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TORONTO WILLARD TRACT DEPOSITORY AND BIBLE DEPOT, Corner of Yonge and Temperance Streets. [All rights res£r-'ed.\ PREFACE. n^HE three articles which follow, upon Infidelity, Impurity, and In- temperance, reprinted by request, are, with the exception of the appendix to the last, part of a series entitled "Topics of the Times," published in the Chris- tian Commonwealth, a journal con- spicuous for its courageous advocacy of right and truth, and deservedly com- manding an extensive circulation. They assume no pretension to be other than popular, and represent a slight attempt to consider the duty of the Christian VI Preface. towards three dangerous developments of evil in our day. The key-note of the whole series in the Christian Commonwealth was struck in the first article, in the words of St. Paul, " Our citizenship is in heaven " (Phil. iii. 20), and the underlying thought in all Is, that Christ hath pro- vided by means of, the living mem- bers of Kis Body a counteracting agency to the ever increasing moral degradation of the natural man. It is essential to observe, that, without ven- turing upon a definition of the Church, it is assumed that a " citizen of heaven " is not merely one who has accepted the profession of Christianity and identified Preface, Vll himself with some external organization under the benediction of Rome, Con- stantinople, or Canterbury, but one who, having come in all conscious weakness to the living Lord Jesus, who Is exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour, is in Christ by faith ; such an one, though his realization of it may be clouded and dim, though he may be conscious of much imperfection, is nevertheless one who Is " In Christ before God, and for Christ before men ; " he is the heavenly citizen, that is, he has a residence, a life, a duty In one condition of being, or world, and a citizenship and home in another. A Christian of this stamp, possessing the secret of a quiet mind Vlll Preface. and the impulse of an active life, ^vill be used by His Master in saving souls from sin, guiding men into truth, making lives and homes brighter, happier, purer, by bringing into them the peace of God which passeth all understanding. This principle of counteraction is a universal ideal ever in process of realiza- tion. In our bodies are powerful acids and chemical forces, which would de- stroy us if they were not neutralized by the presence of the mystery of life ; against life they have no power : simi- larly, the forces of evil within the believer are neutralized by the presence of Him who is the life, and apart from Him we can do nothing. Simi- Preface. IX larly, again, the destructive and cor- ruptive influences in the world can only be effectively checked by the bene- diction-giving and humanity-exalting influences of the Christ manifested in His people, to whom He has said, "Ye are the salt of the earth." This anti- septic influence of believers is actively but secretly operating. In all ranks there are men and women with hearts loyally devoted to a personal Lord Jesus, working secretly like the leaven hidden in the meal, to whom it is virtually said, "Fear not, Paul, I have given thee them that sail with thee." It is to be hoped that some who pro- fess and call themselves Christians, will Preface. ,f be led to consider the grave question how far they are in this sense " citizens of heaven." The name Christian has been secularized and profaned, the ethical system implied by it discredited and dishonoured, not through opponents but through exponents. It is signifi- cant that the natives blessed by the missionary labours of Dr. Judson, ever declined to speak of him as Christian : the name savoured of rum and the slave-trade ; but recognising in him the living embodiment of his creed, they called him " the Jesus-Christ man." U:>on the true *' Jesus-Christ men" will devolve the duty of counteracting In- fidelity, Impurity, and Intemperance. Preface. XI The position accorded in the Trinity of Evil to Infidelity may be considered open to criticism, and in a general sense it might perhaps be affirmed that a man's opinions have no direct effect upon the morality of his actions ; never- theless the heart is affected by the head, and the heart is the mainspring of con- duct; certainly it does not appear to have been given to the deniers of the faith to bless, enlighten, and elevate mankind. We are prepared, however, with abundant proof that the tendency of modern atheism is directly immoral, and that audacity of opinion not infre- quently leads to atrocity of conduct. It is impossible, consistent with necessary xu Preface. reticence, to do much more than hint at this branch of the subject ; but from a work entitled " Elements of Social Science," amongst numerous paragraphs