_John Jones_, late drunkard, poacher, reprobate; but now, fined
into Christian goodness--made a very saint, according to Act of
Parliament!

If Mother Church, with the rods of spikenard which the law hath
benevolently placed in her hands, will but whip her truant children to
their Sunday seats,--will only consent to draw them through the bars of a
prison to their Sabbath sittings,--will teach them the real value of
Christianity, it being according to her own estimate--_with the
expenses_--exactly fifteen shillings,--sure we are, that Radicalism and
Chartism, and all the many foul pustules that, in the conviction of Holy
Church, are at this moment poisoning and enervating the social body, will
disappear beneath the precious ointment always at her touch.

When we consider the many and impartial blessings scattered upon the poor
of England--when in fact we consider the beautiful justice pervading our
whole social intercourse--when we reflect upon the spirit of good-will and
sincerity that operates on the hearts of the powerful few for the comfort
and happiness of the helpless million,--we are almost aghast at the
infidelity of poverty, forgetting in our momentary indignation, that
poverty must necessarily combine within itself every species of infamy.

Poor men of England, consider not merely the fine and the expenses
attendant upon absence from church, but reflect upon the want of that
beautiful exercise of the spirit which, listening to precepts and parables
in Holy Writ, delights to find for them practical illustrations in the
political and social world about you. We know you would not think of going
to church in masquerade--of reading certain lines and making certain
responses as a bit of Sabbath ceremony, as necessary to a respectable
appearance as a Sabbath shaving. No; you are far away from the elegances
of hypocrisy, and do not time your religion from eleven till one, making
devotion a matter of the church clock. By no means. You go to hear, it may
be, the Bishop of EXETER; and as we have premised, what a beautiful
exercise for the intellect to discover in the political doings of his
Grace--in those acts which ultimately knock at your cupboard-doors--only a
practical illustration of the divine precept of doing unto all men as ye
would they should do unto you! Well, you pray for your daily bread; and
with a profane thought of the price of the four pound loaf, your feelings
are suddenly attuned to gratitude towards