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WE ARE MEMBERS ONE OF ANOTHER."

A SERMON,
PREACHED IN THE PARISH CHURCH OF ST. ANNE,
WANDSWORTH,
ON WEDNESDAY, APRIL 26th, 1854;

BEING THE DAY APPOINTED FOR GENERAL HUMILIATION AND
PRAYER BEFORE ALMIGHTY GOD.

BY
JAMES BOOTH, D.C.L., F.R.S., Etc.
CHAPLAIN TO THE MARQUIS 0# LANSDOWNE, AND
CURATE OF THE PARISH OF"ST. ANNE,
WANDSWORTH.

LONDON:
GEORGE BELL, FLEET STREET.
1854.
Price Owe iShilling.^

WE ARE MEMBERS ONE OF ANOTHER."

A SERMON,
PREACHED IN THE PARISH CHURCH OF ST. ANNE/
WANDSWORTH,
ON WEDNESDAY, APRIL 26th, 1854;

BEING THE DAY APPOINTED FOR GENERAL HUMILIATION AND
PRAYER BEFORE ALMIGHTY GOD.

BY
JAMES BOOTH, D.C.L., F.R. S., Etc.
CHAPLAIN TO THE MARQUIS OF LANSDOWNE, AND
CURATE OF THE PARISH OF ST. ANNE,
WANDSWORTH.

LONDON:
GEORGE BELL, FLEET STREET.
1854.

ADVERTISEMENT.
At the request of several of my Parishioners, I
have published the following Discourse. That
it is printed without addition or alteration, as it
was delivered, will in some measure account
for any inaccuracies which may appear. The
proceeds of the sale, if any, will be applied to
promote the object I have advocated. J. B.

St. Anne's Vicarage,
May I, 1854.

A SERMON.
Ephesians iv. 25.
" We are members one of another."
THERE is no more remarkable characteristic of
the New Testament, apart from its inspiration,
than the broad simplicity with which it puts forward
propositions that contain within themselves the deve
lopment of entire branches of moral science. St. Paul
borrows the apposite illustration of the different func
tions of the various members of the human body, their
mutual dependence, their sympathy one with another,
to show that one member of a community cannot suffer
without the detriment of all. Now, although St. Paul
applies this argument to the members of the Church
of Christ in their individual capacities, there is nothing
in the whole scope of his reasoning, or in the appli
cation of the illustrations he makes use of, to restrict
the generality of this great proposition thus delivered
to mankind. St. Paul, without any preface, gives to
the world one of those grand truths, made known to us
by revelation, the full importance and ultimate bearing
of which he doubtless did not himself appreciate.
That we are members one of another, not only indi
vidually but nationally, seems now to us very plain.
We now all of us hold it to be a truth so self-evident,

6 We are Members one of another.
so trite, that it may well be called a truism. But it
was not so then : it was a discovery in that age of the
world more remarkable in its results, than the disco
very of steam or of the electric telegraph in our own.
Indeed these latter may be taken as the physical or
natural agents which facilitate the practical applica
tions of this great moral truth — we are members one
of another. At the time when Christ came in the
flesh, a state of nature was a state of war. It was an
universally admitted maxim of political science, sanc
tioned by philosophers and ratified by legislators, that
where an actual treaty of peace or a truce did not
exist between two nations, these nations were to be
considered as at war with each other. The desire of
glory, the thirst of conquest, or the lust of aggrandise
ment were held to be, in themselves, pleas which
amply justified the aggression of the strong upon the
weak. It was no business of any other nation to inter
fere ; no sovereign felt it to be his duty to go forth and
to redress the wrongs of races trodden down under the
wheels of the chariots of their triumphant oppressors.
The very landmarks of right and wrong were cast
down, so that men were taught to believe that justice
and injustice had no eternal existence in the immutable
relations of things, but were the mere inventions of
society. To this heathenish and antichristian prin
ciple of non-intervention may be traced the rise of
nearly all the great empires of the world both in
ancient and modern times. Surrounding nations, in
all the short-sighted selfishness of craven fear, stood pas
sively by while some one of them was being sacrificed
to the demon of conquest. In the language of the
crucifiers of our Lord they practically said, What is

