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Title: The Spiritual Improvement of the Census
       A Sermon


Author: Robert George Baker



Release Date: March 20, 2021  [eBook #64879]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)


***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SPIRITUAL IMPROVEMENT OF THE
CENSUS***

Transcribed from the 1851 Lavis edition by David Price.  Many thanks to the British Library for making their copy available.

THE
SPIRITUAL IMPROVEMENT OF THE CENSUS.

~~~~~~~~~~~

A SERMON,

PREACHED IN

The Parish Church of All Saints, Fulham,

30th MARCH, 1851.

BY THE
REV. R. G. BAKER, M.A.

VICAR OF FULHAM,
RURAL DEAN, AND PREBENDARY OF ST. PAUL’S CATHEDRAL.

WITH NOTES.

SOLD BY LAVIS, FULHAM.

p. 2LONDON
R. CLAY, PRINTER, BREAD STREET HILL.

p. 3SERMON.

2 Samuel xxiv. 10.

“And David’s heart smote him after that he had numbered the people.  And David said unto the Lord, I have sinned greatly in that I have done: and now, I beseech thee, O Lord, take away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.”

At the time here spoken of, David had been, for nearly forty years, king over “the Lord’s people.”  The youngest of eight sons of one of the shepherds of Israel, and raised from that lowly station to the throne by the express appointment of Jehovah, it may well excite our surprise to observe his conduct on the occasion to which the text refers.  We might have supposed that the incidents of his early life, no less than the experience of his riper years, would have taught him a more simple spirit of faith and trust than that which he now showed.  “A lion and a bear” came upon him while he was yet a boy, and took a lamb out of his father’s flock which he was keeping; and he was not only delivered from them, but enabled alone and unharmed to slay them. [3]  At another time, when the Philistine giant defied the armies of the living God, David went forth of his own accord to meet him.  Mindful of the same power which had saved him from “the lion and the bear,” he asked no armour for his protection.  He sought no weapon for the fight.  “Strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might,” he prevailed, p. 4“with a sling and with a stone.” [4a]  And “the weak thing, and the base thing, and the thing that was despised,” was chosen to confound and to “bring to nought the thing that was mighty, in order that no flesh should glory in the presence of God.” [4b]  Then, again, how often had David been rescued from the personal jealousy of Saul!  What signal success had been granted him against the enemies of Israel!  And how strikingly had even the rebellion of his own misguided son been overruled to the promotion of his safety and glory!

But it appears that all this instruction had been given him in vain.  He was still disposed to depend, in the transaction before us, upon the “arm of flesh.”  Proud of the extent of his dominions and of the multitude of his subjects, and secretly pleased with the proof it would afford to other nations of his own wisdom and good government, he caused the people to be numbered; although, as the opening of this very chapter shows, it was against the advice, and even the entreaties, of his own officers.  For “Joab, the captain of the host, had said unto the king, Now the Lord thy God add unto the people, how many soever they be, an hundredfold, and that the eyes of my lord the king may see it: but why doth my lord the king delight in this thing?  Notwithstanding the king’s word prevailed against Joab, and against the captains of the host.” [4c]  The heart of David, however, was soon opened by Divine grace to confess and to deplore the offence which he had committed.  And the fearful judgment that followed served at once, in the most instructive manner, to humble and to disappoint him, by showing him how entirely he was dependent upon God for that very source of strength and greatness which his conceit led him to prize so highly, and how suddenly he might be stripped of it.  The account is given in the verses which follow immediately upon the text.  For being allowed to choose between three p. 5visitations, famine, war, and pestilence, and preferring that which he supposed would fall upon his country most lightly, “the Lord,” we read, “sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to the time appointed, and there died of the people seventy thousand men.”

It may be right for us to bear in mind, that what made this act of numbering the Israelites so very offensive to God, was that it tended to draw off the hearts of the king and of his people from that single and undivided regard which they owed to Him.  All the trials of that nation carried on for such a long course of years, and all the statutes and laws given for their guidance, were meant to keep this conviction uppermost in their minds.  They had been singled out from the rest of mankind, not only as the guardians of the true faith and worship, but as witnesses to all the world of the power, and love, and faithfulness of the Lord.  Special mercies, continued miracles, wonderful deliverances were wrought for them, in order that they might feel, at every stage of their eventful history, that they were peculiarly His people.  If bread was wanting to allay their hunger, or water to assuage their thirst, or raiment to cover their bodies, it was not provided by any of the slow contrivances of human industry.  But the hard rock poured forth their water, and the heavens showered down their food, and their “raiment waxed not old upon them,” even during the long period of forty years.  If the inhabitants of every other land gave way before them as they advanced, they were taught, and they might have learnt, from the utter disproportion of their own powers, that it was “the Lord their God” who drove them out.  And if, in the restlessness of their spirit, they desired to have a king to reign over them, they were reminded that “the Lord their God” was their King.  However few, in any case, were the numbers of their hosts, they always proved sufficient for the work which they were charged to achieve.  And however numerous they were at p. 6other times, it might yet please Him, as it did on the occasion here recorded, to turn their strength into weakness in an instant.  This numbering of the people, therefore, showed an utter distrust of that goodness which had never failed them, and called down a judgment so severe, that it must have warned them for ever against a repetition of the offence.

