A survey of our ways and methods in elementary education was taken by a writer in the Westminster Gazette, Mr. H. W. Nevinson, who began his review by asking what a pagan mind at the beginning of Christianity would ever have thought of this new religion; and then proceeded to describe what he himself had felt on watching the working of Catholic schools.

A Greek of the second century, he said, or a northern Teutonic barbarian, must have experienced a curious surprise when he lighted on some early Christian home. "There at least he found a peculiar peace, a confident serenity, an almost womanly consideration for the wants and weaknesses of mankind. He perceived that from the hour of birth to its final departure upon the long but hopeful journey to God, the Christian soul was comforted and encouraged by the words and ceremonies of a plain and beautiful symbolism. A guard had been set at every gate by which the unseen powers of covetousness, presumption, sloth and despair, might break in and assault the human spirit. To every phase of common life a kindly sympathy was extended, and to the very uttermost the living soul was never excluded from the hope of victory in the long spiritual contest of exist

Then the gentleman turned to the school in particular, and said that "it is the same in the Catholic school of to-day. From morning till evening the children are surrounded by the plain and beautiful symbolism of protecting and merciful powers. The Crucifix hangs upon the wall; the Virgin, with flowers round her feet, watches them like a mother more beautiful and considerate than their own. Three times a day their prayers go up, and three times a day they are instructed in the definite teach

ings of the Church, so reasonable and satisfying that I think every one would wish them to be true. When you see the children beat their breasts at the words, "Through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault;' when you hear them repeat the 'Hail Mary,' and remember that the first part of it was made by the Angel Gabriel, and the second by the Church so long ago; when you hear them instructed that the oppression of the poor is one of the four sins that cry to Heaven for vengeance-it is not difficult to understand why the ancient Church has maintained its hold upon humanity, and in most European lands always continues to be the Church of the poor. For the poor do not reason more than other people, but they suffer more.

This writer continued: "In the catechism, which is the base of the teaching, the children are given not only the doctrines of sin and prayer and forgiveness; they are given a rule of life and a form of daily exercise." Here he illustrates with points of daily observance, as that of modesty in retiring to rest, of prayer on beginning the day; how they are to make the sign of the Cross, and say some short prayer, such as "O my God, I offer my heart and soul to Thee!' Thus the child passes into life, believing himself to be attended by powers and defenders which most children, I think, would like to have with them, and many grown-up people too.”—This good gentleman who observed so much, did not notice at all the central duties on which all the rest of Catholic life is pivoted, that is to say, the steady reception of the Sacraments, Penance and Holy Eucharist, which pour in the grace to maintain the purity, integrity and richness of religious vitality.

CHAPTER XX

GOOD FAITH

BENJAMIN. I am glad you come back to the beaten path, leaving the land of paradoxes and contradictions. It is a little remarkable that things so familiar and natural to us should make such an impression on an outsider.

ST. VICTOR. Yes, a vital religion so full of faith is a beaten path, but only to those, whose Christian heritage has made their minds, wills and sentiments connatural with things above in the supernatural. It is not at all a beaten path for such raw material of minds and hearts as you have been analysing. Raw material, I say. Consider what kind of temper there is in the mentality and even the physical being of those, who in the line of their ancestry and heritage have not for centuries received the grace of reconciliation with God in the Sacrament of Penance, have never shared in the divine refection of the Holy Eucharist, have never been taught how to turn and return to God by an act of inner sorrow for sin. Much rawer still is the material of human minds and hearts, if persons have not received the Sacrament of regeneration by Baptism. They belong to a different world.

St. Jerome uses that term, "raw," speaking of the first generations which entered the Christian Church, and referring to that pagan world which had to be recast, remoulded and reformed. He says that the service of women in the Church was reserved by St. Paul to widows of 60 years of age,1 because he

1 1 Tim. 5.9.

was instructing through Timothy, Bishop of Ephesus, the "rude" or 'raw" material, of which the Church at the beginning was made up: “Quia rudem Christi instituebat Ecclesiam." This agrees perfectly with the policy of missionaries in the countries of the infidel; they estimate the first generation of converts as altogether unfit for the priesthood. And not only the same policy has been applied in other parts, not strictly infidel; but the principle of it has shaped canon law, and created certain impediments regarding priestly ordination.

The personnel, or raw material, which we have been contemplating, has a stock of Christian language, because it occupies the ground of what was once Christendom; it has breathed in an atmosphere more or less Christian, and has conceived Christian ideas, because of the antecedents past; just as the Platonists and Stoics of imperial Rome began to adopt Christian talk and thought, because of the Christianity then breaking like a vision upon the world. Both classes, those who enjoyed the vision before them, and these who see it dissolving in the past, have made free with Christian ways as Orientals do with European clothes. But the "delicate Sabbath" of the Lord is not for them. Their speech betrays them, as it betrays you; for you and they are almost of different races. Hence, my dear Benjamin, you need not be surprised if, among other results of such differences, the genuine Christian is a marked man, as being not of the world; if he is persistently revealed by his manner of talking, and acting, and deportment generally. You are in the same condition as St. Peter, who following Our Lord was seen through quite distinctly. The servant girl said so: "Thy speech doth betray thee." If you ask why, I answer with the magnificent definition which one

of the St. Cyrils gives of a Christian, that he consists of "body and soul and the Holy Ghost." And there is no concealing that combination. Body and soul are too transparent with their purity, simplicity and intelligence to hide that light, as if they were mere crockery, like Gideon's pitchers, meant only to screen the lamps within.

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BENJAMIN. Good Faith, I suppose, will stand people in good stead, and save many souls.

ST. VICTOR. What do you mean by good faith? You will have to unravel the word. Freemasons in Brazil are under the ban of the Church, yet you see them trooping devoutly to walk in a procession on Corpus Christi. A man will devote his life to conducting literary enterprises against the Church, her doctrines, and authority, but he will come forward to hold the tassel of a canopy over the Blessed Sacrament. You may be edified by the sincerity of the man who ingratiates himself with you by repeating that he belongs to "Holy Roman Catholic Apostolic Church," but who, a little while after, shows you the account of his having been married to a Jewess in a Presbyterian church. Now, in all these cases and a multitude of others, you will find an officious charity or indolence, not very remote from Indifferentism, flaunting the rag of "good faith," to cloak the bareness of the transactions. We may add to the credit of a certain French professor of ethics, that he does not seem to have invoked the plea of "good faith, when he said plainly that his cleverest scholars were the biggest rogues.

BENJAMIN. A person I could name to you said, he would never disturb one who was in good faith. ST. VICTOR. We may assume that such a person had neither position, nor authority, nor responsibility