.^ 
 
 % 
 
 V 

 
 L I E> RARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 U N 1 VER.S1TY 
 
 or ILLl NOIS
 
 THE 
 
 BISHOP OF PETERBOROUGH 
 
 AT KETTERING, 
 
 MAY 20-22, 1882. 
 
 I. 
 
 Jl 6 6 r c 5 5 f @ I) u r c I) ^ovket^ 
 
 AT S. ANDREW'S CHURCH, ON SATURDAY EVENING, MAY 20. 
 
 II. 
 
 §cxxnon ipx'cacl)cb in fl)c ^arisl) #f)iu'd) 
 
 ON THE EVENING OF SUNDAY, MAY 21. 
 III. 
 
 Jl65rc55 to f()c @onfirmaflon @an5t6afc5 
 
 ON MONDAY, MAY 22. 
 
 The first and second of the above are reprinted substantially from the 
 local Papers. The third was taken down verbatim by a Parishioner. 
 
 )T/i/V'. 
 
 Goss Bros., Printers, Gas Street and Market Street. 
 18 8 2.
 
 SUBSTANCE OF AX 
 
 ADDRESS TO CHURCH WORKERS 
 
 BY THE 
 
 ^ovb ^^t5l)op of ^^cfcrboroitgl) 
 
 S. ANDREW'S CHURCH, KETTERING, ON SATURDAY EVENING, 
 MAY 20th, 1882. 
 
 '^ DDE-ESSINGr his lieai-ers as " My brethren aud my sisters in 
 fX Christ Jesus, my fellow workers together with God," the right 
 O reverend prehite thanked them for the help and encouragement 
 they were giving him in his work in this diocese by thus coming 
 together at his request, and so his heart was greatly strengthened by 
 seeing such a gathering, because he recognised in it the fact that 
 amongst the laity of that important place there were a large number 
 who were giving themselves in one way or another to worlt for the 
 Church of which they were members, and to work, he hoped, for the 
 love of the Saviour Who had redeemed them. If he could say any- 
 thing that would encourage and strengthen their hearts — that would 
 guide or help them in their work for Christ — he felt, and was sure 
 they felt, it would be the best requital he could make them for their 
 labours, and it was what, with Grod's help, he desired to do. First, 
 he would speak of their position. They were " Church-workers " 
 in that parish ; and the first word that suggested itself in that 
 ])hrase was not that which came first, but that which came last. 
 They were loorkers. They were those who had chosen for themselves, 
 or to whom had been given and appointed, some work to do for God. 
 No matter how important or comparatively unimportant the work 
 any one of them had to do, he could not do it at all, he could not do 
 it in the right spirit, unless he were, first of all, possessed of the 
 idea that he was doing it for God and for His sake. Those who had 
 learned that thought had got the one great principle of Christian life 
 deep in their hearts. There was a very fatal and sad mistake which 
 many persons had always made and were making about religion — 
 they thought that religion, and Christ's religion especially — was 
 simply a help and contrivance for saving their own souls and getting 
 them into heaven. Unless a man learned to make a sacrifice of him- 
 self, and to strive and labour for the souls of others, for the Maker's 
 honour and the Saviour's glory, he had learned very little of grace, 
 and had very little of Christ's faith in him. That mistake took 
 various forms in various ages of the Church. In the earlier ages,
 
 men were bent upon saving their own souls from the sin and wicked- 
 ness of the world ; and what did they do ? They ran away from the 
 world. They went out into solitary desert places, and lived in cells 
 and hermitages in meditation and prayer. And what was the con- 
 sequence? Two things. The world got wickeder because of the ab- 
 sence of those men who ought to have been in it working for God ; 
 and their own religion grew poor, stunted, distorted, because they 
 were not doing the work God had given to do. God had placed 
 Christians in this world, for which Christ died, not merely to live 
 for Him and apart from the world, but to live for Him in 
 the world and for the world, striving to help the world for Christ's 
 sake. Every member of Christ's Church, if he had the spirit of his 
 Master, should be a worker. " My Father worketh hitherto, and I 
 work" ; and work for souls for Christ's sake was the very central, 
 living principle of Christ's Church in this world. In proportion as 
 they were workers would their own life be growing. " There is that 
 scattereth and yet increaseth." There was a casting away of life 
 that yet helped and saved life, and that was true of every Christian 
 worker. The man Avho separated himself from the world and strove 
 to save his own soul might go very near losing it ; but the man who 
 went out bravely for Christ into the world, battled in Christ's name 
 with the sin and sorrow that were in the world, and strove to make 
 the world in his day happier and holier, was not only doing good 
 work for God in the world but doing good work for God in his own 
 soul, and he would come to know that of God and God's work and 
 spiritual life that he never could have known if he had not given him- 
 self to the work. In the next place, the Bishop observed that he who 
 worked for God must also, if he would do that work thoroughly, re- 
 member that he was working with God. It was a remarkable expres- 
 sion of the Apostle's that he and others were "workers together with 
 God." As if God really needed their work ; as if it were not in His 
 power to do without them. And yet it was in His gracious good will 
 to work with them. If they were working with God, was it not quite 
 clear that they must work in God's way, and according to God's law ? 
 He was not a God of disorder, but of order and law ; and whatever 
 they did, if they were engaged in it with God, they must do it in accord- 
 ance with the law God had laid down for that work. That was true 
 of work that was work with God, although it was not strictly religious 
 work. The farmer who sowed his seed in the ground, and the gar- 
 dener who tended his plants, might be said to be working with God ; 
 and the first thing they found out was that there were certain laws and 
 rules in the natural world, and that if they neglected them their work 
 would not succeed. To be a worker for God implied that a man 
 found out and followed the laws of his work as God had laid them 
 down. He further illustrated this point by reference to the work of 
 the artizan. His Lordship asked what were the rules and order of 
 work for God in His Church P Christ did not come into the world 
 merely to preach the Gospel: though they thanked God He did preach 
 the everlasting Gospel ; He also came to gather together into one body 
 or society all who heard and believed His Gospel, and that society was
 
