heaven; one whose whole life had been to you an example of piety and virtue; one, the very thought of whom would bring you nearer to God and make you feel the value of prayer, and induce you to pray as this one did; would it not help you in your prayer to have the picture of such an one before your eyes?

"Oh, well!" you say, "this is all very fine; but everybody knows that Catholics are not using their pictures and statues, or even their crucifixes, in this way. They are making real idols of them; attaching, that is, a superstitious value to them; believing that these images and pictures have a real power in themselves; in short, making gods of them."

The true and the short answer to this is, that nobody knows anything of the kind; for no

body can know something which is entirely false. No Catholic, however ignorant, has any such idea as this, as you would find out if you would ask any one whom you found praying in this way. It might not be safe always to ask such a question, for it would be regarded as an insult, and might naturally provoke a sharp reply, if not something more, unless the person questioned happened to be a saint. The feeling it ought to excite would be pity for the ignorance of the questioner; but people are not always reasonable, and might be apt to look at the matter in a different way.

It is true, however, that the person asked, if patient enough to explain the matter to you, would quite probably give an account of what he or she was doing somewhat different from that which I have thus far given. It might be admitted that the prayers now being made were addressed not immediately to God, but to the saint whose picture or statue was there.

But if so, what then? Suppose that the dear friend of whom I have spoken were to appear visibly before you from heaven, would you simply converse with him on ordinary matters? Would it not occur to you that if he prayed a good deal on earth, there was no reason why this habit of prayer should have been dropped, especially as now he did not need to pray for himself? Would you not then ask that he