The question will have occurred already, perhaps, to the minds of some who hear me, Can any similar degree of guilt attach to that numbering of our own people which is going on at this time throughout the land, from one end of it even to the other?  If, in the case of David, the measure was condemned so fearfully, and involved so signal a punishment, what are the circumstances in our own case that tend to remove from it any such reproach, and may even lead us to hope that instead of thwarting the will and pleasure of our God, we are really proceeding in conformity to it, and even promoting his purposes of grace and goodness to our land?

My brethren, in order to answer such an inquiry aright, it seems only necessary that we should remember the essential difference already pointed out between the chosen nation and any which the world has since seen.  Never in any other case has the civil government of kingdoms been carried on by the immediate agency of Almighty power.  Our national welfare depends not upon miracles, but upon those provisions of human forethought or experience, which, under the Divine blessing, appear best adapted to meet each exigency that arises.  And although there is often cause to lament that this blessing is so seldom implored by us distinctly and publicly as a Christian people, and so little acknowledged by us in the many mercies, which, as a Christian people, we are enjoying, yet still we may humbly believe that the inquiry now conducted cannot be displeasing to God.  Many facts will be learnt from it conducive to the common p. 7good, and tending either to suggest or to mature provisions for our social improvement.  Many practical lessons will be gained, teaching us how we may better “bear each other’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.” [7a]  Many truths will be derived from the results of this Census, which may strengthen our hands as “members one of another;” [7b] and some objects, it may be hoped, will be answered by it, in the advancement of which we may cheerfully join in giving effect to the counsels of our rulers.

At the same time there are thoughts mingling with this subject of a more serious and personal kind, to which I could desire, in the guidance of God’s Spirit, to direct your minds.  And the occasion for suggesting them appears so seasonable, and occurs so seldom, that it may reconcile us to the omission of other topics of inquiry, and the endeavour to found upon it some which may be made, under the teaching of that Spirit, conducive to our edification and salvation.

This enrolling of our people every tenth year, each man’s family in his own house, may it not read to us some lessons as Christians; while it affords to those who are set over us in the Lord, the materials for their guidance in the great work of government and legislation?  Whether we regard it as private individuals, or as fellow-subjects in that civil community with which the Providence of God has connected us, or as members of the Church of Christ and “heirs together of the grace of life,” [7c] it may suggest to us many reflections of thankfulness, self-inquiry and abasement.

Ten years have passed away since this Census was last taken; and of course by far the larger portion of those here present were at that time included in it.  These allotted periods fixed by the institutions of men agree very remarkably with those which the Spirit of God in his word has pointed out as warnings p. 8of the shortness and the uncertainty of life.  “The days of our age are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.” [8a]  If this, then, be the limit to the life of man, what an important portion of it do these latter years contain, quickly as they pass away, and short as they now appear in looking back upon them!  It is well known that nearly one-half of the number of deaths that occur among mankind happen before the tenth year of life is completed.  Yet have we all been spared, through sickness, and casualties, and during one year of that term through pestilence itself raging at our doors, to see the end of it; and to improve it, as affording a rich fund of opportunities, and warnings, and motives, and principles for the period yet to come.  Nor is it only life that has been thus continued to us; but life with all its attendant health, and strength, and reason, and many temporal comforts.  And there have been dangers warded off, and blessings multiplied to us in a measure which we should now find it difficult, even with the utmost stretch of memory, to reckon; still less to trace out all those impressions of gratitude and praise towards the Great Dispenser of them all, which each of them, as it passed, ought to have fixed indelibly upon the heart.  For these are all the gifts, too often even the unasked gifts, but in every case the undeserved and ill-requited gifts of Him “in whom we live, and move, and have our being.” [8b]  And in addition to these, how mercifully have our spiritual privileges been continued to us, those which unite us with “Christ the hope of glory,” [8c] and which open to us the supplies of His grace, and which long since ought to have led our affections from earthly to heavenly things.  For ten years more has the revealed word of God been spread out before us, “the engrafted word, which is able to save our p. 9souls;” [9a] inviting us to “flee from the wrath to come;” [9b] charging us to have our treasure in heaven; and reminding us, wherever we open it, of the things which belong to our eternal peace.  For ten years more has His Blessed Son been calling to us to “come to Him that we might have life;” [9c] cheering us with the promise that “whosoever cometh to Him shall in no wise be cast out;” [9d] offering to meet and to bless us with His spiritual presence in the ordinances of His own appointment upon earth, and interceding for us continually before the throne of His Father in heaven.  For ten years more has that Spirit who does “not always strive with man,” [9e] been striving with us; often grieved by our coldness, our inconsistency, our unwatchfulness; yet never quite leaving us to ourselves; and even now waiting to be entreated by us, that He may purify and sanctify us wholly.  And let me say, that if it is an obvious, it is also a solemn thought, that these ten years have included above 500 Sabbaths; each of which might have been, had we diligently improved them, a new step in our advancement towards heaven.  They might have made such an addition to our stock of spiritual knowledge, and strength, and progress, as would ere now have carried us far more onward than we have yet reached towards that “rest which remaineth for the people of God.” [9f]

And then comes the concerning question, from which not one person who hears me can escape; In what manner, to what degree have these advantages been turned to account?  These ten years of continued forbearance, and longer trial, and multiplied mercies on the part of our God, do they find us at the close of them living more closely to Him; more desirous of His favour; more afraid of His displeasure; and adorning more, in our life and conversation, the gospel of His own dear Son?  So much p. 10nearer as we must know ourselves to be to our latter end, are we in any, and in what measure, better prepared to meet it?  Do our tempers and pursuits prove us to be, what this new stage of our journey must convince us that we are, mere “strangers and sojourners upon earth,” [10a] seeking “a better country, that is, an heavenly?” [10b]  Or rather, are there not some sins still, as in time past, a shame and a burden to us; some evil habits or negligences, some ignorances or omissions yet cleaving to us, and even growing with our growth, and strengthening with our strength?  The world, the flesh, and the devil, those three enemies of our souls whom we engaged in our baptism to renounce, have they less power over us than they once had?  And do we find in ourselves more readiness to pray, more comfort in our private prayers, more delight in our Sabbaths, more of actual profit from all the means of grace, than we did before?  With such an inquiry as this presented to him, and quickened by the thought, that as more time is gone there is so much the less remaining, may not the most advanced and established among us find room for confession and self-abasement?  And if this indeed be so, if even “the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?” [10c]  Where those who “make a mock at sin,” [10d] “glory in their shame,” and only “mind earthly things?” [10e]  What must be their state in the sight of God, and what their aggravated danger, who for ten years more have been “crucifying the Son of God afresh” [10f] by their open unresisted ways of sin, despising the grace of God, and giving a more free indulgence to those very lusts against which the true believers have been at least watching, and contending, and praying?

