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depressed state of our trade, and the poverty and misery around us, it 

 is appalling to think of the enormous quantity of money that annually 

 drifts into the pockets of these human parasites, both episcopalian and 

 nonconformist alike. 



We know well enough that the large majority of those laymen who 

 profess to believe the fall and redemption scheme do not really believe 

 it at all, but play the part of the believer in order to serve their own 

 private interests. The laity may be divided into four classes : 1st, 

 those few honest and sincere men who deceive themselves by imagin- 

 ing that they can really believe such unreasonable doctrines, and who 

 attempt by their means to do what could be done so very much better 

 without them. 2nd, those who are deficient in education and mental 

 power, and who will accept anything the priest tells them, no matter 

 how absurd. 3rd, those who have some little education but very little 

 brain power, and who consider themselves very important members of 

 society, when in reality the world does not know them even by name. 

 They resent in their little minds the silent affront offered to them by 

 their fellows, who, they think, ought to know their superior worth ; 

 and they look around for a little church or chapel, where the stream of 

 intellect is sufficiently thin to allow of their feeble mental power being 

 perceived. They join, lake a leading part in the performances, carry 

 the collecting box, open pew doors, hand hymn-books to strangers, 

 and are happy in the consciousness of their importance, being gazed at 

 Sunday after Sunday by an admiring congregation. Were these folk 

 obliged to do their religious work under cover of masks, their names 

 being at the same time studiously concealed from the congregation, 

 the race of pew openers, box carriers, etc., would soon die out; but 

 as it is, vanity, egotism and pomposity yet keep the race alive. The 

 fourth class consists of sharp business men, with plenty of brains and 

 fair average education, who join a church with a large congregation 

 and adopt the particular creed in vogue there, as a means of pushing 

 their business, by assuming a mien of pious " respectability." These 

 are the men, devoid of all honour, who forfeit their manhood at the 

 shrine of hypocrisy, and who ought more particularly to be shewn up 

 in^their true colors. Without these four classes the religion of the fall 

 and redemption scheme would soon become a thing of the past. No 

 mention has been made of the ladies, who, according to some rude and 



