1636-37.] COVERT BAPTISM. 97 



" Some days before, the missionary had used the 

 same device (indicsirie) for baptizing a little boy 

 six or seven years old. His father, who was very 

 sick, had several times refused to receive baptism ; 

 and when asked if he would not be glad to have 

 his son baptized, he had answered, JVo. ' At least,' 

 said Father Pijart, 'you will not object to my giving 

 him a little sugar.' 'No; but you must not bap- 

 tize him.' The missionary gave it to him once; 

 then again ; and at the thhd spoonful, before he 

 had put the sugar into the water, he let a drop of 

 it fall on the child, at the same time pronouncing 

 the sacramental words. A little girl, who was 

 looking at him, cried out, ' Father, he is baptiz- 

 ing him ! ' The child's father was much disturbed ; 

 but the missionary said to him, ' Did you not see 

 that I was giving him sugar 1 ' The child died soon 

 after; but God showed His grace to the father, 

 who is now in perfect health."^ 



That equivocal morality, lashed by the withering 

 satire of Pascal, — a morality built on the doctrine 

 that all means are permissible for saving souls from 

 perdition, and that sin itself is no sin when its 

 object is the "greater glory of God," — found far 

 less scope in the rude wilderness of the Hui'ons 

 than among the interests, ambitions, and passions 

 of civilized life. Nor were these men, chosen from 

 the purest of their Order, personally well fitted 

 to illustrate the capabilities of this elastic system. 

 Yet now and then, by the light of their own writ- 



1 Le Mercier, Relation des Hurons, 1637, 165. Various other cases of 

 the kind are mentioned in the Relations. 



9 



