Social
Christianity
Hugh Price Hughes, M.A,
PRINCETON, N. J. *#
Presented by
bTV^sX CKx-VVvAX^Po^r-Vs,
BR 115 .S6 H76 1889b
Hughes, Hugh Price, 1847-
1902.
Social Christianity
SOCIAL CHRISTIANITY.
«' The blood of Christ is love."
Ignatius of Antioch.
" Ne*er forget how easier far
Devout enthusiasm is, than good deeds.
How soon our indolence contents itself
With pious raptures, ignorant, perhaps,
Of their ulterior end, that we may be
Exempted from the toil of doing good."
Lessuif.
SOCIAL CHRISTIANITY
SERMONS
DELIVERED IN ST. JAMES'S HALL, LONDON.
BY
HUGH PRICE HUGHES, M.A.
THIRD EDITION'.
NEW YORK :
FUNK & WAGNALLS,
iS & 20, ASTOR PLAC]
IF THERE IS
ANYTHING TIMELY OR HELPFUL
IN MY PREACHING,
IT IS, UNDER GOD,
DUE TO
MY WIFE,
TO WHOM,
WITH GRATEFUL AFFECTION,
I DEDICATE
THESE SERMONS.
INTRODUCTION.
FOR many years I have obstinately resisted
the importunity of valued friends who have
urged me to publish a volume of sermons. J
have not deemed any utterance of mine worthy
of permanent record. My too busy life affords
no time for theological or literary elaboration.
But of late the pressure to publish has greatly
increased. Above all, it has come to my know-
ledge that several young Agnostics have been
brought to Christ by reading some of the follow-
ing sermons, which appeared in The Methodist
Times. If the Divine Father is pleased to use
me thus to bring back to Himself any of my
wandering brothers, I dare not consult my own
taste or preference any longer.
And now that the Rubicon is crossed, I am
comforted by the fact that, although the literary
form of this volume must bear all the marks of
haste inseparable from a very active and varied
ministry, the exposition of Christianity which it
contains is the slow fruit of a lifetime of observa-
tion, reflection, and experience. I am thankful to
v'ui Introduction.
have this special opportunity of once more ex-
pressing an intense conviction that the manhood
of Europe has been to a fearful extent alienated
from Christianity because our Christianity has
been too speculative, too sentimental, too in-
dividualistic.
In our reaction from mediaeval ecclesiasticism
we have gone too far. We have practically
neglected the fact that Christ came to save the
Nation as well as the Individual, and that it is an
essential feature of His mission to reconstruct
human society on a basis of Justice and Love. It
has been well said that " the power of love as the
basis of a State has not yet been tried." But
Christ rose from the dead to try it, and to do it.
Mr. Frederic Harrison's recent New Year's Ad-
dress to the Positivist Society was full of profound
and melancholy truth. His picture of the existing
social condition of Europe was exact and vivid.
Rightly did he declare that
The vast empires resting iipon bayonets and a semi-
bureaucracy were an anachronism and an incubus upon the
true development of national life. All the great Powers
were monstrous outgrowths of warlike ambition and imperial
pride in different degrees and under different conditions.
All the huge military systems were abnormal— the morbid
results of the spirit of war and domination, of national
selfishness and revolutionary violence.
The English apostle of Positivism proceeded to
Introduction. ix
denounce and deplore the social failure of modern
Christianity in the following passage : —
In a healthy state of things, and if Christianity were equal
to its proud pretensions, it would be the business of the
great white races of Europe gradually to raise the standard
of civilization through Asia and ultimately through Africa.
But what was seen at the present day in Africa was the mere
lust of conquest, of trade gains, of lands to be won by fight-
ing, and profits to be snatched by fraud, strength, wealth,
and chicanery. The European nations who were racing
against each other for the most tempting slice of the spoils
of Africa were acting as mere buccaneers. Soldiers, pioneers,
discoverers, geographers, travellers, missionaries, and phil-
anthropists, however noble might be the character and
purpose of some few among them, were all really engaged,
along with the journalist and the pseudo-scientist and the
merchant who hounded them on, in plundering and enslaving
Africa, in crushing, demoralizing, and degrading the African
races. For a remedy against such widespread evils as
Imperialism and social unrest, to what could men look?
What power alone could control forces so tremendous and
passions so wild? What could it be but religion? The
world was practically without religion, and nothing but
religion could save the world. Christianity, as the morality
of nations, had visibly failed. Socially regarded, it did
almost nothing to control the state of expectant war and
the jealousies of nations. The dignitaries of the national
Christian Church were to be seen everywhere blessing the
armies of emperors and kings, and offering up prayers and
thanksgivings for victories and conquests. Did the repre-
sentatives of Jesus of Nazareth do anything to reduce the
number of men in arms, or to adjourn the day in which they
would be engaged in the most tremendous and bloody war
known in history ? Did they mitigate the social warfare of
Introduction.
classes, and the selfishness of wealth, or check the spoliation
and enslavement of Africa ? It was very much the fashion
at present to trust to the spirit of the age to remedy all evils
and to bring about ultimate happiness. It was trusting to
a broken reed. There was as much and more need of
religion than ever. Morality by itself was not wide, potent,
or systematic enough to stand the strain. It did not supply
a complete philosophy of life. It did not fire the imagination,
standing between man and the world, and explaining the
world. It was now a hundred years since the new system
had been visibly inaugurated, and during that hundred years
what failures, wars, and revolutions, what endless unrest and
what noble strivings, were recorded ! And without some new
element why should not another hundred or a thousand
years pass in the same cross purposes and failures and blind
useless strivings ? The iSth and 19th centuries were marked
as the only epochs in the history of mankind in which the
most persistent strivings towards social and moral improve-
ment in a systematic way had been manifested. Genius,
devotion, and loftiness of aim had not been wanting. Yet
how wasted the effort and how increasing the discord ! In
France noble efforts had been made to close the work of
the Revolution ; but why was France this day in terror,
anger, and unrest, torn by faction, without statesmen or
a stable system, ringing with recrimination, and the seat of
a peculiarly foul form of moral corruption ? Why was this
the result of one hundred years of revolution, of the heroic
hopes and undying aspirations of a most generous people?
France had undertaken the most arduous of all tasks with-
out religion, a task which was impossible without religion —
the task of recasting society and refounding the nation.
With genius, energy, and a desire for good things, there was
an absence of moral force. No one was content, no one
was hopeful. There was neither confidence nor happiness.
Jt is impossible to answer Mr. Frederic Harri-
Introduction . x t
son's impeachment of ecclesiastical Christianity,
although some of his detailed statements are ques-
tionable. His energetic address strikingly resem-
bles the sermons and pamphlets with which John
Wesley startled England a century ago. It is
characterized by the same plain and trenchant
English, the same hatred of sham and humbug, the
same fearless denunciation of ecclesiastical neglect
and callousness, the same passionate love of the
masses of the people. Would to God that Mr.
Frederick Harrison had that personal knowledge
of the living Christ which enabled John Wesley to
discriminate between ecclesiastical, conventional,
perfunctory Christianity, and the Christianity of
Christ ! But Mr. Harrison is not far from the
Kingdom of God. He realizes that what Europe
needs above everything else is social religion.
What could be more significant or more hopeful
than the frank and noble sentiments of the closing
section of the address ?
Europe was craving for religion to knit up its efforts and
renew its hopes, for now there was no consensus and no sign
of it. Theology and science stood apparently in a hopeless
deadlock, where neither could crush the other or free itself
from the other's grasp ; and capital and labour, inseparably
bound together as they were, were yet striking terrible blows
at each other. If the old theology could really cure all these
evils at last, or only begin to deal with them, in heaven's
name let it do so quickly, and all would welcome the
triumph. The power of Christianity for the moral life of
the individual was one which Positivism had always recog-
xii Introduction.
nised ; but the power of Christianity for the intellectual,
scientific, or political life of nations in a revolutionary age,
or for the industrial life of the present generation, was the
problem of the day. It was there that Christianity not
only failed, but was criminally complacent to the evils.
The following sermons are a brief and fra^-
mentary attempt to show that the social failure of
Christianity is not the fault of Christianity or of
Christ, but of us Christians who have been selfishly
individualistic. Bushnell's felicitous epigram is
indeed true : " The soul of all improvement is the
improvement of the soul." But that is the begin-
ning, not the end of our work. We must not be
"so busy saving souls that we have no time to
save men and women." We must not forget that
" all authority " is given to our Lord Jesus Christ
"on earth " as well as "in heaven " ; and that our
work will never be completed until the prayer
which He Himself taught us is fulfilled, and the
will of God is done on earth as angels do it in
heaven.
Already there are many hopeful signs. Canon
Westcott is not alone in realizing that " we are
suffering on all sides from a tyrannical individual-
ism." Many have already come round to Charles
Kingsley's " belief that not self-interest but self-
sacrifice is the only law upon which human society
can be grounded with any hope of prosperity and
Introduction. xiu
permanence." One of the best and most useful
events of this new year is the proposal just made
by Lord Nelson, first in Church Bells and then in
the Contemporary Review, that all Christians, how-
ever widely they may differ on theological and
ecclesiastical topics, should co-operate in the pro-
motion of Social Christianity. It is impossible to
exaggerate the importance and blessedness of this
proposal. We Christians, when we unite our
forces, are simply irresistible. Let us, then, in the
name of God and humanity, combine heartily to
abolish Slavery, Drunkenness, Lust, Gambling,
Ignorance, Pauperism, Mammonism, and War.
After that is done, we shall not have much diffi-
culty in settling all our theological and ecclesiastical
differences ; and the glory of God, which is the
happiness of men, will fill the whole earth.
HUGH PRICE HUGHES.
8, Taviton Street,
Gordon Square, W.C.
March, 1889.
CONTENTS,
i.
Jesus Christ and the Masses.
St. |fhttbefo "■ 36- pagh
'' When He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion
fur them " ......... 3
II.
Jesus Christ and Social Distress.
St. UTattbcto xiv. 16
" They have no need to go away ; give ye them to eat " . 1 9
III.
The Supremacy of the Law of Christ.
§Uts v. 29.
" We must obey God ral/ier than men" ..... 37
IV.
Christ the Greatest of Social Reformers.
St. % uhe xii. 15.
"A man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things
which he possesseth" 53
xvi Contents.
V. PAGE
The Career of the First German Emperor.
I Jtings xxii. 45.
" Now the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, and his might that he
showed, and how he warred, are they not written in the book of the
chronicles of the kings of J 'udahf" °7
VI.
General Gordon's Idea of Christianity.
1 $otm iv. 15.
" II liosoevcr shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God abideth
in him, and he in God" 83
VII.
"Robert Elsmere" and Mr. Gladstone's Criticism
of the Book.
1 $obu v. 12.
"He that hath the Son hath the life ; he that hath not the Son of
God hath not the life" 95
VIII.
The Problem for Unbelief.
girts v. 32.
"And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Ghost,
whom God hath given to them that obey Him " . . .109
IX.
Christianity not a Doctrine or an Ethical System,
but a New Life.
St. |obtt iii. 7.
" Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born an ew" . mi
Contents. xvii
x.
National Character Determined by the National
Laws.
gkutcronomig iv. 5-8.
PAGE
"Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgements, even as the
Lord my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land
whither ye go in to possess it. Keep thercfo7-e and do them : for this
is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples,
which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great
nation is a wise and understanding people. For what great nation
is there, that hath a god so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is
whensoever we call upon Him? And what great nation is there
that hath statutes and judgements so righteous as all this law,
which I set before you this day f" 135
XI.
The Administration of Justice.
Isuinlj i. 26, 27.
"And I 'Mill restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors
as at the beginning : afterward thou shall be called The city of
righteousness, the faithful city. Zion shall be redeemed with judge-
ment, and her converts with righteousness" 151
XII.
Our Duty in Relation to the Licensing Clauses of the
Local Government Bill.
Jlrobcrbs xx ix. 7.
" The righteous taketh knowledge of the cause of the poor : the
wicked hath not understanding to knoio it" . , . , . 167
XIII.
The Second German Emferor, Frederick III.
glclicmkilj xiii. 26.
•• Among many nations zoas there no Icing like him " . . . 1S1
b
xvili Contents.
XIV.
The Authority of Christ
St. gfattbcfe vii. 28, 29.
PAGE
"The multitudes were astonished at His teaching : for He taught
them as one having authority, and not as their scribes " . , . 197
XV.
The Brotherliness of Jesus Christ.
St. |tt;ittbcfe xvi. 13.
"IVho do men say that the Son of Man is?" » . • . 209
XVI.
The Hopefulness of Jesus Christ.
St. f ulie x. iS.
" / beheld Satan fallen as lightning from heaven" , , . 223
XVII.
Buddha or Christ— Which ?
2 Corinthians v. 14, 15.
"One died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, that
they which live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto Him
who for their sakes died and rose again " 237
XVIII.
SCHOPENHAUER OR CHRIST— WHICH ?
^Isalm xl. S.
" I delight to do Thy will, 0 my God" ..... 247
Contents. xix
XIX.
Gambling.
i Corinthians x. 24. pace
"Let no man seek his own, but each his neighbour's good'' , „ 257
XX.
A Timely Warning.
Ucbrcfos vi. 6.
"Impossible' 271
JESUS CHRIST AND THE MASSES.
Preached in St. James s Hall, Sunday afternoon,
Oct. 301/1, 1887.
JESUS CHRIST AND THE MASSES.
"ll'/icn He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for
them" — St. Matt. ix. 36.
OUR subject this afternoon is " Jesus Christ
and the Masses : what He thought of the
Masses of the People." Jesus Christ was essen-
tially a man of the People — a working man. He
spent all His days among the poor ; and after His
public life had begun He almost lived in the crowd.
He was constantly surrounded by the crowd.
Nothing is more characteristic of Jesus Christ than
the familiar saying that "The common people heard
Him gladly." Therefore when we come across
anybody whom the common people do not hear
gladly, he may be a very estimable man, but we
know that he is not like Jesus Christ. I was very
much struck by a remark I heard in Scotland
about an undoubted Christian. Some one said of
him : "He is a very good man, but he does not
remind me of Jesus Christ." How many good
men there arc who are really very good men,
but who do not remind us of Jesus ! No man
can really remind us of the Jesus of the Gospel
Social Christianity.
unless he loves the people, and is loved by the
people. I admit the truth of Tennyson's awful
impeachment that "the Churches have kill'd their
Christ," and that we have presented to the masses
of the European peoples all sorts of false Christs,
caricatures of Christ. But the real Christ is one
who, when seen, attracts the crowd everywhere.
Wherever Jesus went He was surrounded by the
multitude.
It is only within the last few years that I have
noticed the beautiful and significant fact that in
nearly every instance in which we find Jesus Christ
face to face with the multitude, the Evangelist
tells us that He was "moved with compassion."
When Jesus Christ saw a crowd His heart yearned
over them. He pitied them. When you saw the
crowd on Lord Mayor's Day, what was your feel-
ing? When you saw the crowd on Jubilee Day,
what was your feeling ? If Christ had been in the
window of some house in Trafalgar Square, His
feeling would have been one of pity. When Jesus
Christ saw a great crowd, He was moved with
compassion. Mark it well — not with hatred ; not
with fear. It is the invariable tendency of heathen-
ism, both ancient and modern, to hate and to fear
the people. Horace was a fine old Roman gentle-
man, and a worthy representative of many a fine
English gentleman of the present day. Not a few
Jesus Christ and the Masses. 5
of those who are found in the West-end clubs of
this very city would feel very much at home in the
society of Horace. His views and theirs are re-
markably alike. Horace honestly enough begins
one of his best-known odes with these words : " I
hate the vulgar crowd, and keep them at a dis-
tance." The illustrious Frenchman, Ernest Renan,
who has a passionate and almost idolatrous admira-
tion for the old Greek civilization, and who, in a
memorable passage, bitterly regrets that Paul ever
went to Athens to destroy it, acknowledges, in a
work now passing through the press, that the Greek
civilization, with all its refinement and culture,
utterly failed in this : that the thinkers and states-
men of Greece had no compassion for the multi-
tude. Their policy was alternately to bribe and
to massacre the masses of the people. Heathen
statesmanship had no better method then, and it
has no better method now.
The best excuse we can offer for politicians of
all classes, and of all sections and positions in
society, who either hate or fear the masses of the
people, is that they do not know the people. One
of the greatest calamities of the existing social
condition of this country is that between us
■ — who I suppose all belong to the privileged
and fortunate classes — and the masses of the suf-
fering poor there is too often a great gulf fixed.
Social Christianity.
We know very little of them, and they know very
little of us. As one has well said : " Beneath the
sea there is another sea." You may be a large
employer of labour, but what do you know about
the men and women you employ ? Between you
and them there exists too frequently only what
Carlyle, in his grim, vivid way, calls a "cash- nexus."
They come on Friday or Saturday for their wages.
They get so much money for so many hours'
work, paid through a hole in the office window.
If you do not want them any longer, you give them
notice to quit ; and, in the same way, if they do
not wish to remain with you, they give you
notice.
That is the beginning and that is the end of too
much of the existing social relation between Cap-
ital and Labour.
And as regards the different sections of English
society, in some respects the situation is getting
worse and worse ; for the strong tendency to-day
is for those who are in a better social position to
leave the crowded centres and go and live in plea-
sant suburban villas, where they can have a garden.
I do not blame them. It is more healthy. It is
an advantage to their wives and children, but it
is a very calamitous thing. In London at this
moment the poorer districts are growing poorer and
poorer, and those who ought to mingle with the
Jesus Christ and the Masses. 7
less privileged are several miles off. The Bible
says : " TJtc rich and the poor meet together" ; but
they do so no longer. As one has wittily said,
in the present day we put the yeast into one pan
and the dough into another, and then expect the
dough to rise. I am profoundly convinced that
this must be altered, and Christians of the privi-
leged class must, in the Spirit of Christ, come
back from the suburbs and live among the masses
of the people. There is one Christ-like man in the
East-end — Mr. Barnett, the Vicar of Whitechapel
— who is promoting this. He told me some time
ago that several gentlemen of position, who could
choose their own residences in wealthy quarters,
have, in the most Christ-like spirit, resolved to go
down to Whitechapel, to live among the poor. 1
heard the other day of a shrewd solicitor in Bristol,
who came to the conclusion that he was demoraliz-
ing his own children by living in Clifton, where
they had nothing to do, nothing to resist their
natural selfishness, nothing to draw out real sym-
pathy with their less privileged fellow-citizens ;
and positively for the sake of his own sons and
daughters he went back to live in the very centre
of crowded Bristol, that they might be taught to
be unselfish and Christ-like. And it may be the
duty of some of you who hear me now to come
back from your suburban residences to live here
8 Social Christianity.
with us in the midst of the people and to promote
their happiness.
I am quite sure the suspicion and dread which
rise in many minds with respect to the masses of
the people would disappear if we knew them better.
Victor Hugo is right when he says : " Mix with the
people and love them, and you will trust them."
Do not be afraid of the roaring and advancing tide
of democracy. Rush into the midst of it, take a
header into it — to use the phrase Mr. Spurgeon
employed in this place the other day. Mix freely
with the people. It will help to purify you of your
innate selfishness, and you will come out of the
crowd glowing with the enthusiasm of humanity.
This at any rate is true : when Jesus Christ
saw the people He had compassion on them.
When He looked at Jerusalem He wept over
it. Why ? Why did the masses of the people
excite in the heart of Jesus Christ not hatred,
not fear, but deep pity ? St. Matthew tells us
that when He saw the multitude He was
moved with compassion because they were "dis-
tressed and scattered " ; or, as it is rendered by
other scholars, because they were "harassed and
neglected."
And that is more true to-day than it was then.
The masses of the people even in London are
harassed and neglected. They are harassed by the
Jesus Christ and tJie Masses. 9
dogs of hell, who take advantage of their poverty
and of their helplessness. Oh, the anguish of the
starving poor ! It seems to them as though every
man's hand was against them. While they are
worried, badgered, and harassed by those whom
they too frequently meet, they are neglected by
you — the wise and the good ! Oh, how ignorant
they are ! how helpless ! how miserable ! and how
often may they truly say in the bitterness of their
hearts : " No man careth for our souls " ! It is
almost impossible for some of us, even by the most
desperate effort of the imagination, to enter into
the feelings of the suffering and starving poor. I
shall never forget the revealing word which my
friend, Mr. Henry Broadhurst, uttered to me two
years ago. Looking at me as I sat on the other
side of his fire-place at Brixton, he said : " Why,
you don't know what hunger is. You have never
been hungry in your life"; and as I reflected I
felt it was true. I had been what we call hungry,
but the hunger of the starving poor, who go for
days without bread, I had never felt ; and I should
like to know how many persons there are in this
hall to-day who have ever experienced the gnaw-
ings of an unendurable hunger. Alas ! alas ! that
in this great London there should be so many
thousands whose whole life is absorbed in a des-
perate attempt to keep their heads just above
io Social Christianity.
water. Oh, the sufferings of the respectable poor,
of those of whom you never hear !
I am reminded at this moment of a terrible
instance which came under my notice some time
ago. A girl who had been a superior servant in a
gentleman's house, and had enjoyed comfort and
even luxury there, married an artisan in every way
worthy of her. In the terrible depression of trade
and prolonged distress he was for many months
out of work, and gradually all their savings dis-
appeared. They owed many pounds to their land-
lady, their butcher, and their baker. Nearly all
their clothes were pawned, and they shivered in
the winter cold. At last came the day when the
baker called and said he could not afford to give
them any more bread on trust. I know not for
how many weeks they owed him then, and it was
to his credit that he had given them so much.
Yet for the three weeks which preceded that day
the whole family had nothing but bread and water.
And, oh, my God ! that young woman was expect-
ing to be a mother every day, and she knew not
what to do. In the most extraordinary manner,
doubtless by the intervention of God, my wife was
directed to her house, and the case was relieved.
But think of the anguish of that poor woman with
her starving children ! When we saw the man he
was half-starved; and he had wandered miles every
Jesus Christ and the Masses. 1 1
day looking for work. Who could enter into the
feelings of that poor woman in her time of anguish?
She had suffered through no fault of her own ;
neither was her husband a drunkard. Here was
the case of a man seeing his wife and children
dying under his eyes. Some people will say
" Why did they not go to the workhouse ? " What !
Break up their home and have upon them the
brand of the pauper ?
And what shall we say of these poor girls in
London, who are making a living — or, as Miss
Rye rightly names it, " a starving " — by earning
five shillings a week, and that at the cost of stitch-
ing for twelve or fourteen hours every day ? I
entirely agree with the opinion expressed by my
friend, Mark Guy Pearse, this morning, when he
said that if this was Christianity, the sooner we
got rid of Christianity the better. We may attend
prayer-meetings and sing psalms until we are black
in the face, but if we do not deal with such social
evils we are neglecting our duty. We have too
long overlooked the misery of the suffering and
starving poor. Who can enter into the feeling
of some poor orphan girl of the class to which I
have referred ? There was, some time ago, in
The Spectator, a little poem, which attempts to
describe the condition of such a girl. Let me read
it to you :— «
1 2 Social Christianity.
"Left there, nobody's daughter,
Child of disgrace and shame,
Nobody ever taught her
A mother's sweet saving name :
Nobody ever caring
Whether she stood or fell,
And men (are they men?) ensnaring
With the arts and the gold of hell !
Stitching with ceaseless labour
To earn her pitiful bread ;
Begging a crust of a neighbour,
And getting a curse instead !
All through the long, hot summer,
All through the cold, dark time,
With fingers that numb and number
Grow, white as the frost's white rime.
Nobody ever conceiving
The throb of that warm young life,
Nobody ever believing
The strain of that terrible strife !
Nobody kind words pouring
In that orphan heart's sad ear ;
But all of us all ignoring
What lies at our door so near !
O sister ! down in the alley,
Pale with the downcast eye,
Dark and drear is the valley,
But the stars shine forth on high.
Nobody here may love thee,
Or care if thou stand or fall ;
But the great, good God above thee,
He watches and cares for all,"
Jesus Christ and tJiv Masses. 13
And we may add that the man who professes to
be a child of that God, but does not " care for all,"
is deceiving his own soul. lie is not the brother
of Jesus Christ, who
". . . into His heart, with large embrace, has taken
The universal sorrow of mankind."
So much depends upon occupying Christ's
standpoint. If you are at the standpoint of some
doctrinaire political economist, or of some thought-
less writer who has never known what hunger
means, you may pour forth column after column of
heartless folly. But if you know the suffering of
the poor as Christ knows it, you will pity them.
Have you ever thought of the tender and charit-
able meaning of that oft-quoted passage in the
book of the prophet Isaiah, where God puts this
confession into our lips : " All we like sheep have
gone astray " ? Like sheep, not like wolves. We
are accused of ignorance, of stupidity, of heedless-
ness, rather than of malice prepense, or of downright
and deliberate wickedness. There is a great deal
more of the sheep than of the wolf in sinners ;
especially in those who, humanly speaking, have
never had a chance ; who have been the victims
from the very first of unfavourable circumstances ;
who, in the terrible language of Charles Kingsley,
have been " damned from their birth." And, my
H Social Christianity.
dear friend, do not flatter yourself too much if you
are better than they. You might have been in
their position. That was a wise saying of good
John Newton's when he saw a handcuffed man
walking along in charge of a constable : " There,
but for the grace of God, goes John Newton."
If I had to watch my wife and children starving
under my eyes, I do not know what I should say
in Trafalgar Square. Let us not take too much
credit to ourselves for the position we occupy.
We owe a great deal more to our circumstances,
to our social privileges and safeguards, than we
sometimes imagine. The teaching of this Book
commends itself to every good man's reason.
We — society at large — must take a big share
of the blame for the sin and folly of those who
break the law. There was a good old Saxon rule
in this country many years ago : when anybody
did something wrong in a parish, every parishioner
was fined for it — a most excellent rule, founded
upon profound reasons. I should like to have it
reinforced. As Mark Guy Pearse said this morn-
ing, how can you expect virtue and morality from
people living in one room ? Have you done your
best to put the right men in the Vestry and on the
Board of Guardians ? All our hearts were moved
to-day when Mr. Pearse gave us a touching de-
scription of the awful circumstances of thousands
Jcstis Christ and the Masses. 15
of people in London who have to herd together in
one room, where common decency is impossible.
It can never be "a home." The Vestries will
not move in these matters. Too many vestrymen
are elected to represent selfish interests. Not a
few Christians think that if they attend prayer-
meetings they are doing their duty. But let me
remind you that you are partially responsible for
every unsanitary dwelling in the place where you
live. A part of true religion consists in securing
laws which will absolutely prohibit such buildings ;
and in electing to positions of authority men who
will not permit them to remain a dead letter.
There are only two alternatives before us to-day
— Christianity or revolution. What can we do ?
A thousand things. If you will come here on
Sunday afternoons, I will tell you a few of those
things in plain English. At any rate, let us do
this one thing. Let us place ourselves at the right
point of view. Let us look at the masses of the
people through the compassionate eyes of Jesus
Christ. I felt humiliated a few years ago when I
read that it was the duty of every Buddhist priest
in Asia to spend some time each day in contem-
plating the misery of mankind, in order that his
sympathy might be aroused. It occurred to me
that I should do well to imitate the Buddhist priest
in that. Let us reserve some sacred moments
1 6 Social Christianity.
every day to contemplate, through Christ's com-
passionate eyes, the sin and the misery of mankind.
When our hearts are moved we shall soon discover
some method, great or small, of relieving that
misery and that sin. Then assuredly, as we were
reminded by the Lesson, an hour will come when
the voice of Christ will say : " Inasmuch as ye
did it unto one of the homeless poor in Trafalgar
Square, or unto one of the down-trodden harlots
in Piccadilly, ye did it unto Me."
II.
JESUS CHRIST AND SOCIAL D I SIR ESS.
Preached in St. James's Hall, Sunday Afternoon,
November 6th, 1S87.
II.
JESUS CHRIST AND SOCIAL DISTRESS.
" They have no need to go away ; give ye them to eat"— St. Matt.
xiv. 16.
LAST Monday I received a letter from an ex-
cellent Christian gentleman, who said that he
went away from this Hall last Sunday afternoon
" very much grieved." He was delighted to see so
large a congregation : he rejoiced at the opportunity
which was given me of preaching the Gospel.
But instead of "preaching the Gospel," I talked
about the duty of citizens to elect vestrymen who
would close unsanitary dwellings, and otherwise dis-
charge their public functions : and as the result he
adds that it is only too possible that some who
heard me, and might have been saved, are now " in
hell suffering the torments of the damned." I feel
extremely thankful to that good man for giving
me such sincere advice, and I have the deepest
sympathy with him. Twenty years ago I should
have said just the same thing if I had come to
this Hall and heard any minister talk as I talked
20 Social Christianity.
last Sunday. There is no doubt that my corres-
pondent, who is probably a much better Chris-
tian than I am, represents thousands of some of
the best Christians in England ; and yet I say
deliberately that I come here, on Sunday afternoon,
to argue before you, before the open Bible, and be-
fore Jesus Christ, that the view which my correspon-
dent holds is one of the most dangerous ever enter-
tained by Christian men ; that it was the main
reason why the French Revolution became a
Reign of Terror ; and that it is now the principal
cause of the menacing advance of atheistic Social-
ism, Communism, and Nihilism in Europe.
Not that I under-estimate the importance of the
kind of preaching that he wishes to have on every
occasion that a Christian minister opens his mouth.
Once only during the whole week do I propose to
deal specially with the Social aspects of Christian-
ity. If every day of the week and twice on Sun-
day we preach the Gospel even to his satisfaction,
may I not be permitted for this one brief hour,
without neglecting any other duty of my sacred
office, to deal with that public application of the
Gospel which has been so long and so perilously
neglected by those who are the followers of Jesus
Christ ? Ever since I was a boy one fact has dis-
tressed me more than any other— the fact that the
masses of the European peoples are alienated from
Jesus Christ and Social Distress. 2i
the Gospel, and that the men on the Continent do
not go to any place of worship. When I have con-
templated the extraordinary career of such men
as Garibaldi, who excited boundless enthusiasm
among the masses of the people wherever he went.
I have said to myself : How is it that this bound-
less enthusiasm is directed towards Garibaldi and
not towards Jesus Christ ? I hold that everything
that was true and helpful in the teaching of Gari-
baldi may be found in the teaching of Jesus
Christ ; and that all his sympathy with the masses
of the people and his desire to promote the pro-
gress of the human race are to be found in the
teaching of the Prophet of Galilee.
I have long been persuaded that the reason why
the masses of the people have to so great an ex-
tent failed to realize that their best friend is Jesus
Christ, is the fact that we ministers of religion have
taken the very course which my excellent corres-
pondent urged upon me last Monday. We have
dealt too exclusively with the individual aspect of
the Christian faith. We have constantly acted as
if Christianity had nothing to do with business,
with pleasure, and with politics ; as if it were
simply a question of private life and of prayer-
meetings. It is because the spirit of Christ has
not been introduced into public life that Europe
is in a perilous condition to-day. I have often
J
22 Social Christianity.
thought how distressing it was that so great and
illustrious a man, and so devout a believer in God,
as Mazzini should have deliberately rejected the
Christian religion on this ground : That he be-
lieved Christianity taught men to be selfish ; that
it taught them to be so absorbed in their own
individual salvation, and to be so wrapped up in
thoughts of the future that they neglected their
duty on earth. Now, I absolutely deny that this
is the case. I protest that it is contradicted by
history. I contend that everything that is best in
Mazzini himself is due to Christ. We have been
so accustomed to breathe a Christian atmosphere
that very few of us have any conception of the
intolerable condition of the human race when Jesus
Christ came. But so gifted a man as Mazzini
would never have made such a terrible mistake
unless we Christians had neglected to declare that
the teaching of Christ was applicable to every
phase of life.
I recently received an excellent letter from a
member of the Society of Friends, and you will
not be surprised to hear that he wishes me to speak
on the subject of war. Most assuredly I shall on
no distant occasion. I was very much struck by
one remark in that letter. This good man said he
thought it was high time that Christianity should
become " an applied science." My wish is to apply
Jesus Christ and Social Distress. 23
Christianity to every aspect of life. Christianity
is not something that has to do with a mere frag-
ment of our existence. It has to do with us as
men of business and as citizens quite as much as
it has to do with us in our private life ; and there
are endless ways in which we can preach the Gos-
pel in addition to holding prayer-meetings and
delivering what may be called sermons. In The
Methodist Times this week there is published a
remarkable communication with respect to some
heroic work that my truly Christian friend, Mr.
Frederick N. Charrington, has been doing in the
East End of London. He began his career as a
thorough-going Christian in a very remarkable
way. When he was converted to God he was a
brewer. He started a Bible-class, and one day it
occurred to him that it was very inconsistent that
he should try to reclaim with a Bible-class on
Sunday the men who were made drunk with his
beer on Saturday. Thereupon, without hesitation,
that brave young man, for the sake of Christ and
the human race, sacrificed £80,000.
