THE

LOCAL PREACHERS' MAGAZINE

AND

CHRISTIAN FAMILY RECORD.

FEBRUARY, 1853.

Essays, Scripture Illustrations, &c.

RELIGIOUS EFFORT AND PROFLIGACY IN LONDON:

THE SABBATH, THE COMMERCIAL SPIRIT, AND THE LOVE OF PLEASURE. "This know:-in the last days perilous times shall come, men shall be covetous-boasterslovers of pleasures."-2 TIM. iii. 1-4.

THE present is a boasting age. The prevalence of a taste for general literature, the progress of science, and the practice of the arts, every achievement in which becomes universally notorious through the activity of the press, tend to foster a spirit of vain-glory-not so much in the earnest, toiling, truth-seeking, student, as in the masses of those who, being brought into daily contact with the grand results of modern thought and labour, regard them as distinguishing their age, their profession, or their country, far beyond all others, and thus feed in themselves the conceit and pride which make them impervious to the moral influences that are everywhere impinging upon man in every condition of his

existence.

But men are not merely boasters with regard to the achievements of the age in science or literature, or in any department of philosophy. It matters but little what portion of society we examine; the same spirit of self-laudation prevails throughout the whole. An atmosphere of intense egotism seems to attend every individual of the species homo, in all his pursuits. Each glorifies himself in his work, or in his wit, or in his wealth. -in his cleverness or in his cunning, whether exhibited in the striking of a bargain or the building of a palace, the shape of a garment or the direction of public opinion. And everything in the circumstances of society seems fitted to encourage and foster the growth of this universal passion. Men praise each other, and have become ingenious in the discovery of methods by which to elicit from their dying fellow sinners the empty laudation which their souls lust after.

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It is not, however, the mere love of fame or notoriety which produces all the results of this nature that we see in society around us. Men are boastful because they are greedy of gain: they praise one another to receive a reward; and, in this mercantile age, it is a sufficient justification of praise, however undeserved, if it be paid for. The principle seems to be generally allowed and acted upon, that what a man pays for with money, it is perfectly right to give,-hand, tongue, head, heart, or soul.

The boastful spirit is not confined, however, to the secular and worldly portion of society. There is ground to fear that the friends and advocates of the numerous benevolent and pious associations which are the glory of Britain, are too much given to its exercise, and are accustomed too greatly to encourage it among all the constituents of the Christian Church. We boast of our powerful ecclesiastical organizations; the number of our religious services and places of worship; the crowds of communicants and Sabbath worshippers; the myriads of Bibles and tracts scattered profusely throughout the whole habitable world; the vast treasures of wealth placed at the disposal of our Bible, Missionary, Tract, School, and charitable institutions; the learning, eloquence, zeal, and piety of our ministers and preachers; the respectability, order, and Christian demeanour of our congregations; and the rapid spread of the light of the gospel at home and abroad. We are found occasionally competing among ourselves respecting the accomplishment of some good work, and we boast of our goodness, and praise each other for our zeal or our liberality.

Instead of thus occupying our minds and the minds of our readers with inflated notions of the importance and magnitude of the means by which various good and praiseworthy ends are attempted to be reached, it may be well, perhaps, to take a brief yet calm and sober survey of the subject, with some reference to the pressing question of Sabbath observance.

London-the mighty heart of England, whose throbbings pulsate to the very extremities of the empire-is full of good works, and her machinery of means and appliances, wherewith to operate upon ignorance and vice, and in aid of the suffering, the forlorn, and the destitute, is never at rest. Churches and chapels exist contiguously to every principal thoroughfare, and six hundred thousand souls may at one hour hear in them the words of eternal life, without molestation, in quietness and comfort. Nearly seven hundred Sabbath-schools exert a beneficial influence upon the families of the productive classes, by means of more than thirteen thousand teachers and through one hundred and forty thousand Sabbath-scholars. On the area of the metropolis, more or less laid out in regular streets, squares, lanes, courts, and alleys, watched, guarded, and ordered by intelligent and active bodies of police, and peopled by not much less than two and a half millions of human beings, there is not a single square yard of land that is not, at least nominally, within the spiritual supervision of some Christian minister, whose ecclesiastical

conditions give to him the oversight of all souls connected therewith. The ordinances of religion are celebrated without hindrance in every appointed place with the utmost regularity and publicity; and the examples of many of the most wealthy, the highest in talent, the most estimable in character, and most respectable in business life, recommend to all, both high and low, a reverent observance of the forms, and an enlightened adoption of the principles, of piety.

