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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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i ^ hman . ^ Jghej niigat have heard a Croly ^ ticie ^ g ^ from the pulpit the political career nf hk countrymen ;¦ &Blpmfield teaching that J /^ yv ^ &i ^ , is ari infliction . on this country as a punishment for / its . sins , not a duty urider-J ^ en for ^ the justification ; of humanity and * hm . glft ^ y Qf : 0 o ^; ittti JrwinILloyd specu--Jajfcingr , fo Sackney , tjiai : the Euphrates shall J > ej ^ ried up andjtheTjUrk be sfent back to Ms ipttivje land £ a . Pools ,, at St . Barnabas *
Pjbn-^ ptt ^ mpTQ § trating in the terms Of the-teit , /^ j ^^^ Qt ^ Q ^ ypl ^ d . thine pwn cause !'<* i a jCuminingi preaching the success of Russia as jfe ^ pi ^ li e ^ Wof * -t * S * o&&xwg path to Jeru-; 8 aleinJd Ips , cpnJ& ^ ipiL of tongues is bied ^ y : the inBme , idesire to crib . . uiiixeiJsal . truths i ?^ , S |> eci ^ c meaninga , humanly wwded , by ifentafftical refinements for . fitting divine laws JB ^^ efe ^ g ^ p # jclantic ; human conceptions ; Jfflfeif : tbe : Englishman listen patiently he
jpp | lL I ^ ieat ' ^ this Babel confusion gradually jBtt ^ ij $ Q rgipfco : , i the one , strain , of national ji ^ B l ^ lt ^^ spur . ce ^^ f all justice , even as tfe jargon of agreai musical band gradually lallarmtp ( oii € large stream pf harmony . I ? or th ^ e . rfantastical and the eectariart have ; their properj abiding-place in the human pulpit ; . *^ diwhen sviminoned to consider it a duties in i ^| p ^ n ce . / p ^ th « s % yereign Creator , Mu-¦
* £ »•**!' , /« r > # |* JSr & ! WJ « Wig , * ¥ » eii . i » w . tcus » . lesson jfetK&Tpclk ^; © & eternal , truth , ; growing | BN $ ^ 4 ^ r 3 fl 9 feiG ^^ it& . response of Acknpwledgnient ^ iQ one ; language , undivided . : l& ^ 9 ^ $ 0 ^^^ g ^ il ^} j-: ^ t ^ have had occasion to ^ yisit , ; many church MEsS > pM *| fcin ^ $ ^^ ||§ gp ^ o { j ^ harmo ny and ^ anityi ^^ Bxm 0 city , t ^ e in the JHyine ; hov theconfusion iaJiuDQan ; how divine law is oih
| ^ ^^ i | ppl % flti ^ gh ^ oing , but ^ inflexible MfeiS | ip £ aapfefflWjBjpk fe ? the feebleness , ^^ t §^ m $ : &e fm ^ stiratipiii of purpose , jmd , theJsjjpe ;; of , jl » wi are human . And wre ^ ye been reminded too of this ^ subordinate ^ % ^ l » lp ^ S / S ^ c ^ ff ^ tieii % a » 4 ohedien . % m ^ mb ^^ mSf ^ *»> tfeey are repeated tp liijn ; iron > t ]^ eir ( divine sources , can catch the wisdpmywlueh , never adies , , and bepame ' an agent in ^ eiecutinfir | he divine law ; whereas
£ e who attaches -ijimself to . fantastical sectarian refinements , to vain huntings after nice specific meanings , -where the broad principle is simple anH ^ mfeHigiBIe ' ~ enough , becomes foolish , and' loses tie faculty of iiitelligeiiee as well , as of interpretation . ¦/ : / fWerilUwB stood in the cathedral , where ^ before sect 'divided this land , our forefathers worshipped ; that cathedral in which they worshipped their : Maker before taking sail «/ hue uxntoui /
*• uuu ^ vnere tney nave pianxea the Anglo-Saxon seed . " We have stood not far off that same cathedral of England ' s fairest county , in an avenue of trees , whose pointed and interlacing arches gave to the architect the pattern of his design . We have stood in another edifice , constructed by art , still in the same ' neighbourhood , where the plants of many climea were gathered together ; where
in one aisle the rhododendron had yielded its flowers to make a solid carpet for the floor in a gorgeous spread of red and white ; in another where the atmosphere of the tropics ¦ was serving the life of strange immigrants to our cooler land . And we have stood iu a church , hundreds of miles distant from this , where Christianity freed from any taint of sect had reared an edifice with no foundation
or endowment save the pure of the Master ' s followers , to worship in the simplest spirit of Christianity . And in all these several places we found the same laws inexorably carried out b y the divine Power , but a diverse interpretation from the human mouth . Learning and obeying the laws of inorganic life , the architect oi the cathedral had repeated forma of nature with bo much art that they » tand for ages , and command in succeeding
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FRANCIS JOSEPH'S WEDDLKTG FAVOUR . The handsomest bridal favour w } iich graces the nuptials of the Emperor IVancis Joseph and his freely-selected bride , will be the amnesty granted to somo hundreds of political prisoners , and tho abolition of martial law in the Italian provinces of Austria . We cannot thank the Emperor very heartily for so slight a diminution of tho gross injustice which now oppresses more than one noblo people , but still wo inuat hail oven ao slight a sign of a better spirit ; and we could only hope for the sake of tho young Emperor himself , still more for tho sake of tho young bride whom he is
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generations affectionate admiration : the immortal laws ' which reared nature ' s cathedral the avenue of trees were equally obeyed in the original creation and in man ' s copy . So , practical science , patiently and obediently observing the method in which the Creator lodges , tends , and feeds his creatures , had brought into the gardener ' s cathedral , life for the most beautiful forms of the vegetable creation ; health was gained for them and happiness for the spectator by the patient fulfilment of the laws which never know
suspension . , " Within the cathedral built by hands , we heard the preacher telling , from an ancient Book , the story of the crucifixion , and then preaching to his Hearers the moral of that sacrifice ; telling ^ them 4 ; hat in these days , where there is no persecution , they must seek to deal with the temptations of the world , and exhorted them to be martyrs even such as they may be in the best society and in an excellently regulated country town .