 ill the Scriptures i-epeatedly called a body. Every member of the 
 body, from the greatest to the smallest, had its appointed work to do, 
 and" if each member did not do its work, or if one tried to do the work 
 of another, the body grew unhealthy, and the work w^as either not 
 done at all or ill done. Now, the great misfortune in the whole his- 
 tory of that Body of Christ had been that some member of the body 
 had not been doing its work at all, or it had been trying to do the 
 work of another member. It had either been slothf ulness — doing no 
 work at all — or ignorance and presumption — trying to do the wrong 
 work — that had caused the troubles of Christ's Church. He need 
 not tell them that there was a work for the laity to do. They 
 thanked God that increasingly in the Church of Christ men were 
 coming to recognise the fact that the work of the Lord Jesus Christ 
 was not to be done by the clergy alone. Never from the very begin- 
 ning did Christ give "all His work to the Clergy. He ordained His 
 Apostles, and gave them power to ordain others, giving them special 
 functions in the Church ; and it was not the right or duty of the 
 laity to take their functions aw\ay from the ordained ministers or in- 
 trude upon them. That was quite true ; but, on the other hand, it 
 was just as certain that Christ from the very first sent out disciples 
 as well as apostles, giving them also a special work to do, and that in 
 the early Church the laity were largely busied in their appointed work. 
 There had been two sad mistakes all along the history of the Church. 
 One was that of the laity thinking that Christ's work in a jiarish was 
 to be done by the clergy alone, and that the laity had nothing to do 
 but to go to church, and perhaps subscribe something to the collection. 
 That was the old notion of the laity in years that were happily passed 
 by, he trusted never to come back. The laity were beginning to 
 understand that they had their work to do ; and, what was more, that 
 it was commissioned and appointed work, and that it was just as true 
 that the laity had a mission and commission as that the clergy had a 
 mission and commission from Christ. Another mistake was that 
 sometimes when the laity woke up to the thought they had their work, 
 they mistook what that work was, and tried to do the clergyman's 
 work. It was an evil thing for a parish when the clergyman left his 
 work to be done by the laity, or when the laity left their work to be 
 done by the clergy. It was a happy thing for a parish when laity 
 and clergy knew what their work was, and each set to work to do it. 
 As they read the Scriptures, and were taught by the Church, it seemed 
 that the work of the clergy was set forth specially in the solemn 
 charge to the priest, " Be thou a faithful dispenser of the Word of 
 Grod and of His Holy Sacraments." Dispensing the Sacraments of 
 God, dispensing the Word of God or teaching the people from the 
 pulpit of the parish church as the authorised shepherd and pastor of 
 the flock, and the dealing with troubled souls that came to the godly 
 pastor for advice and counsel — those seemed to be the special 
 work of the clergy. Everything that was not shut up and in- 
 cluded in them was work for the layman, and it was a very large 
 field of work for the layman that Christ had given to the laity. 
 There was work that was work for the clergyman alone, and
 
