'^< ^^^' 
 
 

 
 •warn'
 
 A SERMON • 
 
 PREACHED 
 
 ON SUNDAY MORNINCx, OCTOBER 11, 1863, 
 
 IN 
 
 CHRIST CHURCH, ST, GEORGE'S EAST, LONDON, 
 
 r 
 
 BEFORE I 
 
 1 
 I 
 
 TEE FIRST TOWER HAMLETS' VOLUNTEER ENGINEERS, 
 
 AND .* 
 
 TEE SEVENTH TOWER HAMLETS' RIFLES, 
 
 BY THE 
 
 I^Ev. a. H. M'aiLL, m:.a.. 
 
 I^XJBIjISHBID B^ST IlEGiTJEST. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY 
 
 GEORGE RYMER, 83, NEW ROAD, 
 
 COMMERCIAL ROAD, E. 
 
 1863.
 
 A. S JE I^ M O N, 
 
 Sfc, Sfc. 
 
 " The Battle is the Lord's." — 1 Samiiel, c. xiv, part of v. 47. 
 
 
 'HEN men are strong and powerful. — when they possess 
 ((t a larger amount of muscular development than their 
 fellows — they are apt to rely upon theii- own strength, 
 and trust with too much confidence to their own vigor. The Pagan 
 nations deified Hcrcides, the ancient tyj)e of bodily force, and they 
 regarded as worth}' of theii* worship such leaders of mankind as 
 Agamemnon and Achilles, Hector, the son of Priam, and Telamonian 
 Ajax. And when this reverence is paid by others to such eminent 
 examples of manliness and power, it is not at all wonderful that the 
 objects of that reverence shoidd entertain exalted opinions of 
 themselves, and forget for the time that " The battle is the Lord's." 
 This no doixbt was the case ^vith the Philistine of Gath, to whom 
 the words of the text were spoken. 
 
 The story is well known to all. It is the story of faith 
 trivmiphing over unbelief; the story of weakness that trusted in 
 Almighty strength overthi'owing' power that trusted in itself. It 
 is the story of the Child of God leaning on the arm of God's pro- 
 tection, felling to the earth the child of earth leaning upon the arm 
 of flesh : It is the story of David and Goliath, the sKng and the stone 
 on one side with God directing it, and the sword and the spear and 
 the shield wielded by the strongest of mortal arms on the other. 
 
 God's people were at this period sorely pressed by the armies 
 of the Philistines. And more than this, every day there came forth 
 fi-om the host of the Philistines a mighty champion who challenged 
 the whole body of the Israelites to single combat. He cried " Give 
 me a man to fight with me. Am not I a Philistine, and ye ser- 
 vants to Saul? Choose you a man for you, and let him come 
 down to me. If he be able to fight with me and to kill me, then 
 will we be your servants, but if 1 prevail agamst him and kill him, 
 then shall ye be our servants, and serve us. And the Philistine 
 said, I defy the armies of Israel this day, give me a man that we may 
 fioht together. And when Saul and all Israel heard these words of 
 the Philistine they were dismayed and greatly afraid." Nor can 
 we be surprised that such was the case, for this Goliath was a mighty
 
 6 
 
 the profitable emplojinent of their laboui-, and so add to the nation's 
 ■wealth. 
 
 The agriculturalist also, is a patriot, inasmuch as his exertions, 
 blessed by the genial rain, the dew and sunshine of heaven, pro- 
 duce the corn and the cattle which are necessary for the supply 
 of the people's wants. Whoever does his duty, as a Christian, in the 
 position where God has been pleased to place him, is a true patriot. 
 He is an honour to his countiy, and fights the battle of patriotism 
 nobly and well. But he Avho superadds to this the knowledge 
 necessary for the defence of the land against invaditig foes, — he who 
 volimteers his services to protect our homes and hearths from the 
 invasion of Old England's enemies, — he who shoiilders his rifle, or 
 learns the science of Engineering in order to make the institutions 
 of the country safe, — for this is the sole object of the Volunteer 
 Movement, — he is a nobler patriot still. For he adds a special work 
 of patriotism to that ordinary one which the generality of the race 
 perform. He is not only a commercial or an agricultiu'al patriot, 
 but he is a military patriot too. He not only provides a Hvelihood 
 for those aroxmd him, but he makes that livelihood more seciu-e. 
 Without this seciuity we all know that the merchant or the ctilti- 
 vator cotdd not possibly prosper in his undertakings. 
 
