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THE ENGLISH

PRESBYTERIAN MESSENGER.

· A LECTURE TO WORKING MEN.

BY THE REV. JAMES HAMILTON, REGENT-SQUARE CHURCH, LONDON.
FOUNDED ON 1 TIM. IV. 8.

MY DEAR FRIENDS,-Now that so many
of you have come together, and I
thank you cordially for coming,—I am
anxious to say something which you may
find of real and permanent service. And
indeed, I know something which, if only
I were able to say it, would be worth
every hearer's while. If I could only
show, as plainly as I see it, that godliness
is profitable for all things,—for all people
and all places; could I only persuade
some to make trial of its power who have
not tried it yet, I should not regret the
unusual step of inviting your attendance,
and
you would say that in the discovery
of the great life-secret-in the answer to
the question, "Who will show us any
good?" you were amply repaid for coming

here.

And, first of all, I may remark, that the Bible brings you better news, and the Saviour speaks in a kinder tone, than you might at first imagine. Were you judging by some sermons and tracts, you might fancy that the Bible is a severe and angry book, or, at the very best, that it is a book of good advices. Now this is a grievous error. The Bible has many a solemn passage, and it abounds in good advices; but you miss the very best of it if you think that this is all. I shall suppose that a young man has left his home in Scotland or the north of England. Perhaps he had various reasons for coming here. He hoped to better his fortune, and he wished to see the world; or, he wanted to get away from the quiet life No. 4.-New Series.

and strict morality of his native village. He comes to this great London, and in a little while falls in with its worst ways. In the theatre and the tea-garden and the tavern-parlour he spends all his money, and gets deep in debt; and then turns ill, and is taken to the hospital. And when there he begins to bethink him of his foolishness: "I wish I once were well again. I wish I once were home again. But it's no use wishing. I know that my father's door is shut. They would not take me in. And if once I were able to creep about again, they would have me up for debt. It would just be out of the hospital into the gaol." And whilst bemoaning his misery, a letter comes from his father, telling him that he had heard of his wretched plight, and going on to remind him of the past, and what all he had done for his wayward child-and glancing his eye over it, the sick youth crumples it up, and crams it away under his pillow. And by and by a comrade comes in, and among other things the invalid tells him, "And here is a letter of good advice just come from my father," and that other runs his eye over it, "Good advice, did you say? I think you should rather have said good news. Don't you see, he makes you welcome home again? and in order that you may pay off your debts, and return in peace and comfort, he has sent this draft for twenty pounds." Most people read the Bible carelessly, or with a guilty conscience for the interpreter,

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credit His messages of invitation, to accept His unspeakable gift, to cast ourselves, poor, guilty, hell-deserving sinners into the arms of Immanuel; this is the way to conclude the long controversy, and find ourselves pardoned sinners, welcomed prodigals, forgiven rebels in the presence of a smiling God. And could I hope that you all saw God's disposition as it really is, and that you felt towards Him the love and trust and

and they notice in it nothing but reproofs and good advice. They miss the main thing there. The Gospel is good news.. It tells us that God is Love, and announces to every one now present that the door of the Father's house is open, and that each of us may this very night find a blessed home in the bosom of our God. And as we have all contracted debt—as our sins have incurred a debt to God's justice, which, through all eternity we could never pay; and as it needs a righteous-son-like feeling which He would have you ness to recommend us to the favour of a to feel, then would the great point be holy God-in every Bible there is enclosed gained. Instead of looking at the outside a draft on the Saviour's merits, to which of religion-instead of gazing at the brick the sinner has only to sign his name, and enclosure, you would be on the bright the great salvation is his own. The and blossoming side of the garden-wall; Bible is not so much a book of good and instead of eyeing coldly the unadvice as a book of good tidings. "Glory traversed threshold and its jealous door, to God in the highest; on earth peace: you would be an inmate of the hallowed good-will toward man,"-this is the tune precincts, a fellow-citizen with the saints, to whose music the most of that Bible and a member of the household of God. goes. If our sins be a fearful debt, it tells us that "the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin." If we need merit, goodness, to recommend us to God, the Bible puts at our disposal the Saviour's merit. It reveals a righteousness which we have only to appropriate as our own, and we, too, however guilty, are counted righteous in the sight of God. The God whom the Bible reveals is not a God inexorable, or a God half-reconciled, but a God of grace, a God of love and mercy; a God reconciling sinners to Himself. And, my dear friends, I think that if you would read that Bible, not with the suspicions which a guilty conscience may suggest, nor with the stinted notions which we learn from one another, but praying God to show you the wonders of his word, you would find that the greatest Being in the Universe is most abundant in pity and compassion, and that he has made his greatest gift the freest. And though you have perhaps left the Father's house so long ago that you have never felt towards Him as a Father at all, and though your bitter thoughts of Him may lead you to fancy that his feeling is a bitter one to you, I will take up the letter and read a few sentences that you may see God's liberality and His lovingness. (John iii. 16; Rom. iii. 20—26; v. 16-21.) Beloved brethren, the first step in godliness is to see the real character of God. To catch His look of lovingkindness, as not for works of righteousness which we have done, but as out of His mere mercy he saves us-to