Now, it seems to me that this was a far finer
exhibition of true Christianity than the exhibition
that took place in London some time ago, when
citizens of this so-called Christian city were rush-
ing furiously through the streets of London, terribly
afraid that they would be too late to secure shares
Social Christianity.
in Allsopp's Brewery. Having surrendered that
.£80,000, Mr. Charrington began his heroic work in
the Mile End Road. Within the last few weeks
he has deemed it to be part of his duty as a Chris-
tian man to put the Criminal Law Amendment
Act in force, and he has closed forty of the most
infamous houses in that part of London. Now, I
say that by closing all these houses Mr. Charrington
has done much more good than if he had merely
held numerous prayer-meetings. While referring
to this Act, let me remind you that it is a mighty
weapon which we owe to those fearless Christians,
Mr. W. T. Stead and Rev. Benjamin Waugh, and
it is a weapon which any man may take into his
own hand, and use with decisive effect. Let every-
body know that under this Act the landlord, the
owner, the manager, and the keeper of bad houses
are all liable to imprisonment ; and wherever you
have a few brave Christians prepared to put the
new law in force the vestibules of hell may be
closed.
Mr. Charrington told my representative that the
Vestry of Mile End had refused to enforce the law.
If the excellent Christian who wrote to me is
present, I beg his special attention to that fact.
Here is an illustration of the importance of putting
Christian men in the Vestry. There are a num-
ber of publicans in that Vestry; and, as everybody
Jesus Christ and Social Distress.
-d
knows, the unhappy harlots arc the best customers
of the publicans. There have been, in all parts of
the country, instances where infamous houses have
actually belonged to town councillors and vestry-
men. Is it not time, I ask, that a Christian minister
should say it is part of our duty as citizens to see
that in all our Vestries and other local assemblies
men are elected who do not fear the face of man,
and who are ready to do their duty loyally to
their country and to their God ? Let me give
another illustration of the necessity of including
the Vestry in our conception of Christianity as
an applied science. That zealous philanthropist,
Mr. Arnold White, has interested himself very
much in the condition of the London poor. He
made some investigations a few months ago with
respect to the sugar, the tea, and the butter with
which the East End poor are supplied, often at a
very much greater cost than we pay for ours in the
West End. The result of his investigations was
that in some instances the sugar was not sugar,
the tea was not tea, and the butter was not butter.
I bring no sweeping charges against small trades-
men as a class, but I do say that the Adulteration
Acts are not enforced. Mr. White states in print
that in some cases the reason is that the vestry-
men are themselves interested in preventing those
Acts from being enforced.
2b Social Christianity.
The Royal Commission which sat a short time
ago, with the Prince of Wales as its President, to
consider the condition of the poor, reporting with
respect to unsanitary houses, stated that we
actually had in existence to-day, laws under which
every miserable tenement in London might be
closed. Why are they not closed ? Because the
Christians have not looked after the Vestries :
and the time has come, and more than come,
when we must pray God to give us grace to dis-
charge our duty in public as well as to say our
prayers in private. If we needed any proof that
Christians should give their attention to these
duties as well as to prayer-meetings and to holiness
meetings, we might find it in the career of one of
the most illustrious evangelical Christians that
ever adorned the pages of Christian history — the
late much lamented Lord Shaftesbury. Only the
other day I came across a very remarkable sen-
tence in the first speech he ever delivered in
proposing his first Factory Act in 1833. If there
ever was a devoted, evangelical Christian who
cared for the souls of men, Lord Shaftesbury did.
The gentleman who wrote me, I may here mention,
talked throughout his letter about " souls," " deal-
ing with souls," " saving souls," and so on. I
might have settled the matter by saying that I had
no disembodied " souls " in my congregation, but
Jesus Christ and Social Distress. 1)
that I had souls incarnate, souls attached to bodies,
and that we must deal with man as a complex
being. If I had a congregation of disembodied
souls who had no physical wants and no connec-
tion with London, I might take a very different
course. But there is too much truth in the saying
I have often quoted of late that "some very
earnest Christians are so diligently engaged in
saving souls that they have no time to save men
and women."
But to return to Lord Shaftesbury. On that
memorable occasion he said : " The Ten Hours
Bill is a great religious question, for it involves the
means of thousands and tens of thousands being
brought up in the faith and fear of the God who
created them. I have read of those who sacrificed
their children to Moloch, but they were merciful
people compared \ with the Englishmen of the
nineteenth century. So long as these facts were
not known the guilt attached to the proprietors ;
but if this terrible system is permitted to continue
any longer, the guilt will descend on the whole
nation." So said Lord Shaftesbury, and I echo
his words. Now that the social misery of the
people has been once more brought home to us
all by the invaluable service of the public press,
we are all in our degree responsible for it. Who
can estimate the blessings that have followed the
28 Social Christianity.
Factory Acts? A short time ago I went down
to the Pottery district, and was told of the
unspeakably degraded condition in which men,
women, and children lived before the law of
England protected the weak against the greedy
and the strong : and I say that when Lord
Shaftesbury, as a devout believer in the Lord
Jesus Christ, persuaded this country — amid the
opposition of John Bright and a great many
sincere friends of the people who did not under-
stand the bearings of the question — to decide that
all over England the weak and defenceless should
be protected by these Acts, he did more to estab-
lish the kingdom of Jesus Christ than if he had
merely spent his time in preaching thousands of
what my critic would call Gospel sermons.
I should like to know, indeed, what is the "good
news " of the Gospel ? Is it selfish individualism ?
I emphatically deny it. This afternoon we had
occasion to refer to the song with which the
angels from heaven saluted the birth of Christ.
They sang of " Peace on earth, goodwill among
men." They evidently thought Christ had come
into this world to reconcile Labour and Capital ;
and to induce foolish and selfish nations to lay aside
their weapons of violence and to dwell together in
peace and brotherly love. If my excellent friend
who wrote to me on Monday had been with the
Jesus Christ and Social Distress. 29
shepherds on that occasion he would doubtless
have rebuked the angels for referring to " Peace on
earth " instead of saying something about souls.
I need scarcely tell you that the Apostles, how-
ever, were of the same mind as the angels. St.
James says that an essential part of pure religion
is to visit the fatherless and widows ; that is, to
show kindness and mercy to those who need it.
St. Peter tells us that an essential part of true
religion is to honour all men. St. Paul says that
the very crown and summit of a good life is to
love your neighbour. St. John states emphatically
that he who does not love his brother cannot love
God. He says, further, that the man who does
not positively love his brother hates him.
And when we turn to our blessed Lord and
Master Himself, you know how He denned
the good Samaritan, and the " brother " and the
"neighbour." The good Samaritan said nothing
at first to the disabled Jew about his soul. He
put him on his ass, attended to his wounds, and
paid his hotel bill. What has the excellent gentle-
man who wrote to me to say to that ? The
Samaritan's first act was to establish friendly
relations, to prove that he was the Jew's true
brother, and after that the Jew would be willing
to hear him on the subject of spiritual religion.
We come, lastly, to the example which is pre-
Social Christianity.
sented to us in the text. If you turn to the
chapter from which the Lesson was taken, you
find this remarkable passage: "Jesus was moved
with compassion towards them, and healed their
sick." As I reminded you last Sunday, on nearly
every occasion on which Christ saw a multitude
He had compassion on them. My excellent
friend might have said : "Lord, you are losing a
great opportunity. What is the body in comparison
with the soul ? What is the use of healing their
bodies ? " But the first thing Christ did was to
heal their bodies ; then He preached to them ; then,
after He had preached, and when the evening was
come, the disciples came to Him, and said : " This
is a desert place, and the time is now past ; send
the multitude away, that they may go into the
villages and buy themselves victuals." But Jesus
said: "They have no need to go away ; give ye
them to eat."
And when we are told that there are thousands
and tens of thousands of starving men in this coun-
try, are not we too ready to say: "Send them away.
Let them go to New Zealand or Manitoba. Let
them emigrate " ? I do not deny that for many
emigration is extremely desirable, but not for all.
We must not go to sleep on a pillow of that sort,
in utter indifference to the social condition of the
masses of our fellow-countrymen. We must not
Testis Christ and Social Distress.
*I
suppose that when we have said the country is
overcrowded we can sit down in comfortable
despair, and flatter ourselves that we have dis-
charged our duty. Are you quite sure that the
country is overcrowded? Perhaps it has never
occurred to you that for every mouth God has
created two hands. Of one thing I am profoundly
convinced, it will be impossible for us to evangelize
the starving poor so long as they continue in a
starving condition. I have had almost as much
experience of evangelistic work as any man in this
country, and I have never been able to bring any
one who was actually starving to Christ.
Let us turn to the nineteenth chapter of the
Book of Kings, where we find an apt illustration
in the case of Elijah when he was flying from
Jezebel. Elijah lay down in a surly and
cowardly mood under a juniper tree, and as he
slept, an angel touched him, and said: "Arise
and eat." If the angel had been like our friend
who wrote to me on Monday, he would have be-
gun to chide him, and to say : " Now, Elijah, it
is very disgraceful to act in that way, and to be
cast down, after you have won a glorious victory
in the name of the Lord Jehovah. Repent of your
sins." That would have been all true. But what
the angel did say was: "Arise and eat." It was
useless to talk to a starving man in the physical
32 Social Christianity.
condition in which Elijah was ; and so we read that
when he looked up " there was a cake baken on
the coals, and a cruse of water at his head, and he
did eat and drink and laid him down again." The
angel of the Lord awoke him a second time. What
did he say ? Did he say : " You ungrateful wretch !
I came and provided you with all your needs here
in this wilderness. You arc a disgrace to your
profession as a prophet " ? No ; for the second
time the angel said : "Arise and eat" ; and he did
so. Even Elijah was unfit to understand and ap-
preciate the will of God until he had eaten two
hearty meals. Now, if that was true of the great
prophet of God, is it not even more true of the
common-place Londoner, who cannot be expected
to have such a conception of his duty as Elijah
had ? Is it not quite evident that we must deal
with every aspect of human nature in order to
carry out the teaching of Jesus Christ ?
In conclusion, let me ask your attention to an
admirable suggestion. A benevolent gentleman, who
was here last Sunday, and who is much interested,
as I hope we all are, in the social condition of our
fellow-citizens, called upon me during the week,
and made the following suggestion : Would it not
be a blessed thing if we could persuade some of
the comfortable and well-to-do classes of the West
End to interest themselves personally and directly
Jesus Christ and Social Distress. 33
in some of the honest, sober, and industrious
families in the East End who are poverty-stricken
and in need of assistance ? Would it not be
desirable to ask Christian men and women, heads
of houses and their families, to volunteer to
"patronize" in the ancient sense of that word
involving no humiliation on either side, a particular
family ; instead of subscribing to some charitable
fund which others distribute? Money could be
given where money was needed, the girls could be
assisted into service, and the boys into business.
If Christian households are interested in particular
families their sympathies will be more drawn forth ;
different classes will be brought more together ;
and the general well-being will be more promoted
than by the vague distribution of gifts.
This gentleman has sent me three specimen
families, and if there are three gentlemen here
who would be prepared to take up these cases we
could supplement them by any number. The first
is that of a shipwright, who has worked only four
weeks since last Christmas. The family at home
consists of a boy of fourteen and a girl of ten.
Two wretched small rooms are occupied. The
rent is 4s. per week ; 37.5-. 6d. rent is due. The
wife is consumptive and very ill. The mother and
children when visited had not had anything to eat
for some time but dry bread. The second case is
3
34 Social Christianity.
that of a coachbuilder doing odd jobs. He has
a decent-looking wife and five children, the eldest
nine years and the youngest fourteen days. The
husband is a sober man, and willing to work. The
third case is that of a poor widow, whose husband
died two years ago of consumption. He had not
earned anything for two years before his death.
There are three girls and two boys. The eldest
girl is too ill to do anything. One of the younger
girls is in consumption, and is expected to follow
her father soon. She ought to be in a Home.
Four rooms are occupied, the rent of which is
js. 6d. a week. The family are in great distress
The rooms are very clean. If we could get two
or three thousand families to interest themselves
in such cases as these, we should be conferring
untold blessings on the human race ; and at the
same time illustrating one of the most splendid
methods of " preaching the Gospel."
III.
THE SUPREMACY OF THE LA W OF CHRIST
Preached in St. James's Hall, Sunday Afternoon,
Nov. 13M, 1887.
III.
THE SUPREMACY OF THE LA W OF CHRIST.
" We must obey God rather than men." — Acts v. 29.
AS was announced last Sunday, I propose to
■ begin to-day a study of Greek and Roman
society in the time of our Lord. Although at first
it might not seem to some earnest Christians very
profitable to go back 2,000 years and try by the
use of that divine gift — the imagination — to re-
produce the social condition of Europe when our
Lord came, yet it really is of the greatest impor-
tance, and that for two reasons. In the first place,
if we can form any idea whatever of the condition
of Europe when our Lord was born, we shall be
able to realize what He has already done for human
society. We shall realize that He has not only
saved the souls of millions of individual men, but
also made the condition of the human race im-
measurably better and happier than it was 2,000
years ago. Perhaps there never was a period in
human history when it was more necessary to insist
upon what Christ has done for society than it is
to-day ; because what Christ has done has been
37
o
8 Social Christianity,
so well done, and so long done, that many of us
have no idea that the main blessings of human
life in Europe are directly due to Jesus Christ.
There are, indeed, some atheists who on the plat-
form and in current literature vainly contend that
those social circumstances which make Europe
so much better than Asia and Africa are due to
heathen civilization, whereas they are entirely due
to the influence of Jesus Christ. Our blessed
Redeemer ought to have credit for all He has done
on earth.
In the second place, there is a fearful perver-
sion of Christianity abroad, which has been illus-
trated to my knowledge during the last week.
One journalist said a few days ago to another
journalist, a friend of mine, that we Christians were
Christians simply and mainly because we wanted
to escape from hell, and because we believe that if
we led a Christian life we should get into heaven.
I dare say we have sometimes hastily used expres-
sions that may have given rise to this fearful
perversion : but I am thankful to know that my
journalistic friend replied at once that even if the
service of Christ were for this life only we im-
measurably preferred to be Christians ; that apart
altogether from the future, the happiest people in
London to-day were the Christian people. More-
over, my friend utterly and indignantly repudiated
The Supremacy of the Law of Christ, 39
as he ought, the assertion that Christianity was
a selfish thing.
We believe Christianity is for this world as well
as for the world to come. We hold that all
the great social blessings which men naturally
desire are to be obtained from Christ, and from
nobody else. We maintain that every immense
improvement in the social condition of the Euro-
pean peoples is due to Jesus Christ, and that
therefore the boundless enthusiasm with which the
masses of the people have regarded such men as
Garibaldi or Mazzini ought to be directed to the
Christ ; for everything that was true, and good, and
kind, and helpful in their teaching and in their
influence they derived from Him. Nothing of the
sort existed before Christ came. Those who are
in the habit of attending these services regularly
are well aware that my colleague and I arc per-
petually protesting against the selfish notions that
Christianity is merely some device by which God is
going to rescue a handful of us, and that our main
business is to save our own souls. As Christians
we believe that we must seek first the kingdom
of God and His righteousness ; and we have to
seek that down here in the London fogs, not in
Paradise.
When you open the pages of history there is no
difficulty in discovering that the social condition of
40 Social Christianity.
all peoples has already been immeasurably bene-
fited by the influence of Christ and by the leaven
of Christianity, and that there is the brightest
promise for the future. If Jesus Christ has al-
ready been able to do so much, He will assuredly
be able to accomplish what yet remains to be
done. If He has absolutely destroyed some of
the greatest social scourges of the race of Adam,
then we may confidently look forward to the time
when, by the power of His Holy Spirit, drunken-
ness, lust, despotism, pauperism, and war will also
be utterly destroyed, and when we shall all dwell
together in peace and in brotherly love. That is
one important reason why I earnestly desire that
for a few Sundays you should come here and con-
sider with me the state of the human race when
Christ was born.
There is another reason which weighs very much
with me. When we come together, and with the
assistance of intelligent historians and other author-
ities find what opinions were current in Athens and
in Rome at the birth of Christ, we shall discover
the true source and origin of some of the opinions
which we read in our daily newspapers and hear on
our public platforms ; which are uttered in both
Houses of Parliament; and which many a Christian,
in his simplicity, imagines are of Christian origin :
but which are really rank heathenism.
The Supremacy of the Law of Christ. 41
Let us, then, begin our study at once. We turn
first of all to the Greek. It is of the greatest im-
portance that we should know what manner of
man the Greek was, because he still has tremendous
influence. His opinions are impressed in our great
public schools and in our universities upon the
young gentlemen of England ; and now also upon
an ever-increasing number of the most gifted of
the young women of England. It is a fact —
and the more I think of it the more lamentable I
feel it to be — that some of the most gifted sons
and daughters of England are much better ac-
quainted with the opinions and sentiments and
principles of the Greek thinkers than with the
teaching of the Bible. Now, many of these young
men and women, after going to some of our uni-
versities, where they are thoroughly saturated with
Greek thought, become the headmasters and head-
mistresses of our great educational establishments.
Others of them begin to write for the London news-
papers. Some of these young men go into Parlia-
ment, and they reproduce in journalistic literature
and in Parliament the opinions and sentiments
which they learned, not from Moses, or Isaiah, 01
Jesus Christ, or Paul ; but from Plato and Aristotle.
Our opinions with respect to Society and Politics
are so very mixed, are such a strange amalgam of
Christianity and heathenism, that many sentiments
42 Social Christianity.
which come to us from heathen sources are ac-
cepted as being Christian, whereas if we trace them
back to their true source they are proved to be
absolutely anti- Christian. Who taught them, and
what other things their authors taught, we shall be
able to see in the light of ancient history. Then
we shall appraise them at their right value.
Let us then look at the Greek. The Greek was
essentially a citizen, not a man. That is to say, his
manhood was lost in his citizenship. The illus-
trious Dollinger, who by universal consent is the
greatest living historical authority, describes the
Greek thus : " The sum of his duty was to merge
his personality in the State, and to have no will of
his own distinct from that of the State." In other
words, the State was practically the God of the
Greek. His idea of worshipping the gods was
very different from yours and mine. He simply
thought that certain sacrifices were due to the
gods, and when he had offered these sacrifices he
had no more to do with the gods than you have
with the tax-collector when you have settled with
him.
We can well understand \vhy the Greeks treated
their gods with a great deal of contempt. Their
gods were by universal consent unmitigated
scoundrels. Nearly all of them were drunkards,
adulterers, thieves, and liars. But thinking that
The Supremacy of the Law of Christ. 43
these gods might worry or injure him, the Greek
paid them what was necessary. But the real God
of the Greek was his State or his City, and he sur-
rendered himself to his State as absolutely as we
surrender ourselves to Jesus Christ. At our Friday
night meetings we always say our great business is
to make an absolute self-surrender to Jesus Christ,
to cry, "Thy will be done " ; to give ourselves up
freely to Christ ; to be altogether at His disposal ;
to allow Him to direct our thoughts and our
actions. Now, the Greek was brought up to
surrender himself as absolutely to his State or
to his City as you and I are urged to surrender
ourselves to our God in Christ ; so that it
positively came to pass that his only idea of the
word " freedom," was the enjoyment of the fran-
chise of a Greek State ! You sometimes hear
atheists speak of the " freedom " of Athens —
Athens, where three-fourths of the citizens were
slaves ! The word " freedom," in the sense in
which you use it, is purely Christian.
The human race never knew what Freedom was
until Christ came. The very meaning of the word
Freedom, in the sense in which we use that great
word, is a meaning of which you find no trace in
Greek history. Distinguished men sometimes re-
ceive the " freedom " of the City of London, and
of other cities. Now, the word freedom meant
44 Social Christianity.
nothing more than that to the Greek. He had the
right to be a citizen and enjoy all the electoral and
other privileges of citizenship. That was the only
sort of freedom of which the Greek had any idea.
So you can imagine how admirably qualified gentle-
men saturated with Greek ideas, are to teach you
and me what freedom is ! The Greek had no sacred
personal rights against the State. It was the uni-
versal belief of the Greeks that everything was
right, that everything was just, that benefited the
State. The Might of the State was Right : what-
ever the State did was Right.
The Greek knew of no higher law than the law
of the land ; and whatever the authorities decreed,
that, he believed, must be done. From that there
was no appeal ; and the highest duty of the Greek
was to obey the authorities in whatever they told
him to do. Hence the State in Greece interfered
in all sorts of ways with the private life of the
citizens; not for the purpose of preventing a citizen
from injuring other citizens, which, we all admit,
would be a very legitimate interference, even if it
went to the extent of shutting up the public-houses
or destroying any trade that injured the public.
If the Greek Government interfered with the pri-
vate affairs of the individual citizen it was not on
any such grounds, but because the Greek authori-
ties absolutely denied, and always denied, that
The Supremacy of the Law of Christ. 45
individual citizens had any rights whatever. The
citizen was not his own ; he belonged body and
soul to the State. The result was that in the
Greek cities if a man wanted to marry he had to
ask whom he should marry, and under what cir-
cumstances he should marry. To such an extent
was this carried out, so completely were all the
Greek citizens mere creatures of the State, that
they had no jurisprudence, no science of law, be-
cause there can be no science in anything which
has no fixed rules or principles. The only freedom
which any Greek ever enjoyed was the freedom of
giving his vote in an absolutely unmitigated des-
potism. Therefore, as I have already said, what-
ever the law was, whatever the authorities did,
was Right.
The foreign policy of every Greek State was
determined by the most unscrupulous and selfish
interests of the State. No man had any rights
whatever against the State; and no nation had
any rights against the State unless it could over-
come the State by brute force. Then all right
would be on its side. The great Greek historian
who is still diligently studied by the young gentle-
men of England, said that man's mission is to
subjugate his fellow-man by preventing his
fellow-man from subjugating him. Have not
you read something like that in some of the
46 Social Christianity.
London newspapers ? Take Pericles, the great
statesman of Athens, in the golden age of the
Athenian " republic," which was no more a republic,
in the modern sense, than the empire of Russia is
to-day. A republic, indeed ! with one-fourth of
the citizens trampling under their feet the remain-
ing three-fourths as mere slaves ! I deny the title.
No government has any right to be called a re-
public under those circumstances. I claim that
all republics and democracies and commonwealths
and constitutional governments are due to the
teaching of Jesus Christ. Nothing like personal
freedom or political freedom ever existed in Greece.
But I was about to say that the great statesman
Pericles, whom in many respects we all admire,
promoted a hatred of other nations. I have read
in the London newspapers similar sentiments re-
specting France, and Russia, and Ireland, and it
may be as well for you to know that the journalists
and politicians who propound such sentiments
derive their inspiration from Athenian statesmen,
and not from Jesus Christ.
It was commonly said by the Greek writers that
it was a law of nature that the strong should
trample on the weak. Two distinguished repre-
sentatives of the British Government have just
been saying the same thing in India, and pouring
the greatest contempt upon the Hindoos because
The Supremacy of the Law of Christ. 47
they do not happen to have as much physical
strength as the Mahommedans. It is of the ut-
most importance to say that, although these
gentlemen are representatives of a nominally
Christian country, they are not representatives of
the teaching of Jesus Christ. My blessed Master
must not be held responsible for their Athenian
sentiments. So utterly heartless were the Athen-
ians that they positively exterminated entire
populations of their fellow-countrymen. They
sold women and children as slaves, not in mo-
mentary rage, but with cold-blooded deliberation.
We come now to the Romans for a minute.
The Roman did not so completely submerge the
individual in the State as the Greek did. There
was, as we shall discover, a very important Roman
jurisprudence. The Roman had some just con-
ceptions of the rights of property. The Roman,
however, like the Greek, regarded the law of the
State as the supreme rule of conduct ; and acknow-
ledged no higher standard of right, either in home
or in foreign policy, than the aggrandizement of his
own country.
Now into this Greek and Roman world, satu-
rated with such ideas as I have hastily sketched,
came Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God. He
founded His Church, and immediately a conflict
began between His first disciples and the author-
48 Social Christianity.
ities. I have to-day read one chapter where, con-
trary to the principles of the State, and in the
teeth of the authorities, Peter, by insisting upon
preaching in the open-air — and his preaching, as
we learn, was attended by wonderful results — came
into conflict with the authorities, who were of the
same type as that police magistrate who recently
said that the Salvation Army was a nuisance. Of
course I fully admit that no preacher should be
allowed, by open-air preaching, to obstruct the
streets. It is, however, the Constitutional custom
of this country that open-air preaching shall be
allowed, and if such a custom did not exist it
would be necessary to make it. It is the most
sacred of all the rights of the poor who cannot
attend our indoor services. To them we must go,
and to them we will go. But at the time to which
I refer the authorities did not recognise any such
right.
It really is of great importance to understand
that, from a technical legal point of view, the dis-
ciples on this occasion were in the wrong. The
Roman law which existed in Palestine gave them
no authority whatever to preach in the streets of
Jerusalem. They were arrested, and put in prison.
An angel let them out. Again they went and
preached in the open air. Once more they were
brought before the magistrates. Then Peter used
The Supremacy of the Law of Christ. 49
the words which I have taken as my text : " We
must obey God rather than men." That was a
revolution. That was the beginning of a new era.
Peter took as his highest standard of conduct, not
the law of his country, but the law of God as finally
revealed to him in Jesus Christ. If the law of his
country was wrong he would break it, and go to
prison.
For Peter and for all Christians the law of Christ
is the final, supreme law of man. The authority of
Christ overrides all other authority. Our highest
duty is to obey Him, for He is the voice of abso-
lute Right. I have no time to pursue the subject
any further to-day. I simply bring you to this
point — that such sentiments as my text expresses
were never uttered in Europe till Christ came.
And as this fact comes home to us we shall realize
more and more to what an extent Jesus Christ
has already superseded the selfish thoughts of
man ; and has taught that which it is the supreme
purpose of these afternoon Conferences to enforce
— namely, that the laws and policies of States
must be subjected to the teaching of Jesus Christ
quite as much as the private conduct of indivi-
duals.
IV.
CHRIST THE GREATEST OF SOCIAL
REFORMERS.
Preached in St. James's Hall, Sunday Afternoon,
November zjth, 18S7.
36
IV.
CHRIST THE GREATEST OF SOCIAL
REFORMERS.
"A man's life consistrth not in the abundance of the things which
he possesseth." — St. Luke xii. 15.
THE barest justice demands that Christ should
have all the glory which we now associate
with the word " freedom." Every ancient Govern-
ment, whatever it called itself, was really an ab-
solute despotism. The Greek had no personal
rights whatever against the State. All the State
did was " right." There was no higher law than
the law of the land, and the law of the land was
a law in which the few oppressed the many, and
in which the rich despised the poor. If that is no
longer the case, it is entirely due to Jesus Christ.
The fact is that when Christ came, in the world
to which He came, man as man was nothing, and
had no rights. The State pursued its own selfish
and sordid ends without any regard to the sacred
personal rights of the individual. Hence war and
lust and anguish unspeakable.
We cannot be too frequently reminded that
ancient society was founded upon utter contempt
54 Social Christianity.
for man as man. It is the more necessary that we
should insist upon this to-day, because there are
some very gifted and sincere, though ill-informed
writers, who try to persuade us, and especially try
to persuade the young men and young women of
our time, that Christianity is essentially a selfish
religion, that Christianity has taught men to
neglect their human duty, and to be absorbed in
a selfish endeavour to escape from hell and to get
to heaven. I do not deny that some very sincere
Christians may have presented such a caricature of
Christianity as that. But when we begin to in-
vestigate the question historically, we shall find
that apart altogether from the influence of Jesus
Christ upon our future, He has already done more
for society in Europe than all the great reformers
before Him ; and that everything in the existing
civilization of this country of which we have any
right to be proud is due to Jesus Christ. He
was the greatest social Reformer the world has
ever seen. He did not only more for heaven, but
a great deal more for earth than was ever done
before. If any of us have formed so mutilated a
conception of His teaching as to imagine that the
Christian ideal is to save our own souls and neglect
our fellow-citizens, so much the worse for us.
Read your Bible with your eyes open, read
history with your eyes open, and then you will
Christ the Greatest of Social Reformers. 55
see that however fearfully individual Christians
may have neglected their duty, Jesus Christ came
into this world to save human society as well as
to save individuals. Indeed, you cannot effectu-
ally save the one without saving the other. I
implore you to remember that when Christ came,
man as man had no rights whatever ; and if that
was the case even with man, I need scarcely say
it was much more the case with woman. There
are some in the present day who even dare to tell
us that Buddha was more illustrious than Christ.
What has Buddha done for woman in comparison
with what Christ has done for her? When Christ
came, woman was regarded throughout the whole
civilized world as a necessary evil, as a slave, as
alternately the plaything and the plague of man ;
and if every man owes so much to Christ, every
woman owes a great deal more. In the "good
old times " before Christ came, physical force was
in the ascendant, and the result was that woman,
having less physical strength than man, was every-
where degraded and enslaved.
And if women were infamously treated, much
more were children. What has Buddha done for
children ? In every country where the influence
of Buddha prevails, infanticide is practised and
sanctioned. So it was in the Roman Empire and
in Greece. Take the masterpiece of ancient litera-
56 Social Christianity.
ture, the ideal Republic of Plato, which is the
special study of every classical scholar. Well,
Plato, in his ideal Republic, makes provision, on
a gigantic scale, for the murder of superfluous
children. Let the men of Europe, and especially
the working men of Europe, who have never had
the opportunity of individual research, and who
are in danger of being misled by the use of such
words as "republic" and "freedom," distinctly
understand that when Jesus Christ, the greatest
of all social reformers, came into this world, there
was no protection for the weak, there was no
comfort for the sorrowful, there was no effective
restraint for the wicked.
Christ came, and the great Revolution began at
once. They said of His disciples, soon after His
crucifixion, that they were revolutionists, and that
they turned the world upside down ; and the
impeachment was true. They were the greatest
revolutionists the world has ever seen. They
introduced into human society ideas which had
never entered the head of man before, and the
only pity is that their revolution has not gone a
great deal further. When Jesus Christ came into
this world He began to address crowds of poor
people in the open air, and to speak of their
Father in Heaven. The very fact that He should
address the crowd at all, and speak of God as the
Christ the Greatest of Social Reformers. 57
Father of every one of them — and we know that
there were many publicans and sinners in that
crowd — was in itself a revolution. That God should
have a fatherly relation and a tender love to every-
body was an unheard-of and a most revolutionary
idea. Then listen to the positive teaching of
Christ as found in such a passage as that which
forms my text this afternoon, a passage which
states that " A man's life consisteth not in the
abundance of the things which he possesseth " —
that a man's real life does not consist in the posses-
sion of money-bags, or of titles, or of social position.
Why, we do not believe that yet; so revolutionary
is the idea, so saturated are we still with the old
pagan notions that prevailed before Christ came.
If I were to meet you in Oxford Street, and say,
" What is Mr. So-and-So worth ? " you would in-
stantly begin to think of his banker. You would
naturally suppose that I wanted to know how
many money-bags he had, believing, like the old
heathen, that a man's worth depended upon the
money he possessed. Jesus Christ contradicts that
idea. He says that a man's worth depends upon
his mental quality, and yet more upon his moral
quality, apart altogether from anything else. And
to prove how absolutely unnecessary it is to have
plenty of money, Jesus Christ Himself had none.
He was one of the poorest men that ever lived,
58 Social Christianity.
and yet the very greatest. We have not yet
understood the immense significance of the fact
that Jesus Christ had no money ; and that He set
before us as the Ideal Man a man who had no
money. If a man without any money came to
some of our magnificent places of worship to-day,
we should not give him a seat of honour.
A very observant and gifted foreigner who lately
visited this country, went away from England with
the conviction that there is no country in the
world where poverty is so much despised as it is in
England. We may deny that. But perhaps other
people are better judges of us than we are of our-
selves. This eminent visitor said that in many
sections of English society, poverty is practically
regarded as a crime. You will remember Mr.
Pearse's striking illustration of that widespread
notion. He says you often read in Christian
biography that such a one was born of " poor but
pious parents." Why that " but " ? Why do we
never read of " rich but pious parents " ? Why
should our phraseology assume that there is a kind
of natural antagonism between poverty and piety ?
Jesus Christ says that "A man's life consisteth
not in the things which he possesseth." Elsewhere
He teaches us that a man's real life consists in his
relationship to the Father, in his knowledge of
God, and in his enjoyment of the love of God.
Christ the Greatest of Social Reformers. 59
Therefore we find Christ saying, at the close of the
sixteenth chapter of St. Matthew, " What shall a
man be profited if he shall gain the whole world
and forfeit his life?" I am glad that instead of the
word "soul," in the Revised Version the word
" life " is used.
It is not a question of a man's soul at all, as
distinguished from his body. It is a question of
his true life, his real life, which St. Paul said is
" hid with Christ in God." " What shall a man
give in exchange for that life ? " Suppose he gets
all the money in the Bank of England and sacri-
fices that " life ; " suppose he has all the titles of
honour the Queen can bestow, and is spiritually
" dead;" what shall it profit him ? Christ declares
that all the prizes of this world are mere refuse in
comparison with that life. Now, this was all new.