We are Members one of another. 7
that to us ? See thou to it. They knew not, or they
ignored the Christian principle, " If one member suffer,
all the members suffer with it.*
It is a consequence of our undaunted practical as
sertion of this great truth that we are here this day
assembled in humiliation and in prayer, to invoke the
blessing of the Almighty on our arms. Now we must
be persuaded in our, own minds, that the war, we have
thus entered upon is a just and necessary war, before we
can with a clear conscience, or in trusting reliance on
the righteousness of our cause, implore God, in all the
confidence of an undoubting faith, to bless us with
victory, or to " inspire our commanders both by sea and
land with valour and patience," or to " guide our mari
ners in safety through the trackless deep." It is broadly
asserted in our own times, by men who declare they
are themselves the true followers of Christ, that war
can be justified under no possible combination of cir
cumstances. They say, we are to take up arms under
no provocation — in vindication of no right — in asser
tion of no duty — in chastisement of no wrong. If
this be so, we are assembled here this day to implore
the Almighty to uphold us in wrong-doing. Biu) is
this so ? If this principle be true in all its extreme
generality, it must be true also in particular instances.
If I am not to resist by force of arms the invader or
the pirate, I ought not to withstand the highwayman
or the burglar. If we are to have no fortresses nor
batteries for the national protection of our lives and
properties, neither should we have safes for our money,
nor locks upon our doors. If we are to have no
* 1 Cor. xii. 26.

8 We are Members one of another.
national police— and our fleets and armies are nothing
more — so likewise we ought not to have any domestic
police ; and then we should have a state of society like
that which was reprobated of old, when " every man did
that which was right in his own eyes" — we should have
no civil magistrate, though St. Paul says " He is the
minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon
him that doeth evil."* Such are the absurdities which
legitimately follow as logical consequences of the prin
ciple thus broadly laid down, without reservation or
exception, that war, or in other words, the use of phy
sical force, is in no case to be justified.
On former occasions I have endeavoured to show
from this place in what cases the use of physical force
was indefensible. I have said that we have no right
to employ it either in the coercion of erroneous opi
nion, or in the punishment of speculative belief. But
when erroneous opinion manifests itself in criminal
procedure, and speculative belief grows into outward
action, then may the use of physical force be justified.
Ananias and Sapphira might have lived on to old
age in theoretical dishonesty ; it was the manifestation
of that evil principle in practice that brought down on
them the vengeance of the Apostle.
I trust it is entirely superfluous for me, standing
here an unworthy ambassador of Christ, to say, that I
utterly deprecate war, and abhor the sword, as one of
the greatest, evils with which a country can be visited.
I need not here to dwell on the interruption of the
arts of peace, the suspension of social improve
ment, the domestic affliction, the public demoraliza-
* Rom. xiii. 4.

We are Members one of another. 9
tion, the wasteful expenditure not merely of the funds
but of the energy and the intellect of the nation.
A few months suffice to pull down and lay level
with the ground what it may have taken ages to
build up. High indeed is the price we ought to pay,
and costly the sacrifice we ought to make, to secure
the inestimable blessings of peace. No civilized
nation is now, thank God, insensible to them ; and no
country more highly appreciates them than our own.
It is then no less than a betrayal of this sacred cause
to advocate its truth by arguments which will not
bear the test of examination. Nothing can be a greater
damage to a good cause than this, because men are
prone to believe that a refutation of the arguments by
which a cause may be supported, implies the falsehood
of the cause itself, — than which there cannot be a
greater error. Now war is a great evil ; but there
may be still greater. Death is an evil, a great evil if
you will, for " What will not a man give for his life."
Yet it is easy to suppose cases in which every one
here present would a thousand times rather die than
live. How many in the agony of recent bereavement,
or in the sufferings of bodily affliction, are tempted
daily to exclaim, in the pathetic language of Job,
" My soul chooseth death rather than my life ; I loathe
it, I would not live alway, my days are vanity!"*
Now I am sure that I state no more than the bare
fact, without exaggeration and in all the simplicity
of truth, that there is no one here present this day
— no not one — who would not go forth to the field
of battle in the sure conviction that he was never
* Job vii. 15.
a2