My brethren, it may seem, no doubt, an alarming reflection, but it is still a faithful saying, and confirmed by all our experience, that if ten years more p. 11have not carried us forward in our heavenly course, if they do not find us growing in grace, in the knowledge of ourselves and in the knowledge of Christ Jesus, they will too probably find us confirmed in evil; more estranged from God; more ripe for judgment; the chains of sin bound faster around us, and all our habits more difficult of change; nay, even impossible to be changed, until that Spirit from on high be given us, who can at any time turn a man from darkness to light, but who, the longer He is wilfully slighted, is the less willing to be sought.

These are some of the topics, and, as I well know, they are but a few of them, which a retrospect of this interval might urge upon us as individuals; and these arise only from a review of our own position as the survivors of this new period of probation which the Lord in mercy has permitted us to pass.  But I might well ask you to cast your eyes once more back, (it will be wise and profitable for us to do so,) in order that we may call to mind how many persons, some of them dear to us as our own souls, began this same period with us, who have not lived like us to witness its close.  If the thought suggests to any of my hearers some recollections of pain, and sorrow, and separation, may they have the grace given them to consider that it is the brightest light which casts the deepest shadows; and that there are trains of thought which can edify while they sadden us; like the shade of Peter’s body, which, as it passed across the multitudes, gave life and health to whatever it obscured. [11a]

The number of interments which have occurred within the last ten years in the three burial grounds of this parish have included more than a fifth part of its population.  Such is the sure and rapid way in which, day by day, and year by year, the sentence passed upon our fallen race is fulfilled.  “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” [11b]  And some of these events, if I could now place them in order before p. 12you, have been attended with circumstances so full of awakening instruction, they have proclaimed so distinctly the instability of all earthly ties, the vanity of all expectations that have not heaven for their object, and the love of Christ for their security and their motive, that no louder call could ever be addressed to those who have been most nearly affected by them.  And as surely and as quickly will the same mortality proceed during the next decade of the world’s duration.  Another like proportion, another fifth, yes, my brethren, one person in five, of those who are assembled here to-day, will be swept off from the engrossing cares and the unsatisfying frivolities of life into the great charnel-house which must ere long receive us all.  How many more such ties will be loosened before the same interval recurs again!  Those whom we love the best may be taken from us, or we from them, never more to meet until the resurrection of the last day.  With such perpetual notices before us of the shortness of our time, and of the momentous nature of that work which it is given us to do, let us resolve to work while it is day.  Let us neglect no call; let us abuse no warning; let us lose no opportunity which may assist us in making our “calling and election sure.” [12a]  “This I say,” declares St. Paul, with a full conviction of the truth upon his mind, “This I say, that the time is short: it remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none; and they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; and they that use this world, as not abusing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away.” [12b]

Suffer me now to advert to some topics of inquiry which such an occasion as this presents to us, as members of the same civil community, fellow-citizens of the same favoured land, or even as inhabitants of p. 13the same parish.  There are other mercies for us to review, and there are other grounds of humiliation in the abuse of them, which we have to cherish beyond those which belong to us as private individuals.  And to these we cannot safely be indifferent.

Consider the many blessings we have to acknowledge as bestowed upon our country.  During the earliest of these intervals fixed for numbering the people, of which we have now reached the sixth, we were engaged in destructive wars, always a source of the most extensive misery and crime.  And ever, as the period came round for enrolling our living population, there was an allowance to be made for the losses it had suffered of multitudes who had passed into the grave before their full time, in foreign lands, amidst the horrors of the battlefield or the naval fight, their last hours wanting all the solace of domestic endearment or spiritual comfort.  But we have now been mercifully spared for nearly forty years from any general or continued war.  Ten years more of almost unbroken peace, or of peace broken only in the remoter dependencies of the empire, have passed over us.  And very few of our countrymen, comparatively with other times, have had their lives cut short by a scourge to which the pride and covetousness of mankind are always urging them, but which it may be hoped the God of love and peace, in answer to the prayers of His servants, will continue still to restrain.  It was a feeling of the terrors of that scourge which drew from David the affecting entreaty recorded in the chapter before us: “Let us fall now into the hands of the Lord; for his mercies are great: and let us not fall into the hands of man.” [13]

And if it cannot equally be said that our land has been spared from the visitation of pestilence, if it has pleased God, within the last ten years, to send again among us that fearful judgment, what cause had we for thankfulness that even in the midst of that judgment p. 14He remembered mercy, and that in the most direct answer to prevailing prayer that we have ever witnessed, He caused the disorder to cease even at the time when it seemed to be defying all human means of restraining it.