 ■work that was Tvork for the layman alono. Let no one be de- 
 ceived by that most shallow of all cants by which the clergyman 
 who claimed the rights of a clergyman was said to be a sacerdotalist, 
 lording it over Christ's heritage. If a clergyman tried to do all the 
 work of the Church himself, he was trespassing on the work of the 
 layman. The clergy and laity honoured themselves and each other 
 when each recognised that they had wcn'k which was properly their 
 own and not the other's. As he had said, there was a wide field for 
 the laity. In the first ])lace there was what he might call the great 
 work of evangelising, which had always been theirs from the first dis- 
 ciples who Avere drawn to Christ. The first thing the disciple did was 
 to go and find his brother and bring him to Christ. That was the 
 proper work of the laity. Recognising first the fact that every man 
 was their brother and every woman their sister, every worker for 
 Christ should be seeking for the brother and sister in the daily inter- 
 course of life and trying to win them for the Saviour. It was impos- 
 sible for the most diligent clergyman, with twelve thousand souls to 
 look after, to bring himself into personal contact with the soul and 
 heart of every parishioner. That was the work of the laymen, who 
 encountered one another daily in a thousand Avays, in the streets and 
 lanes, and in business. What a power for good would the laity be if 
 every man who called himself a Christian and every woman who 
 called herself a Christian determined never to rest till they found 
 someone who did not profess to be a Christian, and he were brought 
 to Christ ! " The lay district visitor, who was seeking out the igno- 
 rant and suffering, and telling the clergyman of them, thus enabling 
 him to go at once where he was most needed, was doing a great work 
 of evangelisation. God speed such a one in his Avork ; it was some- 
 times weary, always anxious, now and then cheered by being success- 
 ful, but it was distinctly, markedly, and blessedly AVork for God. 
 Then there was the educational Avork of the Church ; and he knew 
 how many before him were engaged in the blessed duty of bringing 
 the little ones to Him who said " Suffer the children to come un- 
 to Me, .and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven." 
 To those who were giving to such a Avork the Sunday they might 
 otherwise spend, if not in sinful pleasures, in natural rest after the 
 weariness of the week, he said he trusted they were taking care in the 
 Sunday School to make a distinction between the mere lesson the 
 children learned in the week with its trouble and drudgery, and the 
 Sunday lesson with its encouragement, help, and hope — that thej' 
 were, by the grace and love of Christ in their hearts, striving to make 
 the face of Christ, as it Avere, pleasing and attractive to the little ones. 
 The clergyman ought, of course, to train the young, but he could not 
 possibly teach them all. The teachers must be his hands to bring the 
 little ojies around him, and take them with him and themseh'es to 
 Jesus. The Sunday-school teacher should be the echo that multiplied 
 the voice of the clergyman, making it heard through and through the 
 parish. He trusted that the teachers of that toAvu were diligent in 
 their studies for the work, not going to school with a half-digested ill- 
 arranged lesson, but having studied it carefully to make it attractiA'e,
 
 novel, lielpful, and instructive to tlie children, so that they should re- 
 joice to come to the teachers, knowing that the teachers rejoiced to 
 come to them, and to lead them to Christ. His Lordship spoke in 
 eloquent terms of the honourable position of the choir in the service 
 of the Church, and of the important duties of churchwardens and 
 sidesmen and lay representatives who took part in the Ciiurch's 
 ccnnicils, expressing the hope that they were all fulfilling their tasks 
 with the feeling that they were working for Grod, and that He would 
 bless and jn'osper them. He then observed that they would not need 
 to be reminded that they were working in and out of love to their 
 own Church of England. He was not there, nor would they wish him 
 to be there, to say one word of disparagement, contempt, or contro- 
 versy as regarded the work of others who were not members of that 
 Church. These would stand or fall by their own work ; and God 
 forbid that he should deny that there wei'e honest, faithful, and 
 earnest workers for Christ, who did not see with Churchmen, or work 
 in their way. What he wished to say was that those present being 
 workers in the Church of England, it was to be supposed that they 
 were so, knowing that they were members of the Church of England 
 and why they were members. If there were really, as some people 
 said, no difference between the work of the Church and any other 
 work, why were they members of the Church, and why were others 
 not members ? Surely it meant at least that they believed that in 
 their way they were best doing God's work. "You," said the Bishop, 
 " cannot work in their way altogether, nor they in your way al- 
 together, becnuse if you worked in their way altogether you would be 
 Dissenters, and if they were working in your way altogether, tliev 
 would be Churchmen; and until it please God in His goodness, if it 
 might be so, to remove whatever draws apart Churchmen and Dissen- 
 ters, and so clear the eyes and purify the hearts of men that ail may 
 come together in outward, visible unity — but that is not likelv to 
 come to pass in our day — all we can do is intelligently to under- 
 stand, and faithfully carry out the way we think best, and judge 
 as kiiidly and charitably as we can of those who do not think our way 
 is the best. At any rate you believe, and if you did not you would 
 not be Churchmen and Churchwomen, that your way is the better one. 
 Cling to it, understand it, follow it out. Do the Church's work upon 
 the Church's lines, and in the Church's way, and then it will be suc- 
 cessful work. The Churchman who tries to do Church work upon 
 Dissenting lines will make just the same mistake that a Dissenter 
 would make who tried to do Dissenting work upon Church lines. 
 The systems are different, the principles are different, the ways of 
 working are different. I am not asking now which are the best, 
 but they are different; and unless you can do the Church's work 
 in the Church's way, it will not be well done by you. Therefore, 
 what I press earnestly upon each one of you is that while you 
 exercise the very largest and tenderest charity as regards those 
 who differ from you, while you love a man not a whit the less 
 because he does not worship with you, on the other hand you love 
 and praise and value the means of grace, helps, and opportunities
 
 you have in your own Church, love her for her very work's sake, for 
 her honoured histor}', her gkn"ious traditions, the work she is doing 
 and the work she gives you the opportunity of doing for her and for 
 the Lord and Master's sake, and work intelligently and loyally as 
 attached and hearty Churclimen and Churehwomen, being proud, as 
 far as we may be proud of anything we do for Christ, of your title as 
 Churehworkers, and see that that title suffers no tarnish and no dis- 
 grace as it is borne by you." AVith a further exhortation to patient, 
 earnest, hopeful labour the right rev. prelate closed his discourse, 
 which had been listened to throughout with the deepest attention. 
 
