Penance or confession. But how when he has not as yet the strength or courage to avail himself of this? Is he going to give up in despair, or simply wait for God to change him?

You will say he can pray. Well, we say that too; in fact, we say there is little chance for him unless he does; and that if he prays faithfully and constantly, he will certainly get grace to repent in earnest. But cannot anything else be done to help him in this; to make it easier for him; to remind him of it? Cannot he be surrounded in some way with things that are holy, that will suggest holy thoughts to his mind?

The Church does not forget her children, even though they may be in the power of Satan for a time, and wandering off in the ways of sin. She is always going out into the desert, and trying to save the sheep that are lost. Hence she institutes certain means, something like the Sacraments, but which even the sinner, though still unrepentant, can use without fear of sacrilege, to make a bond between him and the grace which he has lost; a clew by which he can find his way back from the wilderness to his true home.

These means are what we call the sacramentals; just such things as you have been speaking of; holy water, blessed candles, scapulars, and the like. Take the scapular, for

instance. It reminds every Catholic of the Blessed Mother of God, who is also his mother, and has, as he feels, the love of a mother for him, even though he be a sinner, and on the way to ruin. It is to him like a locket with his own mother's hair in it, or some other keepsake that she has given him. Such a thing reminds the erring son of his mother's prayers for him, of the example which she gave him, and of the prayers which he himself once said as a child by her side. Is this superstition? If not, how is it superstition for a Catholic to keep on a scapular, even if he feels he is not worthy of it? The worst of it is that when he goes too far, he does even give this up.

I might speak similarly of the other things. that have been mentioned. That even bad Catholics should have a devotion to them is not superstition, but a remnant of the faith and piety which they once had, and which they still hope to regain. All these things have their significance, and their association with what is good and holy; and what else, till he repents, can the poor sinner have? He does not think they will of themselves suffice; that is a mistake of yours.

However, these sacramentals have their other uses. They are not instituted simply for the purpose I have set forth. Good Catholics also use them; and, indeed, if they did not others.

would hardly do so, for it would be a confession or profession of sin in themselves. And they are believed to have a special efficacy; that by being set apart and blessed by the Church for holy uses exclusively, they become specially helpful to all of us, as the Sacraments themselves are, though in a less degree; and that they become like everything else on which God has set, as it were, His seal—an object of dread to His enemies, the fallen angels.

The regular use of objects then, or practices, like the sign of the cross, blessed or recommended by the Church, is not superstition. Superstition is properly the assigning of effects without a reasonable cause; the adherence to, or avoidance of, certain practices in themselves senseless and unmeaning; or the endeavor to discover the future or accomplish some desired end by means evidently inadequate. To consult fortune-tellers is superstitious, if it is not even worse; so it is to believe in dreams; or to refuse to sit down with thirteen at table.

Now, of course I do not mean to say that no Catholics can be found who believe in things like these; but I do say that these beliefs are not distinctively or specially Catholic. Also I can tell you that the influence of the Church is always and uniformly against these or any other superstitions. Of course she does not succeed in rooting them out of the minds or of the prac

tice of the faithful; but she does succeed in making them understand that these things are always more or less sinful, and in some cases grievously so. All that listen to her voice know that they are matters to be repented of, to be confessed, and to be abandoned; and that is a great deal more than most other people understand.

But

If you say, however, that Catholics are naturally more prone to believe such things than others of the same grade of education, because the habit of belief is so much more exercised and developed in them, I agree that it would seem as if such ought to be the case. whether it be on account of the salutary instructions which they receive on this point, or for some other reason, it does not appear that such is in fact the case. Still, even if it should at any time be proved by accurate statistics that our people are slightly more credulous than others, it does not seem to me a very serious charge. It is better to be slightly superstitious than not to accept what God has revealed; it is better to believe a little too much than a great deal too little.

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE CHURCH OPPOSED TO SCIENCE.

OW we come to a charge which, if it were

Now

only true, would indeed be quite a serious matter. It is that the Catholic Church is opposed to natural science; that she has fought it all along tooth and nail, and only given up at one point or another where she was obliged to; that she still objects to it and resists it as far as possible; that she does not wish Catholics to become familiar with or to accept its teachings.

Is any reason alleged why the Church should take this attitude? Oh, yes! our objectors say that the reason is plain. If Catholics were allowed to study science, they would see the errors of their creed; they would see that what the Church teaches is contrary to the glorious discoveries of modern times, and they would give up their old benighted Church, and join in the march of thought. "And then how would. the priests get their living?" some will go on to say; "they live on the ignorance of the people, and cannot afford to let them learn what science teaches."

Of course this last insinuation is an insult to us; it implies that the whole business of the Catholic religion, in the minds of its priests, is