There are two aspects in which this new enrolment will present itself to the mind as connected with our national state.  And there are different conclusions to be drawn from it, according as they are viewed or not in the light which the Scripture gives us, and tried by the rules which it affords.  It may be thought, when this new list is making out of our people from one end of the country to the other, advancing as they probably are in numbers, intelligence, and wealth, the result of it will rather speak the language of exultation than of abasement.  While we are arranging in their different classes our men of opulence, and our men of business, and our men of science, “merchants,” like those of the “crowning city,” equal to “princes, and traffickers ranked among the honourable of the earth;” [14a] our cunning artificers and our tillers of the ground surpassing those of other lands in diligence, enterprise, and talent; there is enough here, it may be thought, to assure us that God is well pleased with us, and that all these proofs of worldly prosperity are pledges of His favour.  Surely, it will be said by some who witness it, “this great nation is a wise and understanding people.” [14b]  And yet let us remember, that the distinctions of nations, like those of individuals, are given to them as talents to be accounted for and improved, not in order to flatter pride, or to promote the comparison of themselves with others.  The higher is the measure of our privileges, the heavier is the weight of our responsibilities.  These signs of greatness may be found utterly worthless when they are weighed in the balance of the sanctuary, and may be tending only to increase our condemnation.  If, indeed, our p. 15zeal for God’s glory had kept pace with our experience of His mercies; if, placed as we are at the head of the commerce of the world, our influence reaching to every sea and every shore on which the sun shines, we had carried with us that best of our national treasures, that which is interdicted to some nations, and, alas! as yet unknown to many more, the pure, the full, the free gospel of the grace of God; if, many years ago, we had taken up that position, to the importance of which we seem only to have awakened of late, that of being, as the heralds of the Church, the evangelizers of mankind; if the moral and spiritual improvement of our people at home had advanced as rapidly as their intellectual character, then, indeed, we might have given up the account of our resources with joy and not with grief.  But since it is most true, as you yourselves also know, that while the largest funds are never wanting for every scheme, the wildest, the most uncertain, of worldly speculation or display, they are often left to fail, and to fall away, and to be importuned for in the prosecution of the soberest, the most scriptural plans for promoting the glory of God, or the welfare of some distressed portion or other of our fellow-men; if all the boasted improvements in our means of communication are only carrying into the quietest and least corrupted districts of the land new incentives to Sabbath desecration; if while we have been spared from the desolations of foreign war, we are given up, at this very hour, to intestine divisions pervading equally the Church and the State, and upon questions where a Christian people ought to be found essentially agreed; here, again, we have cause rather to humble than to exalt ourselves, and to fear lest our God should enter into judgment with us for this poor requital of all the distinctions with which we have been blessed.

The most remarkable event which, within the last ten years, has affected the spiritual state of our own p. 16parish, has been the erection, in a district scarcely built upon before, but in the midst of a poor and now rapidly increasing population, of a spacious and splendid Roman Catholic church, with extensive school-rooms and the residence of a priest attached to it.  My brethren, there are but few probably among us who would lament this measure, if its only design and its only effect were to provide for the instruction of that large number of Roman Catholic labourers who inhabit that and the contiguous districts.  Shut out as they are, by the stern prohibitions of their own priesthood, from all access to our means of grace; taught to believe that all doctrine is heresy, and all instruction hurtful, which does not flow directly from their own communion; living among us, as they did, for so many years, like sheep having no shepherd, who would condemn the only provision being at length made for them, of which their unhappy state admitted?  Nay more; may we not hope that having been left hitherto equally ignorant and fettered, ignorant of the commonest means of knowledge, and fettered and precluded from attaining it, the instruction now given to their children will one day become the blessed means of enabling them to throw off their fetters, and make an opening for the light of Gospel truth to shine upon their souls?  But, alas! all that we see and hear forbids us to believe that the only design or effect of this measure is to enable the Romanists to provide for their own people.  There is already too much evidence to show that it has all the character of an aggression upon the faith of the members of our Church.  It is in full accordance with those measures, which within the last few months have happily awakened the Protestant spirit of our whole people, and have shown in its true colours the influence of that unscriptural and grasping Church from which they sprang.  By devices the most insidious, our people are invited to witness the imposing ritual of this new building; p. 17while depositaries are opened, even at our own doors, for the public sale of cheap tracts, that tend, with bitter irony and gross misstatements, to discredit our institutions and to recommend theirs. [17a]  What will be the actual result of all this conflict between truth and error before ten more years have passed, it may not be easy to say.  If those among us who are spared to outlive them are enabled to “hold fast the profession of their faith without wavering,” [17b] they may not only save their own souls, but lead others, who can only view Him now through the mists of their corruptions, to honour the holy name of Him by whom we are called.  But surely, with these facts before us, there is the strongest inducement for us all, not only to examine ourselves whether we are in the faith, but why, and on what grounds we are in it; [17c] while there is a motive created strong enough to induce all who have the means at their command to promote any well-advised plans for arresting the evil, or turning it, through God’s blessing, to good. [17d]

