lowest classes of society. They are bad enough. They are a festering
mass at the foundation of all the greatness of the nation; they are a
mass which, if not corrected in their tendencies, may at any time be
quickened into an activity that will utterly wreck the entire
superstructure of all that as Christians and as Englishmen we hold dear.
But higher up, where there is no profaneness or criminality, or gross and
disgusting visible intemperance, what other evils are there? There is
decency, but there is an absence of the recognition of God. God is not
in men's thoughts. And there is a fearful and fatal indifference as to
the claims of religion that has come over the nations. Multitudes
neglect public worship. I apprehend the least evidence that anybody can
give of religious impression, or of recognition of the claims of
religion, is that they should attend the public worship of Almighty God.
You find, however, hundreds of thousands in this nation who never attend
divine service. If our churches and chapels in London were to be
attended next Sunday by the usual number of persons, and those besides
who ought to attend were disposed to try to gain admission at any one
time during the day, we have not half churches and chapels enough to hold
them; whilst, as it is, the room provided is not occupied. This
indifference is a fearful thing. Paul yearned over his countrymen, but
in some respects our countrymen are worse than Paul's. "I could wish,"
said that glorious, patriotic man--that grand old man, that most blessed
and chief of all the Apostles, with heaven in his view, his career
well-nigh ended, his work done, and Churches rising up around him of
which he was the father--not churches built upon other men's
foundations--"I could wish myself accursed from Christ for my brethren,
my kinsmen according to the flesh." Yet "I bear them record, that they
have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge." In England, at this
day, there are multitudes of whom it may be said, "God is not in all
their thoughts." And the heathenism spread about us is as bad in its
developments as in any other part of the world, and more aggravated in
its character because of its immediate proximity with the light and truth
of our blessed Christianity. There is in this land, too, an absorbing of
men in worldliness: this, perhaps, comes nearer to us. In my time I have
seen worldliness not only enthralling obviously and professedly world