10 We are Members one of another.
thence to return, and who, knowing " that it is ap
pointed unto all men once to die,"* would not, com
mending his soul to the mercies of his Maker, be ready
there to die, rather than to live the serf of a Russian
despot, deprived of his freedom, controlled in his just
liberty of action, hindered in the worship of his God,
or forced to deny the Lord who bought him. Thus
war, though a great calamity, is not the greatest by
which a free people can be visited. This is the reason
why, though we thoroughly appreciate and value to
the highest the blessings of peace and abhor the
cruelties of war, yet calmly, deliberately and reso
lutely we have chosen the latter and cast away the
former. We might have remained at peace, had we
so willed it. We might have cast upon our posterity
a conflict far more tremendous, one far more uncertain
in its final issue than the present. We have not
shrunk from the responsibility which unexpectedly has
been thrown upon us. We have nobly resolved to
face the danger now, and to strive to cut out by the
roots this cancer of civilization, rather than to transmit
to posterity an hereditary and a growing disease.
Well had it been for us now that our fathers had set
us this example. But they did not : they adopted the
principle of non-intervention. When three of the
great powers of Europe, as they are now called — they
were not then so great — like robbers, set upon, over
powered and rent asunder one of the constituent
states of the great league of European nations, we
stood passively by in selfish apathy, and looked on in
short-sighted indifference. We virtually said, what is
* Heb. ix. 27.

We are Members one of another. 1 1
that to us, let Poland help herself? Our neighbour's
house is on fire : why should we render him any as
sistance, the conflagration is not likely to reach us ?
This is the heathen principle of non-intervention ; wide
as the poles asunder from the Christian maxim of hu
man sympathy, " We are members one of another,"
and equally remote from that comprehensive principle
of Christian equity, " Do as you would be done by."
Had our fathers resisted this shameful act of despotic
violence and national wrong, we should not have been
this day driven to take up arms in defence of abstract
rights. This is a war for abstract rights, a war for
principles on our side. Our material interests were
in no imminent danger. There was no apparent inter
ference with our trade or commerce. The contest, as
I have said, is upon us unexpectedly. That it would
come at some time or other, no one can have the least
doubt on his mind who has studied the progress of
human affairs for the last eighty years. The cloud
which in the horizon was " like a man's hand," has over
spread the whole canopy of heaven. This calamity
which has thus come upon us, and which has found us
not, I trust, unprepared to meet it, might probably
for some time longer have been stayed, but for those
busy meddling people, whose good intentions compen
sate but little their total want of discretion, who call
themselves the friends of peace, as if the rest of the
community breathed nothing but war. There is but
little doubt that their speeches, their pamphlets, their
meetings, and their delegations, led foreign powers
into the gravest errors. The silence of opposition
was attributed to the unanimity of approval, not to
the indifference of contempt. Foreign nations were

12 We are Members one of another.
under the conviction that, under no provocation — short
of actual invasion, even if then, — would England go to
war. They believed that, wholly immersed in the ac
cumulation of wealth, she had abandoned her high po
sition as the redresser of the wrongs of the oppressed,
that to the victims of despotic power she would no
longer be a city of refuge, and that the cry of trodden
down nationalities would go up to her in vain. But,
thank God, it is not so ; England has vindicated her
hereditary position among the nations. Humanity
has other and higher objects to pursue, other and
holier ends to aim at, than merely buying and selling.
If it be otherwise, the defenders of the oppressed in
every age have shed their blood in vain ; freedom,
liberty, nationality, and independence are but empty
sounds : — nay, saints and martyrs and holy men in
other days who braved the cross, the faggot and the
sword, who died for a principle, were fools. Our
feelings recoil from such a conclusion ; our consciences
within us tell us it is not so. There is enough that is
low and grovelling and base in human nature, without
seeking to degrade or to mar those features which re
deem it. To the latest age of the world the memories
of those, who regardless of self and selfish interests
stood up in defence of right overmatched by wrong,
will be held sacred. If we have not the fortitude to
follow their example, let us, at least, render them the
cheap homage of our veneration.
It would be to all of us, I doubt not, a source of
great satisfaction if we could look forward with a well-
grounded hope to the speedy termination of this war.
But I fear that our longing desire for peace is leading
us very much astray. We seem to forget that we are

