ffairs are frightfully mixed, and the result is
that capital and labor are both in a state of uncertainty. The celestial
dynasty will have to improve, or its imperial power will be questioned,
and there will be a demand for Home Rule with regard to the weather. It
is a perfect nuisance, with respect to a matter which vitally affects
us, not to be able to know what a day will bring forth.

Meanwhile we turn to the clergy, and inquire why they do not perform
their professional duties in this emergency. There is a form of prayer
for such cases in the Prayer-book. Why has it not been used? Do the
clergy think the Lord is growing deaf with old age? Have they a secret
suspicion that praying for a change of weather is as useful as whistling
for the wind? Or has the spirit of this sceptical age invaded the
clerical ranks so thoroughly as to make them ashamed of their printed
doctrines? When a parish clerk was told by the parson one morning that
the prayer for rain would be read, he replied, "Why, sir, what's the
use of praying for rain with the wind in that quarter?" We fancy that
parish clerk must have a good many sympathisers in the pulpit.

Still the clergy should do what they are paid for, or resign the
business. They are our rain doctors, and they should procure us the
precious fluid. If they cannot, why should we pay them a heavenly
water-rate? The rain doctors of savages are kept to their contract. They
are expected to bring rain when it is required, and if they do not,
the consequences are unpleasant. They are sometimes disgraced, and
occasionally killed. But the rain doctors in civilised countries retain
all the advantages of their savage prototypes without any of their risks
and dangers. Modern Christians allow the clergy to play on the principle
of "heads I win, tails you lose." If the black regiments pray and there
is no answer, Christians resign themselves to the will of God. If there
_is_ an answer, they put it to the credit of the priests, or the priests
put it to their own credit, which is much the same thing.

We should be sorry to charge such a holy body of men with duplicity, but
is there not "a sort of a smack, a smell to?" They are reluctant to
pray for rain, on the alleged ground that Omnipotence should not be
interfered with rashly. But the sincerity of this plea is questionable
when we reflect that it obviously favors the clergy. Our climate is
variable, long spells of particular weather are infrequent,