It may seem to you old, but it was all new. It had
never been uttered before Christ came. He was
the first public teacher in this world who said that
man's true worth was to be determined, not by
his property, not by his social position, but only
and entirely by what he was in himself, by his
mind and by his heart; and that there were certain
absolute and indefeasible rights that belonged to
every individual human being.
Jesus Christ says that every man as a man is
immeasurably greater than wealth or rank could
60 Social Christianity.
ever make him. He was the first teacher of
the human race who insisted upon the sacred-
ness and the unspeakable preciousness of every
man, woman, and child in the world. I need
scarcely tell you the practical results which fol-
lowed. If every human being, because he is created
in the image of God, is so unspeakably precious,
how much we ought to reverence every human
being, how careful not to infringe upon the rights
of any human being, how solicitous for the
happiness of every human being. As we have
seen in previous Conferences, in the old Greek
and Roman world man as man was nothing.
They neither reverenced nor respected manhood.
Many of the most gifted men of Greece deliberately
murdered thousands of their fellow-creatures — not
in ordinary war, but in cold blood — because as
men they were without any recognised right or
claim.
On the other hand, contrast with this the
revolutionary doctrine of Jesus Christ, as found
in the passage in which He said : " I was an
hungred, and ye gave Me no meat : I was thirsty,
and ye gave Me no drink : I was a stranger, and
ye took Me not in : naked, and ye clothed Me not :
sick, and in prison, and ye visited Me not." And
when they expressed their astonishment — for they
would never have treated Christ Himself so — He
Christ the Greatest of Social Reformers. 6 1
answered : " Inasmuch as ye did it not unto one
of these least, ye did it not unto Me." Let me
transcribe that into modern English. A poor little
child, shivering and half-naked, asks you for bread.
You turn a deaf ear to him. On the day of judg-
ment, Christ will say: "When you refused bread to
that little boy, you refused bread to Me." A harlot
is dying in a back slum. You say : "What is that
woman to me ? She suffers for her own sin."
When you spurn that harlot you spurn Christ.
That harlot is as dear to Christ as the Queen of
England 'herself ; and any insult offered to her,
any indifference to her happiness, touches Him as
deeply as if she were the Princess of Wales.
Christs asserts, as the Son of Man, that every
man is His brother; that every woman is His
sister. A pauper is dying, and you say : "Nobody
cares." Yes ; there is One who cares. Jesus
Christ cares. He cares as much for that poor
pauper as you do for your dearest child. A des-
pairing harlot throws herself over London Bridge,
and is drowned. You say, " Nobody cares for her."
Yes, Jesus Christ cares for her, and He cares so
much that every man who ever injured that woman,
unless he repents in sackcloth and ashes, will go to
the lowest depths of hell. This is a new thing
indeed, because if there was one class in ancient
history that was universally despised it was the
62 Social Christianity
class to which that woman belonged. Many of
you admit immoral men into your drawing-rooms,
while you turn away with hard and cruel hearts
from your fallen sisters. How far we are yet from
that blissful social condition in which you will all
glory, as Jesus Christ gloried, to be known as "the
friend of harlots."
We have laid our finger upon the gaping sore of
human society. Let us once realize the sacredness
of every human being, however poor, however
ignorant, however degraded, and tyranny becomes
impossible, lust becomes impossible, war becomes
impossible. This is the new idea which Jesus
Christ introduced into human society. This is the
new idea which will ultimately revolutionize human
society. It has already given slavery its death-
blow. It was not any discovery on the part of
political economists that destroyed slavery. It was
the discovery that every slave was a man and a
brother. Then down went slavery. I look forward
to the day when we shall all realize — what very few
of us have realized yet, because human society is
still to so great an extent heathen — that every
individual human being, created in the image of
God, is unspeakably dear to God, and must be
loved and reverenced ; that the State itself has
only a limited authority; that there are higher laws
than the laws of the State, even the laws of God ;
Christ the Greatest of Social Reformers. 6$
and that the glory of manhood is unspeakable and
Divine, for the Ideal Man is not Adam, but Jesus
of Nazareth.
When we begin to regard every human being as
the brother or sister of Jesus Christ, how it will
alter our conduct ! We meet some poor prodigal
in rags and in want. He excites within us positive
loathing, but we know that the hideous creature is
a son or a brother of a dear friend of ours, and for
the sake of his father or his brother, we show him
every courtesy and every kindness. Allow a
similar thought to help you when you are repelled
by the degradation or the wickedness of the victims
of sin. They are as dear to the heart of God as
you are yourself, and neither you nor your coun-
try has any right to do anything that will injure
them. This is a new idea, among many other new
ideas, which Christ came to proclaim and to act
upon — an idea so new, so revolutionary, that we
do not believe it yet, although Christ has been
trying for nineteen centuries to persuade us of its
truth. But some day it will be believed, and on
that day sin and misery will begin to totter toward
their final fall.
V.
THE CAREER OF THE FIRST GERMAN
EMPEROR.
6S
Preached in St. James's Hall, Sunday Afiemoon,
March xii/i, 1 888.
66
V.
THE CAREER OF THE FIRST GERMAN
EMPEROR.
" Now the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, and his might that he
showed, and how he warred, are they not written in the book of the
chronicles of the kings of Judah ? " — I Kings xxii. 45.
EVERY careful reader of the historical books
of the Old Testament must be struck by the
way in which inspired writers dismiss the details
that crowd the pages of secular historians. Instead
of giving us voluminous accounts of sanguinary
battles, and of personal squabbles and intrigues,
they leave such topics to the mere chroniclers of
Court gossip. In the case of Jehoshaphat, for
example, the sacred writer stops abruptly at the
very point where an ordinary historian would begin
to enlarge. Jehoshaphat was a good king ; but as
for his might and his wars, you are referred for
such unimportant details to the uninspired and
now long-lost "Book of the Chronicles of the Kings
of Judah." The fact is that there are two opposite
methods of writing history. There is the super-
ficial method of the merely mundane writer, who
is absorbed by the show and glitter of the passing
67
68 Social Christianity.
pageant, and there is the philosophic method of
the Bible, which contemplates all events in their
relation to God, and to the Divine Ideal which
God has set before the nations.
The late Mr. Green seemed to be the first Eng-
lish historian who had a proper conception of the
true object of history. Instead of deluging us with
the blood of slaughtered hosts, and wearying us
with the miserable intrigues and scandals of high
life, he wrote a " history of the English people,"
and judged all men by their influence upon the
life and character of the English people. The
Divine ideal for every individual is described in
Romans viii. 28, 29. There we are taught that all
things work together for "good " to them that love
God. St. Paul immediately adds that "good"
consists in being " conformed to the image of His
Son " Jesus Christ. In other words, the true ideal
for every man is to become Christlike. The same
ideal is set before every nation. Every ruler and
every politician must be judged from this Scrip-
tural standpoint. What has he done to make his
people more Christlike? What has he done to
bring the laws and policy of his people into har-
mony with the ethical teaching of Christ ? From
this point of view we must contemplate the late
German Emperor. And, so judged, we shall find
nothing more truly admirable in his illustrious
The Career of the First German Emperor. 69
career than the essay which he wrote for his
father's eye on the solemn occasion when he was
received by the rite of confirmation into the
National Church of Germany. I am indebted to
The Times for the following extract from that
memorable essay : —
I rejoice to be a Prince, because my rank in life will give
me many opportunities to help others. I am far from think-
ing myself better than those occupying other positions. I
am, on the contrary, fully aware that I am a man exposed
to all the frailties of human nature ; that the laws governing
the action of all classes alike apply to me too ; and that, with
the rest of the world, I shall one day be held responsible for
my deeds. To be an indefatigable learner and striver for the
good of my country shall be the one aim of my public life.
What could be more wise and high-minded than
this ? He did well to rejoice in his high rank as
giving him unparalleled opportunities of promoting
the public good. When birth, and rank, and
wealth are used, not as occasions for ignoble pride
or base self-indulgence, but as rare and precious
weapons with which to smite evil and protect
innocence, they are a blessing both to those who
possess them and to all the people. Ruskin says
truly that the privileged classes are the natural
leaders of men, and even in a democratic age like
this they might still lead if they were animated
by the noble principles of the late Emperor. How
excellent and how beautiful is the modesty with
70 Social Christianity.
which the young prince recognised the fact that he
was as frail and mortal as the rest of us, and that
he would some day stand at a Judgment Seat
where the Emperor of Germany would be judged
like every other man, according to the deeds done
in the body.
The extract I have read ought to be printed in
letters of gold upon the Emperor's tomb, and his
country might add, without flattery, that he honestly
endeavoured throughout his long life to live up to
the splendid ideal which he set before himself in
his early manhood. I humbly venture to believe
that I am not one of those degraded ministers of
religion who are ready to excuse vice when it is
clothed with royal purple, or to pour extravagant
eulogies at the feet of the rulers of men. I have,
therefore, the greater joy in believing and saying
to-day that the late Emperor kept the promise
which he made when he entered into the full en-
joyment of the privileges of the Christian Church.
May God grant that all the young men who hear
me now may strive with equal patience and with
equal persistence to attain the noble and generous
ideals of their youth. I do not for a moment pre-
tend to admire all the acts and the policy of the
late Emperor. Before I have done, I shall mention
where, as it seems to me, he has conspicuously
failed. But, so far as we can judge, he lived up to
The Career of the First German Emperor. 7 1
the light he enjoyed, and he honestly sought from
first to last to obey his God and to serve his
beloved Fatherland.
There are, at least, three qualities of his public
life which are worthy of our gratitude and of our
imitation. In the first place, how industrious he
was ! He, at any rate, lived out Carlyle's gospel
of hard work. He did with his might whatsoever
his hand found to do. His simple and abstemious
habits were an incalculable blessing in a luxurious
and self-indulgent age. Both in war and in peace
he shared the hardships and the toil of those who
served him. A little more of German economy
and simplicity in our own public life would be a
great gain. In the second place, let us remember
that the late Emperor worked hard, not in his own
interest, but in obedience to a high sense of duty
and for the public good. Some men in this city
are killing themselves by inches in order to grasp
at superfluous wealth with which to imperil and
afflict their children. The late Emperor worked
as hard as they, but for no unworthy end, — he
toiled for the unity and greatness of Germany. In
the third place, the real secret of the late Emperor's
strength and persistence was his simple, unaffected,
evangelical piety. No man ever recognised the
presence and need of God more openly or more
constantly. When, during the Franco-German
'j 2 Social Christianity.
war, he ascribed his victories to the mercy of God,
infidel journals both in France and in this country
sneered at his pious references. But no honest
observer could doubt his entire sincerity.
How significant and inspiring was the death-bed
scene. The Court chaplain repeated verses of con-
solation and hope from David and Isaiah. After
each of them the Emperor rejoined, " That is
beautiful ! " When the chaplain exclaimed, " I
know that my Redeemer liveth ; Christ is the
Resurrection and the Life," the dying monarch
broke in with " That is right." When, later in the
night, his beloved daughter, the Grand Duchess of
Baden, asked him if he could hear the words that
were read, he answered, "Mine eyes have seen Thy
salvation." Once he exclaimed quite spontaneously,
when there was a pause of silence, " God has helped
me with His name." After further quotations from
the Psalms, the Emperor cried out once more, " It
is beautiful ! "
There are some benighted persons who imagine
that all orthodox evangelical Christians are milk-
sops. The late Emperor was an impressive proof
that the most simple evangelical piety may co-exist
with the most masculine virtues of courage, daring,
and enterprise. The career of Cromwell ought
to have taught all men that. The life of the late
Emperor was a striking evidence that the heroic
The Career of the First German Emperor. 73
energies of the Reformation still survive in the
Protestant world. The Emperor was a typical
specimen of the sturdy German Protestantism
which found so characteristic and mighty a voice
in Martin Luther. That type of Christianity is
vividly expressed in Luther's great hymn. Let
me read it to you in Carlyle's translation, which
preserves in so remarkable a degree the force and
ruggedness of the original : —
"A safe stronghold our God is still,
A trusty shield and weapon ;
He'll help us clear from all the ill
That hath us now o'ertaken.
The ancient prince of Hell
Hath risen with purpose fell ;
Strong mail of craft and power
He weareth in this hour ;
On earth is not his fellow.
With force of arms we nothing can,
Full soon were we down-trodden ;
But for us fights the proper Man,
Whom God Himself hath bidden.
Ask ye who is this same ?
Christ Jesus is His name,
The Lord Sabaoth's son ;
He, and no other one,
Shall conquer in the battle.
And were this world all devils o'er,
And watching to devour us,
We lay it not to heart so sore ;
Not they can overpower us.
And let the prince of ill
74 Social Christianity.
Look grim as e'er he will,
He harms us not a whit :
For why? His doom is writ ;
A word shall quickly slay him.
God's word, for all their craft and force,
One moment will not linger,
But, spite of hell, shall have its course ;
'Tis written by His finger.
And though they take our life,
Goods, honour, children, wife,
Yet is their profit small ;
These things shall vanish all ;
The city of God remaineth."
I admit that the gospel of Luther's hymn is not
the Gospel according to St. John, which we of this
Mission specially love. It is not even the Gospel
according to St. Paul. But it is the Gospel accord-
ing to St. James, who was the brother of our Lord
and a holy apostle. At certain periods of human
history the strong, stern, practical teaching of St.
James is specially needed. At all periods it has
its important place in this many-sided world.
Before I close let me utter a note of warning
against the plausible misuse of the deceased
Emperor's career which the advocates of militar-
ism are already making. " There," they are say-
ing, "nothing succeeds like a blood-and-iron policy.
All this chatter about peace and brotherly love is
mischievous nonsense. Men cannot be ruled by
love. You must have a strong army, and all will
The Career of the First German Emperor. 75
be well. God is on the side of the big battalions.''
The first Napoleon said that, but he lived to dis-
cover that his " big battalions " could not avert the
irreparable disasters which fitly closed his infamous
career. The life of the late Emperor, when clearly-
understood, teaches the exact opposite of the
doctrine which the advocates of militarism try to
found on it. It must not be forgotten that the
late Emperor fought with four adversaries, but
that he defeated only two of them. He fought
with Austria and won. He fought with France
and won. But he fought also with the Pope and
with the Socialists, and did not win.
When blood and iron are opposed to blood and
iron, they may be the instruments which enable the
right side to win. But when we have to contend
with religious or political convictions, we must
employ very different weapons. The Emperor
defeated Austria because Austria then represen-
ted domestic despotism of the most detestable
character. The overthrow of Austria was one of
the greatest blessings that the God of freedom and
justice ever granted to the long-afflicted people
of Central Europe. Again, the late German
Emperor defeated France, because France then
represented foreign despotism as odious as that
of Austria. The overthrow of the corrupt and
lascivious Bonapartist adventurers was an immense
76 Social Christianity.
service to the whole world, and, above all, to France.
So far, the sword of the German Emperor, like the
sword of Washington and the sword of Cromwell
and the sling of David, was the instrument per-
mitted by God to crush cruelty and oppression.
But when the German Emperor tried to conquer
the Pope by force, his weapon was blunted in his
hand, and he suffered an ignominious defeat. As
an evangelical Protestant, my sympathies were, of
course, with the Emperor ; but the end does not
justify the means, and the pure primitive Gospel
can never be advanced at the point of the sword.
Peter made that mistake, and we know how sternly
our Lord rebuked him ; and how promptly He bade
him replace his sword in his scabbard.
There is only one way of defeating the Pope, and
that is to be a more Christ-like Christian than he
is, and to offer to mankind a more complete and
divine Gospel. To put priests in prison is only to
make them martyrs, and to increase their influence.
Cromwell tried to crush Romanism in Ireland by
brute force, and he only succeeded in making Ire-
land the most intensely Roman Catholic country
in Europe. Christ absolutely disclaimed the use of
force for the extension of His kingdom. The only
result of the late Emperor's fatal blunder was to
paralyse the Old Catholic movement, and to make
the Pope stronger in Germany than ever. The
The Career of the First German Emperor. 77
only way to convert Roman Catholics is to melt
their hearts with love, and then to convince their
minds with the Word of God.
The other colossal mistake of the late Emperor
was his attempt to suppress Socialism by military
force. He declared whole cities in a state of siege,
he suppressed newspapers, he dispersed public
meetings, he imprisoned members of Parliament.
What was the result ? The Socialist vote in-
creased at each successive election. You can never
put down political convictions by a blood -and-
iron policy. Socialism may be illogical and mis-
chievous, but unless and until Socialists proceed
to overt and unconstitutional acts, you will only
assist them and swell their ranks by persecuting
them. Sane and unprejudiced public men have
long agreed that all attempts to prevent free
speech are mischievous. It may be very annoying
and wearisome to argue with men whom you re-
gard as wicked or misguided agitators. But you
cannot put them down by brute force so long as
they attempt no actual breach of the peace. You
must lovingly argue with them, and show them
their folly.
Men are open to argument, unless you begin by
outraging their sense of justice. Further, it must
be said that it will be impossible to arrest the
Socialistic propaganda unless we infuse into our
78 Social Christianity.
public life that deep and intense sympathy with
the poor which Colonel Duncan, of Finsbury, so
wisely demands. Unless you can persuade the
masses of the people that you pity them, and sym-
pathise with them at least as much as the Socialists
do, they will be more and more inclined to accept
the Socialist creed. All subversive political parties
thrive upon social misery. Remove the causes of
social misery, and you destroy the roots of social
discontent. Force is no remedy. The compassion
of the good Samaritan is the remedy.
We may find further evidence of these great
Scriptural truths in the sequel of the Franco-
German war, especially when we contrast it with
the sequel of the war with Austria. When Austria
was overthrown, the German Emperor was greatly
tempted to annex Bohemia. But the sagacity
of Prince Bismarck saw that the annexation of
Bohemia would be a perpetual cause of Austrian
hatred. After a severe struggle, in which Prince
Bismarck was obliged to threaten resignation, the
King of Prussia gave way, and Bohemia was
restored to Austria. What was the result of that
magnanimous policy ? Why, that ill-will ceased.
Austria nobly accepted her new position, and in
a few years Austria became the warm friend of
Germany, and all cause of suspicion on either side
died away. How different, alas ! was the sequel
The Career of the First German Emperor. 79
of the war with France. Then, again, to his eternal
honour, Prince Bismarck did his utmost to prevent
the annexation of Lorraine. But this time the
Emperor was supported by Von Moltke and the
military party, and Prince Bismarck was defeated.
The result which he foresaw has come to pass.
The violent seizure of purely French territory has
left an open sore, which time cannot heal. If the
magnanimous policy which had prevailed with
Austria had been repeated with France, the same
happy result would have followed. The great and
gifted French people are quite as capable as the
Austrians of appreciating magnanimous and con-
ciliatory conduct.
What has Germany gained by annexing French
territory ? Eighteen years of suspicion, hatred,
misery, and unendurable military burdens. She
would have been ten times richer, stronger, and
happier to-day, if in the hour of her great victory
she had exhibited more of the mind of Christ.
We all pray very earnestly that the life of the new
German Emperor, Frederick III., may be spared,
and that his well-known humanity and love of
peace may exercise a beneficent influence over the
counsels of Europe.* But he will indeed make
* The infinite and omniscient love of God has answered
our prayers otherwise than we had hoped.
So SociaC Christianity.
himself illustrious, immeasurably more illustrious
than he could ever be made by another Sadovva or
another Sedan, if he avails himself of his great
opportunity to conciliate France. A soft answer
will turn away wrath. He can hold out a hand of
friendship and peace without any loss of dignity,
without any imputation of an unworthy motive.
Let him treat France as kindly and as wisely as
his father treated Austria. Then the greatest peril
of the united German people will pass away for
ever. We close our review of the most successful
military career of our time with the conviction, that
instead of sanctioning or encouraging those who
delight in war, it is really, when viewed narrowly
and viewed as a whole, a fresh and striking proof
of our great Master's doctrine that "the meek shall
inherit the earth."
VI.
GENERAL GORDON'S IDEA OF CHRIS-
TIANITY.
Preached in St. James's Hall, Sunday afternoon,
March 2$thy iSSS.
VI.
GENERAL GORDONS IDEA OF CHRIS-
TIANITY.
" Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of Cod, God
abideth in him, and he in God." — i John iv. 15.
GENERAL GORDON was one of the most
heroic and impressive characters of our time.
Few have so deeply stirred the hearts and ima-
ginations of men. It is interesting and instructive
to examine his idea of Christianity. I am far
from endorsing some of his views. His fatalism,
his universalism, and his materialistic sacramenta-
rianism are, it seems to me, entirely unscriptural.
But when a bee lights upon a lovely flower, it does
not trouble itself about the dust which may have
accumulated upon the petals, or about the obnox-
ious insects crawling to and fro on the leaves.
It collects all the sweet honey it can find, and flies
away. In like manner, leaving on one side the
controversial and subordinate notions of General
Gordon, let us gather what spiritual honey we can
from his brave and devout life. Nothing throws
a more vivid light upon a man's character and con-
victions than his favourite quotations.
83
84 Social Christianity.
Now, we learn from General Gordon's letters
to his sister, which have just been published, that
he had three favourite quotations. The first was
from the Book of Proverbs : " Trust in the Lord
with all thine heart ; and lean not unto thine own
understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him,
and He shall direct thy paths" (Prov. iii. 5,6).
That was Gordon's rule of conduct, and it was the
subject of our Conference last Sunday afternoon.
Another quotation which was constantly on his
lips was from a hymn —
" Oh ! ask not then, How shall I bear
The burden of to-morrow?
Sufficient for the day its care,
Its evil and its sorrow.
God imparteth by the way
Strength sufficient for the day."
That verse reveals Gordon's melancholy and his
tendency to a kind of pessimism. We will ex-
amine that aspect of his character next Sunday
afternoon — the afternoon of the great day of the
Christian year. In the glorious light of the Easter
triumph we shall find no place for the cloud that
sometimes shadowed the thoughts of General
Gordon. To-day we turn our attention to the
third of his favourite quotations, our text. We
learn now, for the first time, that General Gordon
attached the very highest importance to the words
of St. John which I have read to you. This verse
General Gordons Idea of Christianity. 85
declares, in his judgment, and, I may add, in mine
the very essence of the Christian religion. In 1867
he wrote : " I am more than ever convinced that
the secret of happiness and holiness is in the in-
dwelling of God. I think it is the key to much of
the Scripture." In 1883, when he was on the eve
of his last and tragical mission to Africa, he wrote
often and exultingly of our bodies as the temples
of God, and spoke in his strong and epigrammatic
way of "man as the incarnation of the Holy
Ghost."
Gordon held that God — that is, Christ ; that is,
the Spirit of Christ — is in every man, but that only
those who " confess " Christ are "conscious of" the
indwelling presence of God. He argued in this
way : Man is naturally fallen, and has no good
thing in himself. Whatever good thing is in him
must, therefore, be due to the presence of God
in him, even though he may be so unconscious
of the indwelling and inspiring presence of God
as to consider himself an atheist. To express this
in another way, he held that no man can do any
good thing without the quickening Spirit of God.
Gordon practically regarded the whole human race
as a living organism, a gigantic man, of which
Christ is the Head. You will remember how the
same idea is expressed by St. Paul in 1 Corin-
thians xi. 3 : " The head of every man is Christ."
86 Social Christianity.
The learned Bishop of Gloucester observes in his
recently-published Commentary on this Epistle
that by " man " in this clause St. Paul docs not
mean merely " Christian man," but every man
absolutely.
Those who arc familiar with the ideas of the
Positivist school will know how fond the followers
of Comtc are of this beautiful illustration of the
solidarity of the human race. But they have no
head for the living organism. They reduce the
race of Adam to a headless and incomprehensible
trunk.
Gordon, on the other hand, echoing the great
conception of St. Paul, regarded the whole human
race as Christ's body, in which Christ still lives
and toils and suffers on earth. In 1SS1 he wrote :
" The more we reflect on it, the more we shall be-
lieve that our Lord, even now, is Man as He was
when here ; that He can be well pleased and
grieved now as He could then ; that He is in
reality suffering from sickness and sorrow in the
slums of the world, in the bodies of His members ;
and that to administer to them is to administer
to Him and rejoice His heart, even as our hearts
at times rejoice." In a similar strain he writes
again in the same year : " I hope (D.V.) to put
myself in communication with some of our Scrip-
ture-reader people, and shall try and visit Christ,
General Gordons Idea of Christianity. 87
who is in the East End in the flesh." Gordon
justifies these last startling words by referring to
the well-known utterance of our Lord : " Inas-
much as ye did it unto one of these My brethren,
even these least, ye did it unto Me."
How can we resist General Gordon's conclusion?
Our Lord distinctly declared that any kindness
shown to the starving poor, to the friendless, to the
sick, and to the criminal classes, will be regarded
as a personal kindness to Himself, so absolutely
docs He identify Himself with the most miserable
and the most wicked of men. In another letter
Gordon expresses the same idea in the following
terms : " A kind word to a crossing-sweeper de-
lights Christ in him, as much as it would delight
Christ in a queen." Every one will realize with
what new diginity and new hope this conception
clothes each individual life. If the Spirit of Christ
is in every man, seeking to save, we need not de-
spair even of the most degraded and abandoned.
So long as Christ is in that man or that woman, all
may yet be well. The hidden Light may dissolve
the darkness in which it is enveloped. The sacred
fire of Divine love may yet triumph over the cold-
ness of death.
Again, this conception of the relation of every
man to Christ gives new importance and new
sacredness to " the service of man," which becomes
88 Social Christianity.
literally "the service of God." Some of us have
often been tempted to lament that we did not live
nineteen centuries ago. " Ah," many a heart has
exclaimed, "if I had only lived in Galilee when
Jesus lived there, I would not have deserted Him,
I would have found heaven in ministering to His
daily need." My friend, if there is any truth in
what General Gordon, and St. Paul, and the Master
Himself have said, that is a quite unnecessary
regret. You may minister to Christ quite as
literally to-day as if you had lived in Galilee long
ago. Every kindness that you show to the
drunkards of the Regent Street slums, to the har-
lots of Piccadilly, and to the starving poor every-
where, is a kindness shown to Jesus Christ.
Christ is in every man ; but, said Gordon, every
man is not " conscious " of it ; or, as I should prefer
to say, every man is not "in Christ." St. Paul
speaks of certain kinsmen who were "in Christ
before " he was (Rom. xvi. 7). We have to realize,
to complete, to perpetuate our union with Christ.
How ? I think General Gordon would have replied
that we are to do that by participating in the Holy
Communion. He ultimately developed a most ex-
aggerated and even grotesque sacramentarianism.
If he or any one else said that Ave were to develop
our life in Christ by participating in the Holy
Communion " worthily," that additional word
General Gordons Idea of Christianity. 89
would make all the difference, and I could accept
it. Everything depends upon the intention and
attitude of soul with which we receive the sacra-
ment. After all, the bread and wine are merely a
symbol of reality ; and the symbol may be used
without the reality, just as the reality may exist in
a Quaker without the symbol.
Take a parallel illustration — the use of the ring
in marriage. If the ring is used as the symbol of
a union to which there is no legal or moral impedi-
ment, it is the expression of a most sacred and
blessed fact. But I have known profligate men
who have placed a wedding ring on the hands of
their abandoned mistresses. In that case the sacred
symbol with all its hallowed associations, was a
lie and a snare. In like manner the outward act
of receiving the bread and wine may mean much
or less than nothing. We cannot rest in the out-
ward form. Since I came to St. James's Hall I
have had conversations with inquirers who have
been regular communicants in Christian Churches
for years, but who, so far from being real Chris-
tians, have never even known how to utter a
genuine prayer to God.
If the sacrament is received intelligently and
worthily ; if it is the outward expression of an in-
ward act and dedication of the soul ; if we then
and there feed upon Christ in our hearts by faith,
90 Social Christianity.
it is the central act of Christian worship, and the
highest and most blessed of all the means of grace.
But if it be a mere physical and conventional act,
then, truly, " he that eateth and drinketh, eateth
and drinketh judgment unto himself" (i Cor. xi.
29). What, then, must we do in order to realize
and complete our union with Christ ? What is
that real act of the soul of which the Lord's
Supper is the outward and visible sign? What
must we do in order that we may be " in Christ,"
as Christ is " in us " ? We cannot express our
part in the blessed consummation better than in
the familiar words of our Lord Himself. We must
" abide " in Him. You remember how He illus-
trates our relation to Himself by the vine and its
branches. We must abide in Him as the branch
abides in the vine.
We must identify ourselves absolutely with
Him. We must have no will, or purpose, or object
in life, apart from Him. We must yield ourselves
unconditionally, altogether to Him ; so that we
may no longer have any existence separate from
Him ; so that, as St. Paul says, we may no longer
live, but He may live in us. General Gordon
expresses this very clearly. Writing in 1862, he
says : " To be like Christ we must not only have
our will subordinated to His, but be delighted to
have it so, and even seek it." " It is to be counted
General Gordons Idea of Christianity. 91
an idiot, an idealist, an impossible sort of person, a
theorist, an indiscreet person, an (apparent) con-
doner of evil, an enthusiast, a mean-spirited person.
It is not prayer-meetings, or church-going, or
parish-visiting." "Endeavour to realize your
identity with and absorption in Christ ; endeavour
to realize what He as man feels for us ; endeavour
to grasp His feelings, His power over all things in
heaven and earth, for we are entirely one with Him
in all things, and He with us. We are partners
with Him for weal and woe. He needs you as
much as you need Him."
In these sentences General Gordon proves how
absolutely all real Christians are agreed on the
essential questions ; however widely they may
differ with respect to the precise meaning of the
Sacrament and to subordinate questions of ecclesi-
astical polity. Let me conclude by putting this
fundamental truth in a more familiar form. We
must all choose between self and Christ. We can
live to self, or we can live to Christ. Which
shall it be ? Because Christ is " in us," we can live
to Him. His indwelling Spirit gives us power to
live no longer to ourselves, but to Him who died
for us, and rose again. On the other hand, we
may refuse to be " in Christ," we may live to please
ourselves, to do what is right in our own eyes, to
lean unto our own understanding, to go our own
92 Social Christianity.
independent, lawless, self-assertive way. Many of
you remember the beautiful and striking words by
which the saintly Theodore Monod describes the
great change in his life from self to Christ. Let
me quote them : —
" Oh ! the bitter shame and sorrow
That a time could ever be
When I proudly said to Jesus :
'All of self, and none of Thee.'
Yet, He found me ; I beheld Him
Bleeding on the accursed tree ;
And my wistful heart said faintly,
' Some of self, and some of Thee.'
Day by day His tender mercy,
Healing, helping, full, and free,
Brought me lower, and I whispered :
'Less of self, and more of Thee.'
Higher than the highest heaven,
Deeper than the deepest sea,
Lord, Thy love at last has conquered :
'None of self, and all of Thee ! ' ;'
God grant that we all may thus fully " abide in
Christ," so that we may be able to say with St.
Paul, " I have been crucified with Christ ; and it is
no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me."
VII.
"ROBERT ELSMERE" AND MR. GLAD-
STONES CRITICISM OF THE BOOK.
Preached in St. James's Hall, Sunday Evening,
May 6th, 1888.
VII.
"ROBERT ELSMERE" AND MR. GLAD-
STONE'S CRITICISM OF THE BOOK.
" He that hath the Son hath the life ; he that hath not the Son oj
God hath not the life." — I John v. 12.
ACCORDING to public announcement, I am
to speak this afternoon of the remarkable
book which is exciting so much interest in literary
circles, and of which Mr. Gladstone has written an
equally remarkable review in The Ninctccntli Cen-
tury. Mr. Gladstone says that "this book is
eminently an offspring of the time, and will prob-
ably make a deep, or, at least, a very sensible im-
pression ; not, however, among mere novel readers,
but among those who share, in whatever sense, the
deeper thought of the period." I entirely share
Mr. Gladstone's estimate of the book. Like him,
I am, of course, unable to accept its main teach-
ing, and I shall be compelled to offer some serious
objections to it. I am, therefore, the more anxious,
at the very outset, to bear my strong testimony to
the high qualities, both literary and moral, of its
gifted writer, and especially to mention the candour
95
g6 Social Christianity,
with which she has exhibited the heartless selfish-
ness of some sceptics, as well as the deep insight
into human character which distinguishes so many-
parts of the book. The Times classes it among
the " clever attacks upon revealed religion," and
when we remember Mrs. Humphry Ward's intimate
relations with that newspaper, we may conclude
that this description is not inaccurate. Yet I
scarcely think she would care to put it in that
way herself.
To me it is very interesting — first, because it
is a faithful and vivid revelation of the literary
scepticism of our time ; and, secondly, because it
is an explicit statement of the best attempt at
religious reconstruction yet made on the sceptical
side. I have also a certain personal interest
in the book, because I had a slight acquaint-
ance with several of the Oxford men who are sup-
posed to have suggested the principal characters.
