Pu

se

y

1835 P9I

CHURCHES IN LONDON.

PAST AND PRESENT
EXERTIONS OF THE CHURCH,
AND HER .
PRESENT NEEDS.
1 4., '
^' Reprinted from the British Magaziiiefor November, 1835.

IT is a trite saying, that we are readily imposed upon by
names and words ; and it is because it is so trite, that it is of
importance to take heed to it ; for we begin to think, that,
because we know our liability to be so deceived, we are safe ;
whereas, when we think that we are safe, then we begin to be
in peril. We see one portion of the deceit, and forthwith
think that we see the whole, and so fall the more readily into
the error laid for us. This, again, is trite, i. e. it is an ob
servation which we have often had occasion to use, and so are
the more likely often to need it again.
W^' see, for instance, one portion of the error of the so-
called voluntary system. It is, indeed, a strange perversion,
that men should regard that only, as " voluntarily done,"
which they do themselves ; that all which their fathers, or
their fathers' fathers, have done, should cease to be " volun-
itary," because they have now fallen asleep ; and so nothing

is to be voluntary, but what is as yet undone, since, of course,
when we have done a thing, it is no longer in our own power
or wiH to undo it. This is all very true ; and if we define
" voluntary" to be " that which it is at any given time in
our own power to do or not to do," such charitable purposes
only can be said to be supported by " voluntary contribu
tions" which have no capital, no settled income, and depend
entirely upon their annual appeals to public benevolence.
Yet, unhappily, popular language never adheres to any such,
rigid rules ; and the word " voluntary" has been probably
chosen in opposition, not to that which was so once, though
it has ceased, to be so because it has been done, but to
" compulsory :" and those who have chosen it have been
" wise in their generation :" for the ordinary mind stops at
no such refinements, as to what is or has been, but at once
attaches to the " voluntary system" all the popularity pf
freedom, generosity, nobleness, and all those characters with
which people invest " voluntary" exertions of their own, and
load the opposite system with all the odium which men's
natural self-will attaches to the word " compulsory." It has,
indeed, been shewn over and over again, until people are
weary and ashamed of repeating it, that the church system is
not " compulsory ;" that the property of the church was a
free gift, — were the " voluntary" contributions of the piety
of many generations to the honour of Almighty God. But
all this labour, and all the learning which could be bestowed,
would be outweighed by the possession of a single popular
term, " voluntary." It is useless to repeat, to demonstrate,
to ask persons to listen to facts ; men, as has been often said,
are governed by their feelings and impulses, not by their
understandings. The word " voluntary" resumes its sway ;
and, by its magic sound, disperses proofs, facts, argu
ments, to the four winds. It is then time, I think, that
churchmen should invent some new name, which should
break the spell of this word " voluntary ;" vindicating thp
character of the church to have been the " voluntary," the
system of the dissenters to be the " pseudo-voluntary." It
were wise, I think, — and we are called upon by the piety due
to those good men, whether kings or barons, clergy or laymen,
who built and endowed, out of their own, the glorious piles
of our cathedrals, or the humble, but hallowing, village
church, — to assert, that ours is the voluntary church. For,
as to votes of parliament some time past, first, it does not
follow that money so raised is not " voluntary," although
not exactly in the same sense as that given out of one*s own

