INFLUENCE OF THE CLERICAL PROFESSION.

THERE is no custom so strange, no observance so whimsical, but is rendered familiar to us by habit, or, it may be, is invested with the character of importance-even of imperious necessity, by reiteration.

In the South Sea Islands they pierce the central cartilage of the nose, and wear a cumbrous, dependant nose-jewel, without suspecting that any one could fail to admire it, as a most becoming and enviable ornament. The diminutive shoes of the Chinese females, stamping on the favoured few the impress at once of nobility and helplessness-very much like our own fashionable boardingschools are well known. In a particular district of Italy the inhabitants, so travellers tell us, take their produce to market in panniers placed upon mules: they hang a basket on one side the saddle, filling it with fruit, vegetables, or other produce, and balance on the other with stones. You would ask them, no doubt, why they did not fill a pannier on each side, instead of thus carrying a useless weight. They would tell you, that their fathers did so before them, and that their fathers were wise and good men ; and they would probably add, that it showed little discretion or civility in a stranger to interfere with the long-established and venerated customs of other nations.

But then these are foolish Catholics. We, an enlightened people, have more sense. We thank God, we are not as other men, superstitious, ignorant, following on, like sheep, in the beaten tract of custom; or even as these Italians. Ay! so speaks the Pharisee within us; but the spirit of the Pharisee is a self-righteous and a lying spirit. It sees, so clearly and comfortably, the mote in its neighbour's eye, it never dreams of the beam in its

own!

But our follies are not the less real because we happen to be blind to their existence. Let us laugh at the Italian marketers as we please; we, too, have our sacks of sand, which we carry about as we would valuable produce; and we, too, would be scandalised to hear a hint about its inutility. If we pay twenty millions a year for things unseen, our forefathers, Heaven rest their souls! paid the same before us; and shall we, their unworthy successors, set up our judgments against theirs, and impeach their wisdom, by presuming to discard ancient customs, which they, no doubt, had excellent reasons for adopting ?

Yet, methinks, were a child brought up by his parents, in some remote island perhaps, in ignorance of our religious imaginings; his creed, the creed of common sense; his catechism, the catechism of earthly science; were such a child, trained to observation more than to faith, to find himself at once in the midst of us; were he to traverse our wide republic, to visit its bustling towns and its smiling villages-great would be his marvelling, and instructive his remarks.

The first civilized settlement he entered would supply subject for endless inquiries and reflections.

"That handsome, spacious building, with its arched windows and its lofty spire, what is it ?" he would naturally ask. "A church."

"What does that mean ?"

"A house of God; that is, of a Great Being who shall have made the world and the sun and the planets, and have made us, and preserved our lives."

"Does God live in that church?"

"No. His residence, they say, is in the heavens."

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Why does he want a house there, then ?”

"It is not for God to dwell in."

"Does he get any body to keep it for him ?"

No; no one lives in it."

"Then of what use is it ?"

'Men meet there every seventh day, to praise and glorify God."

"Does God like that?"

"Men say he does."

"How do they know that? Have they ever been to see God and ask him ?"

"No; but in every village there is a man who wears a black dress, and who tells them what God likes and what he does not like."

"And has that man with the black dress been to see God?"

"No."

"Does God tell him what he wants ?"

"No."

"Then how can he tell the people whether God likes to be praised or not?"

"He has a book which, he says, God wrote."

"When ?"

"A good many thousand years ago."

"What sort of book is it ?"

"Like other books."

"How does he know God wrote it? Who saw God write it ?”

"No one; but his father told him God wrote it."

"And who told his father ?"

"His grandfather."

"And where did he learn it ?"

"From his great grandfather, and he from his father, and so on." "And are you sure that none of these people said what was not true ?"

"How does the man in the black dress know that they all spoke the truth ?"

"He does not know it."

"Then if God really likes to be praised, he should tell all men so plainly, instead of leaving people to guess whether he likes it or not; and then there would be no mistake about it. I don't understand why he does not tell us at once."

"Nor I."

"How do the people praise God, when they meet in that house ?" "They sing, and sometimes have an organ to accompany their voices."

"I should like that, if the music is good." "Then the man in the black dress prays." "What is that ?"

"He speaks to God."

"What does he say to him?"

"He tells him that he is very great and very good and very merciful, and that without his protecting care we should instantly die "

"Does not God know all that already ?”

"So men believe."

"Then what is the use of telling him ?" "I see none."

"What more does the man in black say?"

"He tells God that he and the congregation are miserable sinners; that all the thoughts of their hearts are only evil continually : that there is none among them that doeth good, no, not one." "Is he telling the truth ?"

"I think not."

"He must believe it to be the truth; for he surely would not tell God a lie."

"It is very natural, my child, that you should think so."

"But yet, I hope it is not true, for I should not like to live among miserable sinners, that never did good and were always thinking evil. Do they tell one another how bad they are ?"

"Oh no; a man would be knocked down, if he were to do that.” "What! for speaking the truth ?”

"They would say, in that case, that it was not the truth. They would deny that they were miserable sinners."

"Then the man with the black dress does tell God a lie, after all. I wonder the people don't knock him down, since that is the fashion here. Why don't they?"

They have no objection to be called miserable sinners in church, by the man in the black dress; but they have very great objections to be called so any where else, and by any other person. I cannot explain to you, my child, why this is, except that it is customary in this country.'

"They have strange customs, then. But what more does the man in black say to God?"

"He asks hini for food and clothing, and heavy crops and fine weather, and health and every other good thing, for himself and the congregation."

"Does God send them food and clothes ?"

"Not unless they raise and prepare them."

"Then they might as well set to work, without saying a word to him about it."

"But they think that if God will help them, they can get along better."

"And will God forget to help them, unless the man in black reminds him what is to be done?"

"I believe they are afraid of it."

"But has the man that prays finer crops and better weather than his neighbour ?"

"No."

"Is he ever sick ?"

"Yes."

"Then God does not do as the man in the black dress bids him ?"

"No; very often not."

"And what do the people say when they see that their prayers are fruitless?"

"They say, God knows best what they ought to have; let his will be done."

"But if God knows best, why do they plague him at all with their wants? If the man in black does not know what God had best do, it is very foolish in him to talk to God about it. What does he do it for ?"

"He receives a thousand, perhaps two thousand pounds a year." "What! for talking to God ?"

"Yes, and for preaching."

"What is preaching?"

Telling men what they ought to believe and what they ought

to do."

"Then he gives them lessons."

"Yes, you may call it so."

"Does he teach them mathematics and chemistry, and how to read and write ?"

"No."

"Does he teach them how to plough and work a garden? of does he make carpenters and blacksmiths of them ?”

"No."