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ADDEESSES 
 
 SPOKEN TO WOBKING MEN FROM PULPIT 
 AND PLATFORM. 
 
 S. EEYNOLDS HOLE, 
 
 DEAN OF ROCHESTER. 
 
 ■ Think deeply, then, man. 
 
 How great thou art ; 
 Pay thyself homage 
 
 With a trembling heart." 
 
 THOMAS WHITTAKER, 
 
 2 & 3 BIBLE HOUSE. 
 
en 
 
 %U' 
 

 INSCRIBED 
 
 TO 
 
 THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, 
 
 WITH THE KIND ASSENT OF HIS GRACE, 
 
 AND 
 
 WITH THE AUTHOR'S MOST SINCERE RESPECT AND LOVE. 
 
 The Deanebt, Rochestee, 
 Febi'uary, 1894. 
 
 155736 
 
PKEFACE. 
 
 I SHOULD not of my own accord have published 
 these Addresses, because I cannot expect from 
 those who may read them the sympathy evoked 
 by the living voice ; but I am persuaded by the 
 sweet importunities and hopeful encouragements 
 of many friends whom I trust. 
 
 S. REYNOLDS HOLE. 
 
^ OF THE 
 
 // ^ OF THE 
 
 f UNIVERSITY 
 
 Vv OF 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. Do YOU READ THE BiBLE ? ... ... ... 1 
 
 II. Christianity and Common Sense ... ... 13 
 
 III. Work ... ... ... ... ... ... 32 
 
 IV. True Education ... ... ... ... 51 
 
 V. Conversion ... ... ... ... ... 67 
 
 VI. Unbelief.— I. The Origin ... ... ... 82 
 
 VII. Unbelief. — II. The Results ... ... ... 101 
 
 VIII. Unbelief. — III. The Remedies ... ... 118 
 
 IX. The Gentleman in the Loose Box ... ... 137 
 
 X. Friendly Societies ... ... ... 156 
 
 XI. Home Rule ... ... ... ... ... 177 
 
 XII. The Friends op the Working Man ... ... 184 
 
 XIII. Bible Temperance.— I. ... ... ... ... 202 
 
 XIV. Bible Temperance.— II. ... ... ... 215 
 
 XV. To Soldiers . ... 233 
 
 XVI. Who is a Gentleman? ... ... ... 255 
 
 XVII. Gambling AND Betting... ... ... ... 273 
 
 XVIII. The Church and Dissent ... ... ... 298 
 
 XIX. On the Causes, the Conduct, and the Consequences 
 
 OF Sin ... ... ... ... ... 310 
 
ADDEESSES TO WOKKING MEN. 
 
 I. 
 
 DO YOU BEAD THE BIBLE? 
 
 " Search the Scriptures." — St. John v. 39. 
 
 Do you read the Bible ? It seems a strange question 
 to Christians in a Christian church — to those who 
 profess to believe that the Bible is the Word of God, 
 the record of the only salvation. 
 
 But is there not a cause ? In the main street of 
 this or any other city, in how many houses should we 
 find Bibles showing signs of constant use ? I see, 
 here and there, a volume splendidly bound, and 
 illustrated with engravings (poor engravings, for the 
 art of the Painter in England is no longer the hand- 
 maid of religion) ; but these books manifestly are for 
 ornament, and not for use. An old preacher replied 
 to the question of a young clergyman, " Which is the 
 best sermon you have ever heard or read ? " " The 
 Sermon on the Mount." And yet how many run to 
 
 B 
 
2 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 and fro to hear a sermon from the servant, and how 
 few sit at the Master's feet ! 
 
 We hear a great deal about the preaching of the 
 Gospel — the Bible, and the Bible only ; but is it not 
 too often the Gospel of a particular school or preacher, 
 and not the Gospel according to the Evangelists ? 
 IIow rarely do we read the discourses of St. Peter 
 or St. Paul in comparison with those of human 
 thought! Surely this unwillingness to search the 
 Scriptures is a mystery of iniquity, as fearful as it 
 is strange. I remember asking a converted Jew in 
 conversation what argument he thought most likely 
 to convince his brethren. " Oh," he said, " the study 
 of the Scriptures — Moses and the Prophets ; but they 
 will not read them. They will peruse the Rabbinical 
 writings and the traditions of the elders, but not the 
 Scriptures." The explanation is not hard to find ; in 
 the Old Testament, " Thou hatest instruction, and hast 
 cast My words behind thee ; " '•' My people would not 
 hear My voice ; " and in the New, " All Scripture is 
 given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for 
 doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in 
 righteousness." 
 
 Even of those who read, how many do this as a duty 
 rather than as a delight, without prayer before or 
 meditation after! How many read in a spirit of 
 controversy ! — not to learn, but to teach ; not to 
 reform themselves, but to refute or to rebuke their 
 neighbours. And of those who insist upon the Bible, 
 and the Bible only, — how often, when we come to an 
 
DO YOU READ THE BIBLE ? 3 
 
 investigation of their knowledge, do we find a very 
 superficial and partial acquaintance with the Sacred 
 Truth ! Again, men are full of excuses. They have 
 '*no time to search the Scriptures," but plenty of 
 time for the novel or the newspaper. Some say they 
 are no scholars. " Such knowledge is too wonderful 
 for me ; I cannot attain unto it." But no scholarship 
 is required. On the contrary, w^e are divinely assured 
 that God giveth wisdom to the simple ; that know- 
 ledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth. And so one 
 of the holiest of men, and one of those most learned 
 in the Scriptures, St. Augustine, writes, "When I 
 was young, I came to the study of the Bible with the 
 shrewdness of dispute, and not with the meekness 
 of inquiring ; so it was that by my own perverseness 
 I saw the door of Scripture closed against myself. 
 And why ? Because I sought with pride for what 
 can only be found by humility." 
 
 Then the question is asked, " Why should we 
 read the Bible more than the Koran, or the sacred 
 books of other religions ? " We are not to shut our 
 e^'es to all that is true and beautiful in other creeds, 
 or to be constantly denouncing them as hindrances 
 to Christianity. Nor must we forget who it was 
 who said, that many should come from the east 
 and the west, and from the north and the south, and 
 should sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob 
 in the kingdom of heaven, while the children of the 
 kingdom should be cast out. On the other hand, we 
 must bear in mind that all which is most attractive 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
4 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN, 
 
 in other religions is either borrowed from or resembles 
 Christianity. There is no comparison, for example, 
 as to the character of Christ and Mohammed, or as 
 to their teaching. Mohammed erred, and never con- 
 cealed his liability to err. Christ was holy, harmless, 
 undefiled, and the most malignant enemy was silent 
 when He asked, "Which of you convinceth Me of 
 sin ? " There is no comparison between the Bible and 
 the Koran. The latter cannot be translated harmoni- 
 ously into other languages ; the Bible adapts itself to 
 all. The Mussulman discourages, the Christian re- 
 joices in, translation. 
 
 Why should you read the Bible ? Because it is 
 impossible that so many different authors, writing at 
 various times and at a distance from each other, could 
 have agreed upon such momentous subjects without 
 a common inspiration. It is impossible that men, 
 speaking different languages, in diverse times and 
 climes, could have designed a system of religion at 
 unity in itself. Nor is it likely that human wisdom 
 would have composed a scheme so totally opposed' to 
 human nature, which humbles our pride, thwarts our 
 passions, and bids us refuse and despise those things 
 which the world loves best. All false religions have 
 many adaptations and concessions to human infirmity ; 
 but Christianity bids us mortify our members which 
 are upon the earth ; and Christ says, " If any man 
 will come after Me, let him take up his cross, and 
 foUow." 
 
 The very existence of the Bible should induce us 
 
DO YOU READ THE BIBLES 5 
 
 to read it; its preservation and continuity, re- 
 fulfilments for ever of our Lord's promise, " Heaven 
 and earth shall pass away, but My Word shall not 
 pass away." Would a falsehood have been preserved 
 for three thousand years ? The kings of the earth 
 and its rulers, the teachers of human philosophy, the 
 oppositions of science — falsely so called — have striven 
 in vain to destroy it. And '' it stands this day, amid 
 the wreck of all that is human, without the alteration 
 of one sentence so as to change the doctrine which 
 is taught therein."* Yoltaire predicted that there 
 would be no Bible in the nineteenth century. " In 
 less than a hundred years," he said, " Christianity 
 will have been swept from existence." Yoltaire is no 
 longer read; but copies of the Bible are multiplied 
 by the million, and two hundred and six translations 
 have been distributed since 1804. 
 
 The Bible is manifestly inspired, because no human 
 cleverness can foretell the future; because "the 
 prophecy came not in the old time by the will of 
 man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved 
 by the Holy Ghost ; " and because the prophecies of 
 the Old Testament were fulfilled, some of them in its 
 own, and some in the ITew Testament records. We 
 should read the Bible, because it is adapted to all 
 men and all moods, in every time and clime. It has 
 been well said that the Bible is a river which has 
 depths in which a giant may swim, and shallows 
 which maj^ be crossed by a child. 
 * Bishop Jewell. 
 
6 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN, 
 
 " If thou art merry, here are airs ; 
 If melanclioly, here are prayers ; 
 If studious, here are those things writ 
 Which may deserve tliy ablest wit. 
 If hungry, here is food divine ; 
 If thirsty, nectar, lieavenly wine." 
 
 Theology is the queen of sciences, and the student 
 
 of the sacred Scriptures finds daily new subjects for 
 
 his admiration ; and yet the simple rustic sees 
 
 heaven as clearly before him, and the road as free 
 
 and open, as the most erudite and ascetic of the saints. 
 
 Henry Martyn took the highest honours which 
 
 Cambridge could give ; but when his mind was open 
 
 to understand the Scriptures, his scholarship seemed 
 
 to be in comparison but vanity and vexation of 
 
 spirit. And so the cottage dame, " who knows, and 
 
 knows no more, her Bible true," holds in her hand 
 
 the same passport to Paradise. 
 
 *♦ And in that Charter reads with sparkling oyes, 
 Her title to a mansion in the skies." 
 
 Charles Dickens wrote, " The New Testament is 
 the best book that ever was, or ever will be, known 
 in the world ; and it teaches you the best lessons by 
 which any human creature, who tries to be faithful 
 and truthful to duty, can possibly be guided." 
 
 We should read the Bible, because it is a proclama- 
 tion of the only true liberty, true equality, true love, 
 true wisdom ; because here we find the only explana- 
 tion of sorrow, sickness, death, and eternity, of the 
 cause, consequence, and cure of sin ; the only history 
 which reveals to us the origin and object of our 
 
DO YOU READ THE BIBLE 1 7 
 
 existence, the beginning and the ending of this 
 world in which we live. True liberty, not licence 
 to do every man that which seemeth right in 
 his own eyes, but the glorious liberty wherewith 
 Christ has made us free from the slavery of the world, 
 the flesh, and the devil. True equality, which we 
 only realize when we regard our fellow-men as alike 
 dear to our Father which is in heaven, our Saviour 
 who died for all, and the Holy Spirit which is given 
 to every man to profit withal. A proclamation of 
 love, which unites all sorts and conditions of men in 
 the unity of spirit, the bond of peace, and the right- 
 eousness of life. A proclamation of wisdom ; for the 
 wisdom of this world is foolishness with God, and 
 only by His revelation can we be made wise unto 
 salvation. 
 
 Hoiv are we to read the Bible ? Take heed " how 
 ye hear." " Bearch the Scriptures." That does not 
 mean reading hastily ; it means listening reverently 
 to God's words — " Speak, Lord ; for Thy servant 
 heareth " — after prayer * and then keeping them, as 
 the Holy Mother kept them, and pondering them in 
 the heart. Not merely remembering, but revering. 
 There are many now who, like the scribes and dis- 
 senters in our Lord's time, have a large knowledge of 
 the Scriptures, can argue and quote texts, but who, 
 as St. Peter wrote, "may wrest the Scriptures to 
 
 * For example, the Collect for the Second Sunday in Advent ; or, 
 "0 Lord, open Thou mine eyes, that I mav see the wonderful things 
 of Thy Law." 
 
8 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 tlieir own destruction." God's Word may be spoken 
 by the lips, but not written in the heart. The seed, 
 which is the Word of God, must be sown in the soil 
 prepared to receive it — the honest and good heart 
 of faithful and obedient love ; love of Him who, on 
 the first Easter day, went with the two disciples to 
 Emmaus, and opened their understanding that they 
 might understand the Scripture. We must receive 
 with meekness the engrafted Word, for the Word 
 preached or read will not profit unless it be mixed 
 with faith. Reason leads us to the door, but then 
 faith takes us by the hand and guides us heavenward. 
 ** The time comes," Lord Bacon writes, " when reason 
 must leave the pinnace of human learning and 
 embark by faith in the ark of Christ's Church, which 
 alone has the true sea-needle." 
 
 On the tomb of the great American statesman, 
 Daniel Webster, is inscribed the text, " Lord, I 
 believe ; help Thou mine unbelief." There are some 
 in our day who, while they profess and call them- 
 selves Christians, and declare that their only object 
 is the discovery and confirmation of truth, seem to 
 derive more satisfaction in finding out anachronisms 
 and contradictions and mistakes, rather than argu- 
 ments and proofs of inspiration; who take more 
 interest in subjects which " minister questions, rather 
 than godly edifying which is in faith ; " who seem to 
 be more interested in the names of writers and the 
 dates of their writing, their style, and minor details, 
 than in the divine promises, warnings, and ins true- 
 
DO YOU READ THE BIBLE ? 9 
 
 tions which they were commissioned to announce to 
 mankind. Ignoring the Apostolic caution, that no 
 Scripture is of private interpretation, ^' that the letter 
 killeth, but the spirit giveth life," these writers do not 
 hesitate to tell us that the Church has been teaching 
 over eighteen centuries as divine truths, myths, 
 allegories, fond things vainly invented. They seem 
 to expect us only to believe that which they dictate 
 to us, and to disbelieve whatever they may dispute. 
 We are to have an "Index Expurgatorius," new 
 canons, and new creeds. The ancient fathers, mar- 
 tyrs, confessors, bishops, and doctors, with their con- 
 temporaries in all Christendom, have been under a 
 delusion. 
 
 The Church has never promulgated any theory ot 
 inspiration, but she remains the pillar and ground of 
 the truth. She teaches that Holy Scripture contains 
 all things necessary to salvation, but she does not 
 teach that in matters of minor importance there are 
 no mistakes. We have this treasure in earthen vessels, 
 and so St. Austin wrote to St. Jerome, " I confess I have 
 learned to pay this reverence and honour only to those 
 books of Scripture which are called canonical, that I 
 most firmly believe none of the authors of them was 
 guilty of any error in writing ; and if I find anything 
 in those books which seems contrary to truth, I make 
 no doubt but that it is either a corruption of the copy, 
 or that the translator did not hit the sense, or that I 
 myself could not understand it." 
 
 The saints of old spent not their time in examining 
 
10 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 the casket or the settiDg, but in admiring the pearl 
 of great price — the truth as it is in Jesus. They knew 
 of the human element, but they did not proclaim it 
 from the housetops for the world to say, " There, 
 there ! so would we have it ! " to discourage the 
 doubtful and to make the hearts of the righteous 
 sad. Their object was not to reform the Scriptures, 
 but to be reformed by them ; not to hew out new 
 cisterns, but to draw living water from the old ; not 
 to make new ways to heaven, but to ask for the old 
 paths wherein is the good way, and to walk therein, 
 that so they might find rest for their souls. And 
 thus, as Pascal writes, " everything tends to the 
 advantage of the elect — even the obscurities of the 
 Scripture, for they honour them the more on account 
 of the divine clearness of other parts ; while, on the 
 contrary, everything tends to evil with unbelievers, 
 even those clearer portions themselves, for they 
 blaspheme all the Scriptures on account of the ob- 
 scurities which perplex them. "The fear of the 
 Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is 
 understanding." " The secret of the Lord^is with them 
 that fear Him." " I am wiser than the aged, because 
 I keep Thy commandments." "I thank thee, 
 Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou hast 
 hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast 
 revealed them unto babes." 
 
 "Avoid foolish questions, genealogies, contentions, 
 and strivings about the law ; for they are unprofitable 
 and vain." When Melancthon came from the Diet of 
 
DO YOU READ THE BIBLE ? 1 1 
 
 Spires to visit his mother at Brunnen, she said, 
 " What am I to do ? What am I to believe, my son, 
 in this time of division and debate ? " And the answer 
 was, " Believe and pray as heretofore ; take no heed 
 of controversy." " Live your Bible/' says Ruskin, 
 " and your doubts will cease." 
 
 Take this home as the golden rule for the right use 
 of Holy Scripture, "Be ye doers of the Word, and not 
 hearers only." Be not as the butterflies which go 
 from flower to flower, but as the bees which gather 
 the honey. " Search the Scriptures," saying, " Lord, 
 to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of 
 eternal life." Prayerfully,* faithfully, commune with 
 your Creator, Saviour, and Guide — your Guide unto 
 death, the Friend that loveth at all times, the Brother 
 born for adversity, who has made this promise to you 
 and me, " I will never leave thee nor forsake thee." 
 Study with reverent admiration the only perfect 
 Example. 
 
 The Greeks had a sculptor named Polycletus, who 
 carved in marble the statue of a man, so perfect in its 
 proportions that it was accepted by his brethren as 
 their model, and was known as the Rule of Polycletus. 
 God has given us a perfect Model, and shown us in 
 the Holy Scriptures how by His grace we may try to 
 copy it. It is not to be done at once, as when 
 metal is poured into mould, but here a little and 
 there a little — as with the sculptor chip by chip. 
 Patience and self-denial must have their perfect 
 work. 
 
 I Hi IXlF'r^r^tm—.^ 
 
12 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 " The best of men 
 That e*er wore earth about him was a Bufiferer ; 
 A sweet, meek, patient, humble, tranquil spirit. 
 The first true gentleman that ever breathed.'* 
 
 My brother, sinful, helpless, dying, there is no 
 work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the 
 grave, whither thou goest. And you may die to- 
 night. Only this Book can teach jom so to live 
 that you may dread the grave as little as your bed ; 
 teach you to die that so you may rise glorious at the 
 awful day. 
 
II. 
 
 CHEISTIANITY AND COMMON SENSE. 
 
 Let me oflfer to you, my brothers, to-night, a few 
 suggestions concerning Christianity and Common 
 Sense. There are some who do not hesitate to say 
 that these are contrary the one to the other; that 
 they contradict, hinder, and interfere with each other ; 
 that, even supposing that they are both good and 
 right in themselves, they must be kept distinct and 
 separate ; that there is no grace of congruity between 
 them. Some say, I know what common sense means, 
 but Christianity is to me a mystery. They say, with 
 Sancho Panza, " I was not bred in courts, nor have 
 I studied at Salamanca, but I understand myself." 
 I've plenty of common sense, but I can't understand 
 religion ; such knowledge is too wonderful and excel- 
 lent for me ; I cannot attain unto it. So they make 
 their want of scholarship, as they call it, their 
 ignorance of theology (which is, of course, the 
 grandest of all the sciences, but which is neverthe- 
 less in comparison with practical Christianity as an 
 erudite treatise upon agriculture to a field of ripe 
 
14 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 golden wheat) ; they plead want of knowledge for 
 want of faith, and make it an excuse for a selfish 
 sensual life. They would be very angry if you 
 talked about their ignorance, and they have a positive 
 opinion to give on most subjects, not excluding this, 
 of which, when it suits their convenience, they profess 
 to know nothing, i-.e. religion. 
 
 Theology ! No man by searching can find out 
 God. His kingdom cometh not by observation. 
 The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him. 
 He that doeth the will shall know of the doctrine. 
 He giveth wisdom unto the simple. 
 
 Others affirm, on the contrary, that common sense, 
 which is identical with reason, mind, intellect, has 
 reached heights of wisdom from which it looks down 
 upon religion, as one sees from a mountain the ruing 
 of an abbey in the vale below, a mere outline of 
 beauty, just the suggestion of a noble purpose, 
 quickly crumbling to decay. Seen in the marvellous 
 microscope of science, and in the brilliancy of its 
 electric light, Christianity, they tell us, is discovered 
 to be a fond thing vainly invented, a charming 
 allegory, but no longer applicable, if it ever was so, 
 to the practical purpose of life. Wherefore it shall be 
 my earnest, thoughtful, prayerful endeavour to show, 
 as best I may, that there is a complete agreement 
 between Christianity and common sense ; that they 
 are united and inseparable ; and that they are alike 
 intelligible and practicable to those who really try 
 to understand and to enforce them. 
 
CHRISTIANITY AND COMMON SENSE. 1 5 
 
 My object in thus attempting to demonstrate the 
 union which exists between reason and faith, between 
 the head and the heart, is to dispel that which I 
 believe to be error, and to promote that which I 
 believe to be truth. My claims upon your attention 
 are the experience of a varied life and a great desire, 
 which comes to me from that love of my fellow-men 
 which Christianity alone imparts, to comfort others 
 in this world of sorrow and of sin, by the comfort 
 wherewith I myself am comforted of God. 
 
 What do we mean by common sense ? With a 
 considerable number of persons common sense means 
 uncommon nonsense; it means, "If you don't think 
 as I think, say as I say, do as I do, you must be a 
 born fool," and this they call free thought, liberty 
 of speech, independent action. Common sense with 
 them means "my sense" — "My doxy is orthodoxy, 
 yours is heterodoxy ; that which I understand is 
 all that a man need know, and what I don't under- 
 stand is bosh." Like the Saracen conqueror who 
 burned the greatest library in the world, stored with 
 the wisdom of ages, "because," said he, "I don't 
 understand letters, and therefore they must be bad 
 and worthless." They live in a fool's paradise, and 
 think that all others envy and admire; somewhat 
 resembling that Emperor of Tartary, of whom it is 
 recorded that when he proceeded to feed on horseflesh 
 he sent one of his attendants to make a proclamation 
 outside his tent that all the kings and potentates of 
 the world had his permission to begin their dinners. 
 
1 6 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. * 
 
 Some say it is common sense to get what you can, 
 as you can, and use it as you like. " Let him take 
 that hath the power, and let him keep who can " — 
 after the manner of the big navvy in the village 
 cricket-match, who, when the umpire gave him 
 " out " at an interesting crisis in the game, walked 
 quietly up to that functionary, and, without entering 
 into particulars, knocked him down. Some affirm 
 that it is common sense only to accept that which 
 we can touch or look at — " seeing is believing " — and 
 profess to ignore whatsoever is beyond the range of 
 hand and eye. We read, for example, that C. R. 
 Carlisle, an infidel, "advised people, in reference to 
 religious matters generally, to believe nothing with- 
 out the strongest possible demonstration. In fact, 
 he went so far as to advise them to believe nothing 
 in religion without ocular demonstration, or, in other 
 words, nothing but what they could see with their 
 eyes. He did at the same time show that he 
 expected people to believe him on his bare word. 
 He had no wish that they should ask for ocular 
 demonstration, or for demonstrations of any kind 
 in favour of atheistical views. Atheistical views 
 he wished them to receive on his own unsupported 
 testimony ; Christian views he wished them to 
 receive on no testimony whatever." All that he 
 believes (so far as negation can be called belief) must 
 be true, all that I believe must be false. But no one 
 acts or can act upon such a silly profession. 
 
 What is there, which you and I do, which is not 
 
CHRISTIANITY AND COMMON SENSE. 1/ 
 
 an act of faith in the unseen ? " Reason would never 
 submit, if it did not perceive that there were occasions 
 when it ought to submit, i.e. to faith." * 
 
 What would you think of the man who would not 
 get out of bed in the morning because he could not 
 see his breakfast waiting for him in the room below ? 
 And when he does see his cup of hot coffee, what 
 induces him to hope that it isn't all chicory ? Faith 
 in his grocer. What encourages him to think that his 
 basin of milk is not " the joint produce of the cow and 
 the pump " ? Faith in the milkman. 
 
 Others, on the contrary, seem to regard common 
 sense as an easy, unsuspicious credulity, which accepts 
 as truth whatever is stated with a loud and confident 
 assertion — like the rustic who was indignant when 
 his companion seemed to doubt the announcements 
 which the showman made through his trumpet, " Do 
 you think as the gentleman ud say as the giant wor 
 nine foot high if he worn't nine foot high, spooney ? " 
 And such men as these, *' good easy men, full sure," 
 have an implicit faith in majorities. But public 
 history, and private experiences, yours and mine, are 
 evidences that majorities err not seldom. 
 
 At an election, for instance, it must seem to you, 
 according to your politics, that a large number of 
 constituencies who have returned candidates adverse 
 to your opinion are opaque, crass, and benighted. 
 The majority of the House of Commons had com- 
 plete confidence in their common sense when they 
 * St. Augustine, quoted by Pascal. 
 
 C 
 
l8 ADDJiESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 made merry at the statement that passengers might 
 be conveyed by steam power at the rate of twelve 
 miles an hour. Before and since those days in which 
 the men of Lystra desired to worship Paul and 
 Barnabas, and not many hours after took up stones 
 to stone them, there have been crowds which first 
 crowned their heroes with laurels and subsequently 
 treated those same heads with no more respect than 
 if they had been cocoanuts or effigies of Aunt Sally, 
 exposed to the attacks of the public at six shots a 
 penn}'. Ah, well has our king-poet said — 
 
 " Oh, momentary grace of mortal men, 
 "Which we more liunt for than the grace of God ; 
 Who builds his hope in air of your fair looks, 
 Lives, like a drunken sailor on a mast, 
 Eeady with every nod to tumble down." 
 
 Where, then, dissatisfied with the descriptions to 
 which I have referred, shall we obtain such an 
 accurate definition as will commend itself to all ? I 
 would suggest the definition which has been given 
 of truth itself, — that which has been accepted always, 
 everywhere, and by all. I would define common 
 sense to be the consensus of thoughtful men through- 
 out the ages, the unanimous verdict of the experience 
 of life, the effluence of principles which cannot change, 
 expressing itself in proverbs which convince the 
 world. 
 
 If it can be shown that there is not only an exact 
 agreement between this common sense, so defined, and 
 Christianity, but that revelation is the development 
 of reason, leading us from the finite to the infinite, a 
 
CHRISTIANITY AND COMMON SENSE. 1 9 
 
 light unto our feet and a lantern unto our paths when 
 the mind is wandering in the dark — especially when 
 all those who have made it in an honest and good 
 heart entreat us to follow their example, not only with 
 their lips but by their lives ; why, then it must be 
 clearly the wildest and most perilous of all follies to 
 neglect so great a salvation. So now to our tests. 
 
 The common sense of humanity craves for happi- 
 ness ; it sighs, " Happiness, our being's end and 
 aim ! " and considering the varied circumstances in 
 which we are placed, it differs little in its idea of 
 happiness, — health, plenty, independent freedom, suc- 
 cessful work, the love of those around us. Experi- 
 ments which have been made everywhere, in all time 
 as now, to find happiness in mere selfishness, in 
 eating and drinking, in the gratification of fleshly 
 lusts, in idleness, in getting money anyhow we can, 
 in having our own way, have failed to find it, as they 
 fail to-day. 
 
 " Rapt Antony in reckless love pursued her, 
 Brutus in glory, Caesar in dominion : — 
 The first found shame, the next satiety, 
 The last ingratitude— and all destruction." 
 
 The world has always seen that which it sees now ; 
 it has seen " sorrow dogging sin." When men have 
 well drunk of its pleasures, then that which is worse 
 — " the wine which showeth its colour in the cup, 
 when it moveth aright, at the last biteth like a serpent 
 and stingeth like an adder." The head aches longer 
 than the throat is pleased, and a man's heaviness, 
 
20 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 which may have been refreshed long before it came 
 to drunkenness, when it arrives thither has but 
 exchanged one sorrow for another, and taken a sin 
 to boot.* The painted face, which looked so fair 
 smiling in the lamplight, is haggard and wretched by 
 the light of day. 
 
 Yes, the world has always seen what it sees now, 
 in so many homes, hospitals, asylums, gaols, and 
 workhouses — poverty, and misery, and disgrace, dis- 
 ease, corruption, consumption, paralysis, following 
 upon drunkenness, lust, and sloth. So that wise men 
 in all climes and times have left this as the result of 
 their observations — that he who would find happi- 
 ness in this world must seek it in something better, 
 higher, nobler, purer than mere animal pleasures — 
 the mere gratification of self. The most patient and 
 profound thinkers of this world, notably the great 
 philosophers of Greece and Rome, have unanimously 
 recorded their belief that there was a right and a 
 wroncr — a false and a true — and that he who would 
 know such happiness as this world can give could 
 only learn it in the schools of thought and duty. 
 " Set your mind on wisdom and on doing good to 
 your country and to your fellows, and you will find 
 the best life to be the happiest." f Even Epicurus, 
 though his teaching and his life were so corrupt, yet 
 professed his belief that life without virtue could not 
 be happy; and thousands confessed, with the queen 
 in the tragedy, " I kno\v that I am doing that which 
 * Jeremy Taylor. t Seneca. 
 
CHRISTIANITY AND COMMON SENSE. 21 
 
 is wicked, but my passion overpowers my principle. 
 I am conscious of the right ; I do the wrong." And 
 all the religions of the world, just as they have 
 evidenced their approximations or departures from 
 divine truth, by ennobling or degrading the lives of 
 those who professed them, have taught more or less 
 earnestly that happiness consisted in these endeavours 
 to eschew evil and to do good. 
 
 However deformed by those proofs of their human 
 origin, which the author of "Juventus Mundi," in 
 speaking of. the Olympian system, has so aptly termed 
 " depraved accommodations " (as, for example, in the 
 religion of Islam, founded by Mahomet, the Mussul- 
 man substitutes formalism and self-righteousness for 
 heart-worship and humility), yet the}^ have ever 
 associated the happier with the better life. So in the 
 religion of Buddha, when a Deva inquired from him, 
 "How many men, when they were yearning for 
 happiness, have held various things to be blessings ; 
 do thou declare to us the chief good," — he answered, 
 *' It comes to us in good works, right desires of the 
 heart, self-control and pleasant speech, love of parents, 
 wife, and children, almsgiving, temperance, reverence, 
 contentment, patience, resignation." And it is because 
 Christianity, being divine, cannot condone error, but 
 must speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing 
 but the truth, because it comes to us from Him, the 
 Author of all happiness, that we find in our love for 
 its Founder, and in our obedience to His precepts, the 
 nearest approach to pure happiness which we can 
 
22 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 know on earth ; in foretastes, gleams, intimations of 
 that sweet peace and felicity which man had in Eden, 
 has in Paradise, and will have for ever in Heaven. 
 
 Now, entering more into detail, and in endeavour- 
 ing to state the arguments of common sense as fairly 
 and fully as I can, I would endeavour to show that 
 Christianity is profitable unto all things, having 
 promise of the life that now is, and of that which is 
 to come; that it not only withholds no good thing 
 from us, nothing which is really good, but introduces 
 us to much which we should not otherwise know; 
 that it forbids no enjoyments except those which 
 must end in pain, and that every duty which it 
 enjoins, which, though for the present it seemeth not 
 joyous but grievous, nevertheless afterwards worketh 
 the recompense of a sure reward. 
 
 First, we are assured by our common sense that 
 health is an indispensable element of happiness ; and 
 accepting this as a rule (with signal exceptions), I 
 would ask in what book shall we find the sure laws 
 of health so plainly set forth as in the New Testa- 
 ment — in Christianity ? What keeps mind and body 
 strong and sound ? Why, those habits of temperance 
 (not in drink only — St. Paul says, " he that striveth 
 for the mastery is temperate in all things" — in his 
 language, for example, and in his self-esteem), that 
 regular employment of our abilities in our daily duty, 
 that cheerful contentment, which are everywhere 
 taught by precept and example in the revelation 
 of Jesus Christ. 
 
CHRISTIANITY AND COMMON SENSE, 23 
 
 And SO it comes to pass under this new covenant, 
 as under the old, the voice of joy and health is in 
 the dwellings of the righteous, "the hearts of them 
 rejoice that seek the Lord," and the Apostle quotes 
 the Psalmist to show that he who would love life 
 and see good days, must depart from evil and do good, 
 seek, not pleasure but, peace. Now, as when Solomon 
 spoke it, " the sleep of the labouring man is sweet," 
 and " the abundance of the rich," the superabundance, 
 which he might have shared with others, " will not 
 suffer him to sleep." It is just as true now as then, 
 that the drunkard and the glutton shall come to 
 poverty, and drowsiness clothe a man with rags. 
 Solomon says, "The idle soul shall suffer hunger." 
 St. Paul says, " If a man will not work, neither shall 
 he eat." " Oh, but," it may be said, " there are scores 
 of idle folks who never suffer from hunger ; there are 
 lots of people who don't work who have plenty to 
 eat." But does any one with common sense suppose 
 for a moment that the idle man, or rather the animal 
 — for he is not a man who never uses his mind or 
 his muscles, who does no manner of work — that he 
 has the same enjoyment of his food as the man who 
 earns it? What is the main object of all those 
 Worcestershire and Harvey sauces, those ketchups and 
 pick-me-ups, those anchovies and cayenne peppers, but 
 to titilate the palates and stimulate the torpid appetites 
 of idle greedy men? Three-fourths of the ailments 
 which afflict the body result from excess in eating and 
 drinking ; and German spas and Harrogate waters and 
 
24 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 Turkish baths, and all the establishments for starving 
 and sweating, had never been known if Christians 
 had regulated their diet by the rules of Christianity. 
 
 Do you remember the wise word of Stephenson, 
 the great engineer, when there was a discussion in 
 his presence as to the use of strong medicine and 
 the power of the lancet ? — " Never waste your s6eam, 
 never waste your steam ; rake out your fire, rake out 
 your fire." Better still he might have added, " Don't 
 make your fire too hot, or there will be an explosion, 
 brain-disease, heart-disease, dropsy, delirium." Yet 
 when common sense and Christianity both say to us, 
 " Prevention is better than cure," we profess to assent, 
 but in act deny it. 
 
 Reason and religion tell us that moderation, self- 
 denial, abstinence, are good both for body and soul, 
 but we will have nothing to do with them until a 
 surfeit or a sickness takes away the appetite, or the 
 doctor threatens and alarms. If we Christians were 
 true to our vows, if we kept our word with God as we 
 keep it with our fellow-men, if, as we were taught in 
 childhood, we kept our bodies in temperance, soberness, 
 and chastity, we should need no solemn pledges, and no 
 blue ribbons in our coats, to restrain us from excess. 
 
 Again, common sense tells us we must have the 
 means of preserving health. We must have enough 
 for our needs. And does not religion concur ? I have 
 heard men of business and I have heard working 
 men speak as though Christianity was opposed to 
 bujang and selling, and getting gain; but I find its 
 
CHRISTIANITY AND COMMON SENSE. 2$ 
 
 Founder, on the contrary, commending those who had 
 
 gained by trading, and condemning the man who had 
 
 made no use or increase of his capital. 
 
 Religion says to us, get as much wealth as you can, 
 
 but get it honestly ; because a false balance, a false 
 
 sample, a false brand, is abomination unto the Lord ; 
 
 because, as it is written, a faithful man, a man " whom 
 
 you can trust," shall abound with blessings : but he 
 
 that maketh haste to be rich, he who is not satisfied 
 
 with a fair profit, a fair wage, he who speculates and 
 
 gambles, "shall not be innocent." Woe unto him 
 
 that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, that useth 
 
 his neighbour's service without wage ! Christianity 
 
 forbids no man to get wealth, but it does forbid him 
 
 from loving it for its own sake, from hoarding it, 
 
 from spending it on self. It shows the rich man a 
 
 thousand ways in which, giving back to Him who 
 
 giveth all, he may consecrate his riches to the glory 
 
 of his God and the happiness of his fellow-men, and 
 
 may change his gold and silver for an inheritance 
 
 incorruptible, safe in the treasuries of heaven. It is 
 
 with money as with all things else, it has its use and 
 
 abuse. If men spend it wisely and generously, they 
 
 are happier in the happiness of others. They know 
 
 one of the sweetest pleasures which can be had on 
 
 earth, "the luxury of doing good; " but Shakespeare 
 
 says to the man who heaps up riches for himself — 
 
 " If thou art rich, thou'rt poor ; 
 Like the poor ass whose back's with ingots bound, 
 Thou bear'st thy heavy burden but a journey, 
 And death unloadeth thee." 
 
26 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 " I was a far happier man/' said one of our great 
 merchants, " when I was a poor clerk in Liverpool, 
 with £50 a year, than I am now with my great 
 mansions, and servants, and carriages, and horses, and 
 half a million of money." And another, whose health 
 was undermined by his restless craving for riches, 
 " Oh, believe me, you may buy gold too dear." It is 
 not what a man has, but what he is, that makes him 
 happy. "A man's life," our Lord declares to us, 
 '* consisteth not in the abundance of the things which 
 he possesses." His real, true, happy life consists in 
 being satisfied with what he has, and making the 
 best of it. And it is Christianity alone which teaches 
 a man to say, " I have learned, in whatsoever state I 
 am, therewith to be content." 
 
 One morning, as I was going into church for our 
 daily service, an old man, whom I had known and 
 esteemed for many years, as a most sincere, con- 
 sistent, humble-minded Christian, always bright and 
 cheerful, though infirm and very poor, came to me 
 leaning on his two sticks, and said, " If you please, 
 sir, could you say that thanksgiving prayer this morn- 
 ing, for I'm eighty years old to-day, and I should 
 like to give thanks to God for all the mercies He 
 has sent to me." Not many weeks ago that old man 
 died, and the last words he spoke to me as I sat by 
 his bedside were these : " I'm not dying in darkness ; 
 I'm dying in the Light of Life." I ask common 
 sense, is it not worth while to make trial of a religion 
 which through a long life " gratefully receives what 
 
CHRISTIANITY AND COMMON SENSE, 27 
 
 Heaven has sent, and rich in poverty enjoys con- 
 tent/' and which brings a man such peace at the 
 last? 
 
 In addition to health, competence, and contentment, 
 it is the verdict of public opinion, that is, of our 
 common sense, that there can be no real happiness 
 without freedom from anything like slavery — liberty 
 of thought, word, and action. Christianity not only 
 endorses this conviction, but it explains what real 
 independence is, and puts it within reach of all. 
 First of all, it does away with shams and counter- 
 feits, rubs the varnish off the rotten wood, and the 
 electroplate from the pewter. It shows us that " he 
 is a freeman, whom the Truth makes free, and all 
 are slaves beside." They may rule kingdoms, com- 
 mand armies, have great houses full of servants, great 
 factories full of operatives ; but if they cannot rule 
 their passions, govern their tempers, they are slaves 
 to the hardest of all masters, and the most cruel of 
 all tyrants — they are the servants of sin. They may 
 boast of their liberty, just as the Jews said they 
 were never in bondage to any man, when they were 
 not only under a Roman Governor, but tied and 
 bound with the chains of ignorance and its twin 
 brother pride. As under the cap o£ liberty there has 
 been bloodshed, and burning, and pillage ; as a man 
 may call himself a free and independent elector who 
 has just got £2 for his vote ; as we hear men sing- 
 ing "Rule Britannia" in our streets, and that 
 " Britons never, never, never, never shall be slaves," 
 
28 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 when they are abject menials of drink — so there are 
 multitudes who talk of freedom who don't know, or 
 rather won't know, what it is to be free, for he that 
 committeth sin is the servant of sin — the most de- 
 grading slavery of all, which " drags at each remove 
 a lengthening chain." How it separates a man from 
 his manliness ! How it silences " the merry laugh of 
 boyhood " ! How it destroys the blushing beauty of 
 girlhood — the " shame which is a glory and grace " ! 
 
 A cruel yoke and hard weight of servitude it is to 
 be subject to the things of time, to be ambitious of 
 the things of earth, to cling to falling things, to seek 
 to stand on things that stand not, to desire things 
 that pass away, but to be unwilling to pass away with 
 them. For while all things fly away against our 
 wish, those things which had at first harassed the 
 mind in desire of gaining them, now oppress it with 
 fear of losing them.* 
 
 What a mean object is that boisterous Briton 
 reeling homeward to his sick wife and starving 
 children ! What a despicable, deceitful sneak is that 
 seducer who designs the ruin of his neighbour's 
 daughter, or the dishonour of his wife ! What evil 
 schemes are in his heart! What hypocrisies in his 
 acts ! What lies on his lips ! What hiding and 
 prowling in the dark ! for " the way of the wicked is 
 as darkness ; they know not at what they stumble." 
 And all the while the fearful apprehensions of dis- 
 covery, of the father's, the husband's vengeance, of 
 
 * St. Gregory, 
 
CHRISTIANITY AND COMMON SENSE. 29 
 
 public exposure and contempt ; all the while a gloomy 
 consciousness that their life is false and wrong. 
 
 My brothers, men disgusted with sin, seeking 
 pardon and peace, seeking a Saviour, open their 
 hearts sometimes to us His ministers, and they tell 
 us such things as these ; *' I remember the time when 
 I shrank from kissing my own little daughter — I felt 
 so polluted and foul ; I remember when I went home 
 one night and found my wife, with whom I had dealt 
 so treacherously, kneeling by her bedside in prayer. 
 I felt as if God struck me." 
 
 Who, then, is free ? I repeat the promise of the 
 Master, "The truth shall make you free," and I 
 testify to its fulfilment with all true believers : " He 
 that is called in the Lord, though he be a servant, 
 is the Lord's freeman," for the service of God is per- 
 fect freedom. He is free who, with a conscience void 
 of offence towards God and man, is striving to do his 
 duty to both. The only perfect liberty is the glorious 
 liberty of the children of God. The only real in- 
 dependence is that which " looks the whole world in 
 the face, and owes not any man ; " which does not 
 care to ask in an anxious wonderment. What will 
 folks think ? what will neighbours say ? because it 
 weighs its motives and measures its actions by the 
 scales and standards of God. It is not afraid of the 
 scornful reproof of the wealthy, nor of the despite- 
 fulness of the proud, — never afraid to speak the truth 
 and to stand up for the right. They who have thjs 
 true liberty know better than to do homs^ _ ^ _ 
 
 •^ /7° OF TKE 
 
 { ^N/VERSITV 
 
 V r °^ • 
 
30 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN, 
 
 service to a world which, were they to die to-morrow, 
 would think itself every whit as well, and go on quite 
 as merrily, without them. " Their death a nine days' 
 wonder," as yours and mine will be. But what of 
 that, if the part which cannot die is safe for eternity ? 
 Common sense suggests another element of happi- 
 ness — the good will of our fellow-men. A man may 
 profess to disregard it, and may set his hat on one 
 side and put his hands in his pockets, and sing with 
 the Scotch miller, " I care for nobody, and nobody 
 cares for me ; " but he is a gregarious animal, and 
 must have sympathies. To be happy he must love 
 and be loved. But you cannot buy love, for the 
 merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of 
 silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold. You 
 may buy admiration, praise, adulation ; but you can- 
 not buy love. Common sense longs for it, but cannot 
 find it. Philosophy never defined it. Philanthropy 
 lives in the precincts, but has not entered the shrine. 
 Only religion, Christianity, tells us what it is and 
 bestows it. It is the communion of the soul rising 
 heavenward in thankful adoration unto Him who 
 made, who redeemed, and who sanctifies. " We love 
 Him, because He first loved us;" and then " this com- 
 mandment have we from Him, that we who love 
 God love our brother also." It is the communion of 
 the heart with its fellow-men in a sympathy which 
 includes them all Because Christianity alone reveals 
 to us the dignity and the danger of each individual 
 soul. 
 
CHRISTIANITY AND COMMON SENSE. 3 1 
 
 When I realize how precious my own life is (" when 
 I survey the wondrous Cross "), and see the price that 
 has been paid to save it, and when at the same time 
 I am conscious that I may neglect and lose so great 
 a salvation ; when I contrast the divine intentions 
 with my feeble selfish life ; when I contrast what has 
 been with what might have been done ; when I think 
 of the failures of the past and the temptations of the 
 present; — why, then I realize the worth and the 
 peril of your soul, my brother ; of every living man 
 in His sight, who is no respecter of persons, and I 
 seem to have a brother's sadness in your sorrows, and 
 a brother's gladness in your hopes. And this love 
 creates love. Like a bugle among the hills and dales, 
 it " sets the echoes flying." To be at enmity with 
 God is to be at enmity with man. " When I was in 
 opposition to Thee," writes a saint, " I was contrary 
 to myself and to all men." * 
 
 Acquaint, therefore, thyself with Him, and be at 
 peace. Seek His love ; for all the things thou canst 
 desire are not to be compared unto it. It is to all 
 mere human afiection as the daylight to a taper's 
 flame ; nay, it is brighter, warmer than the sun itself, 
 for it is the smile of a loving God. 
 
 o 
 
 ♦ St. Bernard. 
 
III. 
 WORK. 
 
 " To every mau his work."— St. Mark xiii. 34. 
 
 I HAVE spoken of work, successful work, as being, 
 according to the common sense, the consensus, of 
 intelligent men, a chief element of human happiness. 
 What does Christianity teach ? The working men 
 heard Christ gladly, not only because He was one of 
 themselves, and they had seen Him at the carpenter's 
 bench, with the saw and the hammer in His hand, 
 but because He taught by precept and example the 
 duty and the dignity and the happiness of work. 
 
 The civilization and philosophy of Greece and 
 Rome regarded with disdain the hewers of wood and 
 drawers of water; -rich men treated their "slaves," 
 as they called them, as mere machines and beasts of 
 burden, and they laughed at Cicero when he spoke, 
 with tears in his eyes, of some old servant who had 
 died. Christianity brought a new light, a new life, a 
 new hope, a new happiness, to the working man, and 
 all the circumstances of the Incarnation, all that they 
 
woRfC. 33 
 
 saw of the Incarnate, and all they heard from His 
 lips, were irresistible appeals to their sympathy. 
 
 When God sent His angels to proclaim to a fallen 
 world, " Unto you is born this day in the city of David 
 a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord," when 
 
 " The praises of redeeming love they sang, 
 And heaven's whole orb with Alleluias rang," 
 
 who heard the first notes of that glorious song ? It 
 was not sung in kings' palaces, nor in schools of 
 philosophy, but to rough shepherds keeping watch by 
 night, at work, on duty. And when 
 
 " To Bethlehem straight the enlightened shepherds ran, 
 To see the wonders God had wrought for man, 
 They found with Joseph and the Blessed Maid 
 Her Son, the Saviour, in a manger laid." 
 
 Who shall complain of his mean raiment or his 
 humble home when he thinks of the Divine Babe 
 wrapped in swaddling-clothes that winter's night in 
 the stable, for " there was no room for them in the 
 inn"? 
 
 And when He grew to man's estate, and those 
 very hands which were made hard with work 
 touched the blind eyes and they saw, the deaf and 
 the dumb and they heard and spoke — nay, the dead 
 and they rose to life again— well might men cry 
 in their surprise of astonishment, " Is not this the 
 carpenter ? " 
 
 Whom did He select to establish His kingdom and 
 
34 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 to convert the world ? I suppose that, of all those 
 first great Apostolic missioners, St. Paul was the only- 
 one who had received the highest form of education ; 
 and he, as he tells us, worked with his own hands, 
 and when he came from preaching in the synagogue 
 wrought with Aquila and Priscilla in tent-making, 
 having learned the same occupation. Our Lord re- 
 garded not the clever disputers of this world, the 
 famous orators and preachers, the learned expounders 
 of the law, the erudite scribes, the pretentious Phari- 
 sees, but He chose the foolish things of the world to 
 confound the wise, and the weak to confound the 
 mighty. Well might that world wonder when Peter 
 the fisherman spake to the poor cripple, " Silver and 
 gold have I none ... in the Name of Jesus Christ of 
 Nazareth rise and walk," and he, leaping up, stood 
 and walked. Well might the rulers and elders, and 
 Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas, gather together 
 in their perplexity, when many which heard the 
 Word believed, and the number was about five 
 thousand. " And when they saw the boldness of 
 Peter and John, and perceived that they were un- 
 learned and ignorant men, they marvelled, and 
 took knowledge of them, that they had been with 
 Jesus." 
 
 • So you see, my brothers, how Christianity exalts, 
 ennobles, consecrates, work. God has condescended 
 to reveal Himself, through His Son, as a working 
 God. " My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." 
 "With all reverence be it spoken," writes Bishop 
 
WORK. 35 
 
 Christopher Wordsworth, " the Architect, Painter, and 
 Sculptor of the universe is Almighty God." Hence 
 the name ^-nfiiovpyoQ, " Worker for the people," was 
 given to Him by the Platonic school of philosophy 
 and by the Christian Fathers. Some speak of creation 
 as though the Creator had made and left it, a perfect 
 piece of self-acting machinery, which would regulate 
 itself, and go on for ever ; but God worketh, governs 
 and maintains, and " as surely as the light fails when 
 the sun sets," writes St. Augustine, "so would all 
 nature collapse if God withdrew His providential 
 care." 
 
 " And I work." None ever worked as Christ 
 worked. As a child, in the perfect obedience of love ; 
 as a boy, in learning wisdom, both hearing and 
 asking questions from the wise, God's appointed 
 teachers ; as a man, bodily in hard daily labour, and 
 spiritually in preparation for His ministry; and 
 when the time came that He must show Himself to 
 the world, how patiently He persevered in the work 
 which His Father had given Him to do, until by His 
 Agony and Bloody Sweat, by His Cross and Passion, 
 it was finished on earth, and begun in the souls 
 which He nourishes with His grace, and in which, 
 by the Holy Communion of His Body and His Blood, 
 He fulfils His most loving promise, " I will not leave 
 you comfortless, I will come to you ; " begun in 
 heaven, where He ever liveth to make intercession 
 for us, and is preparing for them that love Him such 
 good things as pass man's understanding. 
 
36 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 Christianity not only abolished slavery, but taught 
 the dignity and happiness of work. It was still 
 
 " The primal curse, 
 But softened into mercy, made the pledge 
 Of cheerful days and nights without a groan." 
 
 It largely restored that enjoyment of labour which 
 man knew when he was first placed by his Maker in 
 a garden to dress and to keep it, and which he would 
 have always welcomed, without pain or weariness, if 
 he had not abused his freedom. There would have 
 been no sweating and grinding, no ache of brow or 
 limb, no poisonous fumes, no blackening smoke, had 
 there been no sin. Wherever it produces suffering 
 or disease, it is because of a selfishness which is sin ; 
 but wherever it is honest work well done, it brings 
 happiness. It may. at first be irksome, but from a 
 brave patience it becomes a habit, and then content- 
 ment and joy. It matters not what or where our 
 work may be, work of the hand or the head ; whether 
 we be masters or servants, rich or poor, clever or 
 dull; whether we command an ironclad or stoke 
 its fires; whether our work be in the study or the 
 counting-house, in the factory or the field, high up 
 on the builder's scafibld or low down in the mine ; — 
 the question which you and I shall have to answer 
 at last will be, not. Where were you placed ? but, 
 Did you make the most of your position ? — not. What 
 kind of work did you do ? but. Did you do your 
 best? 
 
 And so to every man, whether he does it or not, 
 
God gives liim a work to do. Whether he does it or 
 no is not your affair, except that you are bound, as 
 a Christian, to help him if you can, to "bear one 
 another's burdens ; " and the best help you can give 
 him is by example. Beyond this, what he does or 
 leaves undone is no concern of yours. " Who art thou 
 that judgest another ? to his own Master he shall 
 stand or fall ; '* " Every man must give account of 
 himself unto God ; " " Every man shall receive the 
 reward of his own labour ; " " The soul that sinneth, 
 it shall die ; " " Let every man prove his own work, 
 for every man shall bear his own burden." 
 
 "To every man his work;" and therefore all evasions 
 and excuses, all idleness, are a shameful degradation 
 of our manhood and a mean abuse of our liberty ; 
 they are rebellious and offensive to God, and they 
 are an injustice and a deprivation to mankind, where- 
 as every honest work well done is acceptable and 
 well pleasing, beautiful in His all-seeing sight, and 
 helpful to His creatures. God gives it (if it is not 
 for the use, comfort, and happiness of your fellow-men 
 it is none of His), and therefore, whatever it be, it is 
 honourable in His esteem. Whether it be simple or 
 scientific, for the hands or the head, in the dockyard 
 or the barracks, on land or sea, whether you are 
 working for yourself or for others, you are in God's 
 employment, and you are responsible to Him, not for 
 the kind of task which was given — that is fixed — 
 but for the manner in which you have accepted and 
 achieved it. 
 
38 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 We are too apt, looking only at results, to forget 
 and to underrate the labour whicli has produced 
 them. We admire the great ships steaming out 
 to sea, the express engine gliding over the rails at 
 fifty miles an hour; but we have never a thought 
 of the strong men toiling in dark mines for the iron 
 and the coal, without which these had never been. 
 As we gaze upon our grand cathedrals and churches, 
 with their exquisite carving in wood and stone, we 
 shall do well to remember not only the builder and 
 the graver, Bezaleel and Aholiab, but those who, like 
 Solomon's and Hiram's workmen three thousand years 
 ago, prepared the stone and the timber, and bore the 
 burden and heat of the day. 
 
 We rejoice in the records of our victory, and repeat 
 to our children the names of our heroes; but these 
 warriors, generals, and admirals would be the first to 
 tell you that their battles were won by the brave 
 obedience of the soldiers and sailors whom they led. 
 The field-marshal and the bugler, the architect and 
 the mason, the engineer and the navvy, must all 
 work together. As St. Paul told the Corinthians, 
 " The body is not one member, but many. . . . The eye 
 cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee ; 
 neither the head to the feet, I have no need of you. 
 Nay, much more those members of the body, which 
 seem to be more feeble are necessary." 
 
 A ship may be saved or lost in a storm through 
 the strong work or the scamp-work of a carpenter, 
 as through the good seamanship or the ignorance of 
 
WORK. 39 
 
 a captain. It is written that " if there is a readiness 
 of will, there will be a performance also of that which 
 we have ; for if there be first a willing mind, it is 
 accepted according to that a man hath, and not 
 accordinor to that he hath not." 
 
 And so he is a nobleman in God's peerage, who 
 goes out every morning, it may be, from the humblest 
 of homes to his work and to his labour until the 
 evening, with a determination, as working for a 
 heavenly Master, to do his best ; and no titles which 
 this world can bestow, no money which was ever 
 coined, can bring a man who does no work within 
 the sunshine of God's love. Solomon knew, and 
 Solomon said, " The sleep of the labouring man is 
 sweet, whether he eat little or much : but the abun- 
 dance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep." Weari- 
 ness will snore upon the flint, while sloth finds the 
 down pillow hard. 
 
 So that we must never be so unjust and foolish 
 as to despise any work, however subordinate, or to 
 think more highly of ourselves than we ought to 
 think, because we are placed in more prominent 
 positions, and seem to have more important duties 
 to perform ; because we may have servants instead 
 of serving, better homes, clothing, or food ; but should 
 rather pass the time of our sojourning here in fear 
 of our greater responsibilities, and of the words of our 
 Lord Jesus which He spake : " How hardly shall 
 they that have riches enter into the kingdom of 
 heaven 1 " " Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime 
 
40 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 hadst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil 
 things; but now he is comforted, and thou art 
 tormented," 
 
 The only man who has no claim upon your i-espect, 
 but much claim upon your pity, is the man who 
 does no work, or as little and as badly as he can. 
 Sometimes you hear it said, " Such a one is well-to- 
 do ; he has a good income ; he has no need to work." 
 He has all the more need, because he has larger 
 opportunities for working to the glory of Him who 
 has given him the means, and to the good of his 
 fellow-men. 
 