purse ; but, in truth, coraparecl to the piety of former tiraes,
It was so trifling, that it might well be left out of the ac
count. And this is another, and far greater, evil of the abuse of
this word " voluntary" — that we are in rauch danger of
forgetting that we are the " voluntary church ;" that our
cathedrals, our churches, our chapels, were i-aised by the
sacrifices, in some cases enormous sacrifices, of individuals, —
m others, by bodies of men, but in almost all by the volun
tary exertions of individuals, whether singly or united, — not
by the state. And if we think in how m&ny cases our present
fabrics are " but as nothing, in comparison of the glory of
the former house," as, to take the characteristic language of
Anthony Wood, with regard to those of Oxford, " these (the
former cathedral and friery churches in Oxford) excelled
what are left standing, as much as the best church now in
being does the meanest in that city ; and this, our ancient
cathedral of Oxford, consisted of as much building as the
present cathedral or any two parochial churches in Oxford,
except St. Mary's," we may form some little idea of the
exertions of our ancestors. It is humiliating to gaze at one
of the least of the noble fabrics which they raised to their
Maker's praise, and to ask, Where are the descendants of such
an ancestry ? Where is the Lord God of Elijah ?
Their spirit is fled : we have come to the dregs of tirae ;
or, (on authority which men of this day will trust,) " to the
declining age of our state;" at least, those things are
flourishing among us which Bacon marked as the syraptoras
of its declining age '; and we make our boast of that which is
our shame. " Grey hairs are here and there upon him, yet
he knoweth not." (Hos. vii. 9.) Our old towns and cities
are recognised from far by their towers and spires, hallowing
all the landscape, — a continual memorial of things unseen,
infusing holy thoughts which ascend directly to their Author,
and reminding us that we are every where standing on God's
earth, on a Christian land, on " holy ground." And who
shall calculate the powers of their often-renewed influence
upon his own mind .'' Who can tell how many holy resolves,
and pure thoughts, and earnest aspirations to the heavens,
whither they ascend, he has not owed to them, and con
sequently how much of his future glory.'' and then, calculate
the tens of thousands in each generation since they were
raised who have felt the like, or " count the stars of heaven!"
* " In the youth of a state, arms do flourish; iii the middle age of a state,
learning; and tlien, both of them together for a time; in the declining age of a
state, mechanical arts and merchandize." — Esaay on the Vicissitudes of Stales.

And what do v/e? Our modern towns have their character
istics — the chimneys of our manufactories,, and the smoke of
our furnaces. And we " boast ourselves in the multitude of
our riches," and our wisdora, and our enlightening, and our
skill in the mechanical arts, and our knowledge in physical
sciences, and the Bibles which we print ; while the only true
wisdom we have not known. For, which of these exhibits
the picture of a " wise and understanding people .'"'
It is easy to speak of the superstition of our ar|cestors, of
their behef that they might purchase heaven by building
edifices to God — of their consecrating temples instead of
themselves — of their buying the church's pardon on their
death-beds. Doubtless, there were (nay, perhaps were raany)
such cases ; as there are many cases now of persons who hope
to attain to heaven, though they live the same lives as those
did whom they conderan, are guilty of the same sins, and yet
do not repent after the same sort — do not " break off their
sins by righteousness, and their iniquities by shewing raercy
to the poof." (Dan. iv. 27.) A corrupt system prevailing
more or less in the church, .(for it had not then received
the sanction of any portion of the church,) then led men
oftentimes to ascribe a false and lying efficacy to these actions ;
and bad or misguided clergy may have availed theraselves of
it. But so the world's corrupt and paralyzing system now,
hiding itself under the garb of protestantism, teaches raen to
neglect these duties ; or, at least, dulls their consciences, by
representing them as a part of popery. And do not we
tamper with the world, as well as those of old, by purchasing
supports to the church, through the concealment of the
requisitions of the Gospel, as they of old did by their per
version .'' I do not wish to defend any errors of old times,
although I am, indeed, speaking of the old times, before the
corruption had developed itself, in its subsequent grossness.
There were then, as there are now, many abuses of the
prevaihng system of religion. Carnal men will abuse ^very
systera, " will turn the grace of God into lasciviousness,"
or will " raake their liberty an occasion to the flesh," " a cloak
of maliciousness." Carnal men now, also, will call Clirist, Lord,
Lord ! and do not the things which He has said. And yet,
after all, was there not rauch truth in what many men of old
times did ? Is there not reality when a raan, repenting of
heinous sins, makes great sacrifices, looks out anxiously for
means of proraoting the glory of that holy Name which he
had before caused to be blasphemed ? Had not the church
more ground to hope that such an one was in earnest in his
repentance.? Had he not himself .? And is not the difference,

