who, in our days at least, are not brought into such frequent contact with their offspring. Thus we owe many of our greatest saints to the timely advice and fervent example of good mothers, and we know that many vocations are both preserved and advanced by graces obtained through the prayers of a pious mother's pure heart. On the other hand, we hold that parents will be held strictly responsible for vocations hindered, or even lost, because they neglect to instil into the minds of their children the untold beauty of cooperating with Christ in the salvation of souls.

Now, as our Lord is "the true light which enlightens every man coming into this world" (St. John i.), and as all His lights and graces are given in perfect harmony with the plan laid down for the salvation of mankind, we may be absolutely sure that He portions out, or imparts, His supernatural grace and light at all times to an adequate number to fill the priesthood of His Church; for this is one of the most important factors in His plan, since "faith cometh by hearing" (Romans x. 17); but how can they hear to whom no duly authorized messenger is sent? The world cannot know the truth but by the Church, to which the teaching authority in all its fulness has been given: "Go teach all nations all things whatsoever I have commanded; and behold I am with you always, even to the end of the world" (St. Matthew xxviii. 18, 19, 20).

It is true that our Lord chose out His especial Apostles from among men already mature. Yet these also required to be drilled, as it were, under His own eyes, in order to become true witnesses of His stupendous miracles. At subsequent periods, and as a general rule, it was necessary to take the young and prepare them assiduously for the task. This takes the place of the extraordinary vocation of the Apostles. We deem it of the utmost importance to insist that youth is the season when such a bent may be given to the mind towards what is high and ennobling, that no future trials will be able to change it. In this wicked world we must anticipate the possibility of having the evil seed of vice sown in the garden of the heart, and it is our duty to prepare the youthful mind by precautionary measures. Parents would assuredly be faithless to their trust did they forget the strict duty of efforming the minds of their offspring both by human learning and by Christian precepts. Thus their character will be based on fixed principles of action. This is no tampering with the freedom of choice in a profession or vocation, nor is it an undue influence exercised by parents over those under their charge. Children are generally not averse to follow the avocation, or worldly trade, or profession of their parents, yet even these leave them entirely free in their choice.

The next step is usually in the schoolroom, where the further development of character is effected. Here youth are under the

care of those who make it their solemn duty to elicit that quickness of comprehension and ready grasp of subjects placed before them, which tend to enable them to grapple with the harder questions of practical life. Much will, therefore, depend on the teacher, holding almost a parent's sacred position, to give a serious bent to the well-disposed pupil's mind.

Now, since God is not expected to act outside of His ordinary method, we may be said to proceed with tolerable certainty and prudence in forming an estimate of character, when we base it on the deliberate judgment of able and conscientious teachers. This is not, indeed, the work of a few desultory meetings. The true teacher becomes very thoroughly versed in the mental and moral condition of his pupils, and the horoscope made from such experience is reliable. When, in addition to such testimony, we have the approval of grave and unselfish clergymen, there is little fear of the result. At least we shall possess an approximate likelihood of a

vocation.

Nevertheless there will be numerous and serious difficulties still to be overcome. In this country we can hardly be said to compose a homogeneous body. It is certainly true that the question of nationality has no entrance here, since of all things the Church has least of this spirit. She has shown it no quarter from her very inception. She is Catholic, consequently intended for all races of men, and all time. In her divine mission for the salvation of the world she knows no distinction, and the testimony of St. Paul is conclusive on the subject: "God has made of one all the races of men" (Acts xvii. 26). Yet we see cropping out, from time to time, certain natural feelings in reference to vocations. Evidently some thought that the Greek origin of St. Timothy should prevent his vocation, although he had been chosen by St. Paul to do the work of an Apostle. Of course it will not be denied that those who are of the same language, habits, customs, and manners are usually most useful and acceptable. So far as we are concerned this matter need not be even mooted. It will in due course of time settle itself. As we assimilate in this vast country more and more daily, but a few years will be required to pass from the swaddlingclothes of childhood to the perfection of manhood. This can be attained by a close imitation of the excellent lives of those apostolic men who left all for Christ, and gave themselves to the missions in the midst of trials which we should often recall. Their memory must remain as an incentive to virtue. The names of the laborers should be held in perpetual benediction by every grateful heart. We would be demanding an impossibility, however, were we to ask that such transient arrangement should continue. It was a special blessing for our needy and forlorn condition, and an unspeakable VOL. V.-3

grace for those who dedicated themselves to our difficult missions in earlier days.

For the future, therefore, we must in a very great measure, if not entirely, depend upon ourselves to keep up these plantations for the sons of the prophets." And we must meet the difficulties arising in reference to our clergy. As the ranks are yearly thinned by death, or incapacity from old age, sickness, etc., there must be provision made, and we need only look at the mortuary record of each year to assure ourselves of the increasing demand for laborers in the vineyard.

As a practical people we all know that the heavy item of cost for the education of the clergy must fall ultimately on the laity. None feel this more sensibly than our poor people, who are not only taxed to keep up the expensive system of "public schools," but also are super-taxed for the parochial or parish schools, whence the material is drawn, in most cases, to form our probable ecclesiastics. Now, from the beginning of his studies, the bright young student, whose poverty is, perhaps, his chief fault, has to be sustained by charity. In all other avocations, or conditions of life, each candidate is supposed to have gone through what is deemed, or at least called, a satisfactory course of studies in some reputable college. Afterwards he must pay for instruction in law or medicine, as indeed in almost all other permanent professions of the higher sort. In the seminary alone, during from four to six years of philosophy and theology, with the other analogous studies, the student for the ministry is a heavy (unless in a few rare instances) tax on the people, who have to secure the raw material, are burdened in transforming it, and finally levied upon to support and protect it. They do not complain, but they have a right to know on whom their money is spent, and that the really called have been chosen.

