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Leader (1850-1860), 12th August 1854, Edition 2 of 2, Page 21, August 12, 1854.] • THE LEADER. 765

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      August 12, 1854.] • The Leader. 765

      August 12 , 1854 . ] THE LEADER . 765

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      We Should Do Our Utmost To Eacourage The...

      We Should do our utmost to eacourage the Beautiful , for the Ussful encourages itseli . —Goethe .

      A @M&©Wia!Fca 9§ Isspi^Ankiss ©!? §©Saiw...

      a @ m &© wiA ! fca 9 § isspi ^ anKiss ©!? §© saiwo IV . March 10 , 18— - During the week it is my duty to preach two sermons to a congregation composed of very different classes . According to the general theory , my message is to be delivered to the soul . I have to awaken the consciousness of sin , to produce pain , and then to point out the remedy . I am to believe that all the members of iny congregation are in earnest about their spiritual condition , have implicit faith in the doctrines that I am supposed to teach , and are willing to accept me as the authorised exponent of divine truth . I have failed—miserably failed . Of course , it may be my own fault . Possibly I am attempting to perform duties for which I have no faculties . But it is too late now to think of that . The custom is for every clergyman , qualified or not , to preach , and I must obey . * * * * I am . intensely conscious that I have a message to deliver , but , strange to say , after several months' experience I find that I cannot deliver it within the pale of the Established Church . I have only shocked nay congregation when I wished to open their _ ey _ es . Here is my story . I had made acquaintance , more or less intimate , with the tlifferent classes of persons in my parish . The best streets and the suburbs were inhabited by the wealthier sort . As I have said before , they were , for the most part , without education . To be sure , they had sent their children to school ; but the sons had all gone into business at a very early age , arid the daughters had been taken away from school at the period when the young ladies of this century are supposed to have completed their education . The consequence of this system may be easily imagined . From first to last , they were all worshippers of wealth . The dream of their existence was to accumulate money . For what , indeed , I never could discover . I often tried to find out how they spent their days * As for the men , they went down to their places of business , in the morning , and returned home * ' with their whole souls intent on loss and gain , to spend their nights in feasting ^ I do not mean that they were vicious or immoral . You could find no positive fault with men whose notions of living were confined within such narrow limits . You could only pity them and try to rouse them from their torpor . Everything in their houses betokened their love of solid wealth . There -was nothing graceful . The rooms were crowded with the most expensive furniture—massive chairs of bright mahogany , heavy sideboards , ugly , portraits of different members of their families , gorgeous curtains , and resplendent fireplaces . But they were all for show . The drawing-room was rarely used . Except on grand occasions , the chairs and tables were literally packed up as if for removal . There was a cold , cheerless , and yet contemptuous look about everything . I felt sometimes as if I was stricken dumb by the sight . 1 knew that , in their eyes , the mere possession of so much wealth conferred an infinite superiority . The women spent their days between buying fine clothes , gossiping , and husband hunting . Perhaps I was dull , but 1 thought that they die } not know what conversation meant . At all events , I always felt quite isolated , as if I had not one ] subject in common with them . Now , what was to be done witli such people ? Certainly there were many , both men and women , in my congregation , for whom I had profound respect . Some ladies there were who had formed themselves into a society for visiting the sick , others professed great zeal for tlie conversion of Jews and heathens . With a strong faith in spiritual Christianity , and an inexplicable 1 ) elief in what is called the Millennium , they literally had no place in the world themselves , and did their best to seduce everybody else from its pleasures and pui'suits . But I could excuse a good deal of this absurdity for the practical philanthropy which it concealed or kept alive . It was the lino ladies and rich men who , at first , perplexed me most . As I said , I took orders under protest . I hail forced myself into the profession of certain docti'ines which I vory soon found I could not conscientiously teach . My plan was this : It was very obvious that the people who came to church were professing Christians . 1 must speak to them as persons within the pale . It Avas easy therefore to ask them whether they lived up to their profession . I stated , in the plainest and most forcible language , the chief doctrines of Christianity , nnd then showed them that they wore as far removed from Christian practice as the sun is from the earth—in other words , that they wore a living lie . I abjured thorn to declare themselves . I besought them to do one of two things—cither to reject the faith or to conform to the practice . I wished to bring matters to a test . I did not use vague platitudes about Heaven , Hell , nntl the Divine wrath . That kind of preaching had long censed to produce any ollect save thut of a p leasurable excitement . I am really astounded at the grim satisfaction with which Churchgoers ( I will not call them Christians ) can contemplate the prospect of scvox-al millions of people suffering eternal torment . . But I made fierce and repeated attacks upon the idol which they all worshipped . I tried to destroy tnoir fuith in money , and , strange to say , thoy took it ill . They rebelled against my iconoclnsm , They culled me in private hard names enough ; 1 was everything bud by turns . Chartist , communist , infidel—such was the man whom the bishop hud appointed to bo their toachor . After one sermon that I preached , it was bruited everywhere- that I hnd become a Roman Catholic I Mo . st innocently 1 had quoted—with a certain oulogium upon the man—a very remarkable passage from the writings of John Newman , Because I regretted that bo much gonius had gone into norvitudo , 1 was denounced ns a heretic . No wonder , perhaps , when I rocolloet the impression produced in that same pulpit by a mnn who applied the- most opprobrious epithets to somu who , however mistaken , had still givon up everything for the sake of conscience-, and this to people who seurou knew the moaning of thu word sull ' donial Again , I happened to quote an apt paawago from one of Mnoaulay ' s Essaya describing tho system of the Roman Catholic Church-and , behold , 1 was agjuu denounced as a Jesuit in diaguiso . * * * ( 1 * Even tho poorer classes shrunk from this kind of teaching , and I was woll

