LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNI/ 
 
 O] 
 
 Received .September, ...i 88 5. 
 
 Accessions No. ^-/-/^X Shelf No. 
 


 
THE 
 
 PAROCHIAL SYSTEM, 
 
 AN APPEAL 
 
 IENRY WILCfiGst^SE&BERFORCE, M.A. 
 
 OF ORIEL COLLEGE, OXFORD, 
 CURATE OF BRANSGORE, HANTS. 
 
 Thus saith the Lord of Hosts; Consider your ways. Go up to the 
 mountain, and bring wood, and build the house ; and I will take pleasure 
 in it, and I will be glorified, saith the LORD. HAGGAI, i. 7, 8. 
 
 The God of Heaven, He will prosper us; therefore we His servants will 
 arise and build. NEHEMIAH ii. 20. 
 
 LONDON: 
 PRINTED FOR J. G. & F. BIVINGTON, 
 
 ST. PAUL'S CHURCH YARD, 
 AND WATERLOO PLACE, PALL MALL. 
 
 1838. 
 
LONDON : 
 
 GILBERT & RIVINGTON, PRINTERS, 
 ST. JOHN'S-SQUARE. 
 
TO 
 THE RIGHT REVEREND 
 
 CHARLES RICHARD, 
 
 LORD BISHOP OF WINCHESTER, 
 ETC. ETC. 
 
 THESE PAGES 
 
 ARE MOST RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED, 
 
 IN THE 
 
 CHEERFUL HOPE AND EARNEST PRAYER, 
 THAT HE MAY SEE THE FRUIT OF HIS LABOURS, 
 
 IN THE PROVISION 
 
 OF A CHURCH AND A PASTOR 
 
 FOR EVERY INHABITANT OF HIS DIOCESE. 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 THE following Essay is that to which the pre- 
 mium of two hundred guineas, offered by the 
 Committee of the " Christian Influence So- 
 ciety," was adjudged by the Rev. Dr. Dealtry, 
 and the Rev. Professor Scholfield. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The parochial system in theory and in practice 1 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 Measures suggested for the restoration of the parochial 
 
 system 26 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 The measure of liberality and self-denial demanded by 
 
 the principles of the Gospel 44 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 The duty of employing our influence and political privi- 
 leges on behalf of the Church 108 
 
THE PAROCHIAL SYSTEM, 
 & 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 THE PAROCHIAL SYSTEM IN THEORY AND IN PRACTICE. 
 
 THE great and pressing evil which exists in the 
 moral and spiritual destitution of a large portion 
 of our countrymen, is too certain, and too gene- 
 rally confessed, to require proof. Nor is it denied 
 by any man who calls himself Christian, that some 
 remedy on a large and effective scale must im- 
 mediately be devised. What that remedy should 
 be, is a question of greater difficulty ; on which 
 it is the object of the following pages to suggest 
 some considerations. 
 
 And first, it becomes us to inquire what mea- 
 sures will best harmonize with the ancient and 
 tried principles of the Church. True reforma- 
 tions are not effected by an hasty remodelling of 
 existing institutions, on every call of expediency 
 real or fancied, and without regard to the princi- 
 ples on which they were framed, as the archi- 
 
 B 
 
2 THE PAROCHIAL SYSTEM 
 
 tects of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries 
 improved our great national edifices in the taste 
 of their own times. Such a spirit, shallow and 
 unphilosophical when applied to civil and political 
 institutions, cannot without actual profaneness 
 intrude into the sanctuary, where of late it has 
 been but too busy. We must not introduce new 
 principles, but recur to old ones; to those by 
 which the ancient Church originally leavened the 
 whole mass of national heathenism, and after- 
 wards provided against the gradual increase of a 
 neglected and demoralized population in the very 
 heart of Christendom. These things were ef- 
 fected by means of that system which apportioned 
 every part of the Church to diocesan bishops 1 and 
 parochial priests, and in its further development 
 accordingly we must seek a remedy for the evils 
 of our own day. 
 
 1 Shortly before the death of St. Gregory Thauraaturgus, 
 bishop of Neo-Caesarea, " II fit," says Tillemont, (vol. iv.) "une 
 exacte revue de toute la ville et de toute la campagne, pour 
 voir s'il n'y restoit plus aucun payen comme il le souhaitoit 
 extremement. II en trouva neanmoins dixsept, et levant les 
 yeux au ciel, il temoigna a Dieu sa douleur de ce que son desir 
 n'estoit pas entierement accompli. Mais il luy rendit graces 
 en mesme temps, de ce que n'ayanttrouve que dixsept Chretiens 
 a son entree dans cette Eglise il n'y laissoit en la quittant que 
 dixsept payens. II demanda a Dieu la conversion de ces dix- 
 sept payens et Paugmentation de ses graces sur les fideles ; et 
 puis il mourut en defendant d'acheter aucune place pour 1'en- 
 terrer, parcequ'il ne vouloit pas posseder un pouce de terre 
 ni devant ni apres sa mort, mais mourir et estre enterre 
 comme un etranger qui n'a rien a lui." 
 
IN THEORY. 3 
 
 In truth, when men have once grasped the 
 idea that the destiny of the Christian faith is 
 nothing short of universal dominion, some such 
 system seems of necessity to be required ; other- 
 wise the ambassadors of the Gospel would be 
 precluded by the very laws of nature from that 
 close and individual application of its principles 
 to the heart and home of every man, which be- 
 comes the servants of Him " who will have all 
 men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of 
 the truth." To attend, alike and at the same time, 
 to things great and small, to regulate the fate of 
 churches and nations without overlooking the 
 minute and separate concerns of any individual, 
 is an incomprehensible and probably an incom- 
 municable attribute of the Almighty. We may 
 without presumption infer from the hints con- 
 tained in several passages of Holy Scripture, that 
 He "who has appointed the services of angels and 
 men in a wonderful order," has assigned even to 
 the heavenly host, those angels of his who excel in 
 power, their several places upon earth *, wherein 
 to watch over its nations and churches, and over 
 every member thereof: and whatever may be 
 thought on this subject, it is at least manifest that 
 if any number of mortal men were entrusted with 
 the undivided spiritual care even of a single popu- 
 lous city, many of their charge must of necessity 
 escape unnoticed in the crowd; that the more 
 docile, the more willing, the more zealous, the 
 
 1 Dan. x. 13. St. Matth. xviii. 10, &c. 
 B2 
 
4 THE PAROCHIAL SYSTEM 
 
 more forward, would occupy the pastor's attention ; 
 while the obdurate would be unwarned, the reluc- 
 tant uninvited, the lukewarm would be left to grow 
 cold, the modest and retiring would be overlooked. 
 From the earliest periods, accordingly, the 
 Gospel field has been locally divided among the 
 labourers. Not to mention the divine mission 
 of one apostle to the circumcision, and of another 
 to the Gentiles ; we learn from Scripture, that 
 from the very foundation of churches, apostolic 
 men were charged with the episcopal care of 
 separate and defined districts; and history in- 
 forms us, that as the promise of Christ was more 
 and more fulfilled, and the leaven worked in 
 secrecy and silence through the whole lump, and 
 the great cities began to number a multitude of 
 converts too large to meet in one place and live 
 under the same immediate inspection ; these pri- 
 mitive episcopal parishes were subdivided, and 
 their several portions entrusted to the charge of 
 parochial priests. At Rome something of this 
 nature existed within one hundred years after 
 the ascension of our Lord, and the precedent 
 seems to have been generally followed 1 . In 
 
 1 See Jer. Taylor, " Episcopacy asserted," ch. xliii. (vol. vii. 
 Heber.) In inquiring into the origin of parishes, we must 
 distinguish between territorial divisions for the pastoral cure, 
 and distinct parochial endowments. Those authors (as Bing- 
 ham) who have represented the institution of parishes as com- 
 mencing in the reign of Theodosius, or even later, have referred 
 to the latter; but it is certain that parish churches existed 
 long before a separate maintenance was provided for their 
 
IN THEORY. 5 
 
 succeeding ages again, as all men thronged into 
 the Church, and these earliest parishes became 
 too populous for separate superintendence, they 
 were farther subdivided by the same episcopal 
 authority from which they had originated. 
 
 The division of labour, and the concentration 
 of responsibility, is therefore a principle entwined 
 with the original constitution of the Church. 
 Every one of Christ's flock has his appointed 
 shepherd, who must give account for his soul. 
 The bishop is bound 1 , either by himself or by 
 those commissioned by him, to oversee every 
 inhabitant of his diocese, the parish priest each 
 of his parishioners. Nor are the services of the 
 laity unappropriated : for, while all are bound to- 
 gether as members of the same Lord, they are 
 more especially united who are committed to the 
 superintendence of the same bishop, and yet more 
 of the same pastor ; and the efforts of Christian 
 benevolence in the alleviation of bodily suffering, 
 the education of youth, and the edification of all, 
 are no longer dispersed over a desultory and 
 uncertain range, but are united and concentrated, 
 that with a wise and well-ordered alacrity we 
 may " bear one another's burdens, and so fulfil 
 the law of Christ 2 ." 
 
 incumbents, who with the bishop shared a common stock. The 
 establishment at Hippo, in the time of St. Austin, seems to 
 have been of this nature. 
 
 1 See Wilson's Sacra Privata ; Andrews's Devotions, &c, 
 
 2 See Acts vi. It may be observed, that the state poor laws, 
 a most inadequate substitute for the bounty of the Church, yet 
 
6 THE PAROCHIAL SYSTEM 
 
 And this principle of the Catholic Church is 
 strongly maintained in the rules and canons of 
 our own branch of it, and in those ancient laws 
 of England of which we boast that " Christianity 
 is part and parcel." Our land is divided into 
 dioceses, and every diocese into parishes ; and 
 while these divisions are recognised by law, and 
 their limits annually defined and continually re- 
 traced, so that every man may always be assigned 
 to his own ; it is a recognised principle, that the 
 bishop is put in charge of the whole population 
 of his diocese, and that under him the priests 
 have the care of all within their several parishes. 
 Hence they are solemnly charged at their ordi- 
 nation not only as men intrusted with the minis- 
 try of Christ's Church, but also as those who are 
 about to undertake the care of a certain defined 
 portion thereof: " See that you never cease your 
 labour, your care, and diligence, until you have 
 done all that lieth in you, according to your 
 bounden duty, to bring all such as are or shall be 
 committed to your charge, unto that agreement 
 in the faith and knowledge of God, and to that 
 ripeness and perfectness of age in Christ, that 
 there be no place left among you either for error 
 in religion, or for viciousness of life." The 
 ceremonial of institution and collation again im- 
 
 still recognise the connexion existing between fellow pa- 
 rishioners ; and under all changes of the law, in proportion as the 
 poor depend less on a legal provision, they ought to find a more 
 plentiful supply in the alms of the Church. 
 
IN THEORY. _ 7 
 
 press the same lesson ; and the canons and ru- 
 brics fill up the description of a parish priest as 
 the pastor of the whole flock within its limits ; 
 requiring that he shall know and report to his 
 diocesan their peculiar sins and temptations, and 
 the local evils to which they are exposed 1 . They 
 imply that he is to be acquainted with all by 
 name and face, for he is to distinguish those who 
 avail themselves of the means of grace, and those 
 who neglect them, those who are at peace or 
 at variance with each other, those who are an 
 example or a scandal to the flock. His pervading 
 influence is to hallow every joy and sorrow of their 
 lives ; he is to bless every wedded pair, to receive 
 every infant into the communion of the Church, 
 to superintend the religious education of every 
 child within his bounds, to attend and minister 
 at every sick bed, and finally to commit to rest 
 in the church's shade the mortal remains of every 
 member of her holy brotherhood. Such are the 
 laws by which it is provided, that no dark corner 
 of our land shall ever be found where Satan 
 may muster his forces, and reign unmolested by 
 the ministers and ambassadors of Christ; that 
 there shall never be any one of our population, 
 whether old or young, rich or poor, to whom 
 life and light and liberty are not offered ; that 
 every man among us shall be numbered either 
 with Christ's faithful and obedient children and 
 
 ' See especially the rubrics appended to the Visitation of 
 the Sick, to the Catechism, and to the Holy Communion. 
 
8 THE PAROCHIAL SYSTEM 
 
 servants, or else with those who wilfully and per- 
 versely neglect Him, and will not have Him to 
 reign over them ; to whom His Gospel is a savour 
 of life unto life, or a savour of death unto death. 
 
 And now, how are these provisions of the 
 Church realized in her practical working? It 
 is not too much to say, that in our metropolis 
 and other great cities they are wholly obsolete. 
 These pages, perhaps, may meet the eyes of 
 some 9 who scarcely know even the name of the 
 parochial minister, to whom, as we have seen, 
 the Church has solemnly entrusted the care of 
 their souls, and of very many whose acquaint- 
 ance with him extends little further. And such 
 is not only the case of irreligious persons or 
 of those who are ill-affected towards the 
 Church; nor is it the result of their own choice ; 
 but it is of necessity the condition of great 
 numbers of sincere, devout, and conscientious 
 churchmen. Our actual condition, therefore, 
 presents this startling inconsistency ; that while 
 we maintain the importance, and even the neces- 
 sity, of the parochial system, and while in name 
 we retain it, we have suffered the inhabitants of 
 our cities, in many respects the most important 
 part of our population, to be wholly deprived of 
 its blessings. 
 
 This effect has resulted from the combined 
 action of several causes, but chiefly from the 
 rapid and momentous change, which during the 
 last century has passed upon the condition of 
 
IN PRACTICE. 
 
 society in England. From an agricultural, we 
 have become, in great measure, a commercial 
 and manufacturing people. In many districts, 
 villages have swelled into towns, and towns into 
 mighty cities. The population of several coun- 
 ties has increased with a rapidity unexampled 
 probably in the history of the world, certainly 
 without parallel in any long settled and civilized 
 country. In Lancashire, which contained in 
 the year 1700 one hundred and sixty-six thou- 
 sand souls, there are now one million three 
 hundred and thirty-six thousand eight hundred 
 and fifty-four. The population, therefore, has 
 been multiplied more than eight times. In the 
 West Riding of Yorkshire again, in parts of 
 Staffordshire, Warwickshire, and several other 
 counties, the process has been and is proceeding 
 with no less rapidity. The metropolis too, has 
 wholly changed its character within the same 
 period. The cities of London and Westminster 
 it is well known, at no distant period, were sepa- 
 rated by fields and gardens, and connected chiefly 
 by the Thames. The population swarmed about 
 the great marts of commerce, on the north bank 
 of the river, in parishes astonishingly numerous 
 and subdivided, now abandoned chiefly to ware- 
 houses and offices. A little to the west of Tem- 
 ple Bar were the pleasant gardens and houses 
 of the nobility, extending along the Strand of 
 the river, then no crowded street ; and in many 
 respects answering to those which may now be 
 
10 THE PAROCHIAL SYSTEM 
 
 seen in the neighbourhood of Brentford and 
 Twickenham. And this is the space which now 
 teems with immortal beings, and which we have 
 neglected to subdivide into new ecclesiastical 
 districts as occasion arose, and as ancient ex- 
 ample, and indeed the principle of the paro- 
 chial system, required. And now the overgrown 
 parishes, which on every side surround the city 
 of London, witness by their rural names against 
 the remissness of a generation, which in so many 
 cases has left under the care of a single pastor 
 a district, which, when sprinkled with villas and 
 cottages, gave him full occupation, and in which 
 every cellar and garret is now the abode of fa- 
 milies, whose numbers, by precluding all attempt 
 at due pastoral superintendence, do practically 
 destroy all pastoral responsibility. The parish 
 of " St. Giles in the Fields " contains 36,432 
 immortal souls ; that of " Bethnal Green," 
 62,018, and yet the former is still entrusted to 
 the care of three, and the latter of four parochial 
 clergymen. Nor are these solitary cases : in St. 
 George's in the East there are 38,505, with 
 two clergymen ; in St. Leonard's, Shoreditch, 
 33,000, with two; in Stepney, 51,000, with 
 three ; in St. Luke's, 46,642, with two ; in St. 
 Mary's, Whitechapel, 31,100, with one 1 . And 
 
 1 The facts stated above are drawn chiefly from the docu- 
 ments which have appeared in different numbers of the 
 British Magazine, and from the statements published by the 
 Lord Bishop of London, and by the committee of the "Metro- 
 polis Churches Fund.'' 
 
IN PRACTICE. 11 
 
 taking an average of thirty- four parishes, we 
 find the proportion of pastors to their flocks to 
 be one to 15,100. Such is the condition of our 
 metropolis. Many of the manufacturing and 
 commercial towns are not much less destitute. 
 In two parishes in Liverpool there are but four 
 clergymen to 34,000 souls ; in Macclesfield, 
 three to 23,000 ; in Oldham, four to 32,000 ; in 
 Leeds, nine to 71,000; in Sheffield, the same 
 number to 73,000. In other instances we find 
 large districts (not towns, and therefore called 
 villages), where, from the discovery of coal, and 
 other causes, a scattered population has rapidly 
 accumulated ; and a flock of ten or fifteen thou- 
 sand dispersed over a surface many miles in 
 extent, are still entrusted to a single pastor. 
 
 In all these cases our parochial system is 
 little more than a delusion; we retain the name 
 and the form, we call the incumbents the pastors 
 of the whole flock, they are charged by the 
 bishop with the spiritual care of the whole ; but 
 in the sight of God and man they are not, and 
 cannot be, responsible for the performance of 
 impossibilities. They are the ministers of their 
 own churches they are the heads too of a sort 
 of mission, bound to labour according to their 
 power for the spiritual good of the multitudes 
 around them ; but to require that they should 
 penetrate the mass, and become personally ac- 
 quainted with the thousands who compose it, 
 that they should distinguish the several charac- 
 
12 THE PAROCHIAL SYSTEM 
 
 ters of those committed to their care, should 
 warn the careless, should reprove the gainsayers, 
 should build up the weak, should direct the in- 
 experienced, in short, that they should duly 
 exercise the pastoral care, would be extravagant. 
 The people accordingly do not, and cannot, 
 regard them as their appointed pastors. They 
 feel themselves to be as sheep without a shep- 
 herd, and have generally no other notion of the 
 very nature of a parish, than that it is a district 
 relieving its own poor. 
 
 This state of things is obviously inconsistent 
 with the rules of the Church, and with our pro- 
 fessions as her members. But it may be asked 
 in default of the parochial system, what other 
 provisions have been made for the spiritual wel- 
 fare of the people ? These have been, until 
 very recently, only the erection of proprietary 
 chapels, and the labours of pious individuals and 
 societies. That a considerable amount of good 
 has resulted from these means is unquestionable ; 
 without them our state would have been worse 
 than it is ; but they are palliatives not remedies 
 of a disease, which, if not radically cured, must 
 in the end be fatal. If we suffer ourselves to 
 account them an effectual cure, we do but de- 
 ceive ourselves to our ruin, and change them 
 from a good into an evil. They can but be 
 palliatives, because, from the necessity of the 
 case, they have been directed by an imperfect 
 principle. Chapels have been erected, indeed, 
 
IN PRACTICE. 
 
 and congregations gathered, but no 
 been taken of those who remain behind, 
 have seen only what is done, not what remains 
 undone ; and the result has been, that one here 
 and another there has been snatched from the 
 surrounding mass of ignorance and profaneness, 
 but the mass itself has remained unleavened. It 
 could not be otherwise. And what has been 
 the consequence? First, that there are thou- 
 sands, nay, hundreds of thousands, who, although 
 baptized with us into the same body, are not 
 only, as we have seen, without any parochial 
 ministry, and so are not invited to the house of 
 God, and as the Lord commanded, " compelled 
 to come in from the high ways and hedges;" but 
 for whom, moreover, there is no room, should 
 they desire to come : they cannot, if they would, 
 assemble with their brethren, where Christ has 
 promised that He will be in the midst and 
 will grant their requests; they are aliens of 
 necessity from His Church. 
 
 What number of our fellow-subjects are thus 
 excluded from the common blessings of English- 
 men and churchmen, it is as yet impossible to 
 calculate. That they are many hundreds of 
 thousands is certain and notorious. In the ab- 
 sence of accurate statistical information with 
 regard to many parts of England, we may safely 
 infer something from the facts which have been 
 ascertained and made public by the most meri- 
 torious labours of the Glasgow Church Building 
 
14 THE PAROCHIAL SYSTEM 
 
 Society, and especially of their secretary, Mr. 
 Collins. Of the population of Glasgow, which 
 amounts to about 240,000, there are (it appears) 
 above 90,000 who from age and circumstances 
 might attend church, but for whom no accom- 
 modation could be found in any place of worship 
 whatever, although all, both of the papists and 
 of all Protestant sects, Socinians included, and 
 even of the Jews, should be thronged to the 
 utmost. In this city, therefore, ninety churches 
 at least, for one thousand persons each, would be 
 requisite, in order to offer access to all l . 
 
 Such is the state of one district, where in- 
 quiries have been made. Have we any reason 
 to believe that the spiritual wants of our own 
 manufacturers are more fully provided? We 
 find that in and round Birmingham there are 
 101,292 immortal beings, who could not, if they 
 would, attend the house of God. At Leeds, 
 only 14,393 out of 123,393 can find room in 
 the churches. At Manchester, about the same 
 proportion ; at Sheffield, one-ninth ; at Wolver- 
 hampton, one-fifth ; and this seems about the 
 average of the great manufacturing towns. In 
 London, meanwhile, there are 34 parishes, in 
 which alone there are 756,754 beyond the 
 capabilities of the existing churches ; and, if we 
 
 1 The author of course cites the case of Glasgow, merely as 
 illustrating the actual defect of church room, by no means as 
 adopting the liberal theory, which would represent the Scotch 
 establishment as substantially the same with the Church of 
 England. 
 
 8 
 
IN PRACTICE. 15 
 
 calculate that one-half of a city population ought 
 to attend church (an estimate very low in the 
 opinion of those who have most accurately in- 
 quired into the habits of a town population a ), 
 we need church room for 378,477, or more than 
 378 new churches, for 1000 each, in order to 
 supply the deficiency. 
 
 We have as yet considered only the propor- 
 tion of the whole population which is invited 
 to the house of God and the means of grace. 
 Another most important question remains be- 
 hind. How are the existing privileges of the 
 Church distributed ? Looking as before to the 
 great towns, it is not too much to say, that they 
 are almost exclusively confined to the higher and 
 middle ranks of society, whom, by a most un- 
 christian abuse of language, we have learned to 
 call " the respectable classes." When the Son of 
 God would give proof of His divine mission, He 
 said, " to the poor the Gospel is preached;" but 
 in our overgrown parishes the order is reversed. 
 A church is erected among a population of many 
 thousands ; and immediately those who have 
 received the greatest advantages of education, 
 and whose circumstances are the easiest, even if 
 they do not attend it as a duty and a privilege, 
 
 1 Dr. Chalmers calculates, that accommodation should be 
 provided in country parishes for one-half; in towns, for five- 
 eighths of the population. Collins, in his Glasgow statistics, 
 takes the proportion at three-fifths. Bishop of Winchester's 
 Charge, 1837. 
 
16 THE PAROCHIAL SYSTEM 
 
 yet unless alienated by infidelity, and indifferent 
 to shame, are attracted thither by a sense of 
 decency and propriety, and by the influence of 
 public opinion. To the more wealthy the Lord's 
 day is one of leisure, which often hangs heavy 
 on their hands ; they are naturally inclined to 
 follow the general example of their equals, and 
 they have children and servants whom they 
 would gladly see governed by religious prin- 
 ciples. A congregation is at once secured, 
 which comprises almost every shade of moral 
 and religious character. Its members differ 
 widely in the motives and the regularity of their 
 attendance, but in one thing they are alike. 
 Nearly all belong to those classes of society 
 which are above the pressure of want and the 
 necessity of manual labour. And where are the 
 remainder ? They are excluded. The poor are 
 naturally reluctant to mingle themselves with 
 the rich ; they are unwilling to exhibit poverty 
 and rags in contrast with wealth and splendour. 
 The very act, therefore, of attending the house 
 of God, requires in them something of an effort ; 
 and they are moreover continually and impor- 
 tunately tempted to withdraw themselves : for 
 their life is one of labour, and the Lord's day is 
 inviting as a season of amusement; their fami- 
 lies clamour for bread, and its sacred hours are 
 invaded by the pursuit of gain. Such are the 
 difficulties which they have to overcome ; and 
 we have proof accordingly, that abject and in- 
 
IN PRACTICE. 17 
 
 creasing poverty, has of itself caused many fami- 
 lies to forsake the public worship of God, who 
 once regularly frequented it. In fact, we may 
 without much doubt assume that, without some 
 measure of a sense of duty, a very poor man 
 (especially in a large town) will scarcely be a 
 regular worshipper in the house of God. But 
 whence is this sense of duty to arise ? How is it 
 to be fostered among the neglected portion of 
 our town population? The due discharge, in- 
 deed, of the pastoral care, as prescribed by the 
 rules of the church, would (under God's blessing) 
 produce it; but this, as we have seen, is pre- 
 cluded, and what have they to supply its place ? 
 They have been born and bred amid an habitual 
 neglect of the sacred day of rest, and its blessed 
 offices. They are but following the example of 
 their parents, and accompanying the mass of 
 their friends and companions when they neglect 
 it and they do neglect it ; and are from habit 
 unconscious of the neglect. 
 