too gross for repetition, I extract the following, " Chastity, so far from being a virtue, is invariably a great natural sin." " Prostitution should be regarded as a valuable substitute for a better state of things ; " and in a pamphlet from the pen of the most prominent and aggressive unbeliever of the day the following expression occurs, referring to the " Elements of Social Science " : " This work I specially recommend." The article upon Impurity was published previous to the actual com- % mencement of the recent government prosecution of Mr. Stead. To know that Mr. Stead, a man remarkable for tender sympathy and self-sacrificing readiness to succour the wronged, and whose lofty motives Mr. Justice Lopes pronounced unimpeachable, is actually in prison, whilst the notorious Mrs. Jeffries, the procuress for a dissolute plutocracy, is not only at large without bail, but once more pursuing her ini- quitous traffic to the open scandal of her neighbours, is a grievous shock to the moral sense. Mr. Stead is a can- didate for our admiration rather than our pity. "Patiently to suffer for the truth's sake," is to "lay up a more XIV Preface. exceeding weight of glory ; " the fierce execrations of the Attorney- General will not harm him. When *' Balaam is hired against" a man that he might curse him, "the Lord turns the curse into a blessing" (Neh. xiii. 2). It is satisfactory to know that, amidst all the decay and inability to distinguish between right and wrong characteristic of modern society, the inner heart of the nation is sound upon this question ; and to mention Mr. Stead's name in any large assembly of working men is to kindle an enthusiasm bursting out into cheer after cheer. It is simply un- deniable that Mr. Stead's action alone secured the passing of the Criminal Preface. XV Law Amendment Act, under which measure ninety-eight cases of outrage have been punished in six weeks, /^r<>'- seven of which were perpetrated upon little girls under ten years of age. As to the Judge's gratuitous assertion that the articles in the Pall Mall '' would ever be a disgrace to journalism," there are t-ns of thousands of thinking men and women who agree with the words in The Christian newspaper, a journal which has throughout earned the grati- tude and admiration of all social re- formers by its courage and ability, that this irrelevant, prejudiced, and exag- gerated utterance will ever remain "a disgrace to jurisprudence." The ruth- XVI Preface. i-f I \ ' lessness with which all through this shameful business the true reformers have been hunted out for popular ven- geance, for slight errors in judgment, and the vampires and voluptuaries suf- fered to go free, receives an additional illustration in the bitter persecution of Dr. Heywood Smith. The persistent attempt to blast the reputation of, and extrude from every medical institute, a pure-minded and honest-hearted phy- sician on account of what was at its worst but a generous error, is a serious blot upon the honourable medical pro- fession, the more especially as they cordially approve of certain Acts under which many thousands of women have Preface. xvu been compulsorily exposed to medical examination, with no pretence to any high or generous intention. From the fires of lust to the coal mine whence they are replenished the transition is natural. Thousands of thinking men in the present day are be- comJng more and more convinced that the chief agent in promoting vice and social corruption is intoxicating drink, which weakens the will and inflames the desires, and "for the present distress" are abstaining from alcohol themselves and discouraging its use in others. In an atmosphere thus heavy with sensuality and corruption, the heavenly citizen finds his post of duty and his XVIU Preface. call for action ; true it is, that "No man may deliver his brother, nor make agree- ment unto God for him ; " yet are we, each one of us, emphatically our brother's keepers ; and, identified with our Lord and Master, living in touch with Him, we can become in a measure our brethren's burden-bearers also. That is a sweet fiction of early days, which imagines Peter the apostle wearily bearing the sins of the world up a rugged mountain side, and meeting a little child, who invites him to trans- fer the burden to his infant shoulders. He places his burden upon the child. "Now," commands his mysterious visitor, "carry me." He does so, and V Preface. XIX behold the burden has become as a feather's weight. Thus is "Christ in us" the bearer of our burdens, and as we grow up into Him in all things, we, as Christ-bearers, become the bur- den-bearers of others. When the ascending Lord spoke those words before the cloud at Bethany received Him out of human sight, " Ye shall be witnesses unto Me," He epi- tomized in a single sentence the whole