 In the history of our own land we have read of the miseries 
 and horrors of civil strife. During the Wars of the Roses we are 
 told that thousands of acres were left untilled, that the flower of 
 England's youth perished in internecine war, that trade Avas 
 prostrate, and almost every misery that can afflict mankind was 
 rampant throughout the land. In the time of the Great Eebellion 
 too, many a castle was dismantled, and many a mansion reduced to 
 desolation. The crops were left imgathered, and the wants of the 
 poor imattended to. We, none of us, have experienced the horrors 
 of the battle field, and God forbid we ever should. But others are 
 experiencing them at this very moment on the western shore of the 
 broad Atlantic. Thousands of men are falHng victims every week 
 in the contests between the Northern and Southern States of 
 America. Thousands of families are motirning for theii* fathers 
 and their sons who have died in battle, and thousands of widows are 
 lamenting theu- husbands torn fi-om them in the very prime of life. 
 We can see what war is from e-\ddence sixch as this ; and we 
 can consequently see how necessary it is to be prepared against such 
 a calamity. 
 
 " Thy name is WTitten m human blood, 
 On smokmg rums where cities stood ; 
 Thy chariot wheels ai'e red ■\\ith gore, 
 Thy goblet with tears is brimming o'er, 
 Thy banquet board, spread on the tented field 
 
 Is draped by a funeral pall ; 
 To each guest is given a sword and shield, 
 
 And the heart is the food of all. 
 War most fierce ! thou feedest the greedy grave, 
 
 And the dungeon's gloomy cell, 
 Thou raakest the monarch thy dupe and slave, 
 
 He doeth thy bidding well."
 
 Some men may say that the best preparation for war is to yield 
 without a word to the enemy ; to sacrifice everything for the sake 
 of peace. But this is a grand mistake. The coward boy at school 
 receives many a blow in consequence of his cowardice, and the man 
 who is known to be defenceless is sure to be the first attacked. 
 And as it is with individuals, so it is with nations. The most 
 unprepared are those that are first assailed. Before the organization 
 of the Volunteer Movement took place, we hcai'd frequent menaces 
 from across the channel, that " Perfidious Albion," must be chas- 
 tised, and the disaster of Waterloo atoned for. But now all this 
 is cliauged. We were unprepared then, and our unpreparedness 
 was the cause of the menaces which were heard. Now we are 
 prepared to fight the battle of patriotism, and we hear those 
 meuaces no longer. 
 
 Most of you are aware of the intemperate language used 
 towards this country by the Northern States of America at the 
 commencement of the war. Not a week passed by but some 
 rumour or other was set forth that Canada would be attacked and 
 the Enu,lish fleet driven fri>m the seas We bore it all in silence, 
 till action took the place of svords. and the seizure of the Southern 
 Commissioners on board •' The Trent." caused us to assert our 
 rights even at the risk of war Since then we have heard little of 
 the desire to pick a quarrel with this country, and there is no doubt 
 but that the spirit then shown, and the evidence then set forth that 
 we were ready for every issue, has dissipated the notion of a war 
 with England, and consolidated the peaceful relations between the 
 two countries. Nor can we fail to express our admiration of those 
 who. in difficult times like these, have kept the peace both at home 
 and abroad. We have been wifiely guided by our leading states- 
 men in this momentous crisis. The principle of non-interference 
 with the quarrels of other nations is the right principle for a 
 constitutional government like ours to act iqDon VV^e are pros- 
 perous ourselves on the whole, and we do well to let well alone. 
 We have shown ourselves patriotic, but not aggressive, prepared for 
 defence, but mcapable of detiauce. It is because we love God and 
 our country that we i;ive our services as Volunteers : not because 
 we want to ^;ght with our fellow creatures, but because we wish to 
 prevent quarrels and render war improbable, if not impossible. 
 We fight the battle of patriotism, knowing it is the Lord alone who 
 gives the victory in that as in the battle of life. 
 