 And yet after all that barrier has not yet 
 been mentioned, by which the poor of our cities 
 are most effectually excluded from the house of 
 prayer. For if any considerable number of them 
 should overcome all their natural and excusable 
 reluctance, and should throng thither (as we may 
 say, uninvited), how are they to be received ? 
 The consecrated area is partitioned, and almost 
 every inch appropriated. We have carried the 
 rights of property into the very sanctuary of our 
 
18 THE PAROCHIAL SYSTEM 
 
 God. Some parts belong to houses, others are 
 let to individuals, and were any considerable 
 mass of the labouring poor to seek for admission, 
 they would not even be offered the alternative 
 reprobated by St. James, "stand thou there, or 
 sit here under my footstool." They are excluded 
 not only by their own circumstances, and by 
 their natural feelings, but by law and by the 
 rights of others. 
 
 It is difficult to estimate the true magnitude 
 of this evil. Were the rich excluded from our 
 parish churches, it would be in comparison a 
 slight thing ; they could and would provide others 
 for themselves. But to the mass of the poorest 
 class, exclusion from the existing churches is 
 practically total exclusion from the house of 
 God, from all the means of grace, and from all 
 the privileges of Christianity. And to this con- 
 dition it is (we cannot too often repeat it), that 
 hundreds of thousands of our countrymen are 
 now reduced. How their lives are spent, and 
 what is the comfort of their dying beds, who 
 shall say ? It can hardly be, but that numbers 
 among them are altogether in a condition more 
 wretched than that of their heathen ancestors, 
 or of the unsophisticated savages of the American 
 forests. Knowing nothing of civilization, but 
 the heavy pressure of its laws and restrictions ; 
 of property, nothing but the invidious fences 
 which ward off their iutrusions on that of others; 
 of religion, nothing but a dark and gloomy 
 
IN PRACTICE. 19 
 
 dread of something beyond the grave. Arid on 
 what hope do they lean, among the sorrows and 
 anxieties of " life, which to every one that 
 breathes is full of care," and to none more than 
 to them? or how do they appease that restless 
 and eager craving after "some good 1 ", which 
 the Creator has implanted in man to attract him 
 to Himself? Man was not made to be like 
 some machine, whose object is to produce the 
 greatest amount of manufactures, to work through 
 the day, and rest during the night, until, worn 
 out at last, it is cast aside to make room for 
 another. Something more his nature requires ; 
 and where do these men find it? Let our gin- 
 palaces, our prisons, and our court-houses reply. 
 In drunkenness and excess, in crime and vio- 
 lence, are expended those human energies which 
 God has given for Himself, which by His bless- 
 ing we may direct; but which, do what we may, 
 we cannot extinguish. 
 
 The condition of our manufacturing and metro- 
 politan population is an evil so overwhelming, 
 so enormous, that it naturally demands our 
 first attention ; and yet there are others, for 
 whom provision is urgently required in our 
 national Church. Many of our country towns, 
 even in the agricultural districts, have been 
 
 1 Psalm iv. 6. " There be many that say, Who will show 
 us any good ? Lord, lift Thou up the light of Thy countenance 
 upon us." St. Augustine explains men's restless wishes. "Quia 
 lecisti nos ad Te et inquietum cor nostrum donee requiescat in 
 Te." Conf. 1. J. 
 
 C 2 
 
20 THE PAROCHIAL SYSTEM 
 
 very considerably augmented 1 , and are insuffi- 
 ciently supplied with churches and ministers. 
 Their wants, indeed, are less urgent than those 
 which have been detailed, and yet, if custom 
 had not reconciled us to these and worse things, 
 we should surely feel them to be deeply impres- 
 sive. We have become familiarized with awful 
 facts, and we can speak of the spiritual destitu- 
 tion, of hundreds, or thousands, or millions, with 
 as little emotion as a conqueror who numbers 
 his army, and regards them not as so many in- 
 dividual responsible immortal beings, but as 
 counters in the great game which he is playing. 
 Let us divest ourselves of these habits of thought, 
 and estimate, by the standard of God's word, the 
 worth of a single soul. Let us consider how 
 great it seems to us even now, in the chamber 
 of death, or by the side of the grave, and then 
 let us attempt to realize something of that value 
 which it will assume in the great and dreadful 
 day of judgment. These are the units of which 
 our account is made tip. It is of such interests 
 that we speak, when we estimate the number of 
 our countrymen, who live and die in habitual 
 forgetfulness of God, and neglect of His gospel. 
 If they could be told by hundreds, by tens, or 
 by units, it were no light evil when weighed in 
 the balance of the sanctuary. 
 
 And what is the case in the larger towns of our 
 
 - 1 Sussex has increased in population 80 per cent, in twenty 
 years. See Address of the Lord Bishop, p. 6. 
 
IN PRACTICE. 21 
 
 agricultural districts. They seem in general to 
 afford church-room for about one-third of the 
 whole population ; very often for less. An excep- 
 tion, however, must be made, in favour of the 
 cathedral towns, which are commonly better sup- 
 plied. Thus, Bath has church-room for 10,000 
 out of 38,033; Southampton, for 7,140 out of 
 20,900; Oxford, Reading, Maidstone, Shrews- 
 bury, and a great number of other towns, present 
 a proportion nearly the same. Here, however, 
 as before, we are far from estimating the real 
 amount of spiritual destitution, when we have 
 ascertained the proportion of church-room to the 
 whole population. For the rights of pews form 
 an insuperable bar to the attendance of the poor, 
 in many places where it might otherwise be 
 possible. It is stated for example by the Lord 
 Bishop of Chichester 1 9 that the unappropriated 
 church-room in six towns of that wholly agricul- 
 tural diocese, will accommodate less than three 
 thousand out of a population of 26,697. And 
 this is far from an extreme case. In one of these 
 very towns the proportion is but twenty to 4000. 
 In a parish of another agricultural diocese 2 , 
 " containing 8,083 souls, there is no accommo- 
 dation for the poor except in the aisles." When 
 we reflect how reluctantly any man, whether 
 rich or poor, will subject himself to the risk of 
 
 1 Address to the clergy and laity of the Diocese of Chi- 
 chester, 1838. 
 
 2 Statement of the Lord Bishop of Winchester. Dec. 1836. 
 
22 THE PAROCHIAL SYSTEM 
 
 being ejected as an intruder; we may, in some 
 measure, estimate the degree to which our 
 churches are emptied, by this most unbrotherly 
 and unchristian appropriation. 
 
 In the country villages, these evils, although 
 by no means unknown, are comparatively rare ; 
 and here, accordingly, the parochial system still 
 sheds its unnumbered benefits. Assailed and 
 reviled as it is, and compassed by ten thousand 
 foes, we may surely point to the villages of En- 
 gland, as a sign that God of a truth is still with 
 His Church among us. Who can estimate the 
 numbers, who in the great day shall give Him 
 thanks for the blessings she has here dispensed ? 
 And yet, even here, much remains to be done. 
 The agricultural population are very commonly 
 deprived of their Church privileges; not indeed 
 by the pressure of numbers, but by remoteness 
 of situation. In the diocese of Winchester alone, 
 no less than sixty hamlets have been reported to 
 the bishop as needing new churches from this 
 cause ; all of these contain a population of more 
 than 200, while 25 of them range between 500 
 and 1200, and their distance from church varies 
 from two to six miles. Such is the state of the 
 counties of Hampshire and Surrey ; districts pro- 
 bably more favourably situated, than the average 
 of the country. 
 
 On this hasty survey of the existing condition 
 of the English Church, the question naturally 
 arises ; how did such evils grow up among us, 
 
IN PRACTICE. 23 
 
 unsuspected apparently by any man ; and why 
 was the ancient custom discontinued (a custom 
 coeval with the parochial system, and almost a 
 necessary part of it), so that our old parishes 
 were not subdivided, and new churches erected, 
 as occasion required? And surely we can but 
 reply, while men slept, the enemy came, and 
 sowed tares among the wheat ; the evil grew up 
 gradually and silently ; men's attention was en- 
 grossed by other subjects; and the growing wants 
 of our population were unobserved and unconsi- 
 dered. Men knew that every parish had its 
 church ; that the supply had once been amply 
 sufficient ; and they did not even suspect that it 
 was becoming defective. That our church-room 
 was not generally deficient a century and a half 
 ago, is indicated by the rareness of consecrations ; 
 especially as the general attention which they 
 excited, could hardly have failed to direct to the 
 subject, the thoughts of pious and munificent 
 men, if any considerable want had existed 1 . 
 That no suspicion of its existence did actually 
 prevail, seems certain from the language of the 
 great divines, who flourished under the Stuart 
 dynasty. The want or remoteness of churches 
 seems never to have occurred to them as favour- 
 ing the cause of dissent ; and in recommending 
 
 1 Especially the consecration of Jesus Chapel (in the parish 
 of St. Mary, Southampton), by Bishop Andrews, on which 
 occasion a full account of all the proceedings was published in 
 a small volume. 
 
24 THE PAROCHIAL SYSTEM 
 
 deeds of Christian munificence, the erecting of 
 them is not enumerated, even when they speak 
 of strictly religious charities, as " erecting schools, 
 maintaining lectures of divinity, erecting col- 
 leges of religion, and retirement from the noise, 
 and more frequent temptations of the world V 
 In their eyes the parochial system of the Church 
 appeared to be a victory already gained, a strong 
 hold already set up. It remained to avail our- 
 selves of it, not to complete it. And such pro- 
 bably was the state of the case. Accordingly the 
 laws no longer offered inducements to church 
 building. There had been a time when the 
 subdivision of parishes was easy, and the founder 
 became the patron of his own endowment ; but 
 the need was gone by, and the opportunity was 
 no longer offered. Provision was already made 
 for the continual repair of the existing houses of 
 prayer, and nothing more was required. And 
 this sense of security once produced, naturally 
 continued undisturbed. During the first half of 
 the eighteenth century, political faction glowed 
 at the heart of the English nation, and twice 
 burst forth into the flames of civil war. Mean- 
 while, the dominant party, for many years after 
 
 1 Taylor's Holy Living, chap. iv. 8. It seems hardly pos- 
 sible that so obvious a work as church building, if there had 
 been any real need for it, should have been omitted here by 
 one who had so large experience in different parts of the coun- 
 try, and whose practical advices are so much founded on his 
 own experience. The same remark applies to Law's " Serious 
 Call." 
 
IN PRACTICE. 25 
 
 the accession of the house of Hanover, regarded 
 with jealous and bitter animosity, the influence 
 of the clergy, whom they suspected (not unrea- 
 sonably) of being the secret adherents of the 
 exiled family. Any measure 1 which tended to 
 augment that influence, was for that very ten- 
 dency unacceptable; and at one time serious 
 designs appear to have been formed, even against 
 the endowments of the universities. When a 
 better feeling was at length restored, a period of 
 war succeeded, first for our colonies abroad, then 
 for our national existence ; wherein we stood, 
 with God's help, singly against the world. 
 During such times, it could hardly be expected 
 that any state authority should propose the erec- 
 tion of new churches, and the subdivision of 
 parishes. From the clerical body such a pro- 
 posal could hardly come ; for early in the period 
 in question, they were deprived of their consti- 
 tutional mode of expressing their desires and 
 sentiments. One cause more, and that a painful 
 one, cannot be suppressed. It was a day of 
 reproach for the English Church. From causes 
 into which it is needless to inquire, clergy and 
 laity alike seem for a season to have slumbered 
 and slept. The golden opportunity passed un- 
 improved, and they have left to their children 
 the more arduous task of repairing the evil, which 
 seasonable exertions might have prevented. 
 
 1 E. g. the establishment of Episcopacy in the American 
 colonies, even without the demand of any fund for its support. 
 
 1 
 
26 THE PAROCHIAL SYSTEM. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 MEASURES SUGGESTED FOR THE RESTORATION OF THE 
 PAROCHIAL SYSTEM. 
 
 THE facts adduced in the last section, show 
 plainly that a monstrous evil exists among us. 
 It has grown up silently and unobserved, as in 
 the darkness of the night, until men look one 
 upon another with equal astonishment and awe, 
 and find themselves surrounded with a popula- 
 tion, which, except in name, can be regarded as 
 little better than heathen. And it is surely a 
 token for good, that the fact, as soon as it has 
 been made known, has awakened so great in- 
 terest and attention. In this view we may hail the 
 attempts which have been made to apply reme- 
 dies, which must we know be delusive, because 
 devised on unsound principles. They show at 
 least that men are awakening, and although their 
 eye has been caught not by the sun itself, but 
 by the painted clouds which herald his rising ; 
 they are at least looking in the right direction, 
 and are no longer content to lie still and slumber 
 while thousands are perishing around them. Yet 
 we must not shut our eyes to the fact, that some 
 of these undertakings are of positively injurious 
 
MEASURES SUGGESTED. 27 
 
 tendency, and others, although highly useful, 
 are only fitted to hold a subordinate place, and 
 must never be esteemed the primary instruments 
 for reducing our population to the obedience of 
 Christ. For projects 1 wholly independent of 
 our Diocesan and Parochial system, which re- 
 gard our cities or counties as a heathen mass, 
 out of which individuals are to be snatched by 
 desultory and irregular labours; however well-in- 
 tended, cannot but be hurtful in the end. They 
 are so, because they substitute a faulty for a 
 sound principle, and divert us from the only 
 means from which we can hope for large and 
 beneficial results. And again, when individuals 
 or associations labour to supply the deficiency of 
 pastoral superintendence in a parish of thirty, 
 fifty, or sixty thousand souls, (as is the case 
 with our District Visiting Societies and the like,) 
 they do well indeed for the season ; they afford 
 an aid which the pastor cannot but hail thank- 
 fully ; yet after all it is but a temporary expe- 
 dient. The remedy is inadequate ; not because 
 the labours of the laity, and of every one of 
 Christ's people are unacceptable to Him, or use- 
 less to His Church ; but because their place is as 
 fellow-labourers in aid of the appointed ministers 
 of God's word and Sacraments, not (as they are 
 practically in these cases) to be substitutes for 
 
 1 Such as the " City Mission," " Home Missionary Society," 
 &c. 
 
28 THE PAROCHIAL SYSTEM. 
 
 them. If God has promised His especial bless- 
 ing on His own ordinance, the priesthood and 
 ministry of His Word, our plans will prosper, as 
 they are blended into, and subordinate to this. 
 Our steps must be retraced ; and as the evil has 
 arisen from the neglect of our ancient parochial 
 system, the remedy must be its restoration. We 
 must supply to the dwellers in every street and 
 lane and cottage of our land, efficient pastoral 
 superintendence, and the public ordinances of 
 the Church; and having done this, we shall still 
 find abundant scope for the labours of every lay- 
 man. " He that gathereth most shall have 
 nothing over." 
 
 And the work by God's blessing is already 
 begun. New churches have arisen in every part 
 of our land, and are everywhere rising; so that a 
 consecration is sure to meet our eyes in every 
 periodical report of our ecclesiastical proceedings. 
 The augmentation again of the number of the la- 
 bourers in God's vineyard is at this moment the 
 object of the most strenuous exertions. What we 
 have already done is invaluable as a pledge of 
 greater things, although in any other view it would 
 no more deserve mention than a drop taken from 
 the ocean. For instead of absorbing the multitudes 
 which had outgrown the capabilities of our old 
 cJturches, we have not yet succeeded in providing 
 fully for the annual increase of our population. 
 After all our exertions, our church room, and our 
 parochial ministry are less adequate than they 
 
MEASURES SUGGESTED. 29 
 
 were twenty years ago 1 . Should we now aban- 
 don the work, every church already built would 
 witness against us, for we need them now more 
 than ever. May it go on and prosper ! 
 
 The first practical step towards the greater 
 exertions which are still necessary, will be to 
 measure the work before us. That it is great, 
 very great, we well know ; but how great it is 
 we still need to be informed. Men are not roused 
 to a true sense of their responsibility by vague 
 and general statements. We must be told what 
 we have to do, and in particular, how many ad- 
 ditional churches and pastors are required. This 
 can be shown only by exact local information 
 detailing the wants of our several towns and 
 districts. Whatever pains have already been 
 taken in collecting and publishing these details 
 
 1 This statement has frequently been repeated ; it may how- 
 ever be illustrated by one example taken from each of thegrear 
 divisions of our population. And first the town parish of St. 
 Pancras. In the year 1815 its population was stated by Mr. 
 Yates (Church in Danger, page 68,) at 46,333, with church 
 room only for 400, leaving a deficiency of at least 22,766. In 
 1835, the church accommodation (according to the report of the 
 Ecclesiastical Commissioners,) had been increased from 400 
 to 5000 ; but the population meanwhile had reached 103,548, 
 leaving (on the same calculation as before,) at least 51,774 
 unprovided for. Again, it is stated by the Lord Bishop of 
 Winchester, that to absorb the annual increase of population 
 in the rural parts of that diocese would require the erection of 
 ten churches for 500 each. Meanwhile in six years from 1830, 
 church room has been provided for above 29,000 ; a little less 
 than the required proportion. 
 
30 THE PAROCHIAL SYSTEM. 
 
 have been abundantly rewarded. The recent 
 plan of the Lord Bishop of London, which forms 
 an sera in the history of the English Church, owes 
 much of its value to the statement of facts on 
 which it is founded. But the greater part even of 
 this preparatory labour remains to be performed. 
 Our Church statistics should be more uniform 
 and systematic. Let it be established as a princi- 
 ple that the population of no parish should exceed 
 some definite amount ', perhaps three thousand ; 
 and let us then ascertain how many churches 
 must be erected in each diocese, before the towns 
 shall be thus far provided. And again, whatever 
 standard be applied to our villages ; if we deter- 
 mine, for instance, that no hamlet of three 
 hundred souls ought to be two miles from its 
 parish church; let us be informed how far we 
 are from realizing the principle so laid down. 
 The more accurate our knowledge, the better will 
 our work proceed. 
 
 1 The proposed maximum may perhaps be thought too great ; 
 especially when it is remembered that the old parishes con- 
 tained on an average less than 650. (See Yates's Church in 
 Danger, page 44.) It is certainly more liable to this than 
 to the opposite charge ; but it should be remarked that every 
 such parish ought to have at least two resident ministers, and 
 that in proportion to the diminution of pluralities, such a nur- 
 sery for curates will be urgently needed. Although therefore 
 3,000 souls are unquestionably too many for one pastor, they 
 may not, when concentrated in a town, be thought too many for 
 one parish served by two or more. By the efforts of our new 
 societies and other means, we may hope that the requisite aid 
 may generally be obtained. 
 
MEASURES SUGGESTED. 31 
 
 Meanwhile, let us resolve that as God shall 
 prosper us, no success shall satisfy us, or cause 
 us to remit our exertions, until we have attained 
 the standard proposed, and have provided a 
 church and a pastor for every one of our popu- 
 lation. Our crusade against the powers of dark- 
 ness must be unwearied, unsparing, and invete- 
 rate, like the sword of Joshua against the nations 
 of Canaan. Let us look before, not behind us. 
 Great undertakings have ever been accomplished 
 not by pausing to rejoice in that which is effected, 
 but by a resolution intently fixed on that which 
 remains to be done. So must it be here. Let 
 an annual report be published in every diocese, 
 stating the number of churches l built in the year 
 past, and of those which are still required ; and, 
 under the latter head, specifying by name every 
 
 1 Our new churches must of course be parochial; i. e. they 
 should be churches for the especial benefit of their own dis- 
 tricts. In saying this, the author trusts that he may, without 
 impropriety, express his earnest hope that this object may 
 never be sought by the introduction of a new and vicious 
 principle. It has been earnestly recommended, that the places 
 in our churches instead of being free, should be let at so low a 
 rate as to put them within the reach of the poorest, and that 
 preference should be shown to parishioners in letting all of 
 them. The advantages of this plan are, that men are disposed 
 to value highly that for which they pay something ; that the 
 poor will be more independent, and entertain a greater degree 
 of self-respect, when they feel that they have their own seat in 
 church to which no one has any right but themselves ; and, 
 lastly, that by this arrangement we ensure that the parishioners 
 shall never be excluded from their parish church by strangers 
 
32 THE PAROCHIAL SVSTEM. 
 
 existing parish which exceeds the due measure 
 of population, and every hamlet in which a 
 church is requisite. We should then stand 
 pledged to supply the wants of our whole people. 
 If men neglected them, they would do it with 
 their eyes open, and every Christian (instead of 
 feeling something of surprise at the number of 
 churches erected, and the frequent calls for aid), 
 being continually reminded of those which were 
 
 who may sometimes occupy the free seats, especially if the 
 church becomes peculiarly attractive by the popularity of a 
 preacher or other causes. The last of these benefits is equally 
 secured by the ancient rule, which provides that the church- 
 wardens shall allot to all parishioners, without payment, their 
 own proper places ; nor is there any good reason why the free 
 space of our new churches should not be thus allotted ; the 
 allotment, of course, being conditional, and liable to be re- 
 versed for sufficient causes. The other supposed advantages 
 are plainly alien to the principles of the Church and of the 
 Gospel ; for what is the Gospel, but great gifts without money 
 and without price, and what the first rule of the Church 
 but this : " freely ye have received, freely give ?" And of all 
 spirits, a haughty independence is surely that which least 
 becomes a sinner in drawing near to the Majesty of Heaven 
 and Earth. Lastly, if it be said that the poor are not willing 
 to occupy free seats, we may ask whether their objection is 
 not rather to certain obnoxious distinctions connected with 
 them than to their being free. Meanwhile shall we, without 
 proved necessity, introduce a new principle subversive of those 
 on which the Church has acted from the beginning a prin- 
 ciple which would rest the claim of men to be present at the 
 prayers and mysteries of the Church, not upon their high pri- 
 vilege as Christians, but upon their rights as pew-renters ; 
 and would make the peculiar blessings of the faithful, the men 
 in Christ [see them set forth in Bingham's Antiquities, book i. 
 chap, v.] a matter of bargain and sale. 
 
*S O* im 
 
 MEASURES SUGGESTED.II U A !5dF T? 
 
 still required, would rather be ^ 
 
 and regret that so few are annually 
 Now he measures the work done ; then he could 
 not withdraw his eye from that which remains. 
 