at the end, this, that men now say they repent (and I trust
that many do), and then they shewed their repentance in
their deeds? And did not God, by His holy prophet Daniel,
sanction the value of such testimony of repentance.'' And
when ZacChaeus repented of his extortions, and professed
his fixed purpose to " give half his goods to the poor,
and return four-fold whatever he had wrongfully gained,"
was it not accepted ? Hear our Saviour's own words : —
" This day is salvation come to this house, forspmuch as he
also is a son of Abrahara." He also had begun to " walk in
the steps of the faith of our father Abraham," and " by
works was his faith made perfect." And so the holy fathers,
carrying on the teaching of Holy Scripture, when they
enumerate the parts and acts of true repentance, never omit
abundant alms-giving. " After intense prayer," says St.
Chrysostom, (he had already dwelt upon " condemnation of
our sins, and confession, and great huraility, and endurance
of injury — ' since that which is bruised doth not rise up to
resistance' — and lowliness of mind, and many tears night and
day,") " after prayer thus intense, there is need of much
mercifulness. For this is it which imparteth the greatest
strength to the medicine of repentance; and as, in medicinal
appliances, one medicine comprehendeth many herbs, yet one
of chiefest efficacy, so also is this the chiefest ingredient of
repentance; yea, it might well comprise the whole. And so
the rest of the pure church ; only by alms they did not
understand an occasional pittance doled out, or some petty
contribution to some vast almshouse, or hospital, or religious
association, but as they say, " abundant mercifulness." And
would that, in every exhortation to repentance or charity,
they to whom God has shewn so great mercy in bringing
them back to His house after they had " spent their substance
in riotous living," were now also especially exhorted to shew
their sense of their Father's greater mercies by a proportionate
mercifulness to their brethren !
This, however, is a large subject. Leaving, then, such cases
as these, or any ignorance or superstition, out of the question,
or rather calculating them as high as they please, let men
consider what remains ; let them count up the endowments of
the church such as it was before it was despoiled ; let them
imagine the cost of the Minster of York, or Durham, or Ely,
or Lincoln ; let them multiply these with all the rest which
they can think of, and then say, whether they think that all,
or the wreater part, of this was the fruit of superstition.
Truly, if they did, we should only have one proof more how
deeply we were abased ; that we not only could not do the

deeds of our forefathers, but could not even understand the
frame of heroic piety which prompted them.
Ours is, then; eminently a " voluntary church; volun
tary," because » the princes of the people, heads over he
house of their fathers, each in his day, freely offered fo the
service of their God; " voluntary," because in those days ' the
» people brought more than enough for the service of the
work, which the Lord commanded to make ; (Ex. xxxvi. 5.)
" voluntary," because it was for the most part bestowed,
before the times of popish corruption, out of an earnest reve
rence for God's great Name. And when many thought that
they should thereby benefit their own souls, and looked to
those deeds, wliich God had enabled them to do, as a source
of ioy to thera in the day of the Lord, who would say that
they were wrong.? who, recollecting our blessed Saviours
own words on that great day, " Well done, good and faithful
servant ?" or, who ever did any deed really out of love to
his Saviour, and did not feel an instinctive joy that he had
done it for his Lord's sake ? or, unless he had been schooled,
and the impulses of his heart restrained and contracted with
in the channel which God assigned them, by the narrow
limits of some school of theology, did not joy that the deed
done in secret for his Saviour's sake, should by Him be
acknowledged openly before His Father and the holy angels ?
And one need not quite add, in this sense, ours was a
voluntary church ; for there are still sorae signs of life among
us, although by our boastfulness and self-gratulation we are
going well nigh to extinguish thera ; or rather, we are pro
voking God signally to humble us, and break in pieces the
work in which we engage thus proudly. Yet it seems to me»
on the other hand, that when insisting on the duty and
absolute necessity that the nation, as a nation, should relieve
the spiritual destitution of the poor among us, we are some
times unjust to what has actually been of late years done ;
and we have spoken as if of late all which had been " volun
tarily" done, had been done by the dissenters, and that the
episcopal church had only been enlarged by parliamentary
grants. True it is, that what has been done by us has been
miserably inadequate ; true also, that the additional light
thus spread has helped to discover to us the thick oppressive
darkness which men seeraed before too much inured to
to feel ; true also, that it would be a very raiserable thing if
the church had not done much more to relieve the spiritual
starvation of her own children than dissenters. But still
something has been done ; we have in a degree maintained
our character of a " voluntary" church ; fresh endowments

