should be so true,
so incapable of contradiction! However, if the remark had any effect in
exciting the efforts of the Protestant chaplain, and in thus supplying
at length a want so palpable as that of a house of God in the colony, it
was by no means uttered in vain; and supposing it to be so, this is not
a solitary instance of our Church and her members having been aroused
into activity by the taunts and attacks of those that are opposed to
her.

[99] It would appear almost as though some men _will_ not see that
churches are not built for clergymen to preach in, and live (or starve)
upon the pew-rents, but for laymen to hear God's word and join in His
solemn worship.

Upon the opening of the humble building, which had thus tardily been
raised for the purposes of divine worship, and to consecrate which
according to the beautiful forms of our English church there was no
bishop in the colony, the chaplain preached a suitable sermon, we are
informed; but, if it may be judged from the scanty record that is
preserved of it, this discourse partook of the cold and worldly spirit
of the age in which it was delivered. Mr. Johnson began well with
impressing upon his hearers the necessity of holiness in every place,
and then lamented the urgency of public works having prevented the
erection of a church sooner. As though a building for the public worship
of Almighty God were not the most urgent of all public works in every
christian community! He next went on to declare, that his _only_ motive
in coming forward in the business was that of establishing a place
sheltered from bad weather, and from the summer-heats, where public
worship might be performed. The uncertainty of a place where they might
attend had prevented many from coming, but he hoped that now the
attendance would be regular.[100] Surely, the worthy chaplain might have
had and avowed a higher motive for building a house of God, than that of
keeping men from the wind, and the rain, and the sun; and, undoubtedly,
as the inconvenience of the former system was no good excuse for absence
from divine service, so neither could the comparative convenience of the
new arrangement be at all a proper motive for attendance upon it.

[100] See Collins' Account of New South Wales, pp. 223-4.

However, many allowances are to be made for Mr. Johnson, and it becomes
us, while we condemn the faults, to spare the persons, of the men of
that and of other past generations; es