 But besides adequate churches, the parochial 
 system requires the residence of the clergy. In 
 the country districts this can of course be secured 
 only by providing a house as near as may be to 
 each church ; but in our great towns it seems 
 possible to adopt a plan at once less costly and 
 more efficient. That every parish should have 
 its appointed pastor is indeed essential, but not 
 that in every instance he should reside within its 
 bounds. In many parts of our great towns, 
 where immortal beings are crowded with un- 
 exampled density, the proposed parishes will be 
 of very small extent. The existing evil is in 
 their population, not their size ; and were 30,000 
 souls assigned to ten separate cures instead of 
 one, the present house of residence would very 
 often be not inconveniently situated with regard 
 to each of them. In these situations, meanwhile, 
 every inch of land is sought with so eager a com- 
 petition, that the rental or erection of a house in 
 each parish would be peculiarly onerous. Many 
 advantages, then might be united, if something 
 of a collegiate establishment were provided for 
 the clerical body, open to as many of them as 
 chose to avail themselves of it, and leaving to all 
 others the liberty of a separate residence. That 
 such a plan would be highly economical is ob- 
 
34 THE PAROCHIAL SYSTEM. 
 
 vious ; for, besides the erection of one building 
 instead of many, the daily cost of providing for 
 a number of persons in a common hall is known 
 to be far less than would be incurred by them in 
 separate establishments. A considerable saving, 
 again, would result from the great diminution of 
 the number of necessary servants ; and each of 
 tfye clergy would be freed from much expense in 
 the purchase of books, too often a serious charge 
 on a very slender income. But in such an ex- 
 periment, the moral and religious results would 
 surely far outweigh any merely economical. It 
 is not good for man to be alone ; and who is so 
 painfully alone, as he upon whom the care of 
 thousands is ever pressing, who is contending 
 day by day against vice and misery, instructing 
 the ignorant and warning the obstinate; while 
 for himself, as for our first parent in Paradise, 
 no equal friend, companion, and counsellor is 
 found ; none of like mind and pursuits, and fur- 
 nished with a congenial education, with whom 
 he may take sweet counsel, " and walk in the 
 House of GOD as friends." The biographer 
 mourns over the departure of the meek Hooker 
 " from the tranquillity of his college, from that 
 garden of piety, of pleasure, of peace, and of 
 sweet conversation, into the thorny wilderness 
 of a busy world, into those corroding cares that 
 attend a married priest and a country parsonage;" 
 but how much more corroding, how much more 
 sickening to the heart, the cares of a priest in a 
 
MEASURES SUGGESTED. 35 
 
 poor town population. And how many are there 
 who, worn down by them day by day, are with- 
 out the solace and refreshment of domestic 
 life. Their number, too, must of course be 
 greatly increased, if we plant in a great town 
 thirty, forty, fifty, or even an hundred new 
 churches, each of which is to have its minister, 
 and often two ; while the endowments, for a time 
 at least, cannot be expected to be large. How 
 dear to them would be such a society as has been 
 suggested ; the bond between its members drawn 
 closer by daily social prayers and all the blessed 
 intercourse of religious fellowship ; and how 
 beneficially would such colleges affect the Church 
 at large; which, besides other functions too 
 numerous to be here detailed, would afford to 
 candidates for the ministry a school at once for 
 theological study and for the practice of the 
 pastoral care ; and that (as it might easily be 
 arranged) at so low a cost, as to remove the 
 only serious objection, which has hitherto pre- 
 vented the English Church from providing for 
 every candidate, something of a professional as 
 well as a liberal education. 
 
 Considerable practical improvements, again, 
 might be adopted in the internal administration 
 of our parishes. The pastor, in general, stands 
 too much alone ; and, as a king who is without 
 a senate and a body of nobility is more absolute, 
 but less safe, so the priest, doing all himself, is 
 often liable to exercise his unchecked authority 
 D 2 
 
36 THE PAROCHIAL SYSTEM. 
 
 over a body diminished by the alienation of 
 many of his flock. In some places, indeed, the 
 services of the more zealous laity have been 
 thankfully accepted and wisely directed; but 
 not being part of any general system, these in- 
 stances have been little more than experiments, 
 originating in the personal exertions and in- 
 fluence of an individual pastor; modelled, more 
 or less wisely, by his own judgment, depending 
 for their existence on his life, and for their 
 vigor and efficiency even on his health and 
 energies. They have been but excrescences 
 arising in one and another instance out of our 
 parochial system, not incorporated with it. We 
 may surely conclude that much strength would 
 be added to the Church, if these important 
 labours were directed on some more uniform 
 system. Without any invasion of the pastoral 
 office, the services of our laity in visiting the 
 poor of specified districts and reporting their 
 state to the clergy ; in superintending daily or 
 Sunday schools ; or in instructing the more ig- 
 norant of the adult population ; might be autho- 
 rized by a license from the diocesan, to be 
 obtained on certain fixed conditions. This 
 measure might be immediately adopted in any 
 parish where it obtained the approbation of the 
 incumbent and his bishop. It would strictly 
 harmonize with the principle of the existing 
 rule, which directs that schoolmasters and parish 
 clerks should act under a similar authority ; and 
 
MEASURES SUGGESTED. 37 
 
 its general adoption (besides the great advantage 
 of introducing something of uniformity through- 
 out our parishes, and regulating on system the 
 exertions of zealous laymen,) would produce the 
 most salutary effects both on themselves and on 
 churchmen at large. With how much more of 
 authority and boldness would men discharge 
 their several functions, who were designated to 
 them by the chief pastor of the diocese, as the 
 parochial clergyman to the ministry of the Word 
 and Sacraments. Meanwhile, acting on a dele- 
 gated authority, and no longer tempted to rest 
 their claims on their personal qualifications, 
 their own dangers would be much diminished ; 
 their functions would tend to unite and attach 
 them more closely to the Church and her ordi- 
 nances, of which they would feel themselves to 
 be a part; and they could at no time assert an 
 independent authority, and usurp the functions 
 of the ministry, without destroying their past 
 influence by annulling and disowning the com- 
 mission on which they had hitherto acted. 
 Meanwhile the authority of the bishop, as the 
 chief pastor of the whole diocese, would become 
 a matter of experience to every member of the 
 Church; and the mass of the laity, who now 
 too often regard her most sacred order as un- 
 connected with them and belonging only to the 
 clergy, would feel that the diocesan was their 
 own spiritual ruler, and, under God, the source 
 of every order of religious ministration. It 
 
38 THE PAROCHIAL SYSTEM. 
 
 would be difficult in any other way to impress 
 so widely the conviction, that to be a churchman 
 is a real privilege; that it is not merely to 
 attend a certain place of worship, but to belong 
 to a definite and organized society; a society 
 invested with the highest gifts in virtue of a 
 charter from the King of kings. It was this 
 feeling which induced men of old to prefer the 
 blessing of Church-communion to all that this 
 world can bestow ; and it is a craving for some- 
 thing of this kind which our Church, as at present 
 administered, does not offer, which drives mul- 
 titudes into different dissenting establishments, 
 and many into the communion of Rome. 
 
 The sacred order of deacons, finally, might 
 be employed for many important functions, if 
 the principle of the Church, which assigns to 
 them an office wholly subordinate to that of the 
 priest, were carried into effect. It is a strange 
 anomaly in our practice, that a minister, un- 
 authorized to perform some essential functions, 
 and expressly charged with a secondary duty *, 
 
 1 "The Bishop. It appertaineth to the office of a deacon, in 
 the church where he shall be appointed to serve, to assist the 
 priest in divine service, and specially when he ministereth the 
 holy Communion, and to help him on the distribution thereof, 
 and to read holy Scriptures and Homilies in the church, and 
 to instruct the youth in the catechism ; in the absence of the 
 priest to baptize infants, and to preach, if he be admitted 
 thereto by the bishop. And furthermore, it is his office, where 
 provision is so made, to search for the sick, poor, and impo- 
 tent people of the parish, and to intimate their estates, names, 
 
MEASURES SUGGESTED. 39 
 
 should so often be intrusted with the sole care 
 of a parish. It would be a most obvious and 
 important reform to carry out the principle 
 which forbids that any deacon should hold a 
 benefice, by providing that he should never 
 be charged with a cure where his superior is 
 not resident. The deacons would then find 
 their place as assistant ministers. 
 
 The measures already suggested, be it ob- 
 served, are all in our own power. The bishops 
 of the English Church, with the co-operation of 
 the clergy and laity, have full power to put 
 them into immediate operation. We require 
 no legislative authority; we need wait for no 
 political change. We want only Christian liber- 
 ality and self-denial, with a spirit of unity and 
 order. And how might the moral condition of 
 our land be changed. Our parochial system 
 once restored to efficiency, the Church would 
 arise like one raised up from a seizure of para- 
 lysis, whose every limb is once more instinct 
 with life and energy. Her blessings and privi- 
 leges being offered to all, none would be alien- 
 
 and places where they dwell, unto the curate, that by his 
 exhortation they may be relieved with the alms of the parish- 
 ioners or others. Will you do this gladly and willingly ? 
 Answer. I will do so by the help of God." Service for the Order- 
 ing of Deacons. It could hardly be intended that the majority 
 of those who are taught to answer thus should be sent the 
 next day to undertake the care of a parish without any priest 
 over them, charged with the performance of the whole of the 
 weekly duty, and required to preach twice every Sunday. 
 
40 THE PAROCHIAL SYSTEM. 
 
 ated but by his own free and deliberate choice. 
 The openly irreligious and profane, who " fear 
 not God nor regard man," and who neither 
 desire to serve Him nor even affect the desire ; 
 these would stand aloof from her. But all 
 others would seek and desire her communion, 
 except such as were dissenters on principle. 
 How few of the more orderly and peaceable 
 of the existing dissenting body can be classed 
 under this head ! How many have become dis- 
 senters almost of necessity; have been allured 
 to the meeting not from the Church, but from 
 the streets and the alehouse, and remain there 
 partly from habit, partly because the claims of 
 Christ's Church, and the blessedness of her 
 children, have never been set before them. Let 
 our parochial system be made universally effi- 
 cient, and we may hope that we shall soon find 
 them among us. Who can estimate the dignity 
 with which Religion might then raise her head ; 
 or the blessings which might be called down on 
 our Church and nation by the continual prayers 
 of thousands who are now aliens from GOD, 
 " sitting in darkness and the shadow of death." 
 Surely we might expect that the very face of our 
 land would wear a brightness hitherto unknown. 
 Even the secular and worldly condition of our 
 poor would be changed. From the beginning, 
 the Church relieved her own poor, and in 
 parishes of due dimensions she might do so 
 again. We begin a wrong course when we 
 
MEASURES SUGGESTED. 41 
 
 leave the poor in Christ to the fortuitous exer- 
 cise of benevolence, and to the dole of a legal 
 pittance. The benevolence of Christians should 
 be wise, well-ordered, discriminating, and boun- 
 tiful. Such are the alms of the Church, ennobling 
 the giver, but not debasing the receiver; because 
 the love of Christ towards men becomes the 
 effectual source and motive, the model and 
 example, of the love of men toward their bre- 
 thren. We are bound indeed to do good to all 
 men, but there are those who have a special 
 claim the poor members of our Lord's body. 
 He who has promised that to those who seek 
 first His kingdom and righteousness all other 
 things shall be added, and who does not see fit 
 to work by miracle, has appointed the richer 
 members of His Church as His stewards, to fulfil 
 His promise by clothing and feeding His poorer 
 brethren. True it is, that if we refuse He will 
 still work for them, but we meanwhile shall lose 
 our high privilege the privilege of lending to 
 the Lord, of spending our worldly substance for 
 Him. For while worldly liberality gives to 
 relieve the natural sensation of compassion, the 
 beneficence of a Christian looks farther and 
 higher. ^ c ln Christ's poor members faith sees 
 her Lord, and love ministers to His necessities." 
 He who died for us still suffers hunger and 
 thirst, cold and nakedness. He pines with sick- 
 ness and is oppressed with sorrow, that we may 
 have the blessed portion of feeding and clothing, 
 
42 THE PAROCHIAL SYSTEM. 
 
 of visiting and ministering to Him ; and beyond 
 a doubt, in proportion as our land becomes truly 
 Christian, an antidote will be supplied to every 
 ill even of this world. 
 
 Meanwhile the Church being once more loved 
 and valued, as she deserves, by the mass of our 
 population, we should no longer be distracted 
 with perpetual assaults ; with measures intro- 
 duced and forwarded, not for any benefit (real 
 or imagined), but only because by harassing and 
 annoying the clergy, by undermining their in- 
 fluence or invading their property, the interests 
 of some political party may be advanced, and a 
 certain measure of popular support obtained. 
 With a few honourable exceptions, statesmen are 
 too prone to care for none of these things ; they 
 do not love the Church of Christ for the sake of 
 her Lord, neither in general are they decidedly 
 hostile to her, save when some holy rule inter- 
 feres with their own selfish purposes. The as- 
 saults made upon her have been for political and 
 party ends ; and if her influence were so far re- 
 stored, that they would serve these purposes no 
 longer, we " should be left in peace to husband 
 our strength for God, not to spend it in the 
 wretched turmoil of secular strife;" we should 
 be " left alone with our parishes, to follow our 
 ministerial calling, without the agitation of per- 
 petual change and rumours of change." For the 
 same men, who now for political purposes assail 
 the Church, would then be ready to honour her. 
 
MEASURES SUGGESTED. 43 
 
 and fulfil the promise " The sons of them that 
 afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee ; and 
 all they that despised thee shall bow themselves 
 down at the soles of thy feet, and they shall call 
 thee the city of the Lord, the Zion of the Holy 
 One of Israel 1 ." 
 
 i Is.lx. 14. 
 
44 THE PAROCHIAL SYSTEM 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 THE MEASURE OF LIBERALITY AND SELF-DENIAL, DEMANDED 
 BY THE PRINCIPLES OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 So great are the blessings which may reasonably 
 be expected from the complete restoration of our 
 parochial system, that we must prepare ourselves 
 to hear men stigmatize the project itself as vi- 
 sionary and Utopian. It is thus that we often 
 reconcile ourselves to leave a great and good 
 work unattempted. We acknowledge its great- 
 ness, not that we may gather to it all our force, 
 but that we may discharge ourselves from the 
 necessity of making an effort. And we must 
 expect accordingly that men will reply to the 
 proposals contained in the last section, that 
 great blessings indeed might be expected if our 
 whole land were divided into parishes of a mode- 
 rate size, and if every such parish were provided 
 with its church and its resident minister, and with 
 the necessary institutions for the education of 
 the young, the instruction of the ignorant, and 
 the relief of the poor ; but that, as it is hopeless 
 that such provision should ever be made, we 
 must content ourselves with other expedients. 
 
NOT IMPOSSIBLE. 45 
 
 They will admit that some new churches ought 
 to be built, that some enormous parishes ought 
 to be divided, but they will denounce it as vi- 
 sionary, to propose operations so vast as are re- 
 quisite for the full developement of the parochial 
 system ; and therefore they have recourse to 
 other measures more or less beneficial and expe- 
 dient, but which must ever be wholly insufficient 
 to remedy the evil. 
 
 And is this really the case ? Is it hopeless 
 that we should carry out a series of measures 
 which would secure a blessing, and must we 
 content ourselves to abandon the mass of our city 
 population to the powers of darkness, and seek 
 only to snatch from them one here and another 
 there ? God forbid ! It were indeed visionary 
 to imagine that by any measures we could pro- 
 vide that all men should with a true and sincere 
 zeal discharge their several duties. No system 
 will make every Christian or every Clergyman a 
 man of faith and prayer, of self-denial and pa- 
 tient obedience ; for the evil ever were and ever 
 will be " mingled with the good," until the com- 
 ing of the Lord to judgment. But although 
 men will ever remain fallen and inconsistent, and 
 in every branch of the Church there will be 
 many unworthy members, it is possible that 
 systems may be ever approximating towards per- 
 fection; and the attempt to bring them continu- 
 ally nearer to it, instead of being visionary or 
 Utopian, results from a wise practical sense of 
 
 8 
 
46 THE PAROCHIAL SYSTEM 
 
 human frailty and imperfection. If men were 
 such as they should be, we might take less 
 pains in regulating things by the best systems. 
 Were every man endued with those wonderful 
 powers of calculation which have occasionally 
 existed, systems of arithmetic would be almost 
 superseded; and so too were every minister of 
 the Gospel a Paul or an Apollos, rules and su- 
 perintendence might perhaps be dispensed with ; 
 or, were all supplied with prodigious animal 
 strength and energy, we might leave our parishes 
 much larger than has been proposed, and trust 
 that they would receive all necessary care and 
 attention. But it is because men are what they, 
 are ; because the spirit itself is bowed down with 
 infirmity, and liable to the temptations of huma- 
 nity, to remissness and weariness and faintings ; 
 and because even where the spirit is willing the 
 flesh is weak ; that we are of necessity compelled 
 so to order matters as no longer to impose upon 
 them an amount of labour, which their moral and 
 physical powers are alike unable to support. 
 
 And why should we despair of effecting so ne- 
 cessary a work? Is it that men will not labour 
 for the good of their brethren? No; for in 
 every quarter of our land energy is displayed in 
 abundance, whenever a work of charity calls it 
 forth. Is it that they are unwilling to conform 
 their labours to the rules of the Church, and to 
 carry out and realize the parochial system ? Ra- 
 ther, when fairly appealed to, the laity have 
 
NOT IMPOSSIBLE. 47 
 
 been found eager to take their proper place, as 
 assistants to the ministers of God's word, in their 
 blessed work. What then is the hopeless ob- 
 stacle ? It is the expense. And yet it is not 
 that we want wealth amply sufficient ; for herein 
 God has blessed us beyond the example of any 
 former age. It is, that (in the opinion of the 
 objectors) men will not give what is required, 
 though they have it. It is admitted that thou- 
 sands, yea hundreds of thousands of our coun- 
 trymen are perishing around us men united to 
 us by every tie, who speak the same language, 
 are sprung from the same ancestors, many of 
 whom have actually fought with us and for us 
 against our common enemy who live under the 
 same laws with ourselves, and are liable to pu- 
 nishment if they invade our security or property, 
 whose labour we are daily using for our necessi- 
 ties, our comforts, our luxuries, " without whom 
 our cities could not be inhabited." These men 
 are perishing for ever on every side ; we acknow- 
 ledge that the evil admits of a remedy, that the 
 remedy is in our own power : and shall we in- 
 deed think it visionary to hope that it will be 
 applied? The question is (in a few words) whe- 
 ther or not we will be a Christian land whether 
 we will give up part of our money for the cause 
 of Christ, or will give up Christ for our money. 
 God and Mammon we cannot serve. Long ago 
 we were warned of the impossibility ; and now 
 the choice is offered to us whom we will serve ; 
 
48 THE PAROCHIAL SYSTEM 
 
 whether we will make our nation an excellency 
 upon the earth, a joy of many generations ; by 
 taking God at His word, receiving in faith what 
 He has spoken, and giving liberally to Him of 
 our worldly substance ; or whether we will cast 
 His words behind us, and trust to our silver and 
 gold for our private and national prosperity. 
 
 And is it visionary to expect that men will awake 
 to a sense of such responsibility, of interests so 
 enormous ? Surely although man's corruption be 
 strong, and although the world has mighty power, 
 yet the commands, and the promise, and the grace 
 of God, are mightier, and must prevail. When 
 He gave the word, the barren rock opened and 
 sent forth streams for the thirst of His people ; 
 and the power of that word is not diminished, 
 that it should not work marvels now as of old. 
 For moral miracles the time is never past. Neither 
 is it a new or unexampled work of grace for 
 which we ask : we have but to pray with the 
 prophet, " Awake, awake, put on strength, O 
 arm of the Lord ! awake as in the ancient days, 
 in the generations of old;" for our faith and 
 hope have the encouragement of experience, the 
 experience of ages, to the power of the grace of 
 God. Let us look through our own favoured 
 land, and where does the eye not meet the pa- 
 rish church, and all the blessed associations 
 which float around it? And once these were 
 not. Even if it should be thought that we still 
 need as many churches as already exist ; the de- 
 
NOT IMPOSSIBLE. 49 
 
 mand is only, that in an age of unexampled 
 wealth and luxury, men should give to God as 
 their fathers did out of their poverty. Let us 
 then take courage by the past, and address our- 
 selves to our own portion of the work ; thankful 
 that God has accounted us, as well as them, wor- 
 thy to be partakers of its blessedness. 
 
 But when we find men hesitating, and doubt- 
 ing what ought to be done, it can hardly be 
 questioned that they have estimated their actual 
 duties and responsibilities by a defective rule. 
 We have not, indeed, laid aside the Christian 
 name ; nay, we have hundreds and thousands 
 among us to whom that name is dearer than 
 " father or mother, brother or sister, wife or 
 children, houses or lands;" (God forbid that it 
 should be otherwise; or what would save our 
 guilty land from the fate of Sodom ?) and yet 
 can we believe that even they have sufficiently 
 considered their actual position and its duties ; 
 that they have devoted to this great work such a 
 measure of their substance, their time, their ta- 
 lents, and their influence : as the exigency of the 
 case requires, and the commands of God, and 
 the love of Christ, and the rewards of heaven, 
 ought to have engrossed ? 
 
 The amount of liberality which satisfies the 
 conscience of the mass of worthy and respectable 
 men, may easily be estimated. Out of the abun- 
 dance of the heart the mouth speaketh. We 
 need not inquire how great a man's private and 
 E 
 
50 MODERN LIBERALITY. 
 
 secret alms may be, when he tells us the stand- 
 ard at which he aims. Men too often fall short 
 of their acknowledged principles, but seldom ha- 
 bitually live above them. And we cannot min- 
 gle extensively in the society even of religious 
 men, without perceiving that it is their prin- 
 ciple that men should give to God and the poor, 
 as much as they can afford. It is held to be a 
 sufficient reason for withholding our hand, that 
 we have already given according to this measure. 
 In one sense, of course, the rule is both rational 
 and Christian. No man should give that which 
 is not in equity his own that which belongs to 
 his creditors, or is necessary for the due support 
 of his dependants or family; and if the words 
 were commonly used in this sense, all would be 
 well; but the fact is in general far otherwise. 
 Men mean not, they cannot give more without 
 encroaching upon other duties, and disregarding 
 the claims of justice and equity, but that if they 
 did, they would themselves feel the want of that 
 with which they parted. Their pleasures, their 
 appearance and equipage, their amusements, 
 must undergo some diminution ; if they devoted 
 more to God. In other words, it is their avowed 
 principle, that the measure of a man's charity 
 ought to be, that which he can give without self- 
 denial, without any sensible curtailment of his 
 own personal ease and comfort and pleasure. 
 The majority of men accordingly proportion 
 their establishment and expenditure to their in- 
 
MODERN LIBERALITY. 51 
 
 come ; and when any urgent call is made for 
 some contribution either to the bodily or spiritual 
 wants of their brethren, they measure their 
 bounty by the surplus which happens to remain. 
 Or if, with greater forethought, they apportion 
 beforehand a certain sum to meet these calls, 
 yet the proportion is determined on the same 
 principle it is that which remains when other 
 things have been provided for. It is one of the 
 contingencies which swell their yearly expendi- 
 ture, rather than an integral and considerable 
 part of the whole. 
 
 That this is no unjust account of the standard 
 of duty recognized by the majority of orderly, 
 respectable, and even religious men, is (as has 
 been observed) but too certainly proved by their 
 ordinary conversation ; there are however other 
 indications which confirm the judgment. How 
 often, for instance, when some reduction of expen- 
 diture appears to be necessary, does that reduc- 
 tion begin in an abridgment of accustomed cha- 
 rities. The saving is in general extremely small, 
 but the principle betrayed is momentous. For 
 in these cases a man's attention is first directed 
 to his least necessary expenses, to those which 
 have hitherto been continued, chiefly because 
 there was no great reason against them, to the 
 mere ornaments and superfluities in which wealth 
 has naturally tempted him to indulge. If then 
 his economy begins with a diminution of his 
 E 2 
 
52 MODERN LIBERALITY. 
 
 offerings to God and to the poor, it is because he 
 refers them to this head. 
 
 It is another unhealthy symptom, that so few 
 considerable works of piety or charity are under- 
 taken among us, except by some numerous so- 
 ciety. Innumerable small contributions unite to 
 swell the income of these associations to a mighty 
 tide which seems to carry all before it : and 
 this is well; may their funds increase fourfold, 
 how great soever they be. Yet even here is an 
 indication of the same mistaken principle. It 
 has become a common argument, in behalf of 
 our religious societies, that they ask of each a sum 
 so small that he will never miss it. And accord- 
 ingly, men whose income is counted by thou- 
 sands, content both themselves and those who 
 solicit their aid, when they give one or two or 
 five guineas yearly to an association, which con- 
 templates objects no less affecting and important 
 than the momentous interests of eternity. They 
 give professedly that which costs them nothing; 
 and then account themselves charitable. While 
 then we rejoice in the prosperity of these insti- 
 tutions, while we acknowledge with gratitude to 
 God the blessing which has often attended their 
 labours, and while we see their use in calling the 
 poorest to take a part in great and glorious deeds; 
 (for the poor would otherwise be excluded; and 
 to them there is no danger, for their least contri- 
 bution, if it be "two mites," must be the fruit of 
 
MODERN LIBERALITY. 53 
 
 sacrifice and self denial,) we must not shut our 
 eyes to the fact, that the subscription lists of our 
 societies both indicate and encourage the opinion, 
 that a man does enough when he gives that of 
 which he does not feel the want. Because a 
 mighty river results from the union of innumer- 
 able drops, therefore is it deemed enough that 
 each should afford but a drop out of the abun- 
 dance wherewith God has caused his cup to over- 
 flow. Far nobler and more Christian was the 
 temper of those ages, when these societies indeed, 
 of which we boast so loudly, were unknown ; but 
 when innumerable and most costly works arose, 
 each as the spontaneous offspring of some high 
 mind, the fruit of individual love, and gratitude, 
 and self-denial. 
 