have been made, not indeed with the noble munificence of
our forefathers, but still according to the raeasure of the
present day. As far as there is any " voluntary" church in
the present day, ours is one — or, rather, is " the voluntary
church^'' except so far as " voluntary"' means, that we are to
abandon all that holy men, in better days, consecrated to
God's service, and then to see how much those of this day
will restore ; strip the " doors of the temple of the Lord's
house of the gold, and give it to Assyria," " take the sea
from off the brazen oxen that were under it, and put it upon
a pavement of stones," (2 Kinga xvi. 17,) and then essay how
we can replace it ; first commit sacrilege, and then make a
free-will offering, and boast of the largeness of our munifi
cence in the dole which would succeed it. This is the
wickedness, the hypocrisy, the TrgaJrov rl/stiSoj of the " pseudo-
voluntary" system ; for if it meant only that the church, as
well as the several sects of dissenters, was to have no grants
from the state, this is but what we have arrived at already,
our only accession from the . state now being (as it is a great
one) the recoraraendation from his Majesty to contribute our
selves to the several religious objects of our church. Setting,
then, this abuse of the word " voluntary" aside, ours still, in'
some degree, retains its character of a " voluntary" church.
Nay, it would',' as I said, be very' sad, if, with the abundant
means possessed by her members, she were not doing more
than all the several sects of dis.sentients from her, even
including the funds which they derive from churchmen.
But setting aside all comparison with sects, or with times
immediately preceding, or all vindication in man's sight, the
one real question is. How stand we in the sight of God? Are
we making such earnest exertions in extending His kingdom,
in withstanding the inroads of His and our eneray, in " giving
light to them among us who sit in darkness," in Christianizing
our land, as would raake us hope that He will lift up the
light of His countenance upon us, and bless us, that He will
not move our candlestick out of its place ? I dare not so
anticipate the judgment of God, as to say that we are not ;
but who will dare to say or think that we are.? I mean not
that, in any case, our deeds could stand the righteous judg
ment of God ; yet still there are deeds, there are " works,
and charity, and services, and faith, and patience" which he
commandeth (Rev.' ii. .19), for which he alloweth a church to
stand; and for the absence of which he removeth thera; have
we these ? Was it not the very curse of restored Judah —
" Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your' ceiled houses, and
this house lie waste ? Now, therefore, thus saith the Lord of