 Do you believe in the man with his hands in his 
 pockets and his pipe always in his mouth ? Would 
 you choose him for your friend ? Would you go to 
 him for advice ? Can you envy him ? Can you think 
 for one moment that he who does no work — a fruit- 
 less tree, a well without water — is happier than the 
 man who has been using the power which God gave 
 him for his own good and that of his neighbour ? 
 
 It is in all ranks of society, in every period of life, 
 a great deception to think that others are happier 
 than we are, and so to covet and desire other men's 
 goods. David himself was grieved to see the ungodly 
 in such prosperity ; they seemed to come to no mis- 
 fortune like other folk; but he went to the place 
 where he had met them in their pride and finery, 
 and they were gone — perished. No more jealousy, 
 no more complaint. "I would rather be a door- 
 keeper," he said, " in the house of my God, than dwell 
 
WORK. 41 
 
 in the tents of ungodliness/' even as another of God's 
 heroes, Moses, "refused to be called the son of 
 Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer afflic- 
 tion with the people of God, than to enjoy the 
 pleasures of sin for a season." 
 
 There are other motives, and good motives too, 
 which induce men to work, and to work well. It is 
 a righteous ambition to desire success and to use our 
 energies to obtain it— "to gain by trading." It is 
 honest and just to say, *'I receive payment, on the 
 understanding that I will be industrious and earn 
 the wages I receive, and I mean to be true to my 
 engagement." And that is a true and tender affection 
 which works to sustain those who are nearest and 
 dearest to the worker's heart, and needs not the warn- 
 ing of the Apostle, "He that provideth not for his 
 own, and especially for those of his own house, hath 
 denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel." There 
 are few sadder sights than the home of the sluggard, 
 the drunkard, the gambler, where there is want 
 instead of plenty, dirt instead of cleanliness, and 
 misery where there might be peace. 
 
 I repeat that men may be industrious, honest, and 
 affectionate from the motives which I have named ; 
 but, by themselves, these 'are weak against temp- 
 tation, and, at the best, they promote only our 
 temporal welfare. The work which God has given 
 every man to do includes not only to work for the 
 body, but for the soul ; not only for earth, but heaven. 
 " Work out your salvation ; " and there is only one 
 
42 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 principle, one conviction, which can constrain us per- 
 sistently to do our best— the belief that we are the 
 servants of One who is no respecter of persons, and 
 who, whether we fulfil or neglect our duties, whether 
 we watch and pray, or whether we say, " My Lord 
 delayeth His coming," and begin to smite our fellow- 
 servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken, will 
 come when we look not for Him, and will reward 
 every man according to his works. 
 
 This acknowledgment will act upon our lives and 
 conversation through the two most powerful agents 
 which influence our thoughts and words and actions 
 — fear and love. We know what fear is with regard 
 to those placed over us on earth, of disobedient 
 children towards their parents, of idle scholars to- 
 wards their teachers, of criminals on trial towards 
 those who try them, of the deceitful and unfaithful 
 towards their friends, of dishonest men towards their 
 employers — the fear of being found out and punished. 
 How much more, then, should we be afraid of offend- 
 ing our heavenly Father, our divine Teacher, the 
 Holy Spirit sent to teach us all things, the only 
 Saviour, the righteous Judge, the Master who has 
 given to every man his work, the Lord of the vine- 
 yard who when the even is come will say unto 
 His steward, "Call the labourers and give them 
 their hire/* 
 
 We may evade condemnation and chastisement by 
 false excuses to our earthly masters, but " the eyes of 
 the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and 
 
woRic. 43 
 
 the good." The voice which Adam heard when he 
 thought to hide himself among the trees of the 
 garden speaks to every guilty ear, "Where art thou ?" 
 — to every one who is faint-hearted and afraid, and 
 shrinks from the work which God has given him, 
 " What doest thou here, Elijah ? " — and to all who 
 forget Him and go on still in their wickedness, 
 "These things hast thou done, and thou thoughtest 
 wickedly that I am even such an one as thyself; but 
 I will reprove thee, and set before thee the things 
 that thou hast done." 
 
 The time comes to every man, but to some it 
 comes too late, when 
 
 *' The ghosts of forgotten actions 
 
 Are floating before his sight, 
 And things which he thought were dead tilings 
 
 Are alive with a terrible might ; 
 And the vision of all his p^st lifQ 
 
 Is an awful thing to face, 
 Alone with his conscience, sitting 
 
 In some solemn, silent place." 
 
 Wherefore it is written, " The fear of the Lord is the 
 beginning of wisdom;" " Pass the time of your sojourn- 
 ing here in fear." 
 
 But we have a revelation from Himself that God is 
 love, and though He is greatly to be feared even in 
 the council of His saints, and to be had in reverence 
 of all those that are round about Him, yet the mercy 
 of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon 
 them that fear Him, until perfect love casteth out fear. 
 And I would ask again, if our love of earthly parents 
 is so intense and indelible, what bound can there be 
 
44 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 to our devoted aflfection for Him who made them 
 and us ? 
 
 " No eartlil y father loves like Thee ; 
 No mother, e'er so mild, 
 Bears and forbears as Thou hast done 
 With me, Tliy sinful child." 
 
 Very marvellous are the records, very marvellous 
 is our own experience, of the power of human love. 
 Jacob's long service, beneath the burning heat of the 
 summer day and in the piercing cold of the winter 
 night, for Rachel. Ruth's anxious prayer, "Entreat 
 me not to leave thee, nor to return from following 
 after thee : for whither thou goest, I w^ill go ; and 
 where thou lodges t, I will lodge : thy people shall be 
 my people, and thy God my God : where thou diest, 
 will I die, and there will I be buried : the Lord do 
 so to me, and more also, if aught but death part 
 thee and me." David's lamentation, " I am distressed 
 for thee, my brother Jonathan: very pleasant hast 
 thou been unto me : thy love to me was wonderful, 
 passing the love of women." Or again, "And the 
 king was much moved, and went up to his chamber 
 over the gate; and as he went, thus he said, O 
 my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom ! would 
 God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my 
 son!" 
 
 And you yourselves also know the intense affec- 
 tion, faithful unto death, of parents and children, 
 husbands and wives, friends for friends; but "God 
 so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten 
 
WORK, 45 
 
 Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not 
 perish, but should have everlasting life ; " and Christ 
 so loved the world that He took upon Him the form 
 of a servant, and though He was despised and rejected 
 of men, He humbled Himself even to the death upon 
 the Cross. Men have died in fire and water to save 
 others, men have died in battle for their country ; 
 but Christ, and Christ only^ died for His enemies. 
 
 " For the love of God is broader 
 
 Than the measure of man's mind, 
 And the heart of the Eternal 
 Is most wonderfully kind." 
 
 If, then, we fear the censure of our rulers and 
 employers and teachers on earth, the loss of influence 
 or money from not doing our work, or doing it badly ; 
 and if, on the other hand, we take pleasure in it and 
 do it with our might because we love him for whom 
 we do it, or love the work itself; how much more 
 should we stand in awe of that terrible voice of most 
 just judgment, " Depart ... I never knew you ; " "Out 
 of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked 
 servant " ! What, if a promise being left to us of 
 coming into His rest, any of us should seem to come 
 short of it ! What, if we should see the glories and 
 hear the music of heaven, and then the golden gates 
 should be shut, and we in outer darkness ! 
 
 On the other side, if obedience is so easy when we 
 not only love those who command, but know that they 
 will reward us generously ; if we follow so readily and 
 Ijravely those whom we trust ; how much more humbly, 
 
46 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 yet heartily, should we do our duty in that state of 
 life to which He is pleased to call us, who is our 
 Master, our Saviour, and Judge ! 
 
 Again, if children go to their parents, pupils to their 
 teachers, they who serve to those who rule in a 
 household, they who work in the fields to the farmer, 
 apprentices to a foreman, clerks to a chief, soldiers 
 and sailors to their officers, to ask and to receive 
 instruction, how much more should we go to our 
 Master in heaven and pray to Him for guidance in 
 all the work, temporal and spiritual, which He has 
 given us to do, having His promise which cannot fail, 
 that He will give His Holy Spirit, if we ask in faith, 
 nothing doubting (in His own time and way, not in 
 ours, for we know not what to pray for as we ought), 
 to guide us into all truth and to strengthen us in all 
 good works ? " If ye, being evil, know how to give good 
 gifts unto your children, how much more shall your 
 Father which is in heaven give good things to them 
 that ask Him ? " If in all our vocations, trades, and 
 professions we require written rules and directions, 
 grammars, dictionaries, text-books, red-books, which 
 will inform and not mislead us, shall we not often 
 and anxiously search the Holy Scriptures, which are 
 able to make us wise unto salvation through faith 
 which is in Christ Jesus ? 
 
 And to us especially, to whom, all unworthy as we 
 are, is committed the sacred work of the ministry, 
 these commands are given to pray and study God's 
 Word. How can we expect men to comply when we 
 
WORK. 4/ 
 
 repeat St. Paul's injunction, "Let a man so account 
 of us as ministers of Christ and stewards of the 
 mysteries of Christ," unless, as of old, they take 
 knowledge that we have been with Jesus, and have 
 our instructions as well as our authority from Him ? 
 How shall we entreat you to pray, in secret, with 
 your families, and in the house of prayer, if we are 
 not fervent in our own supplications ? How summon 
 you to worship unless we give you frequent oppor-. 
 t unities to meet and join with us in the place of 
 worship, unless the houses of God are open con- 
 tinually and free to all ? How shall we invite 
 others to the gospel feast, to Holy Communion, 
 to the Supper of the Lord, unless we ourselves come 
 often holy and clean to such a heavenly feast, be- 
 lieving in our hearts that our sinful bodies are made 
 clean by His Body, and our souls washed through 
 his precious Blood ? How shall we bid you to " obey 
 them that are over you in the Lord, and esteem them 
 very highly in love for their works' sake," unless we 
 are ourselves obedient, unless our work is well done, 
 unless we watch for souls as they that must give 
 account. 
 
 , And in this case, as in all others, God teaches us 
 not only by His Spirit in our hearts, His Word in our 
 ears, not only by command and direction, by the sweet 
 persuasions and promises of His mercy, by the fearful 
 warnings of His justice, but by example also. There 
 is no record of great men whom we admire in history, 
 there is no remembrance of anything in our own lives 
 
 IWIVFO?^»T>( 
 
48 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 which we retain with gladness, which does not assure 
 us that no addition was ever made to the greatness 
 of a nation, to the honour and the happiness of a 
 life, without hard work. No discoveries of science, 
 no masterpieces of art, were accomplished without 
 patient labour. And this applies to every individual 
 soul. 
 
 Copying those who have done their best, you do 
 in God's sight as well as they ; and to the lowliest 
 and poorest who has so laboured it will be said at 
 last, " Well done, good and faithful servant : thou hast 
 been faithful over a few things, I will make thee 
 ruler over many things : enter thou into the joy of 
 thy Lord." 
 
 Was it not for this, think you, that the most high 
 God took upon Him the form of a servant ? Was it 
 not to teach us this, that the words were spoken to all 
 mankind, " In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat 
 bread," and He, who increased in wisdom and stature 
 and in favour with God and man, was born in a stable, 
 lived in a poor man's home, and toiled with the saw 
 and the plane ? 
 
 My brothers, should not such thoughts as these 
 encourage us to do our work, whatever it may be, 
 more heartily, more hopefully, because God gives it 
 to us, and because, if whatever our hand findeth to 
 do we do it with our might, if we are fervent in 
 spirit, as serving the Lord, He has promised us His 
 blessing here and for ever ? Should not thoughts like 
 these silence for ever those miserable excuses, that 
 
WORK. 49 
 
 men are so busy that they have no time for religion ; 
 whereas their business, their work, the way they do it, 
 is their religion ? To ignore the Divine Presence is to 
 live without God in this world and the next ; to lean 
 solely upon our own understanding, to do only that 
 which is right in our own eyes, is the darkest of all 
 ignorance, and can only end in failure ; but to work 
 as in His sight, and for Him, is the truest worship 
 which we can offer on earth, and the main preparation 
 for His worship in heaven. 
 
 Work is life, and idleness is death, to body, mind, 
 and soul. Work is like the river, broad and deep 
 and brimming over, which keeps the meadows green ; 
 idleness is the stagnant marsh which exhales the 
 pestilence. Work makes the flowers and fruits, idle- 
 ness the weeds and barren trees of the garden. Work 
 brightens the metal with friction, and idleness corrodes 
 with rust. The man at work, on duty, welcomes the 
 approach of his master ; the idle man would hide if he 
 could. 
 
 It will be so, when it is our time to die, whether 
 death comes suddenly or slowly, in the peaceful home, 
 in the silent room, or amid the horrors of war, or the 
 terrible crash of the collision and the wreck. In that 
 supreme crisis, the faithful servant shall hear the 
 Master's voice, " When thou liest down, thou shalt 
 not be afraid ; yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep 
 shall be sweet." 
 
 But in death as in life, the wicked — they who left 
 undone the work which God gave them to do, and 
 
 E 
 
50 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 followed their own imaginations — are like the troubled 
 sea, which cannot rest. " There is no peace, saith my 
 God, to the wicked." 
 
 And in that great day, when every one of us shall 
 give account of himself unto God, and be judged 
 according to his works, only to those who have done 
 the work which He gave them to do, shall the Lord 
 of Glory repeat the words which He spake in His 
 humiliation on earth, "Look up, and lift up your 
 hearts, for your redemption draweth nigh;" but to 
 the slothful and impenitent those terrible words of 
 righteous judgment, " Cast ye the unprofitable servant 
 into outer darkness." 
 
IV. 
 TRUE EDUCATION. 
 
 "Where is the flock that was given thee, thy beautiful flock?" 
 — Jer. xii. 26. 
 
 Kings and queens will have to answer this question 
 when the great day of account shall come. *' Where 
 is .the flock that was given thee ? " The rulers of the 
 nations, and they who made laws for nations, and 
 they who chose them to be their lawgivers ; men in 
 authority, bishops and pastors, officers in command ; 
 men of large possessions, employers of labour ; heads 
 of colleges and masters of schools ; — they must all 
 answer it. Not only they who rule in palaces, and 
 legislate in parliaments, and lead armies and fleets, 
 and have great estates and pay away thousands in 
 weekly wages ; but every father and mother, however 
 lowly their occupation, must reply to this inquiry. 
 
 Nay, the question will be addressed to us all. By 
 our example, good or bad ; by the neglect or discharge 
 of our duty, by our apathy or sympathy, we help or 
 hinder others. " No man liveth to himself." 
 
 Where is thy flock ? Shepherds, every one of us, 
 if we be true disciples of Him who gave His life for 
 
52 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 the sheep ; shepherds, bringing Him our best, like that 
 first keeper of sheep, righteous Abel, and not our worst 
 like him who first asked, " Am I my brother's keeper?" 
 and then did foul murder upon him ; shepherds, faith- 
 ful, gentle, and brave, working patiently like Jacob 
 amid Laban's flock, when in the day the drought 
 consumed him, and by night the frost ; as Moses, who 
 kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, and chose 
 rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than 
 to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; brave as 
 David when he slew the lion and the bear ; shepherds, 
 watching on duty, hearing now and then the angels 
 in the darkness, seeing now and then a gleam of 
 glory, as it was on the pasture-land of Judsea that 
 night when our Lord was born ; shepherds, all of us, 
 to whom the Bishop of our souls has said, as to St. 
 Peter, '' Lovest thou Me ? . . . Feed My lambs." 
 
 If we evade the duty, we have lost the love ; we 
 are mere hirelings, fleeing from our work whenever 
 it is hard or dangerous ; or worse, robbers and wolves, 
 stealing, scattering, tearing, slaying the flock — the 
 lambs, it may be — though He has warned, "Whoso 
 shall offend one of these little ones that believe in Me, 
 it were better for him that a millstone were hanged 
 about his neck and that he were drowned in the 
 depths of the sea." 
 
 And yet how many children in Christian England 
 have never been brought to Christ, that He might 
 take them in His arms to His fold, and sign them 
 with His brand, and glorify them by His Name I And 
 
TRUE EDUCATION, 53 
 
 how many of those who have been baptized are never 
 taught the privileges or the obligations of baptism ! 
 How many are taught, not by grace, but by human 
 example and precept, so soon as they are able to 
 learn, not what a solemn promise and profession they 
 have made at the font, but to set their affections upon 
 the things of the earth ; to regard money as the most 
 precious of all possessions ; to think more of outward 
 adorning, "of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, 
 and of putting on of apparel," than of " the ornament 
 of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of 
 God of great price," and of the shame which is a 
 glory and a grace. They are permitted to mistake 
 impudence for wit, and licence for liberty. 
 
 There is a horrible story told on the w^estern coasts 
 how one of those vile murderers, who are called 
 wreckers, went out on a dark, tempestuous night and 
 held a bright lantern-flame on the top of a great 
 rock by the sea, and how the helmsman of a ship in 
 distress, mistakingit for the friendly lighthouse, steered 
 accordingly toward the shore, and all perished ; and 
 when the morning came, and the vessel lay a shattered 
 wreck upon the beach, and this wretched slave of 
 Satan went down to collect his spoil, the first thing 
 he saw was a drowned man who seemed to look at 
 him with sightless eyes, and it was his own and only 
 son. And may it not be that, on the everlasting 
 shore, the children of this generation will rise up in 
 the judgment with their parents and will condemn 
 them: "You placed false lights before us, instead 
 
'54 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 of that light which lighteth to salvation, and you 
 made shipwreck of our souls " ? 
 
 We shudder to read of that horrible massacre of 
 the Innocents, when brutish Herod, fearing lest he 
 should lose his power, slew all the little ones that 
 were in Bethlehem and on the coasts thereof, two 
 years old and under. 
 
 *' The air was full of farewells to the dying, 
 And mournings for the dead ; 
 The lieart of Rachel for her children crying, 
 Would not be comforted." 
 
 But may it not be possible — it is a very awful 
 thought — for Christians so called to take part in 
 a yet more fearful destruction, the destruction of 
 souls, by crucifying afresh the Christ within them ? 
 
 Now, what is generally meant by a good education ? 
 Too often it means a school in which boys and girls 
 will meet with those who are in a higher grade than 
 their own. Too often when parents say, *' We want 
 to get our children into good society," they are 
 thinking only of worldly things ; they forget that 
 the only really good society is the society of good 
 men. A good education ? No education which 
 separates itself from religion can ever make men 
 good: learned, accomplished, agreeable, clever, but 
 not good. If you only cultivate mind and manners, 
 you are plating base metal, you are veneering worm- 
 eaten wood, because you do not reach the source of 
 good and evil, you do not touch the heart. More 
 than this, there is abundant evidence, in the reports 
 that come to us from the chaplains of our gaols and 
 
TRUE EDUCATION, 55 
 
 from the criminal courts, that a mere brain education 
 is " to put sharp weapons in a madman's hands," 
 to make the forger and the dishonest clerk more 
 formidable than the pickpocket or the burglar. 
 
 Is not lust more powerful to seduce, when it speaks 
 with music in its voice, but evil in its heart, 
 sentiments' softer than oil, yet be they very swords ? 
 Is malice less malignant when it shoots its arrows, 
 even bitter words sharpened by all the artifices of a 
 cruel, sarcastic wit ? The Duke of Wellington years 
 ago forewarned those who would expel a definite 
 religious teaching, that an education without Chris- 
 tianity would make a nation of clever devils. And 
 there is no more painful sight to the Christian, when 
 he walks abroad, than to notice many proofs around 
 him of the neglect of true education ; when he hears 
 so much that is painful to hear, sees poverty where 
 there might have been plenty, and discord where 
 there should be peace ; disease and suffering, some- 
 times in the young as the inherited penalties of sin, 
 sometimes in the middle-aged who have given them- 
 selves over to lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness 
 with greediness, together with those natural infirmi- 
 ties, the dimness of sight, the dulness of hearing, the 
 unsteady step, the loss of memory, which must happen 
 when the years come, when we shall say, " So far as 
 this world's joys can please, I have no pleasure in 
 them." 
 
 He sees decay everywhere, death so near, and 
 God preaching to all, " Set thine house in order, for 
 
56 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 thou shalt die," and yet meets men and women call- 
 ing themselves Christians, living in sin, living for 
 self, prayerless, thankless, Christless, as though they 
 had no souls to save. He hears the fierce words 
 of the passionate, the foul words of the vicious, the 
 bitter words of the scandalous, the false words of 
 the deceitful, the maudlin nonsense of the sot ; ay, 
 and out in pleasant fields, where our merciful Father 
 makes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, 
 and sends His rain on the just and the unjust, he 
 hears the labourer cursing and swearing at those 
 poor beasts of burden which God has made to share 
 and to lighten his toil; and at the very time when 
 the valleys stand so thick with corn that they seem to 
 laugh and sing, profaning the Name of the Creator ! 
 What is the cause of it all ? The want of a true 
 education in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. 
 
 And it is not only that which the Christian sees 
 and hears which distresses him, but that which he 
 knows must surely follow, which stirs his soul with 
 pity. 
 
 We talk commonly and carelessly about a spoilt 
 child, not realizing the full meaning of our words. It 
 is not only that the boy or the girl is spoilt, and that 
 which should have been a happiness becomes a 
 nuisance, but God's masterpiece is debased and His 
 gracious purpose marred, a soul for which Christ has 
 died is robbed of its heritage. We know too surely 
 the results of this terrible neglect, for we see them 
 again and again. These children will grow up into 
 
TRUE EDUCATION, 57 
 
 bad men and women, bad neighbours, subjects, ser- 
 vants, citizens; false friends, dishonest, idle, malicious, 
 reprobate; the drones of the hive, the canker in the 
 fruit, the flaw in the metal, the poison and pest of 
 society. 
 
 But it may perhaps be said that the time for com- 
 plaint such as this is over ; that a sure remedy has 
 been found for the disease ; that the nation, disgusted 
 at last beyond endurance by the misery and the dis- 
 grace which untaught ignorance always brings upon 
 itself and its surroundings, has resolved to educate ; 
 and that not only are schools provided for children 
 throughout the land, but that the law compels 
 attendance. 
 
 And this is especially a subject for great thankful- 
 ness — I mean the privilege of that which is called 
 elementary or secular education for those who other- 
 wise would not or could not have it. Untaught chil- 
 dren, for example, are as a rule but clumsy workers, 
 and the body is rarely quick in its energies where the 
 mind, the motive power, is dull. And the power of 
 reading and writing, and of thinking about that which 
 is read and written, will remove that stupid, stolid 
 ignorance which disgraces a civilized land, and will 
 raise those who now work like mere machines, and 
 eat and drink and sleep" like mere animals, to the 
 capabilities of a higher intelligence. Men will have a 
 greater power to succeed in business and the various 
 avocations of life. Without such an education, how- 
 ever skilful and industrious a man may be, and trust- 
 
58 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 worthy and persevering, when he reaches a certain 
 point he must stop. How often do we hear it said, 
 " If my parents had only sent me to school, I should 
 not have been what I am, nor where I am, now " ! If 
 that man had only been taught to read and write, he 
 would have been a master now instead of a servant, 
 paying instead of receiving wages. Who has not 
 heard an employer say, " There is one whom it would 
 be for my own advantage, even more than for his, to 
 place in a most important and profitable position, but 
 he knows nothing of accounts and book-keeping, and 
 he is therefore incapable " ? And the successes of self- 
 made men, as they are called, show how much the 
 school has done, however simple has been the instruc- 
 tion, for those who, though they had great natural 
 ability, without it might have been worsted and 
 failed. 
 
 Yes, we are all agreed that education pays, and 
 that the father is wise in his generation who says, 
 " Of silver and gold I have but little, but one precious 
 gift I can and will bestow upon my children, and 
 that is a good education. So far as I can, I will place 
 the power of being wealthy or wise within their 
 reach. They shall have the implements, whether 
 they will use them or not. It is a hard fight, the 
 struggle for success in life, and no child of mine shall 
 go into the battle without the weapons of warfare in 
 his hands. No child of mine shall be compelled to 
 mate with fools, to be silent, or speak only to expose 
 his ignorance in the presence of others, because he has 
 
TRUE EDUCATION, 59 
 
 not scholarship enough to acquire information or to 
 express his thoughts." And because there are so 
 many who have not this wise affection, who from 
 ignorance or selfishness make no effort that their 
 children may be taught, it is surely prudent, it is 
 surely kind, that the Parliament should say to them, 
 " If you refuse to do your duty, that which is of such 
 importance for those who are nearest and should be 
 dearest to you, the law shall enforce that which 
 reason and affection should have accepted cheerfully. 
 
 But does the education of the mind, of the reason, 
 satisfy when we have obtained it? Will a mere 
 secular education make men and women really better, 
 homes happier, life brighter, braver, purer than before ? 
 Or will selfishness devote this new power in cleverer, 
 subtler, operations unto self? Can any mere mental 
 instructions make men gentle and generous, just and 
 truthful, upright and honourable, above receiving a 
 bribe or doing a mean action when there is no risk of 
 discovery ? Will it make them contented with their 
 place and condition, satisfied with their lot in this 
 world, confident that they are fulfilling all the pur- 
 poses for which they were sent into it, and exercising 
 all the powers which they possess ? As they grow 
 older, and the long shadows and the chill eventide 
 announce the coming of the night, will this mere 
 secular education have taught anything which can 
 sustain and cheer ? Will it make them resigned to 
 die, ready to part with those things for which they 
 have worked so hard ? 
 
60 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 Reason and revelation answer, No. Reason — the 
 experience of facts — tells us that a mere secular 
 education has no influence in restraininor vice. 
 " Little hearts and large brains " are too often pro- 
 duced by it. Crime does not diminish as reading 
 and writing increase, but, on the contrary, new 
 materials have been supplied for fraud. 
 
 What has been the result of that elementary educa- 
 tion on which we spend some seven or eight millions 
 annually ? Has it been followed by an increase or 
 decrease of crime ? Take the reports from two of 
 our largest cities recently made * by those most 
 competent to make them. The Chief Constable of 
 Manchester states that "never in Manchester was 
 there a time when crimes were so frequently com- 
 mitted by persons of good education as now. While 
 ordinary thieves stole last year in Manchester 
 property to the value of £6308, the amount of which 
 firms and persons in trade were defrauded by people 
 of good education, by means of forgeries and like 
 devices, was upwards of £90,000. Hardly a day 
 passes that letters are not received complaining of 
 'long firm' frauds, rampant in all parts of the 
 country, and all of which require the ingenuity and 
 dexterity which are alone given by good education." 
 
 With regard to the more serious offences against 
 
 property, such as burglary and housebreaking, the 
 
 report from Liverpool states the numbers to be — 
 
 "in 1859, seventy-nine; in 1869, one hundred and 
 
 * This address was given in 1892. 
 
TRUE EDUCATION. 6l 
 
 forty-four; in 1879, one hundred and thirfcy-six; in 
 1889, one hundred and ninety-seven ; in 1890, two 
 hundred and thirty-two, — an increase out of all 
 proportion with the growth of the population of 
 Liverpool." 
 
 I do not make these quotations, my brothers, to 
 depreciate the inestimable advantages of elementary 
 education, but to point out the abuse of it, and the 
 impotence of mere mental instruction to purify the 
 heart, and to ennoble the man by overcoming evil with 
 good. 
 
 Revelation, Christianity, tell us why — because mere 
 human learning is of the earth, earthy, and by itself 
 it cannot rise heavenward; because it is a remedy 
 which does not reach the seat of the disease ; because 
 it does not speak to the immortal soul ; because the 
 wisdom of this world is foolishness with God; be- 
 cause it is first an education of disappointment, and 
 then an education of despair; it is a system which 
 by itself can never make us temperate in abundance, 
 hopeful in sorrow, the masters and not the slaves of 
 our passions — can never make us free, independent 
 men. And when we need help and hope the most, 
 it is a system which brings us neither; it comes 
 to us after a few short years, and says, " I can do no 
 more for you, and what I have done dies with you." 
 Your powers of learning, gaining, pleasing, are ex- 
 hausted, and soon life itself will fade. 
 
 My brothers, we want something happier and 
 truer than this, when we are looking on the white 
 
62 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 faces of our dead, or are ourselves face to face with 
 death. We want something that no mere secular 
 education, no intellectual scientific knowledge, can 
 give ; we want the sweet voice which whispers in the 
 ear, "Not dead, but sleepeth; not lost, but gone 
 before." And so it is revelation which by God's 
 mercy shows us the more excellent way ; suggests the 
 motive and bestows the power for a nobler, truer life 
 than this ; tells a man that he has a soul to save, and 
 inspires him with the desire of salvation. We want 
 an education for heaven. 
 
 Listen ! " The fear of the Lord is the beginning of 
 wisdom." You can never be honest on a sure prin- 
 ciple, you can never love honesty, you can never 
 adhere to it because it is, as the world says, the best 
 policy, because it prospers most in the long run — as a 
 rule you cannever be really honest until you hear God 
 speaking to you, " Thou shalt not steal;" "Provide 
 things honest in the sight of men ; " *' A false way is an 
 abomination to the Lord ; " "Nor thieves, nor covetous 
 men, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of 
 God." The police may watch and the law may 
 punish, the inspectors of weights and measures may 
 examine, compare, condemn, or stamp ; but if there is 
 no voice in the conscience of the seller which says, 
 '• Thou seest me," " The eyes of the Lord are in every 
 place, beholding the evil and the good," there is no 
 sure security against deceit and fraud. " The fear of 
 the Lord is the beginning," the alphabet, " of wisdom," 
 and withal love of the Lord carries on the education ; 
 
TRUE EDUCATION, 63 
 
 and as the fear of hell makes us just, the hope of 
 heaven will make us generous. If from fear we 
 cease to do evil, from love we learn to do well, until 
 our terror of the Judge is lost in the adoration of the 
 Saviour, and perfect love casteth out fear. 
 
 We want an education, we want a motive, and we 
 want a power which shall make husbands and wives 
 faithful, and young men and women chaste, and these 
 we shall never find in the mere conviction that lust is 
 in itself ugly and repulsive, that it is sure to encounter 
 great oppositions which may injure our position in 
 society and interfere with our worldly success ; but 
 which we shall find when a voice from heaven speaks 
 to us, " Marriage is honourable to all, and the bed 
 undefiled ; but whoremongers and adulterers God will 
 judge." And men again will love and plead for 
 purity when He pleads with them, " Know ye not, 
 ye Christians, that your bodies are the members of 
 Christ ? Shall you then take the members of Christ 
 and make them the members of a harlot ? God 
 forbid." 
 
 Again, we want an education which will teach us 
 to be temperate in all things, not only because 
 gluttony and drunkenness are so offensive to others, 
 and so degrading and injurious to self; not only 
 because we have pledged and bound ourselves by 
 human rules to abstain, but because God bids us 
 use this world and not abuse it, appealing to our 
 fear when He warns us that no drunkard shall 
 inherit the kingdom, and encouraging our love when 
 
64 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 He tells us that he who striveth for the mastery is 
 temperate in all things, and shall have an incorrupt- 
 ible crown. We require, in short, as immortal souls, 
 for ourselves and for our children an education which 
 sets before us heavenly ambitions and inspires us 
 with eternal hopes, which will open our eyes and 
 purify our sight to look far beyond self to the city 
 whose Maker is God ; beyond the sea of life, now so 
 smooth and glittering in the sunshine that we forget 
 we have a voyage to make, and now so terrible with 
 its mountain waves that it seems as though we 
 should never make it. We want a faith which will 
 sarely bring us to the haven where we would be; which 
 works on in cloudless calm, and which no tempest 
 can dismay. We want something far higher, more 
 enduring, than that mere worldly education which 
 teaches us little more than this : " When thou doesb 
 good unto thyself, men will speak well of thee." We 
 want an influence, a power in our hearts, raising us 
 upward, urging us onward "to do Thy will, O God." 
 
 Think of this, you working men — those especially 
 w^ho are fathers. You have a great power in this 
 matter, through those whom you send to Parliament ; 
 and I ask you, not only as Christians, but as citizens 
 and patriots, What sort of men, what kind of principles, 
 are to govern England ? Will you have us believe that 
 righteousness alone exalte th a nation, or shall we run 
 the risk of repeating in London that which was seen 
 in Paris, when they set a harlot on the high altar 
 of the cathedral to represent the reign of Reason, 
 
TRUE EDUCATION, 65 
 
 shot down an archbishop in the street, and threw 
 vitriol in the faces of those who were less brutish, or 
 rather devilish, .than themselves ? 
 
 But your parental is far greater than your political 
 power — to see your children virtuously brought up, 
 not only in school, but at home. Yes, you yourself, 
 however poor a scholar, can give them the best of 
 all teaching, a good example — the beautiful, persuasive 
 example of an upright and industrious life. 
 
 What a responsibility, and what a power every 
 one of us has to bring some little child to Jesus ! 
 
 Michael Angelo, walking in the streets of Eome 
 with a friend, suddenly stopped to examine a heap 
 of marble blocks. Then he went on his knees and 
 began to clean one piece. His friend said, " What 
 are you doing ? " and the great sculptor answered, 
 " There's an angel in that marble ! " He saw the 
 beauty of the stone, he had it conveyed to his studio, 
 and after many a hard day's work out came the 
 angel. Well, in every child you meet, however poor 
 and mean, there is an angel. If it is a baptized 
 child, it has an angel of its own always guarding 
 it and pleading for it before the Father's throne. 
 But you may help to make the angel from the child, 
 as Michael Angelo did from the block. Think about 
 it. Think that it is in your power to help that 
 little child to be a redeemed saint of glory ; it may 
 be when you die to welcome you at the gates of 
 Paradise ; to say, " When I seemed to have no hope 
 and no friends, you came and taught me the excellent 
 
 F 
 
66 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN, 
 
 way which has brought me into this glorious home I " 
 Love the children ; reverence the children. It is told 
 of a great schoolmaster, John Trebonius, who taught 
 Martin Luther, that he never appeared before his lads 
 without uncovering his head. He said, "I do not 
 know what great man I may be teaching." But we 
 do know, when we teach children to love God and 
 to love purity and innocence, that we are teaching 
 members of Christ, heirs of heaven, inheritors of 
 eternal glory, and it is the only teaching that can 
 keep children pure, because it will make them feel 
 and know that they are temples of the Holy Ghost, 
 and that they dare not defile that temple. 
 
 And now, my brothers, take to your heart and to 
 your home to-day this gracious promise of your 
 Saviour, "Whoso shall receive one such little child 
 in My Name, receiveth Me." Claim it and win it, by 
 bringing up those whom He loved the best in the 
 nurture and admonition of the Lord, so that when 
 the Judge shall ask, " Where is thy flock that was 
 given thee, thy beautiful flock ? " you may look up 
 and answer, " Behold, I and the children whom God 
 hath given me." 
 
V. 
 CONVERSION. 
 
 "Wheu thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren." — St. Luke 
 xxii. 32. 
 
 Let me speak to you, my brothers, on a subject which, 
 in these days, has been by many sadly misunderstood 
 — I mean Conversion. Let us hear what the Holy 
 Scripture doth say concerning it. 
 
 There is no such thing as a complete conversion to 
 Christianity without Baptism before or after. Before 
 the coming of the Holy Ghost we read, " In those days 
 came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness 
 of Judsea, and saying, Repent ye : for the kingdom of 
 heaven is at hand. . . . Then went after him Jerusalem, 
 and all Judaea, and all the regions round about Jordan, 
 and were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their 
 sins. . . . Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to be bap- 
 tized of him." John baptized with water. 
 
 You will remember the words to Nicodemus : 
 "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be 
 born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the 
 kingdom of God." And again He said, " He that 
 believeth and is baptized shall be saved." 
 
 After the Day of Pentecost St. Peter preached, 
 
6S ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 "Kepent, and be baptized" — with the Baptism of 
 water and the Holy Spirit, as he afterwards wrote, 
 " Baptism saves iis." 
 
 The same proofs of sincerity were to follow this 
 initiation, this entrance into the Church of Christ. 
 St. John preached, "Bring forth fruits meet for 
 repentance." Fear came upon St. Peter's converts, 
 and they steadfastly continued in the Apostles' 
 doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, 
 and in prayers. Our Lord said, " Let your light so 
 shine before men, that they may see your good 
 works ; " " If ye love Me, keep My commandments." 
 
 Sorrow for sin, a new heart and a new life — such 
 has been God's blessed scheme of salvation ever since 
 the Fall. There is no other remedy nor cure but 
 this — the sorrow which hates sin because God hates 
 it, finding an escape from it by the way which He 
 has opened unto us through the Incarnation, the 
 Sacrifice, and Presence of His Son, and so attaining 
 pardon, restoration, sanctification, peace, hope, rest in 
 paradise, glory in heaven. 
 
 The text of the preaching of the Old Testament and 
 of the New may be given in one word — " Kepent." 
 "God commandeth all men everywhere to repent." 
 Throughout the whole of the older dispensation, in 
 the law and the prophets, we hear the voice of a 
 loving Father calling upon His children to repent; 
 and as we open the New Testament we come upon 
 a most solemn and striking scene, when, in the 
 country about Jordan, in the Holy Eastern Land, 
 
CONVERSION, 6g 
 
 a great crowd met together, a mixed multitude — 
 Komans and Jews, rulers and subjects, state officials 
 and rough fishermen, great scholars and ignorant 
 unlearned men, rich and poor, old and young — 
 listening with a strained, painful, yearning interest, 
 to hear the poor hermit, a stranger from the wilder- 
 ness, wearing raiment of camel's hair and a leathern 
 girdle about his loins, John the Baptist, preach 
 repentance. There were representatives of the two 
 greatest nations upon earth — of God's chosen people, 
 and of that mighty empire which ruled the civilized 
 world. There were men of education, of authority, 
 and wealth. But they stood around the preacher, 
 downcast, in a great humility ; their cleverness, power, 
 money, forgotten, or remembered but to be despised ; 
 silent, sorrows-stricken, consenting to all he said, 
 though his words were severe and stern, though he 
 denounced and threatened them. They listened while 
 one of the noblest of heaven's heroes, a man trained 
 by years of discipline, prayer, and meditation to do 
 a great work for God, stood there, dauntless and 
 defiant in the sacred cause of truth, ready to die, 
 doomed to die, for truth — stood there and preached 
 repentance as the only salvation from the wrath to 
 come through. Jesus. And when he ceased, there 
 came forth from the heart of that multitude, as from 
 the heart of one man, no words of doubt, no excuses 
 for delay, but only this question, as of life and death, 
 " What shall we do ? " And the answer was, " Repent, 
 and be Baptized." 
 
70 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 Ever since the first Whitsun-day this holy Baptism 
 has been regarded by the Church as necessary to 
 salvation, and her children have been taught to say, 
 in answer to the question, " What is required of 
 persons to be baptized ? " " Repentance, whereby we 
 forsake sin." Human nature responds to the appeal ; 
 the instinct of the unregenerate, the Gentiles who 
 have not the law, have recognized with shame and 
 sorrow the wickedness of sin. Plato said, " Thougli 
 I knew that my sin would not be discovered, or was 
 sure that it would be pardoned, I would not do it ; 
 there is something so repugnant in the ugliness of 
 sin." How much more painfully the baptized must 
 feel that sin degrades, darkens, weakens ! They can- 
 not fail to know that wanton lust, adultery, and forni- 
 cation, with cruelty, lying, cheating, gluttony, and 
 drunkenness, are contemptible, foul, and base, things 
 to be ashamed of as unworthy of their manhood, and 
 deadly to their spiritual life. Loud above all other 
 voices the warning comes to us from time to time, 
 " Except ye repent, ye shall perish." " Come unto 
 Me, all ye that travail and are heavy laden, and I 
 will give you rest : I will in no wise cast you out." 
 God pleads with every soul of man. He sends Moses 
 to Pharaoh, Samuel to Saul, Nathan to David, Elijah 
 to Ahab, Jonah to Nineveh, the Baptist to Herod, 
 St. Peter and St. Paul to the Gentiles ; and yet, alas ! 
 it is now as in the Lord's time with us. 
 
 He could do all things except bring men to re- 
 pentance. All nature obeyed His voice ; the winds 
 
CONVERSION. 71 
 
 ceased, the great billows fell, the evil spirits fled at 
 His command ; but the heart of man was hard, im- 
 penitent ; and this was His exceeding bitter cry, " Ye 
 will not come to Me that ye might have life." " 
 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets 
 and stones t them that are sent unto thee, how 
 often would I have gathered thy children together, 
 even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her 
 wings, and ye would not ! " 
 
 But now, in these days, there is much peril lest 
 we should either forget this great doctrine of a re- 
 pentance, or should substitute something else in its 
 place. If the tempter cannot induce us to forsake 
 religion altogether, he will endeavour to deceive us 
 by substituting the false for the true. There is not 
 a jewel in the crown of Jesus which he does not 
 imitate with tinsel and paint. There is not a coin 
 from the royal mint but he will forge it with metal 
 that is base. And so now, by substituting conversion 
 for repentance, many souls are beguiled from the 
 truth. There is no real difference in the meaning of 
 the words " conversion '* and " repentance," though 
 the former is found but once in the Bible, and the 
 latter in every part of it. But this substitution has 
 bsen accompanied by false doctrine, and the term has 
 been employed and abused to the injury and perver- 
 sion of the truth. It has been used to indicate a 
 sudden and complete transformation of a sinner into 
 a saint, accompanied by a sense of the assurance of 
 salvation, free and final, and with no peril of relapse, 
 
72 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 Now, we can imagine those who have never been 
 baptized, or who have b3en taught to disbelieve in 
 Baptism, who have been told from childhood there was 
 no other way in which they could be saved, except 
 by this sudden, sensible conversion, who have regarded 
 themselves as out of the possibility of salvation until 
 they felt they were saved, and that then there was 
 no further fear; we can understand their anxiety 
 and readiness to be persuaded, amid the clamorous 
 supplications, the hysterical sobs, the enthusiasm and 
 excitement of their friends, that the moment of their 
 conversion has come. But we fail to comprehend 
 how persons who belong to the Church, or persons 
 who read the Scriptures for themselves, can be so 
 deceived and misled. And yet there are men and 
 women, taught the faith once delivered to the saints, 
 surrounded by the means of grace, who forsake their 
 first love and forget the guide of their youth, and 
 will listen to these plausible inventions. They have 
 wandered far away from innocence and God, and are 
 beginning to feel themselves exiles and outcasts ; but 
 they have longings for home. But what a distance 
 it seems over which they must retrace their steps ! 
 So this idea of a sudden transformation, without 
 much effort on their part, attracts and pleases them. 
 And I need not tell you how easy the operation is of 
 accommodating our creed to our wish. 
 
 And though the argument has been a thousand 
 times rent into fragments and scattered to the winds, 
 this still remains a favourite plea : Was not Saul of 
 
CONVERSION. 73 
 
 Tarsus raging like a wild beasfc against Jesus and the 
 truth ? Was he not suddenly, miraculously con- 
 verted ? Was not he assured of his salvation ? It 
 would weary one to answer, were it not that some 
 would take silence as assent. Paul was not suddenly 
 converted, and he was not assured of his salvation 
 until he had fought the good fight and kept the faith. 
 He saw a vision and heard a voice, but these only 
 suggested his conversion. He might have disobeyed 
 both. He was three days without sight or food. He 
 might have 'given himself up to despair ; instead, he 
 was obedient to the heavenly vision, and began to 
 pray for mercy. Then he was baptized — made a 
 Christian. What then ? He devoted himself to the 
 hardest, most repulsive work which humanity can 
 undertake — a confession of his own foolishness, an 
 acknowledgment that his life had been a mistake. 
 " Look at me, Saul of Tarsus, the clever, highly edu- 
 cated, energetic, successful Pharisee. There is not a 
 ploughman in your fields, a beggar in your streets, so 
 ignorant or so poor as I." And he had to make this 
 confession to men who doubted and derided, and 
 called him craven and apostate. He had to proclaim 
 himself a blasphemer, a persecutor and informer. He, 
 a Hebrew of the Hebrews, to crave pardon from those 
 whom he had despised and denounced ! And for 
 what reward and acknowledgment ? Beaten with 
 rods, once stoned, thrice shipwrecked, in journey ings 
 often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in 
 perils of his own countrymen, in perils of the heathen, 
 
74 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 in perils in the cifcy, in perils in the wilderness, in 
 perils in the sea, in perils amongst false brethren, 
 in weariness and painfulness, in hunger and thirst, 
 in cold and nakedness ! 
 
 Ah ! when men have shown something of this 
 heroic faith, let them talk of Saul's conversion as the 
 model of their own. Whereas, what do we too often 
 see from those who suddenly proclaim themselves 
 converted men ? First of all, instead of Paul's 
 humility — " wretched man that I am 1 who 
 shall deliver me from the body of this death?" 
 " Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, 
 of whom I am chief ; " instead of his fear lest he 
 *' should be a castaway ; " instead of his constant 
 strivings to mount higher, when, " forgetting those 
 things Avhich are behind, I press toward the 
 mark for the prize of my high calling of God in 
 Christ Jesus;" — instead of this, we too often find 
 these new converts perfectly satisfied as to their 
 spiritual state, but very doubtful, inquisitive, and 
 censorious as to the souls of others, harassing and 
 perplexing them with abrupt inquiries, "Are you 
 saved ? Do you know that you are saved ? " And 
 they are dissatisfied with any answer which is not 
 in accordance with the dogmas and phrases of their 
 clique, making the heart of the righteous sad whom 
 God hath not made sad, and strengthening the hands 
 of the wicked that he should not return from his 
 wicked ways by promising him life. These men pass, 
 pr think they pass, suddenly from one extreme tg 
 
CONVERSION. 75 
 
 another, and then, because others will not say as 
 they say, and do as they do, and because they them- 
 selves cannot feel, whatever they may profess, quite 
 satisfied, they are angry and invective. They would 
 teach others when the}^ should be learners. 
 
 What, for example, can a man who has led a 
 profligate life and suddenly desires to leave it, because 
 he is satiated or disgusted, or because he begins to 
 be afraid of death and judgment and God's anger, — 
 what can he know of the mind that was in Christ ? 
 Do not mistake me, my brothers, to mean that there 
 are no special seasons of grace, deliverances from 
 danger, consolations to grief, writings on the wall, 
 graven on our memories in bright letters, which 
 sparkle like gems and remind us of clearer manifesta- 
 tion, nearer approaches, true conversions, so far as 
 they went, to God. There are, I trust, many here 
 to whom such manifestations of the Spirit are the 
 happiest thoughts of their souls. I would only offer 
 a warning, which few will say in these days is 
 unnecessary, against mistaking these beginnings and 
 renewals, these trepidations and hopes, these gentle 
 inducements or stern commandments to repent, for 
 a true and complete repentance, for the one offering 
 which may alone be accepted — the offerings of our 
 souls and bodies, sanctified by the Spirit, instructed 
 by the Scriptures, and strengthened by Sacraments, 
 to be a reasonable, holy, and lively sacrifice to God. 
 
 Onward towards godliness, away from sin, freeing 
 ourselves as we go from the weight which presses 
 
76 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 down the soul, so that it rises upward, — that is 
 repentance, that is conversion. What glorious words 
 are written of the poor prodigal, " He arose and 
 came " ! One day he was a disgraced and ruined 
 man, sitting there with his fine clothes, smeared and 
 spoiled, among the swine, and the next day he had 
 begun his repentance, and the angels of God were 
 rejoicing over him as he went on his journey home. 
 
 Assuredly we need conversion, all of us and always ; 
 for what does conversion mean ? It means, in the 
 language in which the blessed Gospels were written, 
 simply a turning to God. The best men pray for 
 it most, because they know the best how hard it is 
 to set God always before them ; to be always pressing 
 onward and upward, heavenward ; to follow the Divine 
 Master in gentleness and humility, Who went about 
 doing good. Step by step, here a little and there 
 a little, day by day, w^e are to be converted towards 
 God, upon the road of duty. And as our duty to 
 Him consists in small but constant proofs of our love, 
 so our duty towards our neighbour is performed 
 through little acts of kindness and consideration 
 which are in the power of all. Of course this con- 
 version is hard, because it means turning away from 
 many things that have beguiled and pleased us, 
 and because there is no such thing as Christianity 
 without a cross. But our gracious God will not 
 leave us without witness of His approbation and 
 His help. " I will_ not leave you comfortless ; I will 
 come unto you." 
 
CONVERSION. 77 
 
 It is related of one of the most famous of men, 
 
 Alexander, who was justly designated the Great, 
 
 that in his anxiety to know that his armies were 
 
 cared for and doing their duty, he would from time 
 
 to time put on the dress of a private soldier and 
 
 would inspect his corps. One day, after a great 
 
 victory, as he was returning from such a visit, he 
 
 came upon a soldier leading a mule, heavily laden 
 
 with spoil, up the hill, on which was the royal tent. 
 
 The day was hot, and the load was so heavy that 
 
 the humane soldier from time to time relieved the 
 
 animal by taking portions upon himself, until at 
 
 last he was almost overcome, and staggered under 
 
 the weight. It seemed doubtful whether he could 
 
 make further progress, when the king touched him 
 
 with his hand and said, " Courage, my friend ; you 
 
 are but a few paces from the end of your journey. 
 
 Persevere, and half that spoil shall be yours." So 
 
 the great and gracious God in heaven looks down 
 
 upon those who take up their cross and are mounting 
 
 heavenward, as they follow His blessed Son. They 
 
 hear His promise that these light afflictions, which 
 
 endure but for a time, shall work for them a far more 
 
 exceeding and eternal weight of glory. The sweet 
 
 voice of the Master speaks to them adown the 
 
 steep — 
 
 " Art thou weary, art thou languid, 
 Art thou sore distrest ? 
 ' Come to Me,' it saith, * and coming, 
 Be at rest ! ' " 
 
 Go forward, my brother — ''faint yet 
 
78 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 " Onward, Christian soldiers ; " for it is God that 
 giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 There are the same encouragements for those who 
 work for heaven as for those who work for earth. 
 Just as the statesman, whose heart is in his work 
 studying history, poring over dry statistics, thinking 
 anxiously — just as he is cheered and strengthened, 
 not only by the thought that he is trying to do good 
 to his fellow-men and to maintain the honour and 
 prosperity of his country, but also by the commenda- 
 tions of his patriotism and his prospect of distinction ; 
 just as the painter, after many failures and many 
 months of labour, at last achieves the eflfect which 
 he desired, and the great picture, which thousands 
 shall admire, comes out upon the canvas and develops 
 day by day unto completeness; just as every man, 
 if he deserves a name, goes forth to his work and to 
 his labour until the evening, and, if that work has 
 been well done, goes home to the keener relish of his 
 simple food, and to the sweeter rest, as he feels h!mself 
 a day nearer to his well-earned wage ; so the Christian, 
 who is really trying by God's grace, given to his 
 prayers, to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this 
 present world, that, through the love of His Saviour 
 he may have everlasting life, has from time to time 
 some happy intimation that his service is acceptable, 
 some encouragements of his Master's approbation, not 
 to be weary in well-doing, some assurance that in due 
 time he shall reap. 
 
 Never yet did a man do anything for Jesus, never 
 
CONVERSION. 79 
 
 yet did a penitent give up pleasure for duty, without 
 a sure consciousness that his will was in harmony 
 with God's. Whenever you say " No " to the body 
 that you may say " Yes " to the soul ; whenever for 
 Christ's sake you go to the house of mourning 
 instead of to the house of feasting, or stay at home 
 when you might have gone to some merry-making, or 
 that another might have the enjoyment, or that you 
 might be with those who are in sickness or in sorrow, 
 or because they wish it to whom you owe obedience ; 
 whenever you give the time which you might have 
 wasted in idleness to God's service, or the money 
 which you might have spent in selfishness to His 
 poor; whenever you keep your lips from unkind 
 words, or from words which are impure or untrue ; 
 whenever you set yourself on God's side and speak 
 out boldly for truth, though the whole company be 
 united against you, and think you bigoted, supersti- 
 tious, dictatorial ; — you shall know, when the victory 
 for self has been won, that the Lord careth for the 
 righteous, and shall feel the sunshine of His love. 
 
 You must be prepared for deceptive arguments. 
 "Are not men and women spoken of in the New 
 Testament as saved ? " Yes, as all may be said to 
 be saved by that one perfect and sufficient sacrifice, 
 oblation, and satisfaction, which Christ made upon 
 the Cross for the sins of the whole world, hut on con- 
 ditions ; and all the baptized are spoken of as being 
 in a state of salvation, but it is nowhere said that 
 these conditions are suddenly fulfilled, or in any 
 
80 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 measure fulfilled, until we have finished our course,, 
 and held the beginning of our confidence steadfast 
 unto the end. There is no exception to St. Peter's 
 law, that we must pass the time of ^our sojourning 
 here in fear. 
 
 The Israelites were saved from the Egyptians. 
 They saw their enemies dead on the seashore. They 
 were led towards the promised land, " in the daytime 
 with a cloud, and all the night through with a light 
 of fire." God taught them, warned, encouraged, and 
 gave them bread from heaven to eat. But with many 
 of them He was not well pleased, and they were over- 
 thrown in the wilderness ; their bones lay scattered 
 before the pit, like as when one breaketh and heweth 
 wood upon the earth ; and the history of their lusts 
 and idolatry, their fornications and murmurings, are 
 recorded, St. Paul tells us, for our ensample and admo- 
 nition, lest we, once saved by baptismal water, as they 
 by the Ked Sea, we divinely guided and instructed, 
 we to whom is offered the Bread of Life which 
 came down from heaven, should fall into the same 
 condemnation. 
 
 "There is no condemnation for us," it may be 
 replied. " We are of those of whom Christ said, ' He 
 that heareth My Word and believeth, hath everlasting 
 life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is 
 passed from death unto life ; ' and St. Paul repeats the 
 words, ' There is no condemnation for them that are 
 in Christ Jesus.' " But there were many in our Lord's 
 day who believed for a time, but who left Him 
 
CONVERSION. 8 1 
 
 and walked no more with Him. Hymenaeus and 
 Alexander made shipwreck concerning faith; Demas 
 forsook Paul, having loved this present world. And 
 so the Apostle warns the Romans that this freedom 
 from condemnation is only for those " who walk not 
 after the flesh, but after the Spirit." 
 
 My brothers, there is only one real conversion— that 
 love of Jesus, which, by patient continuance in well- 
 doing, follows, faint but pursuing, in His steps ; afar 
 off, like St. Peter, but praying always — 
 
 " Nearer, my Grod, to Thee, 
 Nearer to Thee ; 
 E'en though it be a cross 
 That raiseth me." 
 
VI. 
 
 UNBELIEF. 
 
 I. The Origin. 
 
 " Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of 
 unbelief." — Heb. iii. 12. 
 
 This book, the Bible, is a history of unbelief, from 
 the time that the woman lost her faith in God's 
 AvarniDg, "Thou shalt surely die," until the Saviour 
 said, *' Because I tell you the truth, ye believe Me 
 not. ... Ye will not come unto Me, that ye might 
 have life." 
 