 III. But the most important of the battles which Ave have all 
 to fight, is the battle of salvation In this we are not Volunteers; 
 we cannot refuse to fight. For, as we have all immortal souls, so we 
 must all provide, through Jesus Christ, for their salvation. And here, 
 in an especial manner, are the words of David in the text true and 
 faithful, " The battle is the Lord's." He is, in this .conflict, the 
 Great Captain under whose command we must fight. If, in the 
 battle of life we can do nothing without His blessing : if, in the 
 battle of patriotism, we need His helping hand, — much more do we 
 need His assistance in the battle of our salvation. Too many of us are
 
 8 
 
 apt to think, that it is not a matter of niuch consequence, whether 
 our souls are saved or not. We are apt to look at things temporal 
 80 closely that we forget the things eternal. But this is a fearfully 
 mistaken view of oui- position. For what reason, let us ask, have 
 we been born into the world ? Have we been created by a benefi- 
 cent and all-wise Being merely to eat, and drink, and live for a few 
 brief years, and then to be annihiliated ? Has God given us warm afi'ec- 
 tions and earnest sympathies to grow with our growth and strengthen 
 with our strength, and then, when our outward man dies, to perish 
 for ever? Has he planted within us aspirations for immortality 
 without any intention of gratifying those aspirations? Has He 
 given us a conscience to warn us of oiu- accountability at the last 
 great day. and yet doomed us to be eternal cyphers after death? Has 
 He revealed to us the joys and teiTors of the future world, and yet 
 determined, that there shall be no future world at all? Has he 
 furnished us with arms to usein our spiritual conflict, and yet denied 
 to us the possibility of' victory. For what purpose has the Word of 
 God been written? Why are we told to have '• our loins girt about 
 with truth, and to have on the breastplate of righteousness, and our 
 feet shod with the preparation ot the gospel of peace " Why are we 
 to *' take the shield of faith and the hel net of salvation and the 
 sword of the Spirit," if there is to be no battle, — no victory, — no 
 immortal crown? Why, brethren, these words tell us. in language 
 not to be mistaken, that we must fight earnestly and bravely lor 
 the salvation of oiu- souls. 
 
 In the instruction which you have received from able engineers, 
 you have learnt how to tin ow over a stream, a bridge, on which 
 you may safely cross the deepest water to the other side. And you 
 have done well in learning such an important lesson. But I would 
 beseech you to remember, that there is another stream to be 
 crossed, by all who would enter heaven, the " river of the water of 
 life." — tlie heavenly Jordan by which the Holy City is encircled, — 
 and the directions for its passage are set forth in the Word of God. 
 It will have to be approached in the face of an active, ever watch- 
 ful, and vindictive enemy; Satan will do all he can to interrupt the 
 passage, and sink the soul in the deep and perilous stream. And 
 do not think for a moment, that he is an adversary easy to be over- 
 come. He is subtle in his attacks and often wears the semblance 
 of a friend. He gilds temptation with the brightest gold, and 
 sweetens the cup of sin with the most luscious honey. And you 
 will have to be always vigilant, always on the alert, if you would 
 conquer such an enemy. The young, who are just entering fresh 
 upon the journey of life, he strives to lure away from their Christian 
 duty by the enticements of worldly pleasure, by the intoxicating 
 draught of carnal delight, which first leads them away from the 
 eye of their Great Captain, and then, if they are not snatched back 
 from their foolish path, into the very ranks of the enemy. Beware, 
 therefore, of the first steps in vice. Pause before you enter the 
 bay of Syrens, if you would avoid being stranded on the fearful 
 yocks by which it is encompassed.
 
 9 
 
 Othei s, the arch-enemy assails by pandering to Iheir covetous- 
 ness, and making them fight the battle of life only, without thinking 
 of the battle of salvation. Them he leads to think of worldly 
 things, and to forget their God. Others again, he leads captive 
 by humouring their ambition and elevating them in the worldly 
 scale till they neglect their eternal responsibilities, and make no 
 preparation for the world beyond the grave. Thus, one in oneway, 
 and another in another, they are assailed by this deadly and uncom- 
 promising foe, who sttives to obtain the mastery of their souls, 
 and to win the battle which all must fight. 
 
 And oh ! my Brethren, how shall we fight this fight, so as to 
 come ofi" more than conquerors? Not in our own strength, but in 
 the strength of that Hed(?emer, who himself vanquished Satan more 
 than once, and led death and hell in captivity away. Not relying 
 on our own courage, or our own skill, but on the support of that 
 Divine Spirit, which on the Day of Pentecost was sent down from 
 heaven to dwell with Christ's chosen ones for ever. Let us remem- 
 ber, with David in the text, that "the battle is the Lord's," and 
 that He alone can give the enemy into our hands. Christ has told 
 us, by bis Apostle, to "put on the whole armour of God, that we 
 may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to 
 stand." And this armour is secured to us through the means of grace. 
 Trirh, righteousness, peace, faith, prayer, the Word of God, perse- 
 verance, these are all dependent upon a diligent participation in the 
 means of grace. And, just as our rifles would, without ammunition, 
 be useless in the day of battle, so would our hopes of heaven be 
 vain, if our souls be wanting in these virtues of which we speak. 
 
