The righteous man is in a real sense the master of the city. He, as Browning says, who ‘walked about and took account of all thought, said and acted’ was ‘the town’s true master.’ Were there in London a company of such righteous men, the power of Poverty, Ignorance, and Sin would be broken. (2) I am often led to observe that taste is more powerful than interest. People remain on in situations, hold opinions, and adopt habits which are against their interests, because they are more in accordance with their tastes. They _like_ the surroundings, they _like_ the life, and liking is an armour which resists the strong lance of the economist. Now why is it that taste overpowers interest, and that habit is stronger than law? It is because taste comes through persons and is spread by contact. The habits or tastes, therefore, which lie at the root of Poverty, Ignorance, and Sin may best be met by the formation of other habits, which come through the example of persons, by the contact of man with man. Righteous men are therefore necessary--men who would live simply and share their luxury, whose gain would not mean another’s loss, who would work for their bread, who would do justice on wrong-doers, show mercy to the weak, and walk humbly before God. The habits of respectable people, the waste, the idleness, the sensuousness are writ large in the poverty, ignorance, and sin of the disreputable. Fifty--a company of righteous men, rich or poor, setting an example of generosity and honesty, living Christ’s life in contact with others--might create habits in them which would take the place of the old bad habits. The question is sometimes asked, What has been the secret of the success of Christianity? Its basis is not a system but a life. Jesus, the Righteous One, drew to Himself the righteous. They that loved the light came to the light and found the universe instinct with life. Like leaven, the disciples leavened the mass. Christianity, in distinction from other systems, gives no scheme of belief and promises no paradise of plenty--it says instead, ‘The kingdom is within you.’ ‘When you do right you have all that God can give.’ ‘The joy of Christ’s is the highest joy, and His is the joy of the righteous.’ Christianity spreads, if it spreads at all, by pointing to a life. To you, then, desiring to save the city, I take up the lesson as old as Abraham and illumined in Christ. I say, ‘Be righteous.’ Follow the light and do the right, For man can half control his doom, Till you find the deathless angel Seated in the vacant tomb.