catalogue of the earthly duties of the heavenly citizen. It is to no sentiment or idea, however transcendent, to no new religious philosophy, however ap- parendy suited to the world's need ; it is to a Person, to the Lord Himself XX Preface. I as the living Friend of sinners, the one conqueror of Death and Hades, that we have to witness. It is for us to con- vince a fallen sinning world that there IS — not there once was — One among- them whom as yet they know not, and whom to know is life eternal. God help us each one thus to witness. " Now unto Him that is able to keep us from falling, and to present us fault- less before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen." Deanery, Southampton. December t 1885. ? • if s i f 0^ INFIDELITY. B i I K 1- ^ 1 K^- 1 1 - arr'N / .. I. INFIDELITY, " Philip saith unto him, Come and see."-St John i. 46. pHILIP was echoing a word of Royal invitation full of force and power that was often on his Master's lips when he answered Nathanael's justifiable scepticism with the courageous sentence, Come and SEE. It is as though he had said, " I have challenged the orthodox belief, I have declared to you an experience beyond the lines of conventionality. You ask me for my proof. I reply, Bestir thyself, experi- mentalise, investigate, analyse, and thou If f' 4 T/ie Trinity of Evil. J »> shalt know ; in a sentence, ' come and see. There is nothing suggestive of timidity, uncertainty, want of assurance, about this bold invitation, and, God be praised! it reaches far beyond the temporary circum- stances which called it forth. It stands firm after the lapse of eighteen centuries as a motto, an example, and an encourage- ment. It is the voice of Jesus speaking to the hearts of doubting, anxious, care- harassed men; it is a call to intimacy, a guarantee of victory, a promise of rest; it is real, individual, and close ; it is an invitation, not to a system, but to a person : " Come unto Me, and I will give you rest." Let us endeavour to apply this Royal invitation to one of the practical difficulties of modern life. I am speaking from the assumption, somewhat profound, that we ^^...JL I Infidelity. 5 have in a measure realized our heavenly- citizenship. It is well not to flinch from this, for nothing can more impress the stamp of consecrated purpose and pra^^-tical usefulness on life. To be a conscious citizen of heaven, so far from emancipa- ting a man from intelligent participation in the duties of this earth life, accentuates his corresponding obligation to be light in the world and salt of the earth. If one who professes that his heart is in heaven is living to himself a non-illuminating life, his creed is not authenticated by his con- duct, and he knows not the alphabet of his faith. A man must be blind to the signs of the times who knows not that we are living in " a day of trouble, rebuke, and blasphemy." A great atid terrible cry is The Trinity of Evil. it ' rising up from a sin-polluted world. Ever and anon the veil is lifted from moral putrescence, which threatens to poison the nation, and courts the doom of the verdict of God : " Shall I not visit for these things saith the Lord, and shall not My soul be avenged on such a nation as this ? " Amongst the prominent cancers of modern society there stand out three taller than their fellows, closely interdependent in their nature, yet each so independently defiling that they constitute a trinity of destructive influence. They are Infidelity, Impurity, and Intemperance. Of the existence of the first of these, its causes, probable effects, and the duty of the Christian towards it, we would speak to-day. I do not know that it would be correct to say that there is now more unbelief in , ,r— b i Lives there a doubter who is constrained by motives half as strong for rejecting Jesus and disputing His crtientials as those which actuated Nathanael at that moment ? With him was the earnest conviction of a lifetime of f I 30 The Trinity of I il. thoughtful study, based on the teaching of writings he believed to be verbally inspired, to assure him that Christ would not come from Nazareth but from Bethlehem, not as a persecuted working-man evangelist, but as an emancipating prince. Had he, whilst pretending to seek for truth, looked down with contempt upon the enthusiasm of his friend, his opportunity would have passed. It was not so. He arose, bestirred himself, came — how much of the secret of salvation is wrapped up in that word " come " ! — and Jesus saw him comings and quick as He ever is to meet the awaking soul reaching after Him, rewards Nathanael with such a flood of God-given demonstration and conviction that from that moment his heart was filled with the knowledge of the Lord, and he entered into the believer's privilege : " Henceforth Tufidelity. 