And just as the love of God would make your soul happy, so it would make your character new. Your peace and joy would keep you from some sins, and gratitude and loyalty to God would keep you from the rest. You would not then require the cheerful glass to raise your spirits; for a soul rejoicing in God its Saviour forgets its poverty and remembers its misery no more. You would not then be apt to curse and growl, and wreak your furious passions on fellow-workmen or defenceless boys; for the peace of God would make you pacific, and the benevolence of happiness would overflow in kind looks, kind words, and a placid joyful mien. You would not murmur at your lot when it was hard; for you would be saying to yourself, "The Lord is the portion of my cup and of mine inheritance. The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; and when mercies came they would be doubly blest, for they would not only make you happy, but would lift your heart to God.

Are these Thy favours day by day,
To me above the rest?

Then let me love Thee more than they,
And strive to serve Thee best.

You could not stoop to the mean expe-
dients and shabby tricks of low or
knavish men; for you would feel your-
self a citizen of Zion. And the sensual
enjoyments for which you were once
content to live, would lose their charm,
for you would be acquaint with purer and
more genuine pleasures. Your case
would be what the Bible describes in
Titus iii. 1-8.

But perhaps I should be a little more | particular, and mention a few specimens of the way in which godliness is profit

able.

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Not far from this London there dwelt an old couple. In their early life they were poor; but the husband became a Christian, and God blessed their industry, and they were living in a comfortable retirement, when one day a stranger called on them to ask their subscription to a charity. The old lady had not so much grace as her husband, and still hankered after some of the Sabbath earnings and easy shillings which Thomas had forfeited from regard to the law of God. And so when the Christian visitor asked the contribution, she struck in, and said, “Why, Sir, we have lost a deal by religion since we first began: my husband knows that very well. Have we not, Thomas?' And after a solemn pause, Thomas answered, "Yes, Mary, we have. I have lost a deal by my religion. Before I had got religion, Mary, I had got a water-pail, in which I used to carry water, and that, you know, I have lost many years ago; and then I had an old slouched hat, a tattered coat, and mended shoes and stockings; but I have lost them also long ago. And, Mary, you know, that poor as I was, I had a habit of getting drunk and quarrelling with you; and that you know I have lost. And then I had a burdened conscience and a wicked heart, and ten thousand guilty fears; but all are lost, completely lost, and like a mill-stone cast into the deepest sea. And, Mary, you have been a loser too, though not so great a loser as myself. Before we got religion, Mary, you had got a washing-tray, in which you washed for hire; but since we got religion you have lost your washing-tray. And you had got a gown and a bonnet much the worse for wear, though they were all you had to wear; but you have lost them long ago. And you had many an aching heart concerning me at times, but these you happily have lost. And I could even wish that you had lost as much as I have lost; for what we lose by our religion will be our everlasting gain. And even so we might sum up the losses which true religion occasions, and in this way show the gain of godliness:To the loss of a bad character, so much profit,

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Item-To the loss of a shocking temper, so much,

Item-To the loss of so many evil habits, so much,

And, to the loss of as many wicked companions, so much more.

But, as our time is short, I hasten to indicate some of the positions and immediate benefits of real religion to the working man.

