THE BOOK OF DAYS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VI, Issue 310, 28 March 1879, Page 16

THE BOOK OF DAYS.

♦ . , " The effect of strong bigotry or prejudice." say Milncr " is twofold : one is to blunt the understanding to the clearest) evidence, in opposition to it; the "other is to deaden tbc sentiment so as to render'the mind indifferent whether the opiniou it is determined to adhere to be true or false." The truth of these remarks will be plain to anyone who has mixed much with. Protestants. Put the matter in dispute as clearly before them as you like.—demonstrate it by the most uncontrovei table rules of logic, and they will bring in some " cuttlefish > argument" against you, to smother you in a "friendly fog." Who can blame them ? the stories they hear from their childhood up, the books that are put into their bands all tend to this result. I have now before me, on the table as I write. Chamber's " Book of Days," a work in two large volumes of over 800 pages each, well sot up, and admirable in its conception. It is a miscellany of.popular antiquities, profusely illustrated, and edited by Robert Chambers o£ Edmburgh. The purport of the work is to set forth the memorabilia of each day throughout the year under its proper date. Ancient Catholic customs and practices occupy a large space in the book, and the calendar of the saints is taken from " Butler's Lives." Mr. Chambers starts with the promise that he will give " notices of a dispassionate nature of those saints of the Romish calendar, who figure most prominently in history. Departing from this wise rule, however, he mostly gives those saints whose lives and miracles he can treat of as superstitious and fabulous legends. Tlie "dispassionate" way in which he notices them may be gathered from the fact that when writing of St. Ilumald, November 3, he quotes the lying historian, Fuller, to show how the priests used to practice deception on women at Boxley in Kent by getting them to lift a small statue of the saint which was venerated at that place. The statue was hollow and so light that a child of seven years might lift it, but those Who were guilty of sia might tug at it with all their might to no purpose. Those women who paid the priest Avell could lift it quite easily while those who had no money to give could not move it an inch, because it was secretly fastened down by the priests. When writing on the invention of tbc Holy Cross, May 3rd, the reformer Calvin is cited as the authority on which are built up the most barefaced falsehoods against Catholics. Aud so through the entire book Catholics and everything appertaining to them arc either held up to ridicule or to pity, and I can fancy how readers of that book will often lay it down thanking God for bein"- delivered from the superstitions and tyranny of the Church of Rome, that she has lost her sway over men's minds, and thai in this enlightened nineteenth century Protestantism is standing on the apex of the world, calling ou the nations to gather round her, who wiH"givethem liberty to believe what they like, aud practice what they believe ; and whereas if this is not liberty enough, they need not believe anything £lx> nli. I have no hesitation in saying that the " Book of Days" is, as far as the Catholic Church and her customs and practices are concerned a tissue of falsehoods, and will contribute not a little to keep alive the old Protestant tradition of enmity and hatred to Catholics. The proper thing:, however, for Catholics to do is to try to forget or ignore .-ill this, and by their lives and actions convince Protestants of their error. Such us have good Catholic books should lend them to thos-e who are willing to read them, for even all Piotestants will not do this : but above all, lend them the Tablet. It is impossible tor any Protestant regularly reading this paper to continue in his former fiame of uinui. I very often purchase extra numbers of the 1 ablet to lend about in this way. and I find that the sharp corners are being gradually tiled down from very many of their prejudices. I have in this way disgusted not a few Protestants iv this town with the conduct of the CkrUthtn Jfn-ortl in the present discussion on Gary's Theology. 1 have have kept them regularly posted up in this matter until they are becoming heartily* ashamed of their champion, of the First Church; and some oi them have begun to repudiate him altogether, saying that his is the very last church on earth that they would wish to belong to. We have mechanics of every grade and of various degrees of excellence take to the ministry in these colonies with the best results. Blacksmiths, bakers, shoemakers, and drapers have all in turn felt themselves "called," aud they have invariably improved their coi? dition iv life : some of them indeed arc at present doing their otium cum dUjnitate in England,—rejoicing the hearts of their old friends at homo, with tales of the " Land and the Book." It has been found that men of this stamp do the Master's work with much more gusto and verve and dash than those who have muddled their heads with classics. What did Paul know about classics ? said one of them to me some time ago, but I answered- -St. Paul, as is evident, was an educated man. How about the fimcrman ? said he. It is a strange and unaccountable fact that there ire many sensible men outside our Church who think that ignorance, if it is not a qualification, is at least no impediment to men for t jc ministry ! and so they throw Latin and learning to the dogs,—tl c less ballast they carry the lighter they sail. . "Minos". Christchurcb, March 17th, 187?.