      ! nigh in despair : I made , however , one more effort . "Why should I not try to speak to those -who , from different causes , were never found within a place of worship ? Among what are called the lower classes , were several mechanics and labourers , who openly rejected Christianity . It surely was my duty , at whatever cost , if not to induce these people to come to church , at least to assist them in working out the problem of life . Accordingly , I asked about a dozen of them to give me an interview . The meeting took place in the library of an institution to which they belonged . It was a narrow room , dimly lighted by gas . There was no carpet o : i the floor , and a few side shelves , nailed to the wall , were scantily furnished with books . Around a deal table in the centre of the room were seated the men whom I had invited to meet me . With one exception they were all young . The elder , who acted as spokesman , was about fifty years old , but he looked more like seventy—his hair was quite grey , and tbe traces of thought and suffering were deeply marked on his brow . He evidently did not know whether to regard me as a friend or an enemy . He was surprised at my request , and , though apparently not unwilling to meet my advances , had planted himself in a position of resolute self-defence . The younger men seemed less suspicious , and gave me a hearty welcome . I said , at once , that I had come to speak to them on subjects which I had only studied , but which to them were matters of lifo-aad death . I intended to speak with perfect frankness , and begged that they would throw off all restraint . I wished to know their difficulties , religious or social , and , so far as in me lay , to lend my aid in solving them . The older man answered me thus : — We are very much obliged to you for coming . We are surprised , because , to tell the honest truth , there is no body of men for whom we have such contempt as the clergy . But we are ready to listen to anything you have to say . " I could not but know that the man was speaking the truth . The clergy , and religious people in general , had shunned his class as things " common and unclean . " The doctrines of Christianity were as a wall between them . I therefore , at once , acknowledged the justice of the censure , and explained that , though I had not come to make proselytes of them , I yet wished to show , if I could , that the clergy might still be men , and that Christianity was Dot the repulsive system they had taken it for . Now I was not speaking to ignorance . These men were employed , for twelve hours a day , in severe manual toil , but they found mbre time for reading and menial cultivation than the wealthy shipowners and masters who paid them their wages . 'I hey knew , as well as I was made to know Thucydides , the writings , of Charles Kingsley ; they were familiar with Emerson , had learnt something of Carlyle , and were hard-working students of Gibbon . Of the social problems of the day they had no need to learn . They were mistaken , terribly mistaken , in many of their theories , but they were in earnest , and , as I soon found , were ready to be taught . They utterly scorned tbe notion that I was doing them a favour . The pride of honqst labour sat upon their brows . I must speak to them as one of themselves or else hold my peace . They had learnt to respect themselves , and they refused to be slaves . Still , I had enjoyed opportunities which they had not ; they could listen with gratitude to any honest man who would teach without despising them . And this I was willing to do . In point of religion they were what are called infidels , and , as such , rejected , as a whole , the system which contained the special doctrines from which they shrunk . I frankly said that I believed them so far in the wrong . I thought thatit was quite possible to teach a social Christianity , with beneficial-effect , while I ignored , for the moment , all the obnoxious articles of faith . Accordingly I made this proposition : " I do not ask you to come to church ; I even think tliat listening to . our services might do you positive harm . But I am ready to preach a course of sermons on social subjects directly addressed to you , aad intended to carry 6 ut into practice my ideas about a social Christianity . ' The notion seemed to please them , and they all agreed to come to church . Now , in honest truth , 1 did not think that I should shock any one by preaching on such subjects . I knew , of course , the prejudice that existed against the introduction of novel doctrines , but I hoped that all earnest Christians would sympathise in any effort that I might make towards the conversion , if you like to call it so , of a large number of iny parishioners . I did not , at all events , anticipate the stormy opposition thut I encountered . Yesterday I preached my first sermon . I commenced by an introduction , in which I openly stated my views , and I preached a s . 'nuon on one of the subjects which I knew to be engrossing public attention . The truth was that , almost unconsciously , I hail shown that I did not believe in what is called the verbal inspiration of the Old Testament , and I had besides made a somewhat fierce onslaught on vices which 1 knew to prevail among , at least , the lower classes in iny parish . I cannot describe the confusion which ensued . Next morning I found tho parish in an upronr . The churchwardens were for writing to the bishop ; I was told thut half my congregation would absent themselves from church . In short , the unhappy sermon was infidel , communistic , and—worse than all—indelicate . I believe that some people would have shut their doors against inc . _ I took it all very quietly , and ollered my incumbent to resign my charge if ho objected to my proaohing . He offered no objection , and I am allowed to complete my course . * * * Muy 17 , 18— . Altogether I have been successful . I do not mcaa to take any special credit to myself , but I am sure that if clergymen would reject that narrow theory , which confines their teaching to tho inculcation of spiritual Christianity , and bo content to deal , even with infidels , upon common ground , they would have an abundnnt reward . Believe me , n splendid career is before you ! Why , if you really hold the truth in your hand , do you think that it applies only to the world beyond . What did your Muster do t He ww the foremost man in Croatian —and that , beoiui . so there was not a human ioy in which ho could not share , no human woo with wine j ho could . not sympathise Out with you ! lVyud Pharisees ! Preaeh oudly »» your , pulnits , hurl forth your bitter sentences , . sh . y I his one and ( hat one with the , breatU of your nostril * , condemn all Iho world , be worshipped by tho few I who surround your altars , but separate yourselves from all and everything that look * HkoWesy . Juno 10 , 18-. This cannot last . Tho Church of England h to the full as despotic as tho Church of Komo . Every sect confines salvation within tho pale of ita own

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 12, 1854, page 21, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_12081854/page/21/