The Devil's Incense: A Poem

THE DEVIUS INCENSE. 333 Papacy will not renounce it. The present position of the Holy See is abnormal : it cannot betaken as permanent. We can leave the solution to Providence ; but, maanwhile, the principle must be upheld. This is what is done by Pius X in re- fusing to be a subject of the kingdom of Italy. Indeed, it is by so refusing that he maintains de facto the dignity and the unfettered spiritual independence of the Holy See. It is not true that the Catholics of the world are opposed in this re- gard to the policy of the Vatican. They patiently await a solution —nothing more. Pew among American Catholics, I imagine, would have been pleased to read in the newspaper dispatches, the morning after his accession to the Pontifi- cate, that Pius X, as a liege subject, had repaired to the Quirinal to present his homage to bis king and sovereign. THE

DEVIL'S INCENSE (For the Improvement Era ) There is a subtle form of vice, Those who are now the tyrant's slaves Increasing ev'ry hour. See not their own disgrace, That seeks its victims, to entice The poison in them so depraves Their souls in Satan's power. Their hearts in its embrace. A countless legion, to their shame, All altruistic thoughts of love, Poor zealots in a dream, All hopes of heaven bom, Are burning incense to hi.'! name. Their sordid, vulgar minds disprove Enslaved by Satan's scheme. In ribaldry and scorn. The flaming signs areev'rywhere. Pew, once enslaved, can e'er reject More captive.*) to allure ; The twin-vice of their goal ; The victims fall within a snare The drunkard's habit will erect That makes their souls impure. Its snares about the soul. The moral sense of right and wrong Twin vices they, whose snares engirth God placed in ev'ry mind. The world in ev'ry clime, In all this incense-burning throng With open gates that curse the earth Is stultified and blind. With poverty and crime. Now you have seen the tyrant's snare. Avoid it, and abhor The scheme of Satan, and beware His lures forevermore ! So subtly does the scheme entice, Man in its sway must plod The downward course, o'ercome by vice, Self-banished from his God ! Salt Lake City, Utah.- Joseph L. Townsenu.