I was one of the earliest admirers of Robert
Elsmere's historical genius. I used to hear the
Provost of St. Anselm's discourse on Aristotle. I
have probably attended the lectures of Mr. Lang-
ham at Balliol. I once had a singular correspond-
ence with Squire Wendover. And as to Mr. Grey,
the great hero of the book, I knew him, and loved
him as all who knew him loved him. I heard the
last course of prelections he delivered at Balliol. I
"Robert Elsmere^ and Mr. Gladstone. 97
believe the very last public lecture he ever gave was
given in my own schoolroom, to a humble literary
society of young Methodists. . Such was the broad
sympathy and such the unselfishness of the man
that, even after what proved to be his fatal illness
had begun, he dragged himself forth to fulfil his
engagement with us. At his funeral, vividly de-
scribed in this book, I was one of the sincerest
mourners. And, as a farther illustration of the
universal affection which he evoked, I may add
that I was, on that occasion, accompanied by all
my ministerial colleagues and by all the lay repre-
sentatives of my church. Mr. Grey is the name
given to the late Professor Thomas Hill Green.
Mrs. Humphry Ward's book may be described
as a lengthy tract written in the interests of the
religious teaching of Professor Green. I well re-
member Mr. Green's last prelection. The ethics it
vehemently enforced were precisely those which,
in other terms, I propound here every Friday night.
It was what we Methodists call Entire Sanctifica-
tion, or Christian Holiness, or Perfect Love. It
was the ethics of St. John without the theology of
St. John. But can we retain the ethics of St. John
without the theology of St. John — in one word,
without the Divinity of Jesus Christ? That is the
question. That, as Mr. Gladstone says in his re-
view, is " the real hinge of the whole question."
7
9S Social Christianity.
It may appear to be possible to separate the ethics
of Christianity from its doctrines when we think
of such a man in our own day as Professor Green,
and of such a man in a recent age as the devout
Unitarian Channing. But both of these Christ-like
men were unconscious Christians, who really be-
lieved a great deal more than they distinctly for-
mulated. They believed in God the Father as He
is revealed in Christ, and as He can be known
only in Christ. Robert Elsmere, in his first address
to the working men in the East End of London,
states that he " places his whole trust, for life and
death, in God the Father Almighty." Now, no
one but a Christian at heart ever did that. The
Fatherhood of God was never clearly revealed
until Christ came; and is never properly realized
now, except by Christians.
The theological position eloquently and passion-
ately advocated by Mrs. Ward is quite untenable.
It is an impossible compromise. Squire Wend-
over, who is a wide-awake and thorough-going
sceptic, says truly to Elsmere : " You are playing
into the hands of the Blacks." By " the Blacks "
he means the parsons. " All this theistic philo-
sophy of yours only means so much grist to their
mill in the end." The shrewd old cynic was quite
right. Mrs. Ward goes either too far or not far
enough. She believes too much or too little. It
"Robert Elsmere " and J\Ir. Gladstone. 99
is impossible for the human intellect to stop long
at that point. It will either advance to Christianity
or recede to Agnosticism. Mr. Grey taught that
" God, consciousness, and duty arc the only
realities." But those who accept the principles
and tendencies of modern scepticism make quite
as short work of this triad as of the Trinity. Els-
mere expresses his mind in slightly different terms.
He declares his belief in " God, love, and the soul."
But Renan has already degraded " love " into
animal lust, and as for the " soul," what sceptic
tolerates its existence for a moment ? All these
things are logically and absolutely rejected by the
consistent disciples of the sceptical school. But
Mrs. Ward and those whom she represents may
say, as Professor Green said : We are conscious of
the ultimate realities which we assert. " Ah," we
reply, " if subjective consciousness is to be given
a hearing, we also claim to be heard. We are as
conscious of Christ as you are of God, of love, and
of duty. But Squire Wendover and all his friends
will tolerate neither your consciousness nor ours."
It is a remarkable fact, as Mr. Gladstone points
out, that ever since the fourth century the Christian
conception of Christ has been absolutely unchanged.
Amid all our controversies and schisms we have
never doubted or disputed the claims of Christ.
To-day, if you were to shut up in a room the
ioo Social Christianity,
Archbishop of Canterbury, Mr. Spurgeon, Cardinal
Manning, General Booth, the Chairman of the
Congregational Union, and the President of the
Methodist Conference, and tell them that they
must remain there until they were all agreed in a
common definition of the claims of Christ, they
would not be detained for five minutes. Differing
on ten thousand points, they would all agree here.
The case is even stronger than Mr. Gladstone's
statement of it. Although there were serious
differences of opinion until the days of Athanasius,
as to the exact definition of our Lord's nature ; no
Christian during the first three centuries held that
Christ was simply a man.
The doctrine of Professor Green and his disciples
is absolutely new. Even the Socinians of a later
period ascribed something more than mere man-
hood to Christ. No Christian Church has ever yet
accepted the faith of Robert Elsmere. The at-
tempt to retain the peculiar and distinctive ethical
teaching of Christianity without the Christ is as
hopeless as the attempt to retain the life of a lovely
and fragrant flower after you have severed it from
its root. You might as well hope to bask in the
sunlight after you had abolished the sun. It is
true that twice a day you have sunlight without a
visible sun, at dawn and at sunset. But dawn and
sunset are short-lived. They herald the appear-
"Robert Elsmere" and Mr. Glads lone. 101
ancc and the disappearance of the sun. Many a
Hindoo is in the dawn, some Englishmen are in
the sunset of Christianity. But the dawn will
brighten into day, and the sunset will pass into
night. There is no lasting daylight except when
the Sun of righteousness is above the horizon of
consciousness.
Mr. Gladstone points out the astounding ease
with which Elsmere rejects Christianity. His first
perusal of Wendover's book shattered the fabric of
his faith. He dismisses calmly and at once the
testimony of nineteen centuries. How strikingly
this resembles the readiness with which George
Eliot made a similar sacrifice ! She settled the
whole question in a few short weeks, under the
influence of a book so obscure that scarcely any
one had ever heard of it until her biography ap-
peared. Of course, no one who had ever under-
stood Christianity, or whose opinion of Christianity
had any real value, could possibly reject it in six
weeks. George Eliot never considered the real
evidence for Christianity. She rejected a figment
of her own brain. Christianity itself, real Christi-
anity, she never knew. The same statement must
be made of Robert Elsmere. He appears before
us as the great apostle of testimony ; and he calmly
ignores the testimony of the Christian conscious-
ness !
102 Social Christianity
This is my main point. Mrs. Humphry Ward
evidently has never understood the essential char-
acteristic of Christianity — that which differentiates
it from every other religion in the world. Com-
parative religion, instead of injuring Christianity,
as she imagines, has been of the greatest service.
Our knowledge of the Asiatic religions has brought
out the unique glory of Christianity as it has
never been exhibited before. Sir Monier-Williams
says that the characteristic and absolutely un-
paralleled feature of Christianity is the living
personal relation of the individual Christian to
Christ. But Robert Elsmere never had the faintest
conception of that. He never so much as realized
that this was the fundamental fact of Scriptural
Christianity. When he put himself through a
searching catechism, to discover how much of
orthodox Christianity he still retained, he omitted
this truth altogether from his catalogue. He be-
lieved that he had made an exhaustive statement
of the orthodox view of Christ when he stated that
it included a belief " in the Man-God, the Word
from eternity, in a wonder-working Christ, in a
risen and ascended Jesus, in the living Inter-
cessor and Mediator for the lives of the doomed
brethren."
But this is like the play of Hamlet with Hamlet
left out. He omits the essential doctrine without
"Robert Elsmere" and Mr. Glad si one. 103
which everything else would be a mockery. He
says nothing, because he knows nothing, about the
living and risen Saviour, now in the heart of the
Christian, now in living union with the Christian, as
the vine and branch are in union, and as the mem-
ber and the head are in union. The conclusion
of the whole matter is that Robert Elsmere never
was a Christian in the Scriptural sense of the
term. He had never entered into that personal
relation with Christ which is the very essence of
Scriptural Christianity. Mr. Gladstone does not
give as much prominence as I have to this main
point, but he does express it in the plainest terms
in the following remarkable words : " Christianity,
in the established Christian sense, is the presenta-
tion to us, not of abstract dogmas for acceptance,
but of a living and a Divine Person, to whom we
are to be united by a vital incorporation. It is the
reunion to God of a nature severed from God by
sin, and the process is one, not of teaching lessons,
but of imparting a new life, with its ordained
equipment of gifts and powers." In these words
Mr. Gladstone expresses the belief and experience
of all properly-instructed Christians in every cen-
tury of Christian history.
When the sceptics of the age of Augustine asked
that great man what they would gain by becoming
Christians, because they could be truthful, chaste,
io.*. Social Christianity.
and honest while they continued to be sceptics,
Augustine answered that the very essence of true
Christianity was a living union with Christ, from
which union Christians derived a new life. Those
who were here when I discussed the Christianity
of General Gordon, as recently disclosed in his
letters to his sister, will remember how emphati-
cally the General insisted that this living union
with Christ was the supreme necessity. Cardinal
Newman, in his " Essay in aid of a Grammar of
Assent," and the late F. D. Maurice, widely apart
as they were, agreed in representing this living
relation to Christ as the heart and root of religion.
The effect of realizing this relation to Christ is
written at large on the pages of history. In this
century, for example, Dr. Chalmers was a scholar,
a clergyman, a theologian, an orator, a man of
science, a leader of men before he understood and
experienced this crowning truth. But when he
did understand it, he was revolutionized, and the
revolution in his own heart revolutionized Scot-
land.
Precisely the same thing occurred to John
Wesley in the last century. He was a devout
and zealous clergyman of the Established Church,
but when he was more than thirty years of age
Christ was revealed in him as He had not been
revealed before, and from that day he became
"Robert Elsmere" and Mr. Gladstone. 105
another man. His comparatively unfruitful minis-
try became the most successful in modern history.
That new experience of his changed the face of
England, and filled the whole world. I, too, in all
humility, speaking on behalf of millions of men
and women in all lands, testify that their hearts
and my own have experienced the Divine change
to which Augustine and Gordon, and Maurice and
Newman, and Chalmers and Wesley were never
tired of referring ; and yet to this living testimony
of the Christians of every age Robert Elsmere
never once refers. This book attacks the out-
works of Christianity ; it never so much as dis-
charges a single shell at the citadel.
It is not a question of documents. It is a ques-
tion of living men and living women, who realize
in their own souls the presence of the Divine
Christ. Squire Wendover might argue for fifty
years, but his arguments would never produce
the slightest impression upon such Christians.
Robert Elsmere abandoned Christianity at once
because he had never understood it, never ex-
perienced it, never realized it as it is realized
by all those whose Christianity is not a hope or
a mental conviction, but a fact and a life. I will
resume this discussion next Sunday, and shall be
glad to answer any questions or objections that
may reach me through the post.
VIII.
THE PROBLEM FOR UNBELIEF.
107
Preached in St. James's Hall, Sunday Afternoon,
May 201/1, iSSS.
1 08
VIII.
7 HE PROBLEM FOR UNBELIEF.
" And we are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy
Ghost, whom Cod hath given to them that obey Him."— ACTS v. 32.
I AM very glad that several gentlemen have
accepted the invitation to write to me about
any objections or difficulties which my line of
argument may have suggested to them. As we
are not subject to any conventional restraints, and
as the object of this Conference is entirely practical,
I propose to deal at once with some of these letters.
The first is from a gentleman who was formerly
a tutor and Fellow of the famous Oxford College
to which Robert Elsmere belonged. This gentle-
man writes : " I listened on Sunday with much
interest to your address on Robert Elsmere. Will
you allow me to draw attention to a point which
you appeared to overlook, and which vitiates, as
I think, your case against him ? Assuming that,
not indeed to Christians universally, yet to an
important section of Protestant Christianity, the
essence of the Christian religion lies — as was well-
known to Catharine Elsmere— in a personal re-
lation between Christ and the believer, the truth
no Social Christianity.
and reality of that relation is dependent, as you
doubtless hold, on His Divinity. Further, that
Divinity is itself bound up with the truth of the
Gospel miracles, in particular with that of the
Resurrection. If the Resurrection did not happen,
you and orthodox Christians generally would
declare with one consent 'our faith is vain.' In
other words, the foundations of the Christian faith
are essentially historical, and to historical criticism
they must be submitted. Well, it is the contention
of Robert Elsmere that before that criticism the
miraculous story crumbles away, and the orthodox
Christian faith along with it. Now, the soundness
of that contention (which, of course, may be dis-
puted on other grounds) is in no way affected by
the inadequacy (if" so be) of Elsmere's apprehen-
sions of what Christian faith is. For that faith in
all its forms rests at last, by universal admission,
on the truth of certain alleged events, and if these
events did not occur, the ground is cut away from
under it. Whether they {e.g., the Resurrection)
did occur or not is, as I have said, a question of
fact which critical history alone is competent to
answer. To form a right judgment on this or on
any other historical question a saving Christian
faith is not essential, and other qualities are ;
namely, historical knowledge and critical capacity.
Strauss and Renan arc in court here, and the
The Problem for Unbelief. 1 1 1
twenty-eight millions of half-educated mankind
from China to Peru, to whom you appeal, are
not."
Now, this is a very clear and able statement of
the argument on the other side. Let us see how
far we agree, and where the difference comes
in. We agree that the personal relation to Christ
— which I assert is the very essence of true Chris-
tianity— depends upon the Divinity of Christ. We
agree that the Divinity of Christ depends upon
the Resurrection of Christ, and that if He did not
rise from the dead our faith is vain, we are yet in L
our sins. We agree that the question before us is
a question of fact. Now we come to the point at
issue. My correspondent assumes that the only
evidence in favour of the Resurrection is to be
found in certain ancient documents, and that the
whole question must be settled by discussing the
authenticity and genuineness of those documents.
I am ready, when occasion arises, to discuss the
documentary evidence. On that point I will stay
now only to remind you that the testimony of the
New Testament to the fact of the resurrection is
not affected at all by the discussions about the
Fourth Gospel, or by any theory of interpolation.
No one denies to-day that the Epistles to the
Romans, the Galatians, and the Corinthians were
written by St. Paul. Those four epistles contain
1 1 2 Social Christianity.
indisputable proof that St. Paul and the early
Christians believed that Jesus had risen from the
dead. That is all we want the New Testament to
prove on this subject. We have then to choose
between the universal belief of men who risked
and forfeited their lives for their belief, and the
a priori assumptions of modern scepticism.
And that is not all. The historical evidence for
the Resurrection includes the personal testimony
of millions of Christians in every century of the
Christian era, and of millions now living. Pro-
fessor Huxley complains, in one of his delightful
science primers, of those who try to study natural
science without coming into living contact with
Nature. I was once in that miserable predicament.
I had to study chemistry without experiments.
Now Robert Elsmere and my correspondent, and
all whom they represent, are making a similar
utterly unscientific mistake. They are discussing
Christianity in their libraries and in books, far
away from living Christians. They think it is a
question of ancient documents. They argue and
decide without coming into contact with living
Christianity. They have no actual experience of
what Christianity is doing at this very hour in the
hearts of men. If they would go to Christians
as different in many respects as General Booth
and Father Ignatius, or Mr. Spurgeon and Mr.
The Problem for Unbelief. 1 1
Hay Aitkcn, or Canon Wilbcrforce and Mr.
Moody, these experienced teachers would tell
them of multitudes now living' who had been
saved by " the power of the resurrection." I
myself have witnessed many thousands of indis-
putable and lasting moral conversions ; and I may
add that these sudden and complete conversions
are, and always have been, peculiar to orthodox
Christianity.
Are all these moral facts to be ignored ? Are
men to ascend in literary balloons, and far away in
cloud-land to discuss and settle the great contro-
versies of Christianity in the absence of the living
witnesses of Christianity ? I submit that we, who
are in conscious fellowship with the risen Christ,
are a part of the historical argument for the Resur-
rection. The documents cannot be understood in
our absence, and yet these literary gentlemen try
to rule us out of court altogether. Take, for in-
stance, the testimony of my venerable friend, Mr.
Calvert, the apostle of Fiji. He went to those
islands half a century ago, and found degraded
savages and cannibals. Within the lifetime of
this one man, who is still among us, those savage
cannibals have become in some respects even more
civilized than we are. There has been an immense
moral revolution. Science demands an adequate
cause for such an effect. The converts all declare
S
U4 Social Christianity.
with one voice that the cause is the power of the
risen Christ. Neither is this moral power mani-
fested only among men of inferior race. Take such
a notorious case as that of the late Dr. Chalmers, one
of the most gifted of a highly intellectual people.
The conversion of Chalmers in the maturity of his
powers changed the face of modern Scotland. Dr.
Chalmers has a right to go into the witness-box
before this case is closed. A great CEcumcnical
Missionary Conference is about to be held in Lon-
don. Men are coming from all parts of the world
to testify that within the last century Christianity
has made more rapid progress, even numerically,
than during the whole of its previous history.
Our good friends who are closeted in Oxford
libraries have no idea of what is going on. They
imagine that Christianity is losing its hold of man-
kind. As a matter of fact, it was never so powerful
as it is to-day. All these living witnesses must be
heard. They are, as St. Paul said, the living epistles
(2 Cor. iii. 2, 3). It is utterly illogical and un-
scientific to ignore the " living epistle." Robert
Elsmere imagined it was a question of documents,
and interpolations, and ancient credulity. There-
fore, having nothing to fall back upon, cither in
his own experience or in the experience of others,
he yielded to the first assault of literary scepticism.
A very able Unitarian newspaper, The Inquirer,
The Problem for Unbelief. 1 1 5
has an extended notice of my first Conference on
this subject. I read The Inquirer every week, and
am in hearty sympathy with much of its high-
toned Christian teaching-. But on this point we
inevitably differ. The Inquirer concludes a kindly
and courteous notice with the following words,
which it evidently thinks will place me in a diffi-
culty : " Mr. Hughes declares this to be a matter
independent of documentary evidence. Does he
mean that if it can be shown that the Gospels are
wholly unreliable, and the Epistles spurious — we
do not say they are — the doctrine of a Christ
which is only taught on their authority could not
be shaken ? "
In that question The Inquirer assumes the point
at issue. Of course the doctrine of a Christ "which
is only taught on their authority " would be shaken.
But my contention is that the doctrine in question
is not taught " only on their authority." The books
interpret and explain and illustrate the Christian
life ; but the life itself is independent of all docu-
ments, and existed before any of them were
written. The New Testament is invaluable and
essential in our controversy with Rome, and with
all who accept Christianity, but have, as we hold,
departed from its primitive simplicity. But on
this fundamental question, on which all orthodox
Christians are and always have been agreed,
n6 Social Christianity.
we have other evidence in the depths of our own
souls.
"What we have felt and seen,
With confidence we tell."
Surely The Inquirer does not need to be informed
that the living Church existed before the New
Testament was written, and that none of the first
Christians referred to documents, but that they all
testified to facts of living personal experience ?
Take the day on which the Church was born,
the Day of Pentecost, which we commemorate this
afternoon. Peter and the rest, arguing with Jews,
quoted the Old Testament ; but the ground of their
argument was their personal experience of the
power of the risen Christ to save men from sin.
Listen to the text : " We are witnesses of these
things, and so is the Holy Ghost" — the Holy Ghost
speaking in the depths of men's souls, and echoing
there the truths fearlessly proclaimed by the first
Christians. No man has ever accepted Christianity
merely or mainly on documentary or literary evi-
dence ; and no man who has experienced the saving
power of Christ could ever reject it on such grounds
Let me conclude with the memorable testimony of
one of the most experienced and sensible men in
England — Dr. Dale, of Birmingham. Dr. Dale is
not a sentimental dreamer or an ignorant enthusiast.
Listen to his words : " When a man is regenerated,
The Problem for Unbelief. 1 1 7
he receives a new life, and receives it from God.
In itself regeneration is not a change in his old life,
but the beginning of a new life, which is conferred
by the immediate and supernatural act of the Holy
Spirit. The man is really ' born again.' " Yes !
and the man whose Christianity is not a theory, or
a speculation, or a creed, but a realized life, is not
at the mercy of documentary evidence.
IX.
CHRISTIANITY NOT A DOCTRINE OR AN
ETHICAL SYSTEM, BUT A NEW LIFE.
Preached in St. James's Hall, Sunday evening,
December 2nd, i SSS.
XI.
CHRISTIANITY NOT A DOCTRINE OR AN
ETHICAL SYSTEM, BUT A NEW LIFE.
" Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born anew" — St.
John iii. 7.
WE cannot too frequently return to the funda-
mental fact of Christianity. Our Lord
said, " Marvel not " ; but men marvel still. Jour-
nalists, politicians, educationists, even many minis-
ters of religion, are this very day as incredulous
and amazed as Nicodemus.
Many intelligent men begin, like Nicodemus,
with the delusion that Christianity is a system of
truth, and that therefore to become a Christian
means simply to receive certain doctrines. That
was the first delusion of Nicodemus. He thought
he had done all that could be desired when he had
approached Christ and said : " Rabbi, we know
that Thou art a Teacher come from God." Un-
doubtedly, when he had said that, he had said
something of enormous significance. It was a
noble confession. It expressed a tremendous
change of opinion. Here was one of the greatest
of the recognised and authorized religious teachers
of the age — " the teacher," par excellence, "of Israel"
122 Social Christianity.
— accepting the Galilean Peasant as the promised
Messiah of his race. In the teeth of all his preju-
dices and all his interests, when his own friends and
associates hated and despised Christ, Nicodemus
saluted Him as a prophet inspired of God, as One
whose doctrines must be accepted as the doctrines
of the Eternal Himself.
The more we reflect upon this confession from
the lips of such a man as Nicodemus the more are
we impressed with its far-reaching and revolution-
ary consequences. But mark the response of our
Lord. He did not accept this splendid tribute as
a generous and sufficient acknowledgment of His
claims. Far from it. There is a certain coldness,
there is a certain tone of lofty rebuke, in the solemn
words : " Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a
man be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of
God." The mere acknowledgment of Christ as a
Divinely-appointed teacher, the mere acceptance
of His teaching, is not Christianity. A man may
utter the confession of Nicodemus from the bottom
of his heart, and yet not so much as "see the king-
dom of God." A change of opinion, as I have ad-
mitted, often involves tremendous consequences.
But Christian conversion is not a change of opinion.
It is a new life.
Mr. Frederic Harrison, in his article in The
Fortnightly^ to which I have already referred more
Christianity a New Life. 123
than once, talks about giving up Christianity. He
never gave up Christianity. At this moment he
evidently has no conception of what real Christians
mean by real personal Christianity. He imagines
that Christianity is a state of opinion in relation to
certain difficult and mysterious questions, such as
the origin of the universe, and the immortality of
the soul. It is nothing of the kind. A man may
accept what are regarded as orthodox opinions.
He may afterwards abandon them, and become a
Positivist, or an Agnostic. Well, he has changed
his mind. That is all. He never was a Christian.
Real Christianity is a vital fact, not an opinion.
On the other hand, a man, as Wesley said in his
downright way, may be as orthodox as the devil
himself and as far from being a Christian. Correct
views about Divine truth arc of unspeakable im-
portance, but they do not make a man a Christian.
On the other hand, a man may have a great many
erroneous opinions in his head, and yet be a real
Christian. No man is a Christian until he is "born
anew."
Again, outward amendment of life is not Chris-
tianity. This was the second delusion in the mind
of Nicodemus. When the Master talked about
being "born anew," Nicodemus exclaimed, "How
can a man be born when he is old ? Can he enter
a second time into his mother's womb and be
124 Social Christianity.
born ? " (v. 4). " Surely," said Nicodemus, in effect,
" you use the phrase, ' new birth,' in a figurative
sense ? You do not mean it in any conceivable
literal sense ? " To which Christ once more re-
plied, with even unwonted emphasis and solemnity :
" Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be
born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into
the kingdom of God " {v. 5). The real significance
of these words has been hidden from millions of
Christians by the extraordinary ecclesiastical de-
lusion that they refer to Christian baptism. One
of the very greatest difficulties in reading ancient
documents is to avoid reading into them modern
meanings. On the other hand, the greatest literary
achievement is to realize the perspective of history,
and by the assistance of an enlightened imagina-
tion to place ourselves at the standpoint of men
who lived thousands of years ago.
There is one sentence in the dialogue which
proves beyond all controversy that this sentence
cannot possibly refer to Christian baptism. In the
tenth verse our Lord rebukes Nicodemus for not
understanding Him : " Art thou the teacher of
Israel " — so called, to lift you above all your con-
temporaries— and yet " understandest not these
things ? " Now, if the words before us referred to
Christian baptism, it would have been very unjust
of our Lord to rebuke Nicodemus for not under-
Christianity a New Life. 125
standing what he could not possibly understand.
Christian baptism had not been instituted at that
time. How, then, could any enlightened Jew
understand what had never been taught ? We
must find for every part of this conversation some
meaning which a man in the position of Nicodemus
ought to have known, and was to blame for not
knowing. What could the phrases " born of
water" and "born of the Spirit" signify in the
ears of Nicodemus ?
We have only to recall the familiar facts of that
age to sec at once what they mean. John the
Baptist was the most conspicuous and popular
religious teacher of the time. Everybody was
talking about him. The two most impressive
facts in his ministry were, first, that he baptized
his disciples with water; and, secondly, that he
declared One was coming after him whose shoe
latchet he was unworthy to unloose, because his
great Successor, the promised Messiah, was to
baptize, not with water, but with the Holy Spirit
(Matt. iii. 11 ; Mark i. 6-8 ; Luke iii. 15, 16; John
i. 19-34). There is no reason to doubt that
Nicodemus, like most of his class, had become a
disciple of John. He was, therefore, already bap-
tized with water. He had received the baptism
unto repentance. He had confessed his sins and
outwardly amended his life. You remember the
126 Social Christianity.
blunt, practical advice John the Baptist gave dif-
ferent classes of persons. He advised the publicans
to refrain from extortion, the soldiers to avoid vio-
lence, the multitude to minister to the needs of
others (Luke iii. 10-14).
Nicodemus, like so many in our own day,
thought that this outward amendment of life was
all that was necessary. Our Lord taught him in
the sentence we are now considering that it was
necessary to be baptized with the Spirit as well
as with water. The baptism of John is good as
far as it goes, but it is not enough. We need the
baptism of the Spirit also, the new life which
Christ by His Spirit imparts. Take a modern
illustration. The Temperance Reformation is of
priceless value as we saw last Sunday, but it is
not enough. When a drunkard signs the pledge,
there is a marvellous change. His home is trans-
formed, his wife and children are clothed, he re-
covers his position in society. But that is not
enough ; he is not yet a Christian. He must re-
ceive the baptism of the life-giving Spirit. He
must be " born anew." As our Lord went on to
argue, " That which is born of the flesh is flesh."
Heredity will not help us here. We may have the
most saintly of parents, but the Spirit of God
alone can give us that Eternal Life which, and
which alone, is true Christianity.
Christianity a New Life. 127
Our Lord admits that this truth is enveloped in
mystery, but it is not altogether a mystery. It
may be that as He spoke a gust of wind whistled
through the narrow street of Jerusalem, and that
He used the illustration before Him, as was His
wont. In any case, the wind furnished Him with
an exquisite illustration. " The wind bloweth
where it listeth, and thou hearest the voice thereof,
but knoweth not whence it cometh and whither it
goeth ; so is every one that is born of the Spirit "
(v. 8). For example, you cannot tell the Whence
and the Whither of the East wind. You cannot
tell where it began to blow ; whether in the centre
of Europe, or in Russia, or in Asia. Neither can
you tell " whither it goeth " ; whether it will cease
in mid-Atlantic, or travel right on to America.
But you can tell two things about it — first, that it
is blowing, and, secondly, that it is blowing in a
particular direction. In like manner, you cannot
tell the Whence and the Whither of the work of the
Spirit in the heart of man. You cannot penetrate
to the first beginnings of the embryonic Life which
He creates as the very condition of the New Birth ;
for only that which is already in some sense alive
can be really "born." Neither can you tell what
will be the ultimate evolution of that New Life,
when we are "like Him, and see Him as He is."
But you can tell when the New Life is present.
128 Social Christianity.
You can also tell the direction of its growth. It is
from selfishness to Christ-likeness.
The decisive proof of the truth we have now
reached is \.h.£\livingf personal evidence of those
who have actually received and experienced this
New Life. It is not a speculation or a theory,
but an accomplished fact, a realized experience.
" Verily, verily," says the Great Teacher once more
in His most emphatic manner — " Verily, verily, I
say unto thee, we speak that we do know, and
bear witness of that we have seen." (v. n.) He
places Himself at the head of all the living wit-
nesses on behalf of Christianity, and speaks in the
name of all. There is only one difference between
Him and them. That Eternal Life which He and
they have in common is His absolutely and theirs
derivatively; His essentially, theirs only so long as
they abide in Him, like branches in the living vine.
Otherwise, their life and His are one. St. Paul is
not using figurative language, he is expressing an
actual psychological fact in the precise language of
science, when he says, " I live, and yet no longer
I, but Christ liveth in me." This fact, it is already
admitted, is in some respects as untraceable, as
mysterious as the blowing of the wind. But it is pre-
sented to all men as a fact of personal experience.
The decisive evidence of Christianity is not the
New Testament. Christianity existed before the
Christianity a New Life. 129
New Testament was written. The evidence we
produce for your inspection is not something that
happened two thousand years ago. It is what is
now taking place under your very eyes. Our wit-
nesses are living men. Let Dr. Dale, for example,
step into the witness-box. Dr Dale is one of
the sanest and shrewdest of men. tie has had a
large experience of men and things, and is the
exact opposite of a sentimental fanatic. What
does he say of regeneration, or the New Birth,
which so much astonished Nicodemus? He says
that
The simplest and most obvious account of regeneration, is
the truest. When a man is regenerated he receives a new life,
and receives it from God. In itself regeneration is not a
change in his old life, but the beginning of a new life, which
is conferred by the immediate and supernatural act of the
Holy Spirit. The man is really " born again." A higher
nature comes to him than that which he inherited from his
human parents; "he is begotten of God,"' "born of the
Spirit.1'
Yesterday I was reading an intensely interesting
little book sent to me by my friend, Rev. Thomas
Guttery. It was his admirable biographical sketch
of William Clowes. You have probably never
heard of William Clowes ? You seldom 00 hear
of the greatest benefactors of mankind until they
have been buried for about a hundred years
William Clowes had a larger share than any other
9
130 Social Christianity.
man in creating, under God, the Primitive Metho-
dist Church ; that remarkable communion which
already numbers more than 1,000 travelling preach-
ers, more than 5,000 places of worship, nearly
200,000 Church members, and above 400,000 Sun-
day scholars. How did this dissolute and miser-
able man become an apostle of Christ? He went
to a Methodist prayer-meeting. Let his own
words describe what took place : —
The meeting was what some would term a noisy one, but
I was not affected on that account ; I felt I had enough to
do for myself. The power of heaven come down upon me,
and I cried for help to Him who is mighty to save. It was
towards the close of the meeting when I felt my bands break-
ing ; and when this change was taking place, I thought with-
in myself, What is this? This, I said, is what the Methodists
mean by being converted. Yes, this is it — God is converting
my soul. In an agony of prayer I believed God would save
me — then I believed He was saving me — then I believed He
had saved me, and it was so. I did not praise God aloud at
the moment of my deliverance ; but I was fully persuaded
that God had wrought the glorious work — that I was justified
by faith, and had peace with God through Jesus Christ.
Accordingly, when the meeting was concluded, some one
asked me how I was going on. I instantly replied, " God
has pardoned all my sins." All the people then fell upon
their knees and returned thanks to God for my deliverance.
Thus sorrow, which had continued for a night, passed away,
and joy came in the morning. This memorable occasion,
on which I entered, as it were, on a new period of existence,
and began to live a new life, occurred on the morning of
January 20th, 1805.
Every true Christian has experienced a similar
Christianity a New Life. 131
" new life." It may not have come so suddenly.
He may not be able to state as precisely when and
where he was "born anew." But "If any man is
in Christ, he is a new creature. The old things
are passed away ; behold they are become new "
(2 Cor. v. 17). I myself, also — blessed be God ! — am
a living witness of these things. I take my stand
beside William Clowes, and Dr. Dale, and all the
real Christians of every age and of every land.
We differ on a thousand points of doctrine and
Church government, but on this vital point we are
agreed. This is the sum and substance of the
good news from God — " that God gave unto us
eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that
hath the Son hath the life ; he that hath not the
Son of God hath not the life " (1 John v. II, 12).
Mark the exact words of the great theologian.
" He that hath the Son " — not he that believes the
Son is a prophet of God, or he that accepts the
ethical system of the Son — "he that hath the Son ;'
— he that is in vital union with " the second Adam"
— hath the life. Other men have bodily life and
mental life ; but that Divine life which manifests
itself in the knowledge and love of the eternal
Father is the exclusive possession of those who
"have" and "abide in" the Son. That eternal
life — in comparison with which all else is death —
that eternal life is offered to you, and to all men.
132 Social Christianity.
as an absolutely free gift. The everlasting love of
God implores you to receive it. If you are
willing, it may be yours — here, now ! While I am
yet speaking, you may live in Christ.