To conclude.  The inquiry which will be going on to-morrow throughout the country is addressed to us all, as the heads of our separate households; each giving a return of the names, and ages, and birthplace, and occupations of those, who will pass this very night under his own roof.  But surely the thought will occur to some among us, I would to God that it might be brought home by His Spirit to the hearts of all, that there are several other points of inquiry besides these, upon which the great Head of the Church may be expecting, and really does expect, an account to be rendered by us.  We may have no power to influence the character or to regulate the habits of those large masses of the people whose irreligion, in the crowded districts that surround us, we may deplore.  The influence which is to affect a whole nation falls within the power of very few.  But that which affects the character of any family or household, p. 18(and nations are made up of families) depends mainly on the principles, aye, and even on the tempers and way of life of those whom God places over them; for this also is an allotment of His providence.  Let us then suppose for an instant, that it was desired to obtain, as on this same day, a return of what might be called the spiritual statistics of England.  Suppose, that laying aside, or rather looking beyond the mere considerations of civil or political economy, it were wished to learn by such distinct and palpable records as might be furnished, the actual state of religion through the whole extent of our population.  I well know, indeed, that there are signs and marks of which no earthly inquiries could take cognizance; proofs of spiritual growth in some, and of declension in others; secret concessions to the corrupt nature in one class, or inward aspirations after holiness in the other; hypocrisies which no eye can detect among “the children of this world,” and spiritual conflicts in the “children of light,” which can only be known to the Supreme Searcher of their hearts.  But when all this is allowed, we might lay down some distinctions in every case, the existence or the absence of which would go far to show, whether the master of that house, and those around him, were really serving God or not.  If it were inquired throughout the land, or if, limiting the supposition to our own parish, it were asked in every house, Is family prayer maintained under this roof? [18a]  Is the Sabbath observed by the master, by the servants, by the children, as “a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable?” [18b] all work suspended which may be left undone, and every pursuit given up which is inconsistent with the real spirit of the day, as one of holy rest?  Would the general answers to these questions be such as we could really ponder over with any comfort?  Or again, if it were asked, How many Bibles in this house are diligently searched?  How p. 19many of its inmates are not only permitted, but encouraged and invited, and if need be, urged to attend upon the public worship of God?  Is there a servants’ library in this house, to which every one of them may have recourse for some edifying or self-improving reading during the leisure intervals of their service? [19a]  How many communicants are there in this family among those who have reached the proper age of full communion with the Church, and with her living Head?  How many of the children are really reared in the spirit of their baptismal vows, “virtuously brought up to lead a godly and a Christian life?” [19b]  Are not these subjects of inquiry on which there would be too great cause for self-reproach to many among us; the reproach resting upon those who had all the means afforded them for their spiritual sustenance and growth, but have carelessly neglected to improve them?

My brethren, I commend these remarks in all faithfulness and affection to your private meditations and your prayers.  And may your own consciences, enlightened by the Spirit of God, guide you to some profitable application of them!  May it be given to each of us to feel this day, that we are supplying a return of so many beings, not merely connected with us by the ties and duties of an earthly relation, or a short-lived existence here; but of those who are travelling on quickly with ourselves to an eternity of bliss or woe; precious, never-dying souls; the objects equally with us of the Saviour’s love, the Spirit’s teaching, and the Father’s care; called equally with us to be members of Christ, children of God, and heirs of the kingdom of heaven.  What “I say unto you I would say unto all, Watch! for ye know not when the Master of the house will come” to reckon with us, whether at the close, or the middle, or the opening of this new decade on which we are now entering.

p. 20But this we know, that when the Lord does come the second time from heaven, then will be the great numbering of the nations: not the mere periodical census of a single kingdom, which, with all its boasted wealth and enterprise, is but a mere speck upon the surface of our earth; but a numbering of all the myriads that have ever peopled it, from the family of the first man until there “shall be time no longer;” [20a] “the sea giving up the dead which are in it; and death and the grave delivering up the dead” [20b] which are in them; and all distinctions of age, or rank, or learning, or riches, or power, lost and sunk, in the simple but everlasting distinction between those who served God, and those who served Him not; those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life, and those not to be found there.  And then will these inquiries and such as these, which your ministers urge upon you now in “the foolishness of preaching,” [20c] but which too often reach only unwilling ears and careless hearts, then shall they be enforced by “the voice of the archangel and by the trump of God.” [20d]

Let us then “walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” [20e]  And may we be found so far faithful to Him who calls us, that out of these our earthly households, some may be continually gathering to join that “multitude which no man can number,” [20f] who, on the sea of glass and before the sapphire throne, are worshipping Him that sits upon the throne, and casting their crowns before Him, and saying, “Thou art worthy to receive glory, and honour, and power; for thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created!” [20g]

p. 21NOTES.

Note A. (P. 17.)

During the evenings of the late winter months a series of scenic representations, twice in every week, was displayed in the school-room, which is near the church; and the admission being free, they were attended by large numbers of the poorer class, Roman Catholic and Protestant.  On these occasions the priest always attended, and explained the subjects represented, which were uniformly taken from the Scripture.  And he lost no opportunity of inviting his audience to hear the same subjects enforced in the church which thus interested them in the school-room.

The following extracts from some of these tracts, which are all announced upon a large printed placard in the window of the house where they are sold, as having received

The “approbation of his Eminence Cardinal Wiseman and all the Catholic Bishops,”

will justify, it is presumed, without a comment, the epithets here applied to them, as describing their character and tendency.  They are either untrue, unfair, or ironical.

Extracts from a tract, entitled, “Protestantism weighed in its own Balance, and found wanting.  No. 1.  The Bible, and the Bible only.”