8
Hosts, Consider your ways. Ye looked for much, and, lo,
it came to little ; and when ye brought it home, I did blow it
away. Why .? saith the Lord of Hosts. Because of mine
house that is waste; and ye run, every man to his own
house." And shall we, then, accustom ourselves (to take
one instance only) to count by tens of thousands those
who, in our metropolis alone, live by " profaning the temple
of the Holy Ghost.?" Shall we inure ourselves, as to a thrice-
told tale, to hear of the myriads who subsist by breaking the
Seventh or the Eighth Comraandraent ; of quarters of our
metropolis which are " sinks of iniquity ;" of " hells" in our
Christian city ; of the innumerable multitude to whom the
weekly sabbath is a day of rest from labour that they may
labour only in serving sin, whom each Lord's-day is leading
down nearer to hell, instead of lifting up to heaven.? Shall we
hear, day by day, of drunkenness, debauchery, brutality, pro
faneness, reigning araong those who were once made " members
of Christ and heirs of heaven," and " turn on the other side"
as if it concerned not us.? Is all this utterly irremediable.? Did
not Christ die for them .? Did not Christ come to seek and
save such as them ? Arid wills He not that even they should
yet " call upon the name of the Lord, and be saved ,?" Does
he not yet " continue to them life and time of repentance, that
they may be saved .? " But how shall they call on Him, in
whom they have not believed .? And how believe in Him of
whom they have not heard ? And how hear, without a
preacher .? And how shall they preach unless they be sent .?
As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach
the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things !"
It is the most grievous curse of negligence and sin, that we
become inured to it; speak of it as though it were a necessary
evil— as if it did not concern men's souls— as if all this life and
another, God's proraises and His threatenings, heaven and hell,
were a dream, and all unreal, except the comforts and indul
gences to which we are accustomed ! For do we believe that
" they who turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars
for ever and ever ?" Do we believe that " he who soweth
sparingly, shall reap also sparingly -, and he which soweth
BOUNTIFULLY, SHALL UEAP ALSO BOUNTIFULLY .?" Have We
heard our Saviour's bidding, " sell that ye have, and give
alms: provide yourself bags which wax not old, a treasure
in the heavens that paileth not.?" And do we grudge
ourselves all this reward .? Are we so bound down to the
things, and customs, and measures of this worid, as to have no
longing for this greater glory which Christ has promised to
the greater sacrifices .? Shall we act as if we, too, purposed to

Reverse our Saviour's teaching, and to " lay up for ourselves
treasures on earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and
where thieves break through and steal ;" and not " lay up for
ourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust
doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor
steal .?" Is it nothing to " shine as the stars for ever and ever;"
nothing " to reap bountifully ;" nothing to have a treasure,
which, when these few years are over, still shall never fail;
nothing to have the blessings of those, to whom our bounty
has been blessed to their everlasting salvation ; nothing to
have our Saviour's praise .? And yet all this must be as nothing
to us, we raust count all this as nothing, — if we be not induced
to sacrifice of what God has lent us, largely, bountifully, to
our own inconvenience, like the blessed Apostles, (for so only
were it a sacrifice,) to attain it.
I cannot believe that men would be so dull, so unbelieving ;
that we should have so few instances of self-devoting charity ;
that men would think our Saviour's precepts so impracticable;
that we should be giving hundreds instead of thousands,
thousands for tens of thousands; that we should so shut up all
the bowels of compassion to our poor brethren, who, untaught,
unrecalled, without (as far as we are concerned) one warning
voice, have fallen back into the dominion of Satan ; that we
should fall so far short of the ages which we call " dark," in
self-denying Christian charity, did we, the clergy, more faith
fully, more explicitly, more uncompromisingly demand for our
God what is his due, and, from our fellow-Christians, what
would be their everlasting reward.
We are afraid of seeming to exalt human merit ; we speak
of pardon, acceptance, reconciliation ; but we shrink from
speaking of what is one great end and object of our pardon,
acceptance, reconciliation — viz., God's glory in our acceptable
labour and service through His great strength, and — reward
proportionate. The very name " reward" sounds strangely to
us ; and yet it is our blessed Saviour's promise, " Great is
your reward in heaven." And thus, since we haye lost sight
of one main-spring to noble Christian action, which God has
placed within the heart of man, can we marvel at the poorness
of our attainments .? Yet they are not our works, but God's,
" who worketh in us to will and to do of his good pleasure."
Why, then, should we shrink, or rather is it not ungrateful to
shrink, from declaring that they are good works, because
wrought in Him and by Him, by the strength which He
supplies us as being merabers of His Son ; and that He will
reward us openly .?
By some great effort alone can the ground, which we have

