what had a man of his ecclesiastical rank to do with the
drudgery and danger of sick calls, except that Christian faith and
charity constrained him? Priests volunteered for the dangerous service.
It was the same with them on the first coming of the cholera, that
mysterious awe-inspiring infliction. If they did not heartily believe in
the Creed of the Church, then I will say that the remark of the Apostle
had its fullest illustration:--"If in this life only we have hope in
Christ, we are of all men most miserable." What could support a set of
hypocrites in the presence of a deadly disorder, one of them following
another in long order up the forlorn hope, and one after another
perishing? And such, I may say, in its substance, is every
Mission-Priest's life. He is ever ready to sacrifice himself for his
people. Night and day, sick or well himself, in all weathers, off he is,
on the news of a sick call. The fact of a parishioner dying without the
Sacraments through his fault is terrible to him; why terrible, if he has
not a deep absolute faith, which he acts upon with a free service?
Protestants admire this, when they see it; but they do not seem to see
as clearly, that it excludes the very notion of hypocrisy.

Sometimes, when they reflect upon it, it leads them to remark on the
wonderful discipline of the Catholic priesthood; they say that no Church
has so well ordered a clergy, and that in that respect it surpasses
their own; they wish they could have such exact discipline among
themselves. But is it an excellence which can he purchased? is it a
phenomenon which depends on nothing else than itself, or is it an effect
which has a cause? You cannot buy devotion at a price. "It hath never
been heard of in the land of Chanaan, neither hath it been seen in
Theman. The children of Agar, the merchants of Meran, none of these have
known its way." What then is that wonderful charm, which makes a
thousand men act all in one way, and infuses a prompt obedience to rule,
as if they were under some stern military compulsion? How difficult to
find an answer, unless you will allow the obvious one, that they believe
intensely what they profess!

* * * * *

I cannot think what it can be, in a day like this, which keeps up the
prejudice of this Protestant country against us, unless it be the vague
charges which are drawn from our books of Moral Theology; and with a
short notice of the work in particular whi