“It is worth observing that this rule of faith, as well in its short and popular form, as also when more fully drawn out and explained, is rather negative than positive.  Those who use it are more careful to say what they do not than what they do.  They insist upon ‘the Bible only’ to the exclusion of everything else, but they are not equally jealous about receiving the whole Bible, every part of it.  They say that nothing is to be required of any man that it p. 22should be believed which is not to be found in the Bible, or at least may not be proved thereby; but they do not with equal distinctness insist upon the duty of believing everything which is read in that sacred book or may be proved by it.  This is no idle assertion, but is plain matter of fact.”—P. 1.

“There are many texts even then which they do not really receive; some which are to them as an unknown tongue, without any meaning at all, and which they therefore make no use of whatever; others which seem to be opposed to their own creed, and which they therefore try to escape from and to explain away; lastly, there are others which they even boldly contradict.”—P. 2.

“If God did not intend the Bible to be man’s only guide and teacher in matters of religion, but appointed His Church for this very purpose, that she should fulfil this office, and promised her His guidance, so that she should never be deceived in proposing anything to our belief that was not true and had not been revealed by Him, then of course, not only is the Catholic Church right upon this point, but also of necessity right upon every other point also.”—P. 6.

“The Protestant professes that the only sure way of knowing God’s will is for every man to read the Holy Scriptures for himself.  I take up the Holy Scriptures, therefore, for this purpose, and I find there that our Lord appointed, and the apostles practised, quite another way of learning God’s will and the right road to heaven.  I find that our Lord sent, not a message, but messengers; not a book for men to read, but apostles for men to obey; and in like manner I find that the apostles do say not a word about the necessity of not believing anything that is not written in a certain book, but on the contrary, that they distinctly say, Believe all that you have been taught, whether written or unwritten.”—P. 9.

“It is plain that our Lord did not use the words, ‘Search the Scriptures,’ in the sense in which the Protestants use them.  He did not refer His hearers to the Scriptures in the same way that the Protestant refers you.  For if so, why did they need His further teaching?  He made the same use of the Scriptures as Catholics do in speaking to Protestants at this day.  The Catholic says to Protestants, p. 23‘Search the Scriptures,’ for these are they which testify of the Church as well as of her Head.  They expressly command you to ‘hear the Church’ (St. Matt, xviii. 17).”—P. 11.

“A Catholic priest at the present day might follow the example of St. Paul, and show that Jesus whom he preached was Christ; that the Church which he preached to them was in very deed the society to which such high and noble privileges were promised in Holy Scripture.  And every one who should give heed to his preaching in the same way as the Bereans did, would not fail to meet with the same reward.  He also would ‘believe;’ believe not only the one doctrine which had been thus proved to him from Holy Scripture, viz. that the Church was the appointed teacher of mankind, but also every other doctrine which the same teacher might propose to his belief, whether written in the Holy Bible or not.”—P. 14.

Extract from another tract, entitled, “The Church, the Guardian of Scripture, or, How does the Bible come to us?”

“People are apt to think of the Bible, as if it were a whole without parts, indivisible, self-existent, in short, a kind of divinity; or, at least, as if it had come down from heaven precisely such as we now have it, ready bound to our hands, if not with the Bible Society’s stamp upon it.”—P. 7.

Extract from another tract, entitled, “The Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, or, The use of the Beads no vain Repetition.”

“Perhaps you find something that shocks you in the fact of the ‘Hail Mary’ being repeated so much oftener than the Lord’s Prayer; and it may be that there is in this a fresh instance of that unhappy creature-worship which disfigures every part of the Catholic religion.  Now do not suppose that the reason of this is, that we consider prayers addressed to the Blessed Virgin better than prayers addressed to God.  We do certainly think her prayers for us are better, and more likely to be heard and answered than our own; because we know that she was ever perfectly free from all stain of guilt, and is now nearest to God in glory; and we feel ourselves full of the defilement of sin.”—P. 10.

p. 24“Christ has entered into His kingdom, and His saints are reigning with Him.  Which of them shall be nearest to Him in glory as once in suffering, but her through whom He joined our human nature to Deity itself?  The anguish over, the grace and virtue crowned, the glory never to pass away; surely, well may we again call the Queen of Heaven, ‘Blessed among women!’ and more than ever trusting in the power of her intercession, more than ever call on her, ‘Holy Mary, mother of God! pray for us sinners, now, and at the hour of death.’”—P. 14.

SECOND AND FOURTH OF THE FIVE SORROWFUL MYSTERIES.

“2d.  The scourging of our Blessed Lord, at the pillar by soldiers, in Pilate’s house; the number of stripes they gave him being above five thousand.

“4th.  The carrying of the Cross; in which our Lord Jesus Christ, being sentenced to die, bears with most amazing patience the cross which is laid upon Him for His greater torment and ignominy, meeting His blessed mother by the way.”

FOURTH AND FIFTH OF THE FIVE GLORIOUS MYSTERIES.

“4th.  The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin; in which after her death, twelve years after the Resurrection, she is assumed into heaven by her Divine Son accompanied by the holy angels.

“5th.  The Coronation of the Blessed Virgin; in which, amid the great jubilee and exultation of the whole court of heaven, and to the particular glory of all the saints, she is crowned by her Son with the brightest diadem of glory.”—P. 16.

Extracts from a tract, entitled, “Our Parish Churches as they were and as they are.  1. Old stones tell tales.”

“I declare, it seems to me that the very idea of worship has almost died out in England.  Do you think that if people really felt they were speaking to Almighty God, they would sit at their ease, or look over a book, and never do more?  Church of Englandism has such a comfortable look about it; it is the religion of people well to do in the world, and have too much business to transact to turn their minds thoroughly to anything else.  It is a one day a week religion.  Every thing about it is so formal, so decent, p. 25so sober, so proper and respectable.  It would look so odd to seem in earnest; to be on your knees in prayer before so many well-dressed people, as though you had a soul to be saved.  Church of Englandism is such a human thing; it smacks so much of the world and of ‘good society.’  It makes a poor man feel awkward, just as he does when he finds himself in a gentleman’s drawing-room.”—P. 10.