X.
NATIONAL CHARACTER DETERMINED
BY THE NATIONAL LAWS.
tj3
Preached in St. James s Hall, Sunday Aftci iiock
December iSt/i, 1SS7.
'34
X.
NATIONAL CHARACTER DETERMINED
BY THE NATIONAL LAWS.
" Behold, I hare taught you statutes and judgements, even as the
Lord my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither
ye go in to possess it. Keep there/ore and do them ; for this is your
wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, which
shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise
and understanding people. For what great nation is there, that hath
a god so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is whensoever we call
upon Himi And what great nation is there that hath statutes and
htdgements so righteous as all this law, which L set before you this
day?"— Dkut. iv. 5-S.
I
N this passage Moses teaches us that the real
condition of national greatness is to be found in
the character of our laws. There are some foolish
persons who think that the greatness of a nation
depends upon the extent of territory over which its
authority spreads ; and we are sometimes in danger
of boasting that the sun never sets upon the British
Empire, and that the beat of the morning drum of
the British Army never ceases to rattle round the
world. I am not sure that this is so much to boast
about, when I remember by what means we have
acquired this world-empire. At any rate, I en-
tirely repudiate the notion that the greatness of a
135
136 Social Christianity.
country is in any degree measured by the amount
of territory over which its authority extends. The
two greatest nations of antiquity, so far as their
subsequent influence upon human affairs is con-
cerned, were the Jews and the Greeks, and they
both belonged to little countries like Wales. There
is no greater delusion than to suppose that national
greatness depends upon geography.
id the second place, there are some who, with
better reasons, argue that national greatness de-
pends upon high culture. To some extent it does,
and we are therefore in the habit of giving Greece
a great place in human history, on account of the
culture of Greece. And yet, for the highest influence
at this moment, even Greece herself must yield to
the claims of Palestine. There is something better
even than the lofty culture of Athens, and that is
the Ten Commandments which I read to you as
the lesson to-day. Then, again, there are others —
too many, I fear ; some even in this audience — who
are in danger of supposing that the greatness of a
country is determined by victory on battle-fields.
I never felt more miserable, or more indignant, or
more disgusted in my life than when I went to
Versailles this year to see the great palace of the
kings of France— dedicated, as they said, " to the
glories of France." I found that there were twenty
miles of pictures. I did not walk all the twenty
National Character. 137
miles, but I walked a good many of them, and I
was wading through bloo'd all the time. Blood !
blood ! blood ! everywhere. I was horrified when
I saw the youths and maidens of France walking
through these crowded buildings, and every picture
suggesting to them the accursed idea that the true
glory of France was to be found in killing people.
Not a single picture representing peace did I see.
I do not deny that there may be circumstances in
which a defensive war is justified ; but to suggest
that the great glory of any country is to be found
on fields of blood is to indicate that you have sunk
to the lowest depths of barbarism.
In the ever-memorable passage before us Moses
claims that his people were great, not because they
ever had vast territory, or high culture, or great
military triumphs, but because they had laws in
harmony with the will of God. Oh, that we may,
by the help of Christ, cast out of our hearts the
base greed of empire and the base greed of gold.
The Scriptural test is the only rational test of the
greatness of any country under heaven. It is this:
What kind of laws have you in that country ? The
national character determines, and is determined
by, the laws of a country ; just as the national
conduct is expressed in the policy of a country.
All wise Christians desire national religion, desire
that the nation, as well as the individual, should
138 Social Christianity.
be Christian ; but how will you secure national
religion ? I suppose nobody in the present day
believes that you can secure national religion by
laying hold of some particular sect, or of all sects,
and establishing them and endowing them with
money. You have only to look at France at this
moment. Would any one in his senses say that
France was a Christian country, though, as a matter
of fact, every religion in France is endowed by the
State ? But how is it that the men at the head of
affairs, many of whom, for reasons into which I need
not enter nowr, hate Christianity with a bitter
hatred, are amongst the warmest supporters of the
measures by which all the sects are endowed ?
Because they believe that is the way to lay their
hands on the different sects, to keep them down,
and to prevent them from exercising influence
objectionable to the people in authority. France
proves that you can never have national religion
by that means. St. John says, " He that doeth
righteousness is righteous," and the only Christian
nation is the nation with a Christian statute-book,
a Christian foreign policy, and a Christian home
policy. Neither this nor any other country has
ever been a really Christian country. There have
been moments when we have risen to the level of
Christ's teaching, and no doubt public life is being
more and more leavened by the leaven of Christ ;
National Character. 139
but let us never admit that this is yet a Christian
country.
The world has yet to see what a Christian
country is. We have scarcely attained even to the
Jewish level. I have read to-day the Ten Com-
mandments, given to the Jews at the time when
they were lower in the moral scale than we are.
But our policy as a nation has never attained even
to the Ten Commandments. We have been guilty
of stealing the property of other nations, of murder-
ing innocent men in unnecessary wars, and even of
enforcing Acts by which we made provision for the
lusts of the flesh. Oh! how fearfully possible it is
for the nation, as well as the individual, to draw
near to God with the lips while the heart is far
from Him. The real character of every nation is
determined by the character of its laws. In that
scale we must weigh all.
But before we apply that test to the statute-book
of our own country, let us examine a delusion
which lies on the very threshold. How constantly
we hear it said that " you cannot make men
moral by Act of Parliament." I never heard any-
body say that, except when he was trying in some
way to hinder the kingdom of God. When men
try to prevent the advance of the temperance
movement and other great moral enterprises, they
are very fond of rattling off that sentence. It is
140 Social Christianity.
supposed to be a reply to moral fanatics ; that is to
say, to sober and wise patriots. When men glibly
tell us that we cannot make people moral by Act
of Parliament, I should like to know what they
mean. They probably do not know themselves.
Do they mean that force in itself is no remedy ?
If so, let them live up to their convictions. But
let us not forget that a law is a good deal more
than force. An Act of Parliament is not mere
force. It is educational. It teaches the conscience,
it strengthens the conscience, and even the most
degraded usually realize that what is illegal is
wrong.
At any rate, whether you can make men moral
by Act of Parliament or not, it is quite certain that
you can make them immoral. Behold the liquor
traffic as it now exists, created and stimulated by
many Acts of Parliament — the supreme curse of
our country ! Think of the Contagious Diseases
Acts, which for so many years dragged some of
our military centres to the very verge of hell. And,
on the other hand, as proving that men may in
another sense be made moral by Act of Parliament
or by Law, look at the Jews, who when the Law
of Moses was given to them were, in many respects,
amongst the most degraded people in the world,
but they gradually rose through the influence of
this Law to what was comparatively, in ancient
National Character. 141
times, a high condition of morality. After all,
what is law but public opinion made definite and
enforced ?
The statute-book, be it ever remembered, is the
national conscience, just as the executive Govern-
ment is the national will ; and how extremely
important it is to purify the national conscience!
If any further evidence is needed that the favourite
expression that "you cannot make men moral by
Act of Parliament " is a falsehood, I need only refer
you to that ever-memorable monument of the
beneficent life of the late Lord Shaftesbury — the
Factory Acts. The Factory Acts ! Why, they
have created a moral revolution in the " Black-
Country." In many parts of England women and
children were degraded beyond expression ; and
because the national conscience embodied these
protective Acts in the statute-book of this country,
the whole moral condition of vast masses of the
people has been entirely changed. Let us, then,
for ever dismiss from our minds the delusion that
you cannot make people moral by Act of Parlia-
ment. The morality of this nation, as a whole, is
immeasurably influenced by the character of the
Acts of Parliament.
There is another common delusion I should like
to name. You often find the opponents of pro-
gressive and moral legislation saying that "you
142 Social Christianity.
must not legislate in advance of public opinion."
Now, whenever that plausible and dangerous senti-
ment is used for the purpose of diluting your
enthusiasm and discouraging your zeal for human
happiness, be careful to cross-examine the man
who utters it. Ask him what he means by public
opinion. Does he mean the public opinion of the
House of Commons? If so, tell him it is our great
privilege to pass Acts of Parliament very much in
advance of the opinion of the House of Commons.
Does he mean the opinion of Society, or of the
West-End clubs, or of the editors of the London
journals? If so, we can only say, as a matter of
fact, that all these exponents of public opinion have
resisted some of the most beneficent Acts of our
time, but they have been defeated by the power of
Jesus Christ. You cannot pass Acts in advance of
public opinion ! Let me give you a striking proof
that we have done so.
Some years ago laws were passed for the pur-
pose of putting down prize-fighting. I myself
remember Lord Palmerston, in the height of his
power as the representative of a kind of jovial
English Jingoism, getting up in the House of
Commons, defending prize-fighting, and declaring
deliberately that it developed the manly qualities
of the English race ; but we passed an Act of
Parliament which put down prize-fighting in spite
National Character. 14;
of Lord Palmerston. A man has lately come to
this country from America. If he were merely a
boxer, I should not have anything to say about
him. Boxing is a very different thing from prize-
fighting. My friend, Mr. Reaney, when he was
here last Sunday, spoke favourably of boxing. I
am not speaking now against the use of your fists,
for example, in the defence of outraged woman-
hood or childhood. But prize-fighting ! base and
brutal beyond all expression. For the mere pur-
pose of making money, a man degrades himself
below the level of the beasts of the field. And
yet that prize-fighter appeared in this very Hall
a few weeks ago, and persons of high rank gave
him an enthusiastic welcome. Still the law of this
country is so entirely opposed to such brutality,
that this prize-fighter and all his " backers " are
obliged to sneak out of England in order to fight.
You cannot have more startling evidence than
this of the fact that law may be very much in
advance of what is generally supposed to be
public opinion.
I have sitting near me now Mr. Benjamin
Waugh, who is a living illustration of the fact
that public opinion is in advance of the opinion of
both Houses of Parliament. Last year Mr. Waugh
secured a revolutionary change in the law of
England — a change which was opposed by the
144 Social Christianity.
great leaders of both political parties. Only
twelve months ago it was impossible in criminal
cases to take the evidence of any witness who was
not old enough to understand the nature of an
oath. The result was that if some human devil
outraged a child too young to understand the
nature of an oath, he escaped scot-free. This man
(Mr. Waugh), moved by the Spirit of God, said
that was outrageous. The great leaders of both
political parties said it was impossible to alter the
law, but this extreme man thought nothing was
impossible that was right. He proceeded to both
Houses of Parliament and button-holed the mem-
bers. Aided by the influence of Mr. W. T. Stead,
such was the force of the public opinion, not of
the supposed leaders of public opinion, but of the
new electorate, of the masses of the people, that in
one week Mr. Benjamin Waugh effected that glori-
ous change in the law of England, whereby the
evidence of witnesses not old enough to under-
stand the nature of an oath is now taken in cases
of outrage upon the young. Since this law was
passed I believe that fifty of those scoundrels, who
criminally assault children of tender years, have
been put in prison for long terms of penal servi-
tude. And there are many other similar changes
in the law of this country which may yet be
enforced when a few more men have faith in God,
National Character. 145
and when their hearts are full of sympathy for the
poor, the weak, and the suffering.
The one deadly charge I have to bring against
the law of England to-day is this, that crimes
against the person are regarded as almost trivial
in comparison with crimes against property.
The Northern farmer in Tennyson's well-known
poem heard his horse, as it trotted along, always
saying, " Property, property, property ! " and you
find the same sound running through the English
law from beginning to end. There is the greatest
possible care for property, to which we do not
object, for God says, " Thou shalt not steal " ; but
there is the most terrible neglect of that which is
of immeasurably greater importance — the sacred
personal rights of every man, woman and child,
whether rich or poor. Let me just contrast for
a few minutes one or two cases. The extracts
I read are taken from the third edition of a book
called " Social Wreckage," written by Mr. Peek,
and published by Isbistcr. Let everybody who
loves God get this book, and compare the differ-
ence in English law between offences against the
person and offences against property. A man,
named O'Neil, was charged in one of our London
courts with kicking his step-daughter — his treat-
ment of her resulting in the partial paralysis of
one leg— was sentenced to four months' imprison-
10
146 Social Christianity.
ment. On the other hand, Eliza Ralph, who
pleaded guilty at the Middlesex Sessions to steal-
ing a sheet and some other articles, was sentenced,
not to four months' imprisonment, but to seven
years' penal servitude. That is the difference
between the value of a little girl of fifteen and the
value of a sheet. A woman, named Harley, was
sentenced at Woolwich, to imprisonment for one
month, for abusing a child a few months old ;
while at Clerkenwell a child of ten, who stole a
lock valued at 4^., had twenty-one days' hard
labour. Again, a man was charged with throwing
his wife down a flight of twenty-four stairs, and
was fined 20s., or ten days' hard labour ; while
a decent-looking woman, described as a seamstress,
who stole some cotton, was sentenced to six
months' hard labour, without the option of a fine.
Two men, who were charged with killing a per-
son from whom they had received no provocation,
were sentenced to twelve months' hard labour.
At the Surrey Sessions, a man who killed r.obody,
but received half a crown, knowing it to be stolen,
was sentenced, not to twelve months', but to four-
teen years' penal servitude. So it appears that
according to English law it is fourteen times as
dreadful to receive a stolen half-crown as to kill
a man who has not provoked you. Just one other
illustration. Richard Manning was convicted at
National Character. 147
Southwark of cruelly ill-treating his wife imme-
diately after she had been delivered of a child.
She, at the peril of her life, crawled along the floor
of her room and got on to the stairs to escape
from him. This man was sentenced to four
months' hard labour. About the same time a
man was brought before another court, charged
with stealing five silver spoons. The man, Man-
ning, who, under such dreadful circumstances, nearly
killed his wife, was sentenced to four months' hard
labour : the man who stole the five silver spoons
was sent to penal servitude for seven years !
Now the inevitable result of this diabolical in-
equality in the law is to produce the kind of
savagery which is encouraged by the men who call
a prize-fighter a fine fellow. " The rank is but the
guinea stamp." We must defend men, women,
and children at all hazards. When I think of the
law of England, so severe on those who steal and
so lenient to those guilty of the most awful atro-
cities even to their own wives and children, I re-
member that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was
a man who had no property at all. " He had not
where to lay His head " ; by which fact He would
teach us that " a man's life consisteth not in the
abundance of the things which he possesseth."
The teaching of the New Testament is that man
as man is immeasurably greater than rank or
148 Social Christianity.
wealth can ever make him. We have a great
responsibility in this matter. We must see that
such changes are effected in our English law as
will extend to human beings the same protection
that is now given to their property. I am again,
in closing, reminded of my friend Mr. Waugh. If
the law bears hardly against men, it bears more
hardly against women, and most hardly of all
against children. The law-makers of this country
seem to have made very light of the most deadly
outrages against women and children. A Society
has now been formed, of which my friend Mr.
Waugh is secretary, for the prevention of cruelty
to children. By caring for the children we are
going to the very root of the mischief. If we wish
our country to be truly great, there is no better
way in which we can secure its greatness than
by seeing that the Law of England, in the better
days that are coming, shall give the same absolute
protection to the poorest child in the land that it
crives to the Oucen herself.
XL
THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE
Preached in St. James's Hall, Sunday Aftci neon,
January "jth, iSSS.
XI.
THE ADMINISTRATION OT JUSTICE.
"And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as
at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called The city of righteous-
ness, the faithful city. Zion shall be redeemed with judgement, and
her converts with righteousness.'1'' — IsAIAII i. 26, 27.
HERE Isaiah promises to the people of Israel,
as a crowning blessing of their national
life, the appointment of just and righteous judges.
Speaking of the administration of justice, from the
Christian point of view, two or three Sundays ago,
I brought under your notice a fearful defect which
runs all through the statute law of England. It
was this : that the Law of England still attaches
much more terrible penalties to crimes against the
rights of property than to crimes against personal
rights ; and, consequently, so far as the English
Law instructs the people— and it is almost the
only religious' instructor the masses of the people
liave — it is a much more dreadful thing for a man
to steal a few loaves of bread, when starving, than
to dance on the head of his wife and nearly kill
her. I brought before you many instances where
theft of a comparatively trivial character was pun-
152 Social Christianity.
ished by a long term of penal servitude, whereas
the most horrible outrages against women and
children were followed only by a few months'
imprisonment I insisted that it was one of the
highest duties of Christian citizens to secure that
the sacred rights of every human being, however
poor — or, I would add, however wicked — should
be as sacredly guarded by the Law of England as
the rights of property.
I do not want in the slightest degree to weaken
the sanction which has been given by the rulers
of the past to the law, " Thou shalt not steal ; "
but I confess that I do desire that the Law of
England should give equal sanction to the law,
" Thou shalt not commit adultery." There was
a barrister in the audience on that occasion, who
wrote a letter to Mr. Percy Bunting, which he was
good enough to show me. This gentleman, while
not disputing the general truth of my criticism
with respect to the one-sided character of the
English Law, thought I ought to have mentioned
the fact that the length of these relative sentences
was determined, not only by the Statute Law it-
self, but by the discretion of the judges ; and that
if the judges of England had the same high sense
of the sacred rights of the individual as Christ
had, it would be well within their power to make
the administration of justice, even now, very much
The Administration of Justice. 153
more equal than it is. I fully admit the correct-
ness of that criticism : but the limit of time com-
pelled me to confine myself on that occasion to
the Law itself; reserving a discussion of the ad-
ministration of justice for this Conference.
There can be no doubt that the Law, in its one-
sidedncss, reflects the current opinion of the ruling
classes of the past. They were very sensitive with
respect to the rights of property ; but I am bound
to say they were not equally sensitive with respect
to personal rights. I believe the new electorate
of this country will be equally sensitive on that
point ; and without in any way interfering with
the rights of property, or with the sanction that
prohibits theft, the day is at hand when the Law
of England will exhibit a much greater regard
for the personal rights of every man, every woman,
and every child. It is not unnatural that the
prevalent neglect of personal rights should be, to
some extent, exhibited in the sentences, as well
as in the letter, of the law. Nearly everything I
have to say this afternoon is taken from a book
entitled " Social Wreckage," which I wish every-
body would read. It is written by Mr. Peek, a
well-known member of the London School Board,
and a prominent philanthropist. I was very
glad to see that my gifted friend, Dr. Clifford, in
publishing a list of books upon social Christianity,
154 Social Christianity.
which all enlightened Christians ought to read,
mentions Mr. Peek's book first. I would strongly
urge everybody to read the books Dr. Clifford
names in his list. Mr. Peek in this book commits
himself deliberately to the opinion that the mis-
carriage of justice is on the increase in this
country — a very startling thing for a man to say
in the closing years of the nineteenth century.
Mr. Peek uses words which I should not venture
to use myself, but which, uttered by one so capable
of giving an opinion, I do not hesitate to quote.
He says : " It seems as if the sentences passed
frequently depended upon the temper and health
of the judge at the time," by which I presume he
means that some of our judges sometimes give
very much severer sentences than on other occa-
sions. To some limited extent that is inevitable.
The judges are human beings. It is obvious that
we must give the judges some discretion. You
cannot alter the law to the extent of determining
the precise length of the sentence that ought to
follow the verdict of a jury. At the same time, it
is well that the discretion of judges should be re-
strained within very severe limits. Further, and
yet more importantly, it is very desirable that the
administration even of judges should be subject to
the constant influence of enlightened Christian
opinion. There has been a great deal of irrational
The Administration of Justice. 155
superstition about judges, as there was in the
Middle Ages about the clergy. At one time no
one was allowed to criticise ministers of religion.
That is no longer the case. We are now criticised
very freely indeed. But I do not think much harm
is done by that criticism. I do not suggest that
judges should be critcised quite as freely ; because,
after all, it is of the gravest importance to maintain
the dignity and the authority of those who repre-
sent the justice of the country. I have as keen a
sense of that as any man has. A judge not only
represents the Queen, but, so far as he is a minister
of Justice, he represents God Himself. We ought,
therefore, to clothe his office with the utmost
sacredness. I hold that the office of judge is as
sacred as my own. How extremely important it
is that all judges should realize that themselves ;
and should be scrupulously careful never to do
anything that comes into collision with the Chris-
tian conscience!
We cannot prevent men from criticising the action
of judges. Therefore, it is best that they should be
judged by Christian men. This is an age of free
discussion and criticism of everybody, high and
low. It is, consequently, more necessary than ever
that such evils as those to which Mr. Peek refers
should be respectfully and carefully pointed out.
It is useless for us to shut our eyes to the fact that
1 56 Social Christianity.
the way in which judges are appointed in this
country is not one that always secures the high
end which Christian citizens have in view. It is a
notorious fact that the appointment to this great
and prized office is generally the reward of political
service. Now, I have no insuperable objection to
a man who has rendered service to his political
party, being appointed a judge. At the same time,
every one must feel that there is a great weakness
in that arrangement ; and that it would be an
immense national advantage if we could separate
the appointment of judges altogether from every
consideration of party politics ; and if judges could
be lifted entirely above the atmosphere of political
strife. If there is this inevitable weakness at the
very point at which a man is elected to the bench,
it is the more important that the whole of his
subsequent career should be entirely free from
political taint.
Mr. Peek, in his book, goes on to deal with those
questions which must be considered if justice is to
be maintained ; and if those who adminster justice
are to secure the respect of the masses of the
people. You and I, from religious conviction,
would always respect those who administer justice;
and therefore, if there are obvious defects in the
administration of justice, we, as the best friends of
justice, are bound to point them out. Mr. Peck
The Administration of Justice. 157
says that of late years there has been a great
increase in the bullying of witnesses; that barristers
pleading in our courts have assumed a licence in
cross-examination which was never permitted
before ; and that this is partly due to the fact that
judges have entirely abandoned the habit of re-
straining the licence of cross-examining counsel ;
and not only so, but they have entirely abandoned
the habit which once existed of commiting wit-
nesses for perjury, where it was evident a man was
lying. As judges have withdrawn their restraint,
Mr. Peek believes that barristers have been led to
be more relentless in trying to extort the truth by
the fiercest sort of examination. I myself have
known truthful and honest persons with nothing
to conceal ; who, however, being nervous, have
shrunk exceedingly from going into a court of
justice to give evidence, on account of the furious
and relentless cross-examination to which they
would be subjected.
There is another great evil which Mr. Peek
mentions, namely, that the State throws the burden
of setting the law in operation upon private citizens,
however poor they are, and however unable to
vindicate their sacred rights. It is true that we
have a public prosecutor ; but it is already evident
that the creation of this office has not accomplished
the object it intended. We are told that it would
158 Social Christianity.
cost millions a year to vindicate the rights of all.
But surely it would be much better to spend our
money in this way than in shameful wars. Let
there be as much readiness in spending money to
secure justice for all, as in promoting war. In the
absence of a proper public prosecutor the gravest
offenders sometimes go " scot-free," because those
whom they have wronged are too poor to bring
them to justice.
With respect to civil cases, what is sometimes
called "the glorious uncertainty of the law," is a
very great scandal and disgrace to this country.
The immense cost of obtaining justice in civil cases
is another gigantic evil — a cost so enormous that
many persons are obliged to submit to arbitration;
and, too often, the poorer persons concerned in
these cases never have justice at all. At the
root of this evil lies the long delay that takes place
in the administration of justice. It is a notorious
fact that in London a great many cases are settled
in the most unsatisfactory way, simply because
suitors cannot wait until their cases come on. I
suppose that at the bottom of this evil lies the Long
Vacation. I am at a loss to understand why there
should be a Long Vacation. If the doctors of
London were to have a Long Vacation, if for five
months there was not a single medical man in the
metropolis, what would happen ? Our doctors, I
1 he Administration of Justice. 159
am sure, work harder than our judges. I presume
that the only reason for the Long Vacation is that
the judges should have a rest. That is a mere
question of appointing more judges, while the weary
ones are enjoying their repose. All Governments
are ready to spend millions in war : it is of the
greatest importance that they should be compelled
to spend millions in the greater victories of peace.
A few distinguished men at the head of the Bar
would be unable to take all the best briefs if cases
went on all the year round ; but I do not think
this is a good reason for refusing justice to the
masses of the people. There are plenty of other
barristers ready and able to take these briefs. It
is a national disgrace that there should be such a
fearful delay in the administration of justice.
Then, again, the excessive secrecy which now en-
velopes the administration of our prisons is a point
that deserves the attention of intelligent Christian
men. You are aware there was a great revolution
in the administration of the prisons of this country
when they were taken out of the hands of the local
justices, and placed under the control of the imperial
Government. All centralisation is very dangerous,
and it should be understood that the magisterial
oversight that remains is merely nominal. Atten-
tion was called in The Times newspaper a few
weeks ago to the great necessity for the voluntary
too Social Christianity.
visitation of female prisoners by judicious ladies in
each locality where a prison is situated. There is
the greatest difficulty in gaining admission to our
convict prisons. If Elizabeth Fry herself rose from
the dead to-day, and wanted to minister to her
sisters in prison, the door would be slammed in her
face. Jesus Christ said: "I was in prison and ye.
visited Me not." Those to whom He said that
had no excuse to make ; but if it was addressed to
us, we should be able to say, " The authorities would
not allow us."
The mere official administrations of the prison
chaplain are not always sufficent. Sometimes the
prison chaplain is all you could desire ; but, in any
case, female prisoners ought to be visited by
Christian women. I can conceive no nobler office
for a woman than that. The evils which I have
now named, evils which go to the very heart and
root of social wrong, are grossly neglected by
party politicians. So you and I, who are not party
politicians, must create such a public opinion as
will compel these party politicians to do their duty.
If every Christian minister took up themes of this
kind, we should soon secure the true well-being
of the English people. Another point on which
everybody is agreed is that the vicious classification
of prisoners in convict establishments is doing the
greatest mischief. Mr. Peek tells us that the
The Administration of Justice. 161
minimum term of penal servitude is five years, and
that this is reduceable in cases of good conduct by-
nine months. But after the first nine months of
solitary confinement, all men committed for penal
servitude are mixed indiscriminately with the most
degraded jail-birds. The result is that the three
or four years they spend in a convict establishment
often become a school in which they are taught
evils of which they had no conception before. It
is simply shocking that those who go to prison for
the first time should be exposed to influences of
this sort.
There is only one other point to which I must
refer to-day, and that is the way in which laws
relating to women are administered. We owe
very much to Mr. W. T. Stead and Mr. Benjamin
Waugh for the glorious achievements of last year.
To show the animus which influences some of
those who administer the law, it is only neces-
sary to mention the notorious fact that at least
one judge has actually gone out of his way to
criticise and condemn those blessed legislative im-
provements. Lord Chief Justice Coleridge — thank
God, we have a Christian man at the very head
of our judicial bench ! — took the opportunity of
publicly rebuking those who dared, on the seat
of justice, to criticise the laws which they were
appointed to administer. It is a pretty state of
l62
Social Christianity
things when the Lord Chief Justice has to teach
his brother judges that they are not our masters,
but our servants— our honoured and distinguished
servants, to whom we pay all respect ; but still our
public servants, who are put on the bench not
for the purpose of criticising the law demanded by
the Christian conscience of England, by the Queen
and by Parliament, but to carry it out with the
utmost vigour and impartiality.
We should regard with the greatest concern the
constant and dangerous encroachments of the Eng-
lish judges. The way in which cases are with-
drawn from the juries, the way in which judges
dictate to the jury what the nature of their verdict
shall be, are things that Christian men ought to
consider. I have studied verdicts and judgments
for years, and my blood has often boiled within
me when I have noticed the fearful leniency with
which crimes against women are treated, and the
yet more fearful severity with which the crimes of
poor women are punished. There was a case the
other day of a poor starving girl who left her child
behind her, in the hope that some one would take
it, and thus save them both, perhaps, from death.
For this offence she was sent to penal servitude
for five years. On the other hand, I read to you
two or three Sundays ago the cases of men who, for
nearly murdering their wives, received only three
The Administration of Justice. 16
j
or four months' imprisonment. I realize more and
more that it is as absolutely necessary that we
should have pure judges on the seat of justice as
it is that we should have pure Members of Parlia-
ment. I am not bringing any charge against the
judges as a class. But it is a notorious fact that
there have been some judges, as there have been
some Members of Parliament, who were not pure
men. A judge died a few years ago in a house of
infamy. A lady from a provincial city told me
last week that she had occasion to go into a house
of illfame in order to save a girl ; and she saw
there one of the most prominent magistrates of
that city.
Now, whether a man is a judge of assize or
the magistrate of a police court, he ought to be
personally pure. If he is not pure, he is absolutely
incapable of administering justice. For my part,
I am very glad that some women are studying the
law. I believe there are one or two ladies practis-
ing as chamber barristers in this city; and, eccentric
as I may be regarded, I believe the time will come
when we shall have, at least, a few women sitting
on the seat of justice. I cannot trust a judge and
jury — all of them men, and all of them corrupted
by ages of false sentiment — to be judges of Social
Purity in relation to women and girls. I hope the
time will come when women will be appointed as
104 Social Christianity.
the administrators of justice to women and little
girls.
Once more, the notorious Langworthy case has
proved that there are some cases where even judges
with the utmost desire to do justice are unable to
succeed until they are supported by an enlightened
Christian opinion. I know, therefore, no duty that
is more noble or more urgent than that of en-
deavouring, by the help of God, to create such
a state of enlightened Christian opinion that we
may always have pure judges and Divine Justice
on the judgment seat of British Law,
xir.
OUR DUTY IN RELATION TO THE
LICENSING CLAUSES OF THE LOCAL
GOVERNMENT BILL.
Preached in St. James's Hall Sunday Afternoon.,
April 'St A, iSSS.
XII.
OUR DUTY IN RELATION TO THE
LICENSING CLAUSES OF THE LOCAL
GOVERNMENT BILL}
" The righteous taheth knowledge of the cause of the foor: the
wicked hath not understanding to know it." — Prov. xxix. 7.
THIS noble sentence gives us an unexpected
but unerring test of Scriptural goodness. If
a man contemplates public questions with a due
and tender regard to the rights and interests of
the poor, he is " righteous." If, on the other hand,
he ignores, or lightly regards " the cause of the
poor," he is, in the judgment of the Book of God,
" wicked." It is from the point of view of the poor
that Christian citizens must contemplate the pro-
posals of the ministry in relation to the liquor
trade. If there is one subject more than another
upon which the followers of Jesus Christ are
bound to speak out, it is the liquor trade. It is
1 A great outburst of Public Opinion compelled the with-
drawal of the compensation clauses. But as a similar
proposal may be revived at any time, the argument of this
sermon is still needed.
167
1 68 Social Christianity,
the greatest of all existing hindrances to the pro-
gress of the Gospel in England. I do not question
the good intentions of ministers, but the more I
contemplate the licensing clauses of the Local
Government Bill, the more am I alarmed and
distressed.
There is one feature of the proposals now before
the country to which very little public attention
has been directed, but which may hereafter, prove
most disastrous. The Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer has made the licence revenue the sheet-
anchor of county finance. He transfers to the
County Council the publicans' and grocers' licences,
amounting to £1,378,143 a year; the spirit-dealers'
licences, amounting to £83,800 a year; and the
wine-dealers' licences, amounting to £43,000.
Henceforth it will be the direct, palpable, and
urgent interest of every ratepayer to prevent the
suppression of any one of these licences. Each
suppressed licence means so much loss to the local
revenue, and so much addition to his own rate.
When it is remembered how hard it has proved
even to get a halfpenny rate for a Public Library,
we can form some idea of the immense addition to
the difficulties of Temperance Reform created by a
step which heavily bribes every ratepayer to keep
up the licences. But in the present political cir-
cumstances of the country it will probably be
The Lice using Clauses. 169
impossible to prevent this part of the scheme from
becoming law.
There is a gleam of light amid the darkness
in the fact that the Bill distinctly recognises the
principle of local option. The control of the
licences is transferred from the non-representative
magistrates to the County Council. Many are
throwing up their caps over that, but I fear a care-
ful study of this elaborate scheme will blight their
hopes. In the first place, the new licensing
authority is not elected ad hoc, and the issue will
be complicated and confused by fifty other ques-
tions. In the next place, the licensing divisions
are made so large that they include six electoral
districts : that is to say, the representative of any
particular district cannot carry out the wishes of
his constituents unless he can command the votes
of a majority of the representatives of five adjacent
districts who have no interest whatever in agreeing
with him ; who, on the contrary, are gratuitously
risking their own seats by doing so. In the third
place, the representative character of the licensing
committee is further diluted by an infusion of non-
representative and irresponsible aldermen, to the
extent of one-third of the committee. In the
fourth place, even if this strangely constituted
licensing board hears the bitter cry of one of the
six districts it partially represents, there is an
170 Social Christianity.
appeal from its decision to the County Council, in
which each particular district has an absolutely in-
significant numerical representation. As if all this
did not sufficiently safeguard the interests of the
publicans, assurance is made doubly sure by a
novel and unprecedented proposal to compensate
the holder of every licence which is not renewed.