10
lost to Satan, be recovered; the souls, which we have given over
to his kingdom, be set free. It is not by petty insulated efforts
here and there, by raaking up a breach here and there in the
shattered walls of our Zion, while the enemy is pouring in
like a flood through other avenues which we have allowed to
decay, that we can now be saved. The wall raust be built
(as in the days of Neheralah) " so that there was no breach
left therein." Then shall " our enemies be much cast down,
for they shall perceive that the work is the work of God."
(Neh. vi. 1, 16.) So also shall " the good hand of the Lord
,our God be upon us."
Would, then, (to take this one case only,) we might profit
by the calculations already raade of the hundreds of thousands
who, in London, cannot, if they would, hear the word of God,
that we would " count the cost," not content with reducing a
parish of 120,000 souls to 50,000 ; but really examine what
would be needed, in order to provide every one (not already
provided) with a place in the house of God, and with one who
should and could care for his soul. It will be a mighty
undertaking; but the saying of a heathen has become a
proverb — " Possunt, quia posse videntur." Much more then,
when the strength and ability is not ours, but of God. The
more arduous the task, the more apparently hopeless, the less
one can calculate upon any human means, so much the more
full of hope, yea, so much the more certain would it be of
accomplishment, because it must be begun, continued, ended,
in dependence upon God. It becomes possible, because, in
human sight,it is impossible. Be the sum required what it may,
if the work be but begun, with faith in God, and an earnest
desire for His glory, it will be accomplished. It concerns us all.
London, as the heart of our social system, must be, and is, day
by day more raanifestly, circulating health or disease, religion
or profaneness, the fear of God or atheism, in every corner of
our land. It is felt also by many to be the concern of all.
There are thousands who would gladly contribute to the
great work, as soon as it should be set about in earnest.
As long as mere palliatives are adopted, — a church or chapel
erected here and there, — ic is not our concern ; we have
labours like this, each in our own neighbourhood, to look to;
but when the clergy of the Metropolis shall set themselves
indeed, under the authority of the heads of the church, to
remedy this crying evil as a whole, " to lengthen thy cords
and strengthen thy stakes, and enlarge the borders of thy
tents," then it will be, and will be felt to be, the concern of
all. It is the very will of God that we should take a deeper
interest, make gladder, readier sacrifices, exert greater energies,

11
nay, and have greater strength to exert, in great undertakings:
for He has planted the impulse in our hearts ; we are carried
beyond ourselves by a power which we feel not to be our own,
with a feeling, and a longing, and an energy, which masters
all petty calculations, overwhelms the sense of self, overpowers
our natural misgivings and despondencies, forbids us to con
template obstacles, (which, because not contemplated, sink
into nothing,) gives us strength which removes mountains,
because it is the strength of faith — strength which, because
we know not whence it cometh or whither it goeth, we know
to be of God. God has shewn us a little type of this in the
natural world, in mere human excitement and human feelings.
How often have heights been gained, whereat those who
gained them wondered how they came up thither ? And if
this be so, for things of sense, for perishing interests, for some
petty object in this fleeting world, how much raore, when the
question is about things which sh^ll last for ever, about
rescuing men's souls from hell, about peopling the bright
courts of heaven with iraraortal and happy souls to praise and
bless God for ever and ever, yea, and in God and for God to
bless us also, who have been His instruments in bringing back
to Christ's fold the sheep for which He, the Good Shepherd,
shed His precious blood .?
The details of such a plan can best be given by those in
authority ; but they ought to know that there are those who
would gladly " lay up treasures in heaven" by parting with
their treasure here, who would make sacrifices, who look with
sickening hearts at the undisputed reign of Satan in portions
of our metropolis, at the spiritual starvation of myriads
" baptized into the same Body" with themselves, who would
gladlycontributetheirshare,if they were but directed. I would
not say any thing disputable upon such a subject as this ; yet
this might be said without ofience, that while we have been
circulating the Bible in foreign tongues, sending forth
missionaries into the isles ofthe sea, educating slaves, assaying
the conversion of the Jews, we have fearfully neglected a
doraestic duty. And it is idle, and worse than idle, to
speak — I will not say boastfully, (although this also were
probably very true,) but — exultingly, of the hundred or fifty
thousands annually collected for the one or the other religious
purpose abroad, while our own horaes are left desolate. At
all events, this we should have done, and not left the other
undone. But it is not such objects as these which interfere, except so
far that they satisfy us that we are doing soraething, that
people go to hear of the result of missionary exertions in the

