As an instance of the dangers, for the Clergy themselves, introduced by this new movement, let me mention the fact that, according to _my_ experience, Clergymen of this school are _specially_ apt to retail comic anecdotes, in which the most sacred names and words—sometimes actual texts from the Bible—are used as themes for jesting. Many such things are repeated as having been originally said by _children_, whose utter ignorance of evil must no doubt acquit _them_, in the sight of God, of all blame; but it must be otherwise for those who _consciously_ use such innocent utterances as material for their unholy mirth. Let me add, however, _most_ earnestly, that I fully believe that this profanity is, in many cases, _un_conscious: the ‘environment’ (as I have tried to explain at p. 123) makes all the difference between man and man; and I rejoice to think that many of these profane stories—which _I_ find so painful to listen to, and should feel it a sin to repeat—give to _their_ ears no pain, and to _their_ consciences no shock; and that _they_ can utter, not less sincerely than myself, the two prayers, “_Hallowed be Thy Name_” and “_from hardness of heart, and contempt of Thy Word and Commandment, Good Lord, deliver us!_” To which I would desire to add, for their sake and for my own, Keble’s beautiful petition, “_help us, this and every day, To live more nearly as we pray!_” It is, in fact, for its _consequences_—for the grave dangers, both to speaker and to hearer, which it involves—rather than for what it is _in itself_, that I mourn over this clerical habit of profanity in social talk. To the _believing_ hearer it brings the danger of loss of reverence for holy things, by the mere act of listening to, and enjoying, such jests; and also the temptation to retail them for the amusement of others. To the _unbelieving_ hearer it brings a welcome confirmation of his theory that religion is a fable, in the spectacle of its accredited champions thus betraying their trust. And to the speaker himself it must surely bring the danger of _loss of faith_. For surely such jests, if uttered with no consciousness of harm, must necessarily be also uttered with no consciousness, at the moment, of the _reality_ of God, as a _living being_, who hears all we say. And he, who allows himself the habit of thus uttering holy words, with no thought of their meaning, is but too likely to find that, for him, God has become a myth, and heaven a poetic fancy—that, for him, the light of life is gone, and that he is at heart an atheist, lost in “_a darkness that may be felt_.”