Let any sensible person weigh the first four features
of the scheme which I have now enumerated, and
he will realize that it would have been difficult to
invent a more clever method of taking away with
the left hand what is given by the right. But, pro-
bably, in relation to these features of the Bill, as
in relation to that which I have already discussed,
we are powerless. We must accept the homoeo-
pathic dose of local option which is given to us ;
and trust that Go. I will hereafter enable us to
secure that the voice of the people directly con-
cerned shall be heard, and shall prevail.
When we come to consider the other principal
proposal of the licensing clauses — the proposal to
compensate the holders of unrenewed licences, we
must fairly and promptly face the issue. Now, I
am most anxious to do full justice to the publican,
and more than justice, so far as that is possible
without injustice to others. Let us treat the liquor-
sellers as generously as possible. Are they en-
titled, cither legally or morally, to any financial
The Licensing Clauses. 171
compensation? That is essentially an ethical
question, and one en which the Christian pulpit
should speak frankly.
Let me explain one point. No one proposes to
suppress any existing licence until the term for
which it was granted expires. The question, there-
fore, is whether the holder of any liquor licence
has a legal or equitable claim to its renewal when
it has run out. On the legal side of this question,
eminent judges have in recent years given decisions
of the most unambiguous character. Mr. Justice
Stephen, in 18S2, said: " The legislature says, when
we talk of a renewal of a licence we do not mean
that, but we mean a new licence granted to a man
who had one before." Again, Lord Chief Justice
Cockburn said, in 1878 : "According to the Act of
1828, the justices had the same discretion to refuse
a renewal as they had to refuse a grant of a new
licence." Mr. Justice Field said, in 1882: "In
every case in every year there is a new licence
granted. You may call it renewal, if you like ; but
that docs not make the licence an old one. The
Legislature does not call it a renewal. The Legis-
lature is not capable of calling a new thing an old
one. The Legislature recognises no vested right
at all in any holder of a licence. It docs not treat
the interest as a vested one in any way." Once
more, Mr. Baon Pollock said, in 18S4: "The
Social Christianity,
notion that there is a property of the landlord in a
licence cannot be considered as sound law." Here,
then, we have the emphatic legal decisions of the
most eminent judges. The matter does not admit
of debate. Both Lord Cross and Sir William
Harcourt, when holding the office of Home Secre-
tary, echoed the statements of the judges. Even
the late Mr. Thomas Nash, counsel to the Licensed
Victuallers' Association, frankly and fully ad-
mitted, in a public letter to The Morning Adver-
tiser, in 1883, that " there cannot be the smallest
doubt that, in the strict sense, no such thing as a
vested interest exists."
This indisputable statement is confirmed by
the entire course of recent legislation. Take for
instance, the Sunday Closing Acts. In 1853
Parliament closed all the public-houses in Scot-
land on Sunday. That at once reduced the annual
consumption of spirits to the extent of 1,250,000
gallons. Subsequent legislation has enforced Sun-
day closing in Ireland and Wales. Parliament
has, therefore, deprived the licence-holder of one-
seventh of his time, and a good deal more than
one-seventh of his profit, without the slightest
compensation. Again, in 1869, Sir H. Sehvyn-
Ibbetson passed a Bill which raised the rental
qualification of beer-houses. That closed upwards
of 300 beer-houses in Liverpool alone. No one
The Licensing Clauses. 173
dreamed of compensating them. Again, Meldon's
Act of 1877 raised the rateable qualification of
Irish beer- houses. That suppressed 557 licences
in Dublin alone, and, of course, there was no com-
pensation. In 1S78 "The Canada Temperance
Act" passed the Canadian Parliament. That Act
enabled, a majority of electors in any locality in
that vast Dominion to suppress all the licences
without a penny of compensation. The friends of
the liquor trade appealed to Her Majesty's Privy
Council, on the ground that such suppression with-
out compensation was unconstitutional. Their
appeal was rejected, and under that stringent law
thousands of licences have already been suppressed
in Canada.
At least 1,000 licences are suppressed in this
country every year by the action of humane land-
owners and other friends of the people. If the
compensation clauses are passed, this steady and
blessed process will for the future cost the rate-
payers at least one million sterling annually ! And
if there is to be anything like a wholesale suppres-
sion of licences, the amount of compensation will
be almost incalculable. The late Mr. Edwards, the
General Secretary of the Licensed Victuallers'
National Defence League, estimated that the com-
pensation to which the trade would be entitled
would amount to at least ,£400,000,000. Talk
174 Social Christianity.
about hereditary pensions, why, all of them put
together would be a flea-bite in comparison with
this unparalleled proposal. After straining out
that gnat, are you going to swallow this camel ?
What conceivable claim to compensation has a
publican in equity? His licence is a most valu-
able monopoly, which thousands would like to
share, but it is refused to them. I know a man
who, when he got his licence for a mere song,
said : "This licence has put ;£ 1,200 in my pocket."
After giving him that sum, will you "compensate "
him by giving him another out of the pockets of
the struggling ratepayers ? That these men have
no claim to compensation may further be shown
by the fact that it would be perfectly lawful for the
Legislature, if it thought fit, to enact Free Trade in
liquor, to let everybody sell it. What becomes of
your compensation then ? To compensate the
holder of a lucrative monopoly is unheard of. But
it may be said : " It is very hard to deprive a man
of his living after he has invested all his capital in
the business. Will you starve his wife and
children ? " Well, in the first place, the publican,
like anybody else, must run trade risks and take
the consequences of speculation. Many men put
their money in uncertain enterprises, and lose it. It
can scarcely be said that the publican has had no
warning. For forty years an ever-growing party
The Licensing Clauses. 175
has declared war against the liquor trade. The
licence-holder can read on his licence that it is
granted " for one whole year and no longer." Why
should the publican alone, of all men, be protected
against risks to which all tradesmen are exposed,
and which he has chosen to ignore in the teeth of
the decisions of judges, the statements of Home
Secretaries, the pamphlets of Temperance re-
formers, the confessions of his own trade journals,
and the very terms of his own licence ? Further,
as a matter of fact, there are very few cases of this
kind. The great majority of licensed houses are
" tied " houses. They belong to enormously wealthy
brewers, who have already made fortunes, as Dr.
Johnson said, "beyond the dreams of avarice," out
of the folly and misery of mankind. They put
into these houses of theirs poor wretches whom,
unless they succeed in selling a certain quantity
of their liquor, they evict without mercy. What
claim have the brewers and distillers to compen-
sation ? They have already gained incalculable
wealth out of their unhappy fellow-countrymen.
Let them be satisfied.
A friend of mine wrote to me last week, urging
the Temperance party to accept the compensation
clauses on the ground that " most of the money "
will come out of the pockets of the licence-holders.
There never was a greater mistake.
i 76 Social Christianity.
The utmost that the new licence duty could give
in any one year is £300,000 ; but the lowest calcu-
lations put the compensation at £180,000,000. If
my friend's statement were correct, we should not
object to the millionaires in the liquor trade com-
pensating their less prosperous fellow-tradesmen.
Indeed, Mr. James, an able member of the execu-
tive of the Licensed Victuallers' National Defence
Association, has suggested that half the licensed
houses should be closed ; and that the owners of
those houses should be compensated by the other
half, out of the increased profits which their greater
monopoly would give them. He estimates the
compensation at .£70,000,000. Now, there can be
no objection whatever to so reasonable and equit-
able a proposal. Let Bass, Allsopp, Guinness, and
all their company pay £70,000,000 to their dis-
inherited brethren. But when the ratepayers are
required by the Government to pay the compensa-
tion money, I claim to be heard on the other side.
If we are to talk about compensation, there are
counter claims which must be pressed. When the
licence is granted, it depreciates the value of all the
adjoining property. The owners of that property
have a greater claim for compensation from the
publican than he has from the public. Again, at
least half our poor and police rates are the direct
results of the liquor traffic. Let the publicans
The Licensing Clauses. 177
compensate the ratepayers for those rates before
they look for any compensation from the rate-
payers.
Our children on the other side of the Atlantic
have much more rational and equitable conceptions
of compensation in relation to the liquor trade
than we have. In Canada, the wife, guardian of
the children, or employer of an inebriate, can notify
the publican not to furnish him with intoxicants ;
and if the publican or any person in his service
docs so within twelve months, the wife or others
concerned can recover compensation to the amount
of ;£ioo from the publican. Another Act says
that if a publican furnishes drink to an intoxicated
person, and such person commits suicide, perishes
from cold, or dies from accident occasioned by such
intoxication, the relatives of the deceased person
may obtain compensation from the publican to the
amount of £200. Another section of that admir-
able Act says that if an intoxicated person assaults
anybody, or injures any property, the injured party
can not only prosecute the intoxicated person, but
also recover damages from the party who furnished
the liquor. In several of the United States the pub-
lican whose customer is imprisoned for drunken-
ness is required to pay daily towards the support
of his imprisoned victim's wife until her husband
is released. These are the kinds of compensation
12
178 Social Christianity.
for which ample provision should be made before
we hear one word of compensation to the privi-
leged and wealthy liquor monopolists. The Times
of November 30, 1870, summed up the issue in a
sentence which it ought to repeat now : " To put
the case in half a dozen words : the profits in which
the liquor-sellers now claim a vested interest are
realized to a vast extent at the cost of popular
degradation, vice, and misery ; and the question is
simply whether the Legislature of a country is not
justified in placing, with due consideration, the
welfare of the people above the gains of a trade."
Surely Christian citizens can give only one answer
to that question. Some of the proposals of the
Government in relation to the liquor trade we must
probably accept. But this proposal for compensa-
tion is a proposal to establish the liquor trade in
England as it has never been established before ;
and to endow it out of the pockets of the rate-
payers with endowments far in excess even of the
gigantic endowments of the Established Church.
It is a proposal so unprecedented, so unjust, and so
disastrous, that every good man should offer it the
most determined and irreconcilable opposition.
XIII.
THE SECOND GERMAN EMPEROR,
FREDERICK III.
preacheJ in Si. James's Hall, Sunday Afternoon,
June IJt/i, iSSS.
XIII.
THE SECOND GERMAN EMPEROR,
FREDERICK HI.
" Among many nations was there no king like him." — NEH.
xiii. 26.
THREE short months ago I stood here to pay
my humble tribute to the memory of the
first German Emperor. To-day I come to lament
the tragical death of his greater son, Frederick III.
It was only during the last year that the world at
large fully realized what a loss was about to befall
'.he human race.
The late Emperor was an ideal prince. We
may say of him what Nehemiah said of Solomon :
"Among many nations was there no king like
him." Many of you have read the remarkable
testimony of Mr. Gladstone: " Of all the Royal
persons I have ever known, he was the best and
noblest." I believe that Frederick III.'s pre-
eminence was due to a rare and almost unique
combination of manly and gentle qualities. It is too
common to use extravagant and even blasphemous
language in relation to princes ; but there is little
i2i
1 82 Social Christianity.
danger of falsehood or flattery when we speak of
the late German Emperor. Like all his race, he
was a mighty soldier. In the wars with Austria
and with France he led great armies with consum-
mate skill to epoch-making victories. At critical
moments his courage, his energy, his promptitude
turned the tide of war and changed the face of
Europe. But — and this is his claim to lasting
honour and love — he abhorred fields of blood.
With all his heart he loved and promoted peace.
There is a strange appropriateness in the fact that
his stern father died amid the stress and storm of
winter, in the midst of gloom, and hail, and ice.
But he himself fell asleep in the sweet and gentle
springtime, in the midst of fragrant flowers, and
birds of song, and golden sunshine. With all our
heavy sense of irreparable loss, it is a great con-
solation to reflect that the kind and humane spirit
of Frederick III. rests now in the sunny land,
" Where everlasting Spring abides,
And never-withering flowers."
Gentle, loving, tender-hearted, he won the hearts
of all who knew him. It is touching to remember
that he made so deep an impression upon those
among whom he moved ; that the wounded soldiers,
in the delirium of their deadly suffering, talked of
him, and were happy in his imagined smile.
The Second German Emperor. 183
Wc all know that his home life was beautiful.
When he visited this country, in early manhood, to
woo the Princess Royal, Prince Albert, in a letter
to Baron Stockmar, spoke with enthusiasm of the
young Prince's " integrity, guilelessness, and dis-
interestedness." There is something equally simple
and delightful in that little episode of the sprig of
white heather, which furnished him with an oppor-
tunity of winning the greatest prize that God can
grant to mortal man — a gifted and devoted wife.
Amid all the suffering and darkness of his closing
days, we must not forget the long happiness which
sprang from his union with one of the ablest and
most loving women of our time. A touching evi-
dence of his domestic virtues and his domestic
happiness is furnished by the fact that his favourite
tune was the " Wedding March." He was always
getting the military bands to play the familiar
strains which reminded him of the happy hour
when he walked out of St. George's Chapel with
the Princess Royal on his arm. When he returned
to Germany with his young bride, Prince Albert
wrote him a long letter, urging him to fashion his
public life on enlightened and constitutional prin-
ciples. He carried out the Christian counsels of
his noble father-in-law consistently and to the end.
At a quiet family dinner-party in Buckingham
Palace, during the Jubilee festivities, the Crown
184 Social Christianity.
Prince said that he had always made Prince Albert
his model. "Ah!" exclaimed the Queen, tears
rushing into her eyes, ^'imitate him in all things,
except in his too early death." Alas ! in this also
he was to be like the cherished dead. The glow-
ing language in which Tennyson enshrined the
memory of Albert the Good may, without ex-
aggeration, be applied to Frederick III.
He was a friend of peace, of culture, of art,
and of science. Even in the midst of the terrible
war with France he found time to organize a
great national institution for the support of the
sick and wounded. But many of us revere his
memory most of all for the enlightened and
Juunane policy which he pursued unswervingly
through the whole of his public life. He had
no sympathy with the autocratic self-assertion
of his father, or the blood-and-iron policy of
Prince Bismarck. In 1863 his father and his
father's great Minister were pursuing- a policy
which forced spectators everywhere, to think of
Charles I. and Strafford. In that year they issued
a decree against the Press. When men are carry-
ing out a despotic policy, they generally try to
suppress newspapers. At that crisis Frederick,
then Crown Prince, wrote a letter to his father
deprecating his " unconstitutional conduct." He
followed that up by addressing a formal protest
The Second German Emperor. 185
to the Cabinet against a measure that was " both
illegal and injurious to the State." He went even
further, and in a public speech at Dantzic clearly
indicated to the whole world his rooted aversion
to all attacks upon free speech and constitutional
government. The King of Prussia was so incensed
at the attitude of his son, that he requested him
to disavow the sentiments attributed to him, with
the alternative of being recalled from his high
command. The Crown Prince nobly refused to
disavow his sentiments, and offered at once to
resign his position in the Army, and in the Council
of State, adding: "If I am not allowed to speak
my mind, I must naturally wish to sever myself
entirely from the sphere of politics."
It needed great moral courage to be so resolute
and outspoken at that time, and in that exalted
position. But his conduct in 1S63 was in the
highest degree heroic and kingly, and gave him
titles to immortal honour superior to any ever won
upon fields of blood. It is evident that the Crown
Prince's protest was not in vain, and that the king
was ultimately convinced that his son was right ;
for at the close of the war with Austria, the vic-
torious monarch sought and obtained, at the hands
of his Parliament, a general indemnity for all the
unconstitutional proceedings which the Crown
Prince had so fearlessly condemned. When the
1 86 Social Christianity.
late Emperor unveiled the Stein memorial, he gave
another striking illustration of the enlightened
principles by which he was animated, for he
unhesitatingly identified himself with the revolu-
tionary reforms, especially in the system of land
tenure, by which that great statesman had laid
the foundations of the German Empire. On this
occasion the Crown Prince pointed out, with pro-
found sagacity, that military triumphs are the fruit
of industrial and social reform. Von Moltke would
have been impossible if Stein had not prepared
the way.
Frederick III. was, of course, a strong opponent
of those persecutions of the Jews which were so
strangely and disgracefully approved in certain
influential quarters. He had an intense dislike
of autocratic ideas, and sought in every way to
liberalize the institutions of his country. In one
word, it was his fundamental principle to trust the
people. He was, therefore, a true king, worthy of
the mightiest throne in the world. It will always
be delightful and pathetic to remember that his
last public act was to appoint a successor to the
reactionary minister, Herr von Puttkamer, who
was mainly responsible for a measure intended to
limit the authority of the representatives of the
people. Frederick III. greatly disliked a new Act
by which the life-term of the Prussian Parliament
The Second German Emperor. 187
was materially lengthened. Despots hate General
Elections, and like to appeal to the people as seldom
as possible. Frederick III. knew that no feature
of Parliamentary life is more precious or more
salutary than the provision which compels govern-
ments at short intervals to consult the nation. The
late Emperor was extremely anxious to inform his
people that if he reluctantly signed the Act which
made General Elections less frequent, he was on
that account the more anxious that when they
did take place the electors should enjoy absolute
freedom of choice, and that the illegitimate official
pressure in favour of Government canditates,
which had been too frequent in the past, should
not be repeated while he lived. This Christian
attitude produced a strained relation with the
Ministry, and at last the minister mainly respon-
sible for the situation was forced to resign. In the
closing hour of his life, Frederick III. was officially
engaged in filling the vacancy. Thus, to his very
last breath, the late Emperor used all his influence
on behalf of freedom and constitutional govern-
ment.
There were throughout his brief reign, and there
are now, painful signs that the German nation is
perhaps not yet sufficiently civilized to appreciate
so enlightened and so Christian a sovereign as
Frederick III. The last three months were fore-
1 88 Social Christianity.
gleams of a bright and happy day, too good for the
Europe of the Conscription and of the Police des
Mceurs. There are men who live after their time;
but there are a few, a very few, of the noblest of
the sons of God who live before their time : and
in that select and exalted group we must rank
Frederick III. He would have been an ideal
monarch in England, the mother of Parliaments,
the classic land of freedom and of unfettered
industry. We can imagine no more perfect model
for the Prince of Wales than his brother-in-law,
who modernised and brought down to date the
noble maxims of his noble father, Albert the Good.
The time will come when all lands will sigh and
pray to God for rulers as trustful and peaceful and
humane as Frederick III.
The late German Emperor was as enlightened
and Christian in his foreign as in his home policy.
It is well known that if his gentle heart could have
had its way, Paris would never have been actually
bombarded. When the terms of peace were under
consideration, he was for once in happy agreement
with Prince Bismarck in resisting — although on
other and deeeper grounds — the extremely onerous
conditions which that sagacious Minister saw
would only sow the seeds of future wars. But on
that occasion the military party, to the lasting
injury of Europe, triumphed over both the Prince
The Second German Emperor, 189
and the Chancellor. Nothing was nearer to the
late Emperor's heart, and nothing occupied his
thoughts more constantly, than the discovery of
some mutually honourable compromise by which
the awful feud with France might be turned into
a lasting peace. It would be intensely interesting,
if it were possible, to know what was said in the
conversation which he had some time ago with the
Comte de Paris. Among the many sentiments
which the late Emperor wrote on slips of paper
during the" months of speechlessness, was one that
I think must have referred to that burning ques-
tion : " One must get to be much loved by the
German nation to be able to give it the peace
which is due to it." Does not that sentence reveal
the secret longing of his heart — shared, wc may be
sure, by his noble consort — that he might so win
the love and confidence of his people that they
would consent to terms of peace that would end
the terrible quarrel with France as completely and
blessedly as the Alabama arbitration ended our
quarrel with the United States ?
There arc some other beautiful qualities which
I must name before I close. One of these was his
humility. Even when unveiling the monument of
Frederick the Great, he dwelt upon humility as a
virtue which is as much needed by States as by
individuals. So saying, he echoed the doctrine of
I go Social Christianity.
the Book which declares that one of the three
fundamental requirements of all nations is that
they shall "walk humbly with God." The late
Emperor's own humility had a final and character-
istic illustration in his careful and peremptory
arrangements for a very simple funeral. I need
not dwell upon his moral courage— a. quality so
immeasurably superior to mere physical courage,
and so rare. How simply and how quietly he
received from Sir Morell Mackenzie the announce-
ment that death was in sight! After a moment
of solemn silence, he grasped the great doctor's
hand, and said : " I have been lately fearing some-
thing of this sort. I thank you, Sir Morell, for
being so frank with me." And then the patience
with which he awaited the inevitable end, never
complaining amid ceaseless pain, never neglecting
any duty of his Throne— I need say nothing of
that. All the world is talking about that. Indeed,
his sublime patience has been so great, that few
have realized the suffering which it hid. How
touching was the message — almost the last— which
he gave to his son, so soon to be his successor !
"Lerne zu leiden oline zu klagen" — "Learn to
suffer without complaining." I have already dwelt
upon his beautiful love for his wife and his chil-
dren. In the last hours of his mortal agony he
remembered that it was the eighteenth birthday of
The Second German Emperor. 191
his daughter, the Princess Sophia, and in faint lines
he wrote for her upon a piece of paper : " Remain
as noble and good as you have been in the past.
This is the last wish of your dying father." When-
ever he recovered consciousness, his hand sought
that of his broken-hearted wife, and held hers fast
in his, until he slept again. What a world of
significance, in the light of recents events, there
is in the fact that the last time Prince Bismarck
stood at his bedside, the dying man took the white
and trembling hand of the Empress and placed it
in the hand of the powerful Minister ! Thus
touchingly did he commend one so soon to be a
widow to the care and protection of one as soon
to be mightier than ever.
Let me close by adding my own little stone
to the great cairn which all the world is building
to-day to the memory of Frederick III. On the
occasion of the Queen's Jubilee Thanksgiving
Service, I was in Westminster Abbey. There, as
in the procession in the streets, the Crown Prince,
in his white uniform, tall, erect, magnificent, was
the most conspicuous and impressive figure, at-
tracting all eyes. During prayer, instead of follow-
ing the undesirable English custom of remaining
seated like the rest of the Royal group, the Crown
Prince laid his Field-Marshal's truncheon on one
side, and knelt down on the floor in the most
192 Social Christianity.
simple manner, entering into the worship with
marked devotion and reverence. There was some-
thing in his manner and attitude that no beholder
will ever forget ; and it was in perfect harmony
with the long catalogue of Christian graces and
noble deeds which, even in this hasty panegyric,
I have been able without flattery and without
exaggeration to ascribe to him. So far as he is
concerned, we can all joyfully exclaim, with the
Emperor of Austria : " Now are his sufferings at
an end ! " Why God should have allowed so
irreparable a loss to befall the human race, at the
very moment when the late Emperor's opportuni-
ties of high service were greatest, is a problem I
will discuss this evening. I close this Conference
with the remark that Frederick III. reminds me in
many respects of
"The imperial sage, purest of men,
Marcus Aurelius.'3
Like the great Roman Emperor, he was at the
very summit of the world, and he was a lover of
mankind. The Roman Emperor uttered the
memorable words : " Even in a palace life may
be led well." He proved it, and Frederick III. has
proved it. This is, perhaps, the best and most
inspiring lesson that we can draw from that short
reign. It is possible to be the greatest ruler in the
world, and yet to retain all the virtues of the
The Second German Emperor. 19;
husband, the citizen, and the Christian. In the
loftiest as well as the lowliest spheres we can
tread in the footsteps of Christ. This shall give
Frederick III. honour and love so long as the
world lasts. He was the greatest potentate on
the earth, and yet he was the friend of freedom
and the champion of the people.
XIV,
THE AUTHORITY OF CHRIST.
Preached in St. James s Hall, Sunday Event
September 2yd, jSSS.
XIV
THE AUTHORITY OF CHRIST.
" The multitudes were astonished at His teaching : for He taught
them as one having" authority, and not as their scribes." — St.
Matt. vii. 2S, 29.
A FORTNIGHT ago — at the Sunday morning
service — I reminded you that the personal
quality of Jesus Christ which especially impressed
those who knew Him during His life on earth, was,
not as we might have guessed, His gentleness, but
His moral courage — the rarest and the most valu-
able of all gifts in the Church Militant. "They
took knowledge of" Peter and John, "that they
had been with Jesus," when " they beheld the bold-
ness" of those two Apostles (Acts iv. 13). To-night
I invite you to notice the peculiarity of the great
Master's public teaching, which impressed all men
everywhere He went. Our Bible says His audi-
ences were "astonished." That word is not strong
enough. The Greek expression is derived from
the word to strike. It expresses the same idea as
our words " thunderstruck," " stunned." The great
quality to which our attention is directed gave
198 Social Christianity .
them a sort of electric shot. They had never ex-
perienced anything like it. What was it ?
His authority. He was not like the Scribes,
the official copyists and interpreters, or, as we
should say, printers and expositors of the Hebrew
Bible. Their chief concern was to give the tra-
ditional interpretation. They perpetually referred
to the great Rabbis of the past. They always
quoted the recognised authorities. Jesus Christ
never quoted anybody to confirm His teaching.
He gave them only His own ipse dixit. He said
simply, " I say unto you." Even Moses, the in-
spired Lawgiver, who talked face to face with God,
humbly based his teaching upon " Thus saith the
Lord." But Christ said : " I say unto you." Even
Elijah, the greatest of the prophets, cried, "' Thus
saith the Lord." Christ alone dared to preface
His message with, " I say unto you." He did not
echo the teaching of others. He did not transmit
the doctrine of the past. Well might the Temple
officers sent to arrest Him, return overwhelmed
and helpless with the avowal, "Never man so
spake."
It is, perhaps, specially important in an unsettled
age like this, to realize that Christ did not argue
and prove. He asserted and decreed. He said,
" I am the Light of the world " ; and He no more
laboured to prove that than the sun labours to
The Authority of Christ. 199
prove that he is the light of the physical world.
The sua does not elaborately argue that he is
better than a gas-lamp, better than this brilliant
electric light, better even than moon-light. He
simply shines forth in his strength. And really
no argument is needed then. The sun is the sun ;
there is no mistake about it. When the sun has
once risen and scattered the darkness, you never
doubt. No process of ratiocination is needed.
You arc overwhelmed by the unique glory of the
sun. In like manner, no one was ever argued
either into Christianity or out of Christianity.
When the Sun of Righteousness rises with healing
in His wings, you see His glory and rejoice. If
He is afterwards obscured by the mist of self-will
or the fog of animalism, you may lose sight of
Him. But the true knowledge of Christ is always
a direct, unmistakable intuition. It is never the
doubtful issue of argumentative ingenuity. If any
man, full of ignorance or prejudice, exclaims,
" Can any good thing come out of Nazareth ? " the
only possible answer is, " Come and see." As
Robertson of Brighton finely said, the highest
duty of the Christian minister is to bring his
fellow-man face to face with Christ, and then him-
self to disappear. Alexander the Great asked
Diogenes whether he could render him any ser-
vice. " Yes," replied the cynic ; " cease to stand
200 Social Christianity.
between me and the sun." That is what every
wise man must say to every human teacher :
" Kindly step aside. Do not stand between me
and the Divine Sun." The last word of the
Christian minister is the word of John the Baptist,
which won for Christ His first disciples : " Behold
the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the
world."
Like those who first heard those words, let us
follow Jesus. Let us spend our time under His
roof. Let us be as intimate with Him as possible.
We shall not be very long in discovering, as the first
disciples discovered, that He is indeed the Son of
the living God. Allow me at this point to ask you
\A\dXyou know about Christ ? You have much to
say, perhaps, about Christians, and Churches, and
Christianity. Let us leave all that. I do not care
anything about Christianity, or Church history, or
any of these topics of criticism and controversy.
Let us talk about Jesus Christ. Do you know
Him ? He has been my most intimate friend for
nearly thirty years. Have you any personal ac-
quaintance with Him ? What ! none whatever ?
and yet you take upon yourself to give an opinion
about His claims ! My dear sir, you know abso-
lutely nothing about Christianity until you know
something about Christ. Come to Christ : sit at
His feet : submit yourself to His influence. You
T/ic Authority of Christ. 201
will soon be astonished, like everybody else who
knows Him, at His unapproachable authority.
There is something very impressive in meeting
one who asserts such authority in these days.
Ours is an age peculiarly intolerant of authority.
The old authority is going or gone. Authority
must be built up on a new foundation, or it will go
altogether. Authority, both in the State and in
the Church, must seek the qualities which con-
stitute the authority of Christ. Then all will be
well, and society will once more repose on im-
movable foundations. Men really crave to be
under authority. Carlyle was quite right when he
said that man is born not to command, but to
obey. Let me say, however, in parenthesis, that I
think Carlyle was quite wrong in the kind of
authority he wished to set up. Frederick the
Great was an odious authority. But authority of
the right sort we all crave. We must have religious
as well as political authority. We must even have
an infallible teacher, but most of us fail altogether
to find him in Rome. The real authority to which,
without doubt or possibility of deception, we can
submit our whole being, is the authority of Jesus
Christ.
And now, what are the elements of Christ's
authority ? In the first place, His is the authority
of knowledge. To Him all hearts are open, and all
202 Social Christianity.
desires known, and from Him no secret things are
hid. Ponder His words. How true they are ! It
is the greatest glory of Shakespeare that he held
up a mirror to nature. But even the myriad-
minded Shakespeare held up a defective mirror.
He did not know all human beings. For example,
he could not enter into the heart of a child. All
his children were grown-up people, trying to be
childlike. But Christ held up a mirror to nature,
in which there was no defect and no flaw. If you
at last, after many disappointments, find a medical
man who describes your symptoms exactly, better
even than you could describe them yourself, you
wisely have confidence in him. The knowledge of
the disease is half the cure. Nothing gives me
greater strength in my most sceptical moments
than Christ's knowledge of me. I ponder His
words. I am sure He understands my case. He
sees me through and through. He knows what I
am, and what I ought to be. Are you ill at ease ?
Are you unhappy? Is your life a failure ? Come
to Christ. He will explain the Whence and the
Whither. He will reveal to you sin and goodness.
He will explain the secret of happiness, and the
true life.
Again, the authority of Christ is the authority of
love. How sympathetic He is, how tender-hearted !
Whenever He saw a multitude, He "had com-
The Authority of Christ.
passion " on them — compassion deeper and more
unselfish even than the compassion of Buddha.
Think of His treatment of Zacchseus. " Come
down, and make haste, for this day I must abide
at thy house. Why " must " ? It was the com-
pulsion of irresistible love, because Zacchaeus was
the greatest and most miserable scoundrel in
Jericho. Think of His gracious tenderness to the
woman that was a notorious " sinner." " Thy sins
are forgiven thee. Go in peace." Conventional
propriety, ecelesiastic respectability shocked and
horrified— Christ, utterly indifferent to human
opinion, yearning with Divine love over the
scoundrel and the harlot ! And then what un-
fathomable depths of love in the special message
to the man who denied Him with oaths! "Tell
My disciples and Peter." Think, again, of the
prayer for His murderers and the parable of the
Prodigal Son ! O Lamb of God ! was ever love
like Thine ? Never, never. No mother ever
loved her child so much as Jesus Christ loves
every one of us. The late Adolph Monod used to
tell how once on the coast of France he tried
to induce a weather-beaten sailor to attend a
religious service. When every other argument had
failed, he used the magic phrase "your mother" ;
a tear started into the sailor's eye, he rose and
consented at once to accompany M. Monod. Oh
204 Social Christianity.
the irresistible authority of a mother's love ! But
even a mother may forget her child. Christ can-
not forget you. Do you acknowledge the claim of
your mother ? Much greater is the claim of Christ.
Lastly, the authority of Christ is the authority
of power. This was what specially impressed many
of His hearers. " They were astonished," writes
St. Luke, " at His teaching, for His word was with
authority" (iv. 32). St. Mark also writes: "They
were all amazed, saying, What is this ? A new
teaching ! with authority He commandeth even the
unclean spirits, and they obey Him " (i. 27). Ah,
yes ! He speaks, and it is done. " I can call spirits
from the vasty deep," boasted Owen Glendower.
" Why, so can I," replied his mocking comrade ;
" but will they come, when you do call for them ? "
That is the point. Any one in these days can
describe the beauty of an altruistic life. But how
to lead such a life — that is the difficulty. You
accept the ethical teaching of Christ ? Good : but
how will you practise that teaching in your own
strength ? It is impossible. Without the aid of
His life-giving Spirit, it is impossible. Have you
ever considered the strength of human passion ?
Can you catch Leviathan with your little hook?
What a revelation we have just had in Whitechapel
of sin and anguish ! How will you cast out the
devil of drunkenness, and the devil of lust, and the
The Authority of Christ. 205
devil of gambling, and the devil of greediness ?
Christ can cast them all out. He is casting them
out every day. Now, as of old, He says : " Go
and show " him who sent you " those things whicl?
ye do hear and see." You believe in facts? I am
delighted ! You will find plenty of them in our
Annual Report, which will be published in a few
days. We can give you heaps of authenticated
facts from Soho.
Christ speaks with irresistible authority. My
conscience confesses the authority of His know-
ledge. My heart adores the authority of His love.
My reason bows to the authority of His power.
In Him my entire being rests and rejoices. You
may find all you need where I have found it. You
may put all this to the test at once. He is able,
willing, longing to save you also — to save you
here and now.
XV.