 A more miserable developement of the same 
 vicious principle, is presented by our charity 
 sales, and charity amusements. These are de- 
 vices to effect the great results which are the 
 natural fruit of genuine self-denying Christian 
 beneficence, by means of our meagre and niggard 
 rule of giving that which we shall never miss. 
 As if to ensure the absence of self-denial, and to 
 poison more thoroughly the very fountains of 
 charity, we must be bribed to give to God even 
 that which we do not want. We have ceased to give 
 for the love of Christ, that we may learn, even 
 in devoting our substance to His Church and to 
 the poor, to be influenced by the love of worldly 
 pleasure. 
 
54 MODERN LIBERALITY. 
 
 And yet one step farther have we gone. 
 Having established the principle that charity 
 consists in giving without self-denial, without 
 sparing anything which we want; and finding 
 after all our expedients, that such a principle 
 will not supply all that is wanted ; we have now 
 set ourselves to devise methods of serving God 
 without any expense on our part at all. No 
 sooner are the urgent needs of their poor neigh- 
 bours pleaded, than men meet them, not with 
 liberal, large-hearted, self-denying donations of 
 that which is their own ; but with sordid, grovel- 
 ling, debasing calculations, how the evil may be 
 remedied by new-modelling one fund, and cre- 
 ating a surplus in another, and appropriating a 
 third. Insomuch that now it is scarcely pro- 
 posed or even treated as conceivable, that existing 
 evils should be remedied at our cost; but when 
 they have become intolerable, they are to be met 
 by laying our hands on the gifts devoted by our 
 ancestors to some other work of piety or charity. 
 Such is the result of giving only what we can 
 afford ; such is the fruit of our maxims ; they end 
 in SACRILEGE l . We must overthrow the founda- 
 
 1 The writer is aware that this is a strong term ; but he 
 does not know how to qualify it without suppressing the truth. 
 It is often urged that there is no sacrilege in confiscating the 
 gifts of our forefathers, if we apply them to other religious pur- 
 poses. He is unable however to perceive the distinction be- 
 tween confiscation to enrich ourselves, and confiscation that we 
 may not be obliged to spend. There is a vulgar proverb which 
 shows that English common sense has long ago decided, that a 
 
MODERN LIBERALITY. 55 
 
 tions made by our fathers at their own cost, for 
 which they toiled and laboured and denied them- 
 selves ; because there are other good works to 
 be done now, and we do not choose to sacrifice 
 anything for their accomplishment. We have suf- 
 fered a half-heathen population to arise among us, 
 for want of churches and parochial endowments, 
 and we hope to remedy the evil, by violating the 
 sanctity of those other endowments whereby men 
 who had carefully provided churches and ministers 
 for every portion of the existing population, 
 went on to secure the perpetual daily interces- 
 sions of the cathedrals, and the maintenance of a 
 learned clergy, who, secluded from the cares of 
 a parish might be, and have often been, the de- 
 saving however small is the same as so much gain. The only 
 reason for the confiscation of the cathedral property, for in- 
 stance, is that we may gain about 120,0002. per annum, to ex- 
 tend the parochial system, i. e. that we may save the necessity 
 of spending so much. This measure therefore is wholly different 
 in principle from the suppression of the monasteries and other 
 similar acts ; the cathedrals are to be suppressed, not because 
 they are deemed injurious or useless, but solely that we may 
 seize their property. In discussing a principle, the author of 
 course does not presume to censure those venerable prelates 
 who form the minority of the ecclesiastical commission ; 
 who are but instruments in the execution of a scheme, of which 
 the most distinguished among them has publicly expressed his 
 disapprobation ; (see the primary charge of the Lord Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury,) and for which another has declared 
 that they do not consider themselves responsible; as they 
 were appointed, not to consider whether it should take place, 
 but only to put it in execution. (See Letter of the Lord Bishop 
 of Lincoln to his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury.) 
 
56 MODERN LIBERALITY. 
 
 fenders of sound doctrine and the champions of 
 the Church. And again because numbers of our 
 parochial endowments are miserably small, there 
 are not wanting men, honest and respectable in 
 other parts of their conduct, men too of whom 
 we cannot but hope that they fear God, and de- 
 sire his favour ; who (having abundant wealth 
 and opportunities of setting the example by aug- 
 menting one or more of these endowments, and 
 securing at their own cost an adequate hire to 
 one labourer or more,) have deliberately proposed 
 plans for rectifying the abuse, by seizing, without 
 colour of justice or equity, the funds solemnly 
 devoted of old, not to the general purposes of 
 the Church, but to the benefit of the other speci- 
 fied parishes, with which the donors were con- 
 nected. They have thought it a sufficient de- 
 fence of such schemes, that the funds on which 
 they purpose to lay hands, are more liberal than 
 appears necessary to the economists of our day. 
 Nay, to crown the whole, such projects have often 
 found favour with the very men who are actually 
 holding and "nourishing their hearts 1 " day by 
 day upon the spoils of those parishes which they 
 propose to indemnify at the expense of others. 
 
 Such have been the results of our measure of 
 charity. By its fruits let it be known. Tried 
 by this rule ; can we think that we have even 
 been desiring to reach the mark proposed to us 
 
 1 St. James v. 5. 
 
THE DEMANDS OF THE 
 
 by our Lord? What our aim oughf^p -have ^ 
 been, must be determined by a more para^ig^ . 
 appeal to Holy Scripture. 
 
 And first : What is the true nature of pro- 
 perty? Let us hear the words of our Lord. 
 " A certain nobleman went into a far country to 
 receive for himself a kingdom and to return; 
 and he called his ten servants, and delivered 
 unto them ten pounds, and said unto them, 
 Occupy till I come. And it came to pass that 
 when he was returned, having received the king- 
 dom, then he commanded these servants to be 
 brought unto him, to whom he had given the 
 money, that he might know how much every 
 man had gained by trading V It need not be 
 said, that although worldly property is not ex- 
 clusively represented here, it is certainly one of 
 those talents which we are thus to hold for a 
 while, not as our own or given to us by God, as 
 we are wont to say, but as His still, and only 
 entrusted to our care and stewardship for a 
 while, as part of our moral trial and discipline, 
 to show whether we will be faithful to our trust 
 or not. So that property ought not to be 
 accounted a gift of God in the common sense of 
 the word, but rather a species of office, with 
 which some of His servants are put in charge, as 
 others are entrusted with the ministry of the 
 word, and others with political or sovereign 
 
 1 St. Luke xix. 12. 
 
58 THE DEMANDS 
 
 power. And yet so it is, that while we see how 
 awful it is for a bishop or a priest to regard his 
 sacred office as given him for his own sake, and 
 to employ it wholly or chiefly for his own ad- 
 vancement; and while we justly maintain that 
 kings and rulers are but God's " ministers," and 
 knowing that they are so, are bound "above 
 all things to seek his honour and glory;" we 
 have come to regard property as in some respect 
 different, as something belonging of right to its 
 owner, and with which he has a right to do what 
 he will, without forfeiting his Christian character. 
 And so long as a man gives some little portion 
 to God, like a quit-rent in acknowledgment of 
 an obsolete claim, we regard the remainder as 
 fairly his own. Who would not be shocked to 
 hear a bishop speak of his office, in the tone 
 adopted, even by religious men, in speaking of 
 their property, their money, their houses, and 
 their lands ? 
 
 One of the parables of our blessed Master has 
 been cited ; a like lesson is taught even more 
 directly in that of the unjust steward. For in 
 this instance, our Lord Himself specifically 
 makes the application, and marks that it is 
 worldly property which forms the subject of our 
 stewardship. " I say unto you, make to your- 
 selves friends of the mammon of unrighteous- 
 ness, that when ye fail they may receive you 
 into everlasting habitations. He that is faithful 
 in that which is least, is faithful also in much ; 
 
OF THE GOSPEL. 59 
 
 and he that is unjust in the least, is unjust also 
 in much. If therefore ye have not been faith- 
 ful in the unrighteous mammon, who will com- 
 mit to your trust the true riches? And if ye 
 have not been faithful in that which is another's 1 , 
 who shall give you that which is your own 2 ." 
 Can words more plainly describe the nature of 
 worldly property in the sight of God. " The 
 trust committed" to our "stewardship;" in the 
 management of which "fidelity" is required, (not 
 merely prudence or gratitude to the donor, as if 
 it had become our own now that it is given,) 
 which is still " another's, not our own ;" and 
 which we are to use " faithfully," in the hope of 
 receiving hereafter " the true riches which shall 
 be our own," even "an inheritance incorruptible 
 arid undefiled, and that fadeth not away." Let 
 us, then, carry with us this notion of a steward- 
 ship, to assist us in our inquiry as to the true 
 measure of Christian bounty. 
 
 If property be a trust, then before we deter- 
 mine how it can be used faithfully, we must 
 inquire, what are the terms of the trust-deed 
 for what purposes and objects we are trustees ? 
 The first question of a scrupulous mind, when it 
 grasps the full magnitude of this thought, is, 
 whether we are justified in using any property 
 for ourselves, in having greater comforts than 
 the poor around us, better houses, better cloth- 
 ing, better food, than the poor members of 
 
 2 St. Luke xvi. 9. 
 
60 THE DEMANDS 
 
 Christ's body who are the objects of our charity. 
 For if we hold all that we have in trust, for our 
 Lord, for them, and for ourselves, are we at 
 liberty to spend more in providing for our own 
 wants than for those of any other individual? 
 Scripture enables us to answer the question. 
 For if this were not allowable, there would no 
 longer be any distinction of rich and poor among 
 Christians, and property itself would be prac- 
 tically at an end. But our Lord has declared, 
 that the poor shall be always with us, and so 
 allows of such distinctions : and the practice 
 alike of apostolic and of primitive times forms 
 a comment upon his words. St. Paul certainly 
 considered it no part of the Christian duty of 
 Philemon to abandon the superiority of worldly 
 position which he enjoyed ; and when directing 
 with the authority of inspiration, that every man 
 should " abide in the same calling wherein he 
 was called," he seems to sanction the gradations 
 of society which have ever existed. The terms 
 of our trust, then, as collected from God's word, 
 (and the New Testament is no code of rules, 
 but a law of liberty to be carefully studied, and 
 sincerely loved and followed,) seems to be well 
 summed up in the counsel of a great divine. 
 66 Whatsoever is superfluous in thy estate, is to 
 be dispensed in alms. He that hath two coats 
 must give to him that hath none ; that is, he 
 that hath beyond his need, must give that which 
 is beyond it. Only among needs, we are to 
 
OF THE GOSPEL. 61 
 
 reckon not only what will support our life, but 
 also what will maintain the decency of our 
 estate and person ; not only in present needs, 
 but in all future necessities, and very probable 
 contingencies, but no farther. We are not 
 obliged beyond this 1 ." Thus then we must hold 
 our property. But surely there is nothing in 
 all this which authorizes us to spend it as we 
 please ; and it is the plain duty and wisdom of 
 every man to whom any measure of it is in- 
 trusted, to sit down and count the cost ; to esti- 
 mate deliberately, after much consideration and 
 earnest prayer, the proportions into which it 
 ought to be divided ; not to provide first for 
 every thing else, and then to offer the remainder 
 to his God and Saviour. 
 
 And that the measure thus devoted to God 
 should be very much greater than we are 
 ready to suppose, is no less certain. Let us 
 hear the words of our Master. We are the dis- 
 ciples of the same Lord who said, to an innu- 
 merable multitude that followed Him, " If any 
 man will come after Me, and hate not his father 
 and mother, and wife, and children, and bre- 
 thren, and sisters, yea and his own life also, he 
 cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth 
 not bear his cross, and come after Me, cannot be 
 my disciple. For which of you intending to 
 build a tower, sitteth not down first and count- 
 eth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish 
 1 Jer. Taylor, Holy Living, ch. iv. sect. 8. 
 
62 THE DEMANDS 
 
 it ; lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation 
 and is not able to finish it, all that behold it 
 begin to mock him, saying, This man began 
 to build, and was not able to finish. So like- 
 wise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not 
 all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple." 
 And again, to the rich man who came unto Him, 
 " If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou 
 hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have 
 treasure in heaven ; and come take up the cross 
 and follow Me." Can we call Him Master and 
 Lord, who spake thus, and yet live as we do? 
 How do His words reprove us, " Why call ye Me 
 Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?" 
 For although He does not require of every dis- 
 ciple the exact sacrifice which He demanded of 
 the young ruler, yet beyond all question, as He 
 is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, He 
 requires of all who will follow Him, now as then, 
 some sacrifice of the world and worldly goods. 
 We are too ready to limit to the days of our 
 Lord's personal ministry, such parts of His 
 teaching as bear hard on our self-indulgence, 
 and luxury, and worldliness. We have dis- 
 covered that in time of persecution, riches were 
 a continual snare and temptation to apostasy, 
 and that with the danger from Jews and hea- 
 thens, the danger of riches too is gone by, and 
 the need of forsaking them : as if riches were 
 less likely to produce worldliness of heart in a 
 time of peace, than open apostasy in days of 
 
OF THE GOSPEL. 63 
 
 danger ; as if at this very hour there were not 
 thousands among us, who worship gold with an 
 idolatry as gross as that of the most wretched 
 apostate that ever bowed down to the gods of the 
 nations; only the modern idolater is in danger 
 far more imminent; because he knows it not, 
 and calls himself Christian, and frequents the 
 Church, and draws near to the Holy Commu- 
 nion, and is respected by his neighbours, and 
 accounts himself a religious man, until he sinks 
 at once and for ever into the pit of destruc- 
 tion. And then we proceed to show, that in 
 the beginning of the Gospel there was need of 
 greater sacrifices ; that the mass of the con- 
 verts was poor, and that a greater burden was 
 in consequence thrown upon the rich few ; as 
 if there had ever been a time when sacrifice 
 was so much demanded as it is now, if it be 
 indeed true, as we have seeny that there are 
 hundreds of thousands of our countrymen, 
 perishing in sin and ignorance of Christ and 
 His Gospel ; and that the cost alone forbids 
 us to give to each his parish Church, and to ap- 
 point for each a minister to watch for his soul. 
 Men acknowledge that for every piece of gold 
 expended we may hope, by God's blessing, to 
 know hereafter of some soul snatched from the 
 very jaws of death ; and they tell us that it is 
 hopeless that we should obtain the necessary 
 funds; and yet they go on to say, that self- 
 denial and the abandonment of this world's goods 
 
64 THE DEMANDS 
 
 for Christ, is less necessary now than of old ! 
 But, in truth, we are wrong in principle when 
 we attempt to estimate thus the necessity of 
 abandoning the world for Christ. It was not for 
 the sake of his riches, but for his own that He 
 bade the young ruler to go and sell that he had. 
 He sought not his but him. He required of 
 him to forsake his property, that He might be 
 able to give him treasure in heaven. Surely it 
 were impious to deem otherwise. For if He had 
 so willed, all the treasures of the world might 
 in a moment have been before Him, to whom 
 they appertained as their Creator. But He 
 would save the soul of His creature whom " He 
 loved," and for whom He had come down from 
 heaven, and for whom He was about to die ; and 
 therefore He commanded him to sell all, because 
 He knew " how hardly shall they that .have 
 riches enter into the kingdom of GOD," and that 
 " it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of 
 a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the 
 kingdom of GOD." And for the same cause He 
 accepts and demands our worldly goods from us. 
 We have too long accustomed ourselves to think 
 of money, given for Christ's sake, as a benefit 
 only to those on whom it is bestowed. When, 
 indeed, men give only that which they do not 
 want, such no doubt is the case ; but in giving 
 freely, bountifully, largely, for Christ's sake, it is 
 far otherwise. Then the blessing to the receiver 
 is but a faint image and reflection of that which is 
 1 
 
OF THE GOSPEL. 65 
 
 poured out an hundredfold upon the giver; se- 
 cured to him by the promise of Him who cannot 
 lie, and who said, " It is more blessed to give 
 than to receive." He measures the gifts which 
 we offer for His sake, not by their magnitude in 
 man's sight, but by the cost to ourselves, and the 
 self-denial which they require; for when He 
 stood of old by His Father's home, and " saw 
 the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury, 
 and saw also a certain poor widow casting in 
 thither two mites, He said : Of a truth I say 
 unto you that this poor widow hath cast in more 
 than they all. For all these have of their abund- 
 ance cast in unto the offering of GOD, but she of 
 her penury hath cast in all the living that she 
 had." A small thing, given with much difficulty, 
 is certainly more to the giver, and being more 
 highly esteemed by Christ, it may probably do 
 more in His cause, than large sums given care- 
 lessly out of a great abundance. For He, with- 
 out whose blessing our gold and silver is but 
 dross, may (if He please) command the most 
 abundant blessing upon that offering which He 
 most highly approves, and which hereafter He 
 will most abundantly repay. 
 
 Such are the demands of our Lord. He warns 
 us that if we will come after Him we must take 
 up the cross, must hate all that we have ; and, 
 as a proof that we do so, must give thereof 
 liberally and cheerfully for His sake ; and as He 
 demands all this for our sake not His own, He 
 
 F 
 
66 THE DANGER 
 
 measures by the cost and sacrifice to ourselves 
 the value and greatness of our offerings. And 
 He tells us in mercy why He does so, because 
 riches are so great a snare that it is only by a 
 miracle of grace that any man who has them can 
 be saved. Saved, indeed, he may be, because 
 GOD can do all things, but otherwise it were im- 
 possible. Solemn thought, to all who have any 
 measure of good things in this present world. 
 Surely we do not lay it to heart as we should. 
 We know that He said : " it is easier for a camel 
 to go through the eye of a needle, than for a 
 rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven ;" 
 but this does not alarm us, because He said again : 
 " how hard it is for those that trust in riches to 
 enter into the kingdom of heaven." As if by the 
 second declaration He intended to retract the 
 first ; as if His words were yea and nay, who is 
 Truth itself, " and who came into the world to 
 bear witness to the truth." Rather He purposed 
 to teach us wherein consists the hardness of a 
 rich man's salvation; that if he trust in his 
 riches he cannot be saved, and that nothing in 
 the world is so hard as to have them without 
 trusting in them. We may take comfort assuredly 
 from His explanation of His own words if we 
 do not trust in riches, but that very explanation 
 should teach us most jealously to watch and sus- 
 pect ourselves lest we should do so. For " he 
 that trusteth to his own heart is a fool;" and 
 who can trust it more implicitly, than the man 
 
OF RICHES. 67 
 
 who readily receives its testimony that he has 
 attained a grace which our Blessed Master de- 
 scribes as so difficult and so rare ? 
 
 But surely, on the ordinary principles even of 
 religious men, the danger of riches cannot be so 
 great and imminent. From all grosser tempta- 
 tions they rather exempt us. We can under- 
 stand one part of the prayer of Agur, " give me 
 not poverty, lest I be poor and steal, and take 
 the name of my GOD in vain ;" but where is the 
 corresponding danger of abundance ? Do not 
 the rich throng our churches and our public 
 meetings ? Are they not amiable, kindhearted, 
 and liberal ? Is not a profession of religion very 
 widely spread among them ? and do we not 
 generally find among them such a knowledge of 
 the Gospel of Christ, that when we speak in 
 common language of " the religious world," we 
 mean almost exclusively certain portions of the 
 middle and higher classes ? All this is unques- 
 tionable, and yet our LORD'S words cannot be 
 made void. " It is easier for a camel to pass 
 through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man 
 to enter into the kingdom of GOD." And it is 
 because a certain measure of religion is so easy 
 to the rich, and yet it is so difficult for them to 
 be Christians indeed ; it is, in other words, be- 
 cause there is so much room for self-deceit, that 
 whoever has any measure of this world's goods 
 should be doubly jealous, lest by any means he 
 should lose himself. And surely, if he is not 
 r2 
 
H8 THE DANGER 
 
 conscious that liis riches have ever been any great 
 temptation to him if he can remember no 
 struggle and contest, in which Satan strove to 
 beguile him by means of them if he does not 
 distinctly know and feel what the danger of 
 riches is ; as one who has recovered from some 
 dreadful malady can realize the true nature and 
 misery of sickness ; he has but too much reason 
 to conclude, that " a deceived heart hath turned 
 him aside," that "the deceitfulness of riches" 
 has beguiled him, that he knows not the contest 
 because he is an unresisting captive. For if the 
 danger be so great, the temptation so overpower- 
 ing, how shall a man flatter himself that he has 
 encountered and overcome it without being 
 aware that he has done so ? " When a strong 
 man armed keepeth his house his goods are at 
 peace ;" such is the peace of him who has never 
 felt the power of this world's riches, because he 
 never resisted it. 
 
 If we examine the nature of that special 
 temptation which accompanies wealth, we shall 
 less wonder at its insinuating and treacherous 
 power. Agur prays, " give me not riches, lest 
 I be full and deny Thee, and say, Who is the 
 LORD ?" This open impiety is but the full de- 
 velopement of the mental habit of " trusting in 
 riches ;" and it is a temptation under the power 
 of which hundreds have fallen who continue to 
 call Christ their Master and LORD. A man 
 trusts in riches, when they are more or less the 
 
OF RICHES. 69 
 
 ground and foundation of his hope and security. 
 We cannot but see that the majority of amiable 
 domestic religious persons, in the middle and 
 higher classes of society, are without fear and 
 anxiety concerning their daily support. This is 
 right ; a Christian should not be careful for such 
 things. But now why are they secure ? Is it 
 because Christ has promised, i6 seek ye first the 
 kingdom of GOD and His righteousness, and all 
 these things shall be added unto you;" and, 
 " your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have 
 need of these things ;" because they know, that 
 " He who spared not His own Son, but delivered 
 Him up for us all," will " with Him also freely 
 give us all things;" that to HIM who died for 
 them, all power is given in heaven and earth, so 
 that neither earth nor hell can hurt them but by 
 His permission ? If so, happy are they, for they 
 trust in GOD, not in riches. Or, on the other 
 hand, is it because they have much goods laid 
 up in store for many years ? because they have 
 houses and lands, gold and silver ; and they 
 know that although the value of these things may 
 be diminished, yet, according to the course of 
 nature and the order of society, they can hardly 
 be so much reduced as to bring them within the 
 reach of want? If so, they " trust in riches," 
 their wealth is the real reason of their security and 
 contentment : it does that for them which a filial 
 confidence in GOD, and a prevailing love for 
 Christ ought to do, and will do where they exist. 
 
70 THE DANGER 
 
 Here is a test which each may apply to his 
 own heart: yet while we may not judge indivi- 
 duals among our brethren, there are indications 
 which give us much cause to fear that a worldly 
 confidence in riches is too prevalent, even among 
 those who believe that all their trust is in God. 
 For if their substance is liable to be affected 
 by the vicissitudes of commerce, and if some 
 untoward position of affairs throws their all 
 into sudden danger; if revolutions and wars, 
 and distress of nations with perplexity should 
 arise to shake the foundations of all property, 
 however secured by houses and lands, and the 
 stability of law and the sacredness of deeds ; 
 then do we not see the same persons too often 
 without confidence, almost without hope, and not 
 knowing whither to betake themselves? And 
 why? except because their former trust has 
 been in the multitude of their riches. For if their 
 hope had been founded upon the Rock of ages, 
 it could not have been shaken by the storms and 
 agitations of the world. 
 
