The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1871-06-06
Sketches OF Valparaiso.
FRoM CoLToN's "DrcK AND Pom"

SUNDAY, March Is. We had to-day
at our service very large attendance
from the shore. The weather was re-
markably fine the awning was spread
and we assembled on the spar-deck. At
ter prayers, we sung a hymn in Hamburg
with the band for an orchestra. The
sermon turned on the condition of the
soul out Of Christ its guilt, its wretched-
ness, its ruin. Plain and practical SER
mons are the only ones that do much
good When preacher forgcts the sim
plicity and meekness Of his office, and
throws himself though in blaze of elo-
quence, between his hearersand the Gross,
he is in mscrably false position. lie
may win perishing laurels to his fame,
but not immortal souls to Christ.
The clergy in Chill exert, through the
confessional, an influence which reaches
the most private transactions Of life.
Every communicant is required to con-
fess at least once year. n refusal to
do it is followed by the scvercst pains and
penalties which the church eau inaict.
Some two years since, daughter of one
of the most prominent members Of the
Legislature of Chill was grossly insulted
at the confessional She told her moth
or. who in grief and CONSERVATION, rela-
ted the circumstance to her father, lie
excused her from going again to the con-
fessional. The year rolled round, and
she was summoned TO a compliance the
father peremptorily refused his assent.
Three of the inferior officers of the church
were dispatched to bring her by force. Her
father planted himself, armed, on the
door-sill of his house. and told them il
they entered it would be at their peril.
They retired and reported their il-success
to their superior. The next Sabbath she
was publicly excommunicated, and her
candle at the altar blown out, to signify
that her hope of heaven was extinguished.
The father, indignant at the attempt
to undermine the virtue Of his daughter,
and the cruel injustice done her in the
act Of communication, introduced bill
into the national legislature for abolish
ing entirely the confessional. 1t pro-
duced the most intense excitement the
pulpits Of Chill rang with denunciation
the archbishop dispatched messenger to
Rome for the Pope's anathema. Many
husbands and fathers, whose wives and
daughters had been insulted at the con.
fessional, and who from motives of pru-
lcnce had remained silent, now began to
speak out. But repugnancc to innova-
tion in ecclesiastical affairs, and the COM
bned influence of the clergy prevailed,
and the contemplated law was defeated.
But it still survives in the breast Of its
protector, and will yet speak out in thun-
der-tones.
Instead of attacking the confessional,
the domestic evils which it inhicts would
perhaps be more thoroughly remdied by
abolishing the coerced celibacy of the
clergy. This is the prime source Of those
immoralities which have sapped virtue
and overthrown the peace Of families.
Its abolition would contribute alike to
the virtue of the ecclesiastic. and the safe
ty of the communicant. The best-in-
formed writer's on Chill, those whose OBJ
servation has been the most thorough
agree in the fact that many of the clergy
live in a state of the most shameful profii-
gacy. These disclosures force upon you
the painful conviction, that their illegiti-
mate offspring are found in every circle
in the community, and fill every grade
of ecclesiastical preferment Abolish,
then, the forced celibaey of the clergy.
Blot out at once and forever this apology
for crime. Human nature is sufficiently
slippery even when it has no excuse for
its lapses. In saying this, | intend nc
scctarian reproach. would not conide
to any religious persuasion the consequen-
ces of u forced law of celibacy. Our
safety lies not only in an upright con.
science, but in freedom.
MONDAY, MARCH lG [ visited this
afternoon the Protestant battle-ground
which occupies portion Of one of the
hills which overlook our anchorage The
situation has been selected with good
judgment, and the ground evinces taste
and propricty in the arrangement Here
rest many sailors far away from theil
native shores. A humble slab, erected
by their messmatcS, gives you their name'
and that Of the ship to which they were
attached and sometimes nautical epl
taph, ike the following:
Here lies the rigging, spars, and huli
Of saiing-master David Null"
This to landsman seems trifiing viii
our poor mortality not so to the sailor
His tecbnicalities have with him a mean
ing and force which, in his judgment
more than sanction their use on the mos
grave and melancholy occasions Ii
would pray in this dialect even wcr
liie's taper Pickering in the socket, o
his soul trembling on the verge of dispail
In the Catholic battle-ground, whic
adjoins the Protestant, stands the beau
tifu monument of IIortales. The geniu
of History is recording his glorious deed
Grief lamenting his early doom, an
iIOIC IOiutiuH W iiul'ipu ih tiN Shit
Near this monument | encountered
youthful mother in weeds, leading h'
little orphan boy. She carried il bunc
of flowers in her hand, and as She can
f near a new made grave, kneeled daSn
its head, and planted them there. II,
child kissed them, but when she attemp
ed it her silent tears fell fast on their lei
der leaves. A bird lit on the tree, whiC
cast its shadows on the grave, and pourC
a wild sweet strain as if to wean I'll
the mourner from her grief; but Il
t needed it not. Her child turned an
l listened her eye fell on his; she hear
F. the bird. Nature trumphs over bereav
: ments through those we love and WI
i still survive.
{ TUESDAY, MAEcn Il. The lndip
e mother still adheres to the primitiv
method of carrying her child. Instea
e of supporting it in her arms, with the III