 Nor is it possible for them all to be acquired at once. Some 
 people think they will have religion enough to make their peace 
 witli God, if they, on their death-bed, send for the Clergyman, and 
 join with him in a brief prayer for pardon. They think that they 
 may live in the service of the world, the flesh, and the devil, all 
 their life long, and when life draws to its final close, may change 
 their service, and be admitted to the favour of Him whom they 
 have so long neglected and despised- " Can the Ethiopian change 
 his skin, or the leopard his spots ! " No. Nor can the sinner 
 change his thoughts and ways suddenly in a moment. Does a man 
 become a skilled rifleman in a day, or in a week, or even in a year ? 
 You know how difficult it is to become perfect in your drill, to move 
 with precision in battalion, and to carry out the other manoeuvrea 
 which are required for the proper handling of a large body of men. 
 They are not learnt without diligent attention, — without a consider- 
 able number of repeated efforts. And so, the soldier of the Cross, 
 who fights the battle of salvation with success, is not a mere tyro 
 in spiritual things, but a painstaking, earnest, seasoned warrior, 
 whose heart is fixed on gaining the victory. 
 
 Yes, brethren, for the battle of life, of patriotism, and of salva- 
 tion, — diligence, activity, earnestness, determination not to be 
 defeated, faith and perseverance, are all essential ; and, above all.
 
 10 
 
 the blessing of God upon our efforts, " The battle is the Lord's " 
 after all ; and He alone, can give the victory. May He be pleased 
 to give it to each and every one of us here present. May He be 
 with us by His Holy Spirit always, to strengthen and support us 
 when we are in danger of falling into the hands of the enemy ; — 
 may He supply us with all that is necessary for conquest, — may He 
 defeat all the plans of our wily adversary-, and, as the glorious 
 Author of our salvation, make us " more than conquerors, through 
 Him that loved us and gave Himself for us" — Jesus Christ our 
 Saviour. May we ever remember that the issue of the battle is in 
 His hands, and may He so guide us *' through things temporal that 
 we finally lose not the things eternal." Amen. 
 
 Printed by G. Ktmbb, 63, New Boad, Commercial Road. X.
 
 A SERMON 
 
 PREACHED AT 
 
 THE CHAPEL EOYAL, SAVOY STREET, STRAND 
 
 BEFORE THE 
 
 C|mxlj leititcniiarjl ^sMdatimt 
 
 THURSDAY, MAY 12, 18G4 
 
 THE BISHOP OF BEECHIN 
 
 PRINTED FOR TirE ASSOCIATION BY 
 
 SPOTTISWOODE & CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE, EC. 
 
 1864
 
 Gal. vi. 8. 
 
 For he that soweth to his flesh, shall reap corruption ; but he that 
 soioeth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. 
 
 The women of every age and country are what the men wish 
 them to be. It is the ohl, old story. ' Thy desire shall be to 
 thy husband ' was part of the primaeval doom. It was so then ; 
 it is so to-day. Their mission is to please, and in order to please 
 they must adapt themselves, and must suit their ways and 
 thoughts and habits to the exacting standard of man's will. 
 
 Hence the condition of the women of a country becomes the 
 best test of its civilisation. The grovvn-up children who people 
 the harems of the East indicate the stunted civilisation which 
 distinguishes all those lands where the greatest of all heresies, 
 that of Islam, prevails. The dignity of the Roman matron, con- 
 trasted with the abject condition of the slave-wife of Athens, 
 was the test of a better and more solid ad\ ancement than the 
 strains of ^Eschylus or the statuary of Praxitiles. And a civilisa- 
 tion that has run to seed, as in the case of the States of America, 
 receives its true gauge in the manners of the self-reliant self- 
 conscious maiden who, at the age of sixteen, chooses for herself 
 a husband and a religion. 
 
