the laymen must be surely in fault; and if religion has so slight a hold over the people that they would abandon all outward religious practices for the sake of a Sunday concert, or an afternoon in the Monkey-house at the Zoological Gardens; I say, if this is the true state of the case, then I think the clergy may well be summoned before some judgment-seat to answer for the fearful decay of religious life which they have either suffered to go on unchecked, or what is perhaps more likely, have themselves set going by their miserable and emasculated creeds. A Religion that cannot hold its own in rivalry with an hour's amusement cannot be worth preserving; and the sooner it is swept away for something more useful the better both for priests and people. But I believe better things of the so-called "people." I believe that those of the clergy who deserve to be listened to would find the Museums and Art Galleries, Libraries and Aquariums, &c., stepping-stones for the People on the way to the Churches, and not more attractive and successful rivals. And it must be remembered that we only ask for these places to be open in the afternoon and evening. " The people, for whose benefit the Sunday League is working, are without doubt debarred from visiting the museums and galleries of art, except on the rarest occasions, while those who resist our efforts with such obstinate pertinacity can and do enjoy them whenever they please. Knowing not merely the luxury but the vital advantage to minds and morals of perpetual access to the works of Literature, Science and Art, they ought to be verily ashamed of themselves for trying for one instant to withhold these priceless benefits from the poor, especially when it is remembered that the chief places which we desire to throw open on the Sunday are the property of the Nation and belong to all alike without distinction of class or caste. The interests of public morality, too, demand imperatively some such provision as we desire to make for the occupation of the poor and toiling on their weekly holiday. Those who live in the suburbs must be painfully conscious of the evils which arise from this want of occupation. Listless idleness, foul speech, perpetual brawls and not a little indecency; and all these partly caused and partly aggravated by intemperance are the direct and inevitable consequence of having nowhere to go, nothing to do, nothing to see. I do not mean to charge the great majority of Artizans with conduct so dis reputable-far from it but the mass of them are painfully aware that such disgraceful scenes are only too frequent on Sunday afternoons and evenings, and that their own comfort and that of their wives and children is utterly spoilt by almost necessary contact with the victims of idleness and drink. Surely on their behalf immediate steps should be taken to draw the tempted into a purer moral atmosphere. . Religion and morality can never more be imperilled by the opening of Museums, &c., on Sunday, than they are now through such places of resort being closed. And if we who are educated were to be cut off from our many pleasant resources of amusement and doomed to listless idleness, our ranks would soon show quite as much abasement of habits and character as we now witness among the the uncultured masses. We therefore urge the claims of our holy cause upon the highest religious grounds, and affirm without fear of contradiction that whatever tends to furnish pure and wholesome occupation for the mind or hand is a means of moral benefit, and therefore to help to furnish it becomes a religious duty-an act of piety to God and of love to our fellow-man. How pitiful does Sabbatarian bigotry seem beside the holy liberty of true religion! The man who believes in a God of universal love, Whose only will is that we should do our best for one another, Whose temple is all space, Whose shrine the human heart, Who is best pleased with offerings of mutual help, and sympathy, and love—he who believes in this God is not the man to profane any of God's days by unworthy deeds, or to think that he can compound for six days' meanness or villainy by a seventh-day's demureness and hypocrisy. To him, all the days are alike holy, all alike the Lord's days to be spent for Him and in His service, all alike to be portioned out into labour and rest-serious thought and mirthful play-feeding the body and feeding the mind in regular and temperate measure; to him there is nothing profane but sin, nothing sacred but love and duty. It gives him no pleasure to partake of the rich supplies of mental food before him when he remembers the millions that are shut out from the banquet; he only thoroughly enjoys when he knows that the hungry have been also fed. To the most solemn question of his heart, How shall I please my God? there is ever the same answer "Serve well thy brother-man." Friends, lose not a day in enrolling yourselves as members of the National Sunday League. It has suffered fearfully from the aggressions of the Sabbatarians within the last two years. It is sore wounded in the noble fight. It needs gallant recruits and fresh supplies of the sinews of war. I wish I could believe that, if you have not done so already, you would enlist this very day and hour; and henceforth feel your very honour bound up in promoting to the best of your power this sacred cause of humanity and freedom. ERRATA in Sermon of 23rd May. Page 1, line 5.-For "offorded " read "afforded." line 6. For designated" read "designed." Page 2, par. 3, line 3.-For "held up and sarcasm" read "held up to sarcasm." CARTER & WILLIAMS, Printers, 14, Bishopsgate Avenue, Camomile Street, E.C. Theism v. Christianity. A SERMON, PREACHED AT ST. GEORGE'S HALL, LANGHAM PLACE, REV. CHARLES VOYSEY. PSALM, C. 1., "O be joyful in the Lord, all ye lands: serve the Lord with gladness and come before his presence with a song." AM extremely anxious to prove from the writings of the old Testament that the religion which we call Theism, and which is nothing more or less in fact than Natural Religion was long anterior to Christianity and is far superior to it. I must caution you to understand that in this discourse when I speak of Christianity, I mean only the orthodox form of it. It is the common Creed of Christendom that I wish to bring into direct contrast with Theism or Natural Religion. We are beset on either side by opposing sections of Christians, one of which being heterodox declares that we owe Theism to Christ, and the other being orthodox main Rev. C. Voysey's sermons are to be obtained at St. George's Hall, every Sunday morning, or from the Author (by post), Camden House, Dulwich, S.E. Price one penny, postage a halfpenny. tains that Christianity is far better than the old Theism we find in the Hebrew Scriptures. To us individually these statements may be of no importance. We may naturally congratulate ourselves on having reached an altitude above the petty questions of the relation of Theism to Christianity or to Judaism. But our position is at present, and must for awhile remain, one of antagonism. Controversy, however unpleasant, must be kept up. There are thousands of persons who have as yet hardly begun to think, and when once set going they will probably pass through phases of faith similar to those which we ourselves have experienced; and the process of the decay of the old, and the building up of the new, faith will very likely follow the same order in their case as it did in ours. For them, it may be desirable, if not necessary, to dwell now and then on points which we have already settled for ourselves. We must not forget that in a certain sense we are missionaries-and, if we forbear to say, missionaries to the Heathen Christians, it is because we repudiate the use of hard names in referring to those who do not agree with us. Of course we do not care whether our belief be old or new, whether or not it finds the sanction of a venerable authority in the sacred books of other lands; whether or not the noblest men of the past or present, thought on religious questions in our particular groove. Our sole anxiety is to be right in our belief, at least to be moving in the right direction for the discovery of the Truth; and we are absolutely indifferent to the countenance of antiquity or of numbers. We are, I think, on that account more likely to judge impartially of ancient records and of modern opinions. We are beholden to none. We are pledged to no names, parties, or denominations. We are perfectly free to search for truth and to proclaim what we believe we have found. The Psalm on which I desire to speak to-day has by common consent of Christendom found place in the Services of the Church. We, too, have retained it and, I trust, use it with more earnest pleasure than is possible to the orthodox Christian. It is a little out of place where it stands now. It should be at the beginning instead of in the middle of our |