Woe unto you, scribes and pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widow's houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. Matthew xxiii, 14.
For the congregation of hypocrites shall be desolate, and fire shall consume the tabernacles of bribery. Job xv, 34.
I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face.
And there shall ye remember your ways, and all your doings, wherein ye have been defiled; and ye shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that ye have committed. Ezekiel xx, 35, 43.
CHAPTER XI.
The Witch was not a regular attendant at any house of worship of any set creed, but preferred ones of lesser grandeur, feeling that she met with more sincerity within. But one Sabbath morning her steps led to one of the largest and most fashionable churches in the city. The ushers were busy seating the well-dressed throng. She slipped along and took a seat by the side of a sumptuously dressed lady who shifted and spread her drapery a little more as a hint to the intruder that her presence was undesirable.
Many haughty glances of derision were shot at the poorly clad stranger who had presumed to come in their midst. She looked about her on the throng.
All is vanity. Ecclesiastes i, 2.
Richly attired matrons, conscious only of their extreme style; fair young girls, not a whit less extravagantly garbed than their elders, with cramped waists and all the accoutrements belonging to devotees of fashion.
A pity that such fair flowers like the rose could not remain longer in bud, for both fall into decay all too quickly after maturity. But Dame Fashion seems in a hurry and holds to artificial development.