 It is difficult for any man to understand the 
 reality and power of trust in God, and the great 
 obstacle which the possession of worldly riches 
 opposes to it; except he be in the habit of hold- 
 ing intercourse and society with the pious poor. 
 This is one part of the blessing which attends 
 the " visiting of the fatherless and widows in 
 their affliction ;" and finding out for ourselves, in 
 lanes and alleys and cottages, yea in poorhouses 
 
OF RICHES. 71 
 
 and prisons, the sick and afflicted members of 
 our Lord's body. " If we converse in hospitals 
 and almshouses, and minister with our own hand 
 what our heart hath first decreed, we shall find 
 our hearts endeared and made familiar with the 
 needs and with the persons of the poor, those 
 excellent images of Christ." And assuredly 
 there is no one who habitually practises this 
 duty, without finding in it its own reward. He 
 will find " the poor rich in faith," living from 
 day to day, without store Vrf this world's goods, 
 on what may seem the casual chance of obtain- 
 ing employment, not knowing literally how the 
 necessities of the next week are to be supplied, 
 nay sometimes almost finishing their last loaf, and 
 not able to tell whence the next is to come; and 
 yet with all this, calm and contented, happy and 
 cheerful, knowing that theirs is an inexhaustible 
 store, even the store of His possessions whose 
 are all things in heaven and in earth and under 
 the earth ; living upon His promise, which they 
 trust, because He has spoken it, and because 
 they have long ago by experience proved its 
 truth, and know that all needful things have ever 
 been added unto them, and are confident that 
 they ever will. Such is the faith of many a wi- 
 dow and orphan among the poor. And where 
 else is it to be found ? Even among those who 
 trace all their worldly comforts to God's bounti- 
 ful hand, and acknowledge them continually as 
 His gift, is not the gift too often the object of 
 
72 THE DANGER 
 
 that trust which ought to rest upon the Giver ? 
 and both in the confidence of their prosperity, 
 and the anxiety of their adversity, do they not ful- 
 fil the words of the Psalmist, " In my prosperity, 
 I said I shall never be removed. Thou, Lord, 
 of thy goodness hast made my hill so strong. 
 Thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled ?" 
 Their faith and hope are not ready to wait upon 
 " a God that hideth Himself," because they have 
 never understood and realized the full meaning 
 of that prayer, Give us this day our daily bread. 
 
 And be it observed, that this danger from the 
 deceitfulness of riches is by no means confined to 
 the case of those who are lords of sea and land, 
 and whose yearly revenues are counted by thou- 
 sands or tens of thousands. That it cannot be 
 so is evident enough from the condition of those 
 to whom our Lord addressed Himself : they were 
 poor fishermen, who would naturally regard as 
 rich any man who had a fixed and certain in- 
 come, which placed him above the necessity of 
 daily labour, and the uncertainty which attends 
 poverty. It is plain again, from the very nature 
 of the danger; for the man who has thousands 
 yearly differs from him who has hundreds, rather 
 in the magnitude of his establishments and the 
 number of his dependants, than in the security 
 with which he holds his possessions as his own. 
 The temptation to trust in riches accordingly, 
 and to lean on the world, not on God, applies, 
 almost in equal measure, to each. 
 
OF RICHES. 73 
 
 Such being the snares and temptations of this 
 world's wealth, and our insensibility with regard 
 to them, it is of. His great mercy that our Hea- 
 venly Father teaches us from time to time our 
 dependance upon Him, by the heavy chastise- 
 ment of His hand. Sometimes by loss of f pro- 
 perty, and yet more frequently by bodily sick- 
 ness and pain, or by anxiety and care for those 
 whom we love, or by bitter sorrow over their 
 graves, He teaches us that riches are a broken 
 reed, on which if we lean we shall assuredly be 
 pierced through with many sorrows. And here- 
 by He shows the abundance of His long-suffering 
 towards us, and His love, " which will not let 
 the sinner lose his soul at ease." For this cause 
 it may probably be, that when He permits that 
 we should be tried by some great accession of 
 this world's goods, He so often sends with them 
 some deeply piercing sorrow, the messenger of 
 His mercy, to humble us and to prove us, that 
 He may do us good at the latter end. But if we 
 would render such loving correction needless 
 (and " He doth not willingly afflict"), or if we 
 would secure that which is perhaps a still greater 
 blessing, the full fruit and benefit of the wounds 
 left by His pruning hands; then must we betake 
 ourselves to that which is the appropriate re- 
 medy, the appointed antidote against the deceit- 
 fulness of riches ; and this is abundant, liberal, 
 self-denying devotion of our worldly substance 
 to Christ's service and the benefit of the poor. 
 
74 THE DANGER 
 
 This is the appointed antidote ; because it is the 
 only act by which we can practise the blessed 
 habit of dependance upon God, and such habits 
 grow up and are strengthened and matured by 
 acts, and not merely by feelings or by wishes. 
 When by His grace we accustom ourselves to 
 act as if His favour was our only sure and solid 
 happiness, and all worldly things vain and trea- 
 cherous, as indeed they are, then we cultivate 
 the habit of trusting in Him, and not in them, 
 for our happiness and our treasure. This it was 
 that the young ruler lacked. He trusted in 
 riches, and therefore could not follow Christ. 
 In love then, not in severity, He bade him " Go 
 sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and 
 thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come, 
 take up the cross, and follow Me." He de- 
 sired to lighten him of a load which was pressing 
 him to hell ; and knowing all hearts, He saw 
 doubtless that no smaller sacrifice would suffice 
 to wean him from the love of riches, to destroy 
 his trust in them, and to teach him to trust in 
 God in His providence and His bounty, " who 
 giveth to the beast his food, and feedeth the 
 young ravens that call upon Him." And who- 
 ever there be who knows the effect of riches in 
 hardening the heart, and how often they become 
 our hope, and usurp the place of our God ; and 
 who, knowing this, has a holy fear and jealousy 
 for himself, lest he too come short of the glory 
 of God, let him thank God that the remedy 
 
OF RICHES. 75 
 
 proposed by Christ to this man is in his own 
 power. Now as then, a man may, if he will, 
 give up his worldly substance for his Lord. 
 Whoever then sees reason to fear that he has 
 suffered, or is likely to suffer, by the deceitful- 
 ness of riches, let him try the power of this re- 
 medy, let him give largely, profusely, to the 
 utmost limits of prudence, beyond those limits, 
 to his own impoverishment if need be, rather 
 than be contented to trust in riches, and so lose 
 his portion in Christ. Yea, if he should even 
 give all that he hath (although this would very 
 frequently be attended with some neglect of 
 duty, and therefore not being according to God's 
 will, would not be salutary to our own souls), 
 yet if he should have reason to think even this 
 sacrifice necessary, how much more wisely and 
 prudently would he act, than do those who take 
 this young ruler for their example, who are ami- 
 able, affectionate, kind-hearted, exemplary in 
 social duties, and who come running and kneel- 
 ing to Christ, but who fail in the one point of 
 trial, who trust in their riches, who cannot bring 
 themselves to give them up for Him, and so, 
 alas ! are not worthy of Him. 
 
 Herein, then, the rule of charity proposed by 
 our Lord is opposed to that commonly adopted ; 
 it regards the giver, and demands of him some- 
 thing, whether great or small, which shall be to 
 him a real sacrifice and self-denial; and this it 
 demands for the love of Christ, and for the be- 
 
76 THE MOTIVE TO 
 
 nefit of our own souls, and that we may not de- 
 ceive ourselves with idle professions, and trust 
 in our worldly goods, while we say and think 
 that we trust in God through Christ. But we, 
 on the other hand, have learned to think, that if 
 works of piety or charity be done, it is enough ; 
 and therefore we would allure men to give, by 
 contrivances which shall make it easy ; by divid- 
 ing the work between so many, that it shall cost 
 nothing to each ; by beguiling them of their 
 money through charity sales and charity balls 
 and concerts ; and above all we would lay our 
 hands even on that which is not our own, and 
 give to God that which we have sacrilegiously 
 wrested from its sworn defenders. 
 
 Surely when both are presented to our view, 
 there is something in the charity of the world so 
 poor and mean and contemptible, and something 
 in the law of Christ so noble and pure and ex- 
 alted, that our hearts cannot but burn within us, 
 with an earnest longing to cast in our lot with 
 Him, to be partakers with Him in His sorrow 
 and His joy, in His poverty and in His glory. But 
 here is the obstacle; the cross must be taken up, 
 our own wishes denied, the world cast behind 
 us. And shall we (like the young ruler) leave 
 Him and go away sorrowful, to try whether our 
 possessions can comfort us? Shall we be of 
 those, who " seek excuses to withhold them- 
 selves from the favour of GOD, and choose with 
 pinching covetousness rather to lean unto the 
 
CHRISTIAN LIBERALITY. 77 
 
 devil, than by charitable mercifulness either to 
 come unto Christ, or to suffer Christ to come 
 unto them 1 ?" God forbid! Let us rather 
 lift up our hearts and eyes to Him who has 
 gone before us, and as " our forerunner is 
 entered in for us within the veil;" and then 
 surely we shall have neither thought nor sight 
 for the paltry treasures of this fleeting world. 
 For when He calls us to deny ourselves for our 
 brethren, when He bids us take up the cross, and 
 forsake the world, He but bids us follow in His 
 own steps, and go where He has gone before us. 
 " It is reported in the Bohemian story, that St. 
 Winceslaus, their king, one winter night going 
 to his devotions in a remote church, barefooted in 
 the snow, and sharpness of unequal and pointed 
 ice, his servant, who waited upon his master's 
 piety, and endeavoured to imitate his affec- 
 tions, began to faint through the violence of the 
 snow and cold; till the king commanded him 
 to follow him, and set his feet in the same foot- 
 steps which his feet should mark for him. The 
 servant did so, and either fancied a cure or 
 found one, for he followed his prince; helped 
 forward, with shame and zeal to his imitation, 
 and by the forming footsteps for him in the 
 snow. In the same manner does the blessed 
 Jesus; for since our way is troublesome, ob- 
 scure, full of objection and danger, apt to be 
 
 1 Homily of Alms-Deeds. Part III. 
 
78 THE MOTIVE TO 
 
 mistaken, and to affright our industry ; He com- 
 mands us to mark His footsteps, to tread where 
 His feet have stood; and not only invites us 
 forward by the argument of His example, but 
 He hath trodden down much of the difficulty, 
 and made the way easier and fit for our feet. 
 For He knows our infirmities, and Himself hath 
 felt their experience in all things but in the 
 neighbourhoods of sin. And therefore He hath 
 proportioned a way and a path to our strengths 
 and capacities V " He hath left us a pattern 
 that we should tread in His steps," for " he that 
 saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to 
 walk even as He walked." The path wherein we 
 must walk has been pressed by His sacred feet ; 
 we are called thither for our own sake ; " that 
 we may be partakers of his holiness :" that we 
 may hereafter reign with Him in glory : but 
 He trod it not for Himself, but for us ; because 
 He loved us, and had compassion on us in our 
 low estate, and chose rather to leave His 
 Father's throne, and live, and suffer, and die 
 for us, than that we should perish in our sins. 
 And now He bids us follow for the sake of His 
 love who has thus loved us. He sends to us 
 our poor brethren in His own name, and en- 
 gages that whatever we lay out on them He 
 will repay, " to whom we owe even our own- 
 selves also:" that He will account it to be 
 
 1 J. Taylor. " Exhortation to the Imitation of the Life of 
 Christ." Great Exemplar. Part I. sec. i. 
 
CHRISTIAN LIBERALITY. 79 
 
 given, not to them, but to Himself. Let the 
 love of Christ then constrain us to deny our- 
 selves for the benefit of our brethren. "If 
 GOD so loved us, we ought also to love one 
 another." Let us measure our charity by 
 this rule, and then, by His grace, we shall 
 never be weary in well doing. He who, for 
 our salvation, came down from heaven to 
 earth, from the throne of the universe to the 
 cross and the sepulchre He it is who now 
 demands that we should give up something, to 
 be fellow workers with Him in the salvation of 
 our brethren. And can we hesitate ; when we 
 see in the ignorant and thoughtless ones around 
 us; in those who have never even been told 
 how they ought to walk and to please GOD, and 
 so cannot so much as desire or endeavour " to 
 walk worthy of the Lord," "worthy of their 
 high calling in Him;" when we see in them 
 the purchase of Christ's blood, and when He 
 calls us as we love Him, and as we remember 
 His bitter cross and passion, which are our only 
 hope against the great and dreadful day, to give 
 up something for their sake can we hesitate to 
 obey the call? 
 
 Such is the great and overwhelming motive 
 to Christian beneficence. It is summed up in 
 the words of the beloved Apostle, " We love 
 Him because He first loved us." And because 
 we love Him, therefore we would not, if we 
 could, make an offering to Him of that which 
 
80 THE MOTIVE TO 
 
 cost us nothing. When He, whose are all 
 things, condescends to demand an offering at 
 our hands not that He needs anything, (for in 
 a moment, by a word of His mouth, He could 
 raise houses of prayer from the dust, as He 
 called this world out of nothing to be the 
 theatre of His glory) but because He loves us 
 and desires for us the blessed opportunity of 
 giving up something to Him : and when He 
 makes our bounty to our brethren the measure 
 of our love towards Himself: and when He says 
 to us " freely ye have received, freely give" 
 " For I have set you an example that ye 
 should do as I have done unto you" what 
 answer shall we make to Him ? Shall we say, 
 we must first take care of ourselves arid our 
 families, our comforts, and luxuries, and plea- 
 sures, our appearance before the world, our 
 settled tastes and passing fancies; provision 
 must first be made for all these, and then from 
 the remainder, if any thing is left, I will spare 
 something to my Saviour? Is it thus that we 
 deal with those whom we do really and earnestly 
 love? A father, whose son requires a costly 
 education how does he make his calculations ? 
 Does he thus shift off the burden, and provide 
 first for every thing else, and give to the educa- 
 tion of his child only that which he does not 
 want? Rather does he enquire in the first 
 place how much is requisite for the object; and 
 then sets himself, with an affectionate severity? 
 1 
 
CHRISTIAN LIBERALITY. 81 
 
 to contrive what he can by any means retrench 
 from his superfluities, his pleasures, his comforts, 
 in order to effect it. And he judges well. 
 These are the wholesome fruits of parental love. 
 And now He who died for us, and who tells us, 
 " He that loveth father or mother more than Me 
 is not worthy of Me ; and he that loveth son or 
 daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me ; 
 and he that doth not take up his cross and come 
 after Me is not worthy of Me :" He requires like 
 proofs of our love. Shall we do less for Him ? 
 And if we are ready to say that we do these 
 things for our children because they are our 
 own, our immediate concern ; but that the ser- 
 vice of our Lord belongs to all of us alike : let 
 us consider how great joy it will be one day to 
 have Him for our own Saviour, and that He 
 should acknowledge us before His Father and 
 the holy angels as His own people and His own 
 friends; and then let us act as if we are His 
 and He ours now. 
 
 And whatever be our means and whatever our 
 opportunities of giving, if we are filled with an 
 holy desire of kindling in our hearts, and putting 
 in action true love towards Him, we cannot be 
 without the opportunity. For we have seen 
 that He estimates offerings, not as they appear 
 in man's sight, but according to the principle 
 from which they spring, and the love towards 
 Him, of which self denial that we may have 
 to give is the fruit and sign. The small gifts 
 
82 THE MOTIVE TO 
 
 of the poor are great in His eyes, if they spring 
 from love; the great gifts of the rich too are 
 multiplied in like manner, when they flow from 
 that fountain. "If thou doest what thou art 
 able, be it little or great, corporeal or spiritual, 
 the charity of alms or the charity of prayers, a 
 cup of wine or a cup of water; if it be but love 
 to the brethren, and a desire to help all or any 
 of Christ's poor, it shall be accepted according 
 to what a man hath, not according to what he 
 hath not. For love is all this and all other 
 commandments, and it will express itself where 
 it can ; and where it cannot, yet it is love still, 
 and is also sorry that it cannot 1 ." 
 
 Lastly, whether we can give little or much, 
 giving from the love of Christ our Lord, we 
 shall give joyfully and with overflowing hearts. 
 For love delights to offer something of her own ; 
 knowing that for love's sake it will be accepted. 
 A dutiful child will carefully and joyfully watch 
 the opening of the earliest flower, for the plea- 
 sure of offering it to a beloved parent ; not for 
 the value of the gift, but because where love is 
 it cannot but show itself. Such will be our 
 delight in ministering to our Lord. And here 
 again we see how unchristian are our schemes 
 when we would provide for the service of GOD 
 now by overthrowing that which our fathers have 
 built up for His glory we deprive ourselves of 
 the opportunity of showing love to Christ. One 
 
 1 Jeremy Taylor," Holy Living," chap. iv. sec. 8. 
 
CHRISTIAN LIBERALITY. 83 
 
 Church built or endowed at our own cost will 
 rejoice our hearts far more than fifty provided 
 by the plunder of our Cathedrals ; for the one 
 is a monument of love, the other of niggard 
 selfishness. When Solomon and all the people 
 had dedicated the house of the Lord, "he sent 
 the people away, and they blessed the king and 
 went unto their tents joyful and glad of heart 
 for all the goodness that the Lord had done for 
 David His servant, and for Israel His people 1 :" 
 and why did they thus rejoice? Let us hear 
 the man after God's own heart 2 . " The work is 
 great, for the palace is riot for man but for the 
 Lord GOD. Now I have prepared with all my 
 might for the house of my GOD, the gold for 
 things to be made of gold, and the silver for 
 things of silver, and wood for things of wood ; 
 onyx stones and stones to be set, glistering 
 stones, and of divers colours, and all manner 
 of precious stones, and marble stones in abund- 
 ance. Moreover, because I have set my affection 
 to the house of my God, i HAVE OF MINE OWN 
 PROPER GOOD, of gold and silver which I have 
 given to the house of my GOD, over and above 
 all that I have prepared for the holy house, even 
 three thousand talents of gold of Ophir, and 
 seven thousand talents of silver, to overlay the 
 
 walls of the house withal And who then is 
 
 willing to consecrate his service this day unto 
 the Lord ? Then the chief of the fathers and 
 
 1 1 Kings viii. 66. 2 1 Chron. xxix. 110, 17. 
 
84 THE MOTIVE TO 
 
 princes of the tribes of Israel, and the captains 
 of thousands and of hundreds, with the rulers 
 of the king's work, offered willingly ; and gave 
 for the service of the house of GOD, of gold five 
 thousand talents and ten thousand drachms, and 
 of silver ten thousand talents, and of brass 
 eighteen thousand talents, and one hundred 
 thousand talents of iron ; and they with whom 
 precious stones were found gave them. . . . Then 
 the people rejoiced for that they offered willingly, 
 because with perfect heart they offered willingly to 
 the Lord) and David the king also rejoiced with 
 great joy. Wherefore David blessed the Lord 
 before all the congregation, and David said, 
 Blessed art thou Lord God of Israel, our 
 Father, for ever and ever as for me, in the 
 uprightness of my heart, I have willingly offered 
 all these things, and now I have seen with joy 
 thy people which are present here to offer wil- 
 lingly unto Thee." Such were the fruits of 
 love, and such the joy with which it filled the 
 hearts of those who offered willingly of their 
 own, both from the public and the private 
 stores. But although they should have built 
 the house of GOD of beaten gold, from the 
 foundation to the roof, they could not have 
 rejoiced thus, if, instead of giving liberally of 
 their own out of the abundance wherewith GOD 
 had blessed them, (for at that only period of 
 their history the Jews were like us a mart of 
 nations, flourishing by trade and commerce) they 
 
CHRISTIAN LIBERALITY. 85 
 
 had obtained the requisite means by appropri- 
 ating the Levitical lands and taxing the tithes. 
 Then surely their free and noble rejoicing 
 before the " Lord God of Israel, their Father," 
 would have been ill exchanged for the spirit 
 of an Italian bandit sorrowfully disgorging the 
 spoils of some outrage to purchase absolution. 
 And do we owe less of gratitude and love than 
 they did ? or do love and gratitude produce 
 fruit only under the Law, and not under the 
 Gospel ? 
 
 But, that we may serve Him yet more joy- 
 fully, our heavenly Father has not only given 
 us the love of Christ for our motive ; but has 
 promised moreover, of His abundant mercy, that 
 whatever for love's sake we give up, He will 
 return it to us an hundred fold, both in this 
 world and in the next. The words of our Lord 
 and Master on this subject are so strong, that it 
 is difficult to imagine how a Christian can so 
 much as hear them read, without earnestly long- 
 ing for the opportunity of giving up something, 
 that he may have his share in so wonderful a 
 promise. 
 
 " Peter began to say unto him, Lo, we have 
 left all and followed thee. And Jesus answered 
 and said, Verily, I say unto you ; there is no 
 man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, 
 or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or 
 lands, for My sake and the Gospel's; but he 
 shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, 
 
86 THE REWARD OF 
 
 houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, 
 and children, and lands, with persecution, and 
 in the world to come, eternal life V 
 
 The language of part of these verses is of 
 course figurative; but thus much is clearly pro- 
 mised, that what thing soever any Christian 
 shall give up for Christ, he shall receive for the 
 same a reward in this world, proportioned to 
 the sacrifice, but exceeding it an hundredfold ; 
 and having enjoyed this reward here, shall more- 
 over inherit everlasting life. Let us not fear, 
 lest the words of Christ, received in their plain 
 and obvious sense, should excite in us a false 
 and self-righteous estimate of the merit of our 
 own works and obedience ; nor set ourselves 
 with an unfaithful and irreverent caution to 
 extenuate their force. For He knew best what 
 it is well for us to be told ; and every Christian 
 knows, that could he fulfil all the law he would 
 still be an unprofitable servant, and that in- 
 stead of fulfilling it, his best deeds are stained 
 with sin, and require to be washed in the blood 
 of Christ. But still He who has taught him 
 this, has taught him moreover, that being washed 
 in that blood, the service and offering of his 
 love is acceptable unto God, through Jesus 
 Christ 2 ; and that being thus accepted, every 
 
 1 St. Mark x. 2830. 
 
 2 See Philippians, ch. iv. 18. Scott remarks, " The lan- 
 guage used concerning the conduct of the Philippians being 
 in the most emphatical terms, the same which is used con- 
 
CHRISTIAN LIBERALITY. 87 
 
 act of cheerful self-denial for Christ's sake, every 
 sacrifice of Christian liberality, every instance 
 of love and pity towards his brethren, shall also 
 be rewarded both here and hereafter ; rewarded 
 not according to its own desert, but according 
 to the love from which it springs, and to the 
 faith which it shows in Christ's promise. 
 
 How should this doctrine teach us to trust in 
 ourselves, when we are but seeking for a re- 
 ward of grace ; ours by promise, not by merit ? 
 But moreover, we know, that neither these 
 works of love, nor yet the principle of love 
 whence they spring, are our own. We " are 
 God's workmanship," we "are God's husbandry;" 
 every good thing in us, He first gives, and then 
 He rewards that which He has given l . Both 
 grace and recomperice are His gift, but He will 
 reward us in proportion as He hath first wrought 
 
 cerning the atonement of Christ, (Eph. v. 2.) is wonderful. 
 And it shows how pleasing real good works, the fruits of the 
 Spirit, are to God through Jesus Christ." 
 
 1 The following is the prayer and answer, in the 21st chapter 
 of the third Book, De Imitatione Christi : 
 
 Prayer. Non reticebo donee gratia tuarevertatur, mihique 
 Tu intus loquaris. 
 
 Answer. Ecce adsum. Ecce Ego ad te quia invocasti Me. 
 Lacrymae tuae et desiderium animae tuae, humiliatio tua et con- 
 tritio cordis, inclinaverunt Me et adduxerunt ad te. 
 
 Et dixi : Domine, vocavi Te et desideravi frui Te, paratus 
 omnia respuere propter Te. Tu enim prior excitasti me ut 
 quaererem Te. Sis ergo benedictus, Domine, qui fecisti hanc 
 bonitatem servo tuo secundum multitudinem misericordise 
 tuae. 
 
88 THE REWARD OF 
 
 in us. We are in no danger of being- lifted up 
 so long as we remember, that whatever good we 
 are enabled to do, is done not by us, but by 
 " Him, who worketh in us to will and to do of 
 His good pleasure." St. Paul might safely say, 
 " I laboured more abundantly than they all," 
 because he knew how to add "yet not I but the 
 grace of God which was in me." 
 
 Let us not fear then to dwell on the promises 
 of our Lord, to excite by them our hopes, and 
 kindle our desires, still less to risk on their 
 truth our worldly substance and comfort. The 
 traders of the earth, if they have news of a rich 
 market opened to them, where they may reap 
 an abundant profit, are not slow to send thither 
 their goods, at much risk of loss should their 
 information mislead them. Let us risk our 
 earthly treasures on the credit of Christ's word, 
 secure that whatever betide, and however the 
 nations of the world may be shaken, and all 
 property here may be lost in the general crash ; 
 that portion of our wealth will be secure which we 
 have grace to " lend unto the Lord." Certain that 
 we shall receive for it " an hundredfold here in 
 this present time, and hereafter eternal life." 
 