We are Members one of another. 13
at issue with the most powerful monarch on the face of
the earth ; that we have thrown down the gauntlet of
challenge to the peoples and races and tribes of one-
fourth of the habitable globe, concurring together to
do the bidding of one man, who subordinates on sys
tem, trade and commerce, literature and science,
wealth and honours, religion and morality, to exalt
and perfect the military power of his empire — whose
boundless dominions are one vast camp. We must
also remember that we are now, for the first time, to
engage hand to hand and foot to foot with the men
whose forefathers, like a resistless deluge, swept over
the plains of Europe and Asia. Who has not heard
of Attila their king, named by the affrighted nations
of the west the Scourge of God, who not merely sub
dued, but exterminated his enemies ? The historians
of the time declare themselves at a loss to find words,
even faintly to portray, the burnings and the ravages,
not merely of cities or villages, but of entire kingdoms ;
the slaughter not alone of their enemies in the field,
but of the entire population of whole nations, without
distinction of age or sex. We are now to encounter
those hordes from the centre of Asia, whose progeni
tors, under Zengis Khan and Tamerlane, slaughtered
the almost incredible numbers of fourteen millions of
the unwarlike natives of the East, on the field of bat
tle, and afterwards in cold blood. We have not to deal
with any fixed or definite number of enemies ; we might
then with some precision, knowing the strength of the
enemy, calculate the result of a victory, or the proba
bility of the advent of peace. But say that ten thousand
or fifty thousand men are sent to their last account,
there are twice the numbers ready, hydra-like, to take

14 We are Members one of another.
their place. The whole north and centre of Asia, with
all its countless hordes of savage barbarians, is actually
rolling westward ; they will precipitate themselves on
Europe, from the Euxine to the Baltic ; they will
come in like a flood ; may the Lord lift up his standard
against them ! From the barren steppes and trackless
wilds of central Asia — the hive of nations, as it has
been called — have those conquerors since the days
of Nimrod come down, who have scourged the human
race with plague, pestilence, and famine ; with war,
desolation, and death. Truly it is very meet, right,
and our bounden duty to offer up from our very heart
of hearts to the throne of grace, our earnest supplica
tion and humble prayer, that we fall not into the hands
of our ruthless foes. Let Sinope tell what our fate
shall be if vanquished.
It is no common struggle we are engaged in. It is
a just, a necessary, and a holy war ; we entered into
it with reluctance, we shall go through it without
flinching ; resolutely and deliberately we have chosen
it; we have not been dragged into it by princes or
governments. Not to gratify the ambition of courts,
or to cloak the corruption of ministers, or to solace the
martial propensities of generals, or to pander to a
national lust of conquest : but to assert the eternal prin
ciples of justice we have taken up arms, in conjunc
tion with our nearest neighbour, now our nearest ally,
once our most formidable foe. We have expressly
renounced the rights of conquest ; we have abjured all
exclusive advantages ; the world at large is to share the
fruits of our victories ; we are the champions of our
common humanity. This is a war of nations, not of
dynasties; of principles, not of passions. The question