“The Church of England would never have built such churches, though it is very proud of them now it has got them, and lately has taken to making a few others in imitation of the old ones.  People never seem to think of this.  They are always bragging about their fine old parish churches, and their venerable cathedrals, and all the while they were built by the Papists, as they call them; and if it had not been for the Papists they would never have had them to brag of.  The sparrow stole into the martin’s nest, and said, See what a nice warm house I have got.  He couldn’t say he had made it, but he was quite as cocky as if he had.”—P. 11.

“‘And what is this?’ said I again; and I pointed at a curious sort of niche with a hole at the bottom of it.  ‘That,’ said he, ‘is a piscina; it was for pouring the water away after the priest had washed his hands.’  ‘Why should he wash his hands,’ said I, ‘more than our ministers?’  ‘Because,’ said Peter, ‘he had to touch the body of the Lord, and to lift Him up, as when He was raised on the cross.  And your ministers have no need to wash theirs, because they have not got the body of our Lord there at all.’”—p. 14.

“‘What was the use of saying mass for him,’ said I, ‘when he was dead and buried?’  Peter smiled, and answered, ‘It is said in the Scriptures, that it is a good and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, and it certainly must be so.’”—P. 15.

Extracts from a tract, entitled, “The Church of our Fathers.”

“St. Peter, the prince of the apostles, to whom our Lord himself gave the name of Peter, which signifies a rock, and told him at the same time that on that rock He would build His Church, and that the gates of hell should not prevail against it,—this same Peter went to Rome and p. 26became its Bishop; and from that time the Church of Rome, as being the See of St. Peter, has ever been looked upon by the faithful as the mother and mistress of all churches, and each of his successors in turn as the visible head of the Church on earth.”—P. 5.

“It is generally believed that Caractacus settled in Rome with his family; that his daughter was called Claudia, and that she married a noble Roman called Pudens, who, together with herself, afterwards became Christian; that they had a daughter who was afterwards celebrated as a saint under the name of St. Pudentiana; and that this Pudens and Claudia, whom St. Paul mentions in his Epistle to Timothy (2 Tim. iv. 21), were no other than these.  It is said also that this noble British household gave shelter and hospitality to St. Peter, while he lived as Bishop in Rome; a retired room in the house being set apart as his chapel.  A church was afterwards built on the site of this house, which having been since twice rebuilt, is still known by the name of St. Pudentiana; and it is this church which, from its connexion with the history of our country, has been assigned to Cardinal Wiseman as the church from which he takes his title.”—P. 7.

“Several miracles attended the death of this our first martyr (Alban).  When on his way to death, he came to a river which divided the town from the hill where he was to suffer; the people thronged the bridge over it in such multitudes that he feared he should not be able to pass all that day, and longing for his crown, raised his eyes to heaven and prayed.  And God straightway divided the waters as for His people of old, so that he walked through dryshod.”—P. 9.

“The next thing that we hear of the Church in Britain is, that two bishops from Gaul, Germanus and Lupus, were sent over here to preach to the people, many of whom had been perverted by false teachers; but all gladly listened to the preaching of these holy bishops, and returned to the way of truth.  They were the more easily persuaded, because the preaching of these men was also accompanied by the working of miracles.  After a public conference, in which the heretics had been completely put to silence by the eloquence of the bishops, an officer in the Roman army stepped forward with his little daughter who was blind, p. 27and begged that they would bestow such relief upon her as they were able.  The bishops desired him to try first the powers of those false teachers who had been just now disputing against them.  But these declined the trial, and united with the officer in begging her cure at the hands of Germanus and Lupus.  Upon this Germanus offered up a short prayer, and invoking the Holy Trinity, pulled from his bosom a little box of relics which he always carried about him.  This he applied to the girl’s eyes, and her sight was immediately restored.”—Pp. 9, 10.

Extracts from a tract, entitled, “How Antichrist keeps Christmas; or, A Peep at Christmas in a Catholic country.”

“It is true, indeed, that Christmas is a festival of such universal gladness, as to thaw for a moment even the icy heart of Protestantism; sending a ray of joyousness down into the cold depths of the population of this country, where all is so smooth and smiling on the surface, all so chill and joyless underneath.  At Christmas I really believe a thrill of gladness darts through the heart of the great majority of the people.  Churches and chapels are made gay with shining leaves and scarlet berries; carols are sung in the streets; the words, ‘A merry Christmas to you!’ pass from mouth to mouth; and beef and pudding, the outward form which joy is wont to put on in this cold, hungry climate, smoke on many a board to which, alas! for every other day in the year they are utter strangers.  Nay, it is to be hoped that even in union workhouses there is an intermission of gruel for Christmas day.”—Pp. 4, 5.

