es the same
allegiance to Christ as the soldier does to his Queen; that the
honour of Christianity is his honour, the history of Christianity
his history, the life of Christianity his life. Would that it were
so: but it is not so. And I must appeal to feelings in you less
wide, honourable and righteous though they are: I must appeal to
your public spirit as townsmen of this place.

I have a right as a clergyman to do so: I have a duty as a
clergyman to do so. For your being townsmen of this place is not a
mere material accident depending on your living in one house instead
of another. It is a spiritual matter; it is a question of eternity.
Your souls and spirits influence each other; your tastes, opinions,
tempers, habits, make those of your neighbours better or worse; you
feel it in yourselves daily. Look at it as a proof that, whether
you will or not, you are one body, of which all the members must
more or less suffer and rejoice together; that you have a common
weal, a common interest; that God has knit you together; that you
cannot part yourselves even if you will; and that you can be happy
and prosperous only by acknowledging each other as brothers, and by
doing to each other as you would they should do unto you.

It may be hard at times to bring this thought home to our minds:
but it is none the less true because we forget it; and if we do not
choose to bring it home to our own minds, it will be sooner or later
brought home to them whether we choose or not.

For bear in mind, that St. Paul does not say, if one member suffers,
all the rest ought to suffer with it: he says that they do suffer
with it. He does not say merely, that we ought to feel for our
fellow townsmen; he says, that God has so tempered the body together
as to force one member to have the same care of the others as of
itself; that if we do not care to feel for them, we shall be made to
feel with them. One limb cannot choose whether or not it will feel
the disease of another limb. If one limb be in pain, the whole body
_must_ be uneasy, whether it will or not. And if one class in a
town, or parish, or county, be degraded, or in want, the whole town,
or parish, or county, must be the worse for it. St. Paul is not
preaching up sentimental sympathy: he is telling you of a plain
fact. He is not saying, 'It is a very fine and saintly thing, and
will increase your chance of heaven, to help the poor.' He is
saying, 'If you neglect the