 Ever since, there has been in mankind this evil 
 heart of unbelief, sometimes openly acknowledged, but 
 far more commonly disavowed by the lips, although 
 evidently set forth in the life. Even those who con- 
 tinue steadfast in the faith have to contend earnestly 
 with its subtle influence, and when their soul is 
 assailed by its temptations, they cry with tears, like 
 the father whose son was grievously tormented by an 
 evil spirit, " Lord, I believe ; help Thou mine unbelief" 
 
 Men of my age have witnessed a most remarkable 
 transformation in the external aspect, signs, and evi- 
 
UNBELIEF, "^l 
 
 clences of unbelief. Some fifty years ago there was, 
 as always, the latent disease, but we saw no outward 
 symptoms — the consuming heat showed neither smoke 
 nor flame. Unbelief had neither speech nor language ; 
 it was not heard in conversation, nor read in literature; 
 it was unknown professedly in our colleges and schools. 
 The law forbade it, until the repeal of the Corpora- 
 tion and Test Act, in our legislatures and public 
 officers. But now it is no longer a pestilence that 
 walketh in darkness, but the sickness that destroyeth 
 at noonday, and we may almost say of Christianity, as 
 the Jews said of it to St. Paul at Rome, " As concern- 
 ing this sect, we know that it is everywhere spoken 
 against." It is not only that the very abjects publicly 
 blaspheme, and the drunkards make songs upon it ; 
 not only that religion is caricatured and parodied in 
 our parks; but men of intellect and culture are 
 reclothing in elegant diction the old arguments 
 against the faith. 
 
 We remember a time when there seemed to be 
 an armistice between Christ and anti-Christ. Now 
 they have set the battle in array, army against 
 army. Now unbelief, like Moloch, sceptred king, 
 stands forth the stronger and the fiercer spirit, and 
 cries aloud, "My sentence is for open war." But 
 thanks be to God, the aggressive force is faith. It 
 is the revival of religion which has evoked the 
 hostility of the infidel, and therefore, so far from 
 accepting the inferences which some have drawn, and 
 from repeating those plaintive disparagements which 
 
84 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 suggest that we live in more evil days, I am led as 
 a believer to directly opposite conclusions ; because 
 to any man who is convinced by the divine witness 
 within him of revealed truth, and by the fulfilment 
 of promise and prophecy in the history of the world 
 without, that God will maintain His own cause, and 
 will not suffer that truth to fail, — to him inquiry is 
 so immeasurably superior to ignorance, interest to 
 indifference, and energy to sloth. Only weeds and 
 vermin and poisonous exhalations thrive in stagnant 
 waters. There is hope in the tossings of fever; none 
 in the painless silence which tells that mortification 
 has set in. Archbishop Leighton says, " Dubious ques- 
 tioning is much better evidence than that senseless 
 dulness which most take for believing; and though 
 the faithful may seem to be minished, the Church may 
 gain in intensity that which she loses in extent." 
 
 And this is, of course, what Tennyson means when 
 he says — 
 
 " There lives more faith in honest doubt, 
 Believe me, than in half the creeds;** 
 
 namely, that a doubt which is so real that it must 
 declare itself, and challenge a contest, is brave and 
 true and hopeful, whereas the formal utterance of 
 a creed may be only a vain oblation from those of 
 whom it is written, " This people honoureth Me 
 with their lips, but their heart is far from Me." 
 
 There was only one class of men, when our blessed 
 Lord was upon earth, who always excited His righteous 
 wrath — the hypocrites, the Pharisees, who loved the 
 
UNBELIEF. 85 
 
 praises of men rather than the praises of God ; who 
 widened their phylacteries and advertised their alms, 
 until they persuaded others and half persuaded them- 
 selves that they were righteous. Their case was 
 hopeless. They said, " We see," therefore their sin 
 remained. But when Thomas said, "Except I shall 
 see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my 
 finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my 
 hand into His side, I will not believe," Jesus saitli 
 unto him, ''Reach here thy finger and behold, and 
 reach here thy hand and thrust it into My side ; and 
 be not faithless, but believing." And when all the 
 Apostles came and said unto Him, " Increase our 
 faith," though at first He rebuked them, as well He 
 might, yet no long time after He showed to them, 
 in the miraculous healing of the lepers, and by their 
 conduct before and after they were healed, the con- 
 ditions and the power of a saving faith. 
 
 But in whatever form this unbelief in Christianity 
 is found, whether proclaiming itself in avowed hos- 
 tility, or disclaiming itself in words, and disguising 
 with outward observances a corrupt and unfaithful 
 life, it proceeds as a rule from the same origin. It 
 is the consequence, before it is the cause, of error, 
 disobedience, and sin. John Keble — I was told by 
 his friend — was asked by Justice Coleridge what he 
 thought of modern scepticism, and his answer was, 
 " that it always suggested to him a large amount of 
 self-conceit, and that he was quite sure that in every 
 unbeliever there was something morally wrong." 
 
S6 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 Unbelief is a confession of defeat, though it be made 
 unconsciously ; an apology for the submission of the 
 spirit to the flesh, of baptismal grace to innate cor- 
 ruption, of good to evil. It may be in rare instances 
 that which it so often professes to be, the yearning 
 for truth, of a mind dissatisfied with revealed religion ; 
 but it exists mainly, because it is afraid of the truth, 
 because it magnifies its severities and refuses its 
 restraints, because it will not learn from Him who 
 alone can teach, and who assures us that if we will 
 only submit our pride to His humility, His yoke will 
 be easy and His burden light, and that we shall find 
 rest for our souls. 
 
 " Wicked and impure lives," so writes to me a 
 working man, who has a large knowledge of his 
 brethren, " keep more people away from Christ and 
 His Church than infidelity of mind ; " and it has been 
 well said, "Faith becomes suspected only when it 
 begins to be troublesome, and to this day unbelief 
 has never made a sensualist, but sensualism has made 
 nearly all the unbelievers." The yoke of faith is 
 never rejected, but in order to shake oflT the yoke of 
 duty ; and religion would never have an enemy, were 
 it not itself the enemy of licentiousness and vice. 
 Men are irreligious because they are first vicious, 
 and they hate the truth of Christianity because they 
 hate its practice. Could we but induce them to 
 change their lives, we should find it no very hard 
 matter to change their judgment. 
 
 He that is a good man is three-fourths on his way 
 
UNBELIEF, 87 
 
 to be a Christian, wheresoever he lives and whatso- 
 ever he is called. It is with insincere Christians now 
 as with the Israelites of old, " Hast thou brought us 
 out of a land that floweth with milk and honey to 
 kill us in the wilderness ? " The Cross is, as it was in 
 St. Paul's time, to the Jews a stumbling-block, to the 
 Greeks foolishness. Whether we look at the gene- 
 rations of old, or in the world around us, or into 
 our own lives, we shall see that the faith which is 
 so easy to innocence becomes difficult and unsettled 
 in exact proportion as that innocence is preserved 
 or lost ; that doubt is the after-thought and not the 
 motive of that evil heart of unbelief. 
 
 " Faults in the life breed errors in the brain, 
 And these reciprocally those again : 
 Our mind and conduct mutually imprint 
 Their stamp and image on each other's mint." 
 
 Eve had never heeded Satan's suggestions to un- 
 belief had she not longed to taste of the forbidden 
 fruit. Lot's sons-in-law were given over to sin, and 
 then they mocked at the warning to escape with 
 their lives. The sons of Eliab and their followers 
 disputed the authority of Moses* and Aaron, and the 
 priesthood also, not because they could disprove 
 the divine commission of their chiefs, but because 
 they were disappointed in their expectation of carnal 
 enjoyment, and would not obey the commandment 
 which had been sent to them from heaven just before 
 they rebelled. " Seek not after your own heart and 
 with your own eyes." Disappointment preceded dis- 
 
88 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 belief. Balaam knew very well that God would not 
 alter his instructions, for out of his own mouth that 
 wicked servant had said, " God is not a man, that 
 He should lie ; . . . hath He said, and shall He not 
 do it ? and hath He spoken, and shall He not make 
 it good ? " He knew that he was following the wages 
 of unrighteousness when he said to the angel, " If it 
 displease thee, I will get me back again," but his 
 heart was set on Balak's silver and gold, and he 
 ran greedily after his reward to his destruction. 
 And so in the New Testament the lawyer only 
 wanted some excuse for not obeying the command- 
 ments which he had just repeated, for not doing his 
 duty to his neighbour when he asked, " Who is he ? " ; 
 and the young man who came to Jesus for instruction 
 went away sorrowful, convinced that the counsel 
 which he had received was just what he ought to 
 follow, but refusing to conform his will with his 
 duty, and surrendering the faith of his soul to the 
 desire of his senses, because he had great possessions. 
 Kather than cast his wheat into the sea, he would 
 run the risk of shipwreck. 
 
 Or, if we regard those of our acquaintance who 
 openly declare their unbelief, or, having a form of 
 godliness, practically deny the power of it, do we 
 consider that they are competent to decide upon 
 subjects which are foolishness to the natural man, 
 and can only be spiritually discerned? Have they 
 patiently tested that which they reject ? Are they 
 learned in the Scriptures, and do they study them 
 
UNBELIEF. 89 
 
 with a prayerful interest, and not in a captious, con- 
 troversial spirit ? Sir Isaac Newton said to Dr. 
 Halley, when he was declaiming against Christianity, 
 "Dr. Halley, I am always glad to hear you when 
 you speak about astronomy or of mathematics, because 
 these are subjects which you have studied and well 
 understand ; but you should not talk of Christianity, 
 for you have not studied it. I have, and am quite 
 certain that you know nothing of the matter." 
 
 Are these unbelievers men of high and noble pur- 
 poses, large-hearted, unselfish, brave, pure, gentlemen, 
 despising all that is mean, and cruel, and foul, and 
 false ? Or are they, as a rule, selfish, licentious, 
 arrogant, wise in their own conceit, and only con- 
 siderate of those who promote their enjoyments ? Are 
 they, as a rule, the men whom you would desire to 
 introduce to your mother, or sister, or wife; from 
 whom you would seek advice in perplexity, or con- 
 solation in trouble ? Do you find in the man, who 
 speaks or lives in opposition to the Christian faith, 
 the " friend that loveth at all times, and the brother 
 born for adversity " ? Is he gentle and easy to be 
 entreated, or is he sudden and quick in quarrel, 
 bitter and unforgiving ? Is not the evil heart of 
 unbelief warm only in self-indulgence, and cold to 
 all beside ? 
 
 We of the priesthood have a large and painful 
 experience of the grievous harm which sin inflicts 
 upon faith. When a shadow falls upon the happy 
 face of boyhood, or a lurid light upon the beauty of 
 
90 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 girlhood, when the merry voice becomes harsh and 
 painful, and the frank smile of confidence is ex- 
 changed for the sullen look, we are not surprised to 
 see irreverence take the place of devotion, indifference 
 instead of anxiety, or to hear of disobedience, loss 
 of affection, cessation of prayers, at home. Or when 
 young men come to us and complain that it is so 
 hard to bear constant sarcasm, so hard to see those 
 constant sneers, so hard to resist those invitations to 
 taste of forbidden fruit; — who are they that thus 
 blaspheme and ridicule and tempt ? Are they not 
 those who have lost innocence and affect to despise 
 it? What is your recollection, your estimate now 
 of those who first suggested doubt and unbelief, who 
 first said to you, " There is no harm ; everybody does 
 it ; eat, drink, and be merry " ? 
 
 Or, again, when men and women come to us for 
 instruction and relief, with the exceeding bitter 
 cry, " I cannot believe ; I cannot give myself to 
 religion; I know that it is right and beautiful, 
 that its ways are ways of pleasantness, and all 
 its paths are peace, yet something holds me back. 
 It calls, but I cannot follow; I admire, but I can- 
 not copy." We find, on inquiry, in all these cases, 
 that the heart is preoccupied ; that there is an idol 
 in the temple of the soul, — God sitteth, as before, 
 above the cherubims, but other lords have dominion 
 over them. Dark clouds have come between them 
 and the Sun of Righteousness. Their iniquities have 
 separated them and their God, and their sins have 
 
UNBELIEF. 91 
 
 hid His face from them. Not until it has been 
 said by the All-Merciful, "I have blotted out as 
 a thick cloud thy transgression, and as a cloud thy 
 sin/' and not until those clouds have dissolved in 
 tears of repentance, can the divine light shine upon 
 that soul. The upper room must be prepared and 
 made ready, or there can be no Lord's Supper there. 
 
 Take your own experience. When did you first 
 find religion irksome ? When were you first inclined 
 to dispute, to resist, to ignore it ? Was it not when 
 you were tempted to commit, or had committed, sin ? 
 Was it not when some evil fascination, some lewd 
 impulse, allured you, that you first wished the words 
 had never been spoken, " I say unto you. That whoso- 
 ever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath com- 
 mitted adultery with her already in his heart ; " and 
 you said to yourself, " This is a hard saying ; wdio 
 can hear it ? " Was it not when you were enticed to 
 do evil secretly, and were deceived by the whisper, 
 *' Tush ! the Lord shall not see ; neither shall the 
 Lord of Jacob regard it," that you thought with 
 trembling of those other words, "The eyes of the 
 Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the 
 good ; " " There is nothing covered that shall not be 
 revealed, neither hid that shall not be known ; " " God 
 shall bring every work unto judgment, and every 
 secret thing, whether it be good or bad " ? 
 
 Yes, those first seeds of disobedience, those early 
 transgressions, which were unjust, revengeful, dis- 
 honest, those first irrevocable words, which were pro- 
 
92 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 fane, or obscene, or untrue — these were steps over 
 the boundaries, which God had set around our fair 
 ground and goodly heritage, into the wilderness of 
 unbelief. It is when we purposed to do evil, or have 
 done it, that religion becomes an offence to us, and 
 we say of it, as Ahab said of Elijah and Micaiah, 
 *' Hast thou found me, mine enemy ? " " Art thou 
 he that troubleth Israel ? " " I hate him, because he 
 does not prophesy good of me, but evil." 
 
 Sin acts upon faith as disease upon vegetation. So 
 long as a plant is in the vigour of health, it is beyond 
 the influence of blight or mildew, nor is it infested 
 by insects; but when the roots are injured by excess 
 or lack of moisture, or the branches and foliage are 
 scorched or starved, it droops and decays in a debility 
 which is hopeless unless the circumstances are 
 changed. And there is something in the poisoned 
 sap which attracts and nourishes its most destructive 
 foes. And so, where with patient culture, and good 
 soil, and a pure air, and the sunshine of heaven, there 
 might have been sweet flowers and luscious fruits, 
 there is only pollution and disease and death. 
 
 There are many other causes, secondary and sup- 
 plemental, of this evil heart of unbelief The pride 
 of intellect, rationalism, materialism, agnosticism, 
 professing high motives, and assuming great names, 
 and proud superiority over those whom they de- 
 nounce as slaves of superstition, because they submit 
 their reason to their faith. There are mental as 
 well as carnal lusts. The warning sounds in our ears 
 
UNBELIEF. 93 
 
 throughout the Testaments, Old and New, " Beware 
 of false prophets ; " " Beware of Shemaiah the Nehe- 
 1am ite, for he caused you to trust not the light ; " 
 " Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy 
 and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the 
 rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." 
 
 The people of the Hebrews heard declarations and 
 saw manifestations of the one true God ; but though 
 they were without excuse, they became vain in their 
 own imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened, 
 and they worshipped the images of wood, and brass, 
 and silver, and gold. The Christian has the witness 
 within himself, if he will listen and heed, and " to 
 feel a thing true is a higher security than any 
 laboured argument ; " but too often that witness has 
 been expelled by disobedience, and an idol set up 
 in its place. When this mere human wisdom is 
 asked, " Canst thou by searching find out God ? " 
 the answer is, " Yes, or I will not own Him." Wiser 
 than Solomon — " No man can find out the work that 
 God maketh;" wiser than Paul — "Unsearchable are 
 His judgments, and His ways past finding out;" it 
 ignores the evidences, the antiquity, of a religion 
 whose Founder was foreordained before the founda- 
 tion of the world, yet whom you and I worship 
 to-day ; its lorojphecies, fulfilled and in fulfilment ; 
 its miracles, as manifest now in their transforming 
 spiritual influence as when the blind saw and the 
 lepers were cleansed ; its universal adaptation v^^;=^^=i 
 
 every time and clime; its sublime superiorities fe of the 
 
 (f UNiVERSl 
 
 V ^^ 
 
94 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 all other forms of belief It forgets the countless 
 exaltations of our humanity — not only of manhood, 
 but of womanhood, so degraded by all false religions, 
 so dignified by the Incarnation. It forgets that we 
 owe to Christianity the purest and the surest happi- 
 ness we know — the happiness of home, "hearts of 
 each other sure ; " that it has taught us a grander 
 courage than that which the soldier shows in the 
 compulsion and excitement of the fight; patience 
 in all phases of pain; the resignation which says, 
 "It is the Lord: let Him do what seemeth good;" 
 that it brings us a hopeful readiness to die, and that 
 it has given to every nation which has accepted it 
 all that makes it noble and great in history. 
 
 And in place of all that it overlooks or denies, 
 what has reason, with all its vaunting, brought us, 
 or what does it propose to bring ? Where are the 
 gods of Hamath and Arpad ? Where are the gods 
 of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah — the idols of a mere 
 philosophy ? Tell me of a benefit which unbelief 
 has conferred in compensation for all the mischief 
 which it seeks to do. Show me a home which is 
 happier, a life which is brighter, from the theories 
 of the sceptic or the writings of the agnostic, except 
 so far as they have established, in far more instances 
 than they would care to know, the faith which they 
 would propose to destroy. Here is the answer : 
 " Where is the wise ? Where is the scribe ? Where 
 is the disputer of this world ? Hath not God made 
 foolish the wisdom of this world ? '' 
 
UNBELIEF. 95 
 
 No ; God has given us our reason, as He gave the 
 Law to His people Israel, to be our schoolmaster 
 to bring us unto Christ. He has set to it bounds 
 which it cannot pass ; and when we come to them 
 we must take the hand of faith by which He would 
 lead us onward and upward. 
 
 " Reason's glimmering ray 
 Was lent, not to assure our doubtful way, 
 But guide us upward to a brighter day. 
 How can the less the greater comprehend ? 
 Or finite reason reach infinity ? 
 For what could fathom God were more than He." 
 
 Keason leads us to the door of the sanctuary, and 
 then faith takes us by the hand. " If thou canst not 
 understand the pulses of thine arteries, the motion 
 of thy blood, the seat of thy memory, the rule of thy 
 dreams, thy diseases and thy distempers, things that 
 thou bearest about thee, that cause thee pain and 
 sorrow, it is not to be expected that thou shouldst 
 understand the secrets of God, the causes of His will, 
 the impulses of His Grace, the manner of His 
 Sacraments, and the economy of His Spirit." * 
 
 If we would reach the haven where the immortal 
 spirit longs to be, faith must steer by the compass 
 of revelation. As we read in the " Advancement of 
 Learning," we must leave the pinnace of human 
 reason and go into the ship of the Church, which 
 must alone be governed by a divine sea-needle to 
 direct her course aright. 
 
 And so far from faith in the revelation contracting 
 
 * Bishop Jeremy Taylor. 
 
96 ADDRESSES TO WORKhVG MEN, 
 
 reason, faith accepted and adopted is the consistent 
 development of reason unto perfection. Is it not 
 reason to expect that the Creator would make such 
 a revelation ? " I had rather be an atheist," it has been 
 said, " than believe in a God who kept His creatures 
 in such a darkness and despair." What would you 
 think of a father who never told his son a word 
 about his affection, his heritage, or his duty ? 
 
 Philosophy asks with Pilate, " What is truth ? " 
 There is only one answer : " I am the Truth." St. 
 Augustine wrote that he had read the writings of 
 the great Greek and Roman authors with deep 
 interest and high admiration, but he had not found 
 in them any such words as those which spake so 
 directly to his heart and to his need, " Come unto 
 Me, all ye that travail and are heavy laden, and I 
 will give you rest." 
 
 Impatience, again, produces unbelief It is another 
 form of rationalism, which, while it professes to 
 accept Christianity, does not hesitate to alter the 
 conditions on which alone it can be understood and 
 practised. It accommodates, it alters, it misreads 
 the divine instructions, and then, because it fails, 
 it doubts. We smile at the child, who puts a seed 
 or a twig into its little garden, and comes next day to 
 look for flower or fruit, as though, like Jonah's gourd, 
 it had grown up in the night. But what do we, who 
 are so confident that we have put away childish 
 things? We say brief, hurried prayers, and then, 
 because they are not answered just when and how 
 
UNBELIEF. 07 
 
 we wish, we think that they are not heard. We make 
 some feeble effort, give some paltry gift, and because 
 we are not lauded and thanked, we are offended. 
 
 •' One good deed, dying tongueless, 
 Slaughters a thousand waiting upon that." 
 
 We hear people say, " I went to church, but I got no 
 good." What good ? Forgiveness, comfort, instruction, 
 hope ? Did they feel the need of them ? Was it evident, 
 from the reverent abasement, earnestness with which 
 they prayed, that they were indeed, as they described 
 themselves, " miserable sinners " at the feet of One 
 who alone could pardon ? Could all men know, from 
 their eager, hearty supplication, that they were 
 addressing One who is able to save to the uttermost 
 those who come to God by Him ? Or do they seem 
 to say, as they sit at their ease, with Ephraim, " They 
 shall find no iniquity in me ; " or with the Laodicean, 
 "I am rich, and in need of nothing," not knowing 
 that they are poor, and miserable, and blind, and 
 naked? 
 
 We may gratify our evil desires at once. The 
 harlot smiles, and the wine sparkles in the glass. 
 We need not wait for the pleasures of iniquity. 
 Satan says, "Here and now." God says, "There, 
 hereafter." It is written, " In your patience possess 
 ye your souls ; " and whoever obeys the instruction 
 will have David's blessing, " I waited patiently for 
 the Lord, and He hath inclined unto me, and heard 
 my call; IJe has put a new song in my mouth, even 
 a thanksgiving unto our God." 
 
 H 
 
98 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 Misrepresentations of religion, exaggerations of its 
 severity, which have not the warranty of the Scripture 
 nor the authority of the Church, coercions and 
 restrictions, which neither we nor our fathers were 
 able to bear, incline men to unbelief. A narrow 
 bigotry, which has learned no language but its own 
 shibboleth, and can see no good in those who differ 
 from it; wL.ch "limits the Holy One of Israel," 
 forgetting — 
 
 " That the love of God is broader 
 Than the measure of man's mind, 
 And the heart of the Eternal 
 Is So wonderfully kind. 
 
 " But we make that love too narrow, 
 With false limits of our own ; 
 And we magnify His strictness 
 AVith a zeal He will not own." 
 
 And I would mention, as a very sad and common 
 example of this severity, the harm which is done to 
 children, and to young men and maidens, by those 
 parents and teachers who set religion before them 
 rather as a compulsory task than as a message of 
 love, and seek to enforce obedience by the curses 
 of Ebal, rather than to win it by the blessings of 
 Gerizim. What is the result ? A superficial formalism, 
 and the *' worst form of atheism — hypocrisy." Con- 
 straint makes religion odious ; love makes a thou- 
 sand conversions to one which is caused by fear. 
 
 Irreverence in speech or action, wild words on 
 sacred subjects, a forgetful apathy in holy places, 
 light jests on religious subjects, puns upon Scripture, 
 
UNBELIEF, 99 
 
 riddles and comic songs upon scriptural and other 
 sacred subjects, careless sarcasms, — these not only 
 indicate, but they aggravate, with a subtle, deadly 
 peril, the disease of unbelief. St. Paul is inspired 
 to tell us that to serve God acceptably we must 
 serve with reverence and godly fear. In vain we 
 pray to our heavenly Father, " Hallowed be Thy 
 Name," if we do not always utter and hear it with 
 a profound respect and humility; or if, ourselves 
 loving salutations in the market-place, and making 
 profound obeisance to our rulers here, we heed not 
 the proclamation of the King of kings, that at the 
 Name of Jesus every knee should bow. In vain we 
 come into His palace without sign of fear or of 
 love. 
 
 Good Isaac Walton thus speaks of one who was 
 irreverent and profane : " He is no companion for me, 
 for most of his conceits are either Scripture jests or 
 lascivious jests, for which I count no man witty : 
 for the devil will help a man that way inclined to 
 the first ; and his own corrupt nature, which he 
 always carries with him, to the second ; but a man 
 who entertains a company with wit and mirth, and 
 leaves out the sin, he is the man for me." 
 
 There are many, who call themselves Christian 
 gentlemen, who seem to think that humorous imagi- 
 nations and incidents — "good stories," as they term 
 them — ^must be either profane or obscene, and who 
 have not the refinement, much less the religion, to 
 distinguish between the use and the abuse of wit. 
 
100 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 One of the wittiest of men said, ''When wit is 
 combined with sense or information, when it is soft- 
 ened by benevolence and is restrained by strong 
 principle, when it is in the hands of a man who 
 loves honour, justice, decency, good-nature, morality, 
 and religion (which includes them all), wit is then 
 a beautiful and delightful part of our nature. Man 
 could direct his ways by plain reason, and support 
 his life by tasteless food ; but God has given us wit, 
 and flavour, and brightness, and perfumes, and music 
 to enliven the days of fnan's pilgiimage, and to 
 charm his pained steps * o'er the burning marl.' " * 
 
 * Sydney Smith. 
 
VII. 
 
 UNBELIEF. 
 
 II. The Results. 
 
 " Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, 
 fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies."— St. Matt. xv. 19. 
 
 " When lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin ; 
 and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." 
 When concupiscence prevails over the conscience, and 
 the will, abusing its liberty, corrupts the under- 
 standing, and the law of the mind surrenders itself 
 to the law of the members, and the spirit in re- 
 generate men is expelled by carnal hostilities, it 
 becomes almost impossible to distinguish any longer 
 between the cause and the consequence of unbelief 
 
 We doubt because we have disobeyed, and we dis- 
 obey because we doubt. 
 
 When the soul descends from the vantage-ground 
 of faith and innocence, it leaves a pure sweet air, 
 the clear light and genial warmth of the sunshine 
 upon the hill of Zion, for the mists and miasma and 
 lurid heat of the valley of the children of Hinnom, 
 the valley of the shadow of death ; but though the 
 
102 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN, 
 
 descent is swift and easy, the distance is so great 
 that it seems to be slow, and though the whole scene 
 is finally changed, all joy darkened, and the mirth of 
 the land gone, the surroundings alter so gradually 
 that the traveller does not note the transforma- 
 tion. 
 
 I have read of a criminal who endured the most 
 cruel torments upon the rack with a marvellous re- 
 solution, under the condition (according to the custom 
 of that time and place) that if he went through the 
 ordeal without confessing his crime, he would escape 
 death. And when he was asked how he found the 
 courage and the power, he replied that before he was 
 to ascend the rack, he caused the picture of a jibbet 
 to be drawn upon his foot, and that when the pain 
 became intense he fixed his eyes upon it, and that 
 the fear and abhorrence of dying such a death, if 
 he confessed, enabled him to bear, without making 
 the confession, which would have realized the vision 
 before him, the terrible torture of the rack. And, in 
 like manner, it would be good for us if, when we are 
 undergoing temptations from which we could find 
 relief by surrender and concessions, and which have 
 such a powerful influence upon us that they seem to 
 be irresistible to our poor, weak, corrupted nature — 
 it would be good for us to fix our eyes, as did the 
 criminal, upon that which will follow our defeat ; to 
 realize, so far as we can, the sure degradation of 
 " sorrow dogging sin." 
 
 It would be good for you young men if, when 
 
UNBELIEF. 103 
 
 temptation was whispering words sweeter than honey, 
 
 yet be they very swords, in your ears, " Life is short 
 
 and tedious;" "Time a passing shadow, let us enjoy 
 
 the present and leave no flower unplucked ; " " Let 
 
 none of us go without his part of our voluptuousness, 
 
 and let us leave tokens of our cheerfulness in every 
 
 place ; " — it would be well for you to hear and heed 
 
 that voice which speaks to you from heaven, " Behold, 
 
 all ye that kindle a fire " — the consuming fire of 
 
 carnal lust — "and compass yourselves about with 
 
 sparks " — instead of following the light of the Spirit : 
 
 "walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks 
 
 which ye have kindled; this shall ye have of Mine 
 
 hand ; ye shall lie down in sorrow." " Be sure your 
 
 sin will find you out." The heathen knew it, and 
 
 confessed — 
 
 " The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices 
 Make instruments to scourge us." 
 
 And as with carnal, so with mental sins ; as with 
 murders, adulteries, fornications, and thefts, so with 
 evil thoughts, false witness, blasphemy, unbelief If 
 any Christian is beginning to doubt the principles 
 which he learnt from his father, and the power of 
 the prayers which he was taught at his mother's 
 knee, to question such things as transcend his under- 
 standing or thwart his inclinations, to deny the 
 inspiration of the Scriptures before he has searched 
 them, the divine institution of the Church before 
 he has read its history, to criticize the doctrine and 
 creeds of Christendom as though they were modern 
 
104 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 essays ; if he would learn from the common ex- 
 amples how doubt leads to disputation, and dispu- 
 tation to denial, and denial to hostility and hate ; 
 if he would take to heart the pitiful confessions of 
 those who have lost their first love ; if he could hear, 
 as we of the priesthood so often hear, " It has gone, 
 and I cannot regain it ; " — how would such an one 
 rejoice to feel that, still in the great Ark of safety, 
 he had not made shipwreck of his faith I What 
 thankful joy to wake out of his dismal dreams to 
 the brightness of his Father's house; to go forth, 
 after his restless fear, into the fresh air, amid the 
 singing birds; to rise up, like the lame man, and 
 go with the Apostles into the temple, walking and 
 leaping and praising God ! 
 
 For what does a man gain in exchange for his 
 faith ? A mess of pottage for his birthright as a 
 child of God and an inheritor of heaven ; the rewards 
 of divination, and to be constrained to dwell with 
 Mesech, and to have his habitation in the tents of 
 Kedar, in place of the approbations of conscience, 
 the communion of saints, and the unsearchable riches 
 of Christ. 
 
 Our whole being, every phase of our existence, 
 every thought, every word, every action, is changed 
 as we lose our faith. The world in which we live 
 is contracted more and more. We are like the 
 prisoner in the story, " The Man in the Iron Shroud," 
 who sees the walls of his cell slowly closing in to 
 crush him. We are as sailors, who have roved over 
 
UNBELIEF. 105 
 
 boundless seas, in some sunless, landlocked, crowded, 
 and pestilential port. That which we can handle 
 and see, touch and taste, which we think we can 
 prove, which "we know to be a fact," — that is 
 our boundary of belief; and the grand, beautiful, 
 infinite, eternal universe, in which we lived as 
 children with Him who made it and redeemed it, 
 with the angels and with the saints, is shut and 
 known to us no more. The ladder which reached 
 from earth to heaven, and on which we saw the 
 angels come and go, has disappeared; because, of 
 course, prayer goes with faith. First it becomes a 
 form, then a weariness ; then it is shortened, said 
 irregularly once a day, discontinued. And then the 
 words which, so tradition tells us, were heard in the 
 temple at Jerusalem just before the city was de- 
 stroyed, "Let us depart hence," might be said of 
 that prayerless soul. "Ichabod, the glory is de- 
 parted ; " " Ephraim is joined to his idols : let him 
 alone." 
 
 And then follows a period, the most deplorable, 
 the most fearful, in the faithless life, a season in which 
 the unbeliever is satisfied with a sense of his own 
 security in sin, when he is persuaded that because he 
 feels no longer any hesitation or scruple before his 
 self-indulgence, or regret or remorse afterwards, that 
 his pleasures are not only sweet but harmless. The 
 understanding is darkened, as St. Paul writes, by the 
 blindness of the heart, and the man, being past feeling, 
 gives himself over unto lasciviousness. 
 
I06 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN, 
 
 " I sin, and heaven and earth go round 
 As if no evil deed were done ; 
 As if God's blood had never flowed, 
 To hinder sin or to atone. 
 
 " I walk the earth with lightsome step, 
 Smile at the sunshine, breathe the air, 
 Do my own will, nor ever heed 
 
 Gethsemane, and that long prayer." 
 
 What is the explanation ? By degrees the con- 
 science has been seared; drop by drop, as with 
 the eggs of the throstle in the petrifying cave, that, 
 which might have been life and music, has been 
 changed to silence and to stone. There has been 
 ossification of the spiritual heart ; the perception of 
 the true and the false, the power to distinguish 
 between right and wrong, has been first confused 
 and then destroyed. Men call evil good, and good 
 evil. They put darkness for light, and light for 
 darkness. They put bitter for sweet, and sweet for 
 bitter. They start to go in one direction, and then, 
 as though drunk with wine or paralytic, they swerve 
 and stagger elsewhere. They are unconscious of evil — 
 unconscious that " there is no such fault, as counting 
 we have no fault." So men have slept in the snow- 
 drift, and been found frozen to death; so is the 
 mortification painless, which puts an end to hope. 
 But, blessed be God, there is a voice which can 
 arouse and save men from such sleep as this. 
 
 Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, 
 and Christ shall give thee light." 
 
 But there is something worse than apathy — anti- 
 pathy. Vice not only loses all love of virtue, but 
 
UNBELIEF. 107 
 
 it goes on to hate it ; ashamed openly to avow its 
 aversion, for ''hypocrisy is the homage which vice 
 pays to virtue," or only expressing it in sneer and 
 ridicule — but abhorring it. Ahab was not satisfied 
 in sending Micaiah to the dungeon to eat the bread 
 of affliction ; not at ease, though he was out of sight 
 and heariog ; " but I hate him," he said ; " because 
 he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil." 
 And so, as the idle set themselves against the diligent, 
 and the impure against the chaste, so they who are 
 fallen away from their faith are the bitter foes of 
 the believer. They have a thousand excuses for their 
 dislike — that he is affected, and sets up to be better 
 than his neighbours ; that he is narrow-minded, 
 bigoted, and superstitious ; that he is cold and in- 
 sensible to temptation ; that he is acting a part with 
 some selfish purpose, to win the favour of those who 
 are in authority. But that which really provokes 
 their displeasure, is the faith which they have left'; 
 his faith, and all that springs from it. Like the 
 Samaritans, who would not receive Christ because 
 His face was set as though He would go to Jerusalem, 
 so the mere worldling and the sceptic regard with 
 aversion all who are walking upon the heavenward 
 ways. 
 
 Is it not so? Do not we find that unbelief in 
 the Author of all goodness is followed by an opposi- 
 tion to all good ? The slothful servant in the parable 
 accused his employer of being an austere man, reap- 
 ing where he had not sown, and gathering where 
 
I08 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 he had not strawed. And so the modern infidel 
 dares to impugn the goodness of his Maker, and 
 renounces Him as cruel in promoting sin and sorrow. 
 Men do not only judge others by themselves, but 
 God Himself, as it is written, " These things hast 
 thou done, and I held My tongue, and thou thoughtest 
 wickedly that I am even such an one as thyself: 
 but I will reprove thee, and set before thee the things 
 that thou hast done." So with our literature; as 
 some of our writers become unfaithful, they become 
 impure. They are not satisfied with sneering at 
 religion, but they would have us worship the pomp 
 and sensuality of the world, and see something to 
 admire in the mere gratification of those passions 
 which we share with the animals. 
 
 They are opposed to order and authority ; for how 
 should he who ignores the Creator, and sets His 
 laws at defiance, respect the edicts of the creature ? 
 Who are they of whom St. Paul speaks as boasters, 
 proud, disobedient to parents, without natural affection, 
 truce-breakers, despisers of those that are good, 
 traitors ; men, he tells us, " having a form of godliness, 
 but denying the power thereof " ? And the chaplain 
 of the gaol, and the superintendent of police, will 
 tell you, that of mankind the most dangerous and 
 degraded, are they who have lost all thought, all love, 
 all fear of God. 
 
 So with a nation; as the righteousness of faith 
 exalts, so the evil of unbelief dishonours and destroys. 
 The testimony of statesmen is unanimous, that of 
 
UNBELIEF. 109 
 
 all the dispositions and habits which lead to political 
 prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable 
 supports. " In vain," says Washington, " would that 
 man claim the tribute of patriotism who should 
 labour to subvert these pillars." They are as precious 
 to the politician as to the man of piety. A volume 
 could not trace all their connections with private 
 and public felicity. Let it be simply asked. Where 
 is the security for property, for reputation, for life, 
 if the sense of religious obligation deserts the oaths 
 which are the instruments of investigation in our 
 courts of justice ? Nor let us indulge the supposition 
 that morality can be maintained without religion. 
 Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined 
 education on minds of a peculiar structure, reason 
 and experience both forbid us to expect that morality 
 can prevail independently of religious principles. 
 " We believe," writes the Archbishop of Canterbur}^ 
 " the Christian faith to be essential not only to the 
 true expansion of intelligence, but to the substantial 
 foundation of morals." 
 
 Is it not recorded in all history that " righteousness 
 alone exalteth a nation, and that sin is a reproach to 
 any people " ? 
 
 Those were noble words of Cicero to the Roman 
 Senate: "Let us never be misled by our self-conceit 
 to suppose that we have conquered Spain by our 
 numbers, nor Gaul by our strength, nor Carthage 
 by our policy, nor the people of this land, the 
 Italians and the Latines, by our innate cleverness ; 
 
no ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 but by our piety, by our religion, and by that 
 wisdom which acknowledges that all things are 
 directed and governed by supreme powers, we have 
 overcome the nations of the earth." 
 
 And so we find that in all the civilized world, 
 of the men to whom that world was most under 
 obligation, the mighty intellects of the time, that 
 although God had not revealed Himself to them as 
 to us in these latter days by His Son, yet were they, 
 as a rule, religious according to the religion which 
 they professed. In the literature, for example, of 
 Greece and Rome, we read everywhere of a Supreme 
 Power, of worship in temples and altars, of consecrated 
 persons and places. Find what fault we may with 
 their adaptation to human infiymities — adaptation to 
 mere sentiment, to sensuality, and the popular wish, 
 we must nevertheless admire in these writings the 
 awful sense of an Omnipotent Creator, Ruler, and 
 Judge. We find in their books the admiration of 
 virtue and the condemnation of vice, the benediction 
 of goodness (as they saw it) and the execration of 
 evil. In their grief and in their joy, perplexity and 
 success, defeat and victory, they came with their 
 sacrifice of humiliation or of thankfulness, and 
 brought their prayers and praises to the Lord of 
 heaven and earth. All their great exploits were 
 commended, before they were begun, to Him. Suppli- 
 cations were made before an expedition or a journey, 
 for deliverance from the danger of land and sea. 
 The Greeks — Achilles the soldier, Ulysses the king. 
 
UNBELIEF. 1 1 1 
 
 Plato the philosopher, Xenophon the historian — and 
 the Romans also, offered libations to their gods before 
 their meals and after them. No legacy of learning, 
 no example of heroism, has been bequeathed to us 
 by the impious and the profane. Even the ruins 
 of antiquity proclaim that, with the builder and the 
 sculptor, the religion which he professed was the 
 supreme thought that inspired his work. 
 
 Yet more signally is this testimony before us, 
 when we regard those later endowments with which, 
 since the Day of Pentecost, intellect and art and 
 industry have enriched the world. In Europe, in 
 England, our Christian faith has given us our 
 universities and schools, our glorious cathedrals and 
 churches, our hospitals, charities, and doles. It has 
 brought into our libraries the plays of Shakespeare, 
 the poetry of Milton, the philosophy of Bacon, the 
 science of Newton. It has given to us the oratorios 
 of Handel, and the masses of Mozart. What great 
 work has been done, what grand building has been 
 raised, what great book has been written, what 
 famous picture has been painted, by an unbeliever ? 
 
 And in this, as in all things, history repeats itself. 
 Just as the writings of antiquity and the monuments 
 of its art bear testimony to religious allegiance and 
 to an admiration of truth and piety, with earnest 
 cravings for that further revelation which has been 
 given to us, so the works of to-day, which are to be 
 prominent, will be achieved by men who have been 
 faithful to that revelation. It is not only that the 
 
112 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 miserable profanity and silliness of much modern 
 literature will be clean forgotten with their writers, 
 as dead men out of mind, but those elaborate treatises, 
 which, professing to be apologies for ignorance, mani- 
 festly declare a proud confidence in superior knowledge, 
 — these also, with their authors, fifty years hence will 
 be unknown. 
 
 The signs of destruction may be seen always in 
 disunion. Unbelievers may be unanimous in saying, 
 "There is no God, there is no Christ, there is no 
 Holy Spirit, no Church, the Bible is not inspired, 
 there will be no resurrection, no judgment, no here- 
 after for us ; " but when they begin to build, where 
 they have pulled down, they are like the builders 
 of Babel in the confusion of tongues. It may be 
 said of them, as a great Roman philosopher once 
 said of his brethren, " Each is charmed with his 
 own theory, but despises all the others." Who is to 
 make the plans — the Socinian or the Pantheist, the 
 materialist or the agnostic ? Alas ! these unbelievers 
 " have uprooted goodly forests, they have made 
 strange havoc with the cedars of Lebanon and the 
 oaks of Basan ; but they have planted no vines nor 
 fig trees, under which posterity may dwell in safety." 
 They despise the Church of the past ; they make 
 no Church in the present : it is, as it has been, and 
 will be always with them, the Church of the future. 
 " Man never is, but always to be, blest." " Happi- 
 ness is the gay to-morrow of the mind, which never 
 comes." Ah ! what a fearful waste there has been 
 
UNBELIEF, 1 1 3 
 
 of mighty intellect and vigorous life ! What a waste 
 in a far-off land of the goodly heritage which might 
 have been enjoyed so happily in the fair ground at 
 home ! What a hopeless siege of that great city of 
 which it is written, "No weapon that is formed 
 against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that 
 is raised up in judgment against thee thou shalt 
 condemn " ! What raging waves of the sea, foaming 
 out their own shame, as they dash themselves 
 against the rock of ages ! Alas ! the evil they 
 have done not only to themselves but to others ; for 
 it has been said but too truly, that though they can 
 never destroy Christ, yet, like Herod, they may kill 
 much that is true and innocent in their attempts to 
 do so. 
 
 Who can tell where this will "end ? And meanwhile 
 the results are terrible. "It must needs be that 
 offences come; but woe to him through whom 
 the offence cometh ! It were better for him 
 that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and 
 that he should be drowned in the depths of the 
 sea, than that he should offend one of Christ's little 
 ones." 
 
 We are told in " the new Book of Genesis," written 
 by our modern scribes and the disputers of this 
 world, that " inasmuch as it" dissipates the dream of 
 Paradise, and does away with the tragedy of the Fall, 
 it cancels at once the need and scheme of redemption, 
 and so leaves the historical Churches of Christendom 
 crumbling away from their very foundations." So 
 
 I 
 
114 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 here there is an end of our responsibility to God 
 (if there be a God), and our neighbour has no longer 
 any claim upon us. There is an end of worship and 
 of prayer, and, except as matter of expediency, of 
 purity, honesty, industry, and temperance. Hence- 
 forth we are to regard all our yearnings after good- 
 ness and happiness, all our bright previsions of peace 
 and rest and beauty, all our shameful consciousness 
 of pretence and pride and selfishness, all our detesta- 
 tion of vice] and our admiration of virtue — ay, the 
 assured sense of Christ within us — as mere imagina- 
 tions. What shall we say? Why, that if their 
 audacious propositions were not so perilous to the 
 souls of those who make them, and^to some of those 
 who hear them, they were not only to be denounced 
 as profane and blasphemous, but to be derided as 
 silly and absurd. 
 
 God dethroned, and evolution reigning in His stead 
 " The fool hath said in his heart. There is no God ; " 
 for who in the world is a more ignorant and wretched 
 person than he who is an atheist? "A man may 
 better believe that there is no such person as himself, 
 and that he is not a being, than that there is no God. 
 For himself can cease to be, and once was not, and 
 shall be taken from what he is, and in very many 
 periods of his life knows not that he is (for so it is 
 with him every night he sleeps) ; but none of these 
 things can happen to God, and if he knows it not he 
 is a fool. Can anything be more foolish than to 
 think that all this rare fabric of heaven and earth 
 
UNBELIEF. 1 1 5 
 
 can come by chance, whereas all the skill of art 
 cannot make a single blade of grass ? To see rare 
 effects and no cause; an excellent government and 
 no prince ; a motion without an immovable ; a circle 
 without a centre; a time without eternity ; a second 
 without a first ; a thing that begins not from itself; 
 and therefore not to perceive that there is something 
 from which it does begin, which must be without 
 beginning; — these things are so against philosophy 
 and natural reason, that he must needs be without 
 understanding who can accept them. This is the 
 atheist. The thing framed says that nothing framed 
 it. The tongue never made itself to speak, and yet 
 talks against Him that did, and says, * That which is 
 made is, and that which made it is not.' " 
 
 Thus far I have attempted to justify my convictions. 
 First, that unbelief arises mainly from these causes, 
 from disobeying, and from a wish to disobey, the 
 dictates of conscience and the revealed will of God. It 
 follows, and is an apology for, sin. Was there ever a sin 
 without an excuse ? The woman said, " The serpent 
 beguiled me ; " and the man said, " The woman Thou 
 gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and 
 I did eat." And their son said, when God asked, 
 " Where is thy brother ? " ''I know not ; am I my 
 brother's keeper ? " " If," says Massillon, " men had 
 never had passions, or if religion had countenanced 
 them, unbelief would not have appeared upon earth." 
 Secondly, unbelief is the outcome of an arrogant 
 confidence in the power of human reason, of an 
 
Il6 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN, 
 
 endeavour of the finite to comprehend the infinite. 
 And it proceeds from, thirdly, a stolid and im- 
 patient ignorance which will make no experiment 
 nor inquiry. 
 
 So TertuUian said to the heathen, " You condemn 
 without trying to understand ; you blame that which 
 you have never examined ; you blaspheme you know 
 not what." And the consequences of unbelief are to 
 the soul just what creeping paralysis is to the body — 
 a gradual loss of vitality ; the spiritual apprehensions 
 are weakened ; the appreciation of true beauty, purity, 
 and innocence, the sympathy with suffering, the idea 
 of self-sacrifice, love, awe, humility, disappear and 
 die. The motives to action are enfeebled and debased, 
 and as water cannot rise higher than its spring, he 
 who has low and limited intentions imputes them 
 to all others. He will tell you that all religion is 
 either the superstitious fear of children singing in 
 the dark to dispel or disguise their silly terror, or that 
 it is only a sham, assumed like the phylactery to 
 attract observation or to gain some worldly advan- 
 tage. He will tell you that generosity and courage 
 and forbearance are likewise mere ostentations, the 
 baits of pride to attract admiration, that chastity and 
 sobriety are mere matters of temperament or immu- 
 nity from temptation, and that men and women are 
 virtuous only because it pays them better to be so. 
 They would follow their own imaginations, if they 
 dare, and there was no risk of discovery. They would 
 not be honest were it safe to steal. Who would trust 
 
UNBELIEF. 117 
 
 such an accuser of the brethren ? What is to restrain 
 him from deceiving, cheating, injuring others ? 
 
 My brothers, be not unequally yoked together with 
 these unbelievers. If you would make friends who 
 will be true to you, have nothing to say to those 
 who will never suggest to you a noble thought or 
 join you in a noble deed. Plead with them, pray for 
 them, never make them your friends, or you will but 
 lean on a bruised reed, which will go into your hand 
 and pierce it. Such a friendship, the friendship of 
 this world, of those who live for it, in it, and as if 
 there were no other, is enmity with God. My younger 
 brethren, I would especially entreat you to make this 
 a subject of earnest prayer, " God, choose Thou 
 for me my friends." You should not only quote those 
 familiar words of Shakespeare and admire them as 
 poetry, but you should make them your golden rule — 
 
 " The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, 
 Grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel ; 
 But do not dull thy palm with entertainment 
 Of each now-hatch'd, unfledg'd comrade." 
 
VIII. 
 
 UNBELIEF. 
 
 III. The Remedies. 
 
 " Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrigliteous man his 
 thoughts : and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy 
 upon him ; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon." — Isaiah 
 Iv. 7. 
 
 If this be so, if unbelief be the ''daughter of such 
 bad causes, the sister of such bad adjuncts, and the 
 mother of such bad effects;" if men love darkness 
 rather than light because their deeds are evil, and 
 the god of this world hath blinded the eyes of them 
 that believe not ; in brief, if unbelief is so inex- 
 cusable, so perilous to those who, like the foolish 
 Galatians, will not obey the truth, although before 
 their eyes Jesus Christ has been evidently set forth, 
 crucified amonor them : and if our Saviour declares 
 it to be so, " when the Comforter is come, He will 
 reprove the world of sin, because ye believed not 
 on Me ; " and again, " He that believeth not is con- 
 demned already, because he hath not believed in 
 the name of the only begotten Son of God ; " — why, 
 then it is evident that we can no longer regard 
 unbelief as a matter of conscience or of opinion, but 
 
UNBELIEF, 119 
 
 as a sin heinous and abominable, or it had not 
 provoked such a terrible sentence from the lips of 
 infinite love. 
 
 Wherefore He warned men, and we His messengers 
 must repeat His warnings, that when they wilfully 
 and obstinately reject that which God has revealed, 
 they become vain in their imaginations, and their 
 foolish heart is darkened; professing themselves to 
 be wise, they become fools, and change the truth of 
 God into a lie. Look at those arrogant Pharisees 
 and unbelieving Jews, who had agreed, if any man 
 did confess that Jesus was the Christ, he should be 
 put out of the synagogue (intolerance is a sure sign 
 that there is no real love of truth) — see them brow- 
 beating, hear them cross-examining the man to whom, 
 blind from his birth, our Lord had just restored the 
 blessing of sight, and when they could not deny 
 the miracle, listen to the miserable answer that they 
 made when he said, on whom the miracle was 
 wrought, " If this Man were not of God, He could do 
 nothing," "Thou wast altogether born in sins, and 
 dost thou teach us ? " and they cast him out. Nay, 
 when He who had wrought the miracle spoke to 
 them soon afterwards similar words of warning, 
 they asked Him sneeringly, " Are we blind also ? " 
 and received the sorrowful answer, *' If ye were blind 
 ye should have no sin, but now ye say ye see, 
 therefore your sin remaineth." 
 
 There was One close to them, as able, as He was 
 willing, to lead them from darkness to light, to do 
 
120 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 that for their souls which He had just done for the 
 eyes of the blind. The proof of His supernatural 
 power was before them, and so was the perfect 
 example of His most holy life. The words of One, 
 who spoke as never man, were sounding in their 
 ears, but they would not listen. They blind ! They 
 for whom all made way with admiring look and low 
 obeisance, when, with their proclamation of piety on 
 frontlet and phylactery, they occupied the uppermost 
 room at feasts, and the chief seats at the synagogue ; 
 who fasted twice in the week, and gave tithes of all 
 they possessed ! Were they to humble themselves 
 like some little child who had done wrong ? Were 
 they to be pupils who had been teachers, to exchange 
 the mastery for service ? They would be blind indeed 
 to give up a position of authority and influence, with 
 which they were perfectly satisfied, for degradation 
 and dependence, and they knew not what besides. 
 
 Is this uncommon in the nineteenth century ? 
 Nay, is it quite unknown to your experience and 
 mine ? Do we never say to young men now, did 
 our elders never say to us, " You are wasting your 
 time and your money, your intellectual and physical 
 power, in seeking happiness where you never find 
 it. You know that even in laughter your heart is 
 sorrowful, and the end of your mirth is heaviness " ? 
 And do we never hear, did we never say, "Let us 
 alone ; let us be as happy as we can in our own way ; 
 we like it the best, and we believe in it far more 
 than in yours " ? 
 
UNBELIEF. 1 2 1 
 
 And SO, jusfc in proportion as we cease to believe 
 and to worship the true, we believe and worship the 
 false. We transfer, abuse, and degrade the service 
 which we should have consecrated ; we set our 
 affection upon things on the earth, and as the 
 prophet says, " We are mad upon our idols." We 
 ridicule the idea of worshipping the golden calf; 
 are there none whose thoughts and time are absorbed 
 by their adoration of riches ? We despise the ancient 
 mythologies as silly and superstitious, the sacrifices 
 that were offered to the goddess of beauty or the 
 god of wine ; and yet how many thousands, in 
 Christian England to-day, are the wretched slaves 
 of lust and of drink ! 
 
 Men will tell you they cannot help it; but they 
 have brought this helplessness upon themselves. 
 They consented ; they were not constrained. They 
 yielded again and again, until they lost the power of 
 resistance — nay, the wish to resist. A French noble- 
 man wrote to Fenelon, entreating him not to pray 
 for him, lest he should lose the enjoyment of the 
 deadly sin in which he was living with his para- 
 mour. He recognized his slavery, but he hugged 
 his chain. " Let us alone, that we may serve the 
 Egyptians." So it may be until it is too late to 
 change, too late to cry for mercy ; when it is the time 
 for justice. 
 
 So also it was in that sad history of the Apocryphal 
 Scriptures ; when those two wicked elders were in- 
 flamed with lust, " they perverted their own mind," it is 
 
122 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 written, " and turned away their eyes, that they might 
 not look unto heaven, nor remember just judgments." 
 And so it may be, indeed, with a nation surrendering 
 principles to policy, and right to might, the still small 
 voice to the clamour of the people, " There, there, so 
 would we have it " — God's riches to filthy lucre. The 
 men of Gadara knew that the destruction of the swine 
 was a just punishment of forbidden traffic, unlawful 
 and unclean ; they saw that their Divine Visitor was 
 as powerful to do works of mercy, to confer pardon 
 and peace, as to denounce and to destroy ; but, if they 
 accepted and obeyed Christ, what would become of 
 their lucrative business ? He would condemn it, and 
 their great profits would be lost, and so the whole 
 multitude of the country besought Him to depart 
 from them, for they were taken with great fear ; and 
 He went into the ship, and returned back again. 
 Earthly, sensual, devilish, is the infatuation of sin. 
 Selwyn told a friend that he had seen the coffin of 
 Arthur More chained to that of his mistress. 
 
 But we may be quite sure, as they who know, not 
 only from the Bible and the Church, but from the 
 light and the music which religion has brought into 
 their hearts, that although this sin of unbelief has 
 become habitual, against many oppositions of warn- 
 ings and conscience, and as the outcome of some form 
 of persistent selfishness, whether it be of passion or 
 of pride, and though God might accordingly, and in 
 strict justice, have pronounced the sentence, "Ephraim 
 is joined to his idols ; let him alone," — ^yet in this, as 
 
UNBELIEF. 123 
 
 in all things, He is long-suffering, not willing that 
 any should perish ; yea, many a time turneth He His 
 wrath away, and will not suffer His whole displeasure 
 to arise. 
 
 " For all the souls that were were forfeit once ; 
 And He who might the vantage best have took, 
 Found out the remedy." 
 
 As " there is no man, to whom means are not ad- 
 ministered, sufficient to produce that measure of faith 
 which is requisite toward the good management of 
 his life, and his rendering an account for it at God's 
 tribunal; no man, also, to whom such means are 
 afforded, whom the grace of God, who desireth that 
 all men should be saved, and should come to a know- 
 ledge of the truth, does not in some degree excite to 
 the due improvement of them : " * so it is certain that 
 He follows us, though we have forsaken Him ; calls 
 to us, as to the Church of Ephesus, when we have 
 lost our first love, " Remember from whence thou art 
 fallen, and repent ; " appeals to our love and to our 
 fears; takes us away from our temptation, and in 
 solitary places, and in sick chambers, and by the 
 open graves in which our dear ones lie, or in the 
 apprehension of our own death, pleads for the soul, 
 until the defiled and unbelieving mind and conscience 
 are seared, and there remaineth no more sacrifice 
 for sins. 
 
 Too late! Is not the thought, only the thought, 
 that your soul, my soul, any soul for which the 
 
 * Isaac Barrow, ii. 90. 
 
124 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 Saviour suffered, might go out into eternity in such 
 terrible darkness and desertion, reprobate concerning 
 the faith, in such a terror of despair — is it not enough 
 to stir in us great searchings of heart, how we may 
 strengthen in ourselves and others the faith which 
 alone can save ? 
 
