“In the morning betimes the king arose, and Daniel with him.
“And the king said, ‘Daniel, are the seals whole?’ And he said, ‘Yea, O king, they be whole.’ And as soon as they had opened the door, the king looked upon the table, and cried with a loud voice: ‘Great art thou, O Bel! and with thee there is no deceit at all.’ Then laughed Daniel, and held the king that he should not go in, and said: ‘Behold now the pavement, and mark well whose footsteps are these.’ And the king said: ‘I see the footsteps of men, women and children.’ And then the king was angry, and took the priests, with their wives and children, who showed him the privy doors, where they came in and consumed such things as were on the tables.
“Therefore the king slew them, and delivered Bel into Daniel’s power, who destroyed him and his temple.”
Who does not pity the king of Babylon, who, when looking at his clay and brass god, exclaimed: “Great art thou, O Bel, and with thee there is no deceit!”
But, is the deception practiced by the priests of the Pope on their poor, deluded dupes, less cruel and infamous? Where is the difference between that Babylonian god, made with brass and baked clay, and the god of the Roman Catholics, made with a handful of wheat and flour, baked between two hot polished irons?
How skilful were the priests in keeping the secret of what became of the rich daily offerings brought to the hungry god! Who could suspect that there was a secret trap through which they came with their wives and children to eat the rich offerings?
So, to-day, among the simple and blind Roman Catholics, who could suppose that the immense sums of money given every day to the priests to glorify God, purify the souls of men, and bring all kinds of blessings upon the donors, were, on the contrary, turned into the most ignominious and swindling operation the world has ever seen?
Though the brass god of Babylon was a contemptible idol, is not the wafer god of Rome still more so? Though the priests of Bel were skilful deceivers, are they not surpassed in the art of deception by the priests of Rome! Do not these carry on their operations on a much larger scale than the former?
But, as there is always a day of retribution for the great iniquities of this world, when all things will be revealed; and just as the cunning of the priests of Babylon could not save them, when God sent his prophet to take away the mask, behind which they deceived their people, so let the priests of Rome know that God will, sooner or later, send his prophet, who will tear off the mask, behind which they deceive the world. Their big, awkward and flat feet will be seen and exposed, and the very people whom they keep prostrated before their idols, crying: “O God! with thee there is no deceit at all!” will become the instruments of the justice of God in the great day of retribution.