1. Religion is forethought and frugality. The Christian does not need to set his heart on riches, for he has a better and an enduring heritage; but he cannot feel happy, without providing for his own house. And whilst he seeks to provide things honest in the sight of all men, he remembers the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." And, remembering all these things, he is anxious not only to earn the daily bread, but out of his earnings he will try to save as much as will keep himself and his children from ever being debtors to public charity. And for this purpose the self-denial and forethought, which are a part of his religion, give the Christian a great advantage. "From hand to mouth," or, as it is otherwise expressed, "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die," is the guiding of a besotted world; whilst "a good foundation for the time to come" is no less the maxim of a self-controlling and far-seeing piety. And thus, while I have heard of railway labourers who would drink between Saturday night and Monday morning the guinea for which they had toiled all the week; and have been told about miners who would spend twice the amount in the jollity of a single day; I have known others earning as little, who saved money enough to buy or to build a substantial house, or who laid up hundreds of pounds for their children. And just to show how a little of constant saving will come to a long-run of substantial comfort, I may mention that in a Provident Society— constructed on safe data—a working man, twenty-five years of age, paying 1s. 44d. a-month, or a halfpenny each day, would secure 10s. a-week during sickness till he was sixty-five years of age; and then by a payment of 2s. 3d. a-month, or less than a penny a-day, till he reached his sixty-fifth year, he would be entitled all the rest of his life to receive 6s. a-week. Or, trying yet another plan, by paying

Item-To the loss of a guilty conscience, 3s. 5d. a-month, or two pounds a-year, a

so much,

little more than a penny a-day, the same

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man would secure 100%., which he might | old age-godliness is profitable for this leave to any survivor when he dies. life in another way. It expands the mind Or, combining all the three plans, a man of its possessor and purifies his taste. now in his five-and-twentieth year, by a is a great mistake to confound riches daily payment of 24d. during the working and refinement, just as it is a great period of his life, might ensure 10s. mistake to fancy, that because a man is weekly, whenever he was sick, 6s. poor, he must be coarse and vulgar. weekly when he had reached sixty-five, Lord Jefferies, though seated on the and a 100l. to his family, whether he highest tribunal in the realm, whilst reached fourscore or died to-morrow. pouring forth his brutal ribaldry, was a But, instead of insuring, some might vulgar man; and a very vulgar man was prefer storing their surplus in a savings Chancellor Thurlow, sporting oaths and bank; and there a daily penny would obscenity at the table of the Prince of come to 50l. in thirty years. And from Wales. But there was no vulgarity a calculation which a friend handed me about James Ferguson, though herding the other day, I find that a halfpenny sheep, whilst his eye watched Arcturus worth of tobacco daily comes to 77. in ten and the Pleiades, and his wistful spirit years, and in the same period of ten wandered through immensity; and years a moderate pint of beer costs 50l., though seated at a stocking-loom, there or 2001. in forty years. And whilst I was no vulgarity in the youth who ought to speak very tenderly on a subject penned the "Star of Bethlehem "-the which involves the well-earned re-weaver-boy, Henry Kirke White, was not creations and scanty enjoyments of the working-man, I believe that a solid result might be secured without any abridgment of happiness. Pitch your mark wherever you please-fix on the daily penny, or the weekly shilling, or the monthly crown-any maximum which you think you can safely manage, and notice, however hard it may be at the first-notice, if at last it does not provide for itself. Why, the very loose half-pence which one man will toss down on fruiterer's stall, and the odd sixpences which another will melt in beer, or burn in tobacco, in the hands of his frugal neighbour would soon mount up to a fortune; and I believe that the most solid fortunes on record-the fullest of satisfaction to the founder, and the most enduring-have been made, not by enormous earnings or surprising windfalls, but by self-denied and systematic savings; by the resolute repetition of the golden adage, "I can do without it.” *

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2. Whilst piety is providence, whilst its tendency is to make men independent and self-sustaining, whilst it lifts off the mighty millstone which crushes the spirits and paralyzes effort, whilst it saves a man from debt; and whilst it kindles a bright gleam in the horizon of his earthly hereafter, whilst it enables a man provide for his own house and his own

to

* One of Chambers's Penny Tracts, "Hints to Workmen," No. 170, contains many admirable suggestions on economy and providence. And, if they can any longer be procured, Mr. Lewis, of Dundee, once published some most interesting lectures on the same subject.

a vulgar lad. And so, my respected friends, if you surrender your minds to the teaching of God's Word and Spirit, they will receive the truest, deepest refinement. There may be nothing in your movements to indicate the training of the dancing-school, nor anything in your elocution which speaks of courtly circles or smooth society; but there will be an elevation in your tastes and a purity in your feelings as of those accustomed to the society of the King of kings. You will have a relish for a higher literature than the halfpenny ballad or the Sunday news, and for a more improving intercourse than the tap-room can supply. And though you may not have at easy command the phrases of politeness, the most polished, if they but be the children of God, will have sentiments and language in common with you, and a stronger affinity for you than for the most fine-spoken impiety. The religion which is at last to lift the beggar from the dunghill, and set him with nobles of the earth, will even now give the toiling man the elevated aims, the enlarged capacity, and lofty tastes which princes have often lacked; for if vice be the worst vulgarity, religion is the best refinement.

