THE PLUNDERED CHURCH.

CHAPTER I.

The standard of good preaching-The power of conversion—The test of goodness-Giving Church authorities the amount of work they pay for-A poor vicar like Samson among the Philistines-The English who starve vicars are Irishmen descended from Celts.

I

have formed an opinion that good actions make the best sermons. I have contended for this with popular preachers, who call me eccentric for saying, that the best preacher is the man who steals nothing from the sermons of others, and who is more honest, in this, than the thief whom he wants to convert. My own sermon-book is Nature, the Bible, and the Power of God in my soul, or what is done by God Almighty. I have been lately obliged to gather spiritual lessons from my treatment. My excuse for not keeping my lessons "hid in the earth" (Matt. xxv. 25) is, that the really bad can never be reclaimed, by us, except through the means which are within their reach, or through those things which they admit to be true.

Many things have caused me to make the improvement of the condition, in which we are born, my favorite topic, both in worldly and in spiritual matters. Contrary to the declaration of the Burial Service, some do "continue in one stay," by relying upon their natural birth, and by considering themselves so

8

The Nature of Real Conversion.

highly born as not to be in much need of improvement. Others cannot get into the way of a better birth or life from want of will, or from having no appetite for good things, or, perhaps, from forcing themselves to be even more grovelling and callous, as they grow up, than they need be.

Conversion, or being so changed spiritually as to hate the state in which we are born, is a power which influences our character, progress, and even our intelligence. It is far more powerful to make our nature good, and to make us whatever we should be toward others, than the honours, or change of position, which the Queen bestows upon people. These beings, who are so favoured, leave it to her to raise others, and they let things take their downward course; whereas the converted try to force all to become better, and they exert themselves to remove wrong-doing. When this change takes place in us, all our powers become sharpened, rightly used, correctly applied, and rendered even forcible. I being converted, have been enabled to overcome all obstacles, and to succeed in all good undertakings. The power of conversion rescued me from death by starvation, when people handed me over to the grave, in displaying their power.

The test, I have set up, by which to know a good man, is not to find out how much good he does, for he may deceive me in the quality of his work, or the motive from which he does it may be bad; but to count up all the good things which he leaves undone. This is the way by which we do, unknowingly, judge worldly men; for we single them out for doing what

Poor Vicars and Church Work.

9

others have left undone, or cannot do. I value a man, not by what his parents made him, nor by the titles which others give him, but by the progress which he himself makes, and by the amount of evil which he removes or stops. "By their fruits ye shall know them" (Matt. vii. 20), and not by their birth, title, pretension, nor even by their good intention.

The matter to which I am now drawing attention concerns this great Commonwealth; for the tithes of my parish, worth about £800 a year, were taken away by Henry VIII., and I was called to minister upon £80 a year to more than 500 souls, and to do so I had to walk through nearly 4,000 acres of land. I have been miserable, ever since I came here, for not being able to do more work than what the £80 paid for. Still I have consoled myself with remembering that I am only "a servant of servants;" and that unlike the Pope, in this respect, I must approve of the arrangement made by my superiors for me. These have so acted as if they thought that more work than £80 worth, in this peculiar place, would injure Queen Victoria's Commonwealth and Church, or that it would upset the plans of the Church and State authorities, or interfere with the position, interests, or the liberal notions of those connected with my parish.

The bishops, the rich owners and occupiers of parish property, and tithe owners, are the best judges, and not a vicar, of the quantity and quality of the work required. Those who want work done will give sufficient money to procure it. Therefore, it becomes a vicar to give the value of the money allowed, and

10.

The Opposition to Clergymen.

no more, lest he should injure the interests of Church authorities and parish rulers. Let it be remembered that, in the affairs of religion, unlike those of the world, when there is a doubt the safest thing is to do nothing at all, and to throw ourselves upon God's mercy; for "he that doubteth is damned if he eat," and "whatsoever is not of faith is sin" (Rom. xiv. 23)The poor weak vicar ought to be allowed the benefit of the doubt. The customary fee for one service is a guinea, or £54 12s. a year for 52 sermons. In strict justice, therefore, a vicar should have £109 4s. a year for giving two services; or else he should give but. one service for less pay than this. Any other course does harm, instead of good, by making people commit the sin of not paying honestly their debts due for what is done for them.

A clergyman, by doing parish work to perfection,, always offends worldly men, who think that he invades their position. So Christ says, "I came not to send peace, but a sword" (Matt. x. 34). It is written, "to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin" (James iv. 17). Therefore, those who have been connected with disendowed churches, since the Reformation, have committed the sin of not paying vicars honestly; or else they did not know how to do good. A vicar must be either like Christ, by opposing all that is wrong, or unlike Him, by allowing all that is bad to continue, or by leaving good things undone.

The subject for pious meditation which crossed my soul, when remembering how God's strong servant, the poor vicar, is overpowered by worldly men, was the life of Samson. So I entered my pulpit, and preached.

A good Minister's defeat impossible.

II

the following short sermon:-My brethren, I exclaimed, Samson was the judge and minister of God over His people; but he fell into the hands of the Philistines. These rulers turned him into ridicule, and made him pay them homage and worship; and they played upon his very wife to betray him. But Samson, with all his blundering in playing into the hands of his worldly Philistine wife, the church-hater, had strength in his very nature, and he could not keep it down. So it came to pass that the Liberal Sportsmen and ridiculers lost their all, in the end, when displaying their greatness and power. There is some unknown virtue in being the Lord's anointed gospelminister; and it increases in proportion as he is attacked. Wrong-doing, homage-seeking, or degrading another under the cloak of religion, or politics, must end in ruin for building this confused Tower of Babel. Brethren, this sermon must end here, as I am not allowed a guinea from the parish for a full one. In religion it is quality, and not quantity, which God appreciates. The course which worldly men, as for instance the military and police authorities, pursue to make you do two or three things, or to keep you under themselves, is to give you many directions. So Romanists get plenty of work to do from the priest.

As it is through the known that we can reach the unknown, my sermons, in future, will contain spiritual lessons drawn from what passes around you. As you do not pay me for my lessons, the least regard you can shew me is to be unlike the Pope's Irishmen, by not being the enemies of your superiors, and by not making big men of yourselves at the expense of other