12
one place, or the increased study of God's word in another,
until they Hve in this atmosphere of excitement from without,
and forget that, within a few yards of the fair streets through
which they go to hear of these glad tidings from foreign lands,
there are tens of thousands whom that word never reached,
who never, perhaps, were within the house of God, except
perhaps when at baptism " they received the seal which now
(in St. Augustine's language) convicts them to be deserters,
but avails not to their crown." " The diseased have ye not
strengthened ; neither have ye healed that which was sick ;
neither have ye bound up that which was broken ; neither
have ye brought again that which was driven away ; neither
have ye sought that which was lost. And they are scattered
because there is no shepherd ; and they become meat to all the
beasts of the field when they are scattered. My sheep wander
through all the mountains, and upon every high hill, yea,
My flock is scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none
doth search nor seek after them." — (Ezek. xxxiv. ,4 — 6.)
But for such objects as these, there would be enough, and
more than enough ; they would hinder no good work ; such
scattering increaseth. The real hindrance is, that we are
accustomed to such petty measures of giving, that we make
comforts of luxuries, and necessaries of comforts, and necessity
of " what is becoming in our station," and a gospel-rule of the
world's standard, until we have no room left for any but petty
contributions ; and then, because a mighty stream has been
formed out of the 100,000 little rivulets which have been
poured into it, there we mirror ourselves and our contributions
in that vast tide, and forget how mean and contemptible they
in themselves were. Our whole system of alms-giving and
religious contributions is one vast systera of self-deceit, in
which we magnify ourselves in our own sight ; and, in the
bustle of what is being done around us, contrive to forget the
poorness of our own share, as well as that Great Day wherein
we shall have to give account, not of what was done in our day,
but of what we did, gave, sacrificed, abandoned, denied
ourselves for His sake, who for our sakes became poor. God
give us all grace to answer this to ourselves, that so we may
be able to answer it to our endless glory, and receive His
reward in the presence of His holy angels !
Oxford. September, 1835.

IS

Since the above paper was written, the Right Reverend the
Bishop of London has (as was hoped) been enabled, in some
degree, to mature a plan, whereby— not all, but— a portion of the
evil, which immediately affects London and its vicinity, might
be relieved.
It had been to be wished, that he could have been entitled so
to calculate on the Christian feeling of that great metropolis,
that he could have claimed at once out of its enormous wealth.
Its comforts, its luxury, its vanities, its nothingnesses, — frora the
amusement or the show, or the animal gratifications of an hour, —
what might have regenerated a Christian city, and converted the
abodes of discord and misery, and lust, and strife, and blas
phemy, — the types of hell — into joy, peace, and love, the ante-
pasts of heaven. Fearful of asking too much, he applies but for
something less than one-sixth of what is needed for the entire
removal of the actual destitution — for 50 new Churches, where
310 would be required, if one Church, on an average, were pro
vided for each SOOO persons. It remains for us to shew, that we
are in some degree alive to what is the common concern of us
all, the spiritual provision for our metropolis, " that great city , "and
its million five hundred thousand souls. Should such support be
offered, as might encourage the Bishop to undertake the whole
of this great task, besides the incalculable blessing to the metro
polis itself, (a blessing, which would be felt through the whole
land,) there would be set an example and a pattern, which might
increase the efficiency of our whole Church, beyond even the
farthest hopes of those, now most sanguine. Would that persons
in this their day could see, what they will one day see, and
what, in the abstract, they are ready to acknowledge, the utter
insipidity and worthlessness of those momentary things wherein
they employ the money committed to them, compared to the
contributing the means, whereby one human soul raay be restored
to, or preserved in, our Redeemer's fold.
" For the accomplishment of this object," says the Right Rev.
the Bishop, " a great effort is required ; great, as men are now
" accustomed to measure the requirements of Christian charity; and
" yet are there not hundreds of persons who could give to the cause
" of Christ and of His Church their thousand pounds each, without
" sacrificing one of their comforts or enjoyments ? and are there not
" multitudes whom we have a right to call upon, even for such a
" sacrifice, if it be requisite, in order to rescue so many of their fellow-
" creatures from the miseries of irreligion and vice, and to prevent
" the further growth of an evil, which threatens our national peace
" and safety .'"'

