Page:Littell's Living Age - Volume 128.djvu/438

428 but that they were not a bad set of fellows on the whole.

"I did not mean that exactly," said his brother-in-law, in a tone as if slightly offended; "but have they gifts of preaching, for example?"

"I don't know about gifts, exactly. Some of them have the gift of preaching very short sermons, without prejudice to quality. There is Padre Blunt, for example — we always call them padres in India, you know — makes a point of never going beyond ten minutes, at any rate during the hot weather. That is a very useful gift when the thermometer stands at ninety-five."

"It is not everybody, of course, who has these gifts" — and Yorke understood him to imply by his tone that the article in question was to be found in the speaker — " but every man can at least testify to the truth. I hope they do that?"

"Why, of course; they all belong to the Church of England. There are some Roman Catholic chaplains too, but they keep to the soldiers, and one does not see much of them. Very excellent men they are for the most part — not highly educated, perhaps, but devoted to their work, and ready to face any danger."

"Ah, indeed! well, I am glad to hear it," observed the vicar, who nevertheless spoke as if he were very sorry to hear it.

"Yes, our chaplains and they work very well together. There is a very good feeling between them generally; they have the same end in view, you see, and both classes are servants of government."

"Indeed!" observed Mr. Morgan. "Well, I suppose the climate tends to laxity of doctrine."

"I don't know much about the doctrine, but there is no laxity in practice when the call is made. There was Martin, for example; I daresay you never heard of him" — the vicar shook his head compassionately — "well, if ever there was a saint on earth it was that man, and he was what you would call a strong evangelical; but he used to be always capital friends with the Roman Catholic priest. They both died, poor fellows, while attending the sick in the European hospital at Haizapoor in the great cholera year, when my regiment was stationed there."

"Well," said the vicar, "things have not yet come to that pass in England, although we are sorely beset by wolves going about in sheep's clothing; but there is one flock at least which I hope is safely folded from the danger," and the speaker smiled complacently, with obvious reference to the whitewashed building next door.

"Our good colonel tells me," said Mr. Morgan, standing before the fireplace, when the gentlemen came into the drawing-room, in which a fire had been lighted on Rebecca's account, which was after the children had gone to bed, "that the government actually has Papist priests in its pay in India. This is surely grievous tidings."

"It is objected to by some people, certainly," observed his brother-in-law, "as the money has to come from the people of the country, who are neither Protestants nor Catholics; but I never could see the force of the objection. You must have soldiers of some sort, and it is better to make them religious if you can, than to leave them utterly uncared for."

"And do you call it making them religious, my dear sir, to strengthen them in all their Popish practices? Only to think," said Mr. Morgan, turning up his eyes and nodding his chin, "that a government which calls itself a Christian government should actually spend its money in the spread of idolatrous practices!"

"A Christian government! You speak as if Roman Catholics were not Christians. Why, out in India we look on Roman Catholics as being the very next thing to ourselves in point of faith."

Yorke, it will be seen, was but a simple young fellow, and his brother-in-law evidently thought him so, for he did not care to pursue the argument, but looking before him as if addressing the company in general, said, after a pause, "Ah, well, well, I fear the state of things among our erring countrymen in the East must be indeed grievously lax."

"I don't know about that," said Yorke, taking him up. "You see, when the next faith you come in contact with is that of a Mussulman or a Hindoo, one gets to look on a Roman Catholic as something very close indeed."

"That is surely a very shocking, state of things. I fear Papist errors must be working their insidious way in India as rapidly as here. This laxity of thought is evidently a device of Satan to ensnare our weaker brethren."

"It is a laxity which you do not appear to be in danger from here at any rate, judging from my short experience. The drum ecclesiastic seems to be beaten freely down in these parts. People are apparently not likely to go wrong for want of being called hard names."