And of course, in buying the English government, these new classes
have bought the English Church. Skeptics and men of the world as they
are, they know that they must have a Religion. They have read the
story of the French revolution, and the shadow of the guillotine is
always over their thoughts; they see the giant of labor, restless in
his torment, groping as in a nightmare for the throat of his enemy.
Who can blind the eyes of this giant, who can chain him to his couch
of slumber? There is but one agent, without rival--the Keeper of the
Holy Secrets, the Deputy of the Almighty Awfulness, the Giver and
Withholder of Eternal Life. Tremble, slave! Fall down and bow your
forehead in the dust! I can see in my memory the sight that thrilled
my childhood--my grim old Bishop, clad in his gorgeous ceremonial
robes, stretching out his hands over the head of the new priest, and
pronouncing that most deadly of all the Christian curses:

"Whose sins thou dost forgive, they are forgiven; and whose sins thou
dost retain, they are retained!"

#Bishops and Beer#

For example, the International Shylocks wanted the diamond mines of
South Africa--wanted them more firmly governed and less firmly taxed
than could be arranged with the Old Man of the Boers. So the armies of
England were sent to subjugate the country. You might think they would
have had the good taste to leave the lowly Jesus out of this
affair--but if so, you have missed the essential point about
established religion. The bishops, priests, and deacons are set up for
the populace to revere, and when the robber-classes need a blessing
upon some enterprise, then is the opportunity for the bishops, priests
and deacons to earn their "living." During the Boer war the blood-lust