The preacher had a good round voice ; he had the jargon of his craft , and he had been taught at school to round , off his periods ; but the metaphor was too . transparent and common-place , and the teaching became a mockery of the religion which it professed to enforce .: The same lesson , was taught , but with different language and different effect , in ? the Church of the Saviour at Birmingham . The sacrifice was described , not as a drama
without reality , a mystery which retrieved the sin . of man , and saved him from the duty of working out his 6 wn . redemption ; but , l as the awful union of rDivinity with actual human suffering . It was a practical example of that which is endured and : done in making Christianity an act as well as a theory ; and the hearers were taught to struggle against the luxuries , the temptations ,, the indulgences of the world , in
fulfilling the actual precepts of their Master , not considering their labonr : spared by his endurance ; but holding themselves to be taught-and incited by his example . . . The 'day appears to have passed since the teaching of Christian doctrine was received as something to be practically followed out ; Backalidings there always have been , but in older times / those who listened to the preaching in the . same cathedral , both before and after the ^ Reformation , listened to the words
as to instructions which they were bound to carry out ; and carry them out they did , even across the sea , if that were necessary . : Now the words are listened to as a form , but they are not carried out any further than Parliamentary statute compels . The Golden Lecturer preached the day before the Fast that labour is the lot of man , —that it cannot be superseded , but that it must be better distributed , —and that the labourer must have the
fruits of his toil . This is very like Christian Socialism ; we might say Christianity , —for it isr impossible to read either the history or the doctrine of the New Testament , without observing that the first pupils of the Master learned and practised that principle which is now denounced as " Socialism " — denounced sometimes even from the pulpit ; so far has Christianity drifted from its Teacher .
It was not long after that we were in the church of a parish near a great town—not for worship , but for " " election of churchwardens , and other business . " The sacred edifice was made a battle-field , in which disputants about church-rates carried on a muffled conflict , waived because the
churchrate party gave up the contest . And so , forth from the House of God , came the parishioners , oxulting in a defeat spared or a victory gained . How , we thought , is it possible that in this Church , which ia itself tho object of litigious battle , can the one principle be taught to the people ? How is it
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that the teachers , especially of the Master who gave them , the new commandment to love one another , can seek his abiding-place to vent their spleen against one another , and waste the endowment of their Church in . carrying out litigations about matters that are neither sacred nor instructive ? But , by the mercy of God , Ms laws cannot be broken , even by clergymen . If '' one touch of nature makes the whole world kin , " so the presence of a conscious duty , with the inevitable necessity for appealing to the source
whence the sense of duty is derived , controls these discords and restores unity to the people of the land . Notwithstanding these special diversities upon collateral and subsidiary points , notwithstanding conspicuous exceptions—conspicuous for the human vanity of attracting attention , —the general strain of the national voice on Wednesday last , spoke one language , —declaring the national belief that the cause is just , and , oil the strength of that conscientious belief , asking for the Divine sanction . It was not the bitter
anti-English Catholicism of Dr . Oullen , the fantastical fashionable Scotch Evangelism of Dr . Gumming , or the extravagant Catholicism of Oratorians , ostentatiously working upon the day , that could ava % really to disturb the general current ? of thought . ' . ZEJven those who went not to church shared ; the sentiments of those who did . Catholics united with
Protestants , Dissenters with Established Churchmen . Nay , the unity was not limited to Christianity alone ; but the Jew , whom our legislators still refuse to ' . consider- quite an Englishman , joined in the national appeal to the Divine Power with a plainness , a iorce , and a piety of language that stirs the heart in the Christian , ' and makes him acknowledge that'the essence of both . faiths is one . Yes , if the belief in Gt-odis diffused through
mankind , so the laws of 0 od are essentially uni versal , and their enforcement ia inevitable . It is by studying them , not to make out human texts , but by watching them obediently in order to ful £ l their workings , and by making human action conform to Divine action , that power is derived through religion , that confidence and courage are sustained through its contemplations . The precept of the Puritan
chief going forth to sustain the freedom of his country against dogmatic Divine Hight and Absolutist encroachments upon English independence did but anticipate , in quaint epigram , the truth which we in these days have certified—that the workings of science and the instincts of religion are , as they must be , in unison . There is no divine intervention for the workman , that vill not put his shoulder to the wheel . There is no
Providence to do the work of him who slights his own duty . And , whether we stand up for the independence of Englishman or Turkwhether we defend law against the dogmatic Divine Right and Absolute encroachment of Charles or INicholaB , the true position for the soldier is still the same , and it was practically the position which the Englishman restored in his mind on Wednesday last— " Put your trust in God , and keep yonr powder dry . "
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® m THE LEADER . [ Saturday
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 29, 1854, page 400, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2036/page/16/
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