 SUBSTANCE OF 
 
 A SEKMON 
 
 THE LORD BISHOP OF FETEBBOBOUGH, 
 
 PREACHED IN THE PARISH CHURCH, KETTERING, 
 ON SUNDAY EVENING, MAY 21st, 18S2. 
 
 "^^IS Lordship based a powerful and eloquent discourse on Psalm 
 ii civ., 20 to 23. After dwelling on the beauty of the rising sun, 
 CJ and the frequency with which, in the Scriptures, it was used as 
 a symbol of the rising of the Sun of Righteousness " with healing in 
 His wings," the preacher said that there was another thought that did 
 not so naturally arise, viz., that the likeness between those things was 
 not accidental, but had been designed from the first. When they 
 read in the Bible of Christ or of some revelation of God compared 
 with the glory of the sun in its rising, and those pictures of light as 
 representing knowledge, and darkness as ignorance, they must not 
 merely think of the poetry and beauty of thought they displayed, but 
 carry their mind back to the day of creation, when He who gave us 
 the Bible made the world, and remember that the Bible and the world 
 had one and the same Author, and that the purposes of the Bible and 
 what the Bible was to do must have been present to the mind of Him 
 who was setting the sun in the heavens, and the moon and the stars,
 
 tlie work of His hands — tliat He must have designed and purposed 
 from the very first that the miracle of the creation should speak out 
 to men in parables of the Divine truth. He trusted they believed 
 that the natural world was Grod's illustrated edition of the Bible, and 
 that they might read in the wonders of creation the greater wonders 
 of revelation, just as they might read on the painted window of the 
 church the story of some marvellous and glorious fact in Christian 
 history. They would probably be told that all this was strangely 
 unphilosophic; that modern science knew a great deal better; that the 
 sun and moon were great bodies in the firmament, the sun so many 
 hundreds of times larger than the earth, and the stars worlds within 
 AV(U'lds and beyond worlds ; and that it was the merest vanity and 
 folly to think that the wonders of creation had any author, maker, or 
 designer; or, if they had, that He could have ever intended that they 
 should have had so poor and mean a purpose as to tell anything to 
 some poor human creature who just crawled his little day on the 
 earth and then sank into it and became earth again. Yes, it was very 
 unphilosophic, but it was irue, and they could easily believe it when 
 once they grasped the fact that man had an immortal soul. "Tell me," 
 exclaimed the Bishop, "that it is a strange and incredible thing that 
 the sun should be created to give man light ! Why, if it were a 
 a necessary thing to be done, I should have no difficulty in believing 
 that God should stay the sun in its going down to-night, or create a 
 new sun, to give some poor old man or woman in a back street of 
 Kettering half-an-hour's more light to read a page of the Bible that 
 told him he had a soul to be saved and a Saviour that came to save it. 
 There is not a point of comparison between the greatness of an immor- 
 tal soul that Christ died for and millions of worlds." Taking the 
 rising sun as representing the dawn of truth in Jesus Christ, the 
 preacher spoke of the darkness as being the pagan empire in which 
 the light appeared. He gave a vivid description of the corrupt state 
 of the Roman people, observing that at the time Christ came on earth 
 they had almost ceased to believe in their foul and hideous gods, and 
 were falling into the deeper and more horrible darkness of Atheism. 
 The combats of gladiators in the amphitheatre were their great holi- 
 day amusement. Only the other day a shudder went through the 
 whole of England at the news of the foul butchery of two men, but 
 it was a holiday for the populace of Rome to see the butchery of thou- 
 sands. Yes, evil things were preying upon society in those days. 
 The wild beasts of night were let loose upon human homes and human 
 lives, and the few who still cared for human righteousness and for the 
 bonds and protections of human society were gathering themselves to- 
 gether in feai- and terror of the darkness and of the evil things that 
 were prowling about in the darkness — just as we read of travellei'S 
 gathering themselves together round their camp fire in some wilder- 
 ness, watching the waning light of the fire, and trembling as they 
 heard the rushing sound and wild voices of the beasts of the wildei'- 
 ness coming round the camp, and waiting for the extinction of the last 
 ray of light to rush in and take their prey. But just at the darkest 
 hour dawned the day. Far away, ovei' the hills of Palestine, in that
 