 Every natural fear, which might deter us from 
 trusting these gracious promises of our Lord, 
 seems to be severally met by some rich and boun- 
 tiful provision, made as it were expressly for our 
 more abundant satisfaction. Thus the great dif- 
 ficulty which men feel, when the thought burns 
 
CHRISTIAN LIBERALITY. 89 
 
 within them, how blessed a thing it is to risk 
 something on Christ's word, and to trust Him 
 with their worldly goods, is that they have chil- 
 dren for whom they must provide. But God 
 has condescended to answer this doubt also. 
 His promises (reversing the short-sighted calcu- 
 lations of men,) have pledged Him to restore to 
 them as well as to ourselves whatever we give up 
 for His sake, and from confidence in His truth. 
 " I have been young and now am old," says the 
 Psalmist, "and yet saw I never the righteous for- 
 saken, nor his seed begging bread. He is ever 
 merciful and lendeth, and his seed is blessed." 
 The blessedness of a righteous man's family is 
 here specially annexed to the liberality of the 
 father; nor is this really wonderful, considering 
 that a little with God's blessing, is better than 
 great riches without it, and that the promises of 
 God's care and providence over the children of 
 holy and faithful men, abound throughout Scrip- 
 ture. Accordingly, that which we lay up for our 
 children on earth, they may lose; times may 
 change; civil commotions and revolutions may 
 overthrow our wisest precautions for the comfort 
 and security of our offspring ; but there is one 
 thing of which they cannot be deprived. That 
 which we have given for Christ's sake they will 
 have still, and one way or other, they shall abun- 
 dantly enjoy it. And surely even the experience 
 of the world will confirm the promise of God ; if 
 our faith be too weak to receive it on His word. 
 
90 THE REWARD OF 
 
 When were the children of a bountiful man the 
 worse for his bounty ? He may leave them less of 
 this world's good ; but is it not seen that God's 
 hand waits to prosper them, and watches over them 
 for good ? They are advanced, no man can tell 
 why. An invisible charm works for them, and men 
 in their blindness wonder at their good fortune. 
 ,But, of all this the secret reason is, that God will 
 fulfil His promise : " them that honour Me, I will 
 honour." Let us then take Him at His word ; 
 without fear that it will ever be the worse for us 
 or for ours. Let us honour Him, and He will 
 provide for and honour us and them. And who 
 is there that fears God, and knows the blessed- 
 ness of His favour and the certainty of His truth, 
 that would not rather choose that his father, by 
 abundant bounty for Christ's sake, should leave 
 him poor in this world, and rich in the promises 
 and blessings of the Most High, than to inherit 
 a mighty estate, won in the ways of this world, 
 without the fear of God, and on which he could 
 hardly hope for His blessing ? 
 
 But it is not here, after all, that the Christian 
 has his best hope or his richest reward. If the 
 promise went no farther than this world, it would 
 but offer us one hundredfold for what we give 
 to God; but let us lift up our eyes and our 
 hearts, and strive to take in something of the 
 infinite and eternal reward in heaven, of which 
 the earthly promise is but the type and shadow. 
 And this is pledged to us in the word of God not 
 
trjf; 
 
 CHRISTIAN LIBERAL1TY.\\ v\ 'TO ,7J 
 
 once or twice, but repeatedly, and 
 flowing variety of language and figure. 
 one hundredfold, but as far beyond all earthly 
 proportion, as the ages of eternity exceed the 
 span of our mortal life. Therefore in the text 
 which has already been cited, our blessed Lord 
 after having enlarged on the temporal promise, 
 makes no measure of this, but says only, " and in 
 the world to come eternal life." Again let us 
 hear more of His comfortable words. " Fear not 
 little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure 
 to give you the kingdom. Sell that ye have, 
 and give alms ; provide yourselves bags which 
 wax not old ; a treasure in the heavens that faileth 
 not." To the young ruler, lest His command 
 might seem too stern, " Sell that thou hast," He 
 added instantly "and thou shalt have treasure in 
 heaven." And He bids us " Lay not up for your- 
 selves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust 
 doth corrupt, and where thieves break through 
 and steal ; but lay up for yourselves treasure in 
 heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth cor- 
 rupt, and where thieves do not break through nor 
 steal." It is observable in these blessed words 
 of the Son of God how He repeats not only the 
 same promise of a reward hereafter, but the same 
 specific words TREASURE IN HEAVEN ; as if He 
 delighted to dwell upon the words which repre- 
 sent the glory which He had with His Father 
 before the world was; and as if, knowing our 
 frailty, He would engrave them upon our very 
 
92 THE REWARD OF 
 
 hearts ; that they may go with us into the world, 
 as a talisman against its distractions and tempta- 
 tions. And what earthly language, what mortal 
 eloquence, can add anything to these words of 
 the only begotten of the Father? YE SHALL 
 HAVE TREASURE IN HEAVEN. What imagination 
 can picture their meaning? The heirs of an 
 earthly inheritance love to look forward to the 
 time when all shall be theirs. For a while indeed, 
 they are under tutors and governors, but they 
 cannot forget that they are lords of all. After 
 their example let us too exalt our thoughts and 
 hopes; let us labour and meditate and pray that 
 we may have some glimpse beforehand, of the 
 glory of that treasure which eye hath not seen, 
 nor ear heard, nor heart of man conceived. And 
 then let us remember, that this treasure is in- 
 creased by every act of self-denial which we wil- 
 lingly choose that we may have more to give to 
 Christ and to our brethren. Such is His un- 
 speakable mercy who " waits to be gracious unto 
 us," and desires and seeks occasions to reward 
 and bless us. For so it is written ; " He which 
 soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and 
 he which soweth bountifully shall reap also boun- 
 tifully ; and God is able to make all grace abound 
 towards you, that ye having always all sufficiency 
 in all things, may abound unto every good work 
 (as it is written he hath dispersed abroad, he hath 
 given to the poor, his righteousness remaineth 
 for ever). Now He that ministereth seed to the 
 1 
 
CHRISTIAN LIBERALITY. 93 
 
 sower, both minister bread for your food, and 
 multiply your seed sown, and increase the 
 fruits of your righteousness V The seed sown is 
 that which the faithful bounty of a Christian 
 trusts liberally to God on the assurance of an 
 abundant harvest ; the fruits of righteousness, the 
 reward of grace here, and of glory hereafter, to 
 be plentifully returned for it. Again, Timothy 
 is directed, " Charge them that are rich in this 
 world that they .... do good, that they be 
 rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing 
 to communicate, laying up in store for them- 
 selves a good foundation against the time to 
 come, that they may lay hold on eternal life." 
 And of all works of bounty, that to which we 
 are now called has the greatest promises ; for it 
 is not only a mercy to the poor for Christ's sake, 
 but also a direct enlargement of His kingdom, 
 and a furtherance of His glory ; so that when we 
 are laid in our graves, and our spirits are at rest 
 in Christ, we may not only still speak, but in a 
 manner still labour and serve here upon earth, 
 being partakers in the labours of every faithful 
 minister in every church which has been planted 
 at our cost for the glory of God's holy name. 
 Thus may we be classed among those, who hav- 
 ing " turned many to righteousness shall shine 
 as the stars for ever and ever." How great then 
 is our privilege, who are called to take part in a 
 work so blessed ; to be imitators of Christ, and 
 1 2 Cor. ix. 6. 
 
94 THE REWARD OF 
 
 conformed to His image, in giving of our own 
 for our brethren ; actuated by His love as our 
 motive, by His promises as our encouragement, 
 by His glory as our reward. And shall we 
 grudge anything that we can give or do ? surely 
 one might rather expect, that the office of the 
 Christian minister would be to restrain the eager- 
 ness of those who would press in to claim a share 
 in the work : that men would come as of old *, 
 " every one whose heart stirred him up, and 
 every one whom his spirit made willing, to bring 
 the Lord's offering," that they would come both 
 men and women, as many as were willing-hearted, 
 and bring bracelets, and earrings, and jewels of 
 gold, and " every thing which is needed for the 
 service of the Lord," until more were offered 
 than can be received, and until the bounty of the 
 people were of necessity restrained. It might be 
 expected that our nobles would be jealous even 
 of the splendour which is one of the duties of 
 their station, and would gladly abate something 
 from their personal enjoyments, and part with 
 their yachts and their racing studs, rather than 
 miss this opportunity; that our women would 
 choose to go unadorned here, that so they might 
 shine the brighter in glory hereafter; that our 
 merchants would diminish their capital and be 
 content to leave less to their heirs; that our 
 tradesmen would give up something of their gains 
 
 1 Exodus xxxv. 21, 22. 
 
CHRISTIAN LIBERALITY. 95 
 
 and their comforts ; our very labourers something 
 " of their necessities ;" that so each and all might 
 have treasure in heaven, and secure to them- 
 selves a portion of that inheritance, which is 
 stable and firm as the word of the Most High. 
 So be it, by God's grace ! May we give up much 
 for Him, may we venture much on His word ; 
 and then assuredly we shall receive much, and 
 shall reap an abundant return for every risk and 
 every sacrifice. 
 
 It may not be useless in closing the present 
 section, to offer some suggestions on the mode 
 in which those who desire to exceed the scanty 
 measure of modern liberality, may most advan- 
 tageously apply their bounty. 
 
 And first, let every man, instead of giving one 
 large sum merely, and then suffering himself to 
 remain contented, deliberately dedicate to God 
 a certain measure of each year's income, to be 
 set apart as soon as he receives it, and no longer 
 accounted as his own. The exact proportion to be 
 thus consecrated, each must determine for him- 
 self, after a solemn consideration of his own cir- 
 cumstances and duties, in the sight of God Al- 
 mighty. " Let every man do as he is disposed 
 in his own heart." There are some kinds of 
 property which entail on their owners many ex- 
 pensive duties, and surround them with many 
 dependants; from these less of course can be 
 spared for any other object. Our Heavenly 
 Father knoweth all these things ; arid if there be 
 
96 THE OBJECTS OF 
 
 first a willing mind. He will accept it, "according 
 to that a man hath, not according to that he hath 
 not." Again there are those whose income is 
 almost unburdened with such calls. These 
 things each man should weigh and consider for 
 himself. Only let him resolve, that, whether he 
 gives more or less, it shall be something which 
 he will miss, which implies some self-denial ; 
 otherwise he does but deceive himself, and lays 
 up no treasure in heaven. If we diligently labour 
 to do so, we shall probably find ourselves able 
 to set apart more the second year, than seemed 
 possible at the beginning of the first. We are 
 told that Bishop Wilson in this manner, gradually 
 augmented the consecrated part of his income ; 
 until from one tenth it became five-tenths of his 
 episcopal revenues This he gave " over and 
 above a decent hospitality." And moreover we 
 find an entry in his journal, in the following re- 
 markable words. " To the glory of God, I dedi- 
 cate the interest of all my moneys to pious uses, 
 so long as I have wherewithal to live on besides. 
 Blessed be God for giving me a heart and will to 
 do so." Surely there are many among us who 
 might do as much ; and almost every one may 
 begin by a tenth part, a measure recommended 
 to us by a divine precedent. Let us do what we 
 are able : " And if we do extend beyond our mea- 
 sures, and give more than we are able ; we have 
 the Philippians and many holy persons for our 
 precedent, we have St. Paul for our encourage- 
 
CHRISTIAN LIBERALITY. 97 
 
 ment, we have Christ for our counsellor, we have 
 God for our rewarder, and a great treasure in 
 heaven for our recompense and restitution V 
 
 When we have set apart our offering to God, 
 we should determine what measure of it is 
 due to the temporal wants of those to whom 
 circumstances give the first claim upon our 
 bounty. And after them, we can hardly have 
 any call on our charity more urgent than the 
 spiritual destitution of so many thousands of our 
 own countrymen, which, as we have seen, can 
 be fully supplied only by the complete develope- 
 ment of the parochial system. For this purpose, 
 Jet us give largely and wisely. One most ob- 
 vious method is that of supporting those societies 
 which are already labouring in the work. This 
 is the special duty of those who not having 
 much to give, should be thankful to unite their 
 own to the offerings of many of their brethren. 
 Societies, as we have seen, are to the poor a 
 great blessing: they afford to them the same 
 opportunities of self-denial which are furnished 
 to the rich by great and splendid works. They 
 have moreover an important function of their 
 own, in that they encourage great undertakings, 
 by preventing that sense of hopelessness which 
 often withholds men's hands. Thus, church- 
 building societies occasion the erection of many 
 churches, to which they often contribute no 
 
 1 Jer. Taylor, Holy Living, ch. iv. 3. 
 H 
 
98 THE OBJECTS OF 
 
 large proportion. They amply deserve the sup- 
 port of all : but those to whom God has given 
 the means and the heart to give great sums, may 
 commonly dispose of them to better advantage 
 than by multiplying their contributions to these 
 associations. It is their privilege to imitate holy 
 persons of old, by undertaking at their own ex- 
 pense some great and good work. 
 
 That this is no unimportant suggestion will 
 be plain to any one who compares the ecclesias- 
 tical edifices of. our own day with those of our 
 forefathers. Our modern churches are generally 
 the work of societies and committees; and we 
 need no inscription to tell us that they are so ; 
 they bear it on their front. A society can as 
 little cultivate architectural taste and magnifi- 
 cence, as it can call forth gratitude in those who 
 benefit by its bounty. Its operations are of ne- 
 cessity conducted on cold dry rules of economy ; 
 every thing is done by weight and measure ; and 
 nothing is spent but that which can in no way be 
 saved. And while those who execute the work 
 are thus minded, the donors whose bounty they 
 administer, only hear of course general state- 
 ments of the number of sittings provided, and 
 they cannot but want all that particular and per- 
 sonal interest in the work to which they contri- 
 bute, which would turn their duty into a plea- 
 sure. Thus do we build churches by calculation, 
 as a matter of necessity ; but of old church build- 
 ing was a delight, a luxury, a passion. Then men 
 
CHRISTIAN LIBERALITY. 99 
 
 of wealth would build some glorious fane from 
 foundation to turret, and those whose means were 
 less abundant would furnish a pillar, a transept, 
 or a choir: each man felt a paternal interest 
 in his work ; while he lived he delighted to visit 
 it, and watch its progress; when he died, his 
 mortal remains were laid beneath the roof which 
 he had raised, in hope of His coming, whose 
 promise had called forth his bounty. Thus did 
 church architecture arise, and thus was it per- 
 fected. Men knew that they were building, not 
 for man, but for the glory of His name, who had 
 furnished for them this spacious earth in its 
 beauty and abundance, and who was gone to 
 prepare for them mansions in heaven ; and there- 
 fore none could endure that their work should 
 yield in magnificence to that of another. Na- 
 tion vied with nation, city with city ; the news 
 of an improvement was borne from one shore to 
 another ; and if some new beauty was introduced 
 in one country, it was so quickly imitated in 
 others and spread over the whole of Christendom, 
 that the place of its origin became doubtful ; and 
 as the stars break out at once in every quarter 
 of the sky, it seemed to have arisen everywhere 
 by one simultaneous impulse. 
 
 And let us not say that these were ages of su- 
 perstition, and that our churches are for use, not 
 for ornament. For we too may well desire, with 
 holy David, to " worship the Lord in the beauty 
 of holiness ;" nor can we forget that He whom 
 H 2 
 
100 THE OBJECTS OF 
 
 we worship, when of old He deigned to give the 
 design of one house for the glory of His name, 
 claimed for it gold and silver, and precious stones, 
 and cedar, and whatever man could give of ma- 
 jesty and beauty ; and that, in imitation thereof, 
 God's saints have ever delighted to accumulate 
 whatever of His gifts is most noble, for the sta- 
 bility and ornament of His temples. So was it 
 in the days of the Church's first love. Even 
 while the sword of persecution hung over the 
 heads of Christians, and when personal luxury 
 was unknown, their churches were wide and spa- 
 cious and rich; as we read of those which were 
 cast down by the persecutor Diocletian, and as 
 was more abundantly seen in the first peaceful 
 breathing time afforded by Constantine. When 
 shall modern England follow the glorious ex- 
 ample ? When shall we wipe off the reproach 
 too justly cast upon us by a distinguished mem- 
 ber of the French Church? "The Catholic 
 religion," says Chateaubriand, " has covered 
 the world with its monuments. Protestantism 
 has now lasted three centuries ; it is powerful in 
 England, in Germany, in America. What has 
 it raised ? It will show you the ruins which it 
 has made; amidst which it has planted some 
 gardens, and established some manufactories 1 ." 
 What shall England answer to the taunt ? 
 
 1 Quoted by the Author of the " Mores Catholic!." Book iii. 
 chap. 2. 
 
CHRISTIAN LIBERALITY. 101 
 
 Nor let any man fear that he may do amiss in 
 spending large sums on the beauty of one church, 
 while so many are wanted. Experience refutes 
 the niggard argument, that we should build 
 cheap churches because we have need of many. 
 Our numberless parish churches were built in 
 the same age with our cathedrals ; and if any man 
 of great wealth would provide others for our new 
 towns and villages, he will do more by spend- 
 ing ten, twenty, even fifty thousand pounds or 
 more, in building and endowing one church in a 
 worthy manner, than he could by giving the 
 same sum to be spent by a society in raising 
 many such buildings as are now called churches, 
 and providing thirty pounds for the yearly en- 
 dowment of each of them. For his deed will 
 not be lost or forgotten ; it will be imitated, ri- 
 valled, surpassed ; and then, too, men who have 
 only hundreds to spend instead of thousands, will 
 find a pleasure in doing the like in their measure, 
 and will furnish our villages with fabrics like 
 those of old. These things may we hope to see 
 once again, whenever men shall be made to feel, 
 with holy David, that it is decorous to be more 
 sumptuous in erecting a church than a mansion, 
 that splendour and magnificence befit the house 
 of God, rather than the dwellings of men. For 
 at this moment the evil is not, that they do not 
 build stately piles, and adorn them with much 
 cost, but that they have learned to esteem a 
 great expenditure useful when lavished on their 
 
102 THE OBJECTS OF 
 
 own habitations, and never wasted but on His 
 whose " is the greatness, and the power, and the 
 glory, and the victory, and the majesty; from 
 whom both riches and honour come, and who 
 reigneth over all 1 ." 
 
 And while it belongs to those whom God has 
 made liberal on a large scale, to rival the glories 
 of our ancient churches, even they whose means 
 are more limited will commonly do better in 
 building a humbler fabric either by themselves 
 or with the aid of one or two of their brethren, 
 than in giving to the most deserving society the 
 means of erecting it. Their example will have 
 greater effect on others ; and the claims of justice 
 and equity will more certainly be remembered. 
 There are few probably who are not more or less 
 connected, by property, residence, or other cir- 
 cumstances, with some mass of immortal beings, 
 which is now in a great measure neglected ; and 
 wherever this is the case, it seems the most obvious 
 duty to provide for them. It is, as has been al- 
 ready suggested, very desirable that a statement 
 should be published in every diocese, enumerat- 
 ing, on the authority of the Bishop, every pa- 
 rish and hamlet which requires a new church. 
 Were this done, every man could readily deter- 
 mine for himself the work to which he is spe- 
 cially invited by the providence of God. Mean- 
 while, there are some general rules, which 
 
 1 1 Chron. xxix. 11. 
 
CHRISTIAN LIBERALITY. 103 
 
 approve themselves to our minds. A village of 
 three or four hundred souls, for example, may 
 accidentally have a greater claim on us, than a 
 city of many thousands, if it be inhabited by 
 those whose labour we daily employ, who mi- 
 nister to our wealth and comforts, and who na- 
 turally look to us for help. For the same reason, 
 a town whence our comforts and luxuries are 
 supplied, demands more of us than another, al- 
 though of greater population, with which we are 
 unconnected. We employ the shopkeepers and 
 labourers of the place ; we induce them to aug- 
 ment the scale of their business, to take appren- 
 tices and journeymen, many of whom probably 
 are gathered from villages where they had the 
 means of grace in abundance : is it nothing to us, 
 that for our service they should be deprived of 
 them? Nor need we be very rich to do some- 
 thing effectual. Whoever has an income of one 
 thousand pounds, would be able, in many parts 
 of the country, by saving only the tenth of it 
 for seven or eight years, to build a church for 
 five or six hundred worshippers, on a most re- 
 spectable scale, and without any aid, beyond 
 that which our societies are always ready to give 
 wherever it is needed. Let him ask himself 
 whether in those last gone by, he has enjoyed 
 as much happiness (to leave the promised 
 blessing for a moment out of our view) as the 
 tenth thus expended would have procured for 
 him ? 
 
104 THE OBJECTS OF 
 
 But there are many who have far greater cause 
 to think seriously upon this subject. There are 
 hundreds among us who have made fortunes as 
 manufacturers. How does the case stand with 
 them ? They have set up a factory, it may be, 
 in some sequestered spot, where a village has 
 immediately arisen. The population has in- 
 creased from year to year; the capital of the 
 manufacturer has increased with it ; his works 
 been extended; new labourers have arrived; and 
 in the evening of his days he retires with a hand- 
 some property honourably gained, and it is his 
 joy that he owes nothing to any man. But is this 
 indeed the case ? He has paid his labourers for 
 their time and their strength ; but how has he 
 remunerated them for their souls ? He invited 
 them from their country villages, from the homes 
 and the church of their fathers; he allured 
 their children from school to his factory; and 
 what has he given them instead ? Has he not 
 too often left them, in a situation of peculiar 
 danger and temptation, without a church, with- 
 out a pastor, without a school ? Can he acquit 
 himself of having grown rich upon the ruin of 
 immortal souls ? " Woe unto him that buildeth 
 a town with blood, and stablisheth a city by ini- 
 quity :" and is the destruction of men's souls a 
 less evil and sin, in the sight of God, than the 
 oppression of their bodies l ? 
 
 1 Wherever a railroad is opened, this process either has al- 
 
CHRISTIAN LIBERALITY. 105 
 
 In our metropolis, again, and every town 
 which has been very rapidly extending, there 
 are landholders whose property has been aug- 
 menting in value fourfold, twentyfold, in some 
 cases an hundredfold, by the influx of popula- 
 tion, which has caused land to be measured, and 
 let, and sold by the inch instead of the acre. 
 They are making their profit by means of those 
 whose spiritual care, as we have seen, is so 
 frightfully neglected. They are eager to build 
 new streets and lanes ; they have good houses 
 for the rich in front, and behind them cellars and 
 garrets for the poor : but the house of God is not 
 seen among them ; or at best it is appropriated 
 to the use of those who can pay for admission, 
 and the mass of the poor are of course excluded. 
 In all these cases justice and equity require that 
 men should first of all set themselves seriously to 
 provide for the souls of those whom they have 
 collected around them, and who are the sources 
 of their wealth. 
 
 And where these duties have been forgotten, 
 and men have passed out of the world having 
 done nothing to discharge them, the obligation 
 descends with undiminished weight to their chil- 
 dren and heirs : they have inherited their father's 
 
 ready commenced, or must be expected to follow. Let those 
 who, for their own profit or that of their town, have promoted 
 these works, look to it that they do not neglect the spiritual 
 wants of the population they are thus calling together ; as they 
 shall give account to Almighty God. 
 
106 THE OBJECTS OF 
 
 gains ; they would not refuse to pay his just and 
 equitable debts, even when they are not legally 
 responsible for them. Here is a debt of the 
 most urgent nature, by paying which they may 
 perhaps make happy for ever many of the instru- 
 ments of their own prosperity. Surely it is their 
 bounden duty, even if they have no longer any 
 share in the business by which their fathers were 
 enriched, to repair, so far as they are able, some 
 of the evil which it has produced. 
 
 In such works the large offerings of the rich 
 will be even better spent than in swelling the 
 funds of our societies. Happy that man, who 
 shall set the example (so much needed) of pro- 
 viding a church and a pastor wherever he erects 
 a factory, a street, or a village : happy two or 
 three or more, who shall combine to do so ! be- 
 sides discharging themselves of a plain moral 
 obligation, such men will be, by the influence 
 of their example, among the greatest benefac- 
 tors of their country. 
 