 But a disturbing element exists with respect to the univer- 
 sality of this proposition, and that is Religion. Religion, either 
 practised or neglected, modifies the truth that the condition of 
 woman is a test of civilisation, because women are ever what 
 the men wish them to be. Religion practised and Religion 
 neglected alike disturb the harmony of the material state of 
 civil society in which we live day by day. For women are 
 
 A 2
 
 either better or worse than men, and alike in their glory and 
 their degradation, they become exceptional. Where woman 
 devotes herself to the higher walks of faith and love, especially 
 when vowed to God she becomes the handmaid of the Lord, 
 she so far exceeds the average standard of man's requirements 
 that she becomes a reproach to the lax ways and worldly 
 thoughts of the circle in which she moves. AVhere she aban- 
 dons herself to corrupt ways and notorious sin, she alarms 
 society for its very existence, the very existence of society being 
 founded in ' the familv,' and its strenerth and well-beincr measured 
 by the purity and sanctity of the home. 
 
 And it is in these two exceptional aspects that I wish to con- 
 sider the subject this day. I wish to dwell upon woman 
 redeemed and elevated in Christ, serving God day and night, 
 and woman abased and lost in Satan, each abnormal forms of the 
 world's every day civilisation, each in the polity of the world 
 exceptional and disturbing. 
 
 And first of the truly Christian woman (and here I would 
 not only speak of those who are in religion, but of those also 
 who in holy matrimony illustrate the glorious character of the 
 Christian matron). To estimate her place in creation, her rank 
 in the world, we must look back to that from which she came, 
 and by the contrast estimate her value. • While the woman of the 
 Jewish covenant, in respect of her purer faith, foreshadowed 
 what she was destined to become under the full light of the 
 Gospel, while a strong concentration and purpose of life distin- 
 guish Deborah and Esther and Judith from the unindividual 
 nature of the East, we have to see what woman really was in 
 the highest forms of pagan civilisation, in order to estimate what 
 Christ has done for her elevation. 
 
 Though Aristotle boasts with justice that women in Greek 
 society were raised to be the real helpmates of men in contra- 
 distinction to the institutes of Oriental and barbaric life, yet at 
 best they never rose above the discharge of the necessary 
 domestic duties. In Athens the wife all her life long was treated 
 as a minor, and if we refer to the satirical works of the day, we 
 find a general notion of woman being naturally more vicious and 
 evil-inclined than man, more addicted to envy, discontent, evil- 
 
 
 '^te-.xJ 
 
 /
 
 speaking, and laxity of life. The extreme facility of repudiation 
 had a tendency to lower her in the estimation of man, and we 
 find a total absence of fine characters influencing the progress of 
 the state. In Sparta the position of woman was even worse. 
 They were looked upon only as the possible mothers of strong- 
 limbed and valiant soldiers. 
 
 It was better at first amonjT the Romans : with them 
 marriage was not devoid of a certain sacredness. It was 
 a covenant embracing the duration of life, a community of 
 joy and sorrow, and of the mutual cares of education. The 
 Roman matron, honoured and respected, played her part in 
 the politics of the nation, and her worth and virtues were a 
 part of the people's inheritance. But as the manners became 
 corrupted all this disappeared. Long before the establishment 
 of the Empire, the more sacred form of marriage was avoided, 
 and an easier tie, in which the facilities of repudiation were 
 greater, became gradually substituted. The gravest moralists, 
 such as Cato, despised the sanctity of woman, and woman, under 
 this treatment, amply revenged herself. A rivalry in impurity 
 grew up between the two sexes, and so hateful did marriage 
 with the degraded and extravagant women of the time become, 
 that Augustus was obliged to enforce marriage by the most 
 stringent enactments, though the temper of the times led to 
 their constant evasion. 
 
 It is not necessary to have recourse to the descriptions of the 
 satirists of the time in order to gauge the depth of the depravity 
 of the women of the Empire : the very gravest annals of the 
 most trustworthy historians and philosophers record, in the most 
 matter-of-fact way, the nation's shame. ' There is not a woman 
 left,' says Seneca, ' who is ashamed of being divorced, now that 
 most of the high and distinguished ladies count their years, not 
 by the consular fasti, but by the number of husbands, and are 
 divorced in order to marry, and marry in order to be divorced.'* 
 
 It is needful to dwell on these frightful details if only to show 
 us what mankind has gained in the religion of Jesus Christ. 
 Contrast these stately and polluted Livias and Julias with the 
 
 * Cf. Dollinger's Gcntik'and Jew, vol. ii. p. 259.
 
 6 
 
 sweet list in the Epistle to the Romans that sounds almost like 
 a Litany — ' Priscilla,' ' Mary who bestowed much labour on 
 us ; ' ' Junia/ ' Tryphena and Tryphosa,' ' the beloved Persis 
 that laboured much in the Lord/ and the other gentle Christians 
 of the Church of Rome. 
 