31 thou shalt see the heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man." That word of Royal invitation, "come," still rings through the v^^orld. His word remains pledged, " Him that cometh I will in nowise cast out." Mysteries, difficulties, of course there are ; in a . evelation coming from God their absence would be a stumbling- block, indeed : but nature is more charged with them even than revelation. " I have dissected many a body, and I never found a soul," argued a sceptical physiologist. " I liave dissected many an eye, and I never found sight," replied his believing companion. It is, to say the least of it, no greater mystery that my spirit, trustingly lifted heavenward, shielded to the utmost of my ability from intervening hindrances, should be fed by the 32 The Trinity of Evil. living Christ : that He should grow up into it, become part of it, until I can say—" I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me ; " than that the broad leaf of the garden veget- able lifted sunward should be fed by the sun's rays ; that the sun should so grow up into it and become part of it, that the very sunlight could be chemically extracted from it in the form of carbon, and that it would be hardly unscientific to say "it lives, yet not it, but the sun liveth in it." The truest instincts of man will never be satisfied with anything short of this, though the constant raising of our ideal as we grow up into Him frequently conveys the impression to our minds that we are not progressing. The hollow emptiness of mere negation starves the soul of man. One of the best known writers on political economy on the Continent Infidelity. 33 has recently left the ranks of the Free- thinkers : when questioned, he replied, N' avoir rien cest trop pen (to have nothing, it is too little) ; yes, to have nothing, when, in Christ, you might have all things, is too little indeed. It was too little for the six- teen infidel leaders of London, who in the last thirty years have turned to Christ and salvation (see important leaflet, "What be- comes of the Infidel Leaders," by the Rev. C. J. Whitmore, 88, Caversham Road, N.W.); and though there is not necessarily a clear- ing away of every doubt and difficulty when you come to Jesus, the strain is removed. If you inspect the intricacies of the machinery of one of the great manufacturing firms, you will come to some parts inclosed in a locked box, and will be told that of this the Master has the key ; so there are, D 34 The Trinity of Evil. and ever will be enigmas connected with the wondrous dealings of God with man of which it must be said the Master has the key\ but, when He is Master, He gives the witness of the Spirit to those who trust Him, and in the secret of His presence there is peace : — " Ridge of the mountain wave, lower thy crest ; Wail of Euroclydon, be thou at rest ! Sorrow can never be, darkness must fly. Where saith the God of God, Peace, it is I." IMPURITY. ^5 ; II. IMPURITY. " 1 am full of the fury of the Lord."— Jer. vi. ii. *" I ^IS well that the heavenly citizen should at tinfies be " full of the fury of the Lord " ; should be on fire with Divine indignation. He wrestle^ "not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against spiritual wickedness in high places," and the sound of his rebuke and warning must ofttimes be in proportion to the intensity of the peril. " Son of man," said the word of the Lord to Ezekiel, "if thou givest him not warning nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way 37 38 T/ie Trinity of Evil. to save his life, the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I re- quire at thine hand. Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wicked- ness, he shall die in his iniquity ; but thou hast delivered thy soul." It is in this spirit that the heavenly citizen is constrained to deal with that second ma- lignant influence in the trinity of evil, to which allusion was made in the previous paper, namely, the sin of impurity. The storm of indignation which has burst upon the Pall Mall Gazette on account of its recent exposure of flagitious, all-sacrificing lust, has afforded to many minds an addi- tional proof that it is characteristic of an age of peculiar self-indulgence to deprecate plain speaking about plain sins; to endure unblushingly the visible manifestation of a Impurity. 