The Religious Life of LondonRitchie, J. Ewing (James Ewing)
Religion
The Religious Life of London
Ritchie, J. Ewing (James Ewing)
London (England) -- Religion; Religious thought -- England -- London
They forget, as one has wittily remarked, that if the Lord
does not need man’s learning, still less does He need man’s ignorance.
As to the financial question, they get over that without much difficulty.
Their expenses are next to nothing, and each brother or sister is ever
ready to contribute his mite. They have nothing to pay for pew-rents;
they have no minister’s salary to collect; they have no educational
institutions to support; the rent of a room in a back street is no
serious item; and as to church furniture, that is easily supplied—a
door-mat, a dirty desk, half a dozen old forms, a second-hand Bible or
so, a greasy hymn-book that has done duty many times, and they have all
that they require. It is not for me to judge my brother. To show him
how fatal is his fluency of tongue, how presumptuous his hope, how
unfounded his joy, is a thankless task. All I would suggest is, that he
should exercise a little of that charity of which he stands in need
himself, and not fancy that to him has been revealed what men of greater
piety and higher intellect have been unable to discover. Another
objection may also be taken. In an ancient town, with a fine old castle,
many, many years ago, there was an attempt to form a volunteer regiment.
Unfortunately all wanted to be officers; the consequence was, the
regiment came to grief. The Peculiar People have too many officers.
Where every one has an equal right to teach, the number of the taught
will be small indeed.
THE SANDEMANIANS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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