232 PAST AND PRESENT. 



worked the best. Whichever did, was to be adopted. 

 I have not the slightest doubt this could theu have 

 been done, but again we stepped in with advice which 

 was listened to, and this extraordinary idea was given 

 up. It would not have been more wonderful than 

 many changes which were brought about at the time, 

 successfully and entirely. 



Why, it may be asked, has Protestantism so little 

 chance against Eomanism? I think there are many 

 reasons why it is so. In the first place, it is less showy, 

 less appealing to the senses, less made of it, and is more 

 secret. Its forms are not so open : it belongs more to 

 the closet than the church. There is no mistaking the 

 Eoman priest, he dresses like no other foreigner ; the 

 Protestant dresses as any ordinary stranger. But thei'e 

 is another reason why the Protestant's chances are small. 

 His whole conception of missionary work does not give 

 him the same chances of winning the hearts of the 

 natives, for he does not in the same way make himself 

 one of them ; he is well paid, lives in a good house, 

 changes his situation when he pleases, and, as before 

 said, tries another part of the world when tired of one 

 locality. The Eomish priest, be he Jesuit or not, is in 

 nine cases out of ten an educated gentleman. He has 

 given up everything — land, home, and family, for the 