39 evil ; and prudishly to hide the head when such evils are denounced from pulpit, press, or platform by their proper names. We must at once acknowledge that there are some godly, Christian people who deprecate the publication of the articles in question ; but the immense majority of the violent abuse which has been showered upon the head of the revealer of the "apocalypse of evil " has come from the frivolous, the worldly, the self-pleasing, who have so ex- hausted their vocabulary in abuse of the Pall Mall Gazette that they appear not to have a curse to spare for the defilers of the temple of the Holy Ghost, the child tor- turers, the incarnate fiends who have per- petrated the abominations which the Pall Mall Gazette has exposed, or the unnatural, avaricious godlessness of parents who have 40 The Trinity of Evil. literally fulfilled the prophecy in Joel iii. 3 : " They have sold a girl for wine that they may drink." In the midst of notorious vices which are eating like a canker into the heart of modern society : with not a few of the leaders of so-called high life living opcily in adultery ; with some of the main thoroughfares of the Metropolis so blocked by troops of fashion- able prostitutes that a man who desires not to be solicited must walk amidst the cabs and omnibuses in the streets ; we are told that the ardcles in the Pall Mall are in- decent, and we ere treated to the amazino- spectacle of a Government prosecution against those who have been endeavouring though possibly blunderingly and erro- neously, to check the evil, when notorious procuresses and wealthy child seducers, well ', Impurity. 41 known to the police, are permitted to go on their way unmolested. It is a despicable de- ceit of civilization, it is an insult to right feeling and common sense, it is, moreover, nationally perilous, inasmuch as it courts the explanation that, in the opinion of the au- thorities, the interests of particular trades and the reputations of particular persons are of more importance than national morality in the ^togi^egate and the sufferings of the wronged. It is not reassuring to observe in the leading society newspaper the remark that a " num- ber of gentlemen are trembling and quaking in their shoes lest they should be implicated in the revelations." Such GENTLEMEN must necessarily detest the intrusive forth-teller of these things " done of them in secret," and their undistinguishing fury against the Pall Mall Gazette is accountable when we call •k« il 42 T/ie Trinity of Evil. to mind the scandalous hushing up of the proceedings at Westminster against the wretched procuress, Mar/ Jeffries, in which men 01* exalted rank were directly implicated. (For their names see The Sentinel for June, 1885, published by Dyer, Paternoster Square.) We feel bound to express the opinion that these revelations, however nauseous, however shocking to the moral sense, must tend in the ultimate issue to moral improvement. It is undeniable that they have already accom- plished directly the result of raising the age at v/hich seduction is punishable by law, and have rendered it less easy for the would-be libertine to destroy. By the law of Moses, when leprosy in all its hideous defilement was full out upon the sufferer's body he was no longer ceremonially unclean, partly for the reason that in that stage the disease was less :-CE Impurity. 43 contagious, partly in that the utter loathsome- ness of the sight would of itself discourage contact. The same principle applies to the scathing exposure of moral leprosy in the ar- ticles in question. There are minds so foul, as all who have had remedial dealings with souls know well, that their prurient appetites will find some food even in the most sacred writings ; but here the physical details are recorded with such sickening minuteness that they can hardly be imagined to do other than revolt even the most licentious, and the entire publication does not contain half the poten- tiality for inspiring prurience that may be found within the pages of many a sensational three-volume novel, the main object of which appears to be to gloss over sin with a veneer of sentiment, and to enlist the sympathy of the reader with, while pretending to con- f ! '< V. 44 T/ie Trinity of Evil. the ith mdi dcmn, breaches ot ttie scveni In no one out of the whole catalogue of crimes laid bare by the Pall Mall Gasette does there lie hid so much suggestion of evil, as in the following sentences from the lead- ing society journal, a paper to be found in the house of almost every condemner of the Pall Mall, Commenting upon an accusation recently made against an ex-Cabinet minister, it says, " As a man of fashion (he) ought to be superior to emotional weakness ; from the deals of private conduct, which, as one might imagine, he proposes to himself, effusiveness or gush should be absent ; while the pursuit of pleasure should be tempered by a dis- cretion and astuteness which throw the glam- our of intellectual ingenuity over the gross- ness of vice." What counsel can be imagined more deliberately immoral than this ? Here H Impurity, 45 is vice varnished over with literary euphem- ism, spread broadcast into the family life of the nation with impunity by the editor of the society journal, whilst the editor of the Pall Mall Gazette, for exposing and uttering