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than those of gain or glory. Can it be said that that call has been sufficiently heard? Have even we, of the clergy at large, taken it to heart? Or have we despised it as too secular; shrunk from it as associated too much with non-Christian men or views; excused ourselves from the labour of understanding and interpreting which it requires; and perhaps feared, with some respect of persons, difficulties which it might occasion with important members of the congregation? Are the examples many and prominent, and do the best of them come from the Church, of those who in commerce and trade use the great opportunities of capital and ownership to inaugurate a better and fairer state of things? Let me instance with honour the name of Mr. G. Cadbury. Is the mark of the cross plain upon the Christian part of society (as the name goes), which gets, all the witnesses agree, more luxurious every day? Are we, as a community and a Church, eagerly and intensely occupied upon that most difficult work to which this call of later days summons and bids? If not, are we, perchance, at all in the case of that young man who had his religious interests, and could ask his questions, and was indeed in character and conduct not far from the Kingdom of God, but could not bear the touch of sacrifice, and wished the great possessions to be left out of his practical problem? Are we to find here in part some inner secret of the little effectiveness of much which seems so true, and good, and earnest, and beautiful in the Church work of to-day?
This, however, is not my matter now. I have neither the skill nor the moral right to handle this difficult theme.
Can we take the other alternative and look deeper into what we have had? Is there, as I asked at first, a great truth coming out clearer, in the light of which we may read afresh and more deeply the meaning of what we have, gaining new keenness in our own hold of it and fresh power in our presentation of it to others?
Is it possible that this is true of the truth contained in the text, the working of God, the real working of God Himself, in us? Is it to this that along many paths He is and has been drawing many men?
I think I discern this more plainly, perhaps, than I can express it to you. But let me at least suggest it to your thoughts. Let us fix our mind definitely on what we mean by help of contrasts. Not what God prescribes to us, nor even what He sends us help to do; not what we do for God; not merely what is like God in us; but God actually and indeed working within us. Now, this is plainly not a truth of revelation alone and exclusively; it is one in which the poet, the philosopher, the believer in natural religion have their part, and perhaps find their inspiration. But it forms their common ground with the Christian, and therefore it is of high interest to see that in the forms which they too recognize, it has come home of late with
