The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-11-17

ments was decidedly tempting, but minis
ters here do not go in so much for that kind
of thing. Whether it is because they have
an excess of grace or are deficient in in
ventiveness one can only guess. THE Ideal
City," Men Of Character Needed" "Our
Duty to Toilers," were amongst the more
prosaic of the topics announced, while
those which seemed to challenge more at
tention-some of them to verge a little up
on the startling-were Living London and
Its Claim Upon the Churches 1.-The Poor
Mans Home" Room to Live" Shorter
Hours for Shop Assistants" 'The White
Slaves of England and THE Man in the
Street" But whatever the topic. one may
be assured that without exception the SER
mons everywhere rang true to the spirit of
reform. In London pulpits to-day there are
few men not in sympathy with the masses.
Even in the most aristocratic Of the
churches the gospel of social responsibility
is preached right from the shoulder. Min
listers here do not seem to be afraid of the
rich men in their congregations. They tell
them their faults in the p~lainest language,
and when it comes to picturing the needs
of London and how Christian people ought
to meet them. they can be relied upon to
SAOAh AONALA1o WV CAAa y LONAANo 80
TRUTH FROM THE PULPIT.
OF the straightforward character of Eng
fish preaching in high places l was forcibly
and pleasantly reminded by what L heard
on citizen Sunday at st. Paurs Cathedral,
as well as in two other prominent churches.
The day was crisp and bright. 1t afforded
so delightful a contrast to the night be-
fore, when the fog was so thick that almost
all traffic had TO cease and thousands of
people failed to get home, with not less
than a hundred cases Of accident calling
for hospital treatment, that those religiously
inclined in the least felt that they ought
to go to church that day if only to express
gratitude. This writer went three times,
and at one service sat in st. Paul's under
the pulpit scintillations of the Bishop of
Stepney, who was d~iscoursing upon The
royal law of loving ones neighbor as one
self" a true love fer self would lead us,
he said, to desire for ourselves the means of
living a full, worthy human life, and to
love others as we love ourselves would
mean that we should desire the same thing
for them. BY this definition he thought him
self plump against all the inequalities and
injustices of present-day life, and in the
practical application of this royal law he
spared nobody. The mistress must see that
her maid had the same opportunity TO live
a worthy life as she had. She must re-
member, also, that her maid had a heart,
and if she did, how quickly she would with
draw the cruel notice, NO followers al
lowed
The Bishop of Stepney was certain that
If Christian men of business, those employ
ing others. would love their clerks and
porters and factory hands as they loved
themselves. Londo and all the rest of the
world would be transformed i'm no time.
Applied to this great city this royal law
meant, he said, that all citizens should be
accorded the right 20 live in decency and
comfort. that all workers should get not
less than a living wage, and should have
time and opportunity, when the days work
was done, to inform their minds by read
ing and recoup their strength by recreation.
But how could the Christian people of Lon
don listen without shame while Christ said,
Thou shalt love thy neighbor as myself. =
when there were 10000 of their London
neighbors living in circumstances which, as
everybody knew, were destructive to health
and decency? In pressing home the sense of
responsibility, the good bishop told of some
thing he knew himself-a home broken up
and a life sacrificed, because a wealthy
woman, who was a protesting Christian,
delayed so long in paying a dressmaker's
bill. Who, he asked, was responsible for
that poor woman's despair and death? And
he didn't hesitate TO say, with a rather
savage shake of his Episcopal fist, that
the other woman was who carried her head
high and said loud prayers. but failed to
meat the inst dueS of those who worked
for her.
DIR. CLIFFORD'S CHURCH.
From st. PauTs Cathedral, where every
thing excepting the preaching was formal
and long drawn out. it was a pleasant
change TO find oneself at that live West
bourne Park Church. to which DR.. John
Clifford ministers. At the former place you
have to sit out a long ritual before you
get to the sermon. To keep myself from
WEAKNESS during this ordeal, 1 took the
liberty of smiling az one thing that was
said. "Give peace in our time, o Lord
was %plaintively intoned by the priest, and
the choir and people replied, in the lam
guage of the prayer book. For there is
none other that ighteth for us, but only
Thou, o God" A beautiful sentiment, had
it only been true. Why did 1 smile at it?
Because on either size OF Wnere l. sat there
were monuments concentrating men who
had helped the English in years gone to
lick the French-two specimens only under
my very nose of the kind of memorials
which abound in that temple and because
1 knew that at that very moment when
they were protesting they had nobody but
God TO fight for them, there were 100000
troops fighting for them in South Africa.
One meets in DR.. Clifford's service moth
ing so equivocal as that, and you are soon
at the sermon, which you know, if you
know anything of the standing of preach
ers in London, will be, since it comes from
DR.. Clifford, as lucid as the sunlight and
as sure and unvarying as the law OF CRAWL
tation. 1t has been the recent distinction
Of this remarkable man to stand squarely
out against the war from the beginning
until now, and to never be afraid of speak
ing his mind on the subject. whereas other
men of prominence. like Joseph Parker and
Hugh Price Hughes, have weakened in
their opposition. DR.. Clifford was one of
the speakers at that pro-Boer meeting in
Queen Hall. which was mobbed. Every
body admits his transcendent ability and
his sterling honesty, and to hear such a
man on Citizen Sunday was a treat.