CHAPTER V.

Appealing and begging continually for the right thing, of the right person, and in the right way, must be successful according to religion, and the nature of things—Begging advocated and proved to be legally a part of a clergyman's office-God's arrangement for men is to do good by praying and appealing, persuading and preaching, and not by forcible measures-An Irish story, shewing the folly of forcible peace-making.

I

took courage now in the work of the ministry, having obtained much for my church from my truly good and noble patron. He was so large-hearted as to do for this church, during the nine years of my Incumbency in it, more than all others put together had done for it, since the time Henry VIII. plundered it of every-thing.

As I have got all this done by appealing simply, or by beggary, no more praise is due to me than to the past vicars. It appears that these begged nothing for this church, thinking, as they had no resources, and no Irish tongue, that the wants of it were beyond recovery. All praise is due to my patron, and none to me, for this altered state of things; for my church is no longer, thanks to him and subscribers, suffering from the horrible affairs which must take place in the plundered ones. I took now to my pulpit with a lighter heart than I ever had since I came here, owing to the state of things being removed which I have

The secret of success with God and man. 33

already described. I give this account in order to encourage others to try to put things right in their church, and in order to shew that nothing, however bad, is beyond improvement, reform, or recovery, if we persevere earnestly in appealing to remove it. With my natural Irish warmth, from joyfulness, I preached the following few remarks, ending up with an Irish story.

Good people, I exclaimed, the lesson which I gather from my success for this church with my good, kind, and considerate patron is, that in approaching God the Father you must be in earnest, by praying to Him continually. Praying a few times will bring nothing down from such rich and distant stores. You must ask the right thing, which is salvation through the blood of Christ, and the presence of the Holy Ghost in your soul to fit you, by His grace, for His service both here and hereafter. Do not forget that you must ask in the right way, which I am now going to shew you. Your asking will be a failure, unless it has so much of God in it as to be everlasting. You see, then, that you must ask of the right person, who is God the Father Himself, and of none other, because it was His law which you have broken. You will surely fail to obtain any thing, unless you ask for the sake of Christ, who has satisfied the Father with His blood and merits for your sins. You will fail also to get your petition answered, unless you ask the right thing, which is the grace of God, as I have said, to enable you to be with God, to receive what He gives you, and to use it properly.

The beggar may be despised, but, even in a worldly

34 The beggar excelling the independent man.

sense, he is never as bad after he asks his wants as he was before asking them; for asking gives him a claim and a boldness to succeed; and it makes him to feel his needs and to become more earnest. Asking is half getting. The nature of a clergyman's office is to make him a beggar; for by law he must beg by sending round an 'alms' bason,' or dish, after he preaches on Sunday morning, to make the sermon worth any thing, or Holy Communion worth receiving. Surely he can beg in the house of man when he can do so, by the law of the land and of the church, in the House of God. The man that begs of God, by saying his prayers regularly, is a better and a happier man than the person who does not pray at all, or who does so but seldom. Continual praying to God refines and elevates the soul. Religion with some people is but a moral system, as if it was invented by man to make people satisfactory to him, something like the rules of discipline arranged for soldiers, policemen, and servants in worshipping their superiors. Asking of God and of good men humbles us to a fit state of submission; and it makes us more manageable. I have hope of a beggar, but none of the independent man. Better to beg in the streets than to die, in London cellars, of hunger from shyness, which is a defect in character. Although our laws imprison beggars, God gave them the gleanings of corn fields; and He told people to give alms, and not to expose the relieved beggar. The imprisoned beggar does the State some good; but the man does us no good at all who died in the cellar from the effects of hunger. He was defective in character to

Religion to be observed, but not acted. 35

oppose starvation, the evil of society in neglecting the poor, and death itself, by not asking his wants, and, therefore, he was useless to us. We had to pay for a coffin for this man; but the beggar, by continuing alive, did some obliging turn to help his fellow men for his food, and he left money to pay for his remains, when bidding us farewell before meeting the Lord. We feed many men who are like beggars, as well as clergymen, by not getting anything out of the earth, or by not manufacturing earth's productions, or God's favours, to support them. Among this class are policemen, soldiers, poor law workhouse officials, schoolmasters, and most officials of government in its various branches; for these neither till the soil nor work at manufactures.

I give a caution to those of you who despise praying to God and beggary, or appealing for one's wants. My caution is never to use force to get anything done in religious matters. Doing good or putting things right is peacemaking, for moralists tell us that all nature is in a state of war. I am so far a Quaker, (now that I am forced in England to give up Irish fighting), as to be a friend of peace. In the case of all disorders, irregularities, and shortcomings, try the peaceable course of persuasion and appeal; and do not, under the pretence of being a religious worker, use force of any sort. Some think that they are sent by God to do acts in His service; but He gives not the power of acting to any man, for He reserves this to Himself. He gives His people the power of praying, carrying out what He did, exhorting, and preaching, but not of acting. I, as a minister of Christ, act

36

Methodism using forcible measures.

nothing. I am a sign-post shewing the way and pointing to heaven; but that post never acts the travelling, for it never moves to make people go, or to push them on the road. It was angels that acted religion, or assaulted people to make them religious by laying hold upon the hand of Lot, and his family, to rescue them from burning Sodom (Genesis xix. 16). Here is my Irish story:

I strayed one morning, when a boy, into a Methodist Chapel, in a town in Ireland, into which I had come for the first time; and the Methodists were confessing their sins, and boasting of their goodness, at the time, in their class-meeting. One of them boasted that he had made peace between fighting sinners, saying, "I found two men stripped almost naked, on the road side, on the very verge of a deep pit. They were bleeding at the nose, and their eyes were black from blows. When I saw that one of them struck the other with a stick to break his head, I ran between them. They then took hold of each others' throat. So I rolled both of them into the pit up to their necks, and struck them with a stick. I ran away, and both ran after me to kill me." But, cried the Methodist Father-Confessor, the class-leader, "brother, why did you do so?" "Because," answered the confessing sinner," it is written, blessed are the peacemakers'; and I made peace by causing these two men to be nearly drowned instead of fighting, and to become friends, in one cause, to try to kill me." I burst into roars of laughter at the peacemaker. Whereon the class-leader asked me if I belonged to the Methodist body.