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ties or not, and that what is right is not, as such, practicable. On this point a clear statement here is sufficient exposure, and nothing more need be said.
As regards the principle on which the Church is to do her work of evangelising the people, it is that of attempting everything by way of doing something. "Be ye perfect" applies to every work we do for God and in His name. In such work it is most shallow and most false to say we fail by attempting too much. To do anything we must attempt everything. The Church must by some means (yet to be considered) bring the Divine system of the Gospel before men in all its fulness and perfection. She must hold back nothing; the whole faith—doctrine, sacraments, worship—must be declared and carried out in completeness and harmony.
We must have earnest men—men really in earnest, to preach the Gospel to the poor, to go into the "streets and lanes of the city," and bid them come in: and the churches must be open to receive them, or the words of invitation are words of mockery! All that repels and excludes must be swept away, and the freedom of the Church must at once symbolise and give effect to the freedom of the Gospel.
I have now to expose the practical working and real effects of the appropriation of seats in churches. On this point let the advocates of Exeter Hall services be first heard. The Dean of Carlisle, in preaching on one of these occasions, said—
Who are they that should cast a pebble of hindrance in our way? Is it those who are preaching on soft cushions to pampered hearers, in Churches the very antitype of that referred to by the Apostle: "Stand thou here, or sit thou here at my footstool?" Is there not very great guilt on the Church of England, that she has for so many years allowed, to say no more, the rich to accommodate themselves, and to care so little for her poorer members? No wonder she has gone so far astray! My friends, the answer to this is, we ask you to come here, because many desire, and cannot go to Church: many desire and cannot find a place to go in, without being insulted by distinctions in the presence of God, which are hateful to the God we worship.
A writer in the Times, of Nov. 14, observes—" If Mr. Edouart's and other churches were filled with the working classes, there would be little need of these services. But, alas! but few working men are to be found in London churches."
