and happiness to those who know little of one or the
other; nevertheless, the district has a desolate, God-forsaken
appearance. There are butchers' shops full of people, pie-shops doing a
roaring trade, photographers all alive, as they always are, on a Sunday.
If you want apples or oranges, boots or shoes, ready-made clothes,
articles for the toilette or the drawing-room, newspapers of all
sorts--you can get them anywhere in abundance in the district; and as you
look up the narrow courts and streets on your left, you will see in the
dirty, eager crowds around ample evidence of Sabbath desecration. I
heard a well-known preacher the other day say it was easy to worship God
in Devonshire. Equally true is it that it is not easy to worship Him in
Mile End or Whitechapel. The Unitarians assume that a large number of
intelligent persons abstain from attending a religious service on Sundays
in the most part "because the doctrines usually taught" are "adverse to
reason and the plain teaching of Jesus Christ." Under this impression
they have opened the place in Mile End. In a prospectus widely
circulated in the district, they publish a statement of their creed as
follows: 1. That "there is but one God, one undivided Deity, and one
Mediator between God and man--the man Christ Jesus." 2. That "the life
and teachings of Jesus Christ are the purest, the divinest, and truest;"
His death consecrating His testimony and completing the devotion of His
life; his resurrection and ascension forming the pledge and symbol of
their own. 3. "That sin inevitably brings its own punishment, and that
all who break God's laws must suffer the penalty in consequence;" at the
same time they "reject the idea with abhorrence that God will punish men
eternally for any sins they may have committed or may commit." Such is
the formula of doctrine, on which as a basis the Unitarian Mission at
Mile End has been established, and to a certain extent with some measure
of success. It is charged generally against Unitarians that they have no
positive dogma. The Unitarianism of Mr. Applebee has no such drawback.
He has a definite creed, which, whether you believe it or not, at any
rate you can understand. In the eyes of many working men, that is of the
class to whom he preaches at Mile End, he has also the additional
advantage of being well known in the political arena. As a lecturer on
behalf of advanced principles in many of our large towns he has produc