THE BR0TI1ERL1NESS OF JESUS CHRIST,
Pleached in St. James's Hall, Sunday Afternoon,
Pecemfor tfh, iSSS.
XV.
THE BROTHERLINESS OF JESUS CHRIST.
" Who do men say that the Son of Man ist" — St. Matt.
wi. Ij.
YOUR attention is invited this afternoon to
that pregnant, far-reaching name of Jesus
Christ — " the Son of Man." It has peculiar in-
terest for us, because it was His favourite name.
Nobody else seemed to find special pleasure in
calling Him by that name, but it was the name
above all others which He delighted to give Him-
self; and when we remember who Christ was,
there is deep interest and significance in that
fact. He desired to be known emphatically and
supremely as the " Son of Man." He had a hun-
dred names, some of which may seem to you more
brilliant and more worthy than this ; but for some
reason or other this was the name He preferred.
Now, this name, " the Son of Man," has two sides
— a parental side and a filial side. You may
emphasize in this complex name the word " man,"
or you may emphasize the word " son."
Let us begin with the parental side. Let us
209 '4
210 Social Christianity.
emphasize the word " man." When you say that
Christ is " the Son of Man," accentuating and
underlining the word "man," this great name
means that the human race is summed up in Jesus
Christ ; that He is the product of all that is best in
human nature ; that He combines all the excellences
of all races and of all ages ; that He is, in one
word, the Ideal Man in whom meet all the highest
possibilities of human goodness. Take any other
great man, even among those who are the greatest,
and you find in him the limitations and the in-
firmities of his race and of his age. Let us recall
the great thinkers of the human race, such men as
Plato, Shakespeare, Dante, Goethe, Victor Hugo.
Every one of these men exhibits the limitations of
his own countrymen. Plato was a Greek ; you can-
not conceive him anything but a Greek. Shake-
speare, notwithstanding his many-sidedness, was an
Englishman. Dante was an Italian of the Middle
Ages. You cannot imagine Goethe a Frenchman.
You cannot imagine Victor Hugo a German.
Great as they were — they were the greatest of their
time — these men represented one age only. Take,
again, men who have been supremely great, not
merely in intellect, but in the highest moral quali-
ties— such men as Confucius, Buddha, Socrates,
and the Emperor Aurelius. But you realize at
once that Confucius was a Chinaman, that Buddha
The Brotherliness of Jesus Christ. 211
was a Hindoo, that Socrates was a Greek, and
that Marcus Aurelius was a Roman.
But when you come to Christ, you find in Him
all the excellences of all men, of all nations, and of
all ages : so that every one who has ever studied
the character of Jesus Christ is driven to the con-
clusion reached by John Stuart Mill; who (although
his infatuated father strove hard to poison his
mind against Christianity before he was old enough
to judge for himself) gradually emancipated him-
self from the prejudices instilled into his young
thoughts, and at last came to see that, whatever
we may think of the Christian religion, or of the
claims of Jesus Christ, the best test of conduct
under all circumstances was this : " What would
Jesus of Nazareth have done if He had been in
my place ? " There is not in Europe to-day a man
worth his salt, who would not echo the sentiment
of John Stuart Mill. So emphatically was Jesus
Christ the Son of Man, so truly did the human
race reach its highest possible ideal in Jesus Christ.
He is the great moral teacher, the great exemplar;
and you and I ought always to do what even John
Stuart Mill says we ought to do — imitate Christ.
Those who have read the works of Ruskin know
how he warns young students of art against wast-
ing their time and destroying their taste by copy-
ing inferior painters. Let them go to the great
212 Social Christianity.
masters. Even if they cannot copy them per-
fectly, let them do their best. Now, when we
come to the highest question of all— the question
of conduct — why should we take any model ex-
cept the highest? There are some people who
have no higher standard than the law of the land
— the imperfect, and often unjust law of the land !
There are others who take as their standard the
conventional etiquette of society ; some even take
the opinions of the West-end clubs ; and I believe
there are some who positively accept the guidance
of the London morning newspapers.
Is it not time, brother-men, that we should
imitate the greatest model of all ? Let us hasten
to the Fountain Head, to "the Son of Man," to
the living example of all that is best, noblest, most
lovely. But so far do many of those who profess
to follow Christ wander from His great example,
that they resent the use of His name in connec-
tion with earthly affairs as a kind of indecency or
irreverence. If I may so say, they would like to
have Jesus Christ's example wrapped up in tissue
paper, as something to be brought out only on
Sunday. The idea of consulting Jesus Christ in re-
lation to business, to politics, and to pleasure, never
enters their head. Indeed, they regard me as a most
eccentric and dangerous individual, because it has
entered my head. I am more and more persuaded
The Brotherliness of Jesus Christ. 21
that no religion calling itself Christian is of per-
manent value, unless you can apply its teaching
to rich and poor, and to Saturday as well as to
Sunday. I put Jesus Christ before you this after-
noon as the model Man, the wisest and the best
that ever lived.
Now, having said so much, let us look at the
other side. Let us emphasize the word Son —
" the Son of Man." From this standpoint we find
that the Ideal man, the perfect Exemplar, was
more than the friend and brother of every human
being. Try to grasp it. He felt as a " Son " to
the whole human race. To Him the word " Son "
expressed the most intense and reverent love.
He was the Son of God, and you know how in-
tensely and how reverently He loved God ; but
He who put that great meaning into the word
Son, deliberately called Himself "the Son of
Man," in order that He might express by that
phrase, with equal intensity and with equal rever-
ence, His love for the human race. You remem-
ber the touching incident in the life of Noah, when
Noah gave way to drunkenness, and when the
reverent love of his sons prevailed over his moral
downfall. The reverent, filial love of Jesus Christ
prevails in like manner over the moral downfall of
every man and of every woman. This great name,
,; the Son of Man," expresses the fact that Jesus
214 Social Christianity.
Christ intensely loves every human being in the
world, and that He reverences human nature, even
in its most degraded forms. His entire freedom
from anything like personal selfishness has often
been noticed ; but men have not equally noticed
that His love of human nature triumphs quite as
much over everything else. There are a great
many men who are not personally selfish, but who
are intensely selfish in other respects.
Jesus Christ was entirely free horn, family selfish-
ness. The late President of the French Republic
is at this moment enduring great humiliation be-
cause he seemed to cling to his son-in-law, when
he ought to have considered the welfare of the
nation. Those who are not guilty of that par-
ticular offence in that form are often guilty of
allowing their family interests to prevail over the
public good. Many a man thinks he is justified in
doing all sorts of things for his wife and daughter,
or for the advancement of his own family, which
Christ would not have done. Christ utterly re-
pudiated any special family claim that would
interfere with His love to the whole human race.
Somebody went to Him on one occasion when He
was preaching, and said : " Your mother wants to
see you," and He replied in effect : "Who are they
who interfere with Me, the Son of the human
race?" and turning round to the faithful and
The Brotherlincss of Jesus Christ. 215
devoted friends near Him, He exclaimed : " Be-
hold My mother and My brethren ; for whosoever
docth the will of My Father in heaven, the same
is My brother, and sister, and mother."
Again, He was entirely free from class pride and
class hatred of the poor. As one of our time has
well said, He was " the most perfect gentleman
that ever lived," and yet He had compassion upon
the multitudes. He neither feared nor hated the
masses. He wept over the people, and He loved
them. He loved them all — the bad as well as the
good. There was no trace in Him of that class
prejudice which exists to such a fearful extent
in England to-day, and which is quite inconsistent
with pure Christianity.
Again, He was entirely free from all scorn for
the depraved and the outcast. Think, for instance,
of the case of Zacchseus, one of the vilest wretches
in Jericho; yet how courteously, how tenderly
Jesus Christ treated him, and instead of going to
stay with some rich Pharisee, He went to the
house of Zaccrueus ! A most touching illustration
of the tenderness of Jesus Christ is to be found in
His pity for the harlot. I know nothing in which
ordinary, commonplace, conventional Christians
differ more completely from Christ than in the
way in which they ignore and despise that class.
Some of them actually permit the men who create
2i6 Social Christianity
that class to enter their drawing-rooms and to sit
down in their dining-rooms. Oh for the pitifulness
of Jesus Christ !
Jesus Christ was entirely free from ecclesiastical
bigotry and sectarianism. Have you ever thought
of the fact that when He wanted to put before His
congregation a typical good man, He selected not
a Pharisee or some other respectable person, but a
hated Samaritan, who was both a heretic and a schis-
matic. He could recognise goodness wherever it
existed. I ventured two or three weeks ago to say
that we should be glad to see Christians of all
communions at our Friday night meeting. Among
the rest I mentioned Roman Catholics, and a
number of miserable bigots were horrified because
I invited Roman Catholics to come ! I also
happened to remark that I regarded Father
Ignatius as a devoted Christian, though I entirely
differed from many of his views ; whereupon some
unhappy man wrote to urge Mr. Pearse to with-
draw from all association with me ! Why should
I not recognise goodness in a Roman Catholic or
a High Churchman ? Would to God that those
good men who spend so much time in denouncing
their theological opponents would spend a con-
siderable part of it in denouncing the devil of
bigotry in their own hearts.
Lastly, Christ was not only free from the
The Brothcrliness of Jesus Christ. 217
bigotry and narrowness which blight so many reli-
gious lives, but He was also free from national
selfishness. No man ever loved his countrymen
more truly than Christ did, and yet how heartily
He recognised the goodness of the Roman cen-
turion ! Let us beware of narrow and intolerant
patriotism, swollen with pride. Even I am old
enough to remember the time when everything
was done that could be done to make us hate the
French. Then the newspapers and politicians tried
to make us hate the Russians. Some arc still
engaged in that miserable business. I will not
mention any other people, but many misguided
journalists are trying every day to induce the in-
habitants of this country to hate other nations.
It is contemptible and wicked beyond description.
You English people have many good qualities, but
you have also some very bad ones. The Irish and
Scotch have some virtues which we lack, and also
their own characteristic vices. The fact is, that
God has divided His great gifts among the nations
of the world. No one nation possesses all of
them. Let us understand that we are subject to
the same moral law as every other country. Let
us rejoice in the prosperity of other countries. Let
us put away the national conceit which was so
strongly reproved by Christ. Let us realize that
no nation is our natural enemy. All nations are
2i8 Social Christianity.
really our friends, and will act as our friends if we
treat them properly. Let me remind you that
Christ was free from national selfishness, although
He was a Jew ; and you know how intolerant of
other peoples His fellow-countrymen were.
In the current number of The Fortnightly Review
there appears an article by that remarkable Russian,
Count Tolstoi, in which he sums up the teaching of
Jesus Christ in five points. Without discussing
the rest, I heartily endorse the first and the fifth.
The first is this: "Live in peace with all men;
treat no one as contemptible and beneath you ;
not only banish anger from yourself, but do not
rest until you have dispelled anger in others."
The fifth is : " Renounce all distinctions of nation-
ality ; do not admit that men of another nation
may ever be treated by you as enemies ; love all
men alike ; do good to all men." I do not know
whether that commends itself to you, but that was
what Christ said. He loved every country under
heaven. He was " the Son of Man." The " mind
of Christ " is the mind that is full of the most
tender and pitiful love to every human being in
every country under heaven. You must love those
who hate you ; you must bless those who do evil
to you. Only thus, as Christ Himself says, "shall
you become the children of your Father in heaven."
When we can induce all men everywhere to have
The Brotherliness of Jesus Christ. 219
the "mind of Christ," — that is, to regard every man
in the world as their brother and every woman in
the world as their sister, and thus to be animated
by love and by love only — then the desire of Christ
will be satisfied, and the happiness of mankind will
be perfect.
XVI.
THE HOPEFULNESS OF JESUS CHRIST.
Preached in St. James's Hall. Sunday Afternoon,
November 20th, iSSS.
XVI.
THE HOPEFULNESS OF JESUS CHRIST.
" 1 beheld Satan fallen as lightning from heaven." — St. Luke x.
iS.
/"^HRIST had sent out seventy of His disciples
^—/ to go two and two before His face to every
city ; and what He told them to do was very
significant. When these representatives of Jesus
Christ entered any house, He bade them say :
" Peace be unto this house," and He added, " heal
the sick that are therein." In other words, He
sent His disciples forth to do what they could,
with His assistance, to secure peaceful and healtJiy
homes for all the people. If the laws and customs
of our nation all tended in the direction of secur-
ing peaceful and happy homes for everybody, we
should be on the high road to national happiness.
I need scarcely say how far we are from that in
London, where tens of thousands of people are
obliged to live in tenements that are not fit for
animals; where thousands of families, as Mr. Pearse
reminded us the other day, have to live in one room
— a condition of things that is absolutely fatal to
decency and to civilization. The sooner we can
223
224 Social Christianity.
induce all our rulers to give their earnest attention
to what Richard Cobden said was the greatest of
all questions, " the condition-of-the-people-of-Eng-
land question," the better for them and for us. It
is absurd for us to expect national stability and
national progress unless we have what these evan-
gelists were instructed to promote — peaceful and
happy homes. When they returned to Christ from
that blessed mission — the kind of mission on which
it would be well to send our members of Parlia-
ment two and two over the land — they said they
had not only been able to bring peace to many
households, and to heal the sick, but that even the
devils had been subject to them in the mighty
Name of Christ. When they said that, Jesus
Christ added the words which form my text this
afternoon, " I beheld Satan fallen as lightning
from heaven."
In other words, in the victory which they had
gained over some of Satan's subordinates, Jesus
Christ saw a pledge and promise of complete vie-,
tory over Satan himself. To the sanguine eye of
Jesus of Nazareth, the victory which on that occa-
sion they won over evil in some of its minor forms,
was the sure pledge that the day would come when
evil would be altogether conquered. Jesus Christ,
when He spoke of Satan, described Him signifi-
cantly enough as the "prince of this world." There
The Hopefulness of J c sits Christ.
<--D
are some men who boast that they are men of the
world. If they are men of the world, and if the
devil is the " prince of this world," as Christ says
he is, then it necessarily follows that " men of the
world " are subjects of the devil. There is no
doubt that Satan has a great deal of influence still
over human affairs ; though, blessed be God ! not
nearly so much as he had two thousand years ago.
There are some persons, I know, who laugh to scorn
the idea of the existence of a personal spirit of
evil. For my part, I agree with Frederick Denison
Maurice that the belief in a personal devil is the
only rational view. As for an abstract principle of
evil, who cares for an abstract principle of evil ?
That will never hurt you or me. All the evil with
which I have to deal is found in living beings : and
unless you are prepared to deny all personal exis-
tence except that of human beings, there is no
reason why we should not accept the statement of
Christ as to the existence of the chief spirit of evil.
And who is Satan ? Satan, as Milton says, is
the eternal Egotist, the incarnation of selfishness,
the worshipper of Power and of Force. He believes
the chief thing everywhere is to " look after num-
ber one," and he also believes that the battle is
always to the strong. Now Jesus Christ believes
the exact opposite. He believes the best thing
is to secure not your own, but your neighbour's
15
226 Social Christianity.
welfare. He believes, also, that the meek shall
inherit the earth. So that between Jesus Christ
and Satan there is irreconcilable opposition. At
the Temptation, the devil said to Christ : " If you
will just pay me one act of homage, you can have
your own way." Christ's only reply was : " Get
thee behind Me, Satan. Thou shalt worship God."
To-day I want to call your attention to the fact
that Jesus Christ never agrees to any compromise
with the devil, but always assumes an attitude of
absolutely irreconcilable opposition to him. It is
the irreconcilable opposition, however, not of des-
pair, but of bright and confident hope. At the fall
of the Commune in Paris, a few years ago, the Com-
munists fought like tigers. They gave no quarter
They died where they stood. Why ? Because
they expected no quarter, because the Government
troops gave no quarter. They fought, therefore,
with all the energy of despair. But the irrecon-
cilable attitude of Jesus Christ does not arise from
despair, but from the confidence of ultimate
victory.
Let us consider for a few moments this after-
noon the unparalleled hopefulness of Jesus Christ.
He was the most extreme optimist the world has
ever seen. If He could but inspire you and me
with a little of His optimism, it would be an un-
speakable blessing for London, England, and the
The Hopefulness of Jesus Christ.
--'/
world. We can scarcely realize the apparent
audacity — I may reverently say the apparent ab-
surdity— of His language and of His manner. He
has already won such glorious victories during the
last two thousand years that we are tired of hear-
ing about the evidences of Christianity. Christianity
is its own evidence. But at that time, to all out-
ward seeming, Jesus Christ was simply a peasant
so poor that He very rarely had so much as a
penny in His pocket. He was without the ad-
vantages of academic culture. Pie was a man of
the people, with scarcely any rich or educated
friends to support Him. Yet He made the most
sweeping and comprehensive claims a human con-
queror has ever made ; and He never admitted for
a moment that He could be defeated. He counted
in the most absolute manner upon the future.
However helpless he was, however weak His
weapons, He calmly talked of the good day com-
ing when He and His disciples would rule the
whole world.
Napoleon Buonaparte, on one occasion, when he
wanted cannon conveyed over the Alps, consulted
his engineer, who said it was impossible to do it.
"Impossible!" rejoined the great warrior. "Never
mention that hateful word in my presence again.
It is not in my vocabulary." There was some ex-
cuse for the vain audacity of that haughty military
228 Social Christianity.
genius, who had at his disposal the most mighty
army in the world, and the boundless resources of
France. But when Christ declared that nothing
was impossible for Him to accomplish, He was
a penniless peasant. When His disciples came to
Him on this occasion and said they had not only
brought peace to the homes of the people and
healed the sick, but that devils had been defeated,
He had a vision of the glorious future that was
coming, and He said: "I saw Satan fallen.'' Satan
at that time was so mighty that in every country
under heaven the working man was a slave. Christ
foresaw a day of triumphant justice and universal
brotherhood. He saw the power of evil broken
and shattered. He saw God supremely triumphant
everywhere.
Now, let us catch something of the spirit of
Jesus Christ. Nothing paralyses our energies more
than a positive conviction, or a secret dread, or a
half-conscious fear that, after all, we may be beaten ;
that darkness may triumph over light; and that
sin and misery may deluge the world. As these
disciples of Christ who went among the people
breathing peace and promoting happiness were
confronted by devils, so are we. In this country
those who wish to be real Christians, and not
merely conventional Christians, have at least seven
devils to subdue— the devil of Slavery, the devil of
The Hopefulness of Jesus Christ. 229
Drunkenness, the devil of Lust, the devil of Gam-
bling, the devil of Vulgarity, the devil of Mammon-
ism, and the devil of War. Now, Jesus Christ saw
in the defeat of a few devils on that occasion the
promise and pledge of victory over their chief,
Satan himself. In like manner let all lovers of
Jesus Christ see to-day in what Jesus Christ has
already done to overthrow some of our social devils,
a proof that they shall all be overthrown, and
that sin and misery shall yet be abolished from
the earth.
One devil has almost received his quietus — the
devil of Slavery. The extraordinary way in which
slavery has been abolished everywhere, except
where Mahomet rules, is the great fact of our
century — an astounding moral miracle, the full
significance of which perhaps very few can realize.
The world will not be made better by soldiers and
policemen. They have their place, but they have
never made the world better. As John Bright has
said, " Force is no remedy." The world is made
better by moral influences. You cannot thrust the
devil through with a bayonet, or else we might
have despatched him long ago. It is only by
moral means that we can overthrow him. Con-
sider the triumph of Jesus Christ over slavery !
One hundred years ago it was regarded as in-
evitable, and many of the great saints of the past,
230 Social Christianity.
eminent Christians, and devoted ministers of re-
ligion, had slaves. How is it that there are no
slaves now ? It is mainly due to two men filled
with the Spirit of God ; and singularly enough
they were very poor men, and not men whom you
would call geniuses. It is the most romantic page
in modern history.
Nearly one hundred years ago a young Cam-
bridge man named Thomas Clarkson, for the mere
purpose of getting honour and money, had been
induced to write a prize essay on slavery. As he
proceeded to accumulate facts and arguments for
this essay, he became convinced that slavery was
wrong. He completed his essay, and he proceeded
from Cambridge to London. On the way he
began to think seriously of the awful horrors
of slavery, and his heart began to bleed for the
helpless African slaves. At last he was so much
affected by going over the incidents which he
had collected for his essay, that between Cam-
bridge and London he halted at a certain spot,
now marked by an obelisk, get off his horse, and,
leaning against the saddle, calmly meditated over
the question. At last he said in his heart, in
response to the voice of God : " If this be so, slavery
must come to an end." Then he got on his horse,
rode to London, and gave up all his prospects, that
he might devote his life to the abolition of slavery.
The Hopefulness of Jesus Christ. 231
At first both political parties opposed him, and even
the ministers of religion were against him. He was
regarded as a most dangerous, fanatical man ; and
he scarcely got any sympathy, except from a few
stray Quakers, who are generally in the right.
Ultimately he secured the sympathy of Wilber-
force and Pitt ; and he lived long enough, did this
simple man, to see slavery abolished in the British
Empire, and even millions of money voted by
Parliament to get rid of it. Behold how, in one
short lifetime, and through the power of God,
great deeds may be accomplished!
The other champion of the cause of the oppressed
slave was William Lloyd Garrison, a poor printer
lad, who issued from a garret in a back street
in America a newspaper which he called The
Liberator.
" In a small chamber, friendless and unseen,
Toiled o'er his types one poor, unlearned young man ;
The place was dark, unfurnitured, and mean ; —
Yet there the freedom of a race began."
He could scarcely get anybody to buy his news-
paper. He had to live on bread and water ; and
if occasionally he managed to sell a few extra
copies of his wretched sheet, he indulged in the
extravagant luxury of a- little milk and bread and
butter. After he had gone on for some time,
people began to hear of Garrison, who had the
232 Social Christianity.
audacity to print in his little paper, " I will be
heard." Imagine the impudence of an obscure
printer-boy saying from a garret in a back street,
" I will be heard ! " Nearly fifty years passed away,
and the influence of Garrison had spread to such
an extent, that all the vested interests said : "This
contemptible scoundrel " — whom they had tried to
kill several times — " has become so mighty that we
cannot put him down except by flying to arms."
They flew to arms, but it was too late. The ob-
scure printer-lad had won. He had become, —
" On Fortune's crowning slope
The pillar of a people's hope,
The centre of a world's desire."
On the ever-memorable day on which Abraham
Lincoln emancipated the slaves, every eye turned
to William Lloyd Garrison as the real author of
that great deliverance. What an encouragement
for poor and obscure men ! If they are fighting
on the side of God and of humanity, though all
the world be against them, they shall win !
One other illustration. Mrs. Josephine Butler
fought for twenty years with inexhaustible en-
thusiasm against the great sin of Lust. I know
something of that conflict, for it pleased God to
call me to her side very early. Let it not be for-
gotten that when that most pure and brave and
Christlike of modern Englishwomen uttered her
The Hopefulness of Jesus Christ. 2
00
loud cry of indignation and anger against the
wickedness of those in high places, she was
violently opposed by both Houses of Parliament,
by the medical profession, by the magistrates, by
the Army, and by all the London newspapers.
Yet this brave woman, full of the Holy Ghost,
fought them all and defeated them all. The moral
I desire to point this afternoon is that we must
never compound with the devil ; we must never
have a compromise with hell ; we must never
admit that any evil is necessary. You will find
that incalculable mischief is wrought by admitting
that this, that, and the other evil is " necessary " ;
that we must make the best of it ; that we must
be satisfied by mitigating it in a slight degree ;
and that we can never abolish it.
Many years ago a Christian minister, referring
sadly to the death of many leading members of
his Church, said : "All the great men are dead,"
when a woman shouted, at the top of her voice ;
" Thank God, that's a lie ! " It was a somewhat
unpolished way of putting it ; but whenever you
hear a member of Parliament, or politician, or
journalist, or anybody else, saying that slavery is
necessary, that intemperance is necessary, that lust
is necessary, that pauperism is necessary, that
ignorance is necessary, or that war is necessary,
you can, with your Bible in your hand, shout
234 Social Christianity.
aloud : " Thank God, that's a lie ! " It may take
us a little time to rid the world of these social
plagues ; but we must have no compromise, no
treaty with the devil. Jesus Christ, as King of
kings and Lord of lords, will bring it to pass that
Right shall absolutely prevail. When we can find
a few more Christians like Clarkson, Garrison, and
Josephine Butler, full of the Holy Ghost and of
Divine courage, victory will come, and come
swiftly too. Jesus Christ said that " Satan had
fallen as lightning" — suddenly, in a moment. Yes,
in the days of mighty faith and Divine sympathy
Satan shall fall, and his fall shall be as sudden
as it shall be great and irreparable.
XVII.
BUDDHA, OR CHRIST— WHICH?
Preached in St. James's Hall, Sunday Evening,
Easier Day, I 888.
XVII.
BUDDHA, OR CHRIST— WHICH 7
" One died for all, therefore all died ; and He died for all, that
they which live should no longer live into themselves, but unto Him
who for their sokes died and rose again? — 2 Cor. v. 14, 15.
THIS is the Day of days; the greatest Day
in human history ; the day of the Resurrec-
tion of the Son of Man The sentence just read
is St. Paul's philosophy of Easter Day : St. Paul's
explanation of its practical significance for us.
Let us, from the Pauline standpoint, see how the
Gospel of the Resurrection deals with the ultimate
need, and removes the fundamental misery of
mankind. I propose to do this in a somewhat
unusual, but as it seems to me very demonstrative
way, by calling into the witness-box a remarkable
witness — Buddha, " the Light of Asia."
Nothing is more significant than the way in
which Buddha captivates the imaginations and the
hearts of modern Europeans. Even Socrates is
superseded at last. The great Athenian is placed
beneath the great Hindoo. The moral beauty of
Buddha's character has eclipsed the hero of Plato's
incomparable pen. I am told that the admiration
Social Christianity.
of Buddha has gone so far that some of the
educated young men in one of our great northern
towns openly avow themselves Buddhists. This
extravagance is no doubt due to the glamour of
Sir Edwin Arnold's fascinating poem, "The Light
of Asia." That poem could never have been written
by a Buddhist, or by any one who was not satu-
rated with the New Testament. It is a Christian
version of the Buddhist legend ; and it invests
Buddha with a Christian halo to which he has
no real historic claim. Moreover, the numerical
strength of Buddhism has been grossly exagger-
ated. Recent censuses and calculations show that
there are not nearly so many Buddhists in the
world as is commonly supposed.
Nevertheless, after every necessary deduction
has been made, it remains that five hundred years
before the birth of Christ, Buddhism had reaped
great victories ; that it is to-day the predominant
faith of Asia ; and that it has gained its millions
of adherents not by force of arms, but by the moral
suasion of fervid speech and gracious example.
So magnificent a fabric could not rest upon a
foundation of absolute falsehood. Some great
truth must live in the heart of Buddhism, or it had
perished long ago. What is that truth ? Sir
Edwin Arnold will express it for us.
He tells us in exquisite verse how Buddha,
Buddha, or Christ — which ? 239
horrified by the spectacle of Disease, Old Age, and
Death, set himself to discover the cause and the
cure of human woe :
"Then cried he, while his lifted countenance
Glowed with the burning passion of a love
Unspeakable, the ardour of a hope
Boundless, insatiate : ' Oh ! suffering world,
Oh ! known and unknown of my common flesh,
Caught in this common net of death and woe,
And life which binds to both ! I see, I feel
The vastness of the agony of earth,
The vainness of its joys, the mockery
Of all its best, the anguish of its worst ;
Since pleasures end in pain, and youth in age,
And love in loss, and life in hateful death,
And death in unknown lives, which will but yoke
Men to their wheel again to whirl the round
Of false delights, and woes that are not false.' "
The last three lines express the doctrine of the
transmigration of souls which Buddha learned
from the Hinduism in which he was trained. That
doctrine intensified his conception of human misery,
because it extended it over many lives.
At last Buddha makes the great discovery
At the root of all human misery is — TrisJuia,
Desire,
" That thirst which makes the living drink
Deeper and deeper of the false salt waves
Whereon they float : pleasures, ambitions, wealth,
Praise, fame, or domination, conquest, love;
Rich meats and robes, and fair abodes, and pride
Of ancient lines, and lust of days, and strife
240 Social Christianity.
To live, and sins that flow from strife, some sweet,
Some bitter. Thus life's thirst quenches itself
With draughts which double thirst.1'
The great problem, then, is to get rid of this
Trishna, this Desire, this "aching craze to live,"
this self-assertion. How can this be clone ?
Buddha answers :
He " who is wise,
Tears from his soul this Trishna, feeds his sense
No longer on false shows, files his firm mind
To seek not, strive not, wrong not ; bearing meek
All ills which flow from foregone wrongfulness,
And so constraining passions that they die
Famished."
That is to say, he gradually mortifies the Trishna
by starving it. He resists every form of self-asser-
tion. He cultivates an utter indifference to every
kind of self-seeking and self-pleasing ; until, at
last, the Trishna — weakened more and more in
each successive life — perishes altogether,
" The aching craze to live ends, and life glides —
Lifeless — to nameless quiet, nameless joy,
Blessed Nirvana — sinless, stirless rest —
That change which never changes ! "
That is the Gospel of Buddha ; and it has
spread and prevailed over Asia because it is
founded upon a profound truth. Buddha is the
greatest teacher the world has ever seen, except
the Divine Master Himself, because he laid his
Buddha^ or Christ — which ? 241
finger upon the real source of human misery —
Trishna.
Knowledge of the disease is half the cure, and
Buddha knew the disease. He called the disease
Trishna, or self-assertion. St. Paul called it the
Flesh. St. John called it Unbrotherlincss. Our
Lord called it Unfilial Conduct. The Prodigal
Son yielded to TRISHNA when he said, " Father,
give me the portion of thy substance that falleth
to me." Buddha was quite right in contending
that what we want is not self-assertion, but self-
suppression.
But there are four fatal objections to Buddha's
fragmentary and impotent Gospel : —
1. He leaves man to his own resources.
He urges him by immense efforts to over-
come and suppress the evil that torments him.
But this is an impossible task. The utmost
achievement of men is to cry out with St.
Paul : " O wretched man that I am ! who
shall deliver me ? "
2. The deliverance Buddha offers, even if
it were possible, is slow, difficult, distant.
Whereas, what man really needs is, " a very
present help in trouble" (Ps. xlvi. 1).
3. Buddha makes even that distant deliver-
ance so indefinite that the learned themselves
hold the most contradictory opinions about
16
242 Social Christianity.
the final goal, Nirvana. It is quite uncertain
whether Nirvana does or does not mean the
extinction of separate individuality.
4. Buddha taints his brotherliness with
selfishness. Even the wonderful humanity of
Buddhism aims mainly at a personal advan-
tage in the extinction of the Trishna.
Now place over against these four fatal defects
the four great blessings of the Gospel of Jesus
Christ, the Gospel of the Resurrection : —
1. In the first place, Jesus Christ gives us His
own risen life : " God gave unto us eternal life,
and this life is in His Son. He that hath the
Son hath the life ; he that hath not the Son
of God hath not the life" (1 John v. 11, 12).
Hence we are saved from self-assertion not by
our own efforts — which are smitten with an
incurable spiritual impotence — but by the very
life of Christ, who abides in us so far and so
long as we abide in Him. The power we
need is a free gift — not the doubtful result of
fierce struggling. Abiding in Christ as the
branch abides in the vine, we receive " of His
fulness " (St. John i. 16).
2. Christ died on the cross " once for all "
(Rom. vi. 10). We may therefore reckon
ourselves " even so," once for alt, dead unto
sin, unto Trishna. Jesus Christ offers us an
Buddha, or Christ — which ? 24
instantaneous deliverance from the great curse
of self-assertion. We need not live to the
flesh, or be guilty of unbrotherly or unfilial
conduct any more. "Sin shall not have
dominion over you " (Rom. vi. 14). " Behold
now is the acceptable time; behold, now is
the day of salvation " (2 Cor. vi. 2).
3. What Christ offers us is not a vague and
unintelligible Nirvana. Christianity does not
propose to annihilate self-assertion by anni-
hilating Self. That were to get rid of disease
by getting rid of life itself. In the Gospel of
Jesus Christ the Trishna goes, but the Ego
remains. You are never more truly " your-
self" than when " your life is hid with Christ
in God " (Col. in. 3). There is no pantheistic
sacrifice of personal identity. All that is most
truly yourself will remain self-conscious and
joyous for ever. But the burden of sin, the
bondage of selfishness, the anguish of spiritual
helplessness will be gone.
4. Lastly, Christianity is contrasted with the
fourth defect of Buddhism by the fact that
it is free from the least taint of selfishness.
Christianity prompts us to lead a humane
and benevolent life, not to escape from life,
but for its own sake, because a humane and
benevolent life is in itself blessed for ever.
244 Social Christianity.
For these reasons, as well as for others, there is
no comparison between Buddhism and Christianity.
Buddha pointed out the disease. Let him have
deserved credit for that. But he could do no
more. He found out no remedy. Christ and
Christ alone can
" Minister to a mind diseased ;
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow ;
Raze out the written troubles of the brain ;
And, with some sweet, oblivious antidote,
Cleanse the stuffd bosom of that perilous stuff
Which weighs upon the heart."