14

The following facts and plans are abstracted from the
posals" published bythe Right Rev. the Bishop: only
be borne in mind (what one is apt to forget in these
statements), that eE^ch unit represents a human soul; tha
not even speaking of the religious desUtution of one gen
but of what has been, and what must (but for timely aid)
must increase— the continually repeated cycle of the s
starvation of so many thousand disUnct, undying, human
(These stateraents include only parishes, exceeding 7000

" Pro-
it raust
tabular
t one is
eration, be, and
ipiritual souls. souls.)

Spiritual destitution of London.

ParislieB. 4
21 9
34

PopaUtion. 166,000
739,000
232,000
1,137,000 380,046

Churcb Room, 8,200
66,15527,327

Propor- Clergy-
tion. men.

not J,

75

not J

Proprie
tary Cha
pels with
out cure.

Unprovided"! for in 34 > 3/756,954
parishes J
Sitttingsre-I 252,318
quired, j

27,327
; >25,000

not

Ttr

1145 19

Proportion.
not 1 for 15,000
not 1 for 16,400
1 for 12,300

126,682 3

Total 75 . Total 1 j f^^ i5_ioO
average J

Calculating necessary
Church-room at I

380,046 whole number provided for.

East and North-East of London.

P«rUhes. Population. Churches & Chapels. Proportion. Clercymen.
10 1 353,460 I 18 j 1 for 19,000 ] 22

Proportion.
I 1 for 14,000

General outline of the plan as agreed upon.
1. To build or purcbase and partly endow 50 new Churches.
2. Districts to be assigned to each Church, within the limits of
which the Minister thereof may exercise pastoral care, except in
special cases, in which it maybe deemed advisable to provide Chapels
of Ease, to be under the care of the Incumbents of parishes ; but that
such Chapels have, in every case, their own officiating Clergymen.
3. Nomination (as generally desired) in the Bishop of the diocese.
4. In single cases (if desirable) patronage to be vested in the
Patron of the Living, or official trustees, to be named by the
Committee. 5. Sums of £\Q0 and upwards may be paid in equal instalments
in four years, or individuals may subscribe annually for four
years. (Thus e. g. one who could only contribute £25 in any one year, inight be a
subscriber of £100, one who could 'give £50 only in a srngle year, £200.)
6. Endowment, in many cases, to be provided by means of tbe
minor stalls of St. Paul's.

15
A legacy of £50,000, and a sum of £2000, {ultimately £3000,)
per annum, it is understood, will be applied to the relief of these
wants ofthe metropolis. Besides this, above £80,000 has been already
promised, including £2000 from the Bishop, £1000 froyn, his Ma
jesty, £1000 /rom the Archbishop of Canterbury, from the Dukes of
Portland and Bedford, Lord RoUe, Brasenose and Magdalen
Colleges, Messrs. Hoare, and other individuals. A large propor
tion of this has been actually paid. A site for a Church (which is
in London often difficult to be obtained) has been given freely by
the Mercer's Company ; and another is about to be purchased.
Negociations have also been made for the erection of three Churches
in a large parish in the suburbs of London.
On a large plan, it would be desirable to raise £600,000.
(0- Notice of any sums, either from individuals, or of com
paratively small collections, may be transmitted through the Rev.
E. B. Pusey, D.D. Christ Church, if any should prefer an indirect
mode of communication, wishing not needlessly to occupy the time of
the Bishop of London.

Sold by J. H. Parker, Oxford; and by Messrs. Rivington,
London.
Price Eighteen Pence per dozen.

UA.VfEK, PllINTEK, OXFOBU.