 Will you not take this thought home with you 
 to-night, my brothers, and dwell upon it with a 
 godly sorrow, until you can say, " What carefulness 
 it wrought in us, yea, what clearing of ourselves, 
 yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what 
 vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge ! " 
 Shall we not, like the merchant seeking goodly 
 pearls, sell all that we have, having found this jewel 
 of great price, and buy it ? " Without faith it is im- 
 possible to please God." " Faith," says Hooker, " is the 
 thing prescribed ; for as in a chain, which is made of 
 many links, if you pull the first, you draw the rest ; 
 and as in a ladder of many staves, if you take away 
 the lowest, all hopes of ascending into the highest 
 will be removed ; so, because all the precepts and 
 promises in the Law and in the Gospel do hang upon 
 this one word believe, and because the last of the 
 graces of God doth follow the first, that He glorifieth 
 none but whom He hath justified, nor justifieth any 
 but whom He hath called to a true and effectual and 
 lively faith in Christ Jesus, therefore the Apostle 
 exhorts us to build ourselves in our most holy faith, 
 because that is the ground and glory of the whole 
 building." 
 
UNBELIEF, 125 
 
 And because, as in all diseases of body, mind, or 
 soul, prevention is better and easier than cure, we 
 must protect from the first our spiritual health 
 against that which is of all most fatal, unbelief. We 
 must watch and pray that we enter not into tempta- 
 tion. We must watch the life of the soul, which 
 is its Faith, as a mother watches over her firstborn. 
 It must breathe the pure air of innocence, and be fed 
 with the sincere milk of the Word. It must be kept 
 from infection, as you would fly from a street in which 
 cholera raged, or in which there was not a house 
 where there was not one dead. Parents allow their 
 children to go where they please, see what they will, 
 hear what they will, send them forth unwarned and 
 unarmed, and then mourn to see them come back, 
 having fallen among thieves, robbed and wounded. 
 It is said they must know evil ; they must come into 
 the world, sooner or later — youth must have its fling. 
 But if the goodman of the house had watched, the 
 robber had not come in. 
 
 What shall we say, then, of those Christian fathers 
 and mothers who watch so carelessly, that if the robbers 
 come with plausible words and with a gay disguise, 
 they themselves open the door and admit them ? What 
 shall we say when the unbeliever, who is not only 
 living without God in the world, but in notorious sin, 
 is received into the Christian's home, because he is 
 amusing and clever, or because he has money or 
 influence, or lives in what is called high society ? We 
 denounce the folly of that man who puts an enemy 
 
126 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN, 
 
 into his own mouth to steal away his brains; what 
 shall we say of the father who brings the adulterer 
 and seducer, the spendthrift, the gambler, the drunkard, 
 and, worst of all, the atheist, among his sons and 
 daughters to steal away their souls ? 
 
 We need something more than vigilance, if we 
 would preserve our faith. Except the Lord keep 
 the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. There- 
 fore must we lift up our eyes and hearts thither, 
 whence cometh our help ; for He that keepeth Israel 
 will neither slumber nor sleep. He will preserve 
 us from all evil ; yea, it is even He that shall keep 
 the soul. 
 
 We must watch and 'pray. They are inseparable, 
 watchful faith and prayer. We cannot believe that 
 God is our Father without going to Him, as loving 
 children, to speak to Him and hear His voice. We 
 cannot believe in Christ as our Saviour without 
 seeking Him where He has promised to be — until 
 we are quite sure that we have found Him ; that He 
 listens to us, and we know His voice. We cannot 
 believe that God the Holy Ghost is our Teacher and 
 Guide and Comforter without continually asking His 
 instruction. His direction, and His answer of peace. 
 
 Here, perhaps, the sceptic may say, "You are 
 begging the entire question; you make a circle of 
 your own and argue round it. You take it for 
 granted that what you have been taught to believe 
 is true. You refuse inquiry, you ignore reason ; you 
 have neither proved the existence of Him to whom 
 
UNBELIEF. 127 
 
 you pray, nor shown proof that you will have what 
 you pray for. We want the evidence of facts, such 
 as we have in science ; we want logical, mathematical 
 proofs." And our answer is, that we are arguing for 
 a faith which, while it is in complete agreement with 
 our reason, so far as our reason goes, takes us, 
 as it were, by the hand, and leads us onward and 
 upward, when reason can go no further ; which, when 
 philosophy says, " All beyond is night," is " a lantern 
 unto our feet, and a light unto our paths ; " which, 
 when science confesses, " I find myself in the presence 
 of an eternal, unchanging, irresistible power, but 
 I know nothing about it," says, " Whom ye ignorantly 
 worship, or refuse to worship, Him declare I unto 
 
 you." 
 
 My reason is satisfied of the truth of Christianity 
 by its evidences, its history, its existence, had there 
 been no promises, no prophecies ; by its full explana- 
 tion of all that had perplexed me, its exact adaptation 
 to all my needs, its power of transformation in the 
 lives of nations and of men, its alleviations of sorrow, 
 its content in poverty, its hopeful willingness to die. 
 
 But beyond all this, and beyond all words, by that 
 heavenly presence within, which, ever since the Day 
 of Pentecost, has brought to Christians such a testi- 
 mony as no human wisdom can teach or gainsay, 
 that " the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit 
 that we are the children of God." So long as we 
 cherish and obey that presence, nor anything that 
 defileth comes into the temple in which it dwells, 
 
128 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 we can answer boldly when the Apostle asks, " Know 
 ye not that Jesus Christ is in you ? '* Yea, thanks 
 be to God for His unspeakable gift, we know it. 
 And if every new discovery of science seemed to 
 contradict revelation (I say seemed, because there 
 can be ultimately no contradiction between God's 
 Word and His works); if the critic were to raise 
 continually new doubts and difficulties ; if the 
 Christian were to meet in debate and be defeated in 
 argument, in the unanimous judgment of a public 
 audience, by Atheist, Deist, Pantheist, Materialist, 
 Rationalist, Positivist, and Agnostic, that divine 
 presence would empower us to hold fast the pro- 
 fession of our faith without wavering, because greater 
 is He that is in us than he that is in the world. 
 
 Great, no doubt, are the troubles of the righteous : 
 but the Lord delivereth him out of them all, " Heavi- 
 ness may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the 
 morning." 
 
 " Summer days 
 Aud moonlit nights He led us on our path, 
 Bordered -with pleasant flowers ; but when His steps 
 Were on the mighty ocean, when we passed, 
 With trembling feet, through nights of pain and loss, 
 His smile was sweeter and His love more dear ; 
 And only heaven is better than to walk 
 With Christ at midnight over moonless seas." 
 
 Greater the troubles of the unrighteous — the first 
 surrender of the nobler to the viler self, of the 
 spiritual to the intellectual, or to the carnal element. 
 Then the contemptible lies and the lurking in secret 
 places, the fear of discovery, the treacheries by which 
 
UNBELIEF, 129 
 
 they deceive and are deceived, the envy and jealousy 
 and malice, the disgust and exhaustion of satiety, 
 the impotence and disease of excess; and none to 
 deliver. 
 
 Who, that has had experience of both, would 
 exchange the troubles of the righteous for the 
 pleasures of sin ? That was no mere figure of speech 
 when David declared, " I had rather be a doorkeeper 
 in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of 
 ungodliness," or when his son said, " Better is little 
 with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and 
 trouble therewith." He had lost everything which 
 this world prizes most who was inspired to declare, 
 " Godliness with contentment is great gain." Is 
 there any lasting content without it ? Strength 
 saith, " I have met a stronger ; " and beauty saith, 
 " It will not stay ; " and wealth says, " I cannot buy 
 happiness ; " and the scholar says, " I cannot learn 
 it ; " and art, " I find no model ; " and science cries, 
 " Not yet I not yet ! " Once they thought, each one 
 of them, that they were on the track, and were sure 
 to find it. All history told them of failure, but they 
 would not heed. Why should they fail? Simply 
 because they are seeking happiness where it is not to 
 be found, because man's soul is yearning for that 
 which it has lost, and because this infinite void can 
 only be filled by an infinite and unchangeable Object, 
 that is, by the Deity Himself. Only from Him, as He 
 has revealed Himself to us, can we receive the answer 
 to our inquiry, " Who will show us any good ? " Only 
 
 K 
 
130 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 from that pure river of the water of life, clear as 
 crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God, can we 
 ever slake the thirst which all earthly springs, all 
 the rivers of Damascus, have had no power to quench. 
 " The heart," said St. Augustine, " is made for God, 
 and can never rest till it rests in Him." 
 
 Regard, I pray you, some of the glorious victories 
 of the Christian faith; compare them with the 
 achievements of philosophy, noble and sublime as 
 they were, where the search after truth was earnest, 
 and these searchers, not having the law, w^ere a law 
 unto themselves; yet how dim and maimed in 
 contrast with our Gospel gifts ! Look at the genera- 
 tions of old and see, one class regarding nature as 
 uncorrupted, became the victims of pride; another 
 condemning it as incurable, of sensuality. If, on the 
 one hand, they possessed some knowledge of man's 
 excellences, they were ignorant of his corruption ; 
 they might be raised from their voluptuousness, 
 but they fell into vainglory. On the other hand, 
 if they acknowledged the infirmity of human nature, 
 they seemed to have no sense of its dignity, and 
 while they escaped the seductions of vanity, they 
 plunged into despair. Hence arise the various sects 
 of Stoics and Epicureans, of Dogmatists and Acade- 
 micians. 
 
 The Christian religion alone discovered the remedy 
 for these evils; not by setting the one against the 
 other, by the wisdom of this world, but by over- 
 throwing them both by the simplicity of the Gospel, 
 
UNBELIEF, 13! 
 
 which, while it elevates the just to a participation 
 in the Divine nature itself, reveals to them that in 
 this exalted state they bear yet within them the 
 seeds of corruption. 
 
 Young men, regard, I pray you, the victories, the 
 discoveries, of a simple faith ; of a worldly, selfish 
 heart released from the thoughts which are miserable 
 and the devices which are uncertain, from the cor- 
 ruptible body which presses down the soul, and the 
 earthly tabernacle which weighs down the mind, 
 and soaring to the mountain- tops, from whence it 
 sees, beyond the wilderness of this world, the land 
 which is the glory of all lands, the faith which ever 
 and anon gives us a glimpse, as it were, of heaven. 
 
 " As sometimes when adown tho western sky 
 
 The fiery sunset liugers, 
 The golden gates swing inward noiselessly, 
 
 Unlocked by unseen fingers. 
 And as they stand a moment half ajar, 
 
 Gleams from the inner glory 
 Stream brightly through the azured vault afar, 
 
 And half reveal the story." 
 
 What are the discoveries of science, my friends, 
 vast and wonderful as they are, compared to the 
 discoveries of faith ? Had it been told to our fore- 
 fathers, sixty years ago, not only that a message could 
 be sent instantly from one end of England to the 
 other, through mountains and woods and valleys 
 and rivers, but that all the great events of the 
 civilized world, political, commercial, and military, 
 would be circulated in a few minutes, north, south, 
 east, and west, — would not such prophecies have 
 
132 ADDJ^ESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 seemed to them as fond dreams or as idle tales ? 
 And yet, wonderful as all this may be, what is it to 
 the sending forth of universal messages through time 
 and space ? Not now and then, to this man or that, 
 but always, everywhere, to all — announcements, com- 
 mands, instructions, persuasions, encouragements, 
 warnings, threatenings, now whispered, now thun- 
 dered in our ears — millions of messages, millions of 
 messengers, sent by the Creator through all creation, 
 by the Saviour to all who may be saved, by the 
 Holy Spirit in the hearts of regenerate men ! 
 
 Science says to me, "You have a friend in America ; 
 I have found out a way by which you may com- 
 municate with him at once." Faith says to me, " You 
 have a Friend in heaven, a loving Friend, who ever 
 liveth to make intercession for you; go down on 
 your knees, speak to Him, and He will hear you 
 in an instant." Science says, " I will bring you in 
 a few minutes an answer from your friends." Faith 
 says, " I will bring to you the Friend Himself; " for 
 this is His promise, " I will not leave you comfortless, 
 I will come to you." Science shows to me the 
 brilliant electric light, which almost turns night to 
 day. Faith shows me the light above the brightness 
 of the sun ; that is the true Light which lighteth 
 every man that cometh into the world ; which shows 
 me the way, when I am lost in the darkness of my 
 ignorance and sin, and leads me to my rest ; which 
 shines through the gloom when I am drifting on 
 stormy seas, and guides me to the haven where I 
 
UNBELIEF. 133 
 
 would be. It will lighten mine eyes that I sleep 
 not in death; and in that light shall I see light, 
 when the day breaks and the shadows flee away, in 
 that golden city which has no need of the sun, 
 neither of the moon, to shine in it, for the glory 
 of God doth lighten it, and the Lamb is the Light 
 thereof, and the nations of them that are saved shall 
 walk in the light thereof. 
 
 Science shows me the admirable discoveries which 
 have been made in our days for the relief and allevia- 
 tion of physical pain, by the use of ansesthetics, and 
 by surgical instruments of the most delicate and 
 skilful construction. " I remember," writes a surgeon 
 of European fame — " I remember performing an opera- 
 tion which only a few years ago would have been 
 intensely painful, and attended with great loss of 
 blood, but with the help of ether-inhalation, and by 
 an instrument then recently invented, it was abso- 
 lutely painless, and only a few drops of blood were 
 shed. And an eminent physician who was sitting 
 by remarked that if any one had told him five years 
 ago that he could perform such an operation, without 
 either pain or bloodshed, he should have set him 
 down as insane." But there is only One, the Great 
 Physician of our souls, who can bind up those that 
 are broken in heart, and give medicine to heal their 
 sickness. 
 
 " How small of all that human hearts endure, 
 That part, which laws or kings can cause or cure ! " 
 
 There is only One who, when I am blind and speech- 
 
134 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 less and deaf, the hands withered and the feet lame, 
 when the whole head is sick and the whole heart 
 faint — there is only One who can restore ; and faith 
 brings me to Him, and I touch the hem of His 
 garment, and I hear His sweet loving voice, "Receive 
 thy sight. Ephphatha, be opened. Rise up, and stand 
 forth. Stretch forth thine hand. I will ; be thou 
 clean. Thy faith has saved thee ; go, and sin no 
 more." 
 
 Then see how faith, how Christianity, exalts, 
 ennobles, beautifies manhood and womanhood. What 
 an awful sense it gives us of our dignity, our capacity, 
 our destination, as children of God, members of Christ, 
 inheritors of His kingdom, so that whoso hath this 
 hope must seek to purify himself, even as He is pure. 
 Contrast the man whom Christianity converts; compare 
 him "as the Gospel finds him, with the man whom 
 the Gospel forms." He was learning, and never came 
 unto a knowledge of the truth. Now he looks up 
 with a Bible in his hand, and says, " Thou art the 
 Way, the Truth, and the Life." 
 
 And what more shall I say ? " For as the heaven 
 is high above the earth, so great is His mercy to them 
 that fear Him." To the true believer is given that 
 happiness which is the purest and sweetest we can 
 know on earth — the happiness of making others happy; 
 the luxury of doing good for Christ ; doing works of 
 mercy ; despising shams and counterfeits — the senti- 
 mental charity (so-called) which listens and talks and 
 sighs, but never goes to see ; the ostentatious charity 
 
UNBELIEF. 135 
 
 " which," as Bishop Wilson says, " is a greater beggar 
 than any it gives to ; " the niggard meanness which 
 gives grudgingly and of necessity; the indiscriminate 
 charity which will not trouble itself to inquire, or has 
 not the courage to refuse ; — despising these, and finding 
 its sweet reward in the blessing of him that was ready 
 to perish, and in the smile upon pale sorrow's cheek. 
 
 Then the final "victory which overcometh the 
 world, even our faith ; " the love which endureth unto 
 the end, faithful unto death ; which, or ever the silver 
 cord is loosed, and the golden bowl is broken, can 
 praise God with the last breath and say, " Thanks be 
 to Him, who giveth us the victory through our Lord 
 Jesus Christ." 
 
 Oh, blessed hope, full of immortality, which whispers 
 to us as we look upon our dead, " Only for a while ; we 
 shall meet hereafter ; not dead, but sleepeth ; thy 
 brother shall rise again ; not lost, but gone before ; " — 
 the blessed hope which spoke from that young faith- 
 ful heart, when he said to his dying brother — 
 
 '• And tell our white-haired father, 
 That in the paths he trod, 
 The child he loved the last on earth 
 Still walks and worships God. 
 
 " Tell him his last fond blessing yet 
 Hangs on my soul like dew, 
 And by its hallowing might I trust 
 Once more his face to view. 
 
 " And tell our gentle mother, 
 That on her grave I pour 
 The sorrows of my spirit forth. 
 As on her breast of yore. 
 
136 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 *' Happy art thou so soon, how soon, 
 Our good and bright to see ! 
 Oh, brother, brother, may I dwell 
 Ere long with them and thee ! '* 
 
 Oh, blessed hope, so sure and certain, which shall 
 dispel our fears when the message reaches us, " The 
 Master is come, and calleth for thee " ! By the side of 
 the king of terrors stands the King of life. " I always 
 knew," an old man said to me not long before he died, 
 " that He would be nearest when I wanted Him most, 
 and it is so." It was a saying of old among the Jews 
 that every good man had three friends — his possessions, 
 the love of his kinsfolk and acquaintance, and his 
 religion. Suddenly he received a summons to answer 
 accusations, which had been brought against him, 
 before the king. His earthly goods were useless ; his 
 relations and companions went with him to the palace 
 door, but could go no further ; but his religion entered 
 with him, pleaded for him, and not only obtained his 
 acquittal, but favours and honours from the king. 
 
 God help us to help each other ! " Make me a clean 
 heart, God, and renew a right spirit within me ; 
 . . . then shall I teach Thy ways unto the wicked, and 
 sinners shall be converted unto Thee." 
 
IX. 
 
 THE GENTLEMAN IN THE LOOSE BOX. 
 
 Once upon a time, before the joy of the land was 
 darkened by disastrous harvests, and before Sydney 
 Smith's joke concerning a country parson, who was 
 so parsimonious in the application of soap, that " he 
 seemed to have a good deal of his glebe on his own 
 hands," became a very sad reality ; — once upon a 
 time, a clergyman kept a horse, and the man who 
 groomed him discharged a great variety of other 
 duties, including that of collecting weekly the alms 
 of the congregation. On one occasion he had given 
 up the plate, and was going back to his place, when 
 a sudden recollection caused him to return and to 
 whisper to his master, '* If you please, sir, you must 
 let me have it again, for I've forgotten the gentleman 
 in the loose box," indicating with his thumb an indi- 
 vidual who monopolized a spacious apartment, lined 
 and cushioned and carpeted, and looking like a 
 brand-new sleeping car, with one passenger, in the 
 middle of a train of third-class carriages, filled with 
 people ! 
 
 *' I've forgotten the gentleman in the loose box." 
 
138 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 With all my heart do I pray and hope that he may 
 soon be forgotten by us all — clean forgotten, as a 
 dead man out of mind ; and it will be, I trust, your 
 unanimous desire, my brothers, to give him notice 
 to quit, and to assist in his eviction. Already we 
 have succeeded, in countless instances, in dislodging 
 him from his position, and he is flying before us in 
 sore perturbation of spirit, having well-nigh lost pos- 
 session of his faculties. We must pursue until we 
 have annihilated, even as Gideon pursued and slew 
 Zebah and Zalmunna, who said, " Let us take unto 
 ourselves the houses of God in possession." 
 
 He (I am regarding this gentleman in the loose 
 box as representing the Pew System) has done im- 
 measurable harm — to religion, generally; to the 
 Church of England, specially; and to social sym- 
 pathies and intercourse. 
 
 To religion, natural and revealed. For reason, eye- 
 sight, experience, show us that God is no respecter of 
 persons. His great gifts, light, heat, food, strength, 
 beauty, wisdom, are for all. There is no preference 
 nor precedence. And Revelation confirms and de- 
 velops these true instincts. In the Old Testament I 
 read a great deal about the construction of the Taber- 
 nacle, when God pitched His tent among men ; of the 
 pure gold, which was to be used for the Ark and the 
 Mercy-seat ; of the Altar and its vessels ; of the pillars 
 round about the court, filleted with silver; of the 
 curtain of fine twined linen, blue and purple and 
 scarlet; of the pure oil olive, beaten for the light, 
 
THE GENTLEMAN IN THE LOOSE BOX. I 39 
 
 to make the lamp to burn always. I read of men 
 specially consecrated to conduct the services, but I 
 don't read of any members of the congregation being 
 admitted to special places and privileges on payment 
 of money. The Tabernacle was made, the priests 
 were maintained, the expenses were paid, by volun- 
 tary contributions, by offertories. The rich brought 
 their offerings, and the poor brought their offerings, 
 and God accepted them, not according to the market 
 value, but according to the faith and love of the 
 giver. He only, who knows the motive and how 
 much men keep back as well as how much they give, 
 can appraise the offering. 
 
 There is an instructive incident in the life of the 
 good Bishop Selwyn. Before the consecration of a 
 church in Auckland, a discussion arose as to the 
 allotment of seats. A man, who had given a large 
 sum, suggested that those who had given most should 
 have the first selection. To the surprise of all, the 
 bishop seemed to assent to this suggestion ; " but," he 
 inquired, " how are we to find this out ? " " Oh," said 
 the donor who had made the proposition, "there can 
 be no difficulty in that respect — here is the list of 
 subscriptions." " Very true," said the bishop ; " but 
 this does not tell us who has given most, for we have 
 read, you know, of a certain poor widow, who only 
 gave two mites, and yet the Highest Authority 
 informs us that she gave more than they all." 
 
 There were no pews in the Temple, or that proud 
 Pharisee would have had a grand pagoda, from which, 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
I40 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN, 
 
 under the pretence of prayer, he might have made an 
 oration upon his own merits, and have looked with 
 disdain upon the publican, standing afar off in the 
 corner, and despising himself, while God's angels were 
 shouting for joy, " Saved ! saved ! " 
 
 You know how our Divine Master denounced this 
 craving for precedence, this self-exaltation, which 
 seemed to say, "Stand by, I am better than thou," 
 and bade His disciples, again and again, to beware of 
 the leaven of the scribes and Pharisees, who loved to 
 occupy the chief seats in the synagogues. " Learn of 
 Me," He said, "for I am meek and lowly in heart." 
 And when they came unto Him, saying, " Who is the 
 greatest in the kingdom of heaven ? " He called a little 
 child unto Him and set him in their midst, and said, 
 " Verily I say unto you. Whosoever shall humble him- 
 self as this little child, the same is greatest in the 
 kingdom of heaven." 
 
 And may we not be sure of this, that if His sweet 
 gentle spirit was so moved with indignation when He 
 found in the Temple those that sold oxen and sheep 
 and doves, and the changers of money sitting (though 
 it might not have seemed a great sin to sell in the 
 Temple that which was to be offered in the Temple), 
 that He drave them out and forbade them to make 
 His Father's House a house of merchandise, much more 
 would He have denounced the buying and selling, 
 in allotments, of the Holy Place of the Most High 
 itself; and that He, who declared that His House 
 should be called the House of Prayer for all people, 
 
THE GENTLEMAN IN THE LOOSE BOX. 14I 
 
 would indeed have been troubled in spirit to see it not 
 so much a House of Prayer but of preaching, and this 
 to those only who had paid for sittings ? What would 
 He have said of sales by public auction, not un- 
 common in America, and, alas ! not unknown in 
 England, of the best pews to the highest bidder ? 
 Search the Scriptures, and then tell me how shall 
 a man who preaches to those only who have paid 
 to hear him — how shall he declare to them the whole 
 counsel of God ? " Ho, every one that thirsteth, 
 come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money ; 
 come ye, . buy, and eat ; yea, come, buy wine and 
 milk without money and without price." How shall 
 he pass on to the New Testament, and preach from 
 such verses as these : " Go and show John " that he 
 may be assured that I am He, the promised Saviour ; 
 that " the poor have the Gospel preached to them " ? 
 How shall he stand at the lectern, and read to you 
 working men the words which St. James was inspired 
 to speak : " My brethren, have not the faith of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of 
 persons. For if there come unto your assembly a 
 man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there 
 come in also a poor man in vile raiment; and ye 
 have respect unto him that weareth the gay clothing, 
 and say unto him. Sit thou here in a good place ; and 
 say to the poor. Stand thou there, or sit here under 
 my footstool : are ye not then partial in yourselves, 
 and are become judges of evil thoughts " ? 
 
 There is no element of exclusion in the religion of 
 
142 ADDRESSES TO WOR ICING MEN. 
 
 Christ. Under the Old Covenant, men were warned 
 not to " limit the Holy One of Israel ; " and by the 
 Divine Example, and all the precepts of the New, we 
 are forbidden to make His love too narrow, with 
 false limits of our own, not to magnify His strictness 
 with a zeal He will not own. 
 
 Exclusion ! There was none so vile, none so poor, 
 none so degraded, but the Master loved him. He 
 never turned from the sightless eyeballs, the foul 
 sores of the leper, the raving of the lunatic. He did 
 not draw His long robe around Him, and hurry on 
 with dignified contempt, when He met the harlot in 
 the streets ; but when He was risen He appeared first 
 to Mary Magdalen, out of whom He had cast seven 
 devils. He came to seek and to save that which was 
 lost ; and all were lost — 
 
 " For all the souls that were were forfeit once ; 
 And He who might the vantage best have took, 
 Found out the remedy." 
 
 And still that gentle Voice, which spake as never 
 man spake, is whispering to all, '* weary of earth and 
 laden with their sins : " " Come unto Me, all ye that 
 labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." 
 Exclusion ! St. Paul seems to condense the essence 
 of Christianity into two little words, " Not I." Not 
 I, because the Spirit of Christ has shown me myself — 
 how much there is to distrust and despise ! " For 
 I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth 
 no good thing : for to will is present with me ; but 
 how to perform that which is good I find not. For 
 
imE GENTLEMAN IN THE LOOSE BOX, I43 
 
 the good that I would I do not : but the evil which 
 I would not, that I do." "Not I," because I have 
 received this command from Heaven : " Let each 
 esteem other better than himself, in honour preferring 
 one another," because every one of us, who searches 
 his own heart, knows more evil of himself than of 
 his neighbour, and because none of us can say of the 
 worst whom we know, " Had I been in his circum- 
 stances I should have been a better man than he." 
 And what grand words those are which came from 
 the loving Christ-like heart of the Apostle, when, in 
 the hour of his victory, when he had fought the good 
 fight of faith, when perfect love had at last cast out 
 fear, and he could say, " Henceforth there is laid up 
 for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the 
 righteous Judge, shall give me at that day ;7* what 
 beautiful brotherly words those were which he added, 
 " and not to me only, but unto all them also that 
 love His appearing " I Yes, that is Christianity ; not 
 anxious about ourselves only, wondering " shall I be 
 saved ? " and satisfied with the hope ; much less speak- 
 ing great swelling words of vanity as to our assured 
 salvation, but rejoicing to think that not only for 
 ourselves, for those nearest and dearest to us, but 
 for all, there is the same possibility and promise — 
 
 " There is plentiful redemption 
 
 In the Blood that has been shed, 
 There is joy for all the members 
 In the sorrows of the Head." 
 
 Without Christianity, men's lives, be their pro- 
 fessions, their refinements, and amenities what they 
 
144 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 may, can be but selfishness. The man who lives for 
 money, or power, or pleasure, has for his motto " Me 
 only." He does not say it, but he lives it. "Let 
 him take who has the power, and let him keep who 
 can." He pays his rates and taxes (or the law would 
 make him), and as for the rest — "Me only." And 
 in those churches from which the poor are excluded, 
 because they cannot pay for a place, might not these 
 words be painted on the door of every pew, " Me only " ? 
 
 Incalculable harm has been done to the Church of 
 England by the gentleman in the loose box. There 
 was a time when we were satisfied, or pretty nearly 
 satisfied, with one form of Christianity in this land. 
 I suppose that now we have got over two hundred. 
 There are even families of which the members cannot 
 make up their minds to go to the same place of 
 worship. One prefers Church, the other Chapel — one 
 sister is High, and another is Low, or Broad ; and 
 that impudent young brother, only too glad of an 
 excuse for evading his duty, takes out his pipe and 
 his Sporting Times, and says, " When you've settled 
 it among yourselves, which of your religions is best, 
 you can call again upon yours truly ! " 
 
 But, in all solemn earnest, it is sad to see this dis- 
 union among the disciples of a Master who prayed, and 
 is praying, that we might all be one. Whatever may 
 be the advantages of criticism, and debates, and freedom 
 of opinion, we must all feel in our hearts " how good 
 and joyful a thing it is, brethren, to dwell together 
 in unity;" and I am fully persuaded, in my own 
 
^HE GENTLEMAN IN THE LOOSE BOX. 1 45 
 
 mind, that one main cause of our unhappy divisions 
 has been the Pew System, and that we cannot expect 
 that God, who maketh men to be of one mind in 
 a house, will grant us reconciliation and reunion, 
 until that house is free and open to all His people. 
 
 When the Pew System was developed, it was easy 
 to see that the weak must go to the wall, to the 
 door, and out of it. That fact alone would always 
 keep me from uttering bitter words in disparagement 
 of the Nonconformists — the conviction that they 
 would never have emigrated had they been kindly 
 treated at home ; and there can hardly be any greater 
 unkindness in parents than to regard with a chill 
 indifference the weakly ones, who most need their 
 care and protection. To be neglected by those from 
 whom you have a right to expect support and 
 sympathy is indeed an intolerable justice, and if 
 men are repelled where they expect a welcome, they 
 do not repeat the visit.* The results have been 
 deplorable indeed. Hardly a week passes that, as a 
 known advocate of freedom of worship, I do not 
 receive a pressing appeal from some brother, " Come 
 over and help me to do battle against the Pew 
 System." Let me quote from one of these letters, 
 written by the vicar of the principal church in a 
 
 ♦ "Nothing is so hard to bear as injustice, and those who are 
 excluded— as by this system the great majority must be — feel that 
 they are treated with unfairness, though they do not speak out, and 
 that feeling tends to alienate them from the Church and from her 
 ministers."— Sermon by the Bishop of Chichester, "The House of 
 God the Home and Portion of His People " (1883). 
 
146 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 large city : " My church, like most of the forty city 
 
 churches, was originally served by monks, and was 
 
 left at the Reformation without any endowment. To 
 
 provide funds, seat-payments have long been adopted ; 
 
 and as the church is a grand one, we pay our way. 
 
 But of our population of two thousand, half, being 
 
 poor, have been turned away. There is not even 
 
 a fair proportion of free seats. The working people, 
 
 if they wish to attend, are placed in the unlet seats 
 
 (the worst), and the natural result is they do not 
 
 attend. The Church in my parish, and I believe 
 
 throughout the city, is not popular among the masses 
 
 — not loved, scarcely even respected — and one cannot 
 
 wonder at it. I am certain that mission-work is not 
 
 hopeless here, but I quite see that hard work has 
 
 to be done, if we are to recover what we have lost." 
 
 I confidently look forward to such a recovery, and 
 
 one main source and stay of my confidence is this, 
 
 that all unprejudiced persons, all who care to ascertain 
 
 facts for themselves, may readily be convinced that 
 
 the Church of England, however she may have been 
 
 misrepresented by some of her officers, is utterly 
 
 opposed in all her laws and principles to partiality 
 
 or exclusion. Like the God whom she worships, 
 
 " she is no respecter of persons." From the beginning 
 
 to the end of her Prayer-book, in all her rubrics, 
 
 canons, and articles, there is no recognition of 
 
 superiority of one over another of her children. She 
 
 speaks of the Queen of England as "this woman. 
 
 Thy servant." She receives the child of the peer 
 
THE GENTLEMAN IN THE LOOSE BOX. 1 47 
 
 and of the peasant with the same service, and teaches 
 them the same lessons from Baptism to Burial. 
 
 " Our mother the Church hath never a son 
 
 To honour before the rest ; 
 But she singeth the same for mighty kings 
 
 And the veriest babe at her breast. 
 And the bishop goes down to his narrow bed 
 
 As the ploughman's child is laid ; 
 And alike she blesses the dark-brow'd serf, 
 
 And the chief in his robe arrayed." 
 
 And if this principle of equality were enforced by 
 the Church, how it might add to our temporal as to 
 our eternal happiness, by bringing together those 
 classes who are more or less disaffected, jealous, 
 suspicious, towards each another ! 
 
 We are surrounded in these days by Societies, 
 Fraternities, Orders, Unions, Leagues, and the like ; 
 and I believe that they are capable, under wise 
 administration, of conferring great benefits. I have 
 been a Mason for half a century ; I have the highest 
 regard for the Odd Fellows' Lodges and other benefit 
 societies ; I think that Trades Unions have wise and 
 righteous intentions ; but I am quite sure that the 
 only society which can secure for us a true and 
 lasting brotherhood, which will repay all our invest- 
 ments a thousandfold, is the society which was 
 formed by Jesus of Nazareth, nigh upon nineteen 
 hundred years ago, and of which the first great 
 officers were ordinary working men. It is a society 
 which has no ballot for members and no entrance fee. 
 To all it is Free and Open ! 
 
 The world has a great deal to say to us about 
 
148 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 Liberty, Fraternity, and Equality; but there is a 
 deal of electro-plate and sham and shoddy in the 
 articles so designated. The plating soon wears off, 
 and, lo ! there is nothing but dingy pewter beneath. 
 The indelible family marking-ink and the warranted 
 fast colours disappear in the second wash ! What 
 liberty has the man who is the slave of his temper 
 or of his lust — who is always wondering what will 
 folks say, and is miserable if they don't think as he 
 thinks ? 
 
 Liberty ! It means a conscience void of offence 
 toward God and man. It means the glorious liberty 
 wherewith Christ hath made us free from the bondage 
 of sin and doubt, and from the fear of death. 
 
 Fraternity ! The schemes of mere human wisdom 
 for an eternal armistice and an universal peace — have 
 they saved us a bandage or a bit of diachylon ? 
 Have they stopped the firing of a single shell ? And 
 the professions of brotherhood, the vows of eternal 
 friendship which we make with those who can 
 minister to our pleasure or our purse — how long do 
 they last ? What becomes of him, who is " a jolly 
 good fellow, which nobody can deny," when the feast 
 is over, and sickness or sorrow comes ? Ah, me ! when 
 we want to borrow, how brotherly we are to those 
 that can lend ! when we desire a holiday, how 
 amiably disposed we feel to those who can do our 
 work or kindly take care of the baby ! and how fond 
 we are, when we would take a journey, of the man 
 who has a horse and trap ! What I mean is this : 
 
THE GENTLEMAN IN THE LOOSE BOX, 1 49 
 
 that in all associations and amities, of the earth 
 earthy, there will be selfishness as a chief motive 
 (why not ?) ; there will be uncertainty, change, dis- 
 appointment,^ failure, and, finally, as with all things 
 human, decay, and then dissolution. 
 
 Then as to Equality. I don't believe in a 
 communism of property, though the first Christians 
 were compelled to adopt it, because it is simply 
 impossible. If we all started with exactly the same 
 amount of land or goods to-morrow, in a few months 
 Luke Sharp or Will Strong would have purchased 
 or seized upon Tom Noddy's garden; and Lazy 
 Jack, and Gambling Joe, and Thirsty Dick would 
 be borrowing from Frugal Jim. But in spiritual 
 possessions there is, and must be, equality. Chris- 
 tianity, like the light, like the air, like the magnifi- 
 cence and beauty of Creation, is for all alike ; and 
 where should this be taught as a law, and exhibited 
 as a practice, so unreservedly as in our Father's 
 House, where we have all been Baptized by One 
 Spirit into one Body, and where there is no difierence, 
 for all have sinned, but the same Lord, rich unto all 
 that call upon Him ? 
 
 Now as to the objections. The strangest and the 
 silliest seems to me to be this, that we shall have 
 disorderly crowds struggling for places. This sounds 
 to me very much as if some market gardener were 
 to say, " If I let more light and air into my orchard, 
 I shall have such a crop of apples that I shan't know 
 what to do with them." Disorclerly crowds ! I 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
150 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN, 
 
 seen the crowds, thank God, again and again, but I 
 never saw them disorderly ; and if they were a little 
 over-anxious, I should still regard a multitude of my 
 brothers and sisters assembling for worship as one 
 of the happiest, most impressive spectacles which 
 human eye can see! Then some say, "You don't 
 know who will be your nearest neighbour; it may 
 be some one unpleasant and unclean." Keally some 
 of these people who cry, " Come not between the 
 wind and my nobility," seem to imagine that working 
 men can't be happy without a certain amount of tar, 
 oil, coal-dust, or lamp-black — that they never saw a 
 towel, and don't believe in a pump ! I should like 
 to take them to certain churches, in which I could 
 show them hundreds of working men, as well washed, 
 brushed, and dressed (though not so expensively) as 
 themselves, quite as considerate and courteous to 
 each other, and quite as devout and reverent in the 
 worship of their God. Then it is asked, " Why dis- 
 turb existing arrangements, which have continued 
 so long and so peacefully ? " *' Allow me to inform 
 you," it has been said, "that everybody appears to 
 be satisfied. The people pay their pew-rents cheer- 
 fully, and there are more candidates for sittings than 
 there are sittings to let. Why alter that which all 
 approve ? " " Might I suggest," I answer, " that 
 tranquillity sometimes indicates mortification, and 
 that the bright green surface of a stagnant pool 
 hides ugly things below ? The question is, not what 
 best pleases you and your richer folks, but whether 
 
THE GENTLEMAN IN THE LOOSE BOX. 15I 
 
 you are doing your Master's work as He would have 
 you do it ? " 
 
 " There is no other way," it is sometimes aflSrmed, 
 *' of maintaining a ministry and paying the expenses 
 of a church." But this can only mean that no other 
 method has been tried, for there is another way, and 
 it is the way of the Bible, and it is the way of the 
 Church, namely, that, on the first day of the week, 
 every one of us should lay by us in store, as God 
 has prospered us — our alms in the Offertory. I have 
 not heard of an instance in which such a change has 
 failed. Many years ago I tried it with regard to 
 church-rates, and whereas, under the compulsory 
 system, we hardly raised £30 per annum, under the 
 voluntary we contributed thrice that amount; and 
 I don't believe there was a poor man in the congre- 
 gation who did not give cheerfully and generously 
 according to his means. But here again the question 
 is, not what will pay the best, but what is right or 
 wrong. And let me add that this Pew System does 
 not prove to be a commercial, a pecuniary success. 
 It has been nowhere tried so extensively as in 
 America, and Mr. Talmage, an American preacher, 
 gives us this report of the results. " Some speak," 
 he says, "as though the present mode, the buying 
 and selling of pews, were a success. Far from it. 
 Three-fourths of the churches of Christ in this land 
 are in debt, and in three-fourths of them the income 
 does not equal the outgo ; and at the end of the year 
 a few generous men have to come together and make 
 
152 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 up the deficit, or some general efibrt is made on the 
 part of the congregation to regulate the indebted- 
 ness." 
 
 And now we come to the question, How shall this 
 righteous claim of every parishioner to a seat in his 
 parish church be asserted, and how the restoration 
 be made ? We must not put a stumbling-block in a 
 brother's way as that man did, who, going into a 
 church monopolized by pew-holders, walked up and 
 down the central aisle, without an invitation to enter 
 (though there were plenty of vacant places, but the 
 proprietors were absorbed in their devotions at the 
 moment when he passed), and then, leaving the edifice, 
 shortly reappeared with a borrowed chair, and, placing 
 it just in front of the pulpit, remained there during 
 the service, the most distinguished member of the 
 congregation. A more suggestive and feasible protest 
 was made in my own immediate neighbourhood, and 
 by one of my friends. During some alterations in 
 the chancel, which usually suflaced for the worshippers, 
 the church being a very large one (in fact, it is now 
 a cathedral), chairs were placed in the nave, which 
 was declared to be free and open. Very soon the 
 spirit of the pew system which had prevailed in 
 the chancel began to show itself outside. Some 
 of the common chairs in the best places for hearing 
 and seeing disappeared, and were replaced by com- 
 fortable seats w^ith arms and cushions. My friend, 
 who thinks w^ith you and me that " all equal are 
 within the Church's gate," resolved to resist this 
 
THE GENTLEMAN IN THE LOOSE BOX. I 53 
 
 selfishness, so he and his family, and a few congenial 
 friends, went early to the services and preoccupied 
 these seats made easy. The owners came, stared, 
 looked silly — for " conscience doth make cowards of us 
 all " — and after a time the armchairs disappeared. My 
 brothers, this principle, being right and just, might 
 be carried out to a much more extensive and remark- 
 able demonstration. Every parishioner might occupy 
 a place in his parish church — even in the " loose 
 box" — but this movement might lead to collision, 
 and we, as Christians, having as much as lieth in 
 us to live peaceably with all men, are fighting our 
 battle with weapons far more powerful in the end 
 than physical or even pecuniary power, for " thrice 
 is he armed that hath his quarrel just." We believe 
 that our cause has Divine approbation, and so, 
 
 " If angels figlit, 
 Weak men must fall ; for Heaven defends the right." 
 
 Now bear with me, I pray you, while, in con- 
 clusion, I notice one more criticism which has been 
 expressed upon our enterprise by those who doubt 
 its success. " If," it has been said, " by making the 
 churches free and open, you expect at once to fill 
 them with working men, you are very much mistaken 
 indeed. We can tell you of several instances in which 
 the Pew System has been abolished without increasing 
 the number of the worshippers." I will not dwell, 
 in reply, upon the fact that the neglect of a century 
 is not to be repaired in a twelvemonth, and that 
 those who have been first starved, and then turned 
 
154 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEM. 
 
 out-of-doors, are inclined to doubt offers of hospitality ; 
 but I will at once declare that we do not place our 
 entire dependence upon free and open churches for 
 the reunion of the classes in public worship, although 
 we believe them to be a primary and inseparable 
 preparation. We are not quite so sanguine as to 
 suppose that a public dining-room would be much 
 used by working people, in which, though it was 
 always free and open, the food was only available 
 when they were most busy at their work, or if it 
 were badly cooked, or a little too high, or a little 
 too tough for due mastication, and therefore very 
 difficult inwardly to digest. What is this but the 
 stork asking the fox to dine from a tall vase which 
 he couldn't reach, and the fox returning the compli- 
 ment with a large shallow dish of soup ? We must 
 not only have churches free and open for working 
 men, and all men, but services at such times as shall 
 suit the convenience of all ; and not only such services 
 as those we have now in our ancient and beautiful 
 Liturgies, which I trust will ever be appreciated by 
 those who have long loved and understood them, but 
 such other services as every one who uses may 
 follow and join in at once — clear and impressive 
 prayers, such as all can pray, and hymns which 
 compel a man to sing. 
 
 Then as to sermons. Well, with all regard and 
 respect for my reverend brothers, I do think that 
 sermons might, as a rule, be a little more interesting. 
 I blame chiefly the entire absence at our Universities 
 
THE GENTLEMAN IN THE LOOSE BOX. 1 55 
 
 of any school of elocution — any endeavour to teach 
 the art of preaching — but I am convinced, at the 
 same time, that much more might be done by the 
 preachers themselves. I have been told that a man, 
 said to be of unsound mind, attends a church in one 
 of our great cities, and that when the curate, who 
 preaches briefly and impressively, is in the pulpit, 
 he listens with unflagging attention ; but when the 
 vicar begins to read a long and dreary discourse, he 
 takes oS* his boots and puts them outside the pew, 
 to intimate that he is probably there for the night, 
 and wishes to have them cleaned. 
 
 " If he be mad, as I believe he is, 
 His madness hath the oddest frame of sense," 
 
 as Polonius says of Hamlet, " Though this be mad- 
 ness, yet there is method in it;" for we cannot close 
 our eyes to the fact (unless we are asleep with the 
 rest of the congregation) that, not unfrequently, if 
 it were not a church, the most appropriate air which 
 the organist could play would be, " We're a' noddin' ! " 
 
FEIENDLY SOCIETIES. 
 
 " Ready to distribute, willing to communicate ; laying up in store 
 for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they 
 may lay hold on eternal life."— 1 Tim. vi. 18, 19. 
 
 No one can know so well as the parish priest, whose 
 duty it is to visit the sick, to be the friend who loveth 
 at all times, and the brother born for adversity, the 
 good which is done by such a society as this.* "When he 
 goes to the home of some poor sufferer, whom sudden 
 sickness, or one of those many accidents to which 
 we are hourly exposed, or the infirmities of natural 
 decay, have laid upon his bed, so that he can no more 
 go forth to his work and to his labour until the 
 evening, one of the first questions which a clergyman 
 asks is this — Does this man belong to any Lodge, or 
 other like association, which provides relief for him 
 in the time of need ? 
 
 And how much depends upon the answer ! If he 
 
 has taken the wise man's advice, " Though a man 
 
 live many years, and rejoice in them all, yet let him 
 
 remember the days of darkness, for they shall be 
 
 * Preached to a Provident Institution. 
 
FRIENDLY SOCIETIES, 1 57 
 
 many ; " if he has prudently joined such a brother 
 hood as yours, he can send at once for the medical 
 officer of your institution, and make his righteous 
 claim for the allowance, which is due to those who 
 really require it. Now he knows the meaning of 
 that noble word, which you have chosen as the first 
 title of your Order, " Independent." 
 
 He asks nothing from you ; he wants nothing from 
 me; he simply demands his own. He has not to 
 quest about for some artifice by which, disabled from 
 earning his weekly wages, he may supply his wants. 
 He has not to endure the pain and the shame of 
 supplicating for a gift or a loan. When he asks in 
 his calamity, " What shall I do ? I cannot dig ; to 
 beg I am a-shamed," he is not tempted to dishonesty 
 or deceit. In the sunshine of his health and his 
 strength, he foresaw the night in which no man can 
 work, and, now that its shadows deepen on his path, 
 he is not without oil in his lamp. 
 
 But he who has made no such provision — who, like 
 the poor prodigal, has spent all on self — he, when the 
 sure days of famine come, and he begins to be in 
 want, is indeed forlorn and wretched. On him has 
 come the fulfilment of that prophecy, which he heard 
 oft, but would not heed, " Behold, all ye that kindle 
 a fire, that compass yourself about with sparks " — the 
 fire of burning passions, the lurid flames of anger and 
 of lust, the sparks that gleam and die, of worldly 
 foolishness and pride — "walk in the light of your 
 fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled — this 
 
158 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 ye shall have of Mine hand; ye shall lie down in 
 sorrow." 
 
 Alas ! with a double sorrow — the sorrow of his 
 bodily suffering, and the keen distress of his mind. 
 He must exist upon a parish pittance, hardly enough 
 to supply him with the necessaries of life, when he 
 needs, it may be, a generous and more costly diet. 
 He must crave the uncertain and unwilling help of 
 his neighbours, and submit to their criticisms and 
 contempt. He may be constrained to part with some 
 of those possessions which for years have ornamented 
 and brightened his home, even with those which 
 minister to his daily need and comfort — his furniture, 
 his clothes. Nay, he may have to leave the home 
 itself, the home of his childhood, and the friends of 
 his manhood, to die among strangers in the work- 
 house. 
 
 There can be no question, then, that it is the interest 
 of every man, whose means of support are derived 
 from his own exertions, to make provision, to lay up 
 in store for himself a good foundation against the 
 time to come, when he can no longer make those 
 exertions ; and it is the duty of those whose means 
 are more abundant, or who have the power of advising 
 and influencing others, to encourage and promote, 
 by every effort they can make, the manly, wise, and 
 honourable intentions of such societies as this. And 
 it is a sight which makes the heart glad, to see in 
 this church to-day so many, who, having weighed this 
 matter, and being fully persuaded in their own minds. 
 
FRIENDLY SOCIETIES, I 59 
 
 have come to a brave and right determination; and 
 we rejoice in happy thoughts of the future — of comfort, 
 when comfort is needed most ; of relief, of which no 
 ratepayer can complain, which even the most niggardly 
 cannot grudge, which brings no blush of shame to 
 the cheeks of him who receives it. He has most 
 help, most sympathy, human and Divine, who helps 
 himself, and in the days of dearth he shall have 
 enough. 
 
 But we are here to-day in God's house, my brothers ; 
 I might call you brothers, as having been for more 
 than forty years a member of that ancient Society of 
 Freemasons, which has been, as it were, the parent 
 and model of your Order ; but I speak to you to-day 
 as your brother in the great family of our Father 
 which is in heaven, here in our Father's house ; of 
 that family in which both He that sanctifieth and 
 they that are sanctified are all one, for which cause 
 He, even our Lord Jesus Christ, is not ashamed to 
 call us brethren ; "I ascend," He said, "to My Father 
 and your Father," being " the Firstborn of many 
 brethren;" we are here to-day, because the wisdom 
 of those who made the laws and established the 
 customs of your Society looked far beyond the plain, 
 simple truths of economy and forethought of which 
 I have just spoken. It was good, they knew, to 
 provide for sickness and old age ; it was wise, in the 
 summer-tide and autumn of life, to store the corn and 
 the fruit for winter's food ; it was brave and decorous 
 to look death itself in the face, and to ensure for 
 
l6o ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 the mourners wherewithal to bury their dead. But 
 there was something more than this. Reason, instinct, 
 mere selfishness, suggested forethought for the future. 
 The animals knew it — the bee, the ant, the beaver, 
 and a thousand others. But there was the sovly the 
 breath, which God had breathed into man's nostrils 
 of everlasting life. 
 
 These bodies of ours, it was good and wise to 
 make provision for them, because at any hour, how- 
 ever strong and healthful now, they may be throbbing 
 with pain, or sick unto death. There is no safe- 
 guard, there is no exception. 
 
 I passed by a great house in London at night; 
 it glowed with light; a long line of carriages filled 
 the street — 
 
 " And tapers gleamed, and music breatlied, 
 And beauty led the ball." 
 
 I passed it again a few days afterwards, and that 
 street was thickly carpeted with straw ; and then, by 
 a striking coincidence, I went by once more, and the 
 blinds were down, and all was hushed in the silence of 
 sorrow, and in the awful_ presence of death, and there 
 was a line of carriages, in mournful contrast with 
 that which I had seen before — for at the head of 
 all was the hearse. 
 
 It is good to lay in store for these bodily needs, 
 because they may come to-night. The shadow of 
 death rests always on the pathway of life, whether 
 that life be upon the mountains or in the valleys of 
 the world, whether it be in palace or cottage, factory 
 
FRIENDLY SOCIETIES. l6l 
 
 or field, down in dark mines or out on glittering 
 
 seas. It is the shadow of God's wrath, which fell upon 
 
 the sunshine of His love, when man, a free agent, 
 
 marred His work by disobedience, and brought death 
 
 into the world with all our woes. It rests upon the 
 
 dim dawn of wailing infancy, upon the bright, happy 
 
 morn of boyhood, upon the hot noon of passionate 
 
 youth, on the toilsome, anxious hours of manhood, 
 
 and the calm eventide of age. But no man knows 
 
 when that shadow will turn into reality — ^life to 
 
 death. 
 
 " Leaves have their time to fall, 
 And flowers to wither at the north wind's breath, 
 
 And stars to set ; — but all, 
 Thou hast all seasons for thine own, O Death ! 
 
 We know when moons shall wane, 
 When summer-birds from far shall cross the sea, 
 When autumn's hue shall tinge the golden grain ; 
 But who shall teach us when to look for thee ? " 
 
 Yes, our astronomers can tell us to the minute 
 when the sun shall be darkened and the moon shall 
 not give her light, "yet doth the eclipse of sorrow 
 and of death come unforewarned." " Man," says 
 Solomon, " knoweth not his time." Of the infant 
 born to-day, who can tell whether it will live to boy- 
 hood or girlhood, manhood, womanhood, old age ? A 
 little child came to his mother and said, " Mother, do 
 you think that, if I were to die to-night, I should be 
 with Jesus and the angels ? " And the mother an- 
 swered, " Oh, m}^ darling, your little life is only 
 just begun; how can you think and talk of 
 death ? " Then the child said, " But, mother, when 
 
1 62 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 we were walking the other day in the streets, I saw, 
 through a window, two coffins which were less than 
 I am ; and so I may die at any time." Who hears 
 me now, and has not some unexpected death fresh 
 in his memory ? "Who can walk through a cemetery 
 without noting that to every period of life the 
 message is sent, " The Master is come, and calleth for 
 thee " ? 
 
 No man knows wlien or liow. The manner is as 
 uncertain as the hour. One man dies, like the 
 author of the " Concordance," on his knees in prayer ; 
 another, like Zimri and Cozbi, in the very act of 
 deadly sin. One on some Alpine summit, another 
 drowned in the deep. One a death of violence, by 
 the knife of the assassin, in battle, in a burning 
 theatre ; another so peacefully, so gradually, that 
 you know not when the spirit leaves, and the mirror 
 is put to the cold lips to see if there be breath left 
 in him. One man dies far away, in a foreign land, 
 among strangers; and another where he has lived 
 his life, with loving faces gathered round his bed. 
 
 We try to ignore the inevitable, to forget this un- 
 certainty, like children singing in the dark, that they 
 may not think about their fears. " All men think all 
 men mortal but themselves." W^e make the exception 
 the rule, and say, because some are so strong that 
 they come to fourscore years, that we are sure to do 
 so. When the young, or the middle-aged, and espe- 
 cially when persons of our own age, die, we think, or 
 try to think, that there is no similarity between their 
 
FRIENDLY SOCIETIES, 1 63 
 
 case and ours. We do not like to be reminded that, 
 perhaps only a few weeks ago, they were as confi- 
 dent as we are now that, though a thousand should 
 fall beside them, and ten thousand at their right 
 hand, death would not come nigh them. How ready 
 we are with our excuses, how quick with our ex- 
 planations ! There was some latent constitutional 
 ailment, some family weakness, from which we are 
 exempt ; there was some neglect or mistake in the 
 treatment which never should have occurred. We 
 say not now, not yet. We see the pitiful sight of 
 old men and women imitating the appearance, dress, 
 and amusements of the young, trying to hide the 
 signs of age. We hear it said, with a cruelty which 
 thinks it is kind, " Don't tell them of their danger : 
 never even speak of death." 
 
 But God, in His mercy, will not let us forget. The 
 signs and sounds of our mortality are ever before 
 our eyes and in our ears. " Change and decay in all 
 around I see." " The air is full of farewells to the 
 dying, and mournings for the dead." Does not the 
 outer world, at this season,* preach to us of death, as 
 we look upon the decay of brightness and beauty — 
 the crushed stubble or the brown earth, where the 
 valleys stood so thick with corn that they seemed 
 to laugh and sing ; the " withered bents " and dank 
 herbage, where the meadows were so gay with flowers ? 
 As we watch the leaves fluttering down, are we not 
 reminded of Isaiah's words, that " we all do fade as 
 * Preaclied ia November, 
 
164 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 a leaf," and of a time when, stripped of all our adorn- 
 ments, pretences, and concealments, we shall stand 
 naked and exposed to the cold blast of death? 
 
 Why, we cannot take up a newspaper which does 
 not contain sermons upon death. Young men and 
 young women, out for a holiday, in strong health and 
 high spirits, shouting and laughing, turning to mirth 
 all things of earth ; and a pointsman makes a mistake, 
 or a driver does not see a signal, and some are crushed 
 to death, and some maimed and crippled for life. 
 Twelve hundred children meet for amusement, and 
 by some strange thoughtlessness a door is shut, and 
 nigh upon two hundred are suffocated to death. A 
 sudden squall comes upon the lake, and there is a 
 panic and a rush, and the pleasure-boat upsets, and 
 half, or it may be all, are drowned. Or the lamp is 
 uncovered, and there is an explosion in the mine, and 
 the widows and the orphan children are wailing at 
 the mouth of the pit. You can hardly take up a 
 new^spaper but you see " Fatal Accidents," " Awfully 
 Sudden Deaths," from hemorrhage, from apoplexy, 
 from disease of the heart. Are not these sermons a 
 thousand times more impressive than we preachers 
 know how to preach ? How they thunder God's 
 w^arnings in our ears ! " Set thine house in order, for 
 thou shalt surely die ; " " Ye know not what shall be 
 on the morrow." 
 