But supplemental to those vast organizations which occupy the whole territory, parcelled and divided to facilitate and perfect communication with every part, there are other institutions set on foot to accomplish specific purposes, or operate upon particular classes, in furtherance of the great religious object of the church. The London City Mission employs 270 devoted agents, who during one year held 21,300 meetings for prayer and scripture exposition, paid 1,176,055 domiciliary visits, distributed 1,700,000 tracts, and lent 16,858 books and tracts among the inhabitants. The Christian Instruction Society has 90 congregations under its care, employs 2,000 gratuitous agents in visiting from house to house, and has 70 stations in and about London for preaching and prayer. Three tract societies annually give away and lend millions of tracts and pamphlets suited for persons in every possible state of mind and condition of life. The Ragged-schools open their doors and receive under instruction thousands of the outcasts of society, teaching them "the fear of the Lord." The Lord's Day Society promotes by every possible means the public and private observance of the Sabbath. And, lastly, that noblest product of British Christianity, the Bible Society, scatters with an unsparing hand the word of life, and thus places within the reach of the humblest, the poorest, and the most wretched of the race, the means of knowing "the truth as it is in Jesus."

A cursory view of our metropolitan privileges like this is calculated, per se, to fill a superficially reflective mind with spiritual pride; and as a natural consequence it is not seldom that we meet with minds so completely pre-occupied with the magnitude of the agency employed, and the efficiency of their operations, as to lose sight in a great measure of that very necessary inquiry-What are the results are they commensurate with the exertions of this multiplied evangelical provision for the spiritual wants of the metropolis? They rest in the means, forgetful of the end.

Nor let us too hastily blame their short sightedness. It would be an easy matter to persuade ourselves that great spiritual good is accomplished by taking up the reports of religious and philanthropic movements periodically published, and adding together the sum of their conclusions. But this does not at present strike us as a course that will bring out a right and fair estimate. The religious platform of the metropolis is of magnificent dimensions and proportions, occupying the whole field of observation; and we are persuaded we shall arrive at the truest estimate of its achievements by inquiring what it has not done, rather than what it has already accomplished.

We suppose that it will be admitted, on all hands, that the first consequence of religious action upon the heart and conduct of man is to make him honest, sober, industrious, chaste, and a keeper of the Sabbath. In view of this first principle, then, how shall we regard the following statements?

It is calculated that there are in London at the present time fifty thousand thieves; fifteen thousand professed gamblers; five thousand receivers of stolen goods; thirty thousand confirmed drunkards; one hundred and eighty thousand habitual gin-drinkers; and one hundred and fifty thousand persons subsisting on profligacy, under which term must be included prostitution, and every species of practical villany that trades on human virtue;-with such a mass of wickedness and wretchedness, we cannot therefore be much surprised, although it is a lamentable and heart-rending fact, that sixteen thousand children are at the present moment under training for the commission of crime! And it is less surprising still that in the midst of so fearful an amount of drunkenness and debauchery there are twenty-five thousand beggars.*

Let us unflinchingly look these facts in the face. Our religion, we just now said, should make us honest; and here are fifty thousand known thieves in the precincts of our holy places, and within reach of our conventional solemnities:—our religion should make us sober; and all its hallowing influences are rendered nugatory to more than two hundred thousand of our daily companions, by the intoxicating cup :-our religion should make us industrious; and around our sanctuaries and our homes nearly half a million of our brethren and sisters are forsaking honest and healthy labour, to work iniquity with greediness, and wear out their lives in dissipated idleness, criminal indulgences, or active occupations in the service of the devil::—our religion should make us pure and chaste; and one hundred and fifty thousand of our fellow creatures, who cross our path every day, live on the wages of impurity and profligacy!

We live in England-Christian, Protestant, religious England-the land of light and liberty, of Bibles, Sabbaths, and Christian privileges, and possess multiplied ordinances and solemnities for the honour of God and the good of man; and London is the bright central spot where all these glorious things concentrate, and whence their focal light beams forth to distant tribes who rejoice in the warmth and life of British Christianity. Yet all this brightness and glory, so conspicuous to a transient or distant observer, only conceals without extinguishing the smouldering, blackening, withering, charring heat of human depravity and impurity, that pervades the vast substratum of our town society.

We wish the Sabbath to be observed as a holy and a blessed day of rest, sacred to God. We just now said, religion makes man a keeper of the Sabbath:-but with such elements at work, fermenting among

*Our statistics are derived from the reports of various metropolitan institutions for 1852, and other authentic sources, chiefly supplied through the kindness of Mr. J. M. Jones.