a warning voice against gross breaches of the law, is not only smothered with invective, but has to take his place in the dock as a prisoner. Nay, let us rather be thankful that the conspiracy of silence has been broken at last, that the fierce sunlight of exposure is beating in upon the mass of moral rottenness. When the Hon. Grantly Berkeley, looking back in his autobiography upon the events of a long and changeful life, attributes no small share of the vices and follies of earlier years to his never having heard in his life one brave outspoken sermon upon the text, "Thou 46 TJie Trinity of Evil. { shalt not commit adultery," we may lay it down as an axiom that whrn society is ashamed to sin it will be time enough for those whose duty it is to endeavour to stem the torrent of evil in society to be ashamed to speak of sin. In the meantime, we thank God that He hath placed " watchmen upon the wall of Zion who shall never hold their peace day nor night ; " men who, in the spirit of John the Baptist, the royal chaplain who rebuked a king at the cost of his head, will "constantly speak the truth, boldly rebuke vice, and patiently suffer for the truth's sake." As we look back on the history of man- kind, as we note the disastrous power of the lusts of the flesh to distort the strongest characters, to taint the lives of men and women, and to poison the springs of family life, we are compelled to admit that the Impurity. 47 sexual impurity of our day is no sudden development, but an inheritance of evil deeply ingrained in human nature. Augus- tine is probably the originator of the theory that some fearful form of this sin necessitated the deluge ; the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the extirpation of the Can- aanites, were the direct consequences of sexual vice ; the traditions of heathen* my- thology, the still existing frescoes on the walls of Pompeii, and the locked room filled with obscene statuary in the museum at Naples, indicate the extent of the evil amongst the ancient civilizations. The wor- ship of Baal and Ashtaroth, the deification of the male and female principles in nature, patronised by Jezebel, the Zidonian queen, was accompanied with the wildest sensual licence, which Elijah the Tishbite was raised 48 The Trinity of Evil. I up by Jehovah to rebuke ; and it was the same sexual vice, and again in a king's palace, that Elijah's great antitype, John the Baptist, so fearlessly challenged and rebuked. What has been termed the "self-repeating action of humanity " has carried on the in- heritance to our own time, and we find our- selves confronted with a grievous manifes- tation of the old evil. Recent revelations have sufficed to convince many that impurity, not only amongst haunts of squalor, misery, and vice, but in the highest societies also, is assuming the proportions of a pestilence, and threatening the mainsprings of national life. Statistics are obtainable in ghastly array, proving beyond question that many of the general Dnditions of society prevailing in Imperial Rome, in the early days of Chris- tianity, are being reproduced in Christian _, / Impurity. 49 England at the present time. This being so it is in the light of patriotism that it behoves us first to touch this cancer of modern life, for the truth is unalterable that " righteous- ness exalteth a nation," and that national demoralisation is followed by decrepitude and decay. All vain-glorious boasting about prestige abroad, and spirited foreign policies . is but sounding brass when the life-blood of a nation is being sapped by voluptuous corruption. "Thou canst not stand before thine enemies until ye put away the accursed thing from amongst you" (Josh. vii. 13)- What blindness, then, can be imagined more . suicidal than the conspiracy of silence which would cast a veil over evil • influences de- structive to the welfare of a people If it be true that there are eighty thousand fallen women plying their terrible trade in London E 50 The Trinity of Evil I alone, and that in other centres of population the proportion is maintained ; if it be true that nameless vices and hideous forms of sin (Rom. i. 26, 27) are increasing amongst us ; if it be true that had the Jeffries case not been hushed up, the revelation of the names of those implicated would have shaken society to its foundation ; inasmuch as the purity of a nation in the aggregate will never rise higher than the purity of its women, it is the bounden duty of every patriot and philanthropist to direct his at- tention to, and deal courageously with, this hindrance to national well-being. Mirabeau, when asked at what age he would commence the education of a boy, is reported to have replied, " I would begin twenty years before he is born, by educating his mother." The inexorable law of heredity convinces us of