A WITTY RETORT.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 20, 5 September 1884, Page 29

A WITTY RETORT.

The venerable Josiah Quincy, in his very interesting and attractive volume, " Figures of the Past; from the Leaves of Old Jonrnals," has a chapter od ''The Reverend Clergy," in which, among numerous Protestant clergymen, famous in their day, he notices in a very pleasant and complimentary way that admirable first Bishop of Boston, and afterwards illustrious Cardiual of the Church, Cheverns. He says his father " one day, near the beginning of the century, was driving from Quincy to Boston in a peltiag storm. When about five miles from his destination he overtook a forlorn foot-passenger, who, drenched and draggled, was plodding along the mirj joad. His father drew up his horse and called to the stranger to get in and ride with him. « That would be scarcely fair,' was the man's reply. ' My clothes are soaked with water and would spoil the cushions of your chaise, to say nothing of tbe wetting I could not avoid giving you.' These objections were made light of, and with some difficulty the wayfarer was made to take the offered eeat." During the ride his father learned that his companion was a priest, named Cheverus, who was walking from Hingham, whither he had been to perform some offices connected with his profession, " and thus commenced the acquaintance which ripened into friendship between men whose beliefs and ways of life were outwardly so different. No person," he remarks, " could have been better adapted to establish the Church of Rome in the city of the Puritans than the first Bishop of Boston. The e.levation of his character commanded the respect of the Protestant leaders of the place, and Charming confessed that no minister in the town would care to challenge a comparison between himself and this devoted priest. ... He had a sly way of reminding his Protestant friends that their forefathers had fled to this country, not to escape the persecution of Popery, but that of a Protestant prelacy, and when theological topics were broached he would treat our ' invincible ignorance ' with a kindly forbearance that was very winning. There was a story that he once entered into an argument with a Methodist minister, who, with more zeal than wisdom, sought to crush the Bishop with texts selected at random from all parts of the Bible, and then dovetailed together to support his conclusions. Cheverus stood this sort of attack until the argumentum ad absurdum, or rather, ad hominem, seemed to be a legitimate retaliation, and so, turning over the Bible, he said he would call his antagonist's attention to two texts which, when properly clinched together, would end all controversey between them. The first was to be found in the twenty-seventh chapter of Matthew : ' And Judas went and lianged himself ; ' the second was Luke X., • Qo and do thou Ixheivise ! ' " He adds, " I do not vouch for the truth of this Btory, bub only for its currency."— Catholic Review.