 Forewarned of these fearful contingencies, and 
 wisely endeavouring to be prepared for them, with 
 such means of maintenance and relief as you would 
 
FRIENDLY SOCIETIES, 1 65 
 
 otherwise be unable to secure, you are brought face 
 to face with death, and are led from time to time 
 to ask, What is it ? what change will it make ? 
 
 There are some who would have you believe that 
 it is an end, an annihilation. To me it seems that 
 such a belief (if it exist) must be the wish rather 
 than the conviction of one who has nothing to hope, 
 but everything to fear, in the future — 
 
 " Whose eye no more looks onward, but its gaze 
 Rests where remorse a misspent life surveys. 
 By the dark form of what he is, serene. 
 Stands the bright ghost of what he might have been. 
 There the vast loss, and there the worthless gain ; 
 Vice scorned yet wooed, and virtue loved in vain." 
 
 Annihilation ! I have seen hundreds die, but I 
 never heard one speak as though death wsre an end 
 of life. " I shall not be long ^,er<3," they say. " I feel 
 that I am going. I shall soon be with those I have 
 lost." AVere there no revelation, reason, instinct, 
 philosophy, would teach us, as they have taught all 
 earnest thinkers in all times, that nature never 
 gravitates to nought. I see already, on tree and 
 shrub, the first formations of new growth, the germs 
 and buds. The very leaves which are fallen will 
 turn to mould, and so become the source of their own 
 reproduction and continuance. And so, in all that 
 withered dryness and decay, we find the seed in 
 abundance which is to perpetuate life. And what 
 teaching is there in the seed itself— how God brings 
 new groAvth and baauty out of that which seems to 
 be dead ! Why, I have seen, as some of you have 
 
1 66 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 seen, a fragment just cut from a small dry seed, which 
 seemed dry and dead, put into a powerful microscope, 
 and on the application of water the little white 
 rootlets began to shoot from it. Seeds which have 
 lain dormant for more than a thousand years will 
 grow when sown in the soil. And think you that 
 it will be a hard task for Him who made man from 
 the dust of the earth to remake him from the dust 
 of the grave ? Wherefore Paul writes, "But some 
 man will say, How are the dead raised up ? and with 
 what body do they come ? Thou fool, that which thou 
 sowest is not quickened, except it die : . . . but God 
 giveth it a body as it hath pleased Him." Wherefore 
 a greater than Paul, his Lord and our Lord, has said, 
 " Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and 
 die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth 
 much fruit." 
 
 Annihilation ! Those great and good philosophers 
 who had no revelation, but who sought humbly to 
 know the truth — and not having the law, were a law 
 unto themselves — had a sure faith in the immortality 
 of the soul. One of the wisest of these, Socrates, has 
 said that the great study of his life had been how to 
 prepare for death. To the sensual, to the idle, and to 
 the unjust, death seemed then as now to be " terrible," 
 " dreadful," and dark, and " hopeless ; " but to those 
 who loved justice and kindness it brought little fear. 
 They saw here the issues of truth and falsehood, 
 cruelty and benevolence, labour and indolence, lust 
 and love, and they regarded these as intimations o 
 
FRIENDLY SOCIETIES, 1 67 
 
 the hereafter; and they believed in future reward 
 and punishment, in dismal Tartarus and bright 
 Elysian fields. God's faithful people, under the 
 older covenant, knew from prophecy and type of 
 the Resurrection, and looked for Paradise regained; 
 but it was reserved for the Son of God Incarnate, 
 not only in the history of the rich man and Lazarus, 
 and by the promise, " To-day shalt thou be with Me 
 in Paradise," but by His visit to the regions of the 
 departed, when He went and preached to the spirits 
 in prison, to dispel all doubt, and to assure us that 
 every soul of man, when the house of this tabernacle 
 is dissolved, goes at once into a place of joy or of 
 sorrow, and there waits the judgment. And so- — 
 
 " There is no death ! What seems so is tranbitioii ; 
 This life of mortal breath 
 Is but the suburbs of those fields Elysian, 
 Whose portals we call death ; " 
 
 or the suburbs, it may be, of that city, filthy and pol- 
 luted, over whose gates is inscribed, " Whoso entereth 
 here, leaves hope behind." 
 
 The founders of your Order, believing this as 
 Christian men, originated the devout custom, which 
 you keep to-day, of walking hand in hand to the 
 house of God as friends — friends not only for time 
 but for eternity — that you might thank Him for His 
 mercies past, and pray for His lovingkindness here- 
 after, confess your sins and receive His message of 
 forgiveness, join together in psalms and hymns 
 and spiritual songs, hear His most Holy Word, and 
 
1 68 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN, 
 
 suffer the word of exhortation also from us His 
 ministers. 
 
 Permit me, then, in all earnestness and brotherly 
 love, briefl}^ to bring before you certain Christian 
 graces which are suggested to you by the principles 
 of your Order, so that your Lodge may prove a 
 blessing, not only to your body, but to your soul ; so 
 that you may lay up in store for yourselves a good 
 foundation against the time to come, not only in this 
 world, but in that which shall be hereafter ; so that 
 you shall not only in the day of necessity have enough, 
 but in the perilous time, in the hour of death and 
 in the day of judgment, you shall not be 'confounded ; 
 so that when this voice which speaks to you is 
 silenced, and the ears with which you listen shall 
 not hear though a battle of artillery were fought 
 above your grave, the soul within us, that from 
 which I speak and with which 3'ou hear, shall be in 
 joy and felicity, having laid hold of eternal life. 
 
 1. Your society teaches self-denial. It is very easy 
 to say that all men should save for the time of 
 sickness ; it is especially easy for those who can have 
 no fear of want, and who will have property to 
 bequeath, to preach to the poor from St. Paul's text, 
 " If any provide not for his own, and especially for 
 those of his own house, he has denied the faith, and 
 is worse than an infidel," but it is no easy matter in 
 practice to lay by in store against the time to come. 
 The amount of subscription may in itself be small, 
 but there are times when it requires a good resolution 
 
FRIENDLY SOCIETIES. 1 69 
 
 to make the payment regularly; times when work 
 is scarce and wages are small, when the poor are 
 very poor, or are tempted to lay out their money else- 
 where. 
 
 Need I tell you, as Christian men, that self-denial 
 is a condition of our salvation ? Our dear Lord never 
 spake plainer words than these, " Whosoever will 
 come after Me, let him deny himself." That we 
 should make God's will our will, first praying to Him, 
 " Thy will be done," and then striving by His grace 
 to do it, — for this is the supreme rule of the gospel, and 
 the only road to that holiness without which no man 
 shall see the Lord. And this rule cannot be followed, 
 this road cannot be trod, without self-denial, without 
 doing things which the natural man dislikes. No 
 man is dying to sin and living with Christ in 
 righteousness who is not conscious of a continual 
 struggle between his spiritual and carnal self; who 
 -does not oft sigh with St. Paul, " I delisfht in the law 
 of God after the inward man : but I see another law 
 in my members, warring against the law of my mind, 
 and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which 
 is in my members. O wretched man that I am, who 
 shall deliver me from the body of this death ? " No 
 man loves the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity who is 
 not daily endeavouring to do something which his 
 haser self would rather not do, because his heiter self 
 bids him do it ; who does not do kind acts from time 
 to time because his Saviour went about doing good, 
 and one day, before men and angels, will summon 
 
I/O ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN, 
 
 those to His glory who have done works of mercy ; 
 who does not speak kind words, and take heed that 
 he offend not with his tongue, because his Judge has 
 warned him, "By thy words thou shalt be justified, 
 and by thy words thou shalt be condemned." 
 
 And so this self-denial for the body's sake shall teach 
 you self-denial for your soul ; and as you lay by for 
 the time of sickness and decay, you will think of the 
 Apostle's bidding, " Upon the first day of the week 
 let every man lay by in store as God hath prospered 
 him," for the poorer brethren, for the work of the 
 ministry, for the extension of the kingdom of Christ. 
 And specially this afternoon I would bid you who 
 are here in health and strength, surrounded by your 
 friends, to give generously to those poor sick folks who 
 lie in weariness and pain, far away from those nearest 
 and dearest to them. The diary of our life is " ruled 
 for accounts," and in it is entered so much for self 
 and so much given to God ; and our Lord has Him- 
 self told us that what we do for His sake to the sick 
 we have done unto Him — " I was sick, and ye visited 
 Me." The time will soon be here when all the funds 
 of the Manchester Unity could not buy you one 
 moment of life, nor bring you one thought of peace, 
 but when the memory of good deeds done for Christ 
 and His poor shall be as music in the soul ; when all 
 that has been spent upon selfishness shall be lost, but 
 all that has been given to others from Christian 
 charity shall be safe in the treasury'- of God. Is it 
 not written, " Blessed is he that considereth the poor 
 
FRIENDLY SOCIETIES. 171 
 
 and needy : the Lord shall deliver him in the time of 
 trouble. The Lord comfort him when he lieth sick 
 upon his bed : make Thou all his bed in his sickness" ? 
 " Never do I remember to have read," writes St. Jerome, 
 *' that he died an unhappy death who had freely done 
 works of mercy." 
 
 I see that one of your Lodges has the beautiful title 
 of " The Good Samaritan." Let us all be good Samari- 
 tans to-day. Don't let us pass by the sick and the suf- 
 fering like the priest and Levite, but do what we can to 
 give ease and comfort. There is many a poor man and 
 woman in the wayside cottage that can't afford to pay 
 for the treatment which their case requires ; let us do 
 our best to get them into the hospital, as the Samaritan 
 took the wounded Jew to the inn. Let the collection 
 made in this church to-day be worthy of your Order 
 as a Christian brotherhood. No man ever regretted 
 the following of a generous impulse when he was 
 asked in Christ's name to be generous. It is our 
 extravagance upon self which we rue. " Give, and it 
 shall be given unto you," is God's own promise ; but 
 there is that withholdeth more than is meet, and that 
 meanness tendeth to poverty. 
 
 2. Your fellowship, your combination for a common 
 purpose, your frequent intercourse, must evoke fra- 
 ternal sympathies, and tend towards hvotherly love. 
 But no mere human associations can teach us this 
 love in its integrity. No man really loves his brother 
 simply because they are members of the same society, 
 walk hand in hand, and meet in the lodge. No sii 
 
1/2 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 larities of taste or temperament, no reciprocity of 
 advantage, no success of mutual co-operation, can 
 teach true love. You may have counterfeits and 
 imitations. For example, a man will tell a woman 
 whom he would deceive for the gratification of his 
 passion that his lust is love. A man may profess the 
 love of his country, when he is only seeking his own 
 aggrandizement; love for his fellow-men, when he 
 only cares for their influence or applause. Even in 
 the purest and truest of our natural affections there 
 is some taint of selfishness. You cannot find it on 
 earth, but you may bring it from heaven by the 
 presence of the Holy Spirit in 3'our heart, and then, 
 when you love your brother because God loves him 
 and Christ died for him, then it is yours. 
 
 Consider, again, that these earthly fraternities are 
 but for a little while. 
 
 " Friend after friend departs ; 
 Who l;ath not lost a friend ? 
 There is no union here of hearts 
 Which hath not here an end." 
 
 Faces are missing to-day which were with you at your 
 last anniversary. The warm hand which you held 
 in yours is cold in the grave to-day. That is a sad 
 entry in your summary of events, "Deaths of eighteen 
 members." Who goes next ? You or I ? It matters 
 not, if we belong heart and soul, lip and life, to the 
 One Great Brotherhood, the Sacred Society which was 
 formed by Jesus of Nazareth, whose first officers were 
 working men, and which invites all to join in their 
 
FRIENDLY SOCIETIES, 1 73 
 
 doctrine and fellowship : " Come ye to the waters " — 
 the Baptismal waters — " without money and without 
 price ; " a Society in which none are poor, for they 
 have the unsearchable riches of Christ, and treasures 
 in heaven ; in which none are weakly, for they are 
 strong in the Lord and in the power of His might ; 
 none are forlorn or desolate, for He has said, " I will 
 not leave you comfortless, I will come to you," and 
 Christ dwelleth in their hearts by faith ; a Society in 
 which there is no real separation, for those on earth 
 are in communion with those that are at rest — all 
 one in Christ Jesus. 
 
 3. Once more, it is impossible to survey a scene 
 like this without thinking of the Psalmist's words, 
 " Behold, how good and joyful a thing it is, brethren, 
 to dwell together in unity ! " Our dear Lord's prayer 
 rises to our lips, " Neither pray I for these alone, but 
 for them also which shall believe on Me through 
 their word ; that they all may be one." Surely there is 
 nothing on earth so like that which we hope to hear 
 in heaven as this united worship, when the voices of 
 a great congregation "the strain upraise of joy and 
 praise " to the Eternal Trinity. Alas ! my brothers, 
 it makes one sigh to think, in this peaceful haven, 
 how the waves and storms of discord surge and roar 
 without. Wars and rumours of wars, nations boast- 
 ing of their civilization, and professing their desire 
 for peace, multiplying their fleets and armies, ever 
 designing means more and more terrible for destroy- 
 inor one another. Oh — 
 
174 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 " Were half the power whicli fills the world with terror, 
 "Were half the wealth bestowed on camps and courts, 
 Given to redeem the human mind from error. 
 There were no need of arsenals nor forts." 
 
 And then, in cities, towns, and villages, how much 
 disunion — social, political, ay, religious, disunion 
 The pride of station, the pride of riches, holding itself 
 aloof from him whom God has placed in a lower 
 position, or in poorer circumstances, or to whom He 
 has given no special gifts of mental ability, or fewer 
 opportunities of education, designing him for duties 
 which did not require them. Political disunion ! Two 
 men who have been playmates in childhood, school- 
 fellows, friends in youth and manhood, cutting each 
 other in the street because they have taken different 
 sides at an election. Religious disunion ! Members 
 of the same family parting at the door of their home 
 on Sunday, and going to different places of worship. 
 
 And what is the cause ? St. James was inspired 
 to tell us. "From whence come wars and fiorhtinors 
 among you ? come they not hence even of your 
 lusts ? " We are disunited because, despite Christ's 
 At-one-ment, we are not at one, not in union with 
 God. As members of Christ, we are as limbs stricken 
 with paralysis ; we do not obey the head. We are not 
 in union with our own selves. I mean our own truer, 
 nobler self — our reason, our conscience, our spiritual 
 instincts. We are not as he who, really striving for 
 the mastery, is temperate in all things. We think, 
 like some foolish athlete, we can win the race without 
 training. We speak before we think. We act upon 
 
FRIENDLY SOCIETIES^ 1 75 
 
 impulse. We let our passions overpower our prin- 
 ciples. We are provoked by trifles, deceived by 
 shams, and satisfied with silly excuses. 
 
 What is the cure ? First of all, of course, to begin 
 with self — to inspect, and try to improve ourselves, 
 imploring our Father, for Christ's sake, to send the 
 Holy Spirit to help us. " Acquaint now thyself with 
 God, and be at peace." But there must be a battle 
 to win, and always discipline and armed defence to 
 preserve that peace. 
 
 And when we find how hard it is to live in con- 
 formity with that spiritual self, then at once we shall 
 begin to be more tolerant, more pitiful, more kind, to 
 others. " If thou canst not make thyself such an one 
 as thou wouldest, how shalt thou expect another to 
 be exactly to thy mind ? '* No ; Christ in your 
 heart will bring Christ to your home, and your 
 friends and your neighbours also will take know- 
 ledge of you that you have been with Jesus. Your 
 union with Him will unite you more and more with 
 those for whom He died — and Ke died for all. You 
 will, with something of the mind which was in 
 Christ Jesus, begin to be the advocate and not the 
 accuser of the brethren. Instead of saying, " Fie on 
 thee, fie on thee ! we saw it with our eyes. There, 
 there, we would have it. Now that he lieth down, 
 let him rise up no more," — " God, I thank Thee that 
 I am not as other men are," — we shall sigh, " Alas ! 
 my brother; Christ pity thee and me." We shall 
 try to see and to encourage that which is good — and 
 
1/6 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 there is something good in all — ever remembering 
 those beautiful words of the Apostle, " Let all bitter- 
 ness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil- 
 speaking, be put away from you, with all malice : 
 and be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, for- 
 giving one another, even as God for Christ's sake 
 hath forgiven you." 
 
 And so, my. brothers, walking hand in hand up 
 the steep road of duty — your duty to your neighbour 
 and your God — like those whom Christ called, and 
 sent forth two and two — following the same sure 
 Guide, and serving the same kind Master, you brethren 
 of the Independent Order of Oddfellows of the Man- 
 chester Unity shall realize the only true independence, 
 the glorious liberty of the children of God — liberty 
 from the worst of all slaveries, the service of the 
 devil and the dread of death; you shall know 
 the only true fellowship, the Apostles' doctrine and 
 fellowship — " and truly," said he whom Christ loved 
 the most, " our fellowship is with the Father and the 
 Son ; " and you shall be joined together in the unity 
 which nothing can divide — the unity of the Spirit. 
 Thus, "ready to distribute, willing to communicate, 
 you shall lay up for: yourselves in store a good foun- 
 dation for the time to come, you shall lay hold on 
 eternal life." 
 
XI. 
 HOME RULE. 
 
 " Learn first (o show piety at home." — 1 Tim. v. 4. 
 
 We have heard a great deal in the political world 
 about Home Eule, but this is no place for politics; 
 this is a place for peace, not for contention ; this is a 
 place for " fixing our thoughts on things above, not 
 on things of the earth ; " and I am not going to regard 
 these two words politically, or to consider whether 
 Ireland would be the better, or England the worse, 
 under a different form of government. But what I 
 am anxious for, and what I pray for, is this — that I 
 may connect these two words which you hear so 
 often with some higher lesson, some spiritual thoughts, 
 some consideration of your responsibilities, of your 
 possibilities, of your dangers, concerning Christian 
 Home Rule. 
 
 What sort of Home Rule is yours and mine ? Could 
 it be said of us as it was said of Abraham, who was 
 called the "friend of God" — "I know him, that he 
 will teach his children and his household after him, 
 and they shall keep the way of the Lord " ? Could it 
 
 N 
 
178 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 be written over your door and mine those words of 
 Joshua, "As for me and my house, we will serve the 
 Lord " ? Could you and I say with the " man after 
 God's own heart," " I will walk within my house with 
 a perfect heart " ? Could it be said of you and me, as 
 it was of that noble man, for whom Christ worked a 
 miracle, " The man believed and his whole house " ? 
 Could it be said of your home and mine as it was of 
 the man Cornelius, that " he and his house believed, and 
 gave much alms to the people, and feared God " ? Could 
 it be said of your home and mine as it was of Zacch?eus, 
 " This day is salvation come to thine house " ? 
 
 And if Christ came now to your home and mine, 
 and lifted up His blessed hand, and said, " Peace be 
 to this house," would He enter and find peace ? No 
 other rule is precious without this Home Rule. A 
 man may have vast power and dominion and authority, 
 and be a good ruler in one sense but a bad man in 
 another, unless he knows how to rule his own heart. 
 As St. Paul said, " If a man know not how to rule 
 his own house, how shall he take care of the Church 
 of God ? " " The kings of the earth stood up, and 
 the rulers took counsel together, against the Lord and 
 against His Anointed." The priests and the rulers 
 derided the blessed Saviour, and sought to lay hands 
 upon Him. There may be spiritual wickedness in 
 high places; there may be spiritual wickedness in 
 your heart and mine ; and so long as a man does not 
 rule his own heart and his own soul, he never can be 
 a great ruler over others. He may have some success. 
 
HOME RULE. 1/9 
 
 he may have adulation, a great show of service, but 
 unless a man is his own master he cannot be for long 
 a master of others. 
 
 Now, the first great principle of this Home Rule 
 is self-rule, self-government, self-command. First of 
 all we must know what we have got to command; 
 we must know who are our friends and who are our 
 enemies in this little kingdom of our own souls and 
 hearts. Therefore the first great duty we have to 
 perform is to get a knowledge of self; self-examina- 
 tion. 
 
 This was the conclusion of the old philosophers, 
 that the great work of man was to know himself; to 
 know what was good in him and what was bad, and 
 to try to promote the good and expel the bad. A man 
 must first know what he had got to rule in himself, 
 before he could begin to rule others. Men must know 
 themselves, and then their friends and their enemies. 
 Just as a king may have in his court some who hate 
 his rule, some it may be who are anarchists, nihil- 
 ists, some who would gladly rebel against him, and 
 some perhaps who are greater enemies to him still, 
 those who will flatter him to his face, but yet who are 
 false friends, and who would leave him in adversity ; 
 so you and I have enemies, who tell us that they 
 are our best friends, and yet would persuade us that 
 religion would only make us dull and dreary. 
 
 Man's great enemy from the first has been disobe- 
 dience, rebellion against authority — Divine, parental, 
 the authority of teachers and masters ; the proud idea 
 
l80 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN, 
 
 that he could do better for himself than those above 
 him who loved him most dearly; the covetous 
 longing for something which he had not — the one 
 tree of which he might not eat ; his passions, the 
 ''carnal lusts that war against the soul," idleness, 
 tempting him to forget that God sent every man into 
 the world for a purpose, to do something not only 
 for his own soul but for his fellow-man. 
 
 The working man has a right to say, "What is 
 that man doing ; what is he doing for the good of the 
 people ? I have to work hard ; what is he doing ? " 
 God would have every man work; He would have 
 no drones in His hive. What could be said of 
 a man whose great desire in life was only to feed 
 and sleep ? "A beast, and no more," said the great 
 poet. God never gave to man such capacity for 
 work and such wisdom that he should let them rust 
 unused. 
 
 These are enemies that must be rooted out; we 
 ourselves let them in, because sin cannot conquer us 
 without our own consent. Every man holds the 
 key of the fortress, and until he throws that key 
 to Satan he cannot enter. Self-examination would 
 bring sorrow, and when they searched they would 
 see what they had lost. God called them to true 
 repentance, and as soon as they repented, then He 
 said, " Come unto Me, all ye that are weary and heavy 
 laden, and I will give you rest." 
 
 Thus it was for every man who was expelling his 
 foes to rule his own heart. And he would find a 
 
HOME RULE, l8l 
 
 Counsellor waiting for him. Even if they were not 
 Christians, God had given to every man a con- 
 science. St. Paul told the Gentiles this. But the 
 Christian had a Counsellor, even the Holy Spirit, 
 given him in answer to prayer ; given him first 
 when he was made a Christian in Holy Baptism. 
 That Spirit might be lost, the light might have gone 
 out, but it would come back in answer to prayer, to 
 help him in ruling his heart — the Divine, God's, 
 Christ's, Home Rule. 
 
 See the contrast between God's rule and man's 
 rule, between the converted and the unconverted 
 heart. Have you never noticed on the rail, in coming 
 out of London or elsewhere, looking at the backs 
 of the houses, and the small spaces apportioned to 
 each, in one there was brightness and beauty, and 
 cultivated flowers, but in another were heaps of 
 rubbish, dirt, and disorder? Or going into two 
 houses you have seen the difference between the 
 one, where there was rule and cleanliness and order, 
 the bright ornamentation that made the place so 
 cheerful and homelike, and the other, where there 
 was disorder, the home of the drunkard. It has 
 been exhibited in pictures, but it is in reality far 
 worse than any artist can paint. They saw here 
 no rule, no God, no Christ, no conscience, no Holy 
 Spirit, every man doing that which was right in 
 his own eyes, regardless of his own happiness or 
 that of his neighbour's, and bringing misery to his 
 home. But to him who ordered his conversation 
 
l82 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 aright, doing his best, doing his duty, what light, 
 what brightness, what warmth there was in his 
 house ; he had a foretaste in that home of heaven 
 itself! Men went about thinking that they would 
 find in the indulgence of their passions the gratifica- 
 tion which they could not get at home. Who would 
 not be ashamed to speak of the gratifications of 
 lust, and compare them with the joys of home ? There 
 was no love in this world like the true love of a 
 Christian husband and wife, a Christian father and 
 mother, the love of a Christian child for its parents, 
 the love of brothers and sisters. The man who ruled 
 himself after the law of God's commandments had 
 happiness and joy in this world and in the next. 
 He was generous in prosperity, and could say in 
 adversity, " Shall I receive good at the hand of the 
 Lord, and shall I not receive evil? The Lord gave, 
 and the Lord hath taken away : blessed be the Name 
 of the Lord." 
 
 Let them make the heart right, and let their life 
 be cleansed by the inspiration of the Spirit, and the 
 blood shed upon the Cross, and then they would 
 have Home Rule, home happiness, and joy which 
 would be continued through eternity. Some said 
 as they looked on the pale faces of their beloved in 
 the hour of death, " Oh, I can't bear the thought of 
 losing them." But the Christian said, " I never shall ; 
 I shall always have communion, the Communion 
 of Saints, with those that loved the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, and proved their love in their lives. Only 
 
HOME RULE, 1 83 
 
 for a little while shall our earthly home be broken 
 up, and then we shall meet, first in Paradise, and 
 then in Heaven; and there shall be no more death, 
 neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any 
 more pain." 
 
XII. 
 
 THE FEIENDS OF THE WORKING MAN. 
 
 If the admiration of our fellow-creatures, their sweet 
 smiles of sympathy, their earnest words of praise, 
 their promises of abundant gifts, their solemn benedic- 
 tions, and their oaths of eternal friendship, can make 
 us happy, there must be times of exquisite and com- 
 plete felicity in the lives of you working men. 
 
 For example, just before an election, " what a piece 
 of work is man ! " —that is to say, the working man — 
 "how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in 
 form and moving, how express and admirable ! " How 
 everybody loves him, and wants to shake hands with 
 him; and when he seems somewhat shy, and looks 
 at the grime on his fingers, and tries to rub it oflf 
 on his sleeves, assures him that they " like him best 
 in his war-paint," and that they see, in those evidences 
 of honest work, 
 
 *• The nobility of labour, 
 The long pedigree of toil 1 " 
 
 Wherever he goes, appeals are made from window 
 and from wall, " Vote for Sir Place-Hunter, the friend 
 of the working man I " " Plump for Windbag, who 
 
THE FRIENDS OF THE WORKING MAN, 185 
 
 loves the working man ! " " Poll early for Firebrand, 
 ye down-trodden working men ! " 
 
 How is it that you do not seem to be flushed with 
 exuberant joy ? Is it because your experience sug- 
 gests that this brilliant demonstration, raising your 
 eyes heavenward, and sending forth showers of gold, 
 ascending like the rocket, will likewise descend as the 
 stick ? That in two days after the election the friend 
 of the working man will be gone from his gaze, like 
 one of those beautiful firework stars, and that he will 
 
 '• Feel like one 
 
 WJio treads alone 
 Some banquet-hall deserted, 
 
 Whose lights are flel, 
 
 Whose garlands dead, 
 And all but he departed " ? 
 
 Until, after an interval, back comes Firebrand, the 
 defeated candidate, to do a little more in the " tram- 
 pling " line ; to remind the electors that he had always 
 told them that his opponents were humbugs ; that 
 they would never get anything from the old lady at 
 Windsor, or from bloated aristocrats, who, when they 
 weren't engaged in the Divorce Court, did nothing 
 but gamble and drink outside; that Whigs and 
 Tories meant nothing but office; that landlords and 
 employers were tyrants and thieves, rolling in wealth, 
 only regarding them as slaves and tools, working 
 them to death, and then sending them to the Union 
 (the cemetery seemed more appropriate) — chucking 
 tho orange, as Mr. Firebrand beautifully expressed it, 
 
1 86 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 into the swill-tub when they had sucked the juice; 
 that if they wanted help, they must help themselves — 
 
 " Hereditary bondsmen ! know ye not, 
 Who would be free, themselves must strike the blow ? " 
 
 Must strike, and keep striking. Stop the engines, 
 smash the machinery, put out the furnaces, blow up 
 the public buildings, despise all offers of compromise 
 or arbitration, and hate everybody except themselves. 
 My brothers, I don't believe in the ancestral ape, 
 but I note similitudes between men and monkeys. 
 For example, I was admiring, some years ago, the 
 affectionate attachment of two gorillas in one of the 
 cages of the Zoological Gardens, when a keeper said to 
 me, " You would hardly believe, sir, that those two, no 
 long time since, were always jabbering and fightiDg." 
 " And what," I asked, " caused the happy change ? " 
 " Well," he replied, " there used to be an ugly old 
 baboon along with them, and though, when they 
 were quarrelling most furiously, he would retire into 
 a corner, and assume an expression of disgust and 
 dismay, I always suspected that, somehow or other, 
 he set them on to fight. There was always a large 
 amount of monkey conversation and antics, in which 
 he took a prominent part, before a battle ; but when 
 hostilities commenced, he withdrew. It was as I 
 suspected ; for when I moved that baboon to another 
 cage, those two had only one more bout, the biggest 
 they ever had, and then it seemed to strike them 
 what fools they were, and from that day to this 
 they've been the best of friends." Just as you and 
 
THE FRIENDS OF THE WORKING MAN, 1 87 
 
 I, in our school-days, when that long fight was over, 
 regarded our opponent, through our discoloured eye, 
 in a new aspect, and he became our respectful and 
 respected mate. 
 
 I left the apes ; but, as I sat to rest upon a garden- 
 chair, I thought how many silly monkeys, called men, 
 were always quarrelling, and never would be friends, 
 and though they had lived and would continue to 
 live in the same cage, were continually suspecting, 
 envying, irritating, and assaulting each other, when 
 they might have peace and harmony, and, like the 
 two baboons, in their happy hours of reconciliation, 
 might relieve each other of many disagreeable para- 
 sites. It occurred to me that if capital and labour, 
 employers and workmen, landlords and tenants, 
 masters and servants, clergy and laity, would show 
 more mutual regard ; if, when dissensions arose be- 
 tween those who were dependent on each other, the 
 possibility could be acknowledged that there might 
 be faults on both sides, instead of the usual bluster, 
 " I am Sir Oracle, and when I speak let no dog bark," 
 instead of contemplating our own virtues through the 
 most powerful of all microscopes, and our neighbour's 
 meritis through that most minimizing lens which is 
 known to science, the inverted telescope of self-con- 
 ceit and self-interest, — why, then we might hope for 
 harmony in lieu of discord, and for confidence instead 
 of suspicion. 
 
 Then I thought of that wicked old baboon who 
 made the mischief, and of the peace which ensued 
 
165 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 when the two monkeys were left to themselves, and 
 there was no flatterer to say, " You're such a pretty 
 monkey, you ought to have a scarlet coat, and a 
 cocked hat, and a barrel-organ, and not to associate 
 with low and ugly apes ; " no bully to suggest, 
 *•' You re the biggest, hit him in the eye ; you're the 
 strongest, take his nuts." And I remembered how 
 much harm was done, outside those gardens, by 
 malignant, restless busy bo dies, stump- orators, and 
 penny-a-liners, who never did, and never intend to 
 do, a hard day's work, ''knowing nothing" (as St. 
 Paul wrote of their predecessors more than eighteen 
 hundred years ago), " but doting about questions and 
 strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, 
 and surmisings." 
 
 There is no man more odious than he who comes to 
 you and me, and says, " I always thought that you 
 and Bob Smith were such tremendous mates ? " And 
 when you make answer, " Yes, we were at school 
 together, and have always been sincere friends," he 
 proceeds to state that ''he must remark" (there is 
 no TYiust about it, except that such sneaks must make 
 mischief) " that he was surprised to hear Smith utter 
 such and such disparagements " (one-half fiction, and 
 the other exaggeration), which inflame you with a 
 desire to punch Robert's countenance — for " to be 
 wroth with those we love doth work like madness in 
 the brain " — and may produce a coolness through life. 
 
 I mean the sort of fellow who says to the rich, 
 " Don't you trouble yourself about the poor ; if you 
 
THE FRIENDS OF THE WORKING MAN. 1 89 
 
 give 'em too many beans, they'll kick you out 
 the trap ; " and to the poor, " Mind you hate the 
 rich, and insult them as much as you can. They 
 love you just about as well, and for the same 
 purpose, as a weasel does a rabbit." Who says to 
 us clergymen, " It's no good your trying to influence 
 those working men ; they're all sceptics, infidels, 
 secularists, freethinkers; they're utterly corrupt, de- 
 praved, and hopeless ; " and then comes to you work- 
 ing men and says, "Don't you be gulled by those 
 sleek, close-shaven priests. They don't believe what 
 they're paid to preach ; it's only fit for women and 
 children." I wish that we could induce these irascible 
 incendiaries to say with the Psalmist, "I will take 
 heed to my ways, that I ofiend not with my tongue." 
 They ought to be dealt with as were two of their 
 bilious brotherhood in the old days of duelling, when 
 they had provoked a quarrel between two friends, 
 kindling a spark into a flame with their malignant, 
 slanderous breath, and when finally they had per- 
 suaded them to fight, kindly volunteering to arrange 
 and superintend. Happily, through the intervention 
 of wise counsellors, the combatants discovered, before 
 the crisis, that they had been deceived ; met, and 
 made a material alteration in the programme. When 
 the word was given to fire, they aimed and shot at 
 their seconds; and when one of the meddlers had 
 received a bullet in the calf of his leg, and the other 
 had noticed a disagreeable whistling sound in the 
 neighbourhood of his hat, the principals declared^ tha^t^^^^jv^^ 
 
 '^^ OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 ( 
 
190 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 their honour was quite satisfied, and the party 
 broke up. 
 
 Is not the moral mainly this ? — that the more those 
 who have the same interest and vocation are brought 
 together, and open their hearts to each other ; the more 
 we act upon the Divine injunction, "If thy brother 
 shall trespass against thee," be he rich or poor, '' go 
 and tell him his fault between thee and him alone : 
 if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother ; " 
 and the less we have to do with " envyings, wraths, 
 strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults ; " 
 the more we realize our inseparable dependence, and, 
 above all, our brotherhood as Christians, and our 
 obligations to bear one another's burden ; the more 
 shall we respect and love one another; and that, as 
 we recognize the duty and feel the desire, we shall 
 have the power to help each other, in resisting that 
 which is false and cruel, and in encouraging that 
 which is just and kind. 
 
 You have another lot of friends, you working men, 
 far less selfish, far more sober-minded and sincere, 
 who don't want your votes, who abhor sedition and 
 schism, and follow peace with all men, but who are, 
 nevertheless, disappointing. I mean those who are 
 continually bewailing your errors and your troubles, 
 denouncing and deploring and suggesting that some- 
 body else should do something (the date and the 
 method to be fixed hereafter) to alter and to improve. 
 The rest of society being in the most perfect condition 
 of religious and moral health, the working man has 
 
THE FRIENDS OF THE WORKING MAN. 191 
 
 been pronounced to be in a galloping consumption, 
 and all his friends and neighbours want to look at 
 his tongue, feel his pulse, and write him a prescrip- 
 tion. Infallible remedies are suggested — the perusal 
 of tracts, the hearing of sermons, the cold-water cure, 
 etc., etc. I am reminded of a scene which I have 
 often witnessed, when one of my parishioners has been 
 suddenly struck down by accident or illness. The 
 bed on which he lies is suiTounded by all the old 
 women in the neighbourhood, each insisting on a 
 different treatment, all groaning dismally, and pre- 
 dicting speedy dissolution. My first process was 
 always to show them the door, and then to open the 
 window. 
 
 Open the window — more pure air and warm sun- 
 shine ! The working man must be inclined to say 
 to such a concourse of physicians (to those, especially, 
 who do not tell him where their medicines are to be 
 made up, or who is to pay for them), " Gentlemen, 
 don't let me monopolize your attention, or absorb 
 your valuable time. There are, I am told, invalids 
 elsewhere who stand in need of repairs. For example, 
 you say that I am suffering from a want of refinement 
 in my diversions, that my sports are cruel and my 
 pastimes coarse, and you ask me to give them up, 
 though you offer me nothing in their place. Well, 
 doctors, if you will go to Hurlingham and other 
 similar resorts, you will find cases quite as urgent 
 as our hunting of the rabbit or the rat; the noble 
 sportsman killing and maiming pigeons let out of a 
 
192 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 trap, or driving five hundred pheasants into corners, 
 whence they rise reluctantly in the familiar presence 
 of those who have reared and fed them, and surrounded 
 by half a dozen guns. 
 
 "You tell me that my mind is darkened and depraved 
 by literature which is ghastly, lewd, and profane ; by 
 entertainments, by songs and dances, which are also 
 more or less immoral and obscene. May I ask what 
 course of treatment you pursue with those ladies and 
 gentlemen who are suffering from French novels, or 
 from those plays in which adultery, denounced in the 
 Gospel as a deadly sin, is represented as a pathetic 
 romance, or as an amusing jest ? 
 
 " You wisely warn me against betting and gambling, 
 and bid me deposit every farthing, which I do not 
 want for my necessities, in the Post-Office or the 
 Savings Bank. Pray what are you doing for those 
 chronic cases at Tattersall's and Newmarket ? Have 
 you discovered any successful salve for those bad legs 
 which Holloway has failed to cure ? Why are there 
 no ^5 banks for the rich as well as penny banks for the 
 poor ? Is there anything new in strait- waistcoats 
 for those unhappy lunatics, who give thousands of 
 pounds for horses and bulls, hundreds for orchids, and 
 twenty for a bantam cock ? " 
 
 You know, and I know, what sort of doctor is 
 wanted for the working man. Not the man who 
 remarks, " You're looking sallow and shrunk for want 
 of a little more fresh air and exercise, and I wish you 
 may get it — good morning; " but the man who says. 
 
THE FRIENDS OF THE WORKING MAN. 1 93 
 
 " You are getting rather thick on the ground in these 
 parts, and I have bought and planted some twenty 
 acres of garden for your rest and recreation," The 
 working man wants no learned inspector to inform 
 him " that he ought to be ashamed of his ignorance, 
 and that he should read theological, historical, and 
 scientific works, instead of new^spapers and other 
 rubbish." He prefers the announcement, " I have 
 built you a Free Library, well stored with all kinds 
 of pleasant and instructive books, to be always open 
 for your use." 
 
 When Sir Francis Crossley presented a spacious 
 park to the working men of Halifax, he said, " I 
 attribute the success which has enabled me to offer 
 these grounds to my fellow-townsmen mainly to this 
 incident, that, when we first passed through the gates 
 of the great mill yonder, my mother said, ' If the Lord 
 prosper us in this place, the poor shall taste of it.' " 
 How could the poor taste of it more sweetly than in 
 fresh air and fair surroundings ? It seems to me that 
 such places should be multiplied, not only by private 
 munificence, but by national outlay. Surely one of 
 the first anxieties of a government should be the 
 physical as well as the moral condition of the people. 
 Surely the commercial man, the employer of labour, 
 must perceive, in his consideration of profit and loss, 
 if he have no higher motive, the supreme importance 
 of that power, which health alone can give, to see 
 quickly, and to strike strongly, and to endure hard, 
 continuous work. 
 
 o 
 
194 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN, 
 
 How much more, then, should the Christian, who 
 professes to regard all men as brethren, who has been 
 taught that if one member suffer all the members 
 suffer with it — how much more should he strive to 
 brighten the lives and lighten the burdens of the sons 
 of toil ? As it is, is there not too much truth in the 
 sorrowful sentence that, " the right to dwell freely in 
 a grimy street, to drink freely in the neighbouring 
 public-house, and to walk freely between the high 
 walls and palings and hedges of jealously preserved 
 estates, is about all that the just and equal laws of 
 England secure to the mass of the population " ? Well 
 might Tennyson ask — 
 
 " Why should not these great sirs 
 Give up their parks a dozen times a year, 
 And let the people breathe ? " 
 
 Pure air, not carbon nor chemicals. And, therefore, 
 I regard as among the truest friends of you working 
 men, those who would improve the structural comforts 
 and the atmospheric surroundings of your homes. 
 For example, I have for many years, as some of you 
 know, taken much practical interest in cottage and 
 window-gardening. Not long ago I attended an 
 exhibition of the latter, of plants grown by working 
 men in their houses, and I noticed that a very large 
 proportion of the prizes was awarded to those who 
 lived in Peabody's Buildings. They were fair 
 specimens of healthful growth and careful cultivation, 
 but no amount of attention could ever have produced 
 them in the ordinary abode of working men. "I 
 
THE FRIENDS OF THE WORKING MAN. 1 95 
 
 don't wonder/' said Lord Derby, the grandfather of 
 the present earl, and the fearless " Rupert of debate," 
 — " I don't wonder at men craving for stimulants who 
 live in an atmosphere which would kill an oak ! " 
 All praise and honour to the American philanthropist, 
 and to all who would improve the dwellings of the 
 poor. 
 
 True friends of the working man are they, who are 
 proving to those who will see out of their eyes, or 
 think with their brains, that it is as unnecessary 
 and unprofitable, as it is unhealthful and unjust, to 
 darken the light and pollute the air, which God 
 designed for us all. True friends, who, like Mr. 
 Carpenter, by his lectures, and Mr. Herbert Fletcher, 
 of Bolton, by his smokeless chimneys, and Mr. Samuel 
 Elliott, of Newbury, Berks, by his recent practical 
 experiments on the Thames Embankment,* have 
 proved that this smoke nuisance may be easily and 
 inexpensively abolished. The determination of the 
 question, light or darkness, fresh air or foul, cheeks 
 ruddy or sallow, height five feet or six, weight seven 
 stone or twelve, rests with you working men. If 
 you prefer gloom to brightness, melancholy to mirth, 
 debility to vigour, your silence will give consent ; 
 but if you think, with the inspired Preacher, that 
 " truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is 
 to behold the sun;" if you have a wish to see the 
 leaves once more an the trees, and the fish once more in 
 your sparkling streams, you have only to send those 
 * See the Timei, December 2, 1893. 
 
196 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN, 
 
 candidates to Parliament whom you can trust to help 
 you, not only by the enforcement of the laws, already 
 made, but largely evaded, for the prevention of the 
 smoke nuisance, but by additional and more stringent 
 legislation. 
 
 There are surroundings far more noxious than 
 smoke, far more perilous to some of you working 
 men than the carbon clouds of your factories, or the 
 impure air of overcrowded homes. I mean the deadly 
 gases of the mines, the poisonous fumes and particles 
 which you inhale with the breath, or absorb through 
 the skin — in the manufacture, for example, of white 
 lead, in enamelling, painting, etc. ; and therefore they 
 are your true friends who, like the late Lord Shaftes- 
 bury, and other practical philanthropists, draw public 
 attention to these pernicious employments, with a 
 view to minimize the evil influence, and to guard 
 your health and security. Hence the beneficial results 
 of the Factories Acts, and the hopes entertained of 
 further assistance from the Employers' Liabilities 
 Bill, which is now before the Houses of Parliament. 
 
 He, again, is a true friend of yours, who helps in 
 every way to supply you with good and cheap food, 
 who does his best to deliver you from suspicious meat, 
 superannuated fish, false weights, short measures, and 
 bad beer. 
 
 Some of you have asked me what I think about 
 strikes. I have thought a great deal about strikes, 
 read about them, talked about them, made inquiries 
 about them, and have collected a large amount of 
 
THE FRIENDS OF THE WORKING MAN. 1 97 
 
 information, which would absorb our interest and 
 determine our verdict, were it not for the embarrass- 
 ing fact that one-half of it contradicts the other, 
 with a positive and hopeless defiance, ^ow I am 
 assured that the mine- owners and coal-merchants 
 are rolling (I don't understand why, or how, they 
 roll) in riches, and then I am told by proprietors and 
 purveyors themselves that they are on their way to the 
 workhouse. They are like those commercial gentle- 
 men at Coketown, of whom Charles Dickens writes in 
 " Hard Times," and who always announced themselves 
 to be insolvent when they were asked to do any- 
 thing unpleasant ; they were ruined when they were 
 required to send neighbouring children to school ; 
 they were ruined when inspectors were appointed to 
 look into their works ; they were ruined when such 
 inspectors considered it doubtful whether they were 
 quite justified in chopping people up with their 
 machinery; they were utterly undone when it was 
 hinted that perhaps they need not always make quite 
 so much smoke. 
 
 One day I hear that the men on' strike are the 
 most laborious, thrifty, temperate, peaceful, of their 
 kind, and the next that they do a minimum of work, 
 never save a penny, drink with the drunken, and 
 smite their fellow-servants. 
 
 So that to me, as to another resident at Coketown, 
 Stephen Blackpool, it seems "all a muddle." Some 
 of my ecclesiastical brethren have tried to clarify 
 with the filter of their benevolence, but they have 
 
iqS addresses to working men. 
 
 only stirred up the mud. They have not been 
 encouraged. One, I know, high in authority, largely 
 gifted with benevolence and with brains, has done 
 his best and bravest, as a mediator ; but after he had 
 addressed a meeting of colliers, I was told by a 
 villager who had just returned from it that "some 
 on 'em said they should like to shoot 'im." 
 
 For those who are not experts, or have no special 
 claims on obedience, to interfere between the em- 
 ployers and the employed (I pray you, my brothers, 
 not to surrender the grand old English title of "work- 
 man" for this brand-new French epithet, employe!) is 
 usually as imprudent as to join in a quarrel between 
 husband and wife. 
 
 I remember that, when I asked one of those fluent 
 speakers, who were sent throughout the country by 
 Joseph Arch to declaim against the sufferings of the 
 farm-labourer, why he and his colleagues spoke so 
 bitterly about the clergy, he answered, " that we were 
 well acquainted with their wrongs, and should have 
 led the battle against the owners and occupiers of 
 the land." I replied that I had lived some sixty 
 years among landlords, farmers, and labourers ; that 
 the latter were in better, and the two former in worse, 
 circumstances than I had ever known them ; that it 
 was not for us to dictate, or take sides, with regard 
 to pecuniary payments or other worldly matters, of 
 which we had scanty information ; but as much as 
 lay in us to live peaceably with all men, and to 
 preach to all alike the Divine principles of " the faith 
 
THE FRIENDS OF THE WORKING MAN. 1 99 
 
 which worketh by love." If we can persuade men 
 to be Christians, not only with their lips on Sundays, 
 but in their lives always, we shall find a power to 
 prevent injustice and to promote peace, which Parlia- 
 ment, philosophy, and eloquence can only help to win. 
 
 Proclaiming to Christians their sacred obligation 
 to " bear one another's burdens," not only from our 
 pulpits, but from our example, not only in churches, 
 but in the homes of the needy, the sick, and sorrow- 
 ful, and proving ourselves to be faithful servants of 
 Him who is no respecter of persons, of Him who 
 included in the proofs of His Divinity that "the 
 poor had the gospel preached to them," welcoming 
 all alike, without money and without price, as children 
 to their Father's house, we shall attain unto our 
 heart's desire, to be to you, working men, " the friend 
 that loveth at all times, and the brother born for 
 adversity." 
 
 Yes, my brothers, I speak that which I know, and 
 testify that which I have seen, during such a long 
 and large acquaintance with Church life as is given 
 to few, when I tell you that the most anxious am- 
 bition of those who are doing the hardest and best 
 work for their Master, is to bring back to the fold 
 those sheep which, in the dark and cloudy day of 
 selfish indolence, were neglected and scattered abroad. 
 
 I am speaking now to some who can bear witness 
 that their labour is not in vain. " Do you know," a 
 working man said to a clergyman, " why I first came 
 to church ? Because I saw you at your work, early 
 
200 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 and late ; not like some of your brethren, who seem 
 to me to work on Sundays only, and to have six 
 Bank Holidays a week." 
 
 I have heard of a lad, who was treated with so 
 much severity by his parents because he was not 
 quite so clever as his brothers and sisters, that he 
 suddenly disappeared from his home, and was not 
 heard of for years. Then a reliable report came that 
 he had been recognized in a distant land, and his 
 mother persuaded a friend, who was going there, to 
 make inquiries, and, if he found him, to give him a 
 letter. At last he met him, but he seemed to have 
 lost all his interest in the old country, and to be 
 quite indifferent as to his family. Then the friend 
 gave him his mother's letter. He took it reluctantly, 
 as though he hardly cared to read it; but, as he 
 read, a great change came over him. For she wrote 
 that she had never ceased to mourn for him all those 
 years since he left, that she had sorely repented of 
 the unkindness which had driven him away, and 
 that she besought him to return. He put down the 
 letter, hid his face in his hands, and burst into tears. 
 Then he seemed to be considering, in an agony of 
 intense emotion, what he should do ; and then he 
 raised his head, and spoke, with quivering lips, his 
 resolution, " Tell her Im coming home I " 
 
 And so I believe that if the Church of England 
 seeks those whom she has estranged, and assures 
 them that she bitterly deplores the separation, and 
 that she is yearning and preparing for their return — 
 
THE FRIENDS OF THE WORKING MAN. 201 
 
 I believe that, in God's good time, she will hear the 
 answer for which so many of as are working with 
 all our energy, and praying with all our hearts, " Tell 
 her that we are coming home ! " 
 
 Permit me to remind you, ere I say "good night," 
 that the best friend — and if he is not the best friend, 
 he is the worst enemy — of the working man is him- 
 self. Nothing from without — no sympathy, gifts, 
 legislation — can, of themselves, bring happiness. It 
 is made impossible by Divine decrees — " In the sweat 
 of thy face thou shalt eat bread ; " " Owe no man 
 anything, but to love one another " — that idleness or 
 selfishness should be happy. Water cannot rise 
 above its level, and where there are no high reser- 
 voirs, no fountains dance and sparkle in the sun. 
 To thine own self be true — to your Christianity, to 
 your manhood, to your duty, your work, your wife, 
 your children, your neighbours ; and then, in a con- 
 science void of offence toward God and man, in the 
 contentment of your home, with its " hearts of each 
 other sure," you will find a peace which the world 
 cannot give, a possession which no gold can buy, a 
 nobility which no king can confer — " an inheritance 
 incorruptible, and undefiled, that fadeth not away, 
 reserved in heaven for you." 
 
XIII. 
 BIBLE TEMPERANCE.— I. 
 
 "Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all 
 things."—! Cob. ix. 25. 
 
 " Let your moderation be known unto all men." — Phil. iv. 5. 
 
 Few of us ever forget the first sight of a drunken 
 man ! The feelings of astonishment, abhorrence, pity, 
 and shame ! What a desecration of all that is to be 
 admired in manhood ! What a dethronement of its 
 majesty ! What a ruin of the temple of God ! The 
 body which God made in His own image, polluted 
 and defiled ! The light gone from the eye ; the 
 tongue, which should be the best member that we 
 have, incoherent, if not blasphemous; the mind be- 
 wildered; the limbs powerless, staggering to and 
 fro! Well might the Spartan fathers call their 
 children to look upon the drunken slave, that they 
 might ever be impressed by a dread of such degrada- 
 tion. Well might our king of poets complain, " Oh 
 that men should put an enemy in their mouths to 
 steal away their brains 1 that we should, with joy, 
 pleasance, revel, and applause, transform ourselves to 
 beasts ! " 
 
BIBLE TEMPERANCE. 203 
 
 Some to whom I speak may remember painfully 
 their own first act of drunkenness — the helplessness, 
 the folly, the sickness, the abject misery, the humilia- 
 tion. 
 
 Such in both cases, in others or in ourselves, were 
 the Divine warnings with which our merciful Father 
 ever teaches His children when they first enter the 
 ways of unrighteousness ; they are the premonitory 
 symptoms of a disease which will end in death unless 
 the plague is stayed. They are the first drops which 
 fall before the thunderstorm — the tears of the tempest 
 weeping for the havoc which is to follow. God, in 
 His mercy, always sets up hindrances to sin. An 
 angel meets Balaam in the way. A voice whispers, 
 " It is wrong, do not do it ; it is false, do not speak 
 it ; it is not yours, do not take it." And if we were 
 persuaded and overcome by the powers of evil — " the 
 lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of 
 life " — then come disappointment, fear of discovery, 
 an estrangement from those whom we had disobeyed 
 or refused. The applos of Sodom were as ashes in 
 the mouth. 
 
 Oh, happy they who heed ; happy they who — like 
 a child wandering by the river's brink, or stepping 
 upon the railway, hears its mother's voice, and comes 
 to her embrace — obey the heavenly summons, " in re- 
 turning and rest, shall be saved," and hasten homeward. 
 
 But what of those whom Satan deludes with 
 promises of new pleasures, which shall not pall; to 
 whom worldly companions say, " It's too late now to 
 
204 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 retrace your steps " ? What, for example, are the 
 results of drunkenness ? What is drunkenness ? It 
 includes a great deal more than a man staggering 
 helplessly along the pavement; it means excess, it 
 means an immoderate use, and therefore an abuse, of 
 that which God gives for our health, cheerfulness, 
 refreshment of spirit. It means that superfluous in- 
 dulgence which makes a man less qualified to do his 
 work ; which makes him dull, idle, irritable, morose. 
 There is many a man who is " the worse for drink " 
 — whose physical and mental strength is weakened 
 by it, whose home is rendered unhappy — who never 
 shows signs of what is called drunkenness. He stops 
 at the boundary, when he knows that further indul- 
 gence would bring him to an exposure, but he has 
 overstepped the lines of temperance. And therefore 
 He who spake as never man — therefore our Lord 
 warns, "Take heed lest at any time your hearts be 
 overcharored with surfeitinor and drunkenness, and 
 so that day overtake you unawares." Any use of 
 stimulants which unsteadies the hands, clouds the 
 brain, sours the temper, is drunkenness in the eyes 
 of God. The man who goes on sipping through the 
 day, and every day, is not seldom a worse drunkard 
 than he who, taking a quantity of intoxicating drink 
 now and then, in a short space of time is conspicuously 
 and ostentatiously drunk. But a man may commit 
 suicide as surely by degrees as by a sudden stroke or 
 plunge; the dram taken at short intervals may be 
 as fatal as the prussic acid or the pistol-shot. 
 
BIBLE TEMPERANCE, 205 
 
 But what about the more patent results of drunken- 
 ness? It is not only that millions of money, cen- 
 turies of labour, are wasted by it ; * not only that the 
 brain is diseased, and the heart weakened, and the 
 limbs crippled, and the face disfigured — " Wine above 
 all things doth God's stamp deface " — the man abased, 
 the home made miserable ; that women are outraged, 
 beaten, and murdered, children untaught, starved, and 
 in rags ; not only that all which is high, and noble, 
 and generous, and brave, and pure is destroyed by 
 drunkards; not only that this sin has tarnished our 
 national honour and enfeebled our influence ; that our 
 emigrants have brought a curse and not a blessing 
 to those whom they have taught the use of it ; it is 
 not only that earthly sorrows have been multiplied 
 a thousandfold, that temporal happiness has been 
 marred, and the bodily health has been ruined, but 
 countless souls for which the Lord Jesus died have 
 been lost. 
 
 Not only at home, but abroad, for our missionary 
 efforts have been sorely let and hindered by this vice. 
 It has been said to our missionaries, " You come to 
 us with your Bible in one hand, and in the other 
 there is a cup of deadly wine ; you tell us to give our 
 full strength of mind and body to Christ, and then 
 
 * It is stated by a Glasgow writer, Alexander Wylie, in a paper on 
 •* Labour, Leisure, and Luxury," that there are large workshops in 
 which men securing from 30s. to 60«. per week are clothed in rags, 
 and cannot be trusted with expensive tools ; that Tuesday at midday 
 is the recognized time for beginning the week's work after the utter 
 prostration caused by the drinking on Saturday and Sunday. 
 