We are Members one of another. 15
now to be decided is this : whether the Gospel of Christ
shall be preached to all nations, or that which is an
other gospel : whether civilization shall ameliorate the
state of mankind still further, or whether it shall be
again, as once before, cut up by the roots. It is a
question, in the decision of which every human being
in the four quarters of the globe is more or less con
cerned ; the destinies of generations yet unborn will now
be determined, for weal or woe. Truly we live in event
ful times, and if it be the will of the Almighty that
we should encounter peril and disaster in our own per
sons, it may not be, let us hope, without its uses also.
It will bring forth and brighten those sterner virtues
of fortitude, resignation, patience, and endurance, which
through long years of peace may, nationally speaking,
have been somewhat tarnished. The anxious suspense
from day to day, the continued strain on our hopes, our
fears, and our fondest affections, will purify our thoughts
and turn them to objects of holier contemplation. The
total ignorance of what an hour may bring forth will
teach us, more vividly than ten thousand sermons, our
utter helplessness, our entire dependence upon Him,
in whose hands are the issues of life and death, of vic
tory and defeat. We shall have, I doubt not, many
sacrifices to make, much suffering to undergo ; yet the
sure conviction of the righteousness of our cause will
temper those afflictions. Let the reflection, that the
highest interests of mankind are committed to our
charge, nerve us to endure without shrinking or re
pining ; let it nerve us still further to reflect, that the
happiness or misery, the freedom or slavery, of genera
tions yet unborn, may, under Providence, turn upon
our behaviour now. What in us would be a noble re-

16 We are Members one of another.
sistance to oppression, the struggle of right against
might, would in their day, with the chains of slavery
riveted upon them, be a rebellion against constituted
authority. But it has sometimes been said, why should England
go to war to uphold Turkey ? Why should Christians
fight with Christians for the sake of Mahometans ?
The feelings of such objectors are stronger than their
judgment. One might as well ask, to use a familiar il
lustration, why a magistrate in one of our police courts,
should decide in favour of a poor heathen Lascar against
an orthodox Christian captain who had cheated him.
The immutable relations of justice do not vary, though
the individuals change between whom these relations
may subsist. Who cares for the Turks, in them
selves ? Well indeed for humanity it had been, that
they had never crossed the Hellespont. For upwards
of four hundred years they have blighted, as by a pesti
lence, the fairest lands which the sun shines upon in
his daily course ; yet the spread of true Christianity is
promoted by upholding the Turk against the Russian.
Lord Shaftesbury has unanswerably shown, that while
the utmost freedom has been secured, and full protec
tion given, to our missionaries in the East, in whatever
countries Russia rules or has sufficient influence, they
are strictly excluded. No protestant missionary dares
to preach the glad tidings of salvation within reach of
the arm of the Czar ; no form of Christianity will be
tolerated, which does not proclaim, that the Emperor
of all the Russias is God's Vicegerent here on earth.
Now if we, as a nation, have any especial mission, it
is to carry the glad tidings of salvation to the utter
most ends of the earth. That the charge of proclaiming

We are Members one of another. 17
the living Gospel throughout the world, has been offered
to nation after nation for their acceptance, there can
be, I apprehend, but little difficulty in proving ; and
when those nations showed that they were unworthy to
undertake, or incompetent to discharge, the trust as
signed to them, that trust has been withdrawn. To
the Roman, and to the Byzantine, to the Venetian,
and to the Spaniard, has this charge successively been
offered, and from them successively withdrawn. The
Spaniard had a zeal of God, but his zeal was not ac
cording to knowledge ; and where now is that great
Empire, of which the saying first was spoken, the sun
never went down upon it. Of that power which once
made Europe tremble, the sceptre is broken and the
glory is departed. Another people might have accepted
the trust, but they did not ; they had, or might have
had, the knowledge, but they lacked the zeal. The
Dutch, to secure their traffic in the East, spat upon the
name of Christ, and denied the Lord that bought them.
And now the glorious trust has come down to us
for acceptance ; shall we undertake the responsibility,
and faithfully discharge the duty ? We are become a
mighty nation : " Thou, Lord, hast increased this na
tion, thou art glorified ; thou hast removed it far
unto all the ends of the earth."* For glory and
for victory we shall do our part, let us also ame
liorate and Christianize ; and though our path may be
stained by blood, perhaps unavoidably, let us display
our power, not as power has ever been exhibited
to those nations, under the aspects of rapacity and
cruelty, but tempered with mercy. Let us proclaim
* Isaiah xxvi. 15.

