Page:Free Opinions, Freely Expressed on Certain Phases of Modern Social Life and Conduct.djvu/50

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to set the Almighty Creator within a small circle of their own special form of orthodoxy, and condemn every creature that wanders outside that exclusive "fairy lamp" enclosure. Canon Allen Edwards further remarked that "The reason why the working classes do not go to church is the same reason why I do not go to the Derby, not because I think it wrong, for I have no opinion on the subject, but because I have no interest in the things that go on there. And this is the reason, and no other, why many men do not go to church. They are not interested in what is done there. . . . A large number of those who are going into the ministry to-day are, for one most essential part of their work, entirely without the first elements of equipment. They cannot preach, and they are not helped to try and learn, and yet preaching is that very part of their work for which the people expect, and have a right to expect, equipment of the highest order."

The Canon says: "they cannot preach." That is true enough, but why? I maintain that if they felt their mission, they could preach it. If they loved their fellow-creatures a thousand times better than themselves, as they should do, they would find much of greatness, beauty and truth to say! If they honoured and worshipped their Divine Master as they profess to honour and worship Him, there would be little lack of spirit or of eloquence! People always know when a speaker or a preacher is in earnest. He may have a faulty utterance—his elocution may be far from perfect, but if the heart attunes the voice, the voice carries. There are many hundreds of noble clergy—but they are