3. There is this third profit in godliness for the present life-it secures a happy home. It is God's great goodness that he has put the best things of this life within the reach of the mass of mankind. Few can ride or run about idle; few can afford to shoot or hunt. They are not many who can roam from

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land to land; not many who have got |
finely-furnished houses; not so many
who can keep a carriage and a grand
array of servants. But these are not
the best things of this life, and they have
no bearing on the life to come. It does
not matter how finely the house be fur-
nished, if all the inmates be out of
sorts. It does not matter how fleet
the courser flies, and how hot the
hunter spurs, if care still ride behind.
And it does not matter whether it be
the Campagna or Chamounix, Paris
or Vienna, if the weary coach-full,
sated and insipid, be revolving round the
world in search of vanity and vexation
of spirit;
if cold and languid, the great
lady can see nothing beautiful or nothing
grand in all this paltry planet, and the
hopeful youth on the box be only wearying
for the time, when no "old gentleman"
will stand betwixt himself and his pro-
perty. Who would not change such
hollow splendour for the boat of the
Happy Waterman," or the cottage of
David Saunders, the shepherd of Salis-
bury Plain; for a toiling life which never
spent an unearned shilling, and for
a fire-side, where a murmuring word was
never heard, nor a look of bitterness or
estrangement ever seen? And such a
home, with God's blessing, might every
pious workman boast:-if your wife were
like-minded, and if both you and she
sought it as the first thing for your chil-
dren, that they might grow up godly and
gracious; if your home were sanctified by
daily prayer, and if in all your under- |
takings and engagements you sought the
blessing of God. Such a home might
yours become, if first devoting yourself
to God's service, you devoted to Him
your household, and with mingled au-
thority and affection carried out the
Psalmist's resolution, “I will behave my-
self wisely in a perfect way; I will walk
within my house with a perfect heart. A
froward heart shall depart from me; I
will not know a wicked person. He that
worketh deceit shall not dwell within my
house he that telleth lies shall not tarry
in my sight." The true way for the head
of a family to secure respect to himself,
is to have a constant respect to all God's
commandments; and the true way for a
father to draw to himself the reverence
and affection of his children, is himself
to walk with God in humility, obedi-
ence, and love.

4. A fourth blessing of godliness is a sanctified Sabbath. I would not call the

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Gospel a levelling religion, but it is nearly the same thing, for it is an elevating religion. If it pulls nobody down, it raises all who embrace it up. To the poor pre-eminently the Gospel, as Jesus proclaimed it, is preached. To the poor it offers the same Saviour and the same salvation as it offers to the rich. It was to the same heaven which had already received Abraham and David, that Lazarus was borne; and there is no privilege which the Father of earth's families has vouchsafed to the rich, but He has provided the same or better for the poor. And this is palpably exemplified in the rest of the Christian Sabbath. The English Constitution makes the house where a British subject dwells a sort of sacred ground; and the peasant has the same right to repel invasion from his cottage as has the baron to beat it back from his castle gates. And the law of God has made the Sabbath a sacred day, and gives the man of toil the same right to rest all through its blessed leisure as it gives the man of title or the man of power. And were the working classes true to God and true to one another, wealth would not bribe them, and power would not force them to part with the blessed boon. If my cottage be my castle, my Sabbath is my sanctuary; and if it need the Sovereign's writ to eject me from the one, it would need my Creator's warrant to expel me from the other. But even as it is, even though if you refuse the Sunday-job, there be others who will greedily take it;-even though you should forfeit a present employment in a bold and believing stand for the Sabbath, such is my faith in the Providence which guards this poor man's heritage, that I have no fear that you will be forsaken, or that your children will beg their bread. And if those of you who have the Sabbath at command would only keep it sacred,—if, instead of making it a day of dissipation or carousing, or sight-seeing, you made it a day of innocent and holy resting, you would find the rich recompense, in a peaceful conscience and an improving character, in the elastic spirits and the husbanded energy, in the longer life and the sweeter home, which are the present reward of a Sabbath sanctified.

5. Once more I might mention that godliness is gain because it ensures sobriety. There is something very appalling in the thought that Britain expends every year fifty millions of money on intoxicating

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