1 8 We are Members one of another.
the glad tidings of the Gospel with the adjuncts of in
dustry and commerce. Nor let it be said, as it has
been said, that the gifts of commerce, and of the arts
of civilization, accompanying the ambassage of Christ,
derogate from its high authority ; seeing that our great
exemplar Himself marked his way by drying the tears
of affliction, and by alleviating the sorrows of huma
nity. Let us, moreover, bear in mind, that no nation
has ever kindled the flame of civilization for itself,
it has always received the torch from the hands of
others. Let us then devote ourselves as a nation,
with singleness of heart to our high calling, to the ful
filment of ourglorious mission. Thatwe are set apart for
some especial purpose of Providence, is plain ; nor can
there be any reasonable doubt, (I do not here appeal to
the religious only) any reasonable doubt, I repeat, on
the minds of those who admit a moral governor of the
world, that we have been raised up, unworthy though
we be, for some special purpose, to this eminence of
earthly power, by a train of events and a succession of
victories unprecedented in the annals of nations ; not
due to unquestioned preeminence in valour, nor to
superiority of discipline, nor to higher military skill,
nor to advantages of position, nor to numbers, for in
several of those helps to victory we have been inferior
to our foes ; yet in all our conflicts during the last
sixty years, we have come off victorious ; whether
among the fastnesses of Spain, or on the plains of
Waterloo, or under the batteries of Algiers, or amid
the swamps of Ava, or on the banks of the Indus, or
by the waters of its now more celebrated tributary
stream. In all, through all, we have been upheld ; and
now once more we are summoned at the call of duty.

We are Members one of another. 19
The beginning is come, but the end is not yet. When
we view the accelerated progress of human events,
greater changes now occurring in a few short years than
formerly in an entire century ; when we look to the
discoveries of science on the one hand, all tending, in
the same direction, to facilitate the intercourse of man
kind ; when, on the other side, we view the discoveries
made in our own day in America, and in Austral Asia ;
when we behold the whole surface of society in China
breaking up, that lay for centuries frozen like the ice
bound waters of some arctic sea — there is a shaking of
the dry bones in the valley of death ; the name of
Christ is breathed upon them, and they shall live, — may
we not surmise that the fulness of time is now not far
remote ? The time of the end shall be, as the prophet
Daniel declares, when " many shall run to and fro, and
knowledge shall be increased." *
And now let me bespeak your attention, for a very
short time, to another application of my text, " We are
members one of another." If this be true with respect
to mankind in general, it is especially true with respect
to our own fellow-countrymen. As the sphere of our
affections is contracted, their intensity increases. You
are invited, as the entire people of England are this
day invited, to contribute from your means, and in pro
portion to your means, towards the decent maintenance
of the wives and children, and it may be, which God
avert, of the widows and orphans of our fellow country
men now serving against Russia. This, you will ob
serve, is no almsgiving, it ranks with even higher and
holier duties. It has been said by some persons, whose
* Dan. xii. 4.

20 We are Members one of another.
object in general seems to be to stand apart from the
rest of their fellows — if it be so, they have completely
succeeded on this occasion — that it is the duty of the
government to provide for the support of those deserted
women and helpless children. Granting that it is so,
and to the utmost extent of the assertion, it does not in .
the slightest degree discharge us from the duty ; be
cause government is invested with no powers, bound
by no responsibilities which did not and do not exist in
the community at large. It may be, and undoubtedly
it is so, that there are many duties which cannot be dis
charged by the community at large ; such as the ad
ministration of justice, the conduct of war, and such
like, which must be delegated to some central body
called a government. But there are many duties too
difficult, many too sacred for any government to dis
charge ; those which require individuality of effort —
the education of the young, for example.
This duty then is ours, and I trust we shall discharge
it, not with the feeling as if we were giving alms, but
with the thankfulness of heart with which we repay an
obligation to a benefactor. Let us earnestly hope that
the amount this day collected will show to the whole
world that with heart and soul we are united as one
man. Think you not that, when the report of what has
been done this day in England goes forth, it will nerve
the arm and strengthen the resolution of many a brave
man who has left amongst us all that he holds dear on
earth. But if there be those who would deny the truth
of this appeal, if indeed there be any such to be found,
I would say, that on the broad grounds of reciprocal
justice, of common honesty, the wives and children of
those men are strictly entitled to our support. Nay,