206 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 you Christians stupify us with opium." So it was 
 said by an Indian who was reproved for drinking 
 whisky : " Yes, it is too true, we use it too freely ; 
 but we do not make it." And again, when a British 
 officer was trying to persuade a Mohammedan to be 
 a Christian, and a drunken Englishman passed, the 
 native said, " Would you have me to be like that ? 
 My religion makes it impossible, but yours does not." 
 
 Drunkenness ministers to lust and to every evil 
 passion. The police have given frequent evidence 
 that most of the men and women whom they have 
 seen going into brothels were more or less intoxicated. 
 How often do we read in our police and assize reports 
 of the prisoner saying, "I was mad with drink!" 
 The chaplain and governor of the Stafford Gaol made 
 a long and patient investigation, and arrived at the 
 result that ninety-two per cent, of the convicted cases 
 had to do with drunkenness. How often we read, in 
 their last terrible confessions which take place in the 
 condemned cell, that these wretched men, who are 
 soon to die in obedience to the Divine law, " Whoso 
 sheddeth man's blood by man shall his blood be shed," 
 have entreated their nearest and dearest, and some- 
 times all who could hear them from the scaffold, to 
 keep away from the drink ! 
 
 Drunkenness enslaves a man's soul more than any 
 other vice, because it disarms him of his reason and 
 of the wisdom whereby he might be cured ; and, 
 therefore, commonly it grows upon him with age, 
 making him more and more a fool, and less and less 
 
BIBLE TEMPERANCE, 2oy 
 
 a man. I need not add many examples, for all history 
 is but too full of them, and the drunkenness of Noah 
 and Lot is upon record to eternal ages, that in those 
 early instances and righteous persons, and in a 
 drunkenness far less criminal then than it is among 
 Christians now, God might show that very great 
 evils are prepared to punish this vice — ^no less than 
 shame and slavery and incest — the first upon Noah, 
 the second upon one of his sons, and the third in the 
 person of Lot.* 
 
 But we need not go to distant dates and scenes. 
 The miserable results of drunkenness may be seen 
 in our streets to-night. Men and women for whom 
 Christ died glorying in their shame, in the filthy 
 conversation of the wicked, in the mockery of 
 religion, "having their understanding darkened be- 
 cause of the blindness of their heart, who being 
 past feeling have given themselves up to work all 
 uncleanness with greediness," having a devilish 
 delight in sin, akin to that of the murderer in White- 
 chapel and Spitalfields. Who could believe that the 
 lips which speak those foul words were once taught 
 to pray ; that those faces, flushed and disfigured, were 
 once bright with happy innocence ? 
 
 It is told that when the great painter Leonardo 
 da Vinci was at work upon one of the most famous 
 pictures in the world, the Last Supper of our blessed 
 Lord with His Apostles, in which He gave His last 
 and best gift to His Church, the sacrament of His 
 * See Bishop Jeremy Taylor's " Works," iii. 52. 
 
208 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 Body and Blood, he had made studies for the 
 portraits of several of the Apostles from likenesses of 
 good men whom he knew at Milan, but had not found 
 any faces to suggest a countenance for the Saviour. 
 At last his attention was drawn to one Pietro 
 Bandinelli, a youth who sang in the choir of the 
 cathedral, and had not only a very exquisite voice, 
 a most attractive face, and devout demeanour, but 
 also the reputation of a blameless life. He made a 
 study from this man for his picture. He had just 
 finished it when Pietro left to study music at Rome. 
 There he came among evil companions, was tempted 
 to drinking, gambling, and worse, and rapidly fell 
 into the vilest dissipation, poverty, crime. Leo- 
 nardo's picture occupied him for some years. When 
 he had completed all but one face, that of the traitor 
 Judas, he was walking one day in the streets of 
 Milan when he met a miserable object, a man in rags, 
 unkempt, unclean, with a villainous look on his face, 
 and it struck him that here was the expression he 
 wanted. He took the man to his studio ; and when he 
 had made and paid for his sketch, he was astonished 
 to hear from his visitor, "You do not seem to re- 
 member that you have painted me before," and to 
 find that it was indeed Pietro. Yet there is a far 
 more awful change than this outward transformation 
 — from purity to pollution ; from the service of God, 
 which is glorious liberty and perfect freedom, to the 
 slavery of Satan, the most cruel of all tyrants ; from 
 light to darkness, from hope unto despair. 
 
BIBLE TEMPERANCE, 2 39 
 
 And for what ? It has been quaintly said that 
 "the head of the drunkard aches longer than his 
 throat is pleased ; that his heaviness is refreshed 
 before he comes to drunkenness, and when he arrives 
 thither he hath but changed his sorrow and taken a 
 crime to boot." Well may the Apostle ask, " What 
 fruit had ye in those things whereof ye are now 
 ashamed? for the end of these things is death" — 
 death not only to themselves, but others. Oh, if, as 
 has been thought, it is part of the felicity of the 
 saints in Paradise to know the good which they have 
 done by their prayers and by their charity (" Blessed 
 are the dead that die in the Lord, for their works do 
 follow them "), and if it be partly the punishment 
 of the reprobates to know the misery which they 
 have brought, not only upon themselves, but upon 
 others, what must be the remorse of the drunkard to 
 know the sorrow which his example has induced? 
 I think one of the saddest sights I ever heard of was 
 seen by a friend who told it to me — a drunken father 
 giving his little boy, not more than seven years old, 
 sips from his glass. 
 
 If this be so, I need not say how gladly and heartily 
 we should welcome and should help all efforts which 
 are made to promote temperance. 
 
 What is temperance ? It is the moderate use — I 
 am speaking of it in the restricted sense which applies 
 to our present subject, — the moderate use and enjoy- 
 ment of meat and drink, such as may best consist 
 with our health, our physical strength, and mental 
 
 P 
 
210 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 vigour, and may not hinder, but help us in our work 
 and in our duty to God and man. It is the thankful 
 application of God's gifts for our need and for our 
 cheerful refreshment. In the words of Solomon, we 
 eat our bread with joy, and drink our wine with a 
 merry heart, because we feel that God accepteth our 
 works, and that we need this daily sustentation that 
 we may do them bravely and heartily. Whether, 
 therefore, we eat or drink, or whatever we do, we do 
 all, as St. Paul bids the Corinthians, in the name of 
 the Lord Jesus. We say our grace before and after 
 meals, using God's creatures as not abusing them, and 
 saying with the Apostle, " All things are lawful for 
 me, but I will not be brought under the power 
 of any.'* 
 
 How, then, shall we best succeed in our efforts to 
 diminish the fatal results of drunkenness, and to 
 increase those habits of temperance and moderation 
 which are essential to our happiness here and for 
 ever ? There is no matter in which the old proverb, 
 " Prevention is better than cure," is more true than 
 in this matter of temperance. To reclaim a confirmed 
 drunkard is a task to daunt any but those who have 
 faith in God's omnipotent mercy, and there is hardly 
 a sin with which it is so difficult to deal. The pledge, 
 of total abstinence seems to be the only remedy, but 
 few comparatively take it. Many break it, and even 
 where it is kept it brings new temptations. 
 
 We should, therefore, teach our children that as 
 Christians they belong to a temperance society called 
 
BIBLE TEMPERANCE, 211 
 
 the Church, and that they are pledged to temperance; 
 that our bodies are temples of the Holy Ghost, and 
 that whoso defileth the temple of God him will God 
 destroy; that we are, therefore, bounden, as the 
 Catechism teaches us, to keep these bodies in tem- 
 perance, soberness, and chastity ; and that we shall be 
 judged hereafter according to the deeds done in the 
 body, and shall be happy or miserable as those deeds 
 have been good or evil. 
 
 Moreover, that God has given to us all power to 
 keep ourselves undefiled if we will ask it in prayer, 
 and study His revealed will in the Holy Scriptures, 
 and worship Him, and do works of mercy in His 
 Name, and seek Him in the Holy Communion, so 
 that our sinful bodies may be made clean by His 
 Body, and our souls washed through His most precious 
 Blood. 
 
 And we must teach them that temperance is to be 
 practised not merely as a matter of health and a 
 means of getting earthly advantages, but as being a 
 duty which we owe to Him, and as enabling us to 
 offer Him a more true and laudable service. 
 
 The Church teaches temperance, not total absti- 
 nence. Such an imposition of a vow seems repugnant 
 to Holy Scripture. It is tantamount to condemnation 
 of one of God's creatures, and to an assumption that 
 we are wiser than the Creator Himself. Wine is one 
 of God's creatures. We call it so in the most solemn 
 office of our Church — Holy Communion — " Grant that 
 we, receiving these Thy creatures of bread and wine." 
 
212 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 We can hardly be said to believe the Bible if we 
 proscribe the beneficial use of wine. " Wine maketh 
 glad the heart of man" (Ps. civ. 15); "Give wine 
 unto those that be of heavy hearts " (Prov. xxxi. 6). 
 
 The Manichseans condemned wine as if it were a 
 creature of the evil one ; but the Church condemned 
 them in canons which said, " If any clergyman abstain 
 from wine not for the sake of discipline, but in a 
 spirit of detestation of wine, forgetting that all God's 
 creatures are good, and pronouncing censure on crea- 
 tion, let him repent or be deposed." And again, '* We 
 solemnly charge all to refrain from intemperance, not 
 that we altogether forbid to drink wine, for this 
 would be to deal insolently with what God has given 
 to men for gladness of heart, but that according to 
 the Holy Scriptures they be not guilty of excess." 
 Tertullian sums up the views of the early Church: 
 " We are thankful to God, the Lord and Creator of all ; 
 we repudiate no fruit of His work, but we practise 
 temperance lest we should abuse it." 
 
 The Manichaeans in the Holy Communion did not 
 repel the juice of grapes, but condemned wine ; where- 
 upon St. Augustine exclaims, " What perverseness not 
 to object to grapes, but to call wine the gall of the 
 prince of darkness ! " 
 
 So in our own time. Unfermented juice of the grape, 
 some say, fruit of the vine, is mentioned, not wine. 
 Answer — It is certain that the wine used by our Lord 
 at the Eucharist was such as would intoxicate. 
 
 The Holy Eucharist was instituted in the spring, 
 
BIBLE TEMPERANCE. 213 
 
 in the month Nisan, nearly a year after the vintage, 
 and could not have been unfermented wine. 
 
 It was certain also that in the days of the Apostles 
 that which was ministered in the Cup of Blessing at 
 the Holy Communion was wine which could intoxicate. 
 We learn this from St. Paul (1 Cor. xi. 20) : " When 
 ye come together therefore into one place, this is not 
 to eat the Lord's Supper . . . one is hungry and 
 another is drunken." 
 
 I repeat, therefore, that the Church teaches her 
 children from the Bible temperance, and not total 
 abstinence. If a man cannot drink without drinking 
 too much, let him keep from it altogether ; " if thy 
 right hand offend thee, cut it off and cast it from 
 thee ; " let him sign the pledge ; but let him remember 
 that in so doing he is making a confession of infirmity, 
 and should be the last to say to him who can resist 
 temptation, and needs no such coercion, " Stand by, 
 I am better than thou." He is surely the nobler and 
 braver man who acts from principle and not constraint, 
 who has the power to choose between use and abuse, 
 moderation and excess, and chooses aright. "If 
 temperance is a virtue," it was well said, " you take 
 away my power to exercise it when you make me a 
 total abstainer." 
 
 Temperance is the true cure for drunkenness. Let 
 us teach it, pray for it, do all we can to promote it. 
 We cannot obtain it from Acts of Parliament, though 
 they may render, and do render, powerful aid. We 
 cannot secure it from a merely secular education. 
 
214 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN, 
 
 though in this we also have a powerful ally. We 
 shall fail to promote it by wholesale condemnations 
 of the public-house and the publican (who, in many 
 cases, abhors the drunkard, if only as being the worst 
 customer he has) without any attempt to improve the 
 system or to influence the individual. "VVe shall be 
 better employed in Christian efforts to raise the 
 religious and moral tone of the people, to teach them 
 the sacred dignity and the true beauty of manhood 
 and womanhood, the purpose for which God made 
 them and Christ redeemed them, and the Holy Spirit 
 is ever pleading within them, even the salvation of 
 their souls. Let us do what we can to make their 
 homes more healthful and bright, that they may find 
 their happiness there. " If you'll come and live in 
 our court," a drunkard said to a philanthropist, "you'll 
 soon take to the whisky." 
 
 Above all, let us have more faith in God's grace, 
 in His Word, in His sacraments, and less in man's 
 modern inventions ; more faith in the Church and less 
 in human societies ; more faith in the Divine Master 
 and less in His servants, whenever, in all humility, 
 but always with a sure and certain hope, we would 
 overcome evil with good. 
 
XIV. 
 BIBLE TEMPERANCE.— ir. 
 
 "My grace is sufficient for thee."— 2 Cor. xii. 9. 
 
 What is grace ? It is the marvellous lovingkind- 
 ness of God in the redemption and restoration of 
 fallen man. " God so loved the world," wicked as it 
 was and is, " that He gave His only begotten Son," 
 to this end, " that all that believe in Him should not 
 perish, but have everlasting life." He would have 
 all men to be saved. He hath not only opened the 
 kingdom of heaven to all believers, placed us on the 
 road that leads to it, sent us a Guide to lead us unto 
 all truth ; but He is Himself the Way, the Truth, and 
 the Life. He has not only received us into the ark of 
 His Church, and given us a chart of the voyage, a 
 true compass, an anchor of the soul, sure and stead- 
 fast ; but He is Himself in the ship, ever ready when 
 we cry, " Save us, we perish ! " to arise and still the 
 storm. He has not only received us into His flock, 
 marked us with the sign of His Cross, taken us into 
 His fold ; but He goes before us, and we know His 
 voice. He leads us to fresh pastures and by the 
 
2l6 ADDkESSES TO WORKING MEN, 
 
 waters of comfort, and in the valley of the shadow 
 of death His rod and His staff comfort us. 
 
 " happy band of pilgrims, 
 If onward ye will tread, 
 With Jesus as your Fellow, 
 To Jesus as your Head ! " 
 
 God's grace is sufficient for them, and they go from 
 strength to strength. As St. Paul writes, "After 
 that the kindness and love of God our Saviour 
 toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness 
 which we have done, but according to His mercy He 
 saved us, by the washing of regeneration " — that is, 
 by baptism — "and by the renewal of the Holy 
 Ghost" — that is, by the continual influence of the 
 Holy Spirit granted to our prayers, and communi- 
 cated to us through the Sacraments and the Scrip- 
 tures — " that, being justified by His grace, we should 
 be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life." 
 
 " By grace ye are saved," says St. Paul. " Baptism 
 saves us," says St. Peter. There is no contradiction. 
 " Except a man be born again of water and of the 
 Holy Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of 
 God ; " " He that believeth and is baptized shall be 
 saved." But there are conditions. " The manifestation 
 of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal." 
 We must grow in grace and in the knowledge of our 
 Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, ever to increase in 
 wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and 
 man. We may "quench the Spirit," instead of 
 " making our calling and election sure." We are made 
 members of Christ, but we may yield our members 
 
BIBLE TEMPERANCE. 21/ 
 
 servants to sin, yea, make the members of Christ 
 members of a harlot. We are children of God, chil- 
 dren of light. We may forget our covenant with 
 Him, and, forsaking the Guide of our youth, may no 
 longer be followers of God as dear children, but chil- 
 dren of wrath, disobedience, bondage, darkness, Satan ; 
 of those whom St. Peter describes as "having eyes 
 full of adultery, that cannot cease from sin, beguiling 
 unstable souls, an heart they have exercised with 
 covetous practices, cursed children." 
 
 We are inheritors of the kingdom of heaven ; but, 
 like Esau, we may sell our birthright, and find no 
 place for repentance. And it seems to me a very awful 
 consideration, that these alternatives, these glorious 
 privileges, these disastrous refusals, this power of 
 choosing between good and evil, Christ and anti- 
 Christ, life and death, are not taught by parents and 
 god-parents, pastors and teachers, so earnestly and 
 commonly as assuredly they ought to be ; that the 
 voice of Moses is so rarely heard in our midst, " I call 
 heaven and earth to record this day against you, 
 that I have set before you life and death, blessing 
 and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou 
 and thy seed may live: that thou mayest love the 
 Lord thy God." Or of Joshua, " Choose ye this day 
 whom ye will serve. As for me and my house, we 
 will serve the Lord." Or of Jesus, the son of Sirach, 
 *' Before man is life and death, and whatsoever he 
 liketh shall be given him." 
 
 How many fathers repeat the Divine warning to 
 
2l8 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 their sons, " Know ye not that your bodies are the 
 temples of the Holy Ghost? Whoso therefore de- 
 fileth the temple of God, him shall God destroy " ? 
 How many mothers say to their daughters, " Your 
 adorning, let it not be that outward adorning of 
 plaiting the hair, and the wearing of gold, and the 
 putting on of apparel ; but let it be the hidden man 
 of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even 
 the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in 
 the sight of God of great price " ? 
 
 Were we taught, do we teach, the beauty of inno- 
 cence, the power of purity, the masked ugliness and 
 the cancerous corruption of sin, as they are revealed 
 to us here ? And what miserable excuses ! " We 
 must not suggest evil" (as though the lust of the 
 flesh which remains in the regenerate, the world, 
 and the devil would not suggest it), instead of 
 showing how to overcome evil with good. " Youth 
 must have its fling" — a direct contradiction of the 
 text, " My grace is suflficient ; " of the beloved 
 Apostle's words, "For greater is He that is in you 
 than he that is in the world;" of St. Paul's, "He 
 will not sufier you to be tempted above that ye are 
 able, but will with the temptation also make a 
 way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it ; " of 
 our dear Lord's promise, " In the world ye shall 
 have tribulation : but be of good cheer ; I have over- 
 come the world." Or sometimes they say, " We must 
 not make religion distasteful ; children have lessons 
 enough without being bored with religion. We have 
 
BIBLE TEMPERANCE, 219 
 
 taught them to say prayers; they have learned the 
 Catechism ; we take them to church on Sunday ; 
 that is enough." But the religion of the Cross 
 must be distasteful, because it teaches us hard work, 
 severe duty, self-denial, a battle against subtle 
 enemies, which we can never win unless we endure 
 hardships as good soldiers of Jesus Christ, and 
 fight the good fight of faith. Thus taught, they 
 are prepared and armed ; but if we do not forewarn 
 them of danger, nor reveal its nature and methods, 
 how shall they resist or escape ? On the contrary, 
 they will gradually lose the spiritual instincts of 
 their baptism, and the remonstrances of conscience 
 will cease to plead. The weeds will spring up in 
 the neglected soil, and choke the Word until it be- 
 cometh unfruitful. 
 
 "Without care and culture, there must be a rever- 
 sion to type. Cease to row against the stream, and 
 you drift to the falls. There will be a gradual de- 
 terioration and decay. So " the canes of Egypt, when 
 they newly arise from the mud and slime of the 
 Nile, start up into an equal and continual length, 
 and are interrupted with but few knots, and are 
 strong and beauteous, with great distances and in- 
 tervals ; but when they are grown to their full 
 length, they lessen into the point of a pyramid, and 
 multiply their knots and joints, interrupting the fine- 
 ness and smoothness of their body." So are the steps 
 and declensions of him who does not grow in grace. 
 At first, when he springs up from his impurity by 
 
220 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 the waters of baptism, he grows straight and strong, 
 and suffers but few interruptions of piety ; then they 
 become weaker and more interrupted, even as men 
 love God and religion less and less, till their old age, 
 instead of being a crown of virtue and perseverance, 
 ends in levity and an unprofitable course. Light and 
 useless are the tufted feathers on the cane; every 
 wind can play with it and abuse it, but no man can 
 make it useful. 
 
 ** Vice is a monster of such hateful mien, "^ 
 
 As to be hated needs but to be seen ; 
 But seen too oft, familiar with her face, 
 Men first endure, then pity, then embrace." 
 
 So, in too many sad and shameful instances, the 
 young, who have never been taught that sins of 
 uncleanness and impurity are deadly to their souls, 
 and therefore to fear the first approaches and looks 
 of lust, will be easily enticed and ensnared; those 
 who have never taken to heart the declarations of 
 God against drunkenness, will only regard it with 
 ridicule, or resent it with disgust; they who never 
 realized that a false weight is an abomination to the 
 Lord, and that His eyes are in every place, beholding 
 the evil and the good, will become unscrupulous and 
 fraudulent when they do not fear discovery; when 
 industry has never been accepted as a duty to Him 
 who hath given every man his work to do, idleness 
 will spread as dry rot in wood, or vermin in stagnant 
 waters ; he who hath never divined the sacred majesty 
 of truth, first questions its existence as Pilate, and 
 
BIBLE TEMPERANCE. 221 
 
 then crucifies it, and learns a delusion and a lie; 
 and so to the house which might have been, like 
 the cottages of Nazareth, Bethany, and Capernaum, 
 the home of Christ, come seven evil spirits, seven 
 deadly sins, and make their abode therein. " Babylon, 
 the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' 
 excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom 
 and Gomorrah." " They are mad upon their idols ; 
 therefore the wild beasts of the desert with the wild 
 beasts of the islands shall dwell there, and the owls 
 shall dwell therein : and it shall be no more inhabited 
 for ever ; neither shall it be dwelt in from generation 
 to generation." 
 
 Is it not a terrible calamity that there are so many 
 millions of men and women, that have entered into 
 a state of sickness and danger, and yet are made to 
 believe that they are in perfect health ; and they do 
 actions, concerning which they never made a question 
 whether they were just or no, nor were ever taught 
 by what names to call them ? For while they observe 
 that chastity and modesty are described by false 
 names, such as coldness of temperament and a silly 
 shyness and awkwardness of behaviour, and con- 
 tentedness and simplicity are denounced as want of 
 spirit and meanness, and that honesty is declared 
 to be overscrupulous and impracticable, they can, at 
 the same time, be induced to believe that extrava- 
 gance is generosity, to call lust love, and licence 
 liberty ; and under these false veils virtue slips away, 
 and leaves vice disguised in the same imagery ; and 
 
223 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 this fraud may not be discovered until the day of 
 recompense, when all disguises and deceits will fall, 
 and God shall bring every work unto judgment, with 
 every secret thing, whether it be good or whether 
 it be evil. Before the coming of that dreadful day. 
 He whose 'compassions fail not, whose mercies are 
 new; every morning, He who willeth not that any 
 should perish, sends many a warning, many a precious 
 invitation. " Return unto Me, and I will return unto 
 you, saith the Lord ; but they say, Wherein shall we 
 return ? " The way of truth they have not known. 
 They have done despite to the Spirit of grace. There 
 is only one road which can lead them from the power 
 of Satan to God, and that seems so dreary, so narrow, 
 and steep — the road of repentance. There is not 
 room on it for them and their favourite sin, and they 
 cannot make up their mind to separate. The heart 
 is petrified, the will is paralyzed. All their sur- 
 roundings, their companions, are evil. 
 
 Take, for example, the sin of drunkenness. If that 
 sin once gains the mastery and becomes habitual, 
 its expulsion would seem hopeless, had we not faith 
 in Him to whom all things are possible. Only His 
 grace can convince and convert, restore and reform. 
 But the Holy Spirit cannot coexist with that evil 
 life (and the life of the drunkard is, as a rule, de- 
 graded by many sins), for what communion hath 
 light with darkness.^ What covenant hath Christ 
 with Belial ? or the temple of God with idols ? And 
 therefore we must regard with great respect and 
 
BIBLE TEMPERANCE, 223 
 
 gratitude all earnest efforts which are made to pre- 
 pare that poor helpless soul to receive the renovations 
 of grace, and to bring forth fruits meet for repentance, 
 and it is meet, right, and our bounden duty that we 
 should support with our prayers and with our alms 
 the endeavours made by the Church of England 
 Temperance Society to induce confirmed drunkards 
 to pledge themselves to total abstinence from all 
 intoxicating drink. It is too late to talk to them 
 about temperance, too late to preach to them from 
 the texts, "Let your moderation be known unto all 
 men ; " " Every creature of God is good, and nothing 
 to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving;" 
 " Using and not abusing His gifts : " they cannot 
 taste without the excess which disgraces and defiles 
 them. 
 
 All the same, to these men, while every sympathy 
 and encouragement is given that Christian love 
 evokes, the truth must be also told. That they have 
 broken their pledge, as members of the greatest 
 temperance society of the world, the Church of Jesus 
 Christ, a pledge ten thousand times more solemn 
 than any human society can devise, to keep their 
 bodies in temperance ; have resisted instead of accept- 
 ing that grace which was sufiicient to have empowered 
 them to keep their vows ; being harnessed and carry- 
 ing bows, have turned themselves back in the day 
 of battle ; and that, so far from being misled by any 
 elations of pride or of confident boasting, they have 
 need to humble themselves in the dust as having 
 
224 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 grieved the Holy Spirit of God, and crucified the 
 Son of God afresh. They must be told, moreover, 
 that abstinence from one sin will not condone any 
 other transgression of God's laws. 
 
 True temperance means a great deal more than 
 keeping from drunkenness. It means the mastery 
 over all bad passions and tempers, and the substitu- 
 tion of a virtuous and godly living. What says the 
 inspired apostle ? " Know ye not that the un- 
 righteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God ? 
 Be not deceived : neither fornicators, nor idolaters, 
 nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of them- 
 selves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor 
 drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit 
 the kingdom of God." 
 
 In vain are we total abstainers from drink, or tem- 
 perate in drinking, if we give way to sin in some 
 other form, lasciviousness, dishonesty in business, 
 gluttony, idleness, slandering and evil speaking, extra- 
 vagance or meanness, anger, hypocrisy, or self-conceit. 
 " Whosoever shall offend in one point, he is guilty of 
 alL" We must mount St. Peter's ladder rung by 
 rung : " Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue ; 
 and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge tem- 
 perance ; and to temperance patience ; and to patience 
 godliness ; and to godliness brotherly kindness ; and 
 to brotherly kindness charity." And yet another 
 caution is given, though one would hardly have 
 anticipated the need, namely, that he who by joining 
 a new society, and having recourse to a supplementary 
 
B2BLE TEMPERANCE. 22$ 
 
 system, has declared that his exigency cannot be 
 satisfied by the ordinary channels of grace, must 
 be the last man to criticize or dictate to those who, 
 walking in the old paths where is the good way, 
 have found rest for their souls. He has lost his 
 liberty : they retain theirs. And it can only excite 
 our indignation to hear one, who has only ceased to 
 be a drunkard by a sudden constraint, assailing a 
 lifelong temperance, denouncing those who will not, 
 at his bidding, forego that which they believe is 
 given to them by God for their enjoyment and use, 
 because he has abused and discarded the gift, and 
 is deluding himself with the idea that he has reached 
 a much higher place in righteousness than those who 
 are so far his superiors. Rather let him fear in all 
 humility, "lest the dog return to his vomit again, 
 and the sow to her wallowing in the mire." 
 
 In his evidence before a Committee of the London 
 Diocesan Conference, the chaplain of one of her 
 Majesty's prisons said, " There were 78,000 persons 
 apprehended in one year (1882) in the metropolitan 
 district, including 26,000 drunkards," and he added, 
 " it is rare to find a prisoner who has not, at some 
 time or other, been a total abstainer." 
 
 '* Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest 
 he fall," and then his anxious self-distrust will com- 
 . mand the pity and the prayers of all good men. The 
 society offers this pledge of total abstinence from 
 intoxicating drinks to those who, having apprehen- 
 sions of peril to themselves, think to find an additional 
 
 Q 
 
226 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 security, or who desire by the aid of self-sacrifice to 
 set an example to others. However widely we may 
 differ from their method, and doubt its successful 
 issue, we must respect and honour the motives. 
 Marriage is honourable to all, and was ordained as 
 a remedy against sin and to avoid fornication, that 
 such persons as have not the gift of continency might 
 marry and keep themselves undefiled members of 
 Christ's Body. But while St. Paul writes, " Let every 
 man have his own wife, and every woman her own 
 husband," he adds (speaking by permission, not by 
 commandment), " I would that all men were as I 
 myself," unmarried. So that total abstinence from 
 intoxicating drinks may be like celibacy, the higher 
 life, and our Lord's words may be applicable to 
 both. He that can receive it, let him receive it; 
 but the cases are exceptional, surrounded by subtle 
 allurements, and occasions of falling, abridgments of 
 the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. And 
 to him who would press such vows of abstinence 
 upon others who are not only unwilling to receive 
 them, but are convinced that in their case they would 
 be hurtful, to those must be given St. Peter's answer 
 to him who insisted on circumcision for the Gentile 
 converts, " God has given them the Holy Ghost ; now 
 therefore why trouble ye Him to put a yoke upon 
 the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers 
 nor we were able to bear ? But we believe that 
 through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we shall 
 be saved, even as they." 
 
BIBLE TEMPERANCE, 227 
 
 But this society is called the Church of England 
 Temperance Society, and it is for the promotion of 
 temperance that I plead most heartily to-night, and 
 ask your prayers and alms. Bible temperance. For 
 while we read in the Holy Scriptures of the curse 
 of drunkenness, with all its foul attendants and its 
 disastrous results, from the time when Noah was 
 drunken, and his sin not only brought disgrace upon 
 himself, but slavery upon his son, who took advantage 
 of it, and on his descendants, just as now this sin of 
 drunkenness is visited upon the third and fourth 
 generation; from the days when Lot's drunkenness 
 was followed by the vilest of sins, to the time when 
 St. Paul warned all Christians not to be drunk with 
 wine wherein is excess, not to keep company, and 
 not to eat with drunkards, for no drunkard could 
 enter heaven ; and St. Paul's Lord and ours bade us 
 take heed to ourselves, lest our hearts be overcharged 
 with surfeiting and drunkenness, and so that day of 
 judgment come upon us unawares ; and again spoke 
 to us of the fearful doom of the evil servant, who 
 because his lord was absent, began to smite his fellow- 
 servants and to eat and drink with the drunken; 
 though God's people were forbidden to add drunken- 
 ness to thirst ; though the Nazarites took a vow of 
 total abstinence from wine for a time, after which it 
 is written that they might drink wine ; and the sons 
 of Jonadab and the sons of Rechab were commanded 
 not to drink wine, nor build houses, nor sow seed, 
 but dwell in tents; and St. John the Baptist came 
 
228 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 neither eating nor drinking ; yet we read in the same 
 sacred records that, under the Patriarchal dispensa- 
 tion, to Abraham, who was called " the friend of God," 
 Melchizedek, King of Salem, brought forth bread 
 and wine; that Isaac included among the blessings 
 which he invoked upon Jacob, " God give thee plenty 
 of corn and wine," and that he said of Esau, " With 
 corn and wine have I sustained him ; " that under the 
 Mosaic dispensation the Land of Promise, the land 
 which was the glory of all lands, was a land of barley 
 and vines, of corn and wine, for the grapes were not 
 only to be eaten as food, but to be put into the wine- 
 press and used as wine ; and a tithe of wine was given 
 to the Levite, and all men were permitted to drink it, 
 temperately and thankfully, as one of God's temporal 
 blessings, to their refreshment and delectation. 
 
 And so as we read onward, in the Book of Judofes, 
 "That when the trees said to the vine. Come thou 
 and reign over us, the vine said unto them. Should 
 I leave my wine, which cheereth God and man ? " 
 (Judg. ix. 12, 13). We find the man after God's own 
 heart, who, when the Ark was brought back from 
 the house of Obed-Edom, dealt to every one of Israel, 
 both man and woman, a loaf of bread, a piece of flesh, 
 and a flagon of wine. We hear him speaking of 
 "wine that maketh glad the heart of man;" and 
 Solomon, his son, though he warns us against them 
 that tarry long at the wine, their woes and their 
 wounds, yet bids us to "give strong drink to him 
 that is ready to perish, and wine to those that be of 
 
BIBLE TEMPERANCE. 229 
 
 heavy hearts." And so in the Prophets, while they 
 warn against drunkenness, they speak of wine jis 
 a blessing; as in Hosea, "The Lord shall bless the 
 corn and the wine ; " in Joel, " I will send you the 
 corn and the wine, and ye shall be satisfied with 
 it ; " and in Haggai it is recorded as a punishment, 
 '' I called for a drought upon the corn and the wine." 
 And again, "Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, 
 and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God 
 accepteth thy gifts." So in the Apocryphal Books, 
 which "the Church doth read for examples of life 
 and instruction of manners," we find, "Wine is as 
 good as life to man, if it be drunk moderately. Wine 
 measurably drunk, and in season, bringeth gladness 
 of the heart, and cheerfulness of the mind ; but wine 
 drunken with excess maketh bitterness of the mind, 
 with brawling and quarrelling." 
 
 And what do we find when we pass from the Old 
 to the New Covenant ; from the Law to the Gospel ? 
 We find our Divine Master, in all things our example, 
 not only recognizing the right use of wine by making 
 it the example of His spiritual teaching, referring to 
 it with a commendation of those who know how best 
 to preserve it; but w^e hear of Him as eating and 
 drinking, so that some said, "Behold a gluttonous 
 man, and a winebibber." We read that at the sug- 
 gestion of His holy mother, who evidently had not 
 taught Him to regard wine as evil, He did not take 
 the opportunity of informing the wedding guests at 
 Cana that the water, with which the vessels before 
 
230 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN, 
 
 them were filled, was the best beverage they could 
 drink, but He sympathized with their harmless mirth 
 and made the water wine. They were eating and 
 drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, at Cana 
 of Galilee, but thankfully and temperately, in the 
 love and fear of the Lord (so that Jesus was invited, 
 and His mother, to the marriage), and so there came 
 a blessing on their feast. They were eating and 
 drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, in the 
 days of Noe, from mere sensual appetite and lust, 
 and the flood came and took them all away. 
 
 Let me add, that just as wine was used religiously 
 in the services of the tabernacle and the temple 
 under the older covenant, so our blessed Lord chose 
 wine as one of God's creations, to be sanctified for 
 ever in the administration of the Holy Communion, 
 and said, " Drink ye all of this," and thus commanded 
 it to be received by all His faithful in every age and 
 country in that blessed Sacrament, even till He comes 
 ao'ain. And it is certain that at the institution of 
 the Holy Communion our Lord used wine in the 
 common use of the term, that is, a fermented beverage, 
 which would intoxicate. That institution took place 
 at the Passover, and the Passover took place in the 
 spring, and the wine then used must have been nine 
 months old, for in Palestine the vintage takes place 
 in September and October. We know also from 
 Hebrew authorities that the wine commonly used at 
 Passover was such as would intoxicate, and that the 
 same use still continues among the Jews. 
 
BIBLE TEMPERANCE. 23 1 
 
 We practise temperance, not trusting for a moment 
 in our own strength, or in any human precautions, 
 but in the grace of God, given to us first in Baptism, 
 and abundantly shed upon us by Him who "giveth 
 more grace " — above all to the humble. And as we 
 find that grace suflScient for us in our temptations, 
 the only source and stay of our spiritual life, let us 
 endeavour to bring others also to this faith. Having 
 found that this grace has delivered and delivers us, 
 and made the service of God perfect freedom, let 
 us seek to emancipate others. 
 
 Let us not trust in coercive legislation, though it 
 may help and ought to help us. Legal restraints over 
 things lawful in themselves never have been successful, 
 and never will. " Men," says a great authority, " are 
 to be perfected, not by exemption from temptation, 
 but by victory over it." Legislation ought to make 
 provisions such as shall ensure decency and order 
 in our public-houses, and surely might limit their 
 number ; and should, in my opinion, punish drunken- 
 ness with a much more painful severity — for who is 
 such a nuisance, in public or private life, who so 
 hinders the industry and prosperity of a nation, or 
 the peaceful happiness of home, as the drunkard ? — 
 but it cannot prevent the determined drinker from 
 drunkenness. If it closes the public-houses on a 
 Sunday, he will purchase his drink on a Saturday, 
 and get drunk at home. Better education, and refine- 
 ment of taste, will do much. You may persuade a 
 man, through his common sense, that drunkenness is 
 
232 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 ruinous to his happiness, self-respect, and health. 
 You may persuade landlords that sober tenants are 
 better guardians of property, and pay rents more 
 regularly than drunkards. You may provide brighter 
 homes, with more light and air, for those who are 
 brought by a polluted atmosphere to the dram-shop — 
 it is our duty to them and to God to do so. You 
 may provide clubs and reading-rooms, museums, 
 galleries, libraries, gardens, parks, music, and games. 
 I believe that it is our duty to do so ; but all these 
 accessories, precious as they are, are but the heralds 
 of a Royal Presence, the preparations to receive it; 
 they are but the scaftblding of the house not made 
 with hands. 
 
 It is not the badge on the breast, or the blue ribbon 
 in the coat — it is the grace of God in the heart, truth 
 in the inward parts, which thus can empower to 
 contend with evil, and win that crown which shall 
 be given to him that overcometh. I ask you 
 earnestly to support the Church of England Tem- 
 perance Society, because it acts upon this great 
 principle of faith, and, while it appeals for all the help 
 which thought and money can give it, declares that 
 its only strength is in its consciousness that, in pro- 
 moting temperance, it is seeking to do God's work, and 
 that His work must prosper if it is done in His way. 
 
XV. 
 ■ TO SOLDIERS. 
 
 " A devout soldier."— Acts x. 7. 
 
 Is war lawful for those — there are still some who 
 ask the question — who profess a religion of peace ? 
 Is not war a curse, a plague, and punishment ? Is it 
 not written, " If ye walk contrary unto Me, then will 
 I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you, 
 and bring a sword upon you " ? Is not that sword 
 named first of the sore judgments with which God 
 threatens the disobedient? Hath not God said, "Thou 
 shalt do no murder ; " " Whoso sheddeth man's blood, 
 by man shall his blood be shed ; " " He that smiteth a 
 man, so that he die, shall surely be put to death " ? 
 
 The answer may be made — War, with certain re- 
 strictions, must not onl}^ be lawful, but right, because 
 God's chosen people were a nation of warriors, led by 
 great and good generals such as Joshua, " and Gideon, 
 and Barak, and Samson, and Jephthah," fighting 
 against God's enemies, and encouraged by His 
 ministers, " Hear, Israel, and be not in fear of your 
 enemies, for the Lord your God fights for you ; " nay, 
 
234 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 directly by God himself, for the Lord said unto 
 Joshua, " Be not afraid because of them, for to-morrow 
 about this time will I deliver them up all slain before 
 Israel." 
 
 But this reply will evoke a further question — Were 
 there not in the Old Testament greater latitudes of 
 permission than are allowed to us ? Moses made 
 concessions for the hardness of man's heart. Christ 
 says so, and He is the Mediator of a better covenant. 
 Have not old things passed away and all things 
 become new under the Gospel? Was not this our 
 Saviour's teaching, " Ye have heard that it hath been 
 said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth : but 
 I say unto you. Love your enemies " ? Are not these 
 the words of Jesus, " Put up thy sword into its place, 
 for all they that take the sword shall perish with the 
 sword " ? 
 
 And we find that this argument was maintained, 
 not only in theory but in practice, in the first three 
 centuries of the Christian Church. The command- 
 ment, that " the servant of the Lord must not strive," 
 was applied especially to military service ; no Christian 
 was permitted to carry arms. 
 
 There were special circumstances which added force 
 to this enactment. Christians seemed for a time to 
 expect from Christianity results, which had not only 
 never been promised, but which were opposed to the 
 declarations and prophecies of Christ. They seemed 
 to think that the precepts of the Gospel, and the 
 power of the Holy Spirit, would gradually establish 
 
TO SOLDIERS. 235 
 
 universal peace; that the nations would beat their 
 swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning 
 hooks, neither should they learn war any more. 
 
 And the army in their land was a Roman army, 
 and they who joined were not only under Roman 
 discipline, but compelled to conform to their pagan 
 worship, and to take part in pagan sacrifice. 
 
 Wherefore we find some of the most saintly writers 
 of that early period protesting against military service. 
 " Can it be lawful," asks Tertullian, " to handle the 
 sword, when the Lord Himself hath declared that he 
 who useth it shall perish with it ? Shall the child of 
 peace engage in battle, when he looks upon even the 
 strife of the law-courts as unseemly ? Shall he who 
 avenges not even his own wrongs, consign others to 
 prison and torture ? " So the martyr Maximilian, " I 
 cannot be a soldier, because I am a Christian." And 
 one of the greatest of the Fathers, Clement of Alex- 
 andria, writes, " They who seek peace need neither 
 sword nor bow." "We cannot fight under the 
 emperor," said Origen, " but we will pray for him." 
 
 But as time went on both these considerations lost 
 their power. The Cross appeared upon the standard 
 of Constantine, in place of the Roman eagles, " and 
 they, who went up to Rome as prisoners, took it as 
 conquerors." The Christian soldier followed the 
 symbol of his Saviour from victory to victory. 
 
 And gradually men came to see that war never 
 had been forbidden by the Founder of our Holy 
 Religion — that it was still a necessity, and something 
 
236 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN, 
 
 more. They perceived that our Lord's mission was 
 not to do away with evil, but to overcome evil with 
 good ; not to destroy and abolish, but repair, enlighten, 
 and reform. " Be ye transformed by the renewing of 
 your mind." 
 
 Of course, if Christianity was held by all men in 
 its integrity, there could be no more war, but it is the 
 religion not of the many but of the few. Or if all 
 nations recognized some one supreme authority, as 
 we, individually, obey the laws and the magistrates 
 of our country, then there might be universal peace, 
 But the tyranny and the greed of those who disclaim 
 all spiritual or moral obligations, and the jealousy of 
 nations, altogether independent of each other, neces- 
 sitate and justify both defensive and offensive war; 
 defensive to resist, and offensive to punish. " When 
 public interests are violated, when kingdoms and 
 communities of men and princes are injured, there is 
 no law to defend them, and, therefore, it must be by 
 force ; force is the defensation of all laws ; and when 
 all laws are injured, there can be no way to reduce 
 men to reason but by making them feel the evils of 
 unreasonableness. And why should not justice be 
 done," South asks, in his quaint straightforward way, 
 '' upon a company of malefactors, defending themselves 
 with arms, as well as upon any particular thief or 
 murderer, brought shackled and disarmed to punish- 
 ment ? " War becomes, in fact, the sole means of 
 restoring peace, and this should be ever its main 
 intent and ambition. " The true end of war " writes 
 
TO SOLDIERS. 237 
 
 Bishop Sanderson, " which only can warrant it lawful, 
 we all know is the necessary preservation of a common- 
 wealth in peace." You can no more have peace 
 without soldiers, than you can have protection of 
 property without a police. 
 
 And then, the forgotten but conclusive argument, 
 that Christianity not only tolerates, but sanctions 
 the profession of a soldier, was remembered and main- 
 tained, notably by that illustrious saint, Augustine. 
 In his letter to Marcellinus, he writes, that if Chris- 
 tianity demanded the condemnation of all warfare, 
 the soldiers of the New Testament, seeking for a 
 knowledge of salvation, would have been directed by 
 our Lord to throw aside their arms and altogether 
 renounce their profession. But what do we find ? 
 
 What has God been pleased to tell us about soldiers 
 in His blessed Book ? First, we meet with them in 
 that wonderful scene on the banks of the Jordan, 
 when a vast multitude were gathered from all quarters 
 and from all classes, high and low, rich and poor, 
 one with another, to hear a preacher ; when the two 
 greatest nations of the world, the chosen people and 
 the victorious Romans, were listening to one of the 
 noblest and bravest of God's messengers, forgetting 
 all their pride, and their learning, and their power, as 
 he bade them repent of their sins and seek salvation 
 in the coming Christ ; and when he ceased, there 
 came forth from that strange crowd, as from a single 
 heart, the cry, "Master, what shall we do?" The 
 people asked it, and their rulers asked it, and the 
 
238 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 soldiers likewise demanded it of him, saying, "And 
 what shall we do ? " There was no word in dis- 
 paragement of their vocation, only to show them how 
 to exercise it rightly, and to give them simple rules. 
 Do violence to no man, do not transgress the first 
 requirements of your duty — be brave, but generous 
 to a fallen foe. Boast not that thou canst do mis- 
 chief. Leave off from wrath, and let go displeasure. 
 Accuse none falsely. Let there be no wars of might 
 against right. No false pretexts for concealing covet- 
 ousness, for gaining larger dominions, greater power 
 among the nations. And he content with your wages. 
 Do your duty, because God has given it you to do. 
 Fight for truth and justice, not for lucre. 
 
 But they, who obey the bidding of the messenger, 
 have ever the approbation of the Master, who sends 
 the message. And where vshall we find a more beau- 
 tiful example of faith, and of the true encouragement 
 and reward which follow it, than in the history of 
 that soldier, which is recorded in the seventh chapter 
 of St. Luke's Gospel ? He seems to have been one 
 of those thoughtful, observant, large-hearted, unselfish 
 men, whom God enlightens more and more with the 
 knowledge of His truth. Though he was an alien 
 to the commonwealth of Israel — a Gentile, and not 
 a Jew — he was evidently a religious man. For we 
 must remember that though the natural man dis- 
 cemeth not the things of the Spirit, and the carnal 
 mind is enmity against God, yet He hath not left 
 Himself without witness in any human heart; they 
 
TO SOLDIERS, 239 
 
 that have not the law, are a law unto themselves ; 
 and if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted 
 according to that a man hath, and not according to 
 that he hath not. In all false religions there is some 
 truth, and they who follow the gleam, go upwards to 
 a clearer light. And so this soldier, having loved 
 what was best in the religion which he learned at 
 Rome, having been "faithful in a few things," per- 
 ceived, when he came to Judsea, that God had showed 
 unto the Jews a more excellent way; and he loved 
 them, we are told, and built them a synagogue ; and 
 when he met with truth itself in the Person of our 
 blessed Lord, heard Him speak as never man spake, 
 and saw Him do the works of His Father, he was 
 prepared to acknowledge His Divine power in all 
 humility : " Lord, I am not worthy that Thou shouldest 
 come under my roof ; " nor is it necessary, " for Thou 
 canst do all things." " Speak the word only." " And 
 Jesus said, I tell you, I have not found so great faith, 
 no, not in Israel/' 
 
 And, again, in that tremendous scene on Calvary, 
 when those unbelieving Jews, with a blindness 
 blacker than the darkness which spread over the 
 sufferings of the Redeemer, with hearts harder than 
 the earth which quaked and the rocks which were 
 rent, refused to acknowledge the Divine presence in 
 the human form ; when they who had murdered 
 Him smote their breasts and left Him — it was a 
 soldier's voice which made that brave proclamation, 
 '*' Truly this man was the Son of God ! " 
 
240 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 One more example — a certain man in Csesarea, 
 called Cornelius, a centurion, an officer in command 
 of a hundred men, a devout man, and one that feared 
 God with all his house, which gave much alms to the 
 people, and prayed to God always, and to whom, 
 when he was fasting, an angel appeared to announce 
 that his prayer was heard, because " on the wings 
 of fasting and alms, holy prayer infallibly mounts to 
 Heaven." 
 
 Is it not quite plain from these considerations that 
 the military vocation is an indispensable necessity, 
 in a world so largely influenced by pride, envy, and 
 injustice; and that it must continue to be so until 
 the Holy Spirit shall have dominion, absolute and 
 universal, and overcome evil with good ? More than 
 this; have we not manifest proof that the life of 
 a soldier, environed though it be with manifold 
 temptations, and so in peril of fatal abuses, has 
 within its reach the complete attainment of all those 
 virtues and graces, which ennoble and consecrate 
 manhood by fulfilling the designs of God ? 
 
 Who are they who, in these days, are realizing 
 their manhood ? Who are they of whom England is 
 justly proud ? The men who in distant lands bear 
 the burden and heat of the day, falling out of the 
 ranks smitten with sunstroke, surprised and slain, 
 risking their lives for a cause which they believe to 
 be just ? or they who, in the prime of their strength, 
 are shooting pigeons out of traps for money — lounging 
 about a club without one unselfish purpose ? 
 
TO SOLDIERS, 24 1 
 
 It may perhaps be said, *' You are selecting the 
 best phase of war, and contrasting it with the worst 
 phase of peace." But it seems to me fair to do this, 
 because men can choose, and do choose, between 
 them. The comparison suggests others. Shakespeare 
 writes — 
 
 " Grim-visaged war hath smoothed his wrinkled front ; 
 And now, instead of mounting barbed steeds 
 To fright the souls of fearful adversaries, 
 He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber 
 To the lascivious pleasing of a lute." 
 
 Which is the nobler man ? " Who can say that 
 more sin is not committed every day in every 
 capital of Europe than in the largest field of 
 battle ? " 
 
 Is it not in the stern school of war, rather than 
 in the school of peace, that men the oftener learn the 
 obligation and success of Duty ? to accept it, to think 
 of it, to speak of it, to perform it, as over all things 
 else supreme ? Is not Duty the light and the 
 strength which makes the life of a soldier so grand 
 and true ? By reason as by revelation, by history, 
 by our own experience, we are taught that, both as 
 regards this world and the next, " the path of duty 
 is the road to glory." Who wrote those words ? He 
 who wore the laurel crown among our poets, when he 
 mourned the death of the foremost captain of his 
 time, the Great General " who won a hundred fights, 
 and never lost an English gun," whose one rule of 
 Jife was Duty — Wellington. 
 
 It is recorded that on the night before his decisive 
 
242 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 victory, on the eve of Waterloo, Lord Uxbridge, the 
 chief of his staff, was very anxious as to his plans for 
 the morrow, and ventured to ask the Duke for infor- 
 mation as to his designs ; the answer which he re- 
 ceived was this, " My design is to conquer the enemy." 
 But when the Duke saw that this did not satisfy, he 
 added, " I cannot give you details, because these de- 
 pend so much on the tactics of Buonaparte ; but one 
 thing is sure, Uxbridge, you and I will do our duty." 
 And he is reported to have said to a clergyman who 
 spoke despondingly of missions to the heathen, " What 
 is that to you ? What are your marching orders ? 
 ' Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to 
 every creature/ " Do your Duty. 
 So another of our heroes — 
 
 " Along the line the signal ran, 
 ' England expects that every man 
 This day will do his Duty.' " 
 
 And where shall we find a more touching, teaching 
 epitaph than this : " Here lies Henry Lawrence, who 
 tried to do his Duty " ? 
 
 It may be urged — This sense of duty and service 
 is not necessarily connected with Christianity, and is 
 often found in those who never even heard of Christ. 
 For example : Among the skeletons discovered by the 
 excavators at Pompeii, that wicked city which, like 
 Sodom and Gomorrah, and for the same sins, was 
 destroyed by fire, there was one of a sentinel, standing 
 erect on guard, while the positions of all around 
 showed their attempts to escape and their agonies 
 
TO SOLDIERS. 243 
 
 of terror. The incident has been most impressively 
 treated by a master of pictorial art, and the picture 
 is in one of the public galleries at Liverpool. The 
 soldier stands, with the lurid light from the flaming 
 furnace of the volcano on his face, looking upwards, 
 with the awful yet beautiful expression of one who 
 has made up his mind to sacrifice life to duty. 
 Under the picture is written, " Faithful unto death." 
 But Duty is religion; there is faithful, prayerful, 
 hopeful religion in that noble face ; there is the appeal 
 to Divine justice, to the Helper of all that trust Him. 
 And so with all true heroism. Men will brave danger 
 and face death and fight fiercely from mere physical 
 excitements — from despair, for revenge, or gain ; just 
 as Napoleon, once called the Great, was for a time 
 a mighty conqueror, though actuated only by a selfish 
 ambition, cruel and sensual, and therefore in the end 
 a failure ; but all the grand acts of calm and supreme 
 bravery have been done by men of high and honest 
 ambitions, from the religious instinct, from the love 
 of that which was pure and sacred, and the hatred 
 of that which was false and mean. "Pro aris et 
 focis " — " For our Altars and Hearths " — was inscribed 
 upon the banners of ancient valour. 
 
 " How can a man die better 
 Than facing fearful odds, 
 For the homesteads of his fathers 
 And the altars of his gods?" 
 
 And just in proportion as those principles of virtue 
 and religion approximate to the truth, as God has 
 
244 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 revealed it to us, so is the attainment of true heroism 
 more or less possible ; and to that soldier who is " a 
 good soldier of Jesus Christ/' it may be said, as 
 history shows, " Many have done virtuously, but 
 thou excellest them all." 
 
 For two reasons : he has the noblest example, the 
 example of Christ, set before him ; and he has Divine 
 help wherewith to copy it, for he fights with the 
 power, and in the presence, of his Chief. Kegard, 
 for instance, that quality, which is so admirable in 
 all men, and so essential to the soldier that it is 
 regarded as a matter of course — I mean true courage. 
 
 I say true courage, because there are counterfeits, 
 imperfect presentations. You cannot be truly, con- 
 sistently, unfailingly brave, unless you are brave 
 from the highest principles. " It is not always from 
 valour," writes the French cynic, " that men are 
 valiant." There are hundreds who will do daring 
 acts in moments of excitement, and with spectators 
 to applaud, who are very cowards when they have to 
 meet peril in cold blood, as we term it, with none 
 to applaud, and no visible advantage, no prize, to 
 gain. There is often no small amount of fear in that 
 which looks like courage — fear of loss, and fear of 
 ridicule. Men foremost in great and formidable 
 enterprises have been known to show a childish 
 dread of bodily pain ; fearless leaders and magniloquent 
 orators have seemed to lose heart and nerve at the 
 first approach of sickness. 
 
 We want a truer courapje than this. We want a 
 
TO SOLDIERS. 245 
 
 courage which is always brave — brave in difficulties, 
 brave in defeat, brave in bereavements, brave in 
 death. We want a courage which knows "what a 
 noble thing it is to suffer and be strong." From 
 whom shall we learn it ? From those brave soldiers 
 of the Cross, who believed that to die was gain. 
 Above all, from the great Captain of our salvation, 
 who never turned to the right hand or to the left 
 in His obedience to the will of His Father ; who set 
 His face steadfastly to go to Jerusalem, to Geth- 
 semane, to Calvary ; who rose up from that tremendous 
 Agony, and said calmly to the Apostles, " Let us be 
 going : lo, he is at hand that doth betray Me." 
 
 And so through the ages, in all history, the greatest 
 heroes of the world have been God's heroes; the 
 greatest soldiers, as a rule, have been soldiers of 
 the Cross. From Cornelius to Charlemagne, who 
 conquered and regenerated Western Europe; from 
 Charlemagne to St. Louis, and our own royal soldier, 
 " Harry the King," receiving the sacrament before 
 the victory at Agincourt; from those days to that 
 great victory at Trafalgar, when Collingwood wrote, 
 " The Almighty God, whose arm is strength, having 
 of His great mercy been pleased to crown the exer- 
 tions of His Majesty's fleet with complete success; 
 and in order that all praise and thanksgiving may 
 be offered to Him, I have thought proper that a 
 day should be appointed of general humiliation and 
 thanksgiving, for imploring the forgiveness of our 
 sins, and a continuation of that merciful goodness 
 
246 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 without which the utmost efforts of man are nought ; " 
 — from that time to this, the great warriors, as a 
 rule, by land and sea, have been earnest Christians. 
 
 " Their praise is hymned by loftier harps than mine, 
 Yet one I would select from that great throng." 
 
