"POPULARITY-UNPOPULARITY.

have true unction.

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Either he will be no more than a mere

man of office, or his motives will be purified.

Between popularity and permanent unpopularity there is a point below which it is not desirable to sink, but above which it is not necessary to rise. And perhaps it will be found that, with some exceptions, true success has been granted to those who, as regards talent, have received neither poverty nor riches, but whom God has nourished with food convenient for them.

Of unpopularity there are two kinds: That of indifference, or personal dislike, no one covets; not so as to the other kind, which respects doctrine as its cause: This, from its nature, may be made an object of ambition, and it is, I think, dangerous. I should not so regard it if it were inseparable from faithfulness; for what is necessary can not be dangerous; or, if it be, it is not, in this case, to be taken into consideration. But let us first be sure that unpopularity for doctrines' sake is the necessary consequence of faithfulness. Some so think, and, accordingly, they regard unpopularity from this cause as a matter of obligation. If it be unavoidable, we must let it come, not cause it to come; and in no case should we add to it by our manner of presenting the truth. As far as strict integrity will permit, we should, I think, do every thing to avoid becoming unpopular, whether in the one way or the other, because when once the boundary between popular favor and the want of it is passed, self-seeking is as probable in the second case as in the first. The mere impression, or at least the idea too constantly present, that we shall be unpopular, will prescribe the measure of our fidelity, place us in a false point of view, give acerbity to our discourse, put us in an attitude of hostility,* &c.

Thus as to the question in the abstract: If we consult facts in regard to it, I think many examples prove that faithful and conscientious preaching may procure to the preacher

* See Omicron.

the high esteem and even affection of the people.* But, after saying this, I add, without hesitation, that the Gospel would not be the Gospel if it should flow into the minds of men as easily and as pleasantly as the doctrines of natural religion or of moral philosophy; for, until the spirit of God opens the heart to the sublime truths of the Gospel, they are as bitter to the taste as they are afterward sweet to the inner man. In evangelical preaching there is always a germ of unpopularity, an element of acerbity, which may reveal itself even at periods when orthodoxy becomes popular and fashionable: The thing may happen. There are periods, also, when a general repugnance to the Gospel and a mysterious attraction to it vividly discover themselves together, and when every one is already excited in favor of it or exasperated against it. But, in general, the preacher's wisdom in this matter adjusts itself to this thought of the apostle : "It is a light thing with me to be judged of man's judgment" (1 Cor., iv., 3); and this other no less apostolical thought "The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace.". James, iii., 18. "If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men."t-Rom., xii., 18.

* See Omicron.

† CHRYSOSTOм has represented with much force the danger of permitting ourselves to be preoccupied by the desire of favor or the fear of unpopularity.-De Sacerdotio, lib. iii., c. 9, et lib. v., c. 2, 4, 6, et 8.

CATECHISING.

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CHAPTER II.

CATECHISING.

1. Its Importance and its Object.

Relig

AMONG our functions, this occupies the first rank. ious instruction, well attended on, renews continually the foundation of the Church, and is the most real and valuable part of that tradition by which Christianity, not only as a doctrine, but also as a life, perpetuates itself from age to age. In this tradition, the importance of the sermon, properly so called, is the greater in proportion as it is addressed" to hearers who have been prepared by religious instruction.

Catechising is useful to those who are its immediate objects; it is useful to the parish, which has need to be, and, with its children, is catechised; it is useful to the pastor himself, who, by the duty of adapting religion to the apprehension of children, is incessantly carried back to simplicity and the true names of things. On all these accounts, it deserves our earnest attention, which it also demands by its difficulty, not the same for all pastors, but always great. For it is a work which, besides all the requisites to good preaching, includes special requisites of its own. He who catechises well will not preach badly; though he who preaches excellently may be a bad catechist.

It is true that catechising has repulsions which do not pertain to preaching; but it has attractions, too, which preaching has not.

It is also true that it encounters a formidable obstacle in the small agreement, or rather in the contrast between the teaching which the children receive from the minister, and that which they receive for the greater part of the time from

the world and their own domestic relatives. But as far as this obstacle is not absolutely insurmountable, it presents itself to us less as an obstacle than as a motive to give the greater care to this part of the pastoral office, and as itself a reason for this institution.

The object of religious instruction is not simply to teach children their religion (as if they already possessed it, and it was theirs before they had learned it), but to lay in them the foundation of a life.*

It is undoubtedly an instruction, taking this word in its ordinary sense, and below its etymological meaning; but it is more properly an initiation into the sacred mystery of the Christian life. My little children," says St. Paul, "of whom I travail in birth again, until Christ be formed in you.". Gal., iv., 19.

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We must not give the preference to the more intelligent children, to those who answer best, but in more limited minds we shall very often recognize a superiority of heart. Answers from the heart, when they are right, are of more value than the most remarkable ones from the understanding. A dull, vexatious child is perhaps more serious than a bright one whom we are fond of caressing.

§ 2. General characteristics of Catechising-Source and Method of religious Teaching.

Instruction, as instruction, should be as solid and thorough as possible; still, we should aim at spontaneity and life; and therefore there should be in this study nothing of haste or of excessive labor (that which too much occupies the mind often leaves the heart indolent); nothing which should give it too much resemblance to an ordinary study; nothing which may leave behind it a disagreeable recollection. Let the preacher do what he can to make the child remember,

* See, for the development of this idea, the Catechetical Course.

BIBLE AND CATECHISM.

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through life, the instructions he gives him. Let the hours of teaching be hours of edification; let the child have the feeling that the exercise is one in which he is to be active ;* let religious teaching have the character of worship:† Action and worship, these two characteristics, which ought to be interfused into one another, are too often lost sight of.

Where ought a child to find his religion? All that he can find himself, he must find, but that is little; all the rest is in the Bible. It is the Bible that must teach him.‡ Catechising presupposes the Bible, which it does but digest and systematize; and we say in passing, that its use after the Bible has not the same inconveniences with its use before it. It would be a sad error to retrench it, but not so great a one as to retrench the Bible.

It is by their mutually interlacing one another that the ideas of the Bible live, as do the fibres of a living body: To separate them is to destroy their life. Facts may be distinct, and the mind may distinguish them; but in reality, in life, nothing is isolated; and all those individualizations, all those personifications, all those entities which appear in Catechisms, are fictions; all the truths here are but different forms or different applications of the same truth. But there are difficulties connected with the use of the Bible; we must not pursue this path without reflection; a method is to be arranged. It is important to understand how we should read, what we should read, where begin, and then adjust every thing carefully to the measure of time we have at command.

This feeling is promoted by interrogations which elicit the exposition.

+ See, on this subject, a passage from Madame NECKER, in her Education Progressive. Religion is never prescribed in its most sacred aspect to the young, if even the teaching of it is not worship," etc Livre vi., chap. ii. (this and the following paragraphs).

See in the Semeur, tome ix., numéro 27 (1 Juillet, 1840), an article on M. MORELL's Sacred History; and in the Appendix, note K, the portion of this article relating to the use of the Catechism.-Edit.