We are Members one of another. 21
the very beggar who lives on casual alms is bound to
cast in his mite. For, bear with me while I make a
supposition, a very improbable one indeed, but still one
that will show the strength of the argument. Suppose
it were known with certainty that our sailors had be
come mutinous, that our soldiers were ready to desert
and to sell their services to the highest bidder, that our
commanders were not to be trusted, and that our cap
tains were going to turn pirates on their own account,
what then, let me ask, would be the price of consols on
the Stock Exchange ? or would they have any price at
all? What merchant then could effect a marine in
surance on any terms ? Where then would public
credit be ? I am bold to say such a condition of our
fleets and armies would be followed by a national
bankruptcy. As " the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no
need of thee ; " * so the merchant cannot say to the sol
dier, I do not require thee. To what is it owing that
there are no visible signs of war ? no consternation, no
running to and fro, no hiding away of money or valua
bles ? It is because, under God, we trust undoubtingly
to that indomitable courage, to that undying patriotism^
to that unflinching determination to do or die,, which has
ever signalized our fellow countrymen of all ranks. It
is due to this that we are able to go about our several
avocations, without concern, making money, or heed
lessly indulging in amusements and frivolous pursuits.
The aspect of society about us would never lead any
one to surmise that we had taken any such tremendous
responsibilities upon us.* 1 Cor. xii. 21.

22 We are Members one of another.
And now let us look upon another picture. 'Tis
night ! the stars are in the sky — those mute spectators
of the folly, the crimes, and the wickedness of man.
The battle, which raged from early dawn, at last is
over — the deep booming of artillery is heard no longer
— charges of cavalry, which shook the ground like an
earthquake, are made no more. For miles and miles
the plain, sodden with human blood, is covered with
the dying and the dead. The low moan of bodily
pain rises from the ground, and on the stillness of the
night ascends to heaven. Come with me over the field
of battle, and let us commune with one of those now
lying low — a fellow countryman — struck down in the
prime of manhood, cut short in his career. What is
glory to him now, or the rights of nations ? The excite
ment of the conflict is passed away, honour is but an
empty name. No glad welcome awaits him on his re
turn to his native shore. Uncared for and forgotten,
his bones shall whiten on the banks of the Danube, or
be carried into the depths of the Euxine, there to lie,
till the sea gives up its dead. As the film of death
glazes his eyes, his thoughts turn homewards, his wife
stands before him, the voices of his children ring in his
ears ; alas ! he has no home, nor wife, nor children.
His last letter was to tell him, that his wife was a pauper
in the workhouse, that his children were vagabonds on
the streets. Now does the bitterness of death come
upon him — now does the iron enter into his soul, not
when he felt the cold steel that laid him low. Ah,
ungrateful country ! Is this to be his return ? — Surely
there is no English mother, nor wife, nor sister, nor
daughter here this day, who will not put far, very far
away from her any act or part in such ingratitude. And

We are Members one of another. 23
that, not on this day alone, but all through the dreary
vicissitudes which it is to be feared await us. But,
merely to give money for this purpose is but the smaller
portion of our duty. To many persons to contribute a
few pounds, and then have done with it, were easy ;
we must do more, much more than this. We must
bestow our personal attention too. What we give will
be thus twice blessed. " Pure religion and undefiled
before God and the Father is this," says St. James, " to
visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction."
Only thus shall we fulfil our duty.
Let this be a day of humiliation and of prayer, not
merely in the use of the appropriate forms set forth for
the occasion. Let us show forth the graces of Chris
tian charity and of brotherly love in active operation.
In the words of the golden rule of our Lord, that
royal law, Let us do as we would be done by. Let
us show, in the words of my text, that "we are
MEMBERS ONE OF ANOTHER."
And now, &c.

C. WHIITINGHAM, TOOKS COURT, CHANCEKY LANE.