Just here a remark seems fitting. When those to whom God has given the grace of vocation shall have been so cared for, and shall have corresponded with lights obtained in their career, so that they have already entered the clerical ranks, a right sense of their own obligation, and a manly gratitude, will impel them to repay out of their own means the expenses of their education. This plan has been adopted in some of our dioceses, and will tend to make the seminaries self-supporting. Another excellent plan would be that each priest should educate a young cleric, and thereby diminish the constant claim made upon the small wages of the poor who work for daily bread. As to those who, sailing under false colors, have pretended a vocation in order to obtain an education free of expense (the case has occurred), we can only say that such unscrupulous persons are little likely to make restitution for ill-gotten goods, however much in conscience they are bound, both because

of their own deception and the positive hindrance of others who I would have been useful in the diocese.

That was a very' flimsy sort of pretext for a vocation to the priesthood put forward by the guileless young man who said: “I never was fond of work." Yet there are those who would have graced a plough and a yoke of oxen, and who actually are a disgrace to their profession by their ignorance and vices, who have managed to put themselves forward as guides of the people. "They ran, but I have not sent them, saith the Lord" (Jer. xxiii. 21). They secured some bishop who was forgetful of St. Paul's advice, nay, command, to St. Timothy, 1 Epis. v. ch. 22: “Impose not hands lightly (thoughtlessly) on any man," and was unfortunate enough "to lay hands-careless hands-on skulls that could not teach, and would not learn."

Now it is certain that the duty, in the last analysis, devolves on the bishop to look out for candidates who may be imbued with the qualities pre-eminently required in the priesthood. It is his chief work, since he has the power of transforming them into "the ministers of Christ and dispensers of the mysteries of God" (1 Cor. iv. 1). Having found suitable candidates he must see to their training, either personally (which is usually impossible) or by those in whose judgment he may reasonably rely. No undoubted certainty is or can be attained, and since even when the number was only twelve one of them was found utterly recreant, we should not be astonished that numbers being increased many fail to persevere. The fewer mere worldly motives enter, on the part of candidates, the greater will be the probability that the vocation is divine, and such a vocation will endure trials and contradictions. Mistakes in the choice will also be fewer just in such proportion as the precautionary measures of sound common-sense are observed, and as the bishop is faithful in asking God's wisdom to enlighten him, and His grace to guide him in the selection.

The plan proposed in a pastoral by the late Archbishop Spalding for the increasing of the number of candidates, seems to us very clear and concise. It consists of the following suggestions. Let every priest in charge of a congregation or mission, keep his eye on promising lads, even from their tender years. Frequently give explanations, both to parents and children, on the dignity and honor of the office, the necessity of keeping up the ranks of those who forsake all to follow Christ, the certainty of salvation for those who faithfully receive and treasure up the divine call or vocation to labor for Him, the promise that "those who teach many unto justice shall shine like stars forever in the kingdom of heaven" (Daniel xii. 3). These and similar suggestions should frequently be made in pastoral and catechetical instructions. Even

the wealthy are moved by such appeals, and may participate in the blessing of a divine vocation, since riches and possessions by no means exclude their owners, but only an overweening attachment to them, as we see in the case of the young man whose dispositions were excellent even to such a degree that Jesus loved him, but the same youth, when it came to the test, was too much enamoured of his possessions "to sell all he had, and give to the poor, and come to follow Christ" (St. Matthew xix. 20-22). Nor, indeed, are the highest classes excluded, as we see from brilliant examples among the clergy who rose to saintliness of life by making themselves like to Christ in humility. "Multi sunt vocati, pauci vero electi" (St. Matthew xx. 16) applies to every rank and condition.

If young candidates be thus chosen they should be separated at an early age from secular life, and be placed under the charge of men who have been religiously trained in community. Should any of the candidates be deficient in the necessary qualities of head and heart, or either, he is to be returned to his home without delay. In case a mistake had been made, or an injustice done by too great severity in observing this inexorable rule, the subsequent good conduct of the student would prove him worthy of a new trial.

We would wish to make our views most emphatic in reference to those under whose charge these youths are to be placed. They ought to be, when possible, either men under strict discipline, as those of a religious order, or community approved for that purpose, or, at least, living under rule. They should be men of wisdom, prudence, and experience, who have themselves been educated under special auspices for the guiding of young men in the clerical life. They hold a most necessary place in the work of training youth for future usefulness. They should know the needs of our country, and have some practical knowledge of the missions, their wants and difficulties. This was the manner in which our Lord, as the great prefect of studies, introduced His own disciples into the apostolic seminary, teaching them after His own example, "first to do, and afterwards to teach" (Acts i. 1). We can have no higher model. The more closely our guides for the young ecclesiastic imitate Christ, the more surely will the clergy be imbued with the spirit of their vocation, a sense of the dignity of their solemn office, and a horror of ever departing from the same, even in thought, or swerving from the discharge of duties, however onerous these may be. The spirit of such a seminary life will pervade each student, and like the leaven of the woman mentioned in the Gospel, "leavening the whole lump" (Matthew