“But the chief end of this letter is arrived at—­Your Holiness asks me to part with this boy.  With the deepest regret at the rupture you threaten to cause between myself and Holy Church if I disobey this command, I must still utterly refuse to do so.  So long as the child looks upon me as a friend, so long will I be one to him.  So long as he will accept the shelter of my roof, so long shall he receive it.  I would rather break with a dozen Churches, a dozen forms of creed, than be untrue to a child who trusts me!  That is my answer to Your Holiness, and in giving it I add the sincere expression of my sorrow to cause you displeasure or pain.  But I venture to pray you, Holy Father, to pause and consider deeply before you eject me from the Church for so simple and plain a matter.  Let me as one who is nearing the grave in company with yourself—­as one who with yourself must soon stand on that dark brink of the Eternal from which we see the Light beyond—­let me most humbly yet most earnestly point out to you the far more serious things than my offence, which are threatening Rome to-day.  The people of all lands are wandering away from faith, and wars and terrors are encompassing the land.  The lust of gold and pride of life are now the chief objects of man’s existence and desire, and there was hardly ever a time in history when utter indifference to the laws of God was more openly exhibited than it is just now.  The sin of unbelief and all the evils attendant on that sin are steadily increasing, and the Church seems powerless to stop the approaching disaster.  Is it, that knowing herself to be weak, she does not make the attempt to be strong?  If this is so, she must fall, and not all the getting-in of gold will help her!  But you, Holy Father—­you might arrest all this trouble if you would!  If you would change the doctrines of Superstition for those of Science--if you would purify our beautiful creed from pagan observances and incredible idolatries—­if you would raise the Church of Rome like a pure white Cross above the blackening strife, you might save the sinking ship of faith even now!  So little is needed!—­simplicity instead of ostentation—­voluntary poverty instead of countless riches, spiritual power instead of the perpetual cry for temporal power,—­the doctrine of Christ instead of the doctrine of Church Councils—­and the glad welcoming and incorporation of every true, beautiful, wise and wonderful discovery of the age into the symbolic teaching of our Creed.  Holy Father, if this is not done, then things old must disappear to make room for things new,—­and a new Church of Christ must rise from the ashes of Rome!  We cannot but call to mind the words of St. John, ’Repent and do the first works, or else I will come quickly and remove thy candlestick from its place.’  ’Do the first works.’  Holy Father, those first works, as exemplified in Christ Himself, were love, charity, pity and pardon for all men!  With all my heart I beseech Your