XVIII.
SCHOPENHAUER OR CHRIST— WHICH ?
Preached in St. James's Hall, Sunday Evening,
May 6th, 1888.
XVIII.
SCHOPENHAUER OR CHRIST—WHICH '?
"I delight to do Thy will, 0 my God."— Vs. xl. 8.
FEW weeks aero we saw that Buddha had
A
discovered that the source of human misery
was Trishna, Desire,
" That thirst which makes the living drink
Deeper and deeper of the false salt waves
Whereon they float : pleasures, ambitions, wealth,
Praise, fame or domination, conquest, love ;
Rich meats and robes, and fair abodes, and pride
Of ancient lines, and lust of days, and strife
To live, and sins that flow from strife, some sweet,
Some bitter."
This thirst —
" Quenches itself
With draughts which double thirst."
But the " wise man "
" Tears from his soul this Trishna."
He "seeks not, strives not, wrongs not" ; until
at last he succeeds in starving t\\o. Trishna to death.
Then
" The aching craze to live ends, and life glides —
Lifeless — to nameless quiet, nameless joy,
Blessed Nirvana — sinless, stirless rest —
That change which never changes ! "
248 . Social Christianity.
That is what Buddhism promises, but cannot
perform. It is all very well to talk ravishingly
about starving the Trishna to death. It cannot
be done, except by the power of Jesus Christ.
Buddha made a correct diagnosis of the disease,
but he knew not the remedy. Asia had still to
wait for five centuries before she heard the voice
of her great Physician.
The problem which Buddha pondered so pathe-
tically and so absorbingly, has been discussed and
explained in a substantially similar way, in our
own time, by Schopenhauer, the founder of modern
European Pessimism. He finds the root of all
misery in "the will to live," in "the ceaseless
striving after the unattained." So he defines the
Trishna.
And is he not, to a certain extent, right? Is
not this one side of the truth ? We are all con-
scious of a ceaseless straining after something.
We hunger for the bread which perishes. But even
though, like Dives ot old, we "fare sumptuously
every day," we are not satisfied. We are greedy
for money. But mountain heaps of money-bags
bring no rest. We toil after learning. But the
wisest among us are smitten with keener dis-
satisfaction than the rest. Who are so pessimis-
tic as some of the most brilliant graduates of
Oxford and Cambridge ? We pine for human
Schopenhauer or Christ — which ? 249
love. But even that does not solace us altogether.
In every human heart there is an " aching void "
which nothing that this earth bestows can wholly
fill. We are " like the troubled sea." We " cannot
rest." How shall we satisfy this ceaseless, insati-
able longing ?
Schopenhauer says that the only course is to
educate the intellect, to seek high culture ; for
with that, he argues, comes first control, and then
suspension of our " miserable will." Here he finds
the secret of aesthetic pleasure. Art lures man into
self-forgetfulness. " Everything is beautiful only
so long as it does not concern us." John Stuart
Mill tried the same fantastic method of circum-
venting human misery. He sought piteously to
attain happiness by not aiming at it.
Schopenhauer's dismal evangel is an attempt to
reach Nirvana by curbing and crushing the Will.
This horrible Desire, says Schopenhauer, is the pro-
duct of the blind, aimless, endless striving which
runs through the universe. There is, according to
this teacher, no personal God, and existence is a
curse. Yet suicide would be no remedy, for the
very act of suicide would be a supreme effort of
that very Will which must be suppressed. The
prospect from every point of view is the blackness
of darkness unrelieved by a single ray of light.
Contrast, now, tlie philosophy of Jesus Christ
250 Social Christianity.
with this doctrine of Despair. Our great Master
teaches that the ceaseless, insatiable Desire over
which Buddha and Schopenhauer so loudly lament,
arises from the fact that man is in a false position
altogether. You see a fish writhing on the sea
shore. You lament this " blind, aimless, endless
striving." But why does it writhe so ? Because it
is out of its element. Pick it up, and throw it
back into its native ocean. All its awkward and
painful contortions cease at once. It moves to
and fro, easily, beautifully, happily. Man, like that
poor fish on the sea shore, is out of his native
element. He was made to live and move and have
his being in the love of God. Taken out of that
blissful element, he writhes, pants, gasps, groans,
dies. Restore him to the love of God, plunge him
into " the Godhead's deepest sea," and all is well.
His soul cries out exultingly, —
" O Love, thou bottomless abyss,
My sins are swallowed up in thee !
# # * # *
With faith I plunge me in this sea ;
Here is my hope, my joy, my rest."
You see a caged eagle. He droops. He is ill.
There is anguish in his kingly eye. He dashes his
great pinions against the iron bars. Again you
lament his " blind, aimless, endless striving." Yes,
but shatter that prison-cage. Let him spread his
Schopenhauer or Christ — which? 251
strong wings, and soar to his native " deep-domed
empyrean." Now
" Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ring'd with the azure world, he stands ;
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls."
In like manner so long as man is " cabined
cribbed, confined " within the prison-cage of sin,
he pines and frets his life away. Release him.
He "mounts up with wings as an eagle" (Isa. xl.
31). He roves at large "in the heavenly places"
(Eph. i. 3). He lives, is free, is radiant with joy.
In a word, man was never intended to lead an
independent life, to be thrown on his own re-
sources. At the creation God said, " Let us make
man in our own Image, after our Likeness" ....
" and God created man in His own Image, in the
Image of God created He him ; male and female
created He them " (Gen. i. 26, 27). Thought-
ful readers in all ages have noticed the marked
omission of any reference to the Likeness of God in
the second of these verses. The entire purpose of
the ever-blessed Trinity was not carried out at
once, probably could not be carried out before the
Incarnation. Man was created in the Image of
God, when God breathed into him a true Person-
ality. But how could that human Person attain
to the Likeness of the Divine Life until he was
united to Christ as the branch is to the vine and
252 Social Christianity.
" Christ lived in him " ? (Gal. ii. 20). " He that
hath the Son hath the life ; he that hath not the
Son of God hath not the life " (1 John v. 12).
Created in the Image of God, man has a true
personality. He is self-conscious. He has a sense
of right and wrong. He is a free agent. He is,
therefore, capax dei, capable of vital union with
Christ, of personal "fellowship with the Father
and with His Son Jesus Christ" (1 John i. 3).
Without that vital union, without that personal
fellowship, he is like a fish out of water or a caged
eagle. He is worse. He is a mere torso, a mere
fragment of a man. Hence his ceaseless unrest,
and his insatiable desire. Apart from Christ he is
in a false position. He is like a branch severed
from a vine, or an hand cut off from the body to
which it belongs.
In the terribly significant language of Byron, he
is
" Lord of himself, that heritage of woe."
Every man proves as Byron proved, that an
independent, self-centred life is unendurable.
Augustine uttered the profoundest truth when he
exclaimed, " O God, we were created for Thee,
and we have no rest until we return to Thee."
Contrast with the anguish of Buddha or Scho-
penhauer the perfect serenity, the Sabbatic calm
of the ideal Man, Jesus Christ. What was the
Schopenhauer or Christ — which ? 253
secret of " the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ " ?
It was His absolute and uninterrupted sub-
mission to the Eternal Father. Listen to His
own words, the exact expression of His life :
"My meat is to do the will of Him that sent
Me " (St. John iv. 34). Again, " I seek not Mine
own will, but the Will of Him that sent Me"
(St. John v. 30). Again, "I am come down from
heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of
Him that sent Me" (St. John vi. 38). At the crisis
of His life He cried, "Nevertheless not as I will,
but as Thou wilt " (St. Matt. xxvi. 39). At the close
of His ministry He was able to say, " I have
finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do."
When men come to this Christ and abide in Him
their long agony ceases. Their minds being stayed
on God are kept in "perfect peace " (Isa. xxvi. 3).
We have now before us the two possibilities of
man. For Asia there are only two alternatives —
Christ or Buddha. For Europe there are only two
alternatives— Christ or Schopenhauer. We might
sum up the whole case in the memorable words of
Lavater, and say that henceforth for all men there
are only two alternatives — Christ or Despair. You
deceive your own soul if you imagine the root of
your misery is in your circumstances — it is in
yourself. Well did Milton put into the mouth of
Satan these terrible words, " Myself am hell."
254 Social Christianity.
Separation from God is eternal torment for man
and angel. O soul of man, you are like the weary
dove that flew sadly over the wild waste of waters ;
and found no resting-place for the sole of its foot,
until it returned to the Ark from which it fled.
Come back to God, and all will be well. Wander
away from God, and there is nothing before you
except blackness, and despair, and death.
XIX.
GAMBLING.
Preached in St. James's Hall, Sunday Afternoon,
June ztflu iSSS.
XIX.
GAMBLING.
" Let no man seek his own, but each his neighbours good" —
I Cor. x. 2\.
AFTER to-day the Sunday Afternoon Con-
ference will be suspended until the autumn.
I praise God for the health and strength which
have enabled us to hold this Conference without
interruption every Sunday since last October.
One member of the Brass Band has died. With
that painful exception, all who have taken an
official part in this long series of Conferences are
here to-day in good health, and with stronger and
brighter hopes than ever for the extension of the
kingdom of Jesus Christ. I had intended to re-
capitulate the subjects of our various discussions ;
and to restate once more our fundamental prin-
ciple that the Son of God came to save Society
as well as the individual. But it is always our
rule to make everything give way to urgent prac-
tical considerations. I have therefore altered my
arrangements, and decided to speak about one of
the greatest and most ominous of our national
curses — gambling.
'57 17
258 Social Christianity.
It is not without significance that we have never
before discussed this topic. Why is it that gambling
has never come up ? Something is doubtless due
to the inevitable limitations of time, of capacity,
and of sympathy. It is, perhaps, impossible for
any one to be equally alive to all forms of wrong
and misery. You and I are pre-occupied with
many absorbing enterprises and movements. Still,
I cannot but feel that our singular silence with
respect to the gigantic social curse of gambling is
largely due to the fact that Christian men generally
are as unawakened in relation to this evil as our
great-grandfathers were to the evils of drunkenness
and lust. The time has more than come to face,
denounce, and attack the gigantic evil of gambling.
Many years ago Mr. James Greenwood, .the
"amateur casual," declared that London was afflic-
ted with "seven curses." They were (1) neglected
children, (2) professional thieves, (3) professional
beggars, (4) fallen women, (5) drunkenness, (6)
gamblers, and (7) waste of charity. I should like
to amend the fourth section of that indictment by
saying, " fallen men " rather than " fallen women."
I agree with a wise philanthropist in the convic-
tion that most of these women are not " fallen,"
but " knocked-down " women. It is the men who
are the great curse ; the base and cowardly men
who prowl the streets at night, insulting every un*
Gambling. 259
protected woman they meet. Stop the demand
and the supply will cease. Arrest these vile
scoundrels, and that curse would soon disappear.
With respect to the sixth curse, which is our sub-
ject to-day, Mr. Greenwood went so far, even at
that date, as to say that gambling " causes perhaps
more ruin and irreparable dismay than any other
two of the curses of London." Without endorsing
that very strong statement, which comes, however,
from the pen of one who writes with authority, we
must admit that gambling has become a gigantic
curse. It is also indisputable that since Mr.
Greenwood wrote, the evil has increased to an
appalling extent.
Fleet Street is now almost impassable when the
telegraphed result of some race is expected at the
offices of the sporting journals. When the tele-
gram appears in the window, hundreds of fools
and scoundrels rush about Fleet Street in a state
of lunatic excitement. The most distressing
feature of this madness is to see in that wild
crowd so many working-men, who, in their shirt
sleeves, dash out of the printing houses and other
offices of the neighbourhood to learn the result.
Another appalling evidence of the spread of
gambling is the immense space and prominence
which betting intelligence occupies in the ordinary
newspapers. So far as I am aware, The Leeds
260 Social Christianity.
Mercury is the only English daily which has the
moral strength to resist the vile contagion. It is
particularly gratifying to me, as a Welshman, to
be reminded that the vernacular newspapers of my
native country are free from this evil. When will
the great journals of England rise to the moral
level of their contemporaries in the little Princi-
pality of Wales? The sad connivance of the
ordinary journals does not satisfy the demands of
the betting fraternity. They have their own news-
papers, and even their daily newspapers. The
Christian Churches have long felt the need of a
daily newspaper devoted to the high interests of
Christianity. We have not yet the strength and
unity to secure that. But the gamblers have
already more than one flourishing daily of their
own.
It is impossible to exaggerate the evils of
gambling. Well are the resorts of gamblers called
" hells." Gambling, like drunkenness, becomes at
last an overpowering appetite, which the victim is
helpless to resist. I shall never forget the first
gambler who came under my pastoral notice. He
was in a good social position, a sober and indus-
trious man. He had a Christian wife, and a
healthy, happy family. But the betting mania
took possession of him. He often wept and trem-
bled under the Word of God. I could not imagine
Gambling. 2 6 1
why he did not yield to Christ. At last I dis-
covered the chain of adamant which bound him to
the depths of hell. It was gambling. Ever and
anon the newspapers give us a momentary glance
at the devilry and anguish of gambling. Ruin,
despair, suicide — these are the three swift steps by
which many a gambler passes to his doom. Is it
not time to face this incalculable woe, and to
attack it ?
Is gambling wrong ? Must we condemn it
absolutely and unhesitatingly ? Or can we make
terms with it ? There are many sophisms in the
air. Young men are taught to say that one may
do what he likes with his own ; and that there is
no sin in betting, especially if you bet only for
small amounts. When I was at Oxford, a great
dignitary came to preach on this subject before
the undergraduates, and informed an immense
crowd of young Englishmen (unless he was en-
tirely misunderstood) that there was no harm in
betting if the sum you risked did not exceed a
shilling, or, at the outside, half a crown ! But that
is not the way to deal with young men. What in
the world has the amount of the bet to do with it ?
Away with all such deadly trifling. On broad
intelligible grounds, gambling is either right or
wrong. Which is it ?
Now, in the first place, even if gambling were
262 Social Christianity.
not wrong in itself, its actual deadly effects would
make it hateful to every true man. The only
honourable and legitimate rule of human conduct
is expressed in my text : " Let no man seek his
own, but each his neighbour's good." And the
practical result is found in St. Paul's memorable
words : " All things are lawful, but all things are
not expedient." You may remember a beautiful
episode in the life of David. Three of the bravest
of his officers made their way through the Philis-
tine camp ; and at the risk of their lives obtained
water from the cool well of Bethlehem to quench
David's thirst. But their magnanimous leader
refused to drink it. He poured it forth as an
offering to God, exclaiming : " Be it far from me,
O Lord, that I should do this. Shall I drink the
blood of the men that went in jeopardy of their
lives?" (2 Sam. xxiii. 17.) And if David, who
lived so long ago, would not for very brother-
liness receive pleasure at so great a risk to other
men, shall we gamble at the price of broken hearts
and shattered homes ?
But, secondly, apart altogether from this im-
perative consideration, gambling is positively and
absolutely wrong, and that for two reasons. In
the first place, it promotes gain without merit. It
rewards those who do not deserve reward. The
wholesome law of life is that man shall eat his
Gambling. 263
bread in the sweat of his face, and where that
law is systematically violated, the violation is a
curse to all concerned. St. Paul says : " Let him
that stole steal no more, but rather let him labour,
working with his hands the thing that is good, that
he may have whereof to give to him that hath
need " (Eph. iv. 28). This noble precept does not
mean that every man must be a manual labourer.
A man may often work with his brain much
more laboriously and serviceably than with his
hand. But it is the indisputable teaching of St.
Paul that cither with hand or with brain every
man ought to work for the public good. He even
went so far as to say, " If any will not work,
neither let him eat (2 Thess. iii. 10). What an
outcry there would have been if I had uttered
so revolutionary a sentiment as that ! But some
day, I venture to prophesy, the doctrine of St.
Paul's will be embodied in the legislation of
Christian States. Some day the most despised
outcast of human society will be the immoral
wretch who does nothing with brain or hand to
deserve the bread he eats.
Probably when that millennial day arrives the
old Jewish custom of teaching everybody a trade
will be revived. It proved an inestimable service
to St. Paul himself that he was able to fall back
upon his trade as a tent- maker. I might say that
264 Social Christianity.
the Jewish custom is already established in the great
House of Hohenzollern. The Second German
Emperor, whose death we so deeply lament, was
a jeweller, and a first-rate jeweller. Technical
education should be universal, and every man
should be able, if the occasion arose, to " work
with his hands the thing that is good," not that
he might be able to curse his children with
excessive wealth, but that " he may have whereof
to give to him that hath need." Now, gambling
is the opposite of all this. It gives to him who
has not toiled and who does not deserve. It flatly
contradicts the rule of the Divine Judgment, which
renders to every man according to his work. It
directly obstructs the tendency of Christian civiliza-
tion. It destroys the precious and vital principles
of industry and thrift. That is the first fatal
objection to gambling.
The second absolute objection is, if possible, even
stronger. It promotes gain tlirougJi another's loss.
It is, therefore, anti-social and anti-Christian. All
lawful trade promotes mutual advantages. This
is an unfailing test of legitimate transactions.
Everything that benefits you by injuring your
neighbour is wrong.
Mr. Herbert Spencer has expressed these funda-
mental objections to gambling very clearly in one
of the most interesting and valuable of his writ-
Gambling. 265
ings, " The Study of Sociology." " Listen," he
says, " to a conversation about gambling ; and,
where reprobation is expressed, note the grounds of
the reprobation. That it tends towards the ruin of
the gambler ; that it risks the welfare of family
and friends ; that it alienates from business, and
leads into bad company — these, and such as these,
are the reasons given for condemning the practice.
Rarely is there any recognition of the fundamental
reason. Rarely is gambling condemned because
it is a kind of action by which pleasure is obtained
at the cost of pain to another. The normal obtain-
ment of gratification, or of the money which
purchases gratification, implies, firstly, that there
has been put forth equivalent effort of a kind
which, in some way, furthers the general good ;
and implies, secondly, that those from whom the
money is received, get, directly or indirectly,
equivalent satisfactions. But in gambling the
opposite happens. Benefit received does not
imply effort put forth ; and the happiness of the
winner involves the misery of the loser. This
kind of action is therefore essentially anti-social —
sears the sympathies, cultivates a hard egoism, and
so produces a general deterioration of character
and conduct " (p. 306).
For these reasons every gambler is either a fool
or a: scoundrel, or both.
266 Social Christianity,
We must ask one other question before we close.
How can we arrest this gigantic and unmitigated
evil ? First of all, has not the time come to form
an Anti-Gambling Society, for the purpose of
creating and directing public opinion upon the
question ? We have societies for the purpose of
suppressing drunkenness, lust, and war ; and we
know what vast changes in opinion and law they
have already effected. Why could we not do the
same thing in opposition to gambling ? The
time has come to boycott all gamblers. They
ought especially to be expelled from the House of
Commons. Nothing would do more to impress
the public conscience than to make gambling a
moral disqualification for a seat in Parliament.
Rational Christians can already see that debauchees,
drunkards, and gamblers, are utterly unfit to make
the laws of England. We must agitate for the
rigid exclusion of such enemies of mankind. We
must make it as impossible for them as it would
be for a pirate, to be elected. When we have
cleansed Parliament of their polluting presence,
the task of cleansing minor public bodies will be
comparatively easy. We ought, further, to hold
public meetings, preach sermons, and take pledges
against gambling. We should also warn children
in Day and Sunday schools against this insidious
and aggressive curse.
Gambling. 267
But it will not be enough to use all these methods
of moral suasion. We must also invoke the aid
of law. The law already prohibits lotteries. The
principle is conceded. The law also prohibits
betting houses on the well-recognised ground, that
while there are many offences which cannot be
made criminal, the intervention of a third party
to promote or facilitate these offences comes
legitimately within the scope of repressive law.
Betting houses and betting clubs must be put
down by the police, as they have been in the
past, but much more vigorously. There must,
however, be no distinction between rich and poor.
Police raids have often been made upon the bet-
ting houses of the poor and of foreigners. The
notorious haunts of aristocratic gambling must
no longer be spared.
But I have reserved until last the most effectual,
perhaps the only effectual remedy to gambling, and
that is, to prohibit by law the publication of betting
intelligence in any newspaper. The cheap news-
papers are the great agency which has carried the
temptations of gambling to every family in the
land. An eminent Russian statesman said a few
weeks ago that there would be no war in Europe
if he were permitted to hang all the editors of
newspapers. I would guarantee the suppression
of English gambling on the same terms. It is
268 Social Christianity.
difficult to realize the immense power of the Press.
It is with great reluctance that high-class journals
have opened their columns to betting intelligence.
All upright editors would welcome the assistance of
the law in excluding that degrading matter. They
can scarcely venture to exclude it until their
dangerous rivals are also compelled to do the same.
The present Government has passed a law to fine
and imprison journalists who report the proceed-
ings of suppressed branches of the National
League. That method might without hesitation
be employed to suppress gambling. Virtuous and
humane men ought not to have two opinions about
its legitimacy in relation to this unquestionable
evil. Heavy fines, and if they fail, imprisonment
ought to be the swift punishment of all editors,
printers, and newspaper proprietors who publish
betting intelligence. When that law is passed we
shall have laid our axe at the very root of the
Upas tree of gambling.
XX
A TIMELY WARNING.
preached in St. James's Hall, Sunday Evening,
July 8tfi, iSSS.
XX.
A TIMELY WARNING.
" Impossible." — IIee. vi. 6.
/^ANON WESTCOTT, in a recent volume
^-^ of sermons, has directed attention to this
Epistle as peculiarly suitable to the present age.
It was written to men in circumstances remarkably
similar to our own. The burning of the Temple,
and the scattering of the Jewish race had involved
revolutionary changes in Church and State ; and
had rudely shaken the traditional interpretation
of the Bible. It was an era of change, and free
criticism, and universal readjustment. They were
in the presence of new ecclesiastical leaders, new
national policies, new religious teachers. The
very foundations beneath their feet seemed to be
shaken. In many respects we have a similar ex-
perience. The author of this Epistle came to
comfort and console them, as he now comforts and
consoles us, with the assurance that notwithstand-
ing all these changes and revolutions, the old
truths were about to triumph more fully and more
gloriously than ever. Canon Westcott has dwelt
272 Social Christianity.
i
with characteristic sympathy and subtlety upon
that side of the Epistle to the Hebrews.
But there, is quite another side, and quite
another lesson. Indeed, the main object of the
Epistle is not to comfort but to warn the readers.
In such a transition age as theirs and ours, men
are in special danger of lax notions and lax con-
duct. I shall never forget the impression this
Epistle produced on me some years ago when I
read it through at a sitting ; and felt the main
current of its teaching. It is really a terrible
Epistle. The author shows that both men and
ages have sometimes lost their great opportunity,
and lost it irrevocably. He illustrates this appall-
ing truth in the case of individuals, from the
history of Esau. That unhappy man sold his
birthright for a mess of pottage ; and when he
began to realize the painful consequences of the
act he found no place for repentance, though he
sought it carefully with tears. The same truth is
illustrated in the case of nations, by the fact that
the generation which came out of Egypt sinned
away their great opportunity. Their carcases fell
in the wilderness. They could not enter Canaan.
He solemnly warns the Hebrew Christians that, in
like manner, if they sin away their opportunity of
spiritual salvation in Christ, it will be "impossible"
to save them by any other mean3.
A Timely Warning. 273
This terrific truth is emphasized by the use of the
word " impossible." He is speaking to those who
have enjoyed the characteristic blessings of the
Christian faith. If they, under the influence of an
age of change and scepticism, become confirmed
apostates, there is no hope for them. They have de-
liberately rejected the only remedy. In describing
their participation in the Gospel the author uses the
beautiful Greek conception of it, rather than the
Latin conception, with which we are more familiar.
The Latin Church speaks of " conversion" — a turn-
ing round from evil to good. The Greek Church,
more intellectual, describes the great change as
"illumination" — the diffusion of Divine Light
through the dark soul of man. In this way the
author of the Epistle before us describes those of
whom he writes as " enlightened." Then he men-
tions four characteristic features of those who are
thus "enlightened." First, they have "tasted the
heavenly gift," the Divine manna, Jesus Christ.
They have had an actual personal experience of
living union with Him. Secondly, they have been
" made partakers of the Holy Ghost " ; their hearts
have been the temples of the Divine Spirit.
Thirdly, they have "tasted the good word of
God " ; they have understood the spiritual meaning
of the Bible. Fourthly, they have " tasted the
powers of the age to come " ; they have had per-
18
274 Social Christianity.
sonal experience of the supernatural life of real
Christianity, and of the miraculous answers to
prayer which real Christians receive.
Now, if any man who has had this experience ot
the Eternal Life falls away fully and utterly, it is
"impossible " to "renew" him again unto repent-
ance. He has consciously and deliberately rejected
the only remedy. God Himself can provide no
other. The author uses a very striking and ter-
rible illustration from nature. He says that a
piece of land may be so incurably filled with the
seeds of thorns and thistles, that the more it is
watered with life-giving rain, the more prolifically
it brings forth these obnoxious products. In like
manner, our natures may be so much changed for
the worse, that all good influences will only bring
out more and more evil in us.
The very same sun which melts wax hardens
clay ; and by persistent sin against the clearest
light and the best opportunities, our hearts may be
so completely turned into clay that all the influ-
ence of Divine Love may only harden us more and
more. Force is no remedy. God cannot coerce
us with policemen and soldiers, to love Him. He
can only conciliate us by the most affecting ex-
hibition of His Love ; and, if that fails, He has no
other resource. We may become so perverted and
corrupted that the very Love of God will only
A Timely Warning. 275
harden us. Look at the two brigands who were
crucified with Christ. They saw His dying agony,
and one of them was melted into penitence. But
the other was only hardened, and died with a
hissing curse upon his lips. We have but to open
our eyes and look around us, to see what a fearful
power the free will of man has to turn the supreme
blessing of Divine Love into a supreme curse.
Who are the most bitter enemies of Christ ? The
drunkards, the harlots, the outcasts of all sorts ?
No. Those avIio have sinned against the light ;
those who have felt the power of Divine Love ;
those who have consciously resisted the Spirit of
Christ.
The authors warn the tempted Hebrew Chris-
tians not to reject Christ. If they reject Him,
there is no other Saviour. There are multitudes
in all lands, and in this land, who have never
rejected Christ ; who have never had the oppor-
tunity of intelligently and deliberately rejecting
Christ. There is hope for them — more hope, per-
haps, than we dare to cherish.
" Whom the heart of man shuts out,
Sometimes the heart of God takes in."
The text does not refer to them. There is only
one "unpardonable sin," and that is the sin of
finally rejecting Christ. And that sin, remember,
276 Social Christianity.
is unpardonable in the very nature of things, and
not as the result of some arbitrary act on the part
of God. It is very difficult, but not impossible, to
commit "the unpardonable sin." "In every nation,
he that feareth God and worketh righteousness
is accepted of Him." For Christ's sake the heathen
are judged according to the light granted to them.
Full and ample justice is done to all. And the
great opportunity comes to all. But if that oppor-
tunity is lost, there is no other. There can be no
other. God cannot provide any other. There is
" no other name under heaven, wherein we can be
saved." Mark it well — at some time, in some way
the great opportunity comes to all ; but if it is
finally rejected it cannot be renewed or repeated.
I say finally rejected. We must beware of the
Montanist and Novatian errors. The text does not
mean that backsliders cannot be restored. We
have many blessed proofs to the contrary. He
who bids us forgive our brother seventy times
seven, will never hesitate to forgive us, however
far we have wandered from Him, if we return to
Him. But we may wander so far that the disposi-
tion to return will be utterly destroyed within us ;
will be replaced by a disposition to flee from Him.
Large and ample opportunity is given to us ; but
if that be deliberately and finally rejected, it is
"impossible" to renew us to repentance.
A Timely Warning. 277
" Once to every man and nation, comes the moment to
decide,
In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil
side ;
. . .. And the choice goes by for ever."
There is no second probation. How can there
be, if the first probation is an exhaustive one ? A
second probation necessarily assumes that, in some
way or other, the first probation has not been full
and complete. But I assume that the power and
wisdom of God will secure to every man a perfect
probation. If man fails under that perfect test,
the resources of God Himself are exhausted. He
can do no more for us. He has provided us with
salvation in Christ. But if we reject that, what
more can God do ? Nothing — nothing.
This life is a very real probation ; and ours is
a tremendous responsibility. Our whole future
hinges, necessarily and inevitably, upon our treat-
I ment of Christ. " He that believeth on the Son
hath eternal life ; but he that obeyeth not the Son
shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on
him " (St. John iii. 36).
Now, as when this Epistle was written, we feel
the doubts and difficulties of a transition age, and
the situation is full of peril. A lady who has as-
ociatcd all her life with persons of high rank and
literary distinction told me a few days ago that
2"]% Social Christianity.
she finds it almost impossible to shake off the
influence of the cynical scepticism which has en-
veloped her from her childhood. All her days she
has been taught that "nothing is certain, and it
does not matter!' That sentiment works the most
deadly mischief. The Eternal Verities are dis-
missed with a cynical smile. But they refuse to go.
The Bible is true. The words of Christ abide for
ever.
Some who do not go so far as the cynical
agnostics of fashionable and self-indulgent Society,
nevertheless cherish a vague hope that all will yet
be well even for those who deliberately reject
Christ. They cling desperately to the notion that
in some way or other of which we have as yet
heard no whisper, God will save those who intelli-
gently refuse to be saved by His Son. All these
thin and restless sentiments dash themselves to
pieces against the solid rock, the immovable word
— Impossible. They are probably founded upon
an utter misconception of the "omnipotence5' of
God. That word does not mean that God can
literally do anything. It means that He can do
anything consistent with His nature. One attri-
bute is necessarily limited by another. God is not
mere Omnipotence, mere irresistible Force. That
is the Llohammcdan delusion. He is also Wisdom,
and Goodness, and Love. The first Napoleon used
A Timely Warning. 279
to say that the word " impossible " was not found
in his vocabulary. But that was, of course, an
epigrammatic exaggeration. The word "impos-
sible " is found even in the vocabulary of God.
It is "impossible for God to lie" (Heb. vi. 18). It
is impossible for Him to alter the past. It is
equally impossible for Him to save any man
except through and in Christ. He will try to save
every man by Christ. If any man is not saved, it
will be that man's own fault. But every one of us
can frustrate the love of God.
By continually resisting God we can gradually
change our nature. Our Acts of deliberate
rebellion harden into Habits, our Habits harden
into Character, and Character may become fixed
for ever. In the course of our probation we may
bring ourselves into a condition in which the love
of God ceases to attract and conciliate us, in which
it repels and irritates us. Then all is lost. How
wonderful is the watershed of a great mountain
range ! Here is a little spring. It makes a small
pool of water. The water overflows. Because it
is on the south side of the watershed, the water
flows evermore towards the bright and sunny
South. You advance a few yards. Without
knowing it, you have crossed the narrow water-
shed. There is no visible dividing line. But you
see another little spring, with its small pool. The
2 So Social Christianity.
water flows forth ; lo ! it is turned now to the
North, and it flows for ever toward the darkness
and the bitter cold. There is such a watershed in
your moral nature. Have you reached the fate-
ful line? Have you crossed it? Alas! from this
time forward all the springs of your life flow away
from God toward the blackness of darkness and all
the desolations of death.
It is useless to deny or ignore that awful possi-
bility. Even Lowell, the sanguine poet of demo-
cracy, is obliged to utter the bitter cry of a lost
soul :
" I hear the reapers singing go
Into God's harvest ; I, that might
With them have chosen, here below,
Grope shuddering at the gates of night.1'
Well might Dante inscribe over those gates : " All
hope abandon, ye who enter here."
They have deliberately rejected Christ. God
Himself is helpless now. At great cost, how great
He alone knows, His love provided a way of
escape. They wantonly and wilfully closed that
way. There is no other. There can be no other.
They are undone for ever. All pleas, protests,
arguments are silenced by the one word — Im-
possible.
Is this a matter for mirth or trifling ? Why has
God compelled me to take this theme to-day ? I
A Timely Warning. 281
place myself in His hands. I do not choose any
text. I wait. I wait. I cry : " Speak, Lord, for
Thy servant heareth." This week when the text
came, I shuddered. I found that it was a word —
the word " Impossible." I would have fled from it
as Jonah fled from Nineveh. But I dared not. Is
there some one in this vast audience to whom, by
my voice, God sends this last appeal ? Do you
not know that every hour you delay to accept
Christ, you are changing your heart, you are form-
ing your final character, you are making your soul
proof against the love of God ? The hour of final
choice draws nearer, nearer, nearer. You may have
entered upon it now. Repent. Escape for your
life. Flee to Christ, and all will yet be well.
Resist, refuse, go away unsaved, and Christ may
be compelled to follow your retreating figure with
the bleeding heart, and with the irrevocable words
with which He followed Judas Iscariot : "It would
have been a good thing for that man if he had
never been born."
r.utler & Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works Frome, and London.
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