 And blessed be God for His grace given unto 
 us, we are not wholly without such examples 
 already. Of our new churches, some have been 
 the fruit of individual exertion and self-denial. 
 How should it be otherwise ? God's word shall 
 never return unto Him void ; and that word has 
 of late been more and more spoken among us. 
 Still we must not yet be content : we must look 
 for greater things. Such examples, although 
 now less rare, have never been wanting, and the 
 
CHRISTIAN LIBERALITY. 107 
 
 time shall come (we may not doubt it) when 
 they shall yet be multiplied tenfold. The few 
 big drops which are falling here and there are 
 the harbingers surely of an abundant shower. 
 Let us unite our prayers that it may be so ; and 
 to our prayers let us add our endeavours to en- 
 gage others in the work. Let us not be content 
 to give our money alone, but in our several 
 measures let us do what we can, with our influ- 
 ence, our time, our talents; for all are God's, 
 and all to be employed in His cause. 
 
108 THE INFLUENCE OF 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 THE DUTY OF EMPLOYING OUR INFLUENCE AND POLITICAL 
 POWER ON BEHALF OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 AMONG those who are bound to exert their in- 
 fluence for the benefit of their benighted coun- 
 trymen, the clergy of course demand the first 
 place. Their gifts, no doubt, if estimated by 
 the rule of our Lord, already far exceed, as they 
 should, those of all other orders : but the more 
 irksome task of exciting others to a liberal and 
 self-denying bounty, has been comparatively 
 neglected. In pressing the claims of the Church, 
 the clergy cannot but feel the embarrassment of 
 appearing to speak for their own order, if not 
 for their own interest ; and their difficulty is in 
 some respects the greater, because in worldly 
 rank and position they are the equals of those 
 whose selfishness they are required to reprove. 
 All these are impediments: but they must be 
 disregarded, and God's word must be spoken 
 without fear and without favour, by him who 
 will discharge his trust. Indeed, when we con- 
 sider the great and peculiar danger of the rich, 
 and how seldom an unwelcome truth reaches 
 
THE CLERGY. 109 
 
 their ears anywhere but in church, it seems the 
 special duty of every pastor, to whose care any 
 of them are committed, to be strenuous in incul- 
 cating the snare and deceitfulness of riches, and 
 the great account to be rendered by those to 
 whom much is given. How earnestly does St. 
 Paul exhort his son Timothy, " Charge them 
 that are rich in this world, that they be not 
 high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but 
 in the living God, who giveth us richly all things 
 to enjoy 1 ." He must not content himself with 
 exhorting them to do good, as he adds in the 
 next verse, " richly, readily, willingly," but 
 must solemnly remind them of their peculiar 
 danger that of trusting in riches. He must 
 " warn, exhort, rebuke them with all authority." 
 May there not be some pastors who have ful- 
 filled their duty to the poor, but who have rea- 
 son to fear lest, in the day of account, the rich 
 of their flock should rise up against and condemn 
 them, for having left them alone unwarned 2 ? 
 
 As regards the laity, one most important ser- 
 vice, which they can perform at the present mo- 
 ment, is that of ascertaining and making known 
 the actual state of things. Until lately, it was 
 hardly known that any considerable want of 
 
 1 1 Timothy vi. 17. 
 
 2 It is instructive to observe how strongly and keenly the 
 rich are warned of their peculiar danger in the authorized 
 English homily " Of Alms-deeds," and yet more in those of 
 St. Chrysostom. 
 
110 THE INFLUENCE OF 
 
 churches existed. This is no longer the case : 
 but much still requires to be made known. We 
 want (as has been suggested) accurate statistical 
 reports of our existing churches, and of the 
 needs of our population. A layman who has 
 any leisure, would be most usefully employed 
 in collecting and making public these facts. It 
 is a debt of justice to acknowledge the great ser- 
 vice which has been rendered, not to Scotland 
 only but to England, by the labours of one Glas- 
 gow layman, Mr. Collins. His pamphlet, called 
 " Statistics of Glasgow Church Accommodation," 
 has done more probably towards making known 
 the dreadful state of irreligion in which the 
 neglected thousands of our town population are 
 actually lying, than any other work. He has 
 refuted the confident assertions, that the dissen- 
 ters do for the poor what the Church does for 
 the rich ; and that the poor are excluded from the 
 house of God only because they will not come : 
 he has laid bare the monstrous features of the 
 case, by a plain statement of facts. Such a book 
 (modified of course in many particulars) is ne- 
 cessary before we can rightly estimate the state 
 of Birmingham or Liverpool, and even of large 
 parts of London. We want to know how many 
 families in each street or district regularly attend 
 any church how many go sometimes how 
 many never and then, how many are in con- 
 scious separation from the church ? thus we could 
 calculate the actual numbers who are deserted by 
 
THE LAITY. Ill 
 
 all men and left to perish without pity and with- 
 out aid. 
 
 In conversation, again, more may often be 
 done by the laity than by those who are natu- 
 rally suspected of a professional bias. They 
 may make known the actual state of things to 
 those among whom they live ; they may assert the 
 duty and blessedness of giving up something for 
 its remedy ; in a word, they may confess Christ 
 before men. We too little think how much evil 
 we may do, by checking (perhaps by a thought- 
 less word) the rising of some good desire, in 
 those especially who respect our judgment. A 
 man begins to observe the wretched state of his 
 dependants ; he doubts whether he is not bound 
 to do something for them ; he is just at a critical 
 point; a word, a look may incline him to the 
 good or to the evil of himself and of thousands. 
 And in this state, if he hears one whom he justly 
 respects express even a passing feeling, that 
 " the expense of restoring the parochial system 
 puts it out of the question," or that, " under the 
 circumstances, it is useless to think of a new 
 church in such and such a district," he may very 
 likely begin to regard the thought which God 
 has put into his mind as romantic and unreason- 
 able perhaps to be ashamed of having enter- 
 tained it : and thus God's Spirit is grieved, and 
 the opportunity passes by, and the world en- 
 grosses all that he has, and it becomes useless 
 
112 THE INFLUENCE OF 
 
 to press him to do any thing for his Lord, his 
 brethren, and himself. 
 
 It is a serious consideration, how much every 
 one of us either raises or lowers the standard of 
 morals and religion, in the society with which we 
 mix; and in consequence how far we are re- 
 sponsible for the errors and faults of our brethren 
 as well as for our own. In some degree it is al- 
 ways so, but in these times more than ever. The 
 form of our government makes the judgment 
 and opinion of every body of men, to a certain 
 degree, influential upon the governing power 
 upon the nation itself. The politicians of this 
 world may speak of the power and influence thus 
 conferred on every one of us as a political right. 
 To the eye of a Christian, it bears a more high 
 and solemn character as one of the talents com- 
 mitted to his stewardship. Far better for him to 
 be the subject of an absolute monarch, and have 
 no political power at all, than to possess the pri- 
 vileges of an Englishman, and regard them only 
 as rights to be used as he will, forgetting the 
 solemn account which he must render for them 
 hereafter. The great Hammond was asked, as 
 he lay upon his death-bed, what he considered 
 to be the happiest condition of life ? He replied, 
 " Uniform obedience :" by which he was under- 
 stood to mean, not merely obedience to the di- 
 rect commands of God (which is not a condition, 
 but a duty), but moreover such a state as sub- 
 
THE LAITY. 113 
 
 jects us in all things to the will of others, and so 
 lessens our responsibility. There was perhaps 
 in this answer something of an excessive fear of 
 power and responsibility, for which a Christian 
 will not seek, if God has called him to another 
 state, but to which, if he be called, he will there 
 abide with God, and use them as good gifts in 
 themselves, although, like all other good things, 
 liable to abuse through the corruption of man's 
 heart and will. And yet this, if an extreme, 
 was the extreme of a more wise and prudent and 
 Christian feeling, than that into which men fall 
 who eagerly desire political power as a good in 
 itself, not as a talent to be used for God. Let 
 us see then how we may best employ, for His 
 glory and for the benefit of our brethren, the 
 political influence which He has given us. 
 
 And first, there are some things which would 
 strengthen and benefit the Church, for which 
 nothing more than a legislative change is re- 
 quired. The repeal, for instance, of the statute 
 of mortmain, as far as it applies to the Church, 
 would do something. At this moment, should 
 the impropriator of any church lands leave them 
 by will to the Church from which they were 
 taken, the bequest would be void ; although the 
 same property, if left to the London University, 
 would, by virtue of its charter, be applied ac- 
 cording to the intention of the testator. Provi- 
 sion might be made (should it seem needful) for 
 
114 THE EMPLOYMENT OF 
 
 preventing parents from defrauding 1 their chil- 
 dren to enrich the Church ; but there can be no 
 reason to fear that any serious inconvenience 
 would follow even from the total exemption of 
 the Church from its operation. The time and 
 the causes of danger are gone by. 
 
 Again, an augmentation of the number of our 
 bishopricks, is a measure earnestly to be desired, 
 not only for the good of the Church in general, 
 but specially for that of the most neglected dis- 
 tricts. The chief impediment to it, has been a 
 jealousy of Churchmen and of Church influence, 
 which opposes any increase in the number of 
 spiritual peers. That this jealousy is most un- 
 founded is obvious from the fact, that our pre- 
 lates are not now more numerous than in the 
 reign of Henry the Eighth, while the temporal 
 peers have been multiplied nearly eight times. 
 A wholesome influence then exerted on our go- 
 vernment might relieve the Church from that 
 
 1 St. Augustine being censured for refusing the inheritance 
 of one Januarius, who had made the Church his heir, explained 
 his motives in a sermon (No. 355), in which he says, " I am 
 ready to receive good and holy offerings ; but if any one disin- 
 herits his son in anger, would it not be my duty to appease 
 him, and reconcile him to his son, if he were living ? And 
 how can I wish him to be reconciled to his son, if I am desir- 
 ing his inheritance ? What I have often advised is this : if a 
 man has one son, let him put Christ in the place of a second ; 
 if two, in the place of a third ; if ten, in the place of an eleventh ; 
 and that I will receive." 
 
POLITICAL POWER. 115 
 
 external compulsion which has hitherto prevented 
 her from augmenting the number of the highest 
 order of her pastors, in proportion to the in- 
 creased number of her clergy and people. 
 
 Another benefit, of a similar class, which the 
 legislature might at once effect, is the abolition 
 of peculiars. These anomalies are in truth rem- 
 nants of Popery. Exemptions from episcopal 
 jurisdiction were granted to different orders by 
 the Popes, who thus obtained for themselves an 
 independent empire in the heart of every Church. 
 They are of course inconsistent with Church 
 principles ; especially when they assign to the 
 accidental possessor of certain property some of 
 the highest offices of ecclesiastical jurisdiction. 
 They are mentioned here, however, because 
 they are a very important violation of the paro- 
 chial system 1 . 
 
 But the case of our poor fellow-subjects re- 
 quires from the legislature much more than this. 
 The measures hitherto suggested amount but to 
 the removal of certain civil obstacles which im- 
 pede the exertions of the Church on their behalf. 
 We demand the aid of the legislature ; the active, 
 powerful, zealous co-operation of the highest 
 powers of our land. To this point we are in 
 duty bound to address ourselves, and never to 
 
 1 It would of course be easy to enumerate other legislative 
 improvements, by which the Church might be benefited. Our 
 attention, however, is confined to those regulations which are 
 needful for the perfecting of our diocesan and parochial system. 
 
 i 2 
 
116 THE EMPLOYMENT OF 
 
 remit our exertions until it is effected. Let us 
 ask ourselves, Is the government of our land 
 bound to do any thing to relieve those pressing 
 spiritual necessities which have been shown to 
 exist ? It is but to ask, in other words, whether 
 the same men who are bound to do what they 
 can in one place for Christ and their brethren, 
 are bound also to do what they can in another. 
 We may not be Christians in our churches, 
 our closets, and in our studies, and heathens 
 in our council chambers and our senates. If the 
 government refuse to serve God as a govern- 
 ment, then do they, as a government, plainly 
 declare that they will not have Him to reign 
 over them ; and if the nation suffer them to do 
 so, the nation become partakers of their guilt. 
 So far all is plain. 
 
 It is important that every man who has any 
 political power or influence should distinctly and 
 explicitly avow this principle, and enforce it on 
 the attention of our rulers ; for it has become a 
 common practice with public men to express a 
 disapprobation of what they are pleased to call 
 " the voluntary system," without explaining 
 what they mean by the words. If their actions 
 are any sufficient comment upon their meaning, 
 it must be marvellously poor and meagre ; for 
 these same men are not found so much as to pro- 
 pose any application of the public revenue in aid 
 of those exertions which churchmen have been 
 making, both in societies and as individuals, to 
 
POLITICAL POWER. 117 
 
 extend among our countrymen the blessings 
 of the Gospel. Can they mean, then, any thing 
 more than this, that they approve of the prin- 
 ciple of Church endowments, and are opposed to 
 any plan for taking from the English Church 
 those which have not already been plundered? 
 If this be their meaning, they are of course right ; 
 but it seems a poor thing, that the chief gover- 
 nors of a Christian land should make it a great 
 matter, and a subject of a distinct and solemn 
 and oft-repeated profession, that they disapprove 
 of the principle of sacrilege. It is high time 
 that statesmen of all parties should learn, that 
 this vaunted disavowal does not satisfy the Chris- 
 tian people of England. We want something 
 more; we wish to be not only negatively but 
 positively religious. We are not content to ab- 
 stain from sacrilege; rather are we resolved to 
 devote to the glory of our God a portion of our 
 public as well as our private revenues. That we 
 should do so is a national duty ; to delay it is a 
 national sin ; to refuse it would be a national im- 
 piety, such as by God's blessing we hope to 
 prevent. 
 
 As Christians, then, we demand the public 
 recognition of this great principle that God is 
 King of kings and Lord of lords ; that nations 
 as well as individuals must serve and honour Him, 
 and that our nation must serve and honour Him 
 at this crisis, by raising houses of prayer to the 
 glory of His name, and must fulfil the promise, that 
 
118 THE NATIONAL DUTY 
 
 the kings of the earth shall bring their glory and 
 honour into the Church, by offering to her, for her 
 Lord's sake,our earthly treasures, to be employed 
 as her instruments in the discharge of the blessed 
 task imposed on her by Him, the task of bring- 
 ing the means of grace, and the hope of glory, 
 to the homes of all her children. We may not 
 stoop to lower grounds; we will not assume a 
 false principle, although we could prove, that 
 even on that principle the nation would still be 
 bound to undertake the work. There are many 
 who love to assume that the secular prosperity of 
 the nation is the sole object of government, and 
 that it has accordingly no concern with the ques- 
 tions of religious truth or falsehood, with virtue 
 or vice as such, but only as they bear upon the 
 public interests. They avow, in short, that ex- 
 pediency, and not right, should be the rule of 
 governments ; that the law of God is for indivi- 
 duals, and the law of interest for kingdoms and 
 empires. If we would, we might occupy this 
 low ground with the certainty of victory. We 
 might show from experience as well as from 
 Scripture, that " righteousness exalteth a na- 
 tion, but sin is a reproach to any people." We 
 might plead, that men fearing God, and daily 
 worshipping His name, will be better subjects, 
 better neighbours, than those who know nothing 
 of Him, or of their own highest interests and du- 
 ties. But we may not abandon that higher po- 
 sition on which we take our station; and in 
 
OF ENGLAND. 119 
 
 refusing to do so we act wisely as well as reli- 
 giously; for by gaining an argumentative vic- 
 tory, we should not convince the hearts of those 
 who, because they love darkness rather than 
 light, will not listen to the voice of duty, ex- 
 cept she condescend to urge the arguments of 
 expediency : while by addressing ourselves to 
 unworthy motives and principles, we should com- 
 promise our cause, and lose much of that moral 
 power which secures our victory with every good 
 man, when we challenge his co-operation, as 
 the children and servants of Jehovah, resolutely 
 purposed, that come what may, we will bear wit- 
 ness to the truth, will speak for Him without 
 shame, without fear, without compromise, and 
 by His grace will never rest, until not we alone 
 and our house, but our country and its rulers, 
 shall serve the Lord. 
 
 And if there ever was a nation bound by every 
 tie of duty and gratitude to serve Him faithfully, 
 it is the people of this land. For what is that 
 nation or people in all the world whom God has 
 honoured and blessed like us? He has given to 
 us the knowledge of His glorious Gospel, and 
 committed unto us His Holy Word. He has 
 laden us with temporal blessings in such abun- 
 dance, as to go beyond and prevent our desires. 
 He has borne patiently with many provocations : 
 and last of all, since the commencement of the 
 present century, He has brought us, in safety 
 and with victory, through a war more tremen- 
 
120 THE NATIONAL GUILT 
 
 dous than any which our forefathers have known. 
 England is the only nation of Europe which, 
 during the course of that war, escaped the ra- 
 vages of invading armies ; London the only ca- 
 pital which was occupied by no hostile force : 
 and shall we, in return for these mercies, leave 
 London any longer an half heathen city, and 
 abandon without a struggle whole districts of 
 England to the great enemy of God and man? 
 then might we indeed fear that the term of our 
 national prosperity, nay, of our very existence, 
 was near, and that, having been long spared, 
 often chastened, and often delivered, our coun- 
 try was after all but a vessel of wrath fitted for 
 destruction. 
 
 And still more pressing is the obligation of 
 the people and government of England to pro- 
 vide, at their own cost, for the worship and ho- 
 nour of their God; for there lies upon us the 
 weight of a national sin, for which no restitution 
 has been made, and it is only by restitution that 
 we can cut off the curse entailed on us by the 
 deeds of our fathers. The legislature of England 
 has sacrilegiously deprived the Church of more 
 than half her endowments. From the loss of 
 those endowments alone proceed all our difficul- 
 ties. We need not then to inquire whether a 
 nation be bound to provide funds for the service 
 of God, clear as the duty is. Individual church- 
 men have already done all, and more than all 
 that is needed, of their own spontaneous piety, 
 
OF ENGLAND. 121 
 
 and without any public charge. But the nation 
 has profanely robbed God of their offerings, and 
 has heaped upon a few pampered favourites, that 
 which they gave to alleviate the spiritual famine 
 of thousands. We but claim as a national duty 
 the repair of ravages caused by a national sin. 
 It is vain to reply to this claim, that the pro- 
 perty which, on the pretence of reformation, but 
 in spite of the earnest protests of all real reform- 
 ers, was taken from the Church three centuries 
 ago, had been given and was held only for su- 
 perstitious purposes, to maintain perpetual masses 
 for the souls of the donors. Were the pretext 
 true, it would not have justified its alienation to 
 secular purposes ; and that it was not true can 
 hardly require to be proved. 
 
 If indeed it could be shown that all the alien- 
 ated Church property had been charged with the 
 continual performance of masses, this of course 
 would not prove that the maintenance of them 
 was the donor's sole object: it would prove only 
 that he believed them to be serviceable to de- 
 parted souls, and therefore desired to reap that 
 benefit from his foundation, in addition to the 
 other objects which he proposed to himself. A 
 pious man among ourselves, who should build 
 and endow a church or a college, might very na- 
 turally insert a clause in the deed of conveyance, 
 earnestly requesting that all who might share his 
 bounty would pray for a blessing on himself 
 while he lived, and on his family after his death. 
 
122 THE NATIONAL GUILT 
 
 This he might do, although fully persuaded that 
 prayers for departed souls were vain and sinful. 
 But would this clause justify the confiscation of 
 his endowment, if it should chance that his fa- 
 mily became extinct a few years after his death ? 
 We should see that the first and main object of 
 the foundation was the glory of God and the sal- 
 vation of men, and that this object might still be 
 fulfilled, although another part of the founder's 
 will had become obsolete. And why should we 
 judge of more ancient foundations by a different 
 rule ? Men gave their lands, as they declared 
 in the deed of gift, " for the glory of God," and 
 they charged what they so gave with the main- 
 tenance of masses : if reformation had been de- 
 sired, this condition would have been repealed ; 
 but this would not have gorged that fatal covet- 
 ousness which, by confiscating the endowments, 
 ran headlong into the guilt of sacrilege. 
 
 But again, was all the confiscated property 
 of the nature above described ? Our daily ex- 
 perience can answer. Were the tithes (nowirn- 
 propriated) of much more than half the parishes 
 of England given to superstitious uses ? Were 
 the glebe lands and glebe houses of our poor 
 vicarages (now in the hands of laymen) super- 
 stitious and unholy things ? This part at least 
 of the spoil was taken strictly from the parochial 
 clergy. It is no answer to say, that these en- 
 dowments were first impropriated to religious 
 houses, and then went with the rest of their pro- 
 
OF ENGLAND. 123 
 
 perty to the Crown. The fact was not always so ; 
 nor was the wrong of the Pope, in alienating the 
 parochial endowments to the religious houses, any 
 justification of the wrong of the King and nation, 
 who diverted them thence to court favourites. 
 Great as the first evil was, it was to the parishes 
 plundered most trifling, when compared with the 
 latter. When the impropriation was made, the pa- 
 rishioners paid their tithes to a clerical body, fre- 
 quently resident among them, and always obliged 
 to provide for their spiritual care. On the sup- 
 pression of the monastery they were delivered 
 over to some great man, who glittered at court 
 in gold and silver, the spoils of God's house, and 
 left to the vicar, now burdened with a wife and 
 family, a pittance of fifty, twenty, ten, in some 
 cases four pounds yearly, out of thousands ex- 
 acted from the parish. No one acquainted with the 
 state and history of our country towns will think 
 this is an exaggerated picture; and in many 
 instances it is in these very parishes that some 
 huge population has arisen, without the means 
 of grace. 
 
 Moreover much of the property which was 
 taken from the Church had never belonged to 
 the monasteries at all. The history of Hatton 
 Garden is well known : it was the London resi- 
 dence of the Bishops of Ely, and being wrested 
 from them many years after the Reformation *, 
 
 1 In 1579, twenty-one years after the accession of Elizabeth. 
 
124 THE NATIONAL GUILT 
 
 by the gross and violent threats of Queen Eliza- 
 beth, it was conferred on her favourite, whose 
 name it perpetuates among us, although his fa- 
 mily has long ago perished, like so many others 
 which have arisen by the plunder of God's he- 
 ritage. Similar acts of violence, committed 
 either on the dignitaries or parochial clergy, 
 sometimes with and sometimes without the pre- 
 text of an exchange, were habitual; insomuch 
 that Hume is guilty of no exaggeration when he 
 says, that " it was usual with her, when she pro- 
 moted a Bishop, to take the opportunity of pil- 
 laging the see of some of its manors 1 ." 
 