“Abundant food is a necessity of our climate, and a condition of our physical well-being to a degree that the people of the South cannot understand.  We are told of our Saxon forefathers, whom I have before mentioned, that their frames, though so tall and well-formed, were neither so patient of labour nor of hunger as might be expected from their apparent strength.  Alas! for the necessity which grinds down our poor to the endurance of both to such a hurtful degree.  But to return to Christmas.  The difference between Catholic and Protestant Christmas is this, that both love Christmas, but Catholics love it far more distinctly and consciously for Christ’s sake.  The very p. 28name of the festival is theirs, Christ’s Mass; to Protestants one part of the word has confessedly lost its meaning, and the other is a dim vision.  Look at the professedly religious part of the observance of this feast, and see what it amounts to.  In the churches of the English establishment, except the holly boughs, what is there to tell of the Lord’s birth?  Of course the lesson from Scripture recounting that event is read; so also are certain Psalms which prophetically relate to it; and a sermon on the Nativity is (sometimes) preached.  But otherwise the ordinary routine of the service goes on the same as usual.  ‘Dearly beloved brethren,’ holds on the even tenour of its way, with dulness scarcely mitigated; and there is really nothing either peculiarly to draw out the devotion of those assisting at it towards their infant Lord, nor, which is more to our present purpose, any special outpouring of such devotion on the part of the Church herself.”—P. 6.

Note B. (P. 17.)

It is hoped that the following brief summary of the leading doctrines held by the two Churches of England and Rome, with the authorities on which they respectively rest, may prove useful to some of the readers of these pages, whether as promoting their inquiry, or confirming their faith.

Doctrines maintained by the Members of the Church of England and of the Church of Rome, with the authorities claimed by each in their support.

p. 31Note C. (P. 17.)

It is confidently believed by those persons who are most familiarly acquainted with the state of the property adjacent to the new Romish Church, that within a very few years nearly the whole of it will be covered with new buildings.  And it is so far removed from the churches and National schools at Fulham and Walham Green, where the population has also increased of late very considerably, that it is easy to foresee the necessity which will arise for some new provision for the spiritual instruction of such a district, growing up nearly in the centre of the parish of Fulham.  In such cases, all experience teaches that it is far wiser to anticipate the measures that may be required for meeting the exigency, than to adopt them after it has occurred.  And the Vicar, therefore, deems the present a suitable opportunity for making it known, that the promise has been secured of a most eligible piece of land, near the locality here described, and containing rather more than the third of an acre, which would be well calculated, either now or hereafter, for the erection of school-rooms, or a church adapted to the wants of this growing population.  The owner of the land, knowing the important object for which it has been wished to obtain it, has liberally consented to accept a price considerably below that which its marketable value would command, and the Bishop of London has kindly given his sanction to the measure.  To those persons whose interest in the spiritual edification of their poorer neighbours may induce them to promote it, the Vicar will be thankful to afford any information that may be wished, in reference to this object, and to receive from them any amount of pecuniary assistance that will be needed to meet the expense, which of course must be considerable.

Note D. (P. 18.)

To those members of the congregation at All Saints, who have not yet introduced into their families the practice of domestic prayer, and who may possibly feel the want of some suggestions as to the books best adapted for conducting it, the Vicar would desire to recommend one or p. 32other of the following publications, according as they may find them most eligible for their own use.  The different prices named would bring the books within the means of every class of his people; and he ventures to urge the adoption of the practice equally upon all.

Note E. (P. 19.)

At a time when books of the most valuable and interesting character are published at prices far below any former precedent, it seems to be little less than the duty of every master of a Christian household to furnish to his servants a collection, however limited, of such works as would be at once most useful and acceptable to them, which a few shillings annually would serve to keep up or to extend.  The Vicar would wish to recommend The Churchman’s Monthly Magazine as one publication, which might, in any case, be added with advantage to such a library.  It has now extended to five small volumes, and is continued periodically.

The following Table shows the result of the former decennial inquiries into the population of the parish of Fulham:

R. CLAY, PRINTER, BREAD STREET HILL.

FOOTNOTES.

[3]  1 Sam. xvii. 34, 35.

[4a]  1 Sam. xvii. 50.

[4b]  1 Cor. i. 28, 29.

[4c]  2 Sam. xxiv. 3, 4.

[7a]  Gal. vi. 2.

[7b]  Eph. iv. 25.

[7c]  1 Pet. iii. 7.

[8a]  Psalm xc. 10.

[8b]  Acts xvii. 28.

[8c]  Col. i. 27.

[9a]  James i. 21.

[9b]  Matt. iii. 7.

[9c]  John v. 40.

[9d]  John vi. 37.

[9e]  Gen. vi. 3.

[9f]  Heb. iv. 9.

[10a]  Psalm xxxix. 12.

[10b]  Heb. xi. 16.

[10c]  1 Pet. iv. 18.

[10d]  Prov. xiv. 9.

[10e]  Philip, iii. 19.

[10f]  Heb. vi. 6.

[11a]  Acts v. 15.

[11b]  Gen. iii. 19.

[12a]  2 Pet. i. 10.

[12b]  1 Cor. vii. 29–31.

[13]  2 Sam. xxiv. 14.

[14a]  Isaiah xxiii. 8.

[14b]  Deut. iv. 6.

[17a]  See Note A.

[17b]  Heb. x. 23.

[17c]  See Note B.

[17d]  See Note C.

[18a]  See Note D.

[18b]  Isa. lviii. 13.

[19a]  See Note E.

[19b]  Address to the Sponsors at the close of the Office of Baptism.

[20a]  Rev. x. 6.

[20b]  Rev. xx. 13.  (See the marginal reading.)

[20c]  1 Cor. i. 21.

[20d]  1 Thess. iv. 16.

[20e]  Eph. v. 15, 16.

[20f]  Rev. vii. 9.

[20g]  Rev. iv. 11.

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