 10 
 
 anlieeded and despised corner of tlie eartli, tliere rose the da^m of the 
 Sun of Righteousness ; and in the home of the carpenter a poor man 
 was kno"\^Ti, who was speaking to poor men of the Gospel which re- 
 vealed the infinite preciousness of human life and the value of souls in 
 the eyes of God. As men watched the story of that life, and saw one 
 and then another deed of wonder from His liand, just as men might 
 watch at daybreak first one streak and then another of dawning light 
 appear, it went on and on until the morning of the resurrection and 
 the day of the ascension, and then the sun was up in the heavens, and 
 the light was shining that had never been qtienched since then. What 
 was that light ? The light of a new morality ? The world had had 
 more morality than it could know what to do with ; it was not in the 
 mood for learning new codes of morals. More and better than that, 
 it was the return to life and light in the person of the living man — 
 the Son of God, who revealed the power of God unto salvation. As 
 the Sun of Righteousness lit up the dark places of the earth those 
 who had been bowed down by the misery of darkness in which they 
 were bound as captives looked up and beheld the dawn and felt them- 
 selves to be free men. The foul beasts of night that had been prey- 
 ing upon humanity began to slink away to their dens. ]Men began to 
 be ashamed of lust and to abhor murder. The home became pure, the 
 sacred family ties were knit again, and the light of love was kindled 
 again at the hearth where it had been quenched . Men went forth 
 again to their labours, to do gTeat works for God and for men, and the 
 life of men was purified, strengthened, and. sweetened. Society g-rew 
 strong, and its foundations were laid deep and sure ag'ain on the only 
 foundation for human society — in the belief that God was the Maker 
 of man and the Ruler of the world He had made, and God could make 
 man str(mg and brave to do his duty and live a pure and honest life in 
 the world. In ilhistration of the effect of the new light of the Gospel 
 the right reverend pi-elate drew a powerful picture of the scene in the 
 gladiatoi'ial arena when a Clunstian monk interfered to protest against 
 the inhuman pastime and was torn to pieces for his boldness, but not 
 until he had done his work, for the Emperor was so shamed that he 
 did not allow the fights to occur again. He went on to say that in 
 spite of many an eiTor and dark mistake on the part of preachers of 
 Christianity, the light had conquered and was conquering. Society 
 rested upon religion. There never yet had been in the history of man- 
 kind a state that cast off religion, and that long endured its rejection. 
 So surely as the darkness of Atheism overshadowed any state or 
 people, the evil things of night came forth and took their prey of 
 human society, and lust, and cruelty, and hideous and unnatural -v-ice, 
 would be the result of the hiding fi-om men of the light, in which men 
 gTCAv ashamed of sin, and learned to hate the hideousness of vice. Let 
 no man deceive them with vain words. Atheism brought in its train 
 immorality, wickedness, and destruction of social life, and impurity 
 and vileness into the home, as surely as darkness in the wilderness 
 brought forth the prowling beasts of night. Men might say what 
 they pleased about the pui-ity of life of this or that Atheist — of this 
 or that leading denier of the truths that made the light of life — of
 
 11 
 
 this or tliat man wlio now walked in the light of the very Christianity 
 which he was seeking- to quench, and which was still reflected back 
 upon the faces of its assailants — but let the belief once be widespread 
 that man was to die a beast's death, and they naight be sure the result 
 would be that man would live a beast's life. Yes, the evil things 
 growing rife in the shadow of that darkness, the dai-kness that over- 
 shadowed the cities of the plain, would come into Christian Eng- 
 land if the light, which was the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, 
 were ever quenched in their midst. Again, he said, let no man deceive 
 them with vain and noisy words about the glorious era of scientific 
 morality and atheistic righteousness which was to dawn upon the world 
 v/hen men should have silenced for ever the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 
 When men ceased to have the motives that Christ's religion gave them 
 for purity, self-denial, patience, reverence for human life, respect for 
 every human being because he was one for whom Christ died, and who 
 might live with God for ever — when these things vanished from among 
 men the very foundations of the great deep would be broken uj), and 
 the foul flood of all iniquity and bestiality would overflow the land. 
 It was so a hundred yeai'S ago in a country which for a very short time 
 proclaimed its disbelief in God. That country announced as its creed 
 that there was no God, and that death was an eternal sleep ; and upon 
 the altar of the high church of their city, before which Christian men 
 for ages had knelt to worship God, they placed a nude harlot, as the 
 Goddess of Reason, and told men she was to typify the religion of the 
 future. While lust was thus enthroned upon the altars of Christianity, 
 the guillotine was doing its cruel, its savage work, sweeping off the 
 heads of innocent victims in numbers so great that the very machine 
 became glutted and blunted with the slaughter, and the rivers of France 
 were rolling to the sea with the dead victims, slain in honour of the 
 new creed that there was no God and no hereafter. Above all, he spoke 
 to those, if there were any present, of the humbler classes, as they were 
 called. He spoke to the working men, to those citizens of our masses, 
 as it was the fashion now to call them, who lived by their daily wage, 
 and who, because they had so little in this world comparatively, might 
 be more reluctant than they were sometimes to give up the hope of the 
 wealth and glory that was for them hereafter. Let no man persuade 
 them that the denial of religion and the breaking up of the bonds of 
 society would only hurt the rich and great, and would not touch the 
 poor. Never was there falser teaching than that. They could not 
 injure or hurt society, they could not shake its foundations withoiit 
 shaking rudely and into the very dust the home of the poor man. The 
 rich man might escape for a time, taking to himself wings, even as 
 Avealth was said to do ; but the poor man who was bound to the soil 
 and had no means of escape from the miseries of the society of which he 
 must necessarily be a part, to whom the joy and purity of his home was 
 his greatest treasure, as dear and justly dear to him as that of the home 
 of the great nobleman to its owner, would find that in the day when 
 the evil things of night, the beasts that preyed upon humanity in the 
 darkness, were let loose they would obtain access to the unguarded 
 home of the poor man more swiftly and surely than into the guarded
 