 1 History of England, ch. xliv., Appendix. Some extracts 
 from " Heylin's History of the Reformation" will show the 
 manner in which sacred things were abused during the 
 minority of King Edward VI. He mentions (p. 50) that an 
 act had been passed giving to King Henry VIII. for his own 
 life " the disposal of all chantries, colleges, free chapels, and 
 hospitals," which grant of course expired at his death ; but 
 " the great ones of the court not being willing to lose so rich 
 a booty, it was set on foot again, and carried through this 
 present parliament.'' This grant conveyed to the king ninety 
 colleges (the hospitals and the colleges in the universities not 
 being included), " and no fewer than 2374 free chapels and 
 chantries, the lands whereof were thus conferred upon the 
 king by name, but not intended to be kept together for his 
 benefit only. In which respect it was very stoutly insisted 
 on by Archbishop Cranmer, that the dissolving of these col- 
 leges, free chapels, and chantries should be deferred, until the 
 king should be of age," &c. The courtiers having thus 
 enriched themselves we find, in page 61, that "our gentry, 
 possessed of patronages, considering how much the lords and 
 great men of the court had improved their fortunes by the 
 suppression of those chantries and other foundations which 
 
OF ENGLAND. 125 
 
 Surely we do but mock God, and make our- 
 selves partakers in the sin which we justify, if 
 
 had been granted to the king, conceived themselves in a 
 capacity to do the like, by taking into their hands the yearly 
 profits of those benefices of which by law they were only 
 intrusted with the presentations. Of which abuse complaint 
 is made by Bishop Latimer in his printed sermons ; in which 
 we find, that ' the gentry at that time invaded the profits of 
 the Church, leaving the title only to the incumbent ; and that 
 chantry priests were put by them into several cures to save 
 their pensions' (page 38) ; that ' many benefices were laid 
 out in fee farms (page 71 )> or given unto servants for keeping 
 of hounds, hawks, and horses, and for making of gardens' 
 (pages 91 114) ; and finally, that ' the poor clergy being 
 kept to some sorry pittance, were forced to put themselves 
 into gentlemen's houses, and there to serve as clerks of the 
 kitchen, surveyors, receivers,' &c. (page 241). All which 
 enormities, though tending so apparently to the dishonour of 
 God, the disservice of the Church, and the disgrace of religion, 
 were generally connived at by the lords and others, who only 
 had the power to reform the same, because they could not 
 question those who had so miserably invaded the Church's 
 patrimony, without condemning of themselves." The result 
 f the whole he describes in page 134 : " Insomuch that many 
 private men's parlours were hung with altar cloths, their 
 taWes and beds covered with copes instead of carpets and 
 coverlids, and many carousing cups of the sacred chalices, as 
 once Belshazzar celebrated his drunken feast in the sanctified 
 vessels of the temple. It was a sorry house, and not worth 
 the naming, which had not somewhat of this furniture in it ; 
 though it were only a fair cushion made of a cope or altar- 
 cloth to adorn their windows, or make their chairs appear to 
 have somewhat in them of a chair of state. Yet how con- 
 temptible were these trappings in comparison of those vast 
 sums of money which were made of jewels, plate, and cloth of 
 tissue, either conveyed beyond the seas or sold at home, and 
 
126 THE NATIONAL GUILT 
 
 we deny that these deeds brought on their per- 
 petrators the guilt of the foulest sacrilege. And 
 this guilt was aggravated, not diminished, by 
 those great abuses, of which in God's righteous 
 judgment their crime was in many cases the just 
 punishment. The confiscation, although a de- 
 served vengeance on those who were abusing the 
 gifts of pious founders, was but an increase of 
 guilt in the King and Parliament, who, by not 
 preventing the abuse, had made themselves part- 
 ners in the sin. Their duty was to correct, not 
 to destroy ; to have restored to the parishes their 
 endowments ; to have annexed some of the richer 
 abbeys to the new bishopricks, to which, in the 
 preamble of the act of parliament for their sup- 
 pression, they were solemnly promised ; and, 
 finally, to have introduced into all monasteries 
 such wholesome regulations as would have made 
 them schools of theology, nurseries of sound 
 learning, a glory and blessing to our land. And 
 this duty was not overlooked from inadvertence : 
 they were solemnly reminded of it, by the same 
 divines by the authority of whose names they de- 
 fended the Reformation itself; they acknow- 
 ledged it in public acts ; but covetousness was 
 
 good lands purchased with the money, nothing the more 
 blessed to the posterity of them that bought them, for being 
 purchased with the consecrated treasures of so many temples." 
 Surely it was nothing less than a national sin which thus 
 tainted almost every house, whether rich or poor. 
 
OF ENGLAND. 127 
 
 too strong for them : they chose the wages of 
 unrighteousness, and incurred the guilt of sa- 
 crilege. 
 
 But admitting the guilt of our forefathers, 
 which can hardly be seriously questioned except 
 through ignorance, let us consider the more 
 practical question, whether we have reason to 
 hope that that guilt is buried with them, or 
 whether it stands recorded against our country, 
 in the book of God's remembrance ? Surely the 
 answer which Scripture enables us to make does 
 not flatter us with the expectation of impunity. 
 The destruction of Amalek by Saul was more 
 than four hundred years later than the national 
 sin which it avenged. The seventy years of the 
 captivity of Judah was measured out to answer 
 to the sabbaths which the people had profaned 
 in their land 1 . They went on long in their sin, 
 and thought that God had forgotten it; but 
 while He kept silence, He remembered both 
 His command and their breach of it. The 
 length of time was no bar to His judgment. 
 And the words of our Lord 2 imply, that the ac- 
 cumulated vengeance of the Most High, against 
 the murderers of all the martyred prophets, from 
 righteous Abel downwards, was poured forth 
 upon the guilty city and nation of the Jews, by 
 the sword of Titus. Certain it is, therefore, 
 
 1 2 Chron. xxxvi. 21. Compare also Levit. xxvi. 34, 35. 43. 
 
 2 St. Matt, xxiii. 35. 
 
128 THE NATIONAL GUILT 
 
 that the sins of a nation are no more effaced by 
 the mere lapse of time, than those of an indivi- 
 dual ; that as the sins of youth often find out the 
 sinner, even here, in his age, and will find out 
 every unrepenting sinner in the world to come ; 
 so too whatever nation sins against God, their 
 sin remains written against them, until wiped 
 out by a national repentance. 
 
 It is no idle speculation then, whether our 
 national sin has been repented of: and surely, 
 we cannot but answer that as restitution is in this 
 instance possible, without restitution there can 
 be no true repentance 1 . The very nature of 
 
 1 It would be easy to show that this is no new opinion ; 
 perhaps indeed there are few of our great divines who have not 
 expressed the same judgment. We are told that in a critical 
 period of the great Rebellion King Charles the First, review- 
 ing his own sins and those of his people, while he prayed 
 " forgive I beseech thee my personal and my people's sins, 
 which are so far mine as I have not improved the power Thou 
 gavest me for Thy glory and my people's good ;" bound himself 
 by a written promise to a solemn act of repentance, first, for 
 the legal murder of Strafford ; which as restitution was impos- 
 sible, could only be done by penance : next, for the sacrilege in 
 question, for which, as restitution was possible, repentance 
 could be shown no otherwise. The words of his vow with 
 regard to the latter are remarkable. 
 
 " I do here promise and solemnly vow, in the presence and 
 for the service of Almighty God, that if it shall please the 
 Divine majesty of His infinite goodness, to restore me to my 
 just kingly rights, and to re-establish me in my throne ; I will 
 wholly give back to His Church, all those impropriations 
 which are now held by the crown ; and what lands soever I 
 do now, or should enjoy, which have been taken away either 
 from any episcopal see, or any cathedral or collegiate church, 
 
OF ENGLAND. 129 
 
 our present difficulties, moreover, strengthens 
 the conclusion. For in the common order of 
 
 from any abbey or other religious house. I likewise promise 
 for hereafter to hold them from the Church, under such reason- 
 able fines and rents as shall be set down by some conscientious 
 persons whom I propose to choose with all uprightness of 
 heart to direct me in this particular. And I humbly beseech 
 God, to accept of this my vow, and to bless me in the design 
 I have now in hand, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 
 
 CHARLES R. 
 Oxford, April 13, 1646. 
 
 This is a true copy of the King's vow, which was preserved 
 thirteen years under ground by me, Gilbert Sheldon. 
 August 21. 1660. 
 
 (Biographia Britannica. Art. Sheldon.) 
 
 Let it be observed that, by the civil list agreement, the 
 nation are now in the enjoyment of all the lands and tithes, 
 which were the subject of this vow ; for the restoration was a 
 season when unhappily such matters were little regarded ; al- 
 though Sheldon, by bringing forward the vow at the moment, 
 seems to have hoped for better things. Let us remember the 
 solemn words of God. (Malachi iii. 8, &c.) "Will a man 
 rob God ? yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have 
 we robbed Thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed 
 with a curse, for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. 
 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be 
 meat in my house; and prove me now herewith, saith the 
 Lord of Hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, 
 and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room 
 enough ; and all nations shall call you blessed, for ye shall be 
 a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts." And can we 
 think that we should be poorer as a nation, for fulfilling, al- 
 though thus tardily, the vow ? 
 
 It is worth while to observe, that while at this moment (Jan. 
 1838,) Parliament is depriving the Isle of Man, of a bishop- 
 ric, which has lasted thirteen hundred years, to augment the 
 K 
 
130 THE NATIONAL GUILT 
 
 God's providence the punishment is more or less 
 connected with the sin, and bears some analogy 
 to it. If Eli is guilty of honouring his sons 
 above God ; both his sons must be cut off in the 
 flower of their age, and his house accursed for 
 ever. If David has slain Uriah with the sword, 
 and taken his wife for himself; his wives too 
 must be taken from him by another, and the 
 sword must never depart from his house. And 
 what is our national punishment, the great evil 
 under which our nation labours ? It is that 
 hundreds of thousands of Englishmen are grow- 
 ing up without any instruction in their duties, 
 without any one to sound in their ears the 
 solemn words, " Righteousness, temperance, and 
 judgment to come;" without any knowledge of 
 Him who came to save His people from their 
 sins; without hope, and without God in the 
 world. And this evil we are told cannot be 
 remedied, for want of funds. Our sin then has 
 found us out. Where are the tithes dedicated to 
 God for ever, for His glory and the salvation of 
 men ? why not apply them to meet this evil ? 
 They are impropriated : they are dissipated long 
 ago. Already has our sin brought forth for us 
 misery. " Unto us belong shame and confusion 
 of face, to our kings, to our princes, to our 
 fathers, because we have sinned against the 
 
 revenues of the poor vicars, the impropriations, the loss of 
 which has impoverished them, are actually applied by the 
 same parliament as part of the national revenue. 
 
OF ENGLAND. 131 
 
 Lord 1 ;" and He is righteous in all that He has 
 . brought upon us. Yea, even of His long-suffer- 
 ing and compassion, may we trace much in the 
 nature of that punishment which has overtaken 
 us. It cannot but remind us of our sin, and 
 invite us to a national repentance. For how 
 can we help remembering, that if the Church 
 lands of our metropolis had been retained, we 
 should not now have had to seek the means of 
 providing churches for a half heathen population; 
 and that if the tithes and Church lands of the 
 country at large had been spared, we should not 
 be wanting new parochial endowments. Thus 
 does our punishment bring our sin to our remem- 
 brance, and it invites us moreover to a sincere 
 and hearty national repentance, (a repentance 
 not in word, but in act,) for we cannot begin to 
 show any sign of it, by restoring anything to 
 God, without alleviating the evil, and any wor- 
 thy and adequate act of national repentance and 
 restitution would wholly remove it. 
 
 God grant that His mercy may not be thrown 
 away upon us. May we repent and make resti- 
 tution to Him as a nation. Otherwise, if in spite 
 of every warning and invitation, we will con- 
 tinue to withhold from Him His own ; if we will 
 not repent ; what can remain for us but ruin ? 
 " Sin when it is perfected bringeth forth death." 
 Are nations and churches exempt from this rule ? 
 
 1 Dan. ix. 8. 
 K 2 
 
132 NATIONAL 
 
 Let experience decide. Where are those of Asia, 
 and of Greece, once so illustrious ? where is the 
 glory of Antioch where the disciples were first 
 called Christians ? where is the church and city 
 of Tyre, whither the ships of all the earth flocked 
 with their burdens, and where the blessed Apos- 
 tle found brethren to refresh his heart seven 
 days on his martyr voyage ? where is the church 
 of Alexandria, the seat of the great Athanasius? 
 where is Hippo, and Carthage, and Nicsea once 
 the centre of Christendom, whence shone a light 
 that has reached even to us? Their candle- 
 sticks are removed. " Their lamp is put out in 
 obscure darkness." And shall we Christians 
 think that such things as these have happened 
 by chance, or some blind necessity? The 
 world is governed by no inanimate system, by 
 no dark inflexible destiny ; but by His power 
 and love who " waiteth to be gracious unto us," 
 but yet, who " will bend His bow, if we will not 
 turn, and will whet His sword, and make it 
 ready ;" and even far earlier He had given us 
 another similar example in the history of the 
 patriarchal Church, the church of Abimelech, 
 and probably of Melchisedec ; and that history 
 too written by inspiration : " because when they 
 knew God they glorified Him not as God, nei- 
 ther were thankful; therefore God gave them 
 over to a reprobate mind V 
 
 1 Romans i. 28. 
 1 
 
WARNINGS. 133 
 
 Such have been God's judgments upon others; 
 and shall we escape ? we have sinned greatly 
 as a nation : we have never repented of our 
 sin: we are now tried with a great national 
 evil, which we may as yet remedy, by God's 
 blessing, if we retrace our steps; but if not, 
 ruin lies before us, ruin self-sought and self- 
 invited. What then shall be our choice ? Shall 
 we leave to our children a Christian or a heathen 
 land, God's blessing or His curse ? Here is a 
 noble opportunity of exercising all our influence 
 for the good of our country, for the salvation 
 of our brethren, for the honour of our God. 
 Blessed surely will that man be, above all other 
 Englishmen, who shall be the honoured instru- 
 ment of calling his country to repent of this her 
 sin, and shall thus turn away from her the fierce 
 anger of Almighty God. Neither let us think 
 the task hopeless ; hopeless it appears at present, 
 because no earnest effort has yet been made; 
 but let the voice of the Christian people of Eng- 
 land be raised, demanding that large grants be im- 
 mediately voted from the public resources, to sup- 
 ply churches, and ministers, and Christian edu- 
 cation, to the poor of our land ; and that voice will 
 quickly be obeyed. God has given us our political 
 power and influence, for God and for our country 
 let us employ it. It is not for the sake of economy, 
 nor even from hatred to the Church, that nothing 
 has yet been done by the parliament of England, 
 for those of our poor who are destitute of all 
 
134 NATIONAL 
 
 things needful for their souls. That parliament 
 has granted twenty millions for the emancipation 
 of the West Indian slaves; at this hour it is 
 voting an indefinite sum, without enquiring into 
 its amount, to indemnify those who lost by a 
 Danish war; and in like manner will it vote 
 sums as large or larger, to rescue our land 
 from becoming heathen, when the voice of 
 the nation shall require them. Nothing has yet 
 been done ; because such is our condition, that 
 every important movement must begin among 
 the middle classes, and move upward to legisla- 
 ture ; in a word, because if done at all it must 
 be done by ourselves. 
 
 The specific form in which the national re- 
 sources may most advantageously co-operate in 
 the work, may perhaps be questionable. On 
 the whole it would probably be most expedient 
 that a certain sum (perhaps a million or more) 
 should be annually voted, and dispensed like the 
 funds of the church building societies, in aid of 
 the erection and endowment of churches, rather 
 than in erecting any. Thus the nation might 
 pledge itself to undertake half, or two thirds, of 
 the requisite expense, wherever it is proved that 
 a new church is required. 
 
 Surely if we zealously employ our influence 
 among our neighbours, with our representatives, 
 with all whom we can affect, we must in the 
 end succeed. For God will grant His blessing 
 to labours undertaken for the love of Christ, 
 
EXERTIONS. 135 
 
 and for His glory. Meanwhile, the path to 
 ultimate success is plain ; if we would ever see 
 the nation do her part, we must begin by personal 
 self-denying liberality. We must begin thus, be- 
 cause thus alone we cannot fail to draw down 
 the promised blessing from God, on ourselves 
 and our work. We must begin thus, because 
 thus, much more than by our words, shall we 
 convince others that we warn them in earnest 
 of our national sin and danger. We must begin 
 thus again, because every new church makes 
 the remaining work easier ; for in proportion to 
 our success in Christianizing our land, will be 
 the power and prevalence of Christian principles 
 and motives upon our legislature. We must 
 begin thus lastly, because the more we do, the 
 more others will be stirred up to do, when they 
 see that the work is not, as they are inclined to 
 think, hopeless from its magnitude. 
 
 Meanwhile our influence can hardly be more 
 usefully exerted than in opposing every scheme 
 for supplying the spiritual wants of the nation 
 by inequitable, unjust, or irreligious expedients; 
 by diverting the bounty of our ancestors from 
 the purposes to which they consecrated it. Such 
 schemes, as we have already seen, spring from a 
 principle directly opposite to those which our 
 Lord has sanctioned and blessed. This alone 
 might suffice to condemn them : for what good 
 can we hope without His blessing ; or how ex- 
 pect any blessing from Him, on measures unjus- 
 
136 OPPOSITION TO 
 
 tillable in themselves, and adopted to prevent 
 the necessity of self-denial, and enable us to 
 serve God without sacrifice or expense? But if 
 men have not the faith to receive this saying ; if 
 they must look only to immediate results ; still, 
 even on their own most miserable principles, 
 such plans should be eschewed ; for while they 
 pull down that which is already set up, they 
 tend, above all other things, to prevent new 
 foundations. The project for applying the pro- 
 perty of the cathedrals to parochial purposes, has 
 already operated thus : it prevents personal sa- 
 crifice and exertion on behalf of the Church, as 
 the legal provision for the poor checks the stream 
 of private bounty. It is easier to say to a poor 
 man, " Depart in peace ; go to the parish ; be 
 thou warmed and filled," than to give him the 
 things needful for the body : and in like manner, 
 when an urgent case of spiritual destitution is 
 described, men satisfy themselves with saying 1 , 
 " Apply to the Church Commissioners;" or, 
 " That is a case to which the revenue of some 
 of the suppressed stalls should be applied ;" and 
 so are content to do nothing themselves. Like 
 other evil measures, it springs from an evil prin- 
 ciple, and in return encourages and fosters that 
 principle, and extends it more widely than 
 before. 
 
 And again, such projects impress upon all 
 
 1 The writer is detailing the result of his own experience. 
 
EVIL PROJECTS. 137 
 
 ecclesiastical property a character of insecurity, 
 which beyond all other causes checks the streams 
 of Christian liberality. Men are not wiljjng to 
 deny themselves for the furtherance of an object 
 which they deem important, only that as soon as 
 they are laid in their graves, their bounty may 
 be voted public property, and applied to some 
 other purpose, however good, which may require 
 funds. How many good deeds have already been 
 thus prevented, it is impossible to conjecture. 
 Before the Reformation, endowments were 
 yearly offered for foundations of every class, 
 both charitable and religious. How few have 
 adorned the three hundred years which have fol- 
 lowed it ! And to what shall we attribute the 
 change ? Let it be left to Papists to trace it 
 to the Reformation. Let us not say, that, of 
 old, men gave from motives of superstition, that 
 they might purchase absolution and masses, and 
 that the fountain of liberality was dried up by 
 the Reformation ; for if we say this, we must 
 maintain that the word of God is less powerful 
 than the inventions of men, the love of Christ a 
 less prevailing motive than the desire of pro- 
 pitiating a priest that treasure in heaven, se- 
 cured by the promise of Jehovah, is less likely 
 to influence men's minds than the hope of masses 
 after their death. Surely the true explanation 
 is, not the Reformation, but the Church rob- 
 bery which marred it. And accordingly the 
 same cause has produced a like effect in unre- 
 
138 OPPOSITION TO 
 
 formed countries. Wherever Church property 
 has been confiscated, there the people have 
 ceased to give to the Church, let the doctrines 
 of Rome maintain ever so firmly their credit and 
 authority. Sacrilege not only absorbs the offer- 
 ings of devout men of old, but prevents those of 
 devout men in future. 
 
 Let us not be deterred then, by any fear of 
 obloquy, or by respect for any name however 
 venerable, from opposing with our whole power 
 and influence measures so hateful to the God of 
 truth and equity, and so fatal to the very object 
 which they are intended to promote. If we 
 keep silence when they are proposed and main- 
 tained, then do we no doubt bring upon our- 
 selves a portion of that awful responsibility which 
 belongs chiefly to their authors. And whoever 
 manfully avows his deep and settled abhorrence 
 of them, will commonly be surprised to find how 
 many there are who feel with him, but who from 
 hopelessness, the desire of peace, or the dread 
 of odium, have withheld their sentiments till 
 called forth by sympathy. To offer such an oc- 
 casion, by which men are determined and encou- 
 raged to act on their conscientious judgment, is 
 no trifling mode of employing our influence for 
 the Church. But should the event be other- 
 wise ; should we be deemed narrow-minded and 
 illiberal, and should our protest be unavailing, 
 we shall have done what we could ; we shall at 
 least have discharged our own consciences of the 
 
EVIL PROJECTS. 139 
 
 guilt of a national sin ; and surely " it is better 
 to be called narrow-minded by men, than to be 
 called presumptuous by God : it is happier to be 
 thought over- scrupulous, so that we obtain His 
 praise, than to have the world's praise for liber- 
 ality without it." 
 
 A work is set before us, sufficient to engross 
 our time, our talents, our influence, our worldly 
 substance; and that which is devoted to it we 
 shall not lose, but receive it, invested with a new 
 glory, returned to us an hundredfold by our 
 God and Saviour. Meanwhile let us maintain a 
 jealous guard over ourselves. It has been ob- 
 served, that " those who, either by station or 
 temper, feel themselves most deeply interested 
 in the cause of the Church, cannot be too care- 
 ful in reminding themselves, that one chief dan- 
 ger, in times of change and excitement, arises 
 from their tendency to engross the whole mind. 
 Public concerns, ecclesiastical or civil, will in- 
 deed prove ruinous to those who permit them to 
 occupy all their care and thoughts, neglecting or 
 undervaluing ordinary duties, more especially 
 those of a devotional kind." And to this caution 
 must be added another ; that even liberal offer- 
 ings of our worldly substance will be baneful, if 
 they beget in us self-complacency in the sight 
 of God, or vanity and ostentation before men. 
 But for both these dangers a sure remedy is at 
 hand. The love of Christ, and the desire of 
 
140 PEACE 
 
 His promises, must be the motive both of our 
 labours and our gifts. And this love we must of 
 course maintain, by seeking continually His 
 presence in every devotional exercise, in public 
 ordinances, in private prayers, in heavenly me- 
 ditations, in the study of Holy Scripture, and 
 more especially in contemplating the perfect 
 example of our Lord and Master, set before us 
 in the Gospels. In these things is our hidden 
 strength ; in them is the source and spring, 
 though not the whole course of a Christian life. 
 To action, indeed, they must continually lead, 
 or they will degenerate into a morbid, dreaming 
 religion, transplanting to holy ground the sickly 
 plants of a romantic imagination. Our love to our 
 Lord, if it be untried and unpractical, will be- 
 come as unreal as our interest in some imaginary 
 character of poetical fiction. Yet the active part 
 of a Christian life is not less dangerous, if we 
 neglect to feed the flame of devotion, by fre- 
 quent retirement into the immediate presence 
 of our God and Saviour. The society and the 
 praise of men may tempt us to compare ourselves 
 with others, and to regard with complacency our 
 offerings to the service of God ; but vanity, 
 which shoots up with a rapid growth in the glare 
 and sunshine of the world, is checked and blighted 
 by the still shade of retirement and solitude. 
 We can hardly think much of our sacrifices for 
 Christ's sake, when we are fresh from our 
 closets, from meditating on His sufferings, and 
 
AMIDST EXCITEMENTS. 141 
 
 tracing His sacred steps from Galilee to Beth- 
 any, from Bethany to the Temple, from thence 
 to the Paschal chamber, to the garden, the judg- 
 ment-hall, the cross, and the sepulchre. In the 
 same exercises, too, we shall find our best secu- 
 rity against that engrossing power which belongs 
 to every great interest. A restless activity is to 
 some men an easy task, the excitement affording 
 the motive. To guard against this danger, 
 " the primitive bishops had places of retirement 
 near their cities, that they might separate them- 
 selves from the world, lest teaching others, they 
 should forget themselves ; lest they should lose 
 the spirit of piety themselves, while they were 
 endeavouring to fix it in others 1 ." And as- 
 suredly, in our day as in theirs, the antidote to all 
 the dangers which must ever attend a Christian, 
 even in that intercourse with the world to which 
 his duty calls him, will be found in communion 
 with his own heart and with his Lord. Thus 
 fortified, and pursuing the path of duty, he may 
 brave the infected air, in confident reliance on 
 that protection which of old gave to those who 
 went forth from the immediate presence and so- 
 ciety of Christ, " power to tread upon serpents 
 and scorpions, and over all the power of the 
 enemy, so that nothing could by any means 
 harm them 2 ." Tempering the eagerness of our 
 active service with seasons of contemplation, of 
 
 1 Wilson, Sacra Privata. 2 St. Luke x. 19. 
 
142 PEACE AMIDST EXCITEMENTS. 
 
 " solitude, silence, and the strait keeping of the 
 heart, those great springs of the spiritual life *," 
 we shall return to the cares and turmoil of the 
 world, and encounter the wilfulness and selfish- 
 ness of men, with something of heaven within 
 us; as the face of Moses still shone with the 
 brightness of that glory whence he came, when 
 he returned from the mount of God to the stiff- 
 necked generation, among whom his lot was 
 cast. For to these heights there is but one path 
 the path of humiliation and self-denial ; the 
 way of prayer and fasting and meditation in pri- 
 vate; of labour arid service in public; and he 
 who would attain to them must resolve " Lord, 
 I will dwell in Thy temple and in Thy service ; 
 religion shall be my employment, and alms shall 
 be my recreation, and patience shall be my rest, 
 and to do Thy will shall be my meat and drink, 
 and to live shall be Christ, and then to die shall 
 be gain 2 ." 
 
 1 Leighton. 2 Jer. Taylor, Holy Living. 
 
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