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New Zealand Tablet, 16 August 1917, Page 26

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Up-to-Date Catholic News : "The Right Rev. Dr. Brodie, Roman Catholic Bishop of Christchurch, and the Right Rev. Dr. Verdon, Bishop of Dunedin, returned from Wellington to-day, where they have been in connection with the celebration of the Feast of Adolphus." (Christchurch Sun.) Who is Adolphus, anyhow? The Clergy The following extract from a schoolboy's essay deserves to find a place beside that brilliant item we have just quoted: "There are three kinds of clergymen—bishops, vickers, and curits. The bishops tell the vickers to work, and the curits do it. A curit is a very thin man, but when he becomes a vicker he gets fuller and becomes a cannon or a big gun." Religion in the School The Bishop of Nelson has added his authority to the arguments of men to whom the welfare of the youth of New Zealand is dear. He recognises the necessity of schools wherein the elementary principles of religion will be taught to every child, and he hopes to see such a school attached to every church in his diocese. We have seen how the Methodists in Fiji also insisted on their right to teach religion in their schools. Here, our own Bishops, the Church of England Bishops, and dignitaries of the Presbyterian Church, have all pointed out. that legislation is worth nothing as a remedy for the social plague, and that unless we compel the Government to recognise the right of parents to have children taught their religion in the school we are only beating the wind. The secular school is doing the devil's work. Hereditary Faith In one of the lessons in the Breviary a phrase occurs which seems to suggest that the' theory of heredity applies to matters of faith. And in one of his Notre Dame conferences Pere Mont sabre develops the same point. In a beautiful book written lately by Father Gavin Duffy we find a note illustrating the same idea. Speaking of a little Indian Catholic boy, in whose spiritual training the good Father had a deep interest, he says: "Spiritual things do little more than fleck the outer surface, and it takes many years of tending ere the motives of the other world awake. He remembered his own boyhood. . . . And the difference was not of education only —for had not these boys too been with him always, away from crude home influence? Yet the quickening of the spirit moved them very faintly, because there was no answer to it in the blood." To put it in another way, the supernatural atmosphere is foreign to the natural man, but some people are acclimated from birth as it were through inherited qualities. Yonder? The book to which we have just referred is called Yonder ? All the Gavin Duft'ys knew how to write, and on this good Missionary Father the gift has been largely bestowed. Yonder? as he tells us, is not intended to be a treatise. But it. is a very fine piece of literature, full of poetry, piety, and philosophy, and it will help more than twenty treatises to reveal to its readers the wonderful inspiration which sends men afar to labor among pagan people for the love of Christ. Nobody can read the book without feeling how intensely Father T. Gavin Duffy has caught the old Irish missionary spirit which filled Europe once with Irish scholars burning with the desire to spread the light of truth everywhere: peregrinetri pro Christ as the old phrase has it. Hear how the spirit is expressed in the words of the great Catholic poet, Francis Thompson :

" Learn to water joy with tears, Learn from fear to banish : fears ; To hope, for thou dar'st not despair, Exult, for thou dar'st not grieve ; Plough thou the rock until it bear : Know, for else thou couldst not believe ; Lose, that the lost thou may'st receive; Die, for none other way canst live." The Mission At Vellantagal, in the heart of India, is the scene of this zealous priest's labors. Since 1913 he has already done wonders among the natives, and in time with the help of friends, he will have a new church and a convent from which spiritual force will radiate throughout the surrounding district. At present well, the following note will tell you in his own words how things are at present: 1. Here is a missioner who has built a school and put his last cent into the ultimate tile of the roof. 2. Here is a missioner who has laid the foundations of a convent, and he has no cash with which to put up tho walls. 3. Here is a missioner who has planned a house for himself and his successors ; and there is no house. 4. Here is a missioner with an allowance of 10 dollars a month, and with 30 dollars to pay out in monthly salaries. And then this: "My God, if the work I am doing for You is Your work, put it into the hearts of others to support it. If not, cut off my work by any means you wish.'' Can you not read in these words the secret of the humanly unintelligible success of such men And if no other way of helping suggests itself to us, let us remember that our prayers are asked for the following objects : 1. The spread of frequent Communion in the district. 2. Peace in the district. 3. The efficiency of the schools. 4. The finding of capable teachers. 5. The founding of the convent. 6. The humiliation of God's enemies. Maxims from St. Philip St. Philip Neri, kindest and clearest of all Roman saints, reveals in his sayings a vein of quaint humor which is as delightful as everything in his life was. With a smile which beams on us across the centuries he imparts his lesson in a way that is often witty and humorous. What a depth of insight there is in the following remark: "He who feels that the vice of avarice has got hold of him, should not wish to observe fasts of superrerogation, but should give alms" : and in this one: "If we wish to keep peace with our neighbors, Ave should never remind anyone of his natural defects." St. Philip taught many people how to find holiness in the "trivial round" of life .without seeking out opportunities of heroic sacrifice, or waiting for opportunities which never come to most. Charity and cheerfulness were his favorite prescriptions. He discouraged all sorts of spiritual affectation and everything approaching a falsetto note in piety. "He who desires ecstasies and visions does not know what he is desiring," he says, "and as for those who run ; after them we must lay hold of them by the feet and pull them to the ground by force." Here are three sayings of his well worth remembering: "Men are generally the .carpenters of their own crosses." "A man without prayer is an animal without the uso of reason." "There is not a finer thing on earth than to make a virtue of necessity."