 One of the greatest Christian heroes that ever 
 lived, Gordon ! Henceforth that name shall be spoken 
 throughout the nations as one of the grandest and 
 the sweetest in history. It shall sound like sublime 
 music, like a glorious roll of drums, like a march 
 played on silver trumpets, in the barrack and the 
 camp, in the trench, the fort, and the zareba ; and in 
 quiet homes, and in the sanctuary itself, it shall be 
 " as a very lovely song of one who hath a pleasant 
 voice, and playeth well on an instrument." That name 
 is a heritage and possession — a gift which "cannot 
 be gotten for gold, neither can silver be weighed for 
 the price thereof" — to England and to her Church 
 for ever. When all the theories of a proud philo- 
 sophy, the schemes of the sciolist, and the railing 
 accusations of the sceptic are forgotten, that name 
 shall declare to generations yet to come the triumphs 
 of a simple faith, and shall speak to them of that 
 Rock of Ages, against which " those raging waves of 
 the sea, foaming out their own shame," have tossed 
 themselves in vain. When "the boast of heraldry, 
 the pomp of power, and all that beauty, all that 
 wealth, e'er gave," has vanished, that name shall speak 
 of an inheritance] incorruptible, undefiled, and that 
 fadeth not away, of thrones in heaven, of an angel's 
 
TO SOLDIERS. 247 
 
 glory, of the unsearchable riches of Christ. When 
 men are in anxious quest of happiness, yearning for 
 some noble purpose which shall give to life its true 
 ambition, and to manhood its divine work — when 
 they are seeking, where they cannot find ; when 
 money says, " It is not in me," and pleasure says, " It 
 is not in me," and honour says, " I cannot give it," and 
 knowledge says, " I cannot learn it " — that name shall 
 remind men that the kingdom of God is joy and 
 peace, and that he, whose life is hid with Christ in 
 God, can be quite happy when he is surrounded by 
 his enemies, and all earthly hopes are gone. And 
 when men's hearts are failing them, as they are 
 drawing nearer and nearer to death ; when they cry 
 with the Psalmist, " My heart is disquieted within me, 
 and the fear of death is fallen upon me, fearfulness 
 and trembling are come upon me, and a horrible dread 
 hath overwhelmed me ; " — then shall the example of 
 Gordon teach how '* perfect love casteth out fear." 
 
 When it was said to him, " You know I may kill 
 you for this ? " "I do not fear death," was the 
 reply. "No difficulties," wrote Archibald Forbes, 
 " will abate his loyal courage ; no thought of 
 adversity will daunt his gallant heart. For him 
 life has no ambition, and death no terror." On the 
 contrary, he desired, in God's good time, to die. He 
 told one of his most intimate friends that " he could 
 not think of the joys of hereafter without longing 
 for death." " Oh for that home," he sighed, " where 
 the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are 
 
248 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 at rest ; when the good fight will have been fought, 
 the dusty labour finished, and the crown of life giren ; 
 when our eyes will behold the only One that ever 
 knew our sorrows and trials, and has borne with us 
 in them all, soothing and comforting our weary souls ! 
 . . . We are nearing it day by day. ' I heard a Toico 
 from heaven saying unto me. Write, From henceforth 
 happy are the dead that die in the Lord : even so, 
 saith the Spirit, for they rest from their labours ' — 
 from troubles and tears, from sad sights of poor 
 despairing bodies and sighing hearts, who find no 
 peace in their prisons — from wars and strifes of 
 words and judgments. It is a long, weary journey, 
 but we are well on the way of it. The yearly mile- 
 stones slip quickly by, and as our days so will our 
 strength be. Perhaps, before another milestone is 
 reached, the wayfarer may be in that glorious Home, 
 beside of the Kiver of Life, where there is no more 
 care, nor sorrow, nor crying — at rest for ever with 
 that kind and well-known Friend." 
 
 Whence had Gordon this marvellous power, abroad 
 and at home — with nations and private persons, 
 with subtle diplomatists and simple folk, with poten- 
 tates and pashas, rulers and statesmen, and with 
 ragged boys in the street ? When he was living at 
 Gravesend, those lads traced with chalk " God bless 
 the Kernel " on the palings opposite his house ; and 
 Mr. Power tells us from Khartoum, "When he goes out- 
 of-doors there are always crowds of Arabs — men and 
 women — at the gate to kiss his feet. He is dictator 
 
TO SOLDIERS, 249 
 
 here, and it is wonderful that one man can have such 
 power over two hundred thousand people. They ask 
 him to touch their children to cure them. They call 
 him father and saviour. He is, I believe, the greatest 
 and best man of this century." 
 
 Whence this influence ? No man can read his 
 history without the conviction that the source and 
 support of his power was faith — not the miserable 
 unscriptural counterfeit which says, "I believe, and 
 that's enough;" which says, "I went to that prayer- 
 meeting, I sat down to hear that sermon, a rejected 
 sinner, and I came home an accepted saint ; " but the 
 only true faith — the " faith which ivorheth hy love" 
 This brought him into spiritual communion with God. 
 He knew that God was with him and in him, and 
 " this," he said, " gave him superhuman strength." 
 
 How did he keep that presence in his soul ? that 
 faith ? that love ? By prayer. "Ask God," he says, 
 " to show you Himself, for Christ's sake, and He will 
 soon do so." There were times when a white hand- 
 kerchief was to be seen spread before the entrance 
 of Gordon's tent. No man, however high his position 
 or important his errand, was to intrude while it 
 remained. The General was on his knees in prayer. 
 
 His delight was in the law of the Lord, and in 
 searching the Holy Scriptures. He could truly say, 
 " Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto 
 my path." " Bibles abound," he said, " but when we 
 consider that all Scripture is given by inspiration of 
 God — for instruction in righteousness — are they read 
 
2 so ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 and studied as they ought to be ? It is said that 
 man shall live by every word that proceedeth out of 
 the mouth of God — we don't forget the daily meals 
 for the body, but we starve our souls. May it not 
 be the reason," he asks, " that there are so many 
 differences of opinion on religion that commentaries 
 and other writings of men are studied instead of the 
 Word of God ? ^Yedo err, not knowing the Scriptures! " 
 Again, Gordon sought and found in deeds of mercy 
 that Saviour who will one day say to him, " Inasmuch 
 as ye did it to one of the least of these My brethren " 
 — My brethren in sorrow and want and pain — "ye 
 have done it unto Me." And so we read that his 
 house at Gravesend was school and almshouse and 
 hospital in turn. The troubles of all interested him 
 alike. The poor, the rich, the unfortunate, were always 
 welcome. Many children he rescued from the streets, 
 cleansed, clothed, fed, and taught them. We hear of 
 him — this ruler of nations, this mighty man of 
 valour — finding a poor woman, sick and starving, in 
 a miserable home, with his own hands lighting a fire, 
 preparing and administering food. And Mr. Hake 
 relates of him how, when travelling in the Soudan, 
 he distributed grain to the hungry and gave employ- 
 ment to the needy, the poor negroes crowding round 
 him. Yes, " the blessing of him that was ready to 
 perish came upon him, and he caused the widow's 
 heart to sing for joy." He kept the child's heart in 
 the brave man's breast. For his love was real, the 
 first fruit of the Holy Spirit within him. 
 
TO SOLDIERS. 2$ I 
 
 It was not that sham "charity " which gives pence 
 to the needy and spends pounds in self-indulgence, 
 grudges a shilling to an offertory and loses five pounds 
 on a race ; not that poor sentimental charity which sits 
 by the fireside and sighs over the sorrows which it reads 
 in the newspapers, but gives nothing beyond the sigh ; 
 not that ostentatious charity which does its alms to 
 be seen of men, which loves the praise of men rather 
 than the praise of God, and makes the giver, as 
 Bishop Wilson says, a greater beggar than he to whom 
 he gives. His was not that sentimental charity which 
 can only be induced to interest itself in some special 
 case of picturesque afliiction — the pretty little orphan, 
 the consumptive maiden, the silver-headed old man. 
 No, his love, like his Master's, was for all — his heart 
 was with the poor. Think of him, when you give 
 your alms to-day for the Hospital and Schools at 
 Wimbledon. 
 
 But it may surprise many to be told that the noble 
 life which Gordon lived on earth — in the world, but 
 not of it — derived its grand power and purpose from 
 the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, the Holy Com- 
 munion of the Body and Blood of Christ. 
 
 Listen to Gordon's words : " I think that by taking 
 the Communion in a proper frame — that is, with desire 
 to sin no more, to be holy, to be at peace with all 
 men — in some peculiar way we are strengthened by 
 a communication from our Lord, and that a far closer 
 union arises than from any other means. The effect 
 of taking into our material body His flesh and>l^^[^-^^ 
 
 ■^ ^^ OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF 
 
252 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 is this : Christ was manifested to destroy the works 
 of the Devil, or flesh ; therefore the incorporation of 
 His flesh and blood into our material body must tend 
 to the same end. 
 
 " It is remarkable to contrast the Divine command 
 to Adam, ' Thou shalt not eat/ with the Divine com- 
 mand to Adam's progeny, 'Take, eat.' Adam's dis- 
 obedience to God's simple command not to eat brought 
 sin and death. Obedience to Jesus Christ's simple 
 command, ' Eat,' this gives righteousness and heaven. 
 By eating came death to the body, by eating comes 
 life to the soul. 
 
 "And hence it is that so many Christians are low- 
 spirited, and limp through the world! They find 
 themselves weighed down by the corruptions of their 
 bodies ; they heap service on service ; they visit the 
 poor; but they disregard the Lord's words — their 
 bodies are not acted on by their partaking in faith 
 of the body and blood of Christ. 
 
 " I cannot repeat it too often, that as the body was 
 poisoned by the eating of a fruit, so it must be cured 
 from its malady by absorbing an antidote. Why is 
 the Sacrament neglected ? " 
 
 Soldiers, be assured of this, that the ascensions of 
 courage are the ascensions of faith, and that the bravest 
 are purest in heart. 
 
 It is a hard battle which we have all to fight, but 
 it is fought in the presence of the great Captain of our 
 salvation, and we shall hear, if we will only listen, 
 His precious encouragements. 
 
TO SOLDIERS. 253 
 
 Let us pray, my brothers, "Lord, increase our 
 faith," that we may evermore rejoice in that holy 
 Presence, and may remember always our solemn 
 promise, when we were enlisted at our Baptism into 
 the army of Jesus, that we would never be ashamed 
 to confess, not with our lips only, but in our lives, the 
 faith of Christ crucified, manfully to fight under His 
 banner against sin, the world, and the devil, and to 
 continue Christ's faithful soldier and servant unto our 
 life's end. 
 
 What would you say of the soldier who deserted 
 from the ranks on the approach of the enemy, or who 
 betrayed his comrades for a bribe ? What think you 
 of " the children of Ephraim, who, being harnessed 
 and carrying bows, turned themselves back in the 
 day of battle"? 
 
 We talk of men disgracing their profession, their 
 regiment, their uniform ; what, then, shall we say of 
 those who, called to be God's heroes, saints, and angels, 
 disobey, forsake the Captain of their salvation, join 
 the armies of Antichrist, and perish, like Balaam, 
 fighting with the troops of Midian against the people 
 of the Lord ? 
 
 We must " endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus 
 Christ," and he that endureth shall be saved. The 
 chariots and horses of the Syrians surround Dothan, 
 but " the chariots of God are twenty thousand, even 
 thousands of angels," and " they that be with us are 
 more than they that be with them." 
 
 My brothers^ the last bugle-call will soon summon 
 
254 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN, 
 
 the armies of the world, whether they have fought 
 for good or evil, conquerors and cowards, for the great 
 march past before the throne of God. For it is 
 written, " The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall 
 be raised, and we must all appear before the judgment- 
 seat of Christ." Oh, think what it will be, if it makes 
 the heart rejoice with a righteous joy to win the prizes 
 of earth — think what it will be to have won, through 
 Christ, the glorious prizes of God ! 
 
 They tell us, who saw, that no more impressive 
 spectacle was ever seen in England than when our 
 beloved Queen publicly thanked and decorated her 
 soldiers on their return from the Crimean War. Think, 
 then, what it will be, when a beautiful crown from 
 the Lord's hand shall be given to him that overcometh, 
 to every true soldier of the Cross ; and the redeemed 
 shall come with singing unto Zion, and this anthem 
 shall ring through universal space, " The kingdoms 
 of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord 
 and of His Christ, and He shall reign for ever and 
 ever ! " 
 
XVI. 
 
 WHO IS A GENTLEMAN ? 
 
 Who is a gentleman ? What is a gentleman ? There 
 never was a time when this title was so commonly 
 claimed and conceded. Who has a right to it? 
 What makes a gentleman ? 
 
 First, we hear of " gentlemen by birth," and " men 
 of gentle blood." There is no such being as a gentle- 
 man by birth. The father may be a gentleman, and 
 the mother " a lady," but it does not follow that their 
 son will be a gentleman. He has many advantages — 
 " the lot is fallen unto him in a fair ground, and he 
 hath a goodly heritage ; " and it should be a great 
 educational help to be surrounded from the first with 
 so much that is bright and beautiful, both in nature 
 and art, with things pleasant to the eye and good for 
 food, unknown in the dwellings of the poor. But we 
 know that, while in innumerable instances all these 
 refinements have failed to refine, there have been 
 examples, also countless, of men who have been born 
 amid the drear discomforts of poverty, but have 
 won for themselves, by their conduct and their 
 
2S6 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 culture, by patient continuance in well-doing, the 
 character of true gentlemen. 
 
 Some assume that men are made gentlemen by 
 their education. That would be quite true, if by 
 education was intended the complete development 
 and discipline of our physical, mental, and spiritual 
 life ; but it means too often, when it is regarded as 
 the process for making a gentleman, a school in which 
 the boy sent there will have many companions from 
 grades and classes higher than his own, and, thus 
 associated, learning the same lessons, habits, and 
 games, will be qualified hereafter for what is called 
 " the best society," and made a gentleman. 
 
 It has been said not seldom by those who had 
 themselves but scant opportunities of scholarship, 
 that, having acquired the means, they will give their 
 sons the benefits which they never received, " the 
 best " — by which they mean the most fashionable — 
 " education " which is to be had, and so make them 
 gentlemen. 
 
 No public schools, no universities, no study of 
 elesrant literature, no intellectual attainments, no 
 accomplishments, no titled playmates, can confer this 
 gift. They may make men learned or athletic ; they 
 may impart the pleasant manners, the tone, the dress, 
 the appearance, which are supposed to indicate the 
 gentleman; but the real elements, the truthfulness 
 which cannot lie, the uprightness which will not 
 stoop, the courtesy which considers all, the honour 
 which cannot be bribed, the command of the passions. 
 
WHO IS A GENTLEMAN t 2^7 
 
 the mastering of the temper, — these can only be 
 learned from God. 
 
 Sir Walter Scott said that " he had read the most 
 accomplished authors of the past, and had known the 
 most distinguished men of his day, but that he had 
 learnt higher sentiments from the lips of poor, un- 
 educated persons, speaking simple thoughts, than he 
 had met with out of his Bible." Bishop Christopher 
 Wordsworth declared that he learned more in poor 
 men's homes and from sick folks than from all the 
 books in his library. 
 
 1 Some arrogate to themselves the title of gentle- 
 men because they are rich, and because they think 
 it may be bought with money, by making a display, 
 by living in large houses, with costly furniture, and 
 great gardens, and numerous servants, chariots and 
 horses, fine clothes and ornaments, pictures and plate. 
 " But what is the good," it has been asked, " of gold- 
 plate and pewter principles ? " If these adjuncts be 
 all they have to rely upon, they will deceive none 
 but themselves. The baser metal will continually 
 show itself through the thin covering of gold ; the 
 coarse wood will be seen through the cracks in the 
 gay veneer. There will ever be the clumsiness and 
 the heaviness visible to the eye, and the discord 
 and the dulness audible to the ear, which distinguish 
 the artificial from the real, the false from the true. 
 
 *' The rank is but the guinea's stamp, 
 The man's the gowd for a' that." 
 
 What are all titles but mere verbiage, the barren 
 
 s 
 
258 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 coinage current among men, the tinsel clink of 
 compliment, if there is nothing "royal," "noble," 
 "gracious," "excellent," "right honourable," "reve- 
 rend," in him who wears them ? They are grand 
 and just when, as the good French precept bids, 
 Noblesse oblige — when they suggest obligations, and 
 high ambitions, and holy efforts ; but, without these, 
 they only invite rebuke and ridicule. Our Laureate 
 has beautifully rendered the Latin line, "Nobilitas 
 sola est atque unica virtus " — 
 
 "Howe'er it be, it seems to me 
 'Tis noble only to be good ; 
 Kind hearts are more than coronets, 
 And simple faith than Norman blood." 
 
 Money can no more buy happiness than it can buy 
 character. 
 
 "What I wish to demonstrate is this — that no man 
 can be a true gentleman, whatever his birth, educa- 
 tion, and income, who is actuated only by selfish 
 motives; who looks to the world around him for 
 estimates and rules and rewards, and has not con- 
 sidered who are the true gentlemen and noblemen in 
 the eyes of the all-seeing God. No man can do any- 
 thing really great and good, gentle and manly in 
 unison, so long as he cares only for himself, so long 
 as he disregards God's laws and directions, and does 
 not copy the model which Christ has set before 
 him. 
 
 Hard upon nineteen hundred years ago, there lived 
 in the world the manliest, noblest, gentlest Being— 
 
WHO IS A GENTLEMAN t 259 
 
 the only Perfect Man, Gentleman, Nobleman, whom 
 this world ever saw. He not only united in Himself 
 all that is best in manhood and womanhood — wisdom 
 and strength, truth, courage, generosity, gentleness, 
 compassion, purity — but He made it possible for us to 
 learn "the mind that was in Christ." He was not 
 only the perfect Example of unselfishness, but He 
 won for us, and is ready to bestow on us, the power 
 of conquering self — self-sacrifice. 
 
 "Learn of Me," He says; "for I am meek and 
 lowly in heart." And only those who learn the 
 gentleness of Christ are gentlemen. 
 
 It is the Christ-like spirit which induces us to 
 work for others, not only because the sense of our 
 own weakness, which it teaches us, creates a sympathy 
 with them, not only because the power of our own 
 temptations makes us lenient to the tempted, not 
 only because respect for our own convictions make 
 us respect the convictions of others, not only because 
 our joy and peace in believing impels us to tell 
 others that we have found the Messias ; but because 
 we know that every soul is alike precious to Him 
 who died fur all, and that in loving them we are 
 loving Him, and in bearing one another's burdens 
 are fulfilling the law of Christ. 
 
 Hence it is that so many of our mere worldly 
 friendships are so insincere and brief — bruised reeds, 
 which, if we lean on them, run into the hand and 
 pierce it. They are so largely selfish. They are too 
 often formed from fancy, from impulse, from similarity 
 
26o ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN, 
 
 of tastes and pursuits, without reference to principles, 
 to character. Men will eat and drink and be merry 
 with you so long as your company pleases them, 
 or your influence promotes their interests, but will 
 leave you from mere caprice, or upon the advent 
 of adversity. Christ said, " I will never leave you nor 
 forsake you;" and the true Christian is the friend that 
 loveth at all times, and the brother born for adversity. 
 The gentleness of Christ, granted to prayer, com- 
 municated through the sacraments, taught by the 
 Scriptures, realized by deeds and words of love — the 
 gentleness of Christ makes gentlemen; and any 
 Christian, the poorest, the weakest, the lowest as to 
 earthly possessions and power, may win for himself 
 this noble designation. Bishop Wilson describes '' the 
 true character of a gentleman " to be " one who 
 has a good estate and authority, and makes use of 
 these to promote the glory of God, the good of his 
 country, and to help those that are in need." But 
 a man may be a gentleman, in the highest sense of 
 the word, who has neither estate nor authority. 
 
 " Alas ! 'tis far from russet frieze 
 
 To silk and satin gowns ; 
 But I doubt if God made like degrees 
 'Twixt courtly hearts and clowns." 
 
 The Lord of glory lay in a manger, lived in a 
 poor cottage, and earned bread by the sweat of His 
 face ; blessed with His praise and promise of reward 
 the offerings of the poor, the widow's mite which 
 she offered for the Temple service, the cup of cold 
 
WHO IS A GENTLEMAN \ 26 1 
 
 water given in the name of a disciple, to tell men 
 that it might be always so. He chose unlearned and 
 ignorant men to teach and convert the world, and 
 men who had no money to do miracles ("Silver 
 and gold," said the fisherman, "have I none; in the 
 Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and 
 walk "), to show us it might be ever so. 
 
 And who that knows the poor has not seen again 
 and again that it is so? What parish priest, for 
 example, has not seen a thousand beautiful examples, 
 among his people, of the truest manliness, manliness 
 under suffering ; the truest gentleness, gentleness amid 
 so much that is hard and harsh ; the truest nobility, 
 where the surroundings have been so vile ? Who has 
 not found, from time to time, in the meanest cottage 
 the truest courtesy, the most tender and delicate con- 
 sideration for others, the most sweet, long-suffering 
 patience ? 
 
 Ah, it's easy to be what the world calls manly 
 when we are hale and strong, easy to be gentle when 
 there's nothing to vex, to be generous when there 
 are abundant means; but to be brave and cheerful 
 and unselfish when there is want and pain, that 
 comes only from the gentleness of Christ. It is easy 
 to sigh about the sorrows of others, to send inquiries 
 about the sick, to look in and leave a tract, or a sum 
 we shall never miss; but to watch by the bed, to 
 wait upon them while others sleep, to have them 
 in your thoughts and prayers, that is to be like 
 Jesus of Nazareth. For it is written, " Blessed is he 
 
262 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 that considereth the poor and needy " — has them in 
 his heart. 
 
 Of course, neither poverty nor riches makes or mars 
 our character. The angels took Lazarus to Paradise, 
 when he died, not because he was poor, but because 
 he was patient, faithful, hopeful in his poverty ; and 
 evil spirits hurried Dives to a place of torment, not 
 because he was rich, but because he was sensual and 
 unmerciful. Abraham, and Hezekiah, and Matthew, 
 and Zacchseus, and Joseph of Arimathea, and Cornelius 
 consecrated their wealth to God. He who has the 
 gentleness of Christ keeps his integrity whether he 
 be rich or poor. Christianity treats all men alike; 
 there is the same sympathy, the same strength, the 
 same conditions and requirements, for all; in exact 
 proportion as their need, is the help given when it 
 is sought; as their day so is their strength; every 
 Christian man must look to Christ, as the Author and 
 Finisher of his faith, and must follow His example 
 here, or he cannot share His glory hereafter. 
 
 In all the civilized races, attempts have been made 
 by the most thoughtful and refined philosophers to 
 define a gentleman — as the Greek teacher Aristotle, 
 TCTpay(t)vog avev ipoyov — 
 
 " Standing foursquare to every wind that blows " — 
 and the Latin poet Horace, of the man, "Integer 
 vitse scelerisque purus ; " all agreed he must be 
 blameless, " sans peur et sans reproche " — upright and 
 undefiled; no vicious man could be a gentleman. 
 But when we pass from human philosophy to Divine 
 
WHO IS A GENTLEMAN t 263 
 
 revelation, the ideal is exalted at once, and the 
 definition more minute and clear. "Even he that 
 leadeth an incorrupt life, and doeth the thing that 
 is right, and speaketh the truth from his heart. He 
 that hath used no deceit in his tongue, nor done 
 evil to his neighbour, and hath not slandered his 
 neighbour. He that setteth not by himself, but is 
 lowly in his own eyes, and maketh much of them 
 that fear the Lord. He that sweareth unto his 
 neighbour, and disappointeth him not, though it were 
 to his own hindrance. He that hath not given his 
 money upon usury, nor taken reward against the 
 innocent." 
 
 All these aspirations and inspirations were but 
 typical and prophetic of the perfect example of the 
 gentleness of Christ, and of the Christian gentleman. 
 In Him we have the presentation of all that is pure 
 and beautiful in manhood, and through Him we have 
 the power to attain it. Nay, as the Apostle says, 
 He is to be formed in us. The priests of Buddha 
 tell their disciples, '' Think of Buddha, and ye will 
 become like Buddha." We say — not we, but God — 
 think of Christ, pray to Christ, seek Christ, and He 
 will come to you, and make His abode with you, and 
 His gentleness shall be your gentleness, and men 
 shall take notice that you have been with Jesus, and 
 ye shall say, " As for me, I will behold Thy presence 
 in righteousness : and when I awake up after Thy 
 likeness, I shall be satisfied with it." 
 
 Wherefore it follows, that the only true gentleman 
 
264 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 is he who is striving, by the grace of God, in all 
 things to resemble Christ. Whoever hath this 
 ambition and hope purifieth himself, as He is pure. 
 He seeks to form and fashion himself, his life and 
 conversation, his body, his mind, his senses, his 
 faculties, his estate and occupations, after this Divine 
 model. 
 
 The members of his body — the best member that 
 he hath — he will conform to the gentleness of Jesus, 
 that his conversation may be such as becometh the 
 gospel of Christ. He will remember His words — 
 " By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy 
 words thou shalt be condemned ; " " Swear not at 
 all." He will not only put a watch upon his mouth, 
 and keep the door of his lips from all words that may 
 do hurt — from all obscene and profane words, from all 
 harsh, bitter, unmerciful words, from all words that 
 are false and untrue — but, like the Divine Master, he 
 will speak gentle words of sympathy and compassion, 
 solace and hope, of peace and good will towards men. 
 Ah ! friends, how much might we do in this spirit to 
 brighten our own hearts, and to increase the happi- 
 ness of our fellow-men, by gentle, kindly words ! A 
 word of tenderness, encouragement, fitly spoken in 
 season, how good it is ! 
 
 " It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven 
 Upon the place beneath : it is twice blest ; 
 It blesseth him that gives and him that takes." 
 
 The soft answer that turneth away wrath. Christ's 
 own words, spoken into mourners* ears, ''Not dead, 
 
WHO IS A GENTLEMAN^ 26^ 
 
 but sleepeth ; " " Thy brother shall rise again ; " "I 
 am the Resurrection and the Life;" "Weep not;" 
 '* In the world ye shall have tribulation : but be of 
 good cheer ; I have overcome the world." 
 
 And if we have learned the gentleness of Christ, 
 our speech will not only be kind to others, but of 
 them. Learning this mind which was in Him, and 
 remembering His Divine utterance, we shall put 
 away from us all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, 
 and clamour, and evil speaking, with all malice ; and 
 we shall be kind one to another, tender-hearted, 
 When we hear evil of others, instead of denouncing 
 and saying, " Let the sentence of guiltiness proceed 
 against him, and now that he lieth, let him rise up no 
 more," would it* not be more charitable to say, " Per- 
 haps he did not do it ; I hope that he is innocent : 
 and if he be guilty, I know not how terribly he was 
 tempted ; I know not that he may not have repented 
 bitterly, and found pardon from God. This I do 
 know — Christ died for him, Christ pleads for him, 
 still loves and yearns to save him " ? " Judge not, and 
 ye shall not be judged." 
 
 A charitable silence, it has been well said, is better 
 than an uncharitable truth. " I have often repented," 
 a good man said, " of having spoken, hardly ever of 
 having kept silence." "I make it a rule," Bishop 
 Beveridge writes, " never to praise a man to his face, 
 or blame him behind his back." 
 
 " Speak what good thou knowest of thy brother to 
 all men ; but if he trespass against thee, go and tell 
 
266 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 him his fault between him and thee alone." What 
 misery may be wrought by one slanderous word, in 
 families, neighbourhoods ! 
 
 More than this, the Christian gentleman will not 
 be satisfied with the submission of one member to 
 the law of Christ, while another is rebellious and dis- 
 obedient, but will keep under the whole body and bring 
 it into subjection, knowing that he who shall offend 
 in one point is guilty of alL " The light of the body is 
 the eye," and that must glow with the pure light of 
 love, and not with the lurid fire of lust; with the 
 sunshine of peace, and not with the forked fire of 
 malice and revenge. 
 
 And as the tongue is given us for God's glory — " I 
 will sing and give praise ; " for our own necessities — 
 " If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God ; " and 
 for the edification of our fellow-men — " Wherefore 
 comfort ye one another with these words ; " so the 
 eye looks heavenward in adoration. 
 
 " And while the mute creation downward bends 
 Its gaze, and to its earthly mother tends, 
 Man looks aloft, and with enraptured eyes 
 Beholds his bright inheritance, the skies." 
 
 Looks heavenward, and sees how those heavens 
 declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth 
 His handiwork. 
 
 '* Look how the floor of heaven 
 Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold. 
 There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st 
 But in his motion like an angel sings, 
 Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins." 
 
WHO IS A GENTLEMAN^ 267 
 
 Earthward upon all that is so fairly, so fearfully, 
 so wonderfully made, with awe and admiration, ever 
 praying, " Open Thou mine eyes, that I may see Thy 
 wondrous things ; " earthward upon all that is so sad 
 and sinful, with tears from the conduits of the heart ; 
 and then inward, that, not looking for the mote that 
 is in our brother's eye, but for the beam in our own 
 eye, we may cast out that which doth offend the Eye 
 of our heavenly Father — the Eye which is in every 
 place, beholding the evil and the good. 
 
 No Christian gentleman will be subdued by the 
 mere animal appetites, but will be the master, and 
 not the slave, of his passions. He may trip and fall, 
 but his degradation shall bring the shame, the 
 remorse, the humility, which God hath seen, to a 
 higher place of security, so that he may cling more 
 closely to the Cross, and then more earnestly may 
 serve the Crucified. 
 
 No Christian gentleman can be a fornicator, 
 glutton, drunkard, or gambler, because he has been 
 told by his Saviour and his Judge that adulteries 
 and fornications defile a man, and because he knows 
 that there shall in no wise enter anything which 
 defileth into the new Jerusalem ; because he is warned 
 by the same Divine authority, " Take heed to your- 
 selves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged 
 with surfeiting and drunkenness, and so that day 
 overtake you unawares;" because he is commanded 
 not to covet nor desire other men's goods, that no man 
 shall go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter. 
 
268 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN, 
 
 No gentleman can be a glutton and a drunkard. 
 Under the Mosaic Law, it was ordered that if parents 
 brought before the elders of the city a son who was 
 hopelessly rebellious, gluttonous, and drunken, he 
 should be stoned with stones unto death ; and under 
 the New Covenant we are told that " if an evil servant 
 shall say in his heart. My lord delayeth his coming, 
 and shall begin to smite his fellow-servants, and to 
 eat and drink with the drunken, the lord of that 
 servant shall come in a day when he looketh not 
 for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of; and 
 shall cut him asunder, and appoint his portion with 
 the hypocrites " — " there shall be weeping and gnash- 
 ing of teeth.'* 
 
 No gentleman will deliberately "put an enemy 
 in his mouth to steal away his brains " — the reason 
 which raises him above the lower animals, and so 
 degrade himself infinitely below them. No one who 
 has any self-respect would incapacitate himself from 
 his ordinary employments, and make himself con- 
 temptible before God and man. 
 
 " Know ye not that ye are the temple of God ? If 
 any man defile the temple of God, him shall God 
 destroy." No gentleman will forget St. Paul's words, 
 " Know ye not that your bodies are the members of 
 Christ ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and 
 make them the members of an harlot ? God forbid." 
 
 I hope to speak to you concerning gambling and 
 betting in a future address, and therefore I will only 
 say now that, while I admirethe horse and his rider. 
 
WHO IS A GENTLEMAN^ 269 
 
 and see no harm, but rather a manly recreation, in 
 the race, it seems to me the manifest duty of every 
 Christian gentleman to abstain from the practice, and 
 from the fellowship of those who practise those evil 
 habits of gambling and betting, which have been so 
 disastrous in the ruin, physical and financial, moral 
 and spiritual, of their fellow-men ; which have tarnished 
 noble names, and alienated ancestral homes and estates; 
 which have ended in the grave of the suicide, and in 
 the sorrows of broken hearts, in exile, in asylum, and 
 in jail. 
 
 A true Christian gentleman will not only govern 
 his senses — refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips 
 that they speak no guile ; he will not only pray God 
 to turn away his eyes lest they behold vanity, to 
 strengthen the hands that hang down, and to guide 
 his feet into the way of peace ; he will cultivate his 
 mind, that he may make it a worthier offering to 
 Him who gave it ; he will store it with such informa- 
 tion as may help him to do the work which God has 
 assigned to him more worthily and usefully. He will 
 remember that it is his duty to love God with all 
 his mind, as well as with all his heart, and that he 
 must offer and present all that he has as a reasonable, 
 holy, and lively sacrifice unto Him. 
 
 A gentleman will not disuse God's gifts in idleness 
 and sloth; he cannot abuse them in mere frivolity; 
 he does not seek knowledge merely for knowledge 
 sake, to be wiser than his fellows, to gain admiration, 
 popularity, position, influence, income ; he desires to 
 
2;o ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 use it to God's glory and the good of his fellow-men. 
 While he instructs, interests, enlivens his mind with 
 all that is true, thoughtful, sincere, in literature, he 
 despises that which is lascivious, as much as that 
 which is sceptical — the French novel making a 
 romance or a comedy of deadly sin, and the English 
 novel revelling in murder, condoning heresy, and 
 suggesting all phases of unbelief. 
 
 While he delights in true humour, because God 
 has given us our sense and power of humour for 
 our constant refreshment, and as a great means, if 
 wisely used, whereby he may dissuade men from the 
 meanness and misery of vice, he remembers that 
 there are two kinds of satire — that there is both 
 the use and abuse of wit. 
 
 "There is a wit," wrote an ancient master of 
 eloquence and composition, Cicero, " which is kindly, 
 pleasant, benevolent, and another which is bitter, 
 malignant, cruel." 
 
 A Christian gentleman takes care of his possessions, 
 be they great or small. He permits no waste — 
 generous to others, economical towards himself. He 
 does not gamble nor bet. 
 
 He incurs no liability which he cannot discharge, 
 no debt which he cannot pay. He is true and just 
 in all his dealings. " Owe no man anything, but to 
 love one another." 
 
 A gentleman is courteous to all. With a due regard 
 for those in authority, because the powers that be 
 are ordained of God, he has yet higher motives for 
 
WHO IS A GENTLEMAN? 27 1 
 
 his courtesy. In prince or peasant he sees an im- 
 mortal soul. Christ so regarded all, and treated all 
 with the utmost consideration and tenderness. He 
 encouraged all; He praised, but He never flattered. 
 He never feared to denounce evil, wherever it showed 
 itself. He was just the same in the temple, in the 
 palace of the high priest, as He was with the 
 wayside beggar, or in the cottage home of the fisher- 
 men. 
 
 Always considerate for others, always tender- 
 hearted, always yearning to forgive and bless ; always 
 the Good Shepherd, gathering the lambs in His arms, 
 and carrying them in His bosom, and gently leading 
 those that were with young. 
 
 There was only one class of men who evoked His 
 righteous indignation — the shams and hypocrites, the 
 scribes and Pharisees, whose religion was all talk and 
 self-conceit ; who for a pretence made long prayers ; 
 who stood outside the door of heaven, not entering, 
 and hindering others. They presented themselves to 
 the world as saints; they had a form of godliness; 
 they gave tithe of anise and mint and cummin; but, 
 just as so many now assume the title, the appearance, 
 the manners of gentlemen, it was only a profane parody, 
 a forgery, and fraud. 
 
 Hear, then, the sum of the whole matter. 
 
 It is in the power of every one of you to be included 
 in the number of God's gentlemen. They are not 
 made by pedigrees, titles, or estates, by learning or 
 accomplishments. The only perfect Gentleman lived 
 
272 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 in a poor cottage, and worked with saw and plane. 
 They are made by that faith in His love and in His 
 spiritual Presence which constrains them to take up 
 their cross and follow Him, in all such works as He has 
 prepared for them to walk in. They hear His voice, 
 and they believe that their sinful bodies are made 
 clean by His Body, and their souls washed through 
 His most precious Blood. 
 
 God's gentleman ! St. Paul describes him : — 
 "Abhorring evil, cleaving to that which is good, 
 kindly affectionate, not slothful in business, rejoicing 
 in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in 
 prayer, rejoicing with them that rejoice, and weeping 
 with them that weep, not minding high things, but 
 condescending to men of low estate, not wise in his 
 own conceits, as much as lieth in him living peaceably 
 with all men." 
 
 Who shall dare to plead in the day of judgment 
 that he tried heartily to keep these rules and failed ; 
 that it was never in his power to be a new creature in 
 Christ, to be one of God's orentlemen ? 
 
XVII. 
 
 GAMBLING AND BETTING * 
 
 When I travelled, not long ago, with a number of 
 betting men, and one of them looked up from his 
 newspaper, in which I saw afterwards a programme 
 of the Church Congress to be held at Manchester, and 
 when he inquired angrily, "What can a parson" — 
 he prefixed an epithet which seemed to me to be 
 appropriate only to a clergyman who had cut himself 
 in the act of shaving — "what can a parson know 
 about gambling and betting ? What can 'e know 
 about an 'oss ? " — I had no time to reply to the 
 question, because the train was just stopping at a 
 station, and the inquirer left it for the racecourse. 
 
 My answer would have been that, in this matter, 
 we parsons have a very large and sad experience. If, 
 in our " sallet days, when we were green in judgment," 
 at college, and in society, we ourselves escaped without 
 harm, we can all of us remember instances in which 
 
 * This address, first given at the Manchester Church Congress, was 
 afterwards published by the Society for Promoting Christian Know- 
 ledge, and is inserted by permission, 
 
 T 
 
274 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 the evil spirit ot gambling and betting not only 
 separated very friends, long and happy attachments 
 broken for ever on the night when one lost to the other 
 more than he knew how to pay, but, far worse than this, 
 we have in sorrowful remembrance many companions 
 and contemporaries, of whom it might have truly 
 been said, when they "went upon the turf," that it 
 had been better for them had they gone under it — 
 noblemen, gentlemen, men of honour and integrity, 
 but gradually contaminated by the atmosphere in 
 which they moved, first dupes and then deceivers. 
 
 And ever since those days, in our intercourse with 
 all grades of society, with all sorts and conditions of 
 men, we, whose vocation is to warn against the 
 temptations and fascinations of sin, to expose its 
 delusions, and to oppose its power; we, who are 
 distressed to hear so often the history of human 
 weakness, of human sorrow and shame ; we, who are 
 permitted to rejoice so often when we minister to 
 minds diseased the only true consolation and cure; 
 we, always and everywhere, are witnesses of the dis- 
 astrous injury, temporal and spiritual, the misery and 
 disgrace, which are wrought by gambling and betting. 
 
 Wherefore, when I am asked what the parson 
 knows of these things, I reply that we speak that 
 which we know, and testify that we have seen when 
 we affirm — 
 
 1. That gambling and betting are directly opposed 
 to the teaching of Divine revelation, of the Law and 
 the Gospel alike; and that they prevent a man from 
 
GAMBLING AND BETTING, 275 
 
 fulfilling the gracious purpose for which God made 
 and redeemed him. 
 
 2. That being accompanied, as a rule with rare 
 exceptions, by other vices — extravagance, sensual 
 indulgence,* and idleness — they detract from our 
 national honour, our industrial prosperity, and our 
 domestic happiness. 
 
 3. That the excuses made are contemptible, and 
 that — 
 
 4. It is the duty of all Christians, patriots, and 
 philanthropists to denounce this evil, and to unite in 
 prayerful, thoughtful, practical efforts to suppress and 
 to expel it. 
 
 First, then, I maintain that gambling and betting 
 are directly opposed to those revelations of the Divine 
 will by which we are taught our duty to God and to 
 each other. 
 
 It has been said that men may gamble and bet 
 without breaking any one of the Ten Commandments \ 
 but the author of this statement would be hopelessly 
 perplexed to illustrate it by an example. We shall 
 fi'nd, on the contrary, if we go through the Decalogue, 
 referring to our experience, and remembering the 
 
 * " Nearly six years ago I prepared, with the help of the hate 
 governor. Major Fulford, a 'drink census' of Stafford Gaol. The 
 result, when tabulated, went to show that, in a greater or less degree, 
 no fewer than ninety-two per cent, owed their imprisonment to habits 
 of intemperance. But I record my settled conviction, arrived at after 
 much inquiry, that of this ninety-two per cent, very considerahly more 
 than half contracted the habit of drink from the previously acquired 
 habit of gambling."— " Betting and Gambling," Kev. C. Goldney, 
 Chaplain. 
 
276 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 public records, that these habits are fraught with 
 special temptations to transgress those Command- 
 ments, one and all. 
 
 Consider those of the first table, which command 
 our entire obedience to Him who has declared Him- 
 self to be "a jealous God," and who says to every one 
 of us, " My son, give Me thine heart, and set up no 
 idol there. Reverence My name, and when thou hast 
 done thy six days of work — for this is My immutable 
 law, ' In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread ' 
 — then keep the seventh as a day of holy rest, and 
 ' delight thyself in the Lord.' " 
 
 Is there not proof, as abundant as it is sad, that 
 the fascinations and excitements of habitual gambling 
 and betting lure men's hearts from this holy allegiance 
 and absorb them in things of the earth, earthy ? May 
 not the prophet's words be applied to them that they 
 are "mad upon their idols" — idols of silver and of 
 gold? 
 
 Do they keep the door of their lips ? Is the 
 tongue, given to us for prayer and praise, for wise 
 and merciful words, the best member that they have ? 
 or is it an unruly evil, loving to speak all words that 
 may do hurt ? Is it used as by those who believe 
 that He will come to be their Judge, who has said, 
 " By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy 
 words thou shalt be condemned ; " " Swear not 
 at all " ? 
 
 " Six days shalt thou labour." What labour, what 
 honest, manly work, honourable to themselves or 
 
 
GAMBLING AND BETTING, 277 
 
 beneficial to their fellow-men, is done by those who 
 gamble and bet ? Do they keep the Christian Sabbath, 
 the Lord's Day, holy ? Is the betting-book exchanged 
 for the Bible ? Are the cards and dice put away ? 
 Would the men who run horses for the Prix de Paris, 
 who go to see or bet upon the race, have any scruples 
 as to the Prix de Manchester or the Prix de Sandown 
 taking place on the Sunday, if others made no 
 objection ? 
 
 Passing on to the second table of the Law, to those 
 Commandments which teach us our duty to our 
 neighbour, to the Fifth Commandment, " Honour thy 
 father and thy mother," I appeal to your own observa- 
 tion, it may be to your painful experience, how many 
 sons have been led to disobedience, to that spirit of 
 discontent in which the prodigal said to his father, 
 " Give me my portion of goods ; " how much enmity, 
 privation, and disgrace have been brought into homes, 
 where there had been only love and plenty and fair 
 fame, by those first temptations to gamble and to 
 bet ? And these vices seem almost always to induce 
 a selfishness which eliminates the purer afiections. 
 Some few years ago a gentleman, going through the 
 workhouse at Sheffield, was greatly surprised to see 
 among the inmates an old woman whom he had 
 known in a comfortable home of her own. He 
 expressed his sorrowful astonishment to the master, 
 and added, " I know for a fact that one of her sons 
 is earning at this time between £4) and £5 a week." 
 On this information the master souo-ht and found the 
 
278 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 man referred to, and when he remonstrated with him, 
 this was the reply he received, " If you had lost £40 
 on that cursed handicap last week, you'd be none so 
 keen about paying for other folks ! " 
 
 But our righteous indignation gives place to far 
 more powerful emotions, and the spirit within us is 
 oppressed and awed, as we repeat the words, " Thou 
 shalt do no murder," and think of the number of those 
 broken hearts, in which life has not only been em- 
 bittered, enfeebled, and gradually crushed out by 
 fierce excitements, by terrible anxieties, and by actual 
 want; but in an agony of wild despair has been 
 ended here by those who could no longer endure it. 
 How often have we read in our newspapers (there 
 were two instances last year in the same month), 
 " Suicide of a betting man " ! Frith's picture of the 
 youth with the pistol in his hand is no mere sensa- 
 tional fancy. The number of deaths at Monte Carlo 
 may have been exaggerated, but there were two, if 
 not three, when I was in the neighbourhood not many 
 years ago. Of one case I had full particulars. The 
 purser of a Kussian man-of-war, anchored in the bay 
 of Villa Franca, came ashore and went to the gambling- 
 room at Monte Carlo. At first he won, then he lost, 
 staked a large sum belonging to the ship, lost that, 
 and destroyed himself. More recently, seeing in one 
 of the most popular and reliable provincial news- 
 papers that there had been fifteen suicides within 
 six months, I wrote to the editor, whom I knew 
 personally, and asked him kindly to send me proof 
 
GAMBLING AND BETTING, 2/9 
 
 of the information. He wrote immediately to his 
 correspondent, a Frenchman resident at Nice, and 
 received from him and forwarded to me minute details 
 of the last four miserable deaths. A young officer 
 in the gendarmerie, having lost 12,000f, shot himself 
 in the grounds of the gaming-house, first in the throat 
 and then in the head; a man of sixty-five, having 
 after many days of play lost all he had, 55,000f., 
 hung himself in one of the kiosques of the garden ; a 
 lady, the mother of a family, also lost all, and threw 
 herself from the fourth story of the hotel in which 
 she lodged ; and a Captain Wolfi", of the Prussian 
 Infantry, shot himself in his bedroom. The four sous 
 which they found in his purse dispelled all doubt as 
 to the impulse of this ruined man. Nevertheless, 
 ladies and gentlemen go from Cannes and elsewhere 
 to this Aceldama and stake their Napoleons, "just for 
 the fun of the thing," side by side with those who 
 may recover their rouleaux, but never again their 
 reputation ; and it was well said by an old man to 
 a youth, boasting in a railway carriage that he had 
 been to Monte Carlo and brought back thirty 
 Napoleons, " You don't know, sir, whose money you 
 have won ; your thirty pieces may have belonged to 
 a suicide, and so be the price of blood." 
 
 On Commandment VII., " Thou shalt not commit 
 adultery," I will only say that it has been publicly 
 affirmed, the writer giving as his authority the police 
 employed in the neighbourhood of St. John's Wood, 
 on racecourses, and elsewhere, that a large proportion 
 
28o ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN, 
 
 of "kept women," as they are called, are supported 
 by those who gatable and bet, and that a majority of 
 the most important cases brought into the divorce 
 court have a similar association. 
 
 Repeating Commandment VIII., " Thou shalt not 
 steal," I think you wiU endorse my conviction, that 
 the gambler who cheats and the betting man who 
 bets on a certainty are mere robbers, although the 
 professional thieves would hardly condescend to 
 recognize them as worthy of enrolment in their 
 society, seeing that they have neither the courage 
 of the burglar nor the adroit activity of the prig. 
 These fifth-rate petty larceners are not many nor 
 dangerous, as they are soon found out and relegated 
 to the mixed company of card-sharpers, thimble- 
 riggers, welshers, and other uncertificated poachers 
 who hover around the outskirts of the great preserves ; 
 but there are numerous " sportsmen," having licences 
 to kill game within the covert, who have no scruples 
 about shooting a hen-pheasant in a tree or a hare on 
 her seat, if they are sure that nobody will see. I 
 mean that there are many men who gamble and bet 
 who will take every advantage, short of actual dis- 
 honesty, to overreach others. So far from being con- 
 demned, they arelauded and envied for their ingenuity, 
 and that which the severe moralist might denounce as 
 a conspiracy to defraud is not seldom designated as 
 '' a good thing," and the good men who arrange this 
 little game and complete it — I beg pardon, " bring it 
 ofi"," "pull it through" — are admired by those whom 
 
GAMBLING AND BETTING. 28 1 
 
 they have not " let in " as wise and happy in their 
 deed. We inferior mortals, who cannot raise our 
 appreciations to these sublime heights of sagacity, 
 are apt to depreciate, as dullards do, and to make 
 some such comments as that of the negro speaking of 
 a brother black, " I shall not call 'im a tief, but if I 
 were a chicken and saw that darkle a loafing round, 
 I'd roost high— dat's all." 
 
 If gambling and betting are not actual peculations, 
 they most assuredly suggest and induce them. I have 
 made inquiries and read reports from governors and 
 chaplains of prisons, some of which I have personally 
 visited, the last at Chatham, one of the largest in the 
 kingdom, and these officers are unanimous in their 
 declarations that an infinite number of prisoners, con- 
 victed for the first time of false entries, forgeries, and 
 actual theft, have attributed their guilt to the results of 
 gambling and betting. The Rev. Mr. Goldney, chap- 
 lain of Her Majesty's Prison, whose evidence I have 
 already quoted, made this statement at the meeting of 
 the Lichfield Diocesan Conference held in November 
 last — 
 
 " We are able to fill one of those spacious corridors 
 in Stafibrd Prison with young men of the clerk and 
 accountant class, their ages mostly varying from 
 sixteen to twenty-three, and they receiving salaries of 
 from iG40 to £70 per annum. In what I say I do but 
 act as their spokesman, summing up the evidence with 
 which they have supplied me, and so fulfilling a 
 promise made to one of them but yesterday. It is 
 
282 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 betting and gamhling, of which they are the victims, 
 rather than of drink and immorality, thowgh these 
 latter may he described as accessories both before and 
 after the fact." 
 
 So true is it that " he who maketh haste to be rich 
 shall not be innocent," and that "he that getteth 
 riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst 
 of his days, and at his end shall be a fool." 
 
 Of Commandment IX., " Thou shalt not bear false 
 witness against thy neighbour," in its connection with 
 gambling and betting, it may suffice to recaU the 
 evidence given on a recent notable occasion, and in 
 several similar trials, by the betting fraternity. The 
 variegated testimony, upon oath, of these witnesses, 
 confuses the mind of the reader. He is perplexed, for 
 example, in the last case brought into court, to know 
 whether the person chiefly concerned is " a good jockey 
 who would not, or a bad jockey who could not, win ; " 
 and he is yet more bewildered to understand how, in 
 either case, he had accumulated (as it was reported) 
 the sum of ^ei 50,000. 
 
 Nor will you ask for arguments as regards Com- 
 mandment X., " Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's 
 house, . . . noi" anything that is his," to prove the 
 very simple fact that if there were none to covet 
 their neighbour's silver or gold, his banknotes, 
 cheques, or I.O.U.'s, there would be none to gamble 
 or to bet. 
 
 But religion is no mere code of prohibitory and 
 penal laws. It teaches us not only to fear and to 
 
 i 
 
GAMBLING AND BETTING. 283 
 
 despise that which God has forbidden, but to find our 
 happiness in doing that which He has commanded, 
 and in loving one another, even as He has loved us. 
 If, under the older covenant, men were not only- 
 warned to escape from the curses of Ebal, but to 
 enjoy the blessings of Gerizim ; if they were com- 
 manded by the Levitical law not to defraud but to 
 love their neighbours, not only to eschew evil but to 
 do good ; how much more persuasively are we invited 
 by the Gospel, how much more powerfully are we 
 impelled by the Spirit of Christ, to that charity which 
 worketh no ill to its neighbour, but rejoices to pro- 
 vide things honest in the sight of all men and to do 
 them good ! 
 
 Wherefore it is manifestly false to say that they 
 who habitually gamble and bet break no command- 
 ments ; and they have far more consistent and 
 plausible arguments who decline to be tested by 
 Christian principles, because they do not believe 
 them. 
 
 The latter assert that so long as they do not trans- 
 gress the laws of the State, they have a right to do 
 what they will with their own. We have no king 
 but Caesar. But "no man liveth to himself," and 
 though you may leave out religion, there are moral, 
 political, social, and domestic obligations from which 
 none are free. You cannot do wrong to yourself 
 without doing wrong to others. You must help or 
 hinder them. You make harmony, or you mar it, 
 like a false note in an organ. Legally, no doubt, 
 
284 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN, 
 
 every man has a perfect right to lose his money or to 
 waste it, to fool himself to the top of his bent, to 
 reduce himself to that detestable condition of idiotic 
 imbecility which Hogarth has drawn so wonderfully 
 in the last scene of the " Rake's Progress ; " but he 
 can never have any right to do wrong to others, to 
 injure those dependent upon him, those who have 
 claims upon him, which none dispute. I remember 
 hearing from my father of his painful astonishment 
 and righteous disgust when, on the stand at Don- 
 caster, and just before the St. Leger was run, he 
 heard the representative of an ancient and honourable 
 family, a large landed proprietor in a midland 
 
 coanty, exclaim, "Now it's " I will not name 
 
 the estate, but say, " Now it's home or no home." A 
 few minutes after, he had lost all hope of retrieving 
 his property ; it was sold to a stranger ; and to this 
 day his descendants have suffered in exile and in 
 poverty the result of his selfish folly. And this is 
 only a sample from the bulk. Since those well- 
 known lines were written fifty years ago — 
 
 " The stately homes of England, 
 
 How beautiful they stand, 
 Arftid their tall ancestral trees. 
 
 Through all this pleasant land ! 
 The deer across their greensward bound, 
 
 In shade and sunny gleam. 
 And the swan glides past them with the sound 
 
 Of some rejoicing stream ! " 
 
 how many of these grand mansions have been sold 
 and let and mortgaged because their owners would 
 gamble and bet ! I saw recently one of the most 
 
GAMBLING AND BETTING. 285 
 
 extensive and ornate of these edifices. The roof and 
 large portions of the floors had fallen in, the doors 
 and windows were gone, and the rank weeds were 
 growing where " tapers gleamed and music breathed, 
 and beauty led the ball " — 
 
 " No human footstep stirred to come or go ; 
 
 No face looked out from shut or open casement ; 
 No chimney smoked; there was no sign of Home, 
 From parapet to basement." 
 
 And all this desolation and ruin because the owner 
 had gambled and betted. At the same time, we may 
 not forget that in all classes of society, as well as in 
 the highest, a similar injustice, as cruel though not 
 so notorious, the same misery and degradation, 
 though the area of suffering is not so large, are 
 inflicted by gambling and betting in the professions 
 and trades, and among those working men, who lose 
 a week's wages on a race, whose wives come to them 
 on a Saturday night and say, " There's no more tick 
 to be had, and the children are crying in the fireless 
 room for food." 
 
 In brief, these vices seem, wherever they prevail, 
 to induce more swiftly and hopelessly than any 
 others, hard, reckless, cruel selfishness. The selfish- 
 ness of a miser is contemptible, but it is laudable 
 generosity in comparison with his who wastes that 
 which is not his own. There's an old story of a very 
 rich man in this neighbourhood, who, when he was 
 invited to act as churchwarden, took some little time 
 to consider the matter, and then informed the 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UN1VERSI 
 
286 ADDRESSES TO WOR ICING MEN. 
 
 petitioners that "he had made up his mind that if 
 ever he did ote for note/' (aught for nothing), "he 
 thought he should do it for sen." I pity that gentle- 
 man, but I abhor the gambler. 
 
 It is an argument very commonly urged for racing, 
 that it greatly improves the breed of horses. We 
 need not discuss the question whether it would not 
 be possible equally to improve the breed of horses by 
 trial, by selection of the fittest. I never heard that 
 Lord Ellesmere raced those magnificent stallion cart- 
 horses which I have seen at Worsley, and which 
 would require jockeys of twenty stone weight to 
 steer; but, accepting the statement, and giving all 
 honour to those men who have acted upon it — such 
 men as the Duke of Westminster, Lord Falmouth, 
 the Duke of Portland, and others — I would ask. How 
 many of those who bet upon races ever think of 
 improving the breed of horses ? They improve him ! 
 Why, he's infinitely the more noble, a thousand 
 times the more beautiful, animal. I have loved him 
 ever since I rode a rocking-horse ; and I could have 
 told that fellow-traveller to whom I have referred, 
 and who asked, " What can parsons know about 
 horses ? " of many who, like myself, had tested their 
 wonderful power and pluck over the clays of "the 
 Eufibrd," the walls of "the Heythrop," the huge 
 fences and green pastures of " the Quom." What's 
 the horse to him but a machine for making money ? 
 There is not a single point of resemblance between 
 them, unless it be black legs ! 
 
 i 
 
GAMBLING AND BETTING, 287 
 
 I know, of course, that there are scores of highly 
 educated, honourable noblemen and gentlemen, dis- 
 tinguished for their public services, dutiful and 
 blameless in their private life (as those whom I 
 have just named), who regard racing as a pleasant 
 recreation and a manly sport, who never gamble, 
 and bet little, if they bet at all. si sic omnes ! for, 
 if all were so, the racecourse might be a place of 
 healthful enjoyment and of genial intercourse; and 
 I, for one, should rejoice to hear of working men 
 going there by thousands on their holidays; but 
 until they can go without seeing that which they 
 should not see, and hearing that which they should 
 not hear, the impudence of the harlot, the disgusting 
 degradations of drunkenness, the profane oath and 
 filthy conversation, the attempts to rob and to cheat 
 — until then, all who have the true welfare of those 
 working men at heart must bid them in God's name 
 to keep S.wsiy. 
 