 12 
 
 homes of the i-ich. Tliey could not press do-wn tipon tlie surface of 
 society without pressing every part of it, down to the very base. The 
 poor man's home, and the happiness, peace, and purity of the poor 
 man's life, were bound up in the knowledge of, and continued belief 
 in, the faith of Him who came to preach the gospel to the poor — of 
 Him whose first blessing was a blessing on the poor. Let high and 
 low, rich and poor, hold fast to the faith that he trusted had been theirs 
 from childhood, in that God Who had made the Avorld, and the Saviour 
 Who had redeemed it. Let them walk in the light as children of the light ; 
 thank God that the light still shone over them in Christian England ; 
 thank God that from the pages of their Bibles, from within their 
 churches and chapels, and from the face of the Saviour, still was to be 
 seen shining the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Let them hold 
 it fast ; cling to it as for their life ; make it part of their lives, not 
 only because it secured to them the world to come, but this world too ; 
 and as they went about their labour from morning to evening, know 
 that they were delivered, by the shining of the Sun of Righteousness, 
 from the darkness and the foul things of darkness that in the end 
 would bring their labour to naught, and their life to shame and deso- 
 lation. That light was shining still, thank God, though now and then 
 there were prophets of the night who said that it was about to set, and 
 that darkness would come on. It would not set as long as people held 
 by their religion. It was not men who made learned defences of 
 Christianity from the pulpit or in books, though, thank God, they had 
 both — it was not mainly those that would preserve the light of Christi- 
 anity in England. He would tell them what it was, and nothing else 
 would suffice. It was the pure and holy lives of Christian men and 
 women. It was as they saw the purity and beauty of the Christian 
 life in the Christian home — as they saw the prayers of the family 
 manifesting themselves in the pure lives and honest deeds of Christian 
 men, and modest and pure Christian women — that the evil creatures 
 of darkness would grow ashamed. There were few so abandoned that 
 they did not grow ashamed in the presence of the man who was man 
 enough to stand up for his Saviour and his Master, or in the presence 
 of the woman who was pure and modest enough to hate the faintest 
 shadow of evil. It would be as Christians made that light shine in 
 their homes and on their hearths — ^and, above all things, first in their 
 own hearts, and then out into their own lives — that the light of the 
 Sun of Righteousness woiild still shine in the heavens, and that the 
 evil things of darkness that assailed their life would get them away 
 into their dens, and that men could still walk forth and sun themselves 
 in the light of God ; and lifting up pure, thankful faces to God, praise 
 Him that dai-kness had not yet been allowed to shroud in its evil em- 
 brace the nation in which they lived, and that they could still see in 
 the heavens the light of the sun, the glory of God, their Maker and 
 Saviour, revealed in the face of Jesus Christ.
 
 AN 
 
 Itiki^ss t0 |nnf|ipatinn |aiiMht|s 
 
 By the lord BISHOP OF PETERBOROUGH, 
 
 AT THE PARISH CHURCH, KETTERING, ON MONDAY 
 AFTERNOON, MAY 22nd, 1882. 
 
 I HOPE that jou all iinderstand what a veiy important day this is 
 in your lives ; it is a day on which you are taking a most im- 
 portant step in your religious life ; it is a day on which you are 
 about to do that which cannot be repeated in all your lives ; something 
 you do once for all and cannot do again, and something too that must 
 have a very important effect and influence upon the whole of your 
 life to come. Confirmation, like Baptism, cannot be i-epeated ; Con- 
 firmation, like Baptism, gives you new privileges, new rights in Christ's 
 Church : very important privileges, very precious rights will be yours, 
 my dear children, after to-day : and it is all- important that you should 
 undei'stand what these rights are and what those Christian privileges 
 are to which you are just about to be admitted, that you may learn to 
 use them rightly hereafter. Now I want to say a few words before 
 you pass through this service of Confirmation, so that I may put be- 
 fore you what lies after Confirmation. You have been already 
 taught by your clergymen what are your privileges and rights as 
 baptized members of Christ's Church, you have been told how that in 
 baptism you were made members of Christ, children of God and heirs 
 of the kingdom of heaven ; you know that as baptized Christians you 
 have been made members of God's family, and that you have gained 
 a very happy and very blessed position as God's children, in God's 
 house. Now, in every family there comes a time when a child comes 
 of age, when it ceases to be merely a child and grows up to manhood 
 or womanhood, and has all the rights of a fu^ll-grown man or woman. 
 It is just the same in Christ's family : at this time, on this day of your 
 Confirmation you have, as it were, come of age. Between the time of 
 your Baptism and Confirmation you have been treated by the Church 
 as children ; you have been educated and trained, and fitted to take a 
 full part in all the services and duties and rights of the members of 
 Christ's family. But there is after Confirmation the highest privilege, 
 the highest duty, open to each, viz., the approach to the Holy Com- 
 munion of the Supper of our Lord Jesus Christ. So you have been 
 first baptized and brought into the family of God, then you have been 
 trained and educated in the family to enter upon the duties of His chil- 
 di-en, and on the day of Confirmation, the Church as it were speaks to you 
 and says " You are coming of age to-day, you are coming into the full 
 " possession of all the wealth and propei-ty belonging to you as a member 
 "of the family of God; are you a tit person to whom these privileges 
 " should be granted ? Before allowing you this privilege of coming to the 
 " Lord's Table tell us somewhat of yourselves. What is the result of all 
 " the training that you have i-eceived in these past yeai-s ? your insti'uc- 
 " tion in the Creed, and the Catechism, and in the Lord's prayer. Do you 
 " believe in God? Do you pray to Him? Do you try to serve Him ? 
 " Do you come to worship Him in His house, and do all those duties tliat a
 