 Yes, Ciu'istianity came to regenerate society, and it could 
 only do so by elevating woman. Sacramentally, Humanity has 
 been made partaker of the Divine nature by the adorable mystery 
 of the Incarnation, the essence of which is that the Eternal Son 
 is made of a woman, and as that woman was made fit to be the 
 bearer of God, to be what a devout faith has defined as the 
 Theotokos, the mother of Him who is true God from true God, 
 it followed that a higher type of female excellence should be 
 revealed to the Church, and, as a consequence, be aimed at by 
 Christians. Thus, while in the early documents of Christianity 
 we find no authority for any Lnmaculate Conception but that 
 of Him who came to take away the sins of the world by tlie 
 sacrifice of Himself, we find two images flitting before the mind 
 of the Church — Eva and Mary — Eva, symbol of a fallen race* 
 — type of the flesh, type even of the human and frail side of 
 the Church of God;t and Mary4 Virgin and Mother — type of 
 regenerate humanity, source of new life, but more blessed in her 
 faith and obedience than in the fact of her Divine maternity. § 
 And then as time goes on, this fairest of images developes itself. 
 As the paper marked by the sun's rays exhibits no trace of what 
 is delineated thereon till immersed in the revealinii fluid, and 
 
 * Eva nobis interior caro nostra est. — S. Aug. EnaiT. on Ps. xlviii., Serm I., 
 vol. iv. p. 321. 
 
 f Ut quid dormivit ? Quia Adam forma erat futnri : et Adam dormivit, quando 
 de latere ejus Eva facta est. Adam in figura Christi, Eva in figura ecclesise : 
 unde est appeilata mater viventium. — S. Aug. Enarr in Ps. xl., vol. iv p. 203. 
 
 :J: Et virgo est et paret (ecclesia), Mariam imitatur quae Dominum peperit. 
 Nunquid non virgo sancta Maria, et peperit et virgo permansit ? Sic et ecclesia 
 et parit, et virgo est. Mulierem illam (in Apocalypsi) virginem Mariam sig- 
 nificasse qua: caput nostrum integra. integrum perperit, quse etiam ipsa figuram 
 in se saiict£e ecclesiDS demonstravit. — Ue Symb. ad Col. ii., vol. W, p. 42-4. — 
 Serm. 214, de Temp., vol. v. p. 655. 
 
 § Beatior ergo Maria percipier.do fidem Christi, quam concipiendo carnem 
 Christi.— De Sancta Virg., torn. vi. p. 230.
 
 then gradually we see under our very eye the picture taking 
 form, and the hitherto blank surface mai'ked and streaked till 
 the whole scene stands out in full development, so Christianity, 
 elevating the nature of woman, soon disclosed a type of moral 
 excellence such as the world had never seen. First, we have 
 the wondrous portraiture of the early martyrs whose names 
 for very glory have been embalmed in the magnificent Liturgy 
 of S. Peter, Felicitas, Perpetua, Agatha, Lucy, Agnes, Cecily, 
 and Anastasia, exhibitions to a wondering heathen world of the 
 gift of ghostly strength, whereby the tencierest and tbe feeblest were 
 enabled to endure the most awful tortures in witness of the truth 
 of their convictions and of their loyalty to their celestial Lord 
 and Spouse. Then comes the beautiful picture drawn by the 
 loving hand of S. Augustine, of his own dear mother, Monica, 
 and the less finished but not less tender portraiture of the parent 
 of S. Chrysostome. This is followed by the vigorous sketches 
 by S. Jerome of the great and devout Roman ladies of his day 
 — Paula, Eustochium, and the much regretted Blesilla, where 
 we find the same intensity of character which had given point 
 to the crimes of the ladies of the Empire, now consecrated to the 
 service of the Cross. And now a new phase of human thought 
 is embodied In the history of Christian women — now Scholastica, 
 the sister of S. Benedict, becomes the foundress of a religious 
 order of women. The zeal and a;isterity which had hitherto 
 distinguished the Christian women in the world were now 
 embodied in monastic rule, and the fii'st impulse given to that 
 wonderful movement which has consecrated the tenderest 
 feelings of woman's nature to the sole and undivided love of 
 the heavenly Bridegroom, and in so doing has poured upon 
 suffering humanity a very flood of mercy and lovingkindness, 
 in the sacred ministries of consolation and edification, in the 
 school, the hospital and the penitentiary. 
 