 I would not abolish racing, but I would have far 
 more done than is done to abolish rogues — to expel 
 those who despoil and disgrace humanity ; men who, 
 having in many instances abilities which would have 
 made them prosperous and useful, concentrate their 
 mental faculties on " morning tips," " to-day's betting 
 in London," "latest scratchings," and "midnight odds," 
 and who seem to think that the faculty of speech 
 has been bestowed upon them that they may scream 
 and yell therewith, " I'll lay 5 to 1 bar 1," or "10 
 to 1 bar 2." 
 
288 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN, 
 
 They have but one subject of thought and con- 
 versation. John Leech told me that he travelled 
 more than a hundred miles with two members of 
 the fraternity, who had just come from the racecourse, 
 and that one of them repeated the same observation 
 to the other, with slight variations and a profusion 
 of profane embellishments, Leech thought, about 
 fourteen times ! The remark was this, " As soon 
 as ever that 'oss came into the paddock, I says to 
 Bob, t/.P." Then after a brief silence, or after he 
 had smoked or slumbered, he would resume his story, 
 *' As soon as ever he come into the paddock, I know'd 
 they'd got him." Only once did he enlarge his 
 reminiscences so far as to repeat the rejoinder of 
 his friend. " And Bob said " (and it is pretty evident 
 from Kobert's language that he belonged to our 
 County Palatine of time-honoured Lancaster — I say 
 ovbTy for I am a Lancashire lad) — "and Bob said, 
 'He's welly bossen'd.'" 
 
 He's a poor creature, wherever you find him, the 
 man who does nothing but gamble and bet — whether 
 he's playing cards in his club on a lovely summer's 
 afternoon, or shooting dove-cote pigeons out of a trap 
 for money, or whether he's trying to overreach his 
 juniors (often little more than boys) in the tap-room 
 of a public-house, of which in too many instances 
 the landlord is a professional betting-man. 
 
 The epitaph on the clumsy maid-of-all-work might 
 be repeated upon the man who is all 'play — " Nihil 
 tetigit quod non fregit." She broke everything she 
 
GAMBLING AND BETTING. 289 
 
 touched. He has spoiled racing, and he is trying 
 to spoil boating, and football, and cricket. Oh for 
 the good old times, when the nearest approach to 
 gambling upon the close-mown turf was that of 
 Fuller Pilch giving some friend a sovereign, to be 
 repaid a shilling for every run he got ! 
 
 And now, if gambling and betting are thus de- 
 grading and disastrous, " of all habits the vilest," as 
 Ruskin writes, "because they unite nearly every 
 condition of folly and of vice," and, so far from 
 exaggerating, I have purposely abstained from several 
 details, with which, as he who drew Priam's curtain 
 in the dead of night, and told him half his Troy was 
 burnt, or like the Fat Boy, when he gave notice, 
 " I'm agoing to make your blood run cold," I might 
 have produced sensational excitement; if I have 
 spoken facts, which you can not only endorse but 
 amplify, is it not our duty as Christians, as patriots, 
 and citizens, to denounce these evils, and to unite 
 in prayerful, thoughtful, practical efforts to expose 
 and to expel them ? 
 
 These attempts should be made in no intolerant 
 or disdainful spirit, but with that charity which 
 hopeth and endureth all things, though it be repelled 
 with insult. While we enforce vigorously and im- 
 partially those wise and just laws which the State 
 has enacted for the protection of the weak, and for 
 the punishment of their assailants, and ask such further 
 powers from Parliament as may seem to be required, 
 we must rely far more on moral than on legal 
 
 u 
 
290 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 restraint, far more upon conviction than coercion, 
 far more upon kindness than severity, far more upon 
 patience than anger, for progress and for victory. 
 Indeed, these gamblers, though they may despise and 
 even curse our compassion, are of all men most to 
 be pitied. Though they seem to be so free from care, 
 to come in no misfortune like other folk, so lusty and 
 strong, so boisterous in their jocund glee, even in 
 laughter the heart is sorrowful, and the end of that 
 mirth is heaviness. 
 
 No men verify more signally the prophetic 
 warnings, " Be sure your sin will find you out ; " 
 "The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices 
 make whips to scourge us." We clergy know how 
 inevitably the time comes to these men, as to all 
 who have persistently done despite to the Spirit 
 of grace, when they must think and suffer and 
 " loathe themselves for the evils which they have 
 committed." What men are so exposed as these 
 to disappointments and reverses, to the sadness and 
 the sickness which attend inseparably upon wild 
 excitement and excess ? How many have felt that 
 which Mr. Greville has written in his " Memoirs " — 
 " While the fire is raging, while the odds are 
 varying, I can neither read nor write, nor occupy 
 myself with anything else " ! And again, " Thank 
 God, the races are over! I have had all the 
 trouble, excitement, and worry, and have neither 
 won nor lost. Nothing but the hope of gain would 
 induce me to go through this demoralizing drudgery, 
 
GAMBLING AND BETTING. 29 1 
 
 which I am conscious reduces me to the level of all 
 that is most disreputable and despicable, for my 
 thoughts are eternally absorbed in it. Jockeys, 
 trainers, and blacklegs are my companions. It is 
 like dram-drinking — having once begun, I cannot 
 leave it off, though I am disgusted all the time with 
 my occupation. There is something in it all which 
 displeases me, and I often wish I was well out of it. 
 I always feel ashamed of the occupation, and a sort of 
 consciousness of degradation and deterioration from it." 
 
 Happy they, who not only despise this servitude, 
 but break its bonds asunder, and cast away its cords 
 from them. 
 
 It seems to me, to conclude, that there are two 
 primary and indispensable elements of success in a 
 crusade against gambling and betting, exam'ple and 
 sympathy. The beacons of war must be kindled on 
 the mountains. The officers must lead the attack. 
 
 Noblesse oblige : a true nobleman, a true gentleman, 
 should not condescend to take money from one whom 
 he despises, money which has been obtained he knows 
 not how, the loss of which may have caused ruin and 
 disgrace. It seems to me that no true nobleman, no 
 true gentleman, should pay large sums of money and 
 have nothing to show for it — money with which he 
 might have relieved want and encouraged industry ; 
 might have gained " the blessing of him that was ready 
 to perish, and caused the widow's heart to sing for 
 
 joy." 
 
 - Caesar, like his wife, should be above suspicion; 
 
292 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 but if he fraternizes with the suspected, the world will 
 say, " Noscitur a soeiis," " Birds of a feather flock 
 together." The leorislator must be the last man to 
 suggest the accusation that there is one law for the 
 rich and another for the poor ; that you may gamble 
 and bet as you please at the club, but not in the 
 public-house; that you may play for hundreds, but 
 certainly not for half-crowns. A magistrate must not 
 by any inconsistency provoke the sarcastic smile 
 or wink behind his back of the policeman who 
 receives his instructions. Tall men should brush 
 their hats. If the public clocks of the Town-hall, the 
 Infirmary, and the Church (representing the three 
 professions of law, physic, and divinity) go wrong, 
 where shall the citizen set his watch ? 
 
 Then I would appeal to that mighty Hercules, the 
 common sense {consensus) of public opinion, not to 
 abolish, but to ablute the Augsean stables ; to Jupiter 
 Tonans, the Thunderer, the press, not to advertise 
 " tips," nor even " morals," to ignore the " odds," to 
 allay the irritation of midnight " scratchings," and 
 not to obstruct the pavement with a crowd of loafers 
 waiting to know whether they have lost or won their 
 money instead of honestly earningj it ; to Mars and 
 to Neptune, the military and naval magnates, to dis- 
 courage gambling and betting among their subalterns ; 
 to Mercurius, the chief speakers, not only to denounce 
 these vices in Parliament, from pulpit and platform, 
 but to demonstrate to their hearers the more excellent 
 ways of honourable and useful employment. I would 
 
GAMBLING AND BETTING, 293 
 
 entreat Vulcan, all who have power in the factory 
 and at the forge, to come down upon this evir like 
 Nasmyth's hammer upon a nest of rotten eggs ; and 
 I would beseech Venus, our fair English damsels and 
 dames, to withdraw their presence from the shooting 
 of pigeons at Hurlingham or the plucking them at 
 Monte Carlo. 
 
 We want more sympathy and less selfishness. We 
 want union of hearts as well as union of trades. 
 We want co-operation, which means something more 
 than "Divi." We want more mutual respect and 
 less mutual recrimination, more talk face to face and 
 less behind each other's backs. Then we shall find 
 that we have all of us our temptations and difficulties, 
 and may combine in overcoming them. We should 
 follow the example of the elder Wilberforce. " I have 
 always tried," he said, " to see some good in my fellow- 
 men, and have never failed but twice." When we 
 see others in error, let us remember the wise words 
 of a Kempis, " If thou canst not make thyself to be 
 what thou dost desire, how dost thou expect another 
 to be exactly to thy mind ? " Wherefore — 
 
 " Speak gently to thy brother ; 
 
 Thou yet may'st win him back, 
 By kindly word, and deeds of love, 
 
 From misery's thorny track ; 
 Deal gently, for thou oft hast sinned. 
 
 And yet may sinful bo ; 
 Deal gently with thy brother. 
 
 As God has dealt with thee." 
 
 Not only speak, but deal gently. If gambling and 
 
294 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 betting are so injurious, the question which we have 
 to answer to-night is, What are we doing, what are 
 we going to do, to repress them ? Hypocrites and 
 cowards only cry, " How foolish they have been ; 
 they'll be drowned ; they'll be burned ! How I wish 
 I could help them, but nothing can be done ! " Brave 
 men man the lifeboat, and go up the ladder through 
 the smoke. It's all very well, as far as it goes, to tell 
 a poor fellow that you are sorry that he is starving, 
 but it is far more " gradely " to send him a leg of 
 mutton. We all deplore epidemic disease, but wise 
 men and kind men not only send the doctor and the 
 nurse, but they look to the drains, that they may 
 prevent as well as cure. They go to the springs that 
 they may purify the whole stream, instead of filtering 
 it by the pint. A drunkard said to a philanthropist 
 reproving him, "Come and live in our court, and 
 you'll soon be glad of the whisky." So with gambling 
 and betting. While there is no excuse for those who 
 have healthful homes and occupations and amuse- 
 ments, the plea may certainly be urged by those who 
 have them not ; nay, in too many cases have but 
 a small share in those free gifts which are meant for 
 all — fresh air, pure water, and clear light. " We do 
 not profess," they may say, "to be admirers of 
 gambling and betting, we are not blind to the harm 
 they do, but what do you propose in their place ? " I 
 am a gardener, and I know that if plants have not 
 a good soil, light, and air, they will quickly be 
 infested by grubs, mealy-bugs, aphis, and all manner 
 
GAMBLING AND BETTING. 295 
 
 of flies. So with men : if they have not healthy 
 homes, honest occupation, or social amusement, they 
 will be attacked by parasites, by companions who 
 will ittduce them to drink, to gamble, and bet. 
 
 In the interesting book called " Social Arrows," 
 Lord Brabazon writes, "A Manchester magistrate of 
 my acquaintance told me that, on taking his seat 
 for the first time on the bench, a boy was brought 
 before him charged by the police with playing pitch- 
 farthing in the streets. The magistrate expatiated 
 on the evils of gambling, and suggested to the lad 
 that some amusement, such as marbles, might be sub- 
 stituted. Having dismissed the boy with a caution, 
 the magistrate ordered the next case to be brought 
 forward, when, to his astonishment and confusion, 
 he found that it was a similar one, only that in this 
 instance the unfortunate child had been taken up by 
 the police for playing the very same game which he 
 had recommended ; was told that such games caused 
 obstruction to traffic, that children playing in the 
 streets were a public nuisance, and thus became 
 liable to the law." So that the Manchester street- 
 boy resembled that flying-fish on whom the albatross 
 pounces if he leaves the water, and the dolphin 
 pursues beneath it. 
 
 What was the result ? A consummation devoutly 
 to be wished in every similar case. It was evident 
 to the magistrate that, if these lads had a playground 
 for healthful games, he and they would have been 
 spared that painful interview; and, more than this, 
 
296 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN, 
 
 because "the boy is father to the man," and we all 
 need some recreation, that it would be well if the 
 people had their playgrounds also. He acted upon 
 his impulse, and from that hour gave thought and 
 time and money in his anxious efforts to improve 
 the homes and the amusements, the health and hap- 
 piness, of his fellow-men. 
 
 Why, were it only a matter of expediency, of 
 pounds, shillings, and pence, surely common sense 
 should teach us that if we would have men to fiorht 
 the battles and do the work of the nation, we must 
 keep them in good condition. You must keep your 
 machinery clean, and oil it now and then. Over-ride 
 your horse, and he'll spring a sinew. Give him 
 regular exercise, a roomy stable, sweet hay, and a 
 few old beans now and then, and he'll neither jib 
 nor kick over the traces. 
 
 But we must have higher motions than these. 
 Social and commercial interests may be admirable 
 allies, but they cannot win the victory by themselves. 
 Religious conviction, the witness of the Holy Spirit 
 in our hearts, Christianity, alone can instruct us, 
 empower us, constrain us, to contend against that 
 which is evil in ourselves and in others. 
 
 Yes, I am sure that Christianity alone can impress 
 us with a sense of these obligations and bring us the 
 power to fulfil them. Religion alone can enable us 
 to convince others, as we are ourselves convinced, 
 that gambling and betting are degradations of the 
 redeemed and regenerate man, vile abuses of those 
 
 i 
 
GAMBLING AND BETTING. 2^7 
 
 gifts and energies which were given us for nobler 
 ends, and miserable failures to find happiness, where, 
 sooner or later, there is but sorrow and shame. 
 
 Alas ! this curse had never come to us had we but 
 been true children of the Church — of the mother who 
 taught us, as soon as we were able to learn, " not to 
 covet nor desire other men's goods, but to learn and 
 labour truly to get our own living, and to do our 
 duty in that state of life, to which it shall please 
 God to call us." 
 
XVIII. 
 
 THE CHUECH AND DISSENT. 
 
 A TRUE desire for unity can only exist in the hearts 
 of sincere and earnest Christians, who have learned 
 something of the mind which was in Him who 
 prayed that we might all be one ; and, therefore, in 
 our considerations of reunion between the Church 
 and Dissent, we must leave out all mere professors, 
 formalists, and partisans. We must eliminate, on the 
 one hand, all those who are Church-people, mainly 
 because papa has a pew ; who go to church once a 
 week — hebdomadal Christians — to keep up appear- 
 ances, "for the sake of the young people and the 
 servants, you know ; " who go because landlords, and 
 employers, and customers, and genteel people, and 
 carriage-folk will be there ; or because the Church is 
 a national institution, and it is their solemn con- 
 viction that if they do not patronize it now and then 
 it must decay, dissolve, and, like the baseless fabric 
 of a dream, leave not^a rack behind. And, on the 
 other hand, we must decline to notice those who are 
 Dissenters from social and political, but not from 
 spiritual, motives. We must refuse to listen to any 
 
THE CHURCH AND DISSENT. 399 
 
 railing accusations from one side or the other ; to the 
 intolerant parson, who tells his people that the first 
 Dissenter was Cain; or to the Baptist leader, who, 
 in speaking recently of the Churches of Ireland and 
 England, compared them to Ananias and Sapphira, 
 and foretold a like destruction. No, we must "let 
 all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, 
 and evil speaking, be put away from us, with all 
 malice ; " and then, when this high and holy am- 
 bition, the reunion of Christians, is prayerfully, 
 tenderly studied and discussed by those who love 
 the church or who love the chapel, only because they 
 believe in their hearts that in the church or in the 
 chapel they can comprehend more clearly " the truth 
 as it is in Jesus " — then, and then only, can we await 
 in sure and certain hope the promised benediction 
 of God. 
 
 All earnest Christians hate strife and yearn for 
 peace. It is the unstable and the insincere, not 
 having the faith, nor the courage, to give their life 
 to God, who are loud in controversy, and try to 
 believe that they are religious, because they are ever 
 denouncing the weaknesses and protesting against 
 the mistakes of others. It is these men whose 
 counsel, like Moloch's, is for open war, who delight 
 in magnifying the differences between Church and 
 Dissent, who say to all men, " Be avenged of your 
 adversary," instead of " Sirs, ye are brethren." At 
 the Church Congress, the other day, one of the 
 speakers told us, that in passing through the streets 
 
300 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 he noticed a crowd of boys, evidently influenced by 
 a great excitement, and he found on inquiring that 
 they were anxiously instigating two of their com- 
 panions to fight. So he addressed himself to the 
 principals for whom a duel was proposed, and asked 
 them, " Do you want to fight ? " and when they 
 promptly answered, "No, sir," then said he, "Don't," 
 and they didn't. They shook hands, to the disgust 
 and dispersion of those truculent young rascals, who 
 shouted for the battle. 
 
 And this suggests a question, serious and sad — 
 Who shall be first to hold out the hand of friendship ? 
 The answer is plain as painful — The one who pro- 
 voked the quarrel, the Church of England. 
 
 Let me speak of facts within my own experience. 
 In my boyhood and early youth I never even saw 
 the man to whom had been entrusted the spiritual 
 charge of the parish in which I lived. He did not 
 reside in the same county. A curate had lodgings 
 five miles away, and came to us once a week for one 
 brief, cold, heartless service. My memory recalls 
 him as he stands, with his overcoat, hat, and riding- 
 whip upon the Holy Table, asking from the sexton 
 whether there were any infants to be baptized (at 
 home, of course, in a pudding-basin), or any dead to 
 be buried in a churchyard, which was the village 
 playground, and where horses were turned out to 
 graze. The sparrows twittered and the bats glided 
 silently overhead, the beetles crawled over the damp, 
 broken floor below ; prayers, canticles, psalms, were 
 
THE CHURCH AND DISSENT, 301 
 
 read by the parson and his m8-a-viSy the clerk, only ; 
 and then, as you have seen at a circus the active 
 horseman drop his outward raiment, and suddenly 
 assume a new costume and character, so was the 
 surplice hastily doffed, and the preacher gave us a 
 sermon, old and dingy as the gown in which it was 
 preached. There was no visiting, no teaching, no 
 almsgiving, no sympathy, no love. The shepherds 
 ate of the fat and clothed themselves with the wool, 
 but they did not feed the flock. Was it strange that 
 the sheep should wander, when the fold was un- 
 guarded and the pasture bare ? Was it strange that 
 men who felt that they had their souls to save, and 
 had found a Saviour, should exhort and encourage 
 one another, and should assemble themselves together 
 where they could, because the temple of the Lord 
 was closed ? I say the memory of those men is 
 blessed; and, though you may affirm that their suc- 
 cessors in many instances have not their devoted 
 piety, that they seem very often to be influenced by 
 prejudice rather than by principle, and that in these 
 days, when the Church is awake and putting on her 
 strength, they cannot plead the same just motives 
 for separation, I say, instead of being deluded by 
 Satan — instead of hating those whom she has wronged 
 — instead of denouncing and deriding, the Church is 
 bound to regard Dissent with shame and humility, 
 to pray with all her heart, to ponder with all her 
 mind, and to work with all her might and means, 
 for reunion with those whom, had she been faithful 
 
302 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 to her trust, she would not have alienated, estranged, 
 and lost. 
 
 And, again, it must be remembered that in address- 
 ing Dissenters you accost them by a title which they 
 do not own. They will tell you that they are con- 
 stant to a religion in which many of them were born, 
 and that they believe in it as firmly as you believe 
 in yours. Or perhaps they may say that you may 
 call them Dissenters, if you please, inasmuch as the 
 history of religion is the history of Dissent, the East 
 from the West, England from Rome, Geneva from 
 England, Protestant from Catholic, Nonconformist 
 from Churchmen ; differences of administration, they 
 may argue, but from the same Spirit. And though 
 you feel sure that they are wrong, and that disunion 
 is wrong, is there not yet another consideration which 
 should make us very gentle, very careful, when we are 
 tempted to reproach or reform ? I mean the conscious- 
 ness of dissent between our own will and God's will, 
 the voice of the prophet sounding in our ears, " Your 
 iniquities have separated between you and your God." 
 
 Of this I am quite sure, that while all denunciations, 
 all demands of allegiance, all satire, however caustic, 
 all mere controversial arguments, will repel rather 
 than attract, that spirit of humility which recognizes 
 a wrong and seeks to repair it, will evoke the 
 sympathy for which it prays and works. It may 
 be despised by the arrogant, misunderstood by the 
 ignorant, mistaken for weakness, for cowardice, for 
 deceit, by the suspicious ; but it will be appreciated 
 
THE CHURCH AND DISSENT. 303 
 
 by good and generous men. Though the enterprise 
 
 seems sometimes hopeless, and we sigh, " I labour 
 
 for peace; but when I speak unto them thereof they 
 
 make ready to battle ; " if we will only " let patience 
 
 have her perfect work/' if we will only " learn to 
 
 labour and to wait," though we may not see in this 
 
 world the results for which we toil (and we are but 
 
 as men clearing the ground from ruins, that others 
 
 may rebuild, but as men ploughing and sowing, 
 
 breaking up fallow ground), be sure that there shall 
 
 come hereafter, in the good time of the Almighty, 
 
 first the blade and then the ear, and then the full 
 
 corn in the ear. God encourages this faith and hope. 
 
 At a mission which I conducted no long time ago 
 
 in this diocese, only two or three Dissenters attended 
 
 our first services ; but when, in one of the addresses, 
 
 I expressed the views which I have expressed to 
 
 you on the spirit in which, as it seemed to me, the 
 
 Church should regard Nonconformists, they came in 
 
 numbers ; indeed, the last night of the mission 
 
 (Sunday) they closed their chapels, that all might 
 
 come to it. Nor can I refrain, though I be accused 
 
 of egotism (and yet how can one prefer facts to 
 
 theories, or relate our experience, without it ?), nor 
 
 can I refrain from repeating a compliment paid to 
 
 me by a worthy old Wesleyan, when he remarked 
 
 to the vicar of his parish, for whom I had been 
 
 preaching a harvest sermon, " They tell me he's one 
 
 of them Romans, but I like to hear the man." Why ? 
 
 because our hearts were united by their love of the 
 
304 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 Lord Jesus; "aud this commandment have we from 
 Him, That he who loveth God love his brother also." 
 
 But while history and conscience teach us humility, 
 they bid us also to be honest, and loyal and brave. 
 They repeat to us the words which Bishop Phillpotts, 
 of Exeter, addressed to the Archbishop of Canterbury : 
 " My lord, no good ever yet came from the sacrifice 
 of truth to peace." They warn us that when great 
 cracks break out in our walls and ceilings, it won't 
 do to daub with untempered mortar, and paste a 
 pretty paper over, and say, " How nice it looks ! " 
 but we must strengthen the foundation of the bouse. 
 Let us be sincere, candid, outspoken to each other; 
 let us not waste our breath and our soap in blowing 
 bubbles which so quickly burst, but let us utilize 
 them in earnest pleading for the truth, and in washing 
 our hands and faces. Don't let us deceive one another 
 with false notions that separation is strength — (behold 
 how good and joyful a thing it is, brethren, not to 
 dwell together in unity), and that every man may 
 do that which is right in his own eyes, if it seemeth 
 to him to be right. Oh, beware of that easy and 
 greasy benevolence whose text is, " It does not matter," 
 " there lives more faith in honest doubt, believe me, 
 than in half the creeds ; " because so many love not 
 the truth well enough to contend earnestly for it. 
 Men talk about concessions of Church principles and 
 Church property ; they are not ours to concede. 
 
 Let me briefly illustrate my meaning, both as to 
 principle and practice. 
 
THE CHURCH AND DISSENT, 305 
 
 So long as the Church of England tells us, in the 
 preface to her Ordination Offices, that "from the 
 Apostles' time there have been three orders of ministers 
 in Christ's Church, bishops, and priests, and deacons," 
 and in her twenty-third Article, that " it is not lawful 
 for any man to take upon him the office of public 
 preaching, or ministering the sacraments in the con- 
 gregation, before he be lawfully called and sent," we 
 Churchmen are bound to maintain that there are 
 three Christian orders in the Church, and that " a 
 religious community is not duly and fully a Church 
 without them." 
 
 Let us follow the example of our heroic chief,* and 
 not be ashamed of our faith. We shall be called 
 bigots, sacerdotal despots, and the like, but we shall 
 induce thoughtful men to make inquiries, and some 
 to think with us. The Bishop of Lincoln's pastoral 
 to the Wesleyans was denounced as narrow-minded 
 and repellent. But what has been the result ? Out 
 of sixty- three students who have entered the Theo- 
 logical College at Lincoln, with a view to taking holy 
 orders, ten have come from the Nonconformists, of 
 whom seven are Wesleyans, and these have stated 
 that many others would follow their example were 
 they not prevented by difficulties which arise, not in 
 foro conscienticB, not from spiritual, but from social 
 and financial, sources.! Churchman or Nonconformist, 
 
 * Bishop Christoplier Wordsworth. 
 
 t The bishop wrote, in acknowledging a copy of this paper, " By 
 a remarkable coincidence, it came to me with overtures from three 
 Wesleyans, asking Ordination in the Church." 
 
 X 
 
305 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 let US say what we think. When we had a meeting 
 some two years ago in the town of Nottingham, as to 
 the reunion of Christians, an esteemed member of the 
 Baptist Communion told us cordially and truthfully 
 that the chief difficulty presented itself in this question 
 of government. " For example," he said, " I call myself 
 a bishop." I admit that this difficulty is a gigantic 
 hindrance and discouragement, so great as to make 
 any corporate return of the sects for the present 
 hopeless ; but it is well to know what the difficulty 
 is, and if we have only faith in our Church we shall 
 move mountains. 
 
 I have spoken of the spirit in which, as it seems to 
 me, we Churchmen should regard Dissent. May I 
 offer to you, in conclusion, a few short suggestions 
 which are, I hope, of a practical character ? Church- 
 people should read, and should be taught by pastors 
 and parents, the history of the Church, and her claims 
 as the ancient Church of this land upon their obedience 
 and love. 
 
 Ask the first dozen men you meet why they 
 belong to the Church rather than to any other com- 
 munity of Christians, and you will be favoured in 
 many cases with arguments which a clever Noncon- 
 formist would demolish as easily as your little brother 
 puffed down in childhood the card house of which 
 you were so proud. And Churchmen should acquaint 
 themselves with the reasons why Nonconformists do 
 not conform, and then, instead of sneer and ridicule, 
 and the notion that Dissent springs only from the 
 
THE CHURCH AND DISSENT. 307 
 
 spirit of opposition, there will be, towards those who 
 are true to their principles, respect and a desire to 
 conciliate. The Church should extend her ministra- 
 tions and her means of grace among the classes with 
 whom Dissent has its chief influence. We need large 
 churches, free and open. We want services solemn, 
 reverent, devotional, but bright and simple and short, 
 to which working men can go, if they please, before 
 and after their work. We want our churches to be 
 not houses of prayer only, nor houses of preaching, 
 nor houses of music only, but that which so many 
 churches profess to be, but are not, " places of worship." 
 Places of praise and thanksgiving from the hearts of 
 men, who know that the Lord is in His holy place, 
 who know that the King is on His throne, who feel 
 His Holy Spirit in their souls, who are sure that with 
 angels and archangels, and all the company of heaven, 
 they laud and magnify the glorious Name, who believe 
 and realize the communion of saints. 
 
 A few words specially as to preaching. 
 
 A man who only reads other men's sermons, has 
 mistaken his vocation — he is too idle, too ignorant, 
 or too insincere to preach. Dr. Dollinger said to Mr. 
 Gladstone, " Depend upon it, if the Church of England 
 is to make way, and be a thoroughly national Church, 
 the clergy must give up this preaching from written 
 sermons." I believe that all honest men could do 
 this efficiently ; because, in the words of one of the 
 most impressive of modern preachers, " I think it no 
 extravagance to say, that a very inferior sermon 
 
308 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 delivered "without book, answers the purpose for 
 which all sermons are delivered more perfectly than 
 one of great merit, if it be written and read." 
 
 And why not more preachers ? Why should not 
 laymen be authorized to preach as of old, as the Fran- 
 ciscans ? The bishops could empower laymen to preach, 
 just as Alexander of Jerusalem licensed Origen, before 
 he was in Orders, not only to teach but to preach 
 in the catechetical schools of Alexandria. If not in 
 churches, in mission-rooms, schoolrooms, and wherever 
 else they please, so that in church and out of church the 
 poor might have the gospel preached to them — not that 
 vague, undefined, mysterious gospel which so many 
 talk about but so few explain, which means anything 
 or nothing, but the gospel in its purity, as our Lord 
 preached it. "When thou doest thine alms — when 
 thou prayest — when thou fastest — Do this iu remem- 
 brance of Me;" "If any man will come after Me, let 
 him take up his cross and follow Me;" "He that 
 doeth the will shaU know of the doctrine ; " "I was 
 an hungred, and ye gave Me meat." 
 
 Preaching His words, and following His example, 
 we must draw nearer to each other, as we draw nearer 
 to Him, because (remember this above all things), if 
 we follow His example, we shall pray for unity ; and 
 this we can all do, Churchmen or Nonconformists — we 
 can pray that He would gather together in one the 
 children of God that are scattered abroad. Yes, if in 
 a spirit of penitent humility, and yet with a courageous 
 faith, if striving earnestly to redeem the past, to teach 
 
THE CHURCH AND DISSENT. 309 
 
 the truth, to preach the faith once delivered to the 
 saints, if bearing one another's burdens, those burdens 
 which oppress us body and soul, we pray that we may 
 be, like the multitude of those that first believed, of 
 one heart and one soul, in His own good time and 
 way He will give us our heart's desire ; and in that 
 battle between good and evil, faith and unbelief, 
 Christ and Antichrist, which is ever raging around 
 and in us, the Church of England shall regain the 
 alliance she has lost, by proving that she has the right 
 and the power to lead. 
 
XIX. 
 
 ON THE CAUSES, THE CONDUCT, AND 
 THE CONSEQUENCES OF SIN.* 
 
 I. The Causes of Sin. 
 
 " A CERTAIN man had two sons, and the younger of 
 them said to his father, Father, give me the portion 
 of goods that falleth to me." And in these words 
 "we read that primary cause of sin which has 
 brought so much shame and sorrow to all sorts and 
 conditions of men, so much ruin to body and soul 
 — discontent — discontent with home. With a kind, 
 affectionate father; with abundance — bread enough 
 and to spare ; with servants to minister to all his 
 wants ; with youth, and health, and strength ; with 
 few responsibilities and cares ; yet was he discontent. 
 What was the cause ? Whence blew that chilly wind 
 into the warm atmosphere of love ? Whence rose 
 that gloomy cloud which cast its shadow on the sun- 
 shine of his morning life ? Did some malignant voice 
 whisper in his ear that the gentle rule of his father, 
 the regular and innocent routine of his daily life, was 
 
 ♦ These addresses have been published in Good Words, and are 
 reprinted by permission. 
 
THE CAUSES OF SIN. 31I 
 
 irksome and monotonous ? Was he jealous of his elder 
 brother ? I dare say that brother was not so kind as 
 he might have been, for we read further on in the 
 history that he was ungenerous and hard. But with 
 all his temptations — and, of course, he was tempted, 
 for Satan tempts us all — and with all his troubles, for 
 it is a world of sorrow, he had far more to make him 
 joyous than sad. The lot had fallen unto him in a fair 
 ground, and not in the dry desert, not in the bleak 
 wilderness of life. Why, then, was he not content ? 
 
 Alas ! is it not within our own experience how the 
 fretful cravinof for somethinor which we were for- 
 bidden to have, moved us to do evil — to take that 
 which was not ours, to say that which was not true, 
 to do that which we knew was wrong ; the first act 
 of impurity, the first of intemperance ? 
 
 When we review the past, when conscience says to 
 memory, " Thou writest bitter things against me, and 
 causest me to possess the iniquities of my youth," 
 how many of these sorrowful regrets may be traced 
 to a fretful discontent ? What a shadow it casts even 
 upon the sunny days of childhood, to remember how 
 impatient we were with those who loved us so dearly, 
 how we presumed on an affection which could never 
 tire ! We think upon the past, look upon some 
 letter, some photograph, some work that was done 
 by a vanished hand, hear some song that was sung 
 by a voice that is still, stand by some sacred grave, 
 and we sigh to ourselves and say, "Oh, how un- 
 worthy I was of all that tenderness ! how I vexed 
 
312 ADDRESSES TO WO RISING MEN. 
 
 that anxious sympathy ! how I tried that gentle en- 
 durance ! how obstinately, how selfishly, I held on my 
 stubborn way, though I saw the anguish of that loving 
 soul, when it besought me, and I would not hear 1 " 
 
 The pride, which makes us wise in our own con- 
 ceit, is largely blended with this spirit of impatience 
 and a primary cause of sin. How many have said 
 with this younger son, "I am not appreciated here 
 in this quiet place, this dull home out of the world. 
 I have talents, and I would have them admired. I 
 am nobody here, only a subordinate. I want more 
 liberty and independence — to be my own master, to 
 go where I will, speak as I like, do as I like. Why 
 should I wait for the portion of goods which falleth 
 to me ? Why should I not enjoy it now — amid new 
 faces and new scenes, with gay friends and merry 
 companions of my own age and tastes ? " 
 
 To discontent and pride must be added curiosity, 
 that subtle source of so much deadly sin. For there 
 arises amid plenty a new appetite, a mysterious 
 craving for something, at first we know not what. It 
 casts a shadow upon the pure, sparkling rivulet of 
 boyhood, which darkens as the stream grows broad 
 and deep. It is the accursed longing, inherited by 
 every child of Adam, to have some experience of sin, 
 to taste the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good 
 and evil. So this younger son would go into the 
 world and see what its pleasures were like. Some, 
 it may be, who had already devoted themselves to 
 these pleasures had excited his envy, as he had seen 
 
 I 
 
THE CAUSES OF SIN. 313 
 
 them, " pride in their port, defiance in their eye ; " 
 always rejoicing, as it seemed, in loud and reckless 
 merriment, in such prosperity (as the Psalmist saw 
 them), and coming to no misfortune like other folk. 
 They had sneered, it may be, at his dull, secluded 
 life. They even tried to persuade him that it was 
 unmanly, and something to be ashamed of, not to 
 have any knowledge of gratifications which were so 
 natural and so common. Why should he be different 
 from others ? Why should he set up to be a saint ? 
 Religion might be all very well for the old and the 
 sickly, for women and priests, but what had it to 
 give to him? Perhaps they told him that "youth 
 must have its fling" — profane and foolish words, 
 as though God had made sin a necessity, or as though 
 there were no noble ambitions, no brave preparations, 
 no manly recreations, to occupy the mind of youth. 
 
 Perhaps love of money, that root of all evil, was in 
 this, as in countless cases, a cause of sin. " Give me 
 the portion of goods that falleth unto me." Did he 
 long to count the silver and gloat upon the gold ? 
 Money — we know that it has with some a marvel- 
 lous attraction — the rustling of the crisp, clean 
 notes to the rich, the gleaming coins to the poor, 
 for its own sake as well as for that which it can buy. 
 There is no such slavish idolatry as that of money, 
 which loves the bank-book better than the Bible ; 
 and the worshipper is well named miser — miserable. 
 
 What practical lessons may these thoughts leave 
 with us ? 
 
314 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 That those who have the blessing of a home, where 
 hearts are of each other sure, where there is plenty, 
 and where there is peace, should thank God heartily 
 and often for the most precious of all earthly posses- 
 sions, for ''the only happiness which has survived 
 the Fall" That they should pray that He will 
 continue this precious heritage to them and to their 
 children, remembering how much depends upon them- 
 selves. That they who hold rule in a household 
 mainly, but all the members individually, make or 
 mar the happiness of a home. Persistent selfishness 
 in any form — idleness, greediness, suUenness, jealousy, 
 disobedience — like a false note in an instrument, will 
 spoil the harmony. 
 
 Charity, which begins at home, means more than 
 the love of children. In the home where there are 
 servants it remembers that " God is no respecter of 
 persons; " that one soul is just as dear as another to 
 Him, who died for us all ; that we are all servants of 
 one Master. 
 
 Charity is not bounded by brick walls. You may 
 do something to make other homes happy as well as 
 your own. You may help the weak, visit the sick, 
 and comfort sorrow. Do you ever try ? 
 
 11. The Conduct of Sin. 
 
 "Not many days aftervjards he gathered all together. 
 Not many days ; for lust, when it hath conceived, 
 quickly bringeth forth sin, and sin quickly bringeth 
 
THE CONDUCT OF SIN. 315 
 
 forth its first and worst influence — selfishness. There 
 was still some hesitation. The voice which always 
 pleads so distinctly, so pursuasively, until the ears 
 are dull of hearing that they cannot hear, said, " Do 
 not go. Enter not into the path of the wicked, and 
 go not into the way of evil men." Who has not 
 heard it ? " It is not yours ; do not take it. It is 
 not true ; do not say it. It is cruel ; it is deceitful ; 
 it is profane ; it is impure and unclean ; oh, do not 
 doit!" 
 
 What hindrances and barriers hath God set up 
 between the soul and sin ! As the arteries in our 
 bodies are protected by the greater bones, so hath 
 He made safeguards for the souls of His elect. Who 
 has not some experience how, when he was going, 
 like Balaam, against God's bidding, upon some un- 
 righteous errand, an angel met him in the way? 
 Even when the struggle with temptation was over, 
 when the spirit had surrendered to the flesh, and it 
 seemed that the opportunity had come, and the sin 
 was inevitable, God saves from the jaws of death. 
 The voice of a little child in the distance has saved 
 men and women from deadly sin.* The smile upon a 
 mother's picture has stayed the hand of suicide. 
 
 But he had made up his mind to do evil. So, not 
 many days after, he gathered all together. Indeed, 
 
 ♦ " A little child's soft sleeping face 
 
 The murderer's knife ere now hath stayed 
 The adulterer's eye, so foul and base, 
 Is of a little child afraid." 
 
3l6 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 it must havo been a sorrowful sight to see that 
 wayward, wilful boy — for he was hardly more — •' 
 flushed and excited, hurrying to and fro, claiming all 
 that he could, regardless of the feelings, of the dis- 
 comfort of others ; and then turning his back upon 
 parents, kindred, companions, all the old haunts and 
 associations of his life, without a tear 'or sigh of 
 regret, rather congratulating himself that he had 
 gathered all, got as much as he could ; and so, little 
 thinking that he left behind him all that was really 
 precious — love, purity, and peace — with his own 
 hands he flung away the rope which held him to that 
 peaceful, happy shore, and drifted into unknown 
 seas. 
 
 He took his journey into a far country. Is not 
 that always the way of sin, to get away from the 
 friends and guides of its youth, and from the proper 
 sphere of duty ? First it frets against the dulness 
 of home ; it is sullen and disobedient, and then, when 
 reproved, rebellious. " I can bear this slavery no 
 longer," it says ; " I can endure this cant no more. I 
 will not be scolded and preached at. I will go into 
 some far country where there is freedom, where I can 
 do that which I desire to do." 
 
 He who is at enmity with himself, with his better 
 self, is at enmity with God and with goodness. The 
 very presence of religious persons is hateful to the 
 depraved; the mean man shuns the generous; the 
 idle slinks away from the industrious ; the drunkard 
 from the temperate, because vice cannot endure the 
 
THE CONDUCT OF SIN. 317 
 
 company of virtue : for what fellowship hath righteous- 
 ness with unrighteousness, and what communion hath 
 light with darkness ? and sin loves darkness rather 
 than light. 
 
 And then in that far country, a land in which, 
 as writes St. Augustine, the sinner, God forgetting, 
 seems to be by God forgot, "he wasted his sub- 
 stance in riotous living." There was no restraint 
 upon him now. None to admonish, plenty to admire, 
 he was " lord of himself, that heritage of woe." So 
 he not only lost all sense of modesty, prudence, tem- 
 perance, but he began to glory in his shame ; to fancy 
 that there was something high-spirited and generous 
 in extravagance and waste — to be the favourite (as he 
 thinks) of some depraved woman, who will leave him 
 when he has spent his all. 
 
 They made him believe, as thousands before him, 
 and as thousands now, that he was the prince of good 
 fellows, the leader of his set, the life of his company; 
 and so in riotous living and with harlots he wasted 
 his substance. 
 
 So that younger son took all the goods that fell to 
 him, and wasted them. He gathered all together, and 
 then scattered it to the winds. The money, which 
 for years had been accumulating for him, which had 
 been earned, it may be, by honest industry, which by 
 a prudent use might have been amplified, have brought 
 him all the comforts of life, and been bequeathed to 
 his children's children — it was all spent; not only 
 spent, but wasted. Noretuni; nothing to show for 
 
3l8 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 it ; not a house, not a field — all gone ; as utterly lost 
 to him as though he had sunk it in the sea. With 
 some of that gold, for ever vanished, what kindly 
 deeds he might have done ! He might have encouraged 
 industry, rewarded merit, helped those who could not 
 help themselves ; the blessing of him that was ready 
 to perish might have come upon him, and he might 
 have caused the widow's heart to sing for joy. He 
 had wasted it all in wild drunken revelry with 
 harlots. 
 
 It was not only his money he had wasted ; it was 
 his substance — all that he had ; his being, his time, 
 his very self — " all the gifts of nature and of grace." 
 Look at that marvellous picture by Hogarth of the 
 " Rake's Progress," and you will see the helpless, hope- 
 less prostration, physical and mental, the miserable 
 degradation, vainly trying to hide itself beneath a 
 feeble idiotic smile, of the ruined spendthrift. 
 
 A wasted life ! God forbid that any of us in read- 
 ing this history should deceive ourselves with this 
 notion, that there are no prodigals but those who give 
 themselves to sensual indulgences, to reckless ex- 
 travagance, to riotous living with harlots. There are 
 countless Christians, whom the world appraises as 
 " highly respectable," who break no laws and make 
 no enemies, but who are living wasted lives, doing 
 absolutely nothing for their souls, their Saviour (as 
 they call Him), or their fellow-men ; they waste their 
 time in idleness, and because they do no positive harm 
 they try to think all is well. They forget that if 
 
THE CONSEQUENCES OF SIN. 319 
 
 land is not ploughed and sown it brings forth weeds 
 of itself. They waste their money. They pay their 
 debts and all that comes against them, as they say ; 
 and because there are many neighbours in debt or dis- 
 honest, they are satisfied, and never deny themselves 
 that they may give to others. In vain the great Judge 
 Himself has revealed to them that He will welcome 
 to His glory those only who for His sake have done 
 works of mercy. We waste our high gifts of thought 
 and reason on continuous debates upon small subjects, 
 futile speculations upon mysteries which we cannot 
 solve, ill-natured sarcasm, literature which teaches us 
 nothing. But it is written, " Thou shalt serve the 
 Lord thy God with all thy mind ; " " His testimonies 
 shall be thy study ; " " Let this mind be in you which 
 was in Christ Jesus." 
 
 Ill The Consequences of Sin. 
 
 The consequences of sin, as sure to follow as the 
 night the day. Wisdom crieth aloud, " Be sure your 
 sins will find you out," but ignorance will not believe. 
 
 Who has not had some experience of this accursed 
 fascination ? Taught, entreated, threatened, it seems 
 as though nothing but experience would convince. 
 " Youth on the prow, and pleasure at the helm," the 
 sky so cloudless and the sea so calm, we hear the 
 siren's song ; we will listen only for a while, and at a 
 safe distance ; but as we listen, smoothly and swiftly 
 the vessel drifts towards the rock. 
 
320 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 We will only look into the garden of forbidden 
 fruits, just to see what they are like, and return; and 
 they are so pleasant to the eye that we go again to 
 gaze ; and they look so good for food that we touch 
 and taste, and when we find that they are sweet and 
 luscious, not bitter or poisonous, as some had said, we 
 devour them greedily. There seems no danger and 
 no harm. So we begin to think, either that we have 
 been frightened unnecessarily by our conscience or by 
 our counsellors, or that the offence is so trivial that 
 God takes no notice. 
 
 And I would remark here that parents and teachers 
 sometimes make a great mistake when, right in 
 purpose but wrong in policy, they seek to deter their 
 children and their pupils from doing evil by assuring 
 them that sin is altogether a disappointment ; that the 
 fruits, of which I spoke just now, though fair to the 
 eye, like the apples of Sodom, are at once ashes in 
 the mouth ; that Satan has no pleasures to give to his 
 dupes, and that the punishment of sin is manifest and 
 immediate. It would assuredly be more wise and 
 kind to tell the w^hole truth to the young ; namely, 
 that, though sin ever promises more than it can 
 perform, in gratifying the lusts of the flesh, and the 
 lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, it has great 
 and sensible delights. That they may continue to 
 enjoy it for a season, and may walk for years in the 
 light of its fire, and in the sparks that it has kindled, 
 and may seem to prosper, and even to come to no 
 misfortune like other folks, hut that there never was 
 
THE CONSEQUENCES OF SIN. 32 1 
 
 an exception to the result of which the prophet 
 speaks — " it shall lie down in sorrow " — it may be 
 in bodily abasement to be scourged by the whips of 
 their early vices, in mental abasements of loss, dis- 
 honour, and remorse, or (God grant it for Christ's 
 sake !) in the abasement of a penitent soul. 
 
 But the fears of temporal penalties deter very few 
 from sin ; the world laughs at them, the flesh forgets 
 them in the fruition of its lust, the devil disputes 
 them. The only fear is that of death and the 
 " something after death " — of that retribution of 
 which God has given to His creatures, in all times 
 and places, an instinctive awe and expectation, which 
 will restrain from wickedness. 
 
 But the fear of the Lord is only the beginning 
 of wisdom, and our Father, our Saviour, our Holy 
 Teacher, gives us an infinitely more persuasive and 
 potent motive to keep our souls from sin. It is love. 
 We love Him because He first loved us ; the love of 
 Christ constraineth us ; the first fruit of the Spirit 
 is love; and so we come to love that which God 
 loves, and to hate that which He hates. For one 
 sinner scared from his sins, a thousand are led gently 
 by the tender pleas of mercy. 
 
 And so to that young spendthrift of the parable 
 the hateful degradation and indigence of sin was to 
 suggest the brightness and generosity of his father's 
 love. When he had spent all, there arose a mighty 
 famine in that land, and he began to be in want. Of 
 whatever gifts the waste may have been, whether the 
 
 Y 
 
322 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 rich man has wasted thousands, or the poor man 
 pounds ; whether the learned has wasted his oppor- 
 tunities of teaching, or the ignorant his opportunities 
 of learning ; whether the orator has been eloquent for 
 a bribe, or the artist has profaned his art, or men in 
 authority have abused their power ; by whatsoever 
 road men have wandered from their heavenly home, 
 in whatever way they have misspent their heritage, 
 sooner or later comes a famine into the soul, and they 
 begin to be in want. "Rejoice, O young man, in thy 
 youth, and let thine heart cheer thee in the days 
 of thy youth, and in the ways of thine heart and 
 in the sight of thine eyes;" set parents at nought, 
 ridicule religion, speak evil of dignities ; nay, waste 
 thy substance, thy strength, thy beauty, thy mind, 
 thy manhood, thy soul, with harlots, " but know thou 
 that for all these things God shall bring thee into 
 judgment." 
 
 Yet he hesitated; he lingered on the scene of his 
 sin ; he went and hired himself to a citizen of that 
 country, as gamblers who have lost all have been 
 seen doing menial service in the place where their 
 ruin came. Still he lingered, as when the Jews went 
 back to Jerusalem after their captivity, some who 
 had fallen into idolatry having intermarried with the 
 women of Babylon remained behind, and are still 
 found in the modern town of Hillel, which stands 
 within the circuit of the ancient city. And he was 
 sent into the fields to feed swine. Picture him, this 
 younger son, who in purple and fine linen had fared 
 
THE CONSEQUENCES OF SIN, 323 
 
 sumptuously every day, waited upon by others, now 
 in his faded finery feeding swine ! 
 
 He who was discontented amid all the comforts 
 of home is exposed to the heat and storm; he who 
 had abundance would fain satisfy his hunger with 
 the husks which the swine did eat — would prey on 
 garbage, past feeling, giving himself to work all 
 uncleanness with greediness. 
 
 "And no man gave to him" Sin is too selfish 
 to make lasting friendships. The worldling will 
 patronize, or will cringe to you, so long as you 
 can minister to this selfishness, or lead it, but when 
 you lose this power it leaves you. "Confederacies 
 of vice and leagues of pleasure" ignore the absent, 
 and 
 
 " He who has but tears to give, 
 Must weep those tears alone." 
 
 Surely it is one of the saddest experiences of life to 
 note, in our visits to the sick and to the sad, how 
 rarely the boon companions of the club or the tavern 
 come to see the brother in adversity, and if they 
 come how powerless they are to comfort. Society 
 has no ambulance, no sisters of mercy for those that 
 fall in its service. 'Tis " Let the stricken deer go 
 weep, the hart ungalled play." There is the sound 
 of a pistol-shot, and a dead man lies in the gardens 
 of Monte Carlo, but the music and the play go on. 
 
 And when he came to him^self— to his real self — to 
 reason, to conscience ; for he had been living " beside 
 himself," " out of his mind," as we say. Mere selfish- 
 
324 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 ness, worldliness, sensuality, not only lose the power, 
 but the wish, to exercise the nobler faculties. As 
 disease weakens the physical powers until fever 
 comes — delirium — it may be death, so sin impairs 
 the perceptive faculties, specially the discernment 
 between good and evil, until all that is divine is 
 destroyed, the grace of God turned into lascivious- 
 ness ; the soul, which was made for heaven, given up 
 to the evil spirits of carnal lust — to madness. 
 
 For sin is madness. Always in the sight of God 
 and His angels " the heart of the sons of men is full 
 of evil, and madness is in their heart while they 
 live." No lunatic in our asylums so mad as he who 
 is resisting and defying God. In His sight always, 
 as when the prophets wrote it, men are " mad upon 
 their idols" — man's applause, woman's love, more 
 gold, new honours. 
 
 Sin is madness. " It is the nature of sin, not only 
 to defile, but to infatuate." It gradually incapacitates 
 head and heart from spiritual apprehensions, until 
 no argument convinces, no terror alarms, no tender- 
 ness softens. " They hear not Moses and the prophets, 
 neither would they be persuaded, though one rose 
 from the dead." 
 
 For a time the sinner will defend his sin. He 
 will dress it, and disguise and mask it. He will give 
 it false appellations. He will call lust, love; waste, 
 generosity ; licence, liberty ; cheating, shrewdness ; 
 meanness, economy ; fear, prudence ; deceit, diplomacy. 
 So he comes first to lose his dread of sin, then to 
 
THE CONSEQUENCES OF SIN. 325 
 
 like it, to delight in it, to make it his idol. The 
 girl who blushed to hear an immodest word hath 
 no more shame than Jezebel; the boy who started 
 in horror when he first heard the profane oath hath 
 " opened his mouth in blasphemies against God," and 
 hardly knows when he utters them. Presumptuous 
 sin hath got the dominion over him. He is even 
 as a man that hath no strength. He is imad. How 
 commonly do we hear, as the explanation of some 
 great crime, he was "mad with drink," "mad with 
 jealousy," " mad with rage " ! 
 
 But this poor prodigal, by God's mercy, came to 
 himself — came to his senses. First his eyes were 
 opened, the eyes which Satan had blinded so long, 
 and he saw himself. 
 
 He thought of his home, its plenty and its peace, 
 and while he was thus musing the fire kindled — that 
 sacred fire, which had well-nigh gone out in the 
 temple of the Lord, his heart — and at last he spake 
 with his tongue those momentous words, "/ will 
 arise, and go to my father." 
 
 " I will arise." There is grand music in the words 
 — life, action, the man in his manliness, in his full 
 strength and stature, erect, resolute, ready to do his 
 best. " To rise " — we use the word of all who merit 
 and who win success ; the boy rising in his school, the 
 young man rising in his office, business, profession ; 
 the soldier risen from the ranks, the student taking 
 a high degree, the commoner raised to the peerage. 
 
 " To rise" what is it but to fulfil the glorious pro- 
 
326 ADDRESSES TO WORKING MEN. 
 
 phecy — " They that wait upon the Lord shall renew 
 their strength, they shall mount up with wings 
 like eagles " ? Thither in heart and soul continually 
 ascending, whither our Saviour Christ is gone before. 
 
 "And he arose, and came to his father" For 
 his was a true repentance. He knew that from that 
 far country to his home there must be a long and 
 painful journey. Every place he passed would remind 
 him of his wicked, reckless waste. There would be 
 many to ridicule, many to dissuade, and at the end 
 humiliation, it might be scorn and rejection. But 
 in his sorrow and shame he would oro. 
 
 A true repentance. It seems strange at first that 
 in this nineteenth century, which talks so much of 
 '' the Bible, and the Bible only," we should hear so 
 seldom of repentance, of which the Bible is full, and 
 so often of conversion, of which it speaks so sparingly 
 (the word itself occurs but once in the Holy Scrip- 
 tures, Acts XV. 3), and which has never the meaning 
 so commonly given to it now.* 
 
 Ever since the plague of sin came into the world 
 there has only been one cure — ^repentance, the sorrow 
 which hates sin because God hates it, and escaping 
 from it, by the way which He reveals to faith by 
 His Son, finds pardon and finds peace. 
 
 But this repentance means the humbling of one's 
 
 pride, the mastery of our passions; it means the 
 
 bearing one another's burdens ; it ;means a watchful, 
 
 prayerful, pure, brave, truthful life. And we shrink 
 
 * See Address V., on Conversion. 
 
THE CONSEQUENCES OF SIN. 327 
 
 from the acknowledgment that we have done foolishly 
 and dealt wickedly, that we have lost our way, and 
 must retrace it; that we have spent our money on 
 that which is not bread, and our labour for that 
 which satisfieth not ; that we . must take down all 
 that we have built, or it will fall upon us and crush 
 us, and must begin from the ground again. 
 
 So we shrink from repentance altogether, or we 
 are deceived by counterfeits ; we crave our Father's 
 forgiveness, we long for the peace of home, we loathe 
 the husks and the swine, but the journey is too great 
 for us. 
 
 May God give us the Spirit that prompted Paul 
 to say, " I count not myself to have apprehended : 
 but this one thing I do, forgetting those things 
 which are behind, and reaching forth unto those 
 things which are before, I press toward the mark 
 for the prize." True penitents must ever feel that 
 they are strangers and pilgrims hurrying home. They 
 rest, but they cannot lounge or loiter. The voice, 
 which first scared them with tones of terror, " Escape 
 for thy life," is ever calling to them, " Come up 
 higher," and they are constrained to answer, " I will 
 arise, and go." 
 
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