 14 
 
 " child of God ought to do ? What is the result of all your past 
 " training- ; at the end of your fourteen, fifteen, or sixteen years 
 " passed in the family of Chi-ist, what are you to-day ? Are you in 
 " earnest in coming here ? Do you care to be members of God's 
 " family any longer ? Do you mean to have and to use all the 
 " blessings and priAaleges of the family of God ? " Now, you are 
 here to-day to tell us your answer to these questions ; this is the 
 meaning of the vow and promise which you are shortly about to make 
 when in this ser\T.ce you utter the words "I do " ; that is, I do 
 acknowledge that I am God's child ; I do acknowledge that God and 
 His Church have been training me and fitting rue for the high 
 privileges of one of His children ; and I am come here to Church 
 to-day to say that I know all this, and I mean and I desire to 
 have them in all their fulness ; I ivish to live the true and higher life 
 of a child of God ; and I am come here to make this profession to-day, 
 and to tell you what I believe, and what I intend to do. And you are 
 come saying as it were " Will you allow me to come t? the Holy Table 
 of the Lord ? " I hope you have understood this fi-om the training 
 and instruction already given by your Clergymen, and that you have 
 set yourselves to carry out that part of your duty which comes next 
 after this service of Confirmation, viz., the coming to the Holy 
 Communion. I do hope and trust that as you have had the Christian 
 purpose and resolve to come here to-day, you do not mean to stop at 
 this point. Confirmation is one step in the Christian life, but I trust 
 you are not going to say " I will not take the next step," but that you 
 mean altogether to lead the thorough Christian life, and with that end 
 in \'iew to say " I mean to make use of the highest of Christian privileges 
 to enable me to lead the Christian life." T know that in times not long 
 past, (and I am afi-aid that the idea is entertained by some men in our 
 own time) there were a great many persons who used to believe and 
 think that it was quite possible to be a tolerable average Christian 
 without ever coming near to the Lord's Table ; that a man or woman 
 may do quite well enough without being very good, and leading the 
 highest sort of life ; that it may be very well for anyone else to go to 
 this Holy Table, but for themselves they would rather not do so. 
 Perhaps a few weeks ago some of you may have thought so, but I 
 hope that none of you think it now ; for if you have been thinking 
 seriously (as I trust you have) I hope you all understand that to be a 
 Christian means to do what Christ bids us do : to live the Christian 
 life ; and that, in order to do this we must take the food which our 
 Lord provides for making us stronger. At the last supper when He 
 gave this Holy Communion 1 1 His disciples He did not divide them into 
 two classes and say to some of them " Come, for it will do you good," 
 but that the others might stay away. No, He called all of them to 
 come, and said " Eat ye," " Drink ye all of this," " Do this," and He 
 said it not to one but to all ; and He says the same to ws, and you may 
 be sure He never intended that there should be two sorts of Christians, 
 some who were to come and sonae who might stay away ; He appointed 
 the Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper for every one of His dis- 
 ciples and followers ; and Avhy did He do so ? Because He knew 
 that it was the one thing above all others that would help them to lead 
 the lives of ti'ue disciples ; that it was necessary for the Christian's
 