 And now, as the old Roman Empire was expiring, and the 
 Church was subduing, one by one, the new vigorous kingdoms 
 of the barbarians, at the very time that they thought they were 
 conquering her, a new mission was opened for women in the work 
 of those Christian queens who, wedding heathen or heretical 
 princes, brought home by their gentle influence, to the hearts
 
 8 
 
 of many a savage warrior, the blessings of the Gospel of Christ. 
 Such were S. Bertha, S. Clotilda, S. Theodolinda, and within 
 these walls surrounded by the scutcheons and monuments of 
 the Scottish nation, needs is it that I shoiild mention our own 
 S. Margaret ? 
 
 But why continue to dwell on these various forms of Christian 
 female excellence ? To name Christianity is to name woman- 
 hood. Where shall we seek for the love of God and of man, for 
 tender and devout love to Christ and His saints, for self-sacri- 
 ficing labour and zeal, for piety, devotion, and tenderness, if we 
 seek it not here ? When the celebrated French philosopher was 
 asked whether he believed the religion of Jesus, all that he said 
 was — 'It was the religion of my mother;' and thanks be to God 
 that, in these days of rebuke and blasphemy, when a cold and 
 sceptical s])irit has gone abroad, wdien the Holy Scriptures them- 
 selves are assailed by an irreverent criticism, when the rising 
 talent of the country is doubting, if not unbelieving, the faith in 
 God still burns bright in woman's heart ; and the lamp of faith, 
 though flickering in its socket, is still fed by the oil of the hol}^ 
 obedience and the undoubting faith of the Christian women of 
 Europe. 
 
 Oh, blessed be God for this manifestation of His mercy and 
 lovingkindness. W^hen the heart sinks at the thought of the 
 ever-increasing, ever-deepening stream of human woe; of what 
 a godless industry is perpetuating in the creation of a God- 
 forgetting, church-neglecting population, intent only on the 
 fabrication of the instruments of a material civilisation, and for- 
 getting their own immortal souls ; it is a comfort to think of the 
 labours of love which are wrought by those holy women who, 
 either in the intervals of the leisure allowed by their domestic 
 duties, or still better, consecrated to God's work by an entire 
 and absolute dedication of themselves to His blessed service, do 
 what in them lies to stem the tide of sinful human custom, offer 
 themselves to undo the evils which sin works on body and soul, 
 and sacrifice themselves, their comforts, their time, and their 
 fortunes to the work of Christ upon earth. 
 
 And there is one form of this work to which I must now make 
 allusion. In the beginning of this discourse, I pointed out that
 
 fine and delicate relation between woman and the peculiar con- 
 dition of that society in which she moves, and that it was modi- 
 fied, on opposite sides, by the presence or absence of religion, in 
 a very marked degree ; in other words, that very good and very 
 bad women alike disturbed the balance. We have seen, in the 
 case of the very good, that, while they have been an untold 
 blessing to the world, their unconscious influence has been a 
 rebuke to it : a witness to Christ rather than a submission to 
 man. We have now to look at the other proposition, that great 
 wickedness in woman shakes society to its very centre, disturbs 
 the worldly calm of human custom, and so, from an opposite 
 quarter, affects the general proposition. 
 
 And here we must, with a delicate hand, touch on the sore of 
 all civilisation. We have to accept the humiliating fact that in 
 every state of society, above the most simple, there are those 
 whom a corrupt society creates, while she despises them and 
 treads them under foot. That there are those to whom the 
 sweet voice of a mother speaks not ; by whom the lisping accents 
 of infancy are unheard. There are those who have no home, 
 nay, are the enemies of the sanctity of the domestic hearth. At 
 once the creation and the ministers of that luxury which, like 
 the Manichasanism denounced by the apostle, 'forbideth to marry,' 
 they are both the pests of society and its victims. Often drawn 
 from the path of virtue by man, they become the instruments of 
 a terrible retribution, in the hardening of his heart, in the 
 extinction of the aspiring part of his nature, in the deadening of 
 his spiritual powers, not to speak of other more obvious conse- 
 quences. Eating the manhood and vigour out of a whole 
 generation, they become the curse of a nation, for with regard 
 to no other sin are the judgments of God more manifest. 
 
 But it is not their perniciousness to which I have now to 
 allude. I have to speak of their misery. Oh, it wrings the heart 
 to see beauty and youth thus degraded ; to behold the most 
 lovely creations of God plunged in a course of sin that leads to 
 wretchedness, and disease, and poverty, and prematui'e death ; 
 to know that beneath those painted cheeks and that tawdry 
 dress, thoughts of remorse and shame exist — exist but to be 
 drowned in excitement or wine — or, still worse, to recognise the
 
 10 
 
 prevalence of a hardness of heart, and contempt of God's holy 
 word and commandments, the probable forerunner of eternal 
 reprobation. 
 
 And sad would this be, were this but an exceptional picture : 
 that here and there amid a great nation there were some marked 
 out by these characteristics. But the thought is overpowering 
 when we know that they exist by thousands ; that m this great 
 city alone, which stands in the forefront of the civilisation of the 
 age, there are more than thirty thousand persons, who have been 
 redeemed by the holy blood of Jesus Christ, whose very mode 
 of living is to trample it under foot; who, by the very necessity 
 of their position, must add day by day, and night by night, to 
 the reeking caldron of human sin and human sorrow, and whose 
 feet are swift to shed the blood of immortal souls. 
 
 Neither can it be denied that wiiile other vices are withdraw- 
 ing themselves before the refinement of the age, while coarse 
 excess and the loud execration do not taint the air of society, 
 sins of the flesh, both secret and manifest, continue to be fear- 
 fully common. And it must be so. The more artificial the 
 habits become, the more expensive the way of life, the less 
 inducement there is for earlj' marriage; and those feelings which 
 were implanted in man, to enable him to symbolise in holy 
 matrimony the mystical union between Christ and the Church, 
 become frittered away on transitory and unworthy objects, till 
 the whole freshness of the soul disappears, and the inviolable law 
 of God, that they who sow to the flesii shall reap corruption, is 
 fulfilled in the letter and in the spirit, amid the degradation 
 of the faculties, the enfeeblement of the body, and the destruc- 
 tion of the life of the spirit. 
 
 [ am here this day to ask you, as Christian men and Christian 
 women, to do what in you lies to avert the judgment of God 
 from the land by doing somewhat to stem the fearful tide of evil. 
 It is the duty of every one: and whereas the nature of the sin 
 j)revents in many cases anything like personal effort, it is the 
 more blessed that you have a well-considered, thoughtful scheme 
 placed before you. To succour the outcast and the miserable 
 is in itself blessed, but this does not comprise the entire
 
 11 
 
 intention of the Church Penitentiary Association ; it is not only 
 to succour the outcast and miserable, but it is to do it by the 
 agency of the purest and holiest of their sex, and to bring to bear 
 upon the degraded minds of those whose consciences have been 
 seared by a long course of sin, the tender discriminating love of 
 the innocent and the gentle. And is anything more likely to 
 win them than such a course as this ? Is there no. ^iven to 
 unsullied innocence a certain power to the casting down of the 
 strongholds of Satan ? Is there not a special gift of the discre- 
 tion of spirits vouchsafed to the innocent ? The pure in heart 
 see God, and as, according to the pious speculation of the middle 
 age, the saints reigning with God sce all things in the mirror of 
 the Trinity, so those pure souls who see God see much that 
 others cannot see. There are hidden instincts that belong to 
 Christ's chosen ones ; secret impressions, sure as intuit'ions, 
 belong to those who ' walk in white, for they sin not.' iThiQ^s 
 that mortal eye cannot see, objects that the clouded eye of sense 
 cannot perceive, are clear to them. Even here they know in 
 part, and therefore they can touch the deeper springs of human 
 character, pierce beneath the crust of selfishness and sin, and 
 with delicate tact and dainty hand treat the festering ulcers of a 
 sore humanity. 
 
 And, therefore, you will see how admirably adapted suf^ ' 
 these are for the work in question. Experience has ' 
 it is a most disappointing sphere of labour, if we lo-' 
 results. Relapses are so frequent, and t^ 
 weakened by the frequent repetition of 
 are there so many disappointments. ^ 
 to succeed, it is the system which •■ 
 Penitentiary Association. England r 
 spite of infinite prejudices, the 
 won. Anglicanism has now no j 
 only branch of God's Church, ^ 
 provision has been made for th« 
 and of the higher development 
 lives. 
 
 But continued success depend
 
 12 
 
 lioly.^ovctj require 3'our alms, and though the labour of the 
 peflitent^ is made to a degree rcnunerative, the expense of such 
 institutions is very great. I ..eed not, I am sure, press this 
 more strong] - upni you. ' Le every man do as he is disposed 
 in his 1 --Tr*-, nrt grudgingly, c' of necersity, for God lovetli a 
 cheerfj] 
 
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