 15 
 
 hojie and life, in order that tliey might serve and love Him as they 
 onght to do, and be brave and strong and loving as they ought to be, 
 and for this end it was that the Holy Communion was given to them. 
 And it is equally necessary to ns ; hence if onr Loi'd gives this 
 privilege, He gives it to all, and it was meant for all, and He bids ns 
 all come to it because He knows that we cannot do without it. But 
 my dear friends I would have you bear this in mind ; for I see among 
 you a certain number of elderly people who have come here to-day to 
 pass through this test which our Church requires at the hands of all 
 those who lay claim to the privilege of approaching their Lord's Table. 
 I hope that these will pass on to that next step of being present at 
 the Holy Communion. But it may be that there are some among 
 these who believe that they can be good Christians enough without 
 doing so, and this is the very reason why the Christian life among us 
 is so low and poor as it is ; this is the reason why so many who call 
 themselves Christians are no credit to the name, and that they give 
 way under the slightest temptation ; that their tempers are not 
 Christian, and their lives not Christian ; that they are living any- 
 thing but the life of Christ in the world, though calling themselves 
 by His Name ; that they cannot resist the least temptation nor endure 
 the least self-denial for Christ, nor think of taking up His cross and 
 being brave for Him, so that no one would knoAv the difference 
 between their lives and the lives of others who do not own Christ at 
 all. The real reason of this is that they never think of eating the 
 food which He provides for the strengthening of their souls. He 
 says " Eat that you may be strong " ; they say " We can be strong 
 enough without." Which is right ? He says " Take up your cross 
 and be brave and strong against the world, the flesh, and the devil, 
 and here is food which will make you strong for it," and they say 
 " We can do quite well without it." Which do we know to be right? 
 Our Lord Christ ? or the foolish disciple who thinks himself wiser 
 than Christ ? To all of you I say — to you who are coming to be con- 
 firmed, and to you who have come to witness this Confirmation, — 
 think of it as a step on the way to the Holy Table, and then think of 
 the Holy Table as the place where Christ has appointed to meet us, 
 and to make us strong for the Christian life, and then you will not be 
 shrinking and tui'ning away frcm that Holy Communion but will 
 hasten to it in order that you may be strong for the service of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ ; you know you need strength. I see you here 
 gathered together out of a crowd of others, coming forward to make 
 a solemn vow and premise ; we thank God for it. You had need of 
 courage perhaps, and you have ah-eady gone through much opposition 
 and faced great difiiculty ; you have had the couiage to come and be 
 confirmed. How are you going on ? It is a sad thing to make a vow 
 and break it. You are about to make a vow that you will be pure, 
 chaste, modest, truthful, honest ; you must take cai'C that you keep it 
 day by day. Only, you never can keep it unless you do what Christ 
 has appointed you ; no one can go from Sunday to Sunday, from 
 month to month, andffrrm year to year living for Christ and serving 
 Christ if he does not take Christ's food. Many of you here are poor 
 and work for your own bread in the shop or factory ; suppose you 
 were to go to your work there without taking any food, how long
 
 16 
 
 would you go on claing so ? You would soon get tired and find that 
 you had no strength to carry on your work. Is it sensible then to 
 suppose that you can do your Lord's work if you do not take the food 
 which He has '"provided to fit you for it? My dear boys and girls, 
 men and women, strive earnestly to lead the Christian life and take 
 the food which Jesus Christ provides, and do not let any false fear or 
 false shame keep you away from that Holy Table. I know that some 
 are afraid to make a public profession ; you will have made one to-day, 
 do not be afraid to make it again ; you will be known as those who 
 have been to Church to-day to receive Confirmation : go on, and do 
 not be ashamed to profess that you are Christ's, but be strong and 
 brave and stand by Him that He may stand by you in the hour of 
 your trouble, and in the time of temptations. Don't be afraid of 
 coming to the H0I3' Table, and don't say " I am afraid of setting up 
 such a high standard of life, because I knoAA^ I cannot live up to it." 
 Certainly you will not be able, no one ever does ; but you will get 
 grace and strength to be sorry for not doing so, you Avill get gi-ace and 
 strength to repent of your sins, and to come and tell the Lord Jesus 
 that you are sorry, and therefore that you come again to get more 
 strength for the future. When I think of all the troubles lying 
 around you in this your town, when I think of you going through 
 your rough hard work in the world, through so much trouble and 
 temptation and danger, and especially when I think of the young that 
 I see around me growing up in the midst of all these temptations and 
 dangers, — when I think of all this, can I give you better or wiser 
 advice, if you wish to be strong, than to come to the Lord's Table, 
 and see if He will not help you to be strong ? it is a high standard 
 of life that we set before ourselves, but here is the place where you 
 will get strength to keep your vow and promise, and where you may 
 tell Him of your troubles and sorrows. He knows the troubles and 
 cares and difiiculties of each, but go to His Table and tell Him of 
 them, and there ask Him to make you strong and brave to follow Him 
 and to confess Him before men, for strength to carry His cross now, 
 that hereafter you may gain His crown. I am anxious to impress 
 this on you all as necessary for your Christian life, and I invite you 
 to come the next time your clergyman spreads that Holy Table in your 
 sight and reads the invitation to be present at it. Eemember that he 
 addresses it to you. (He did not do so before to-day ; it could not have 
 been received by you before.) It is as though your very own Lord and 
 Saviour invited you. He whom you acknowledge to-day to be your Lord 
 and Master. Receive the invitation, accept it, and see if He will not be 
 there to meet you and help you to keep this promise which you are now 
 about to make. To those present here in the congregation, I say, bear 
 the candidates in your hearts, say a word of prayer to God for them ; 
 many among you have friends whom you know and care for and love, give 
 them the best gift that jMu can^give thiui, by asking God to help thei^ 
 to keep their vow; and»||Jt*^oji5.paVicularly, fathers, mothers, and 
 friends who are come as witu€.sses to this solemn service to help them 
 in their homes to live their daily lives in the strength of this day's 
 vow. Now I am going to ask those who are about to be confirmed that 
 question in the service, and your vow will be made in the solemn answer 
 to it, when you say " I do." ^' ". :
 
 
 ^. •■'■ 
 
 r 
 
 V '^^^^ 
 
 M