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we despise religion because we are for ever being told that it is wicked not to believe this, that, or the other; and no matter what we do or how we live we shall be damned if we do not believe in the blood of Christ or submit ourselves to the dictates of the church. We know better than that. We have the sense to discern the malignity and injustice of such an arrangement, even if our consciences did not tell us that we shall be sure to have to pay the full penaltyno more and no less than our sins deserve. We despise religion too because they tell us not to use our reason; that it is impious to doubt or question any of their assertions or the still more incredible assertions in their Bibles and Prayer-books. We know that must be wrong, for if there be a God and He has given us reason, without which we cannot move one step in the discovery of what is right and true, He must wish us to use our reasons in searching after Him and in the discovery of His will; and that religion. carries its own condemnation which says it is wrong or dangerous to think for oneself. This is why we despise religion and will no more of it till the preachers talk sense and are permitted freely to say what they really believe."

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Such, I believe is the testimony of the indifferent. some, indifference has been pushed to the extreme of active hostility; but the alienating cause is the same in either case. These reflections, loose and fragmentory as they are, should lead us to hope that true religion consistent with common sense, with duty and with cheerfulness, is yet possible to those who have been alienated by what bears the sacred name of religion in our day. Men and women do love that which is good, are ready to believe that which is true, are thankful to embrace hopes for the future which do not outrage the intellect or demoralize the heart.

If there be a God in Heaven-and when I say "if," I do not falter one moment in my grateful trust in Him-then surely He will continue to draw to Himself the hearts of the gentle and aspiring, the hearts of the weary and careworn, the hearts of the tempted and the enchained, the hearts of the weak and the hearts of the strong; the young, the prime, and the aged, those who toil and those who rest, the sick and the dying. If God loves, He needs us as much as

we need Him, or we should never have been here at all. If He is as good as He is wise, He will not alter the hard path of our lives to suit our discontent, however justifiable, nor surrender into our childish, short-sighted control, the guidance of our lives and destiny.

True religion must live, in spite of false religion, indifference, or hostility,-or this world will be turned into hell; might will overcome right; and every soul which survives the catastrophe will in weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth cry out like Lucifer in his fall "Evil be thou my good."

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D. WILLIAMS & Co., Printers, 14, Bishopsgate Avenue, C'amomile Street, E. C.

A Plea for True Religion.

PART I.

A SERMON,

PREACHED AT ST. GEORGE'S HALL, LANGHAM PLACE,
SEPTEMBER 12, 1875, BY THE

REV. CHARLES VOYSEY.

2 CORINTHIANS, IV., 1. 2. "Therefore seeing we have received this ministry, as we have received mercy we faint not; lut having renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God."

T would be but a poor use of our time and thought and splendid opportunities, were we to occupy ourselves

exclusively in pointing out the errors and faults of others and in mere denunciation of the various hindrances to our progress in the pursuit of religious truth. Having, last Sunday, endeavoured to shew-and I believe impartially and truly for the most part-the causes of the prevailing indifference to Religion, it seems only fair to state on the other hand what kind of Religion we would offer in place of that which has lost its hold on society, and what are the grounds on which we may justly commend it to the acceptance of all reasonable and earnest men.

I trust it will ever be remembered by all who support our cause that it is only a part of our function to destroy what we believe to be false, and that we should have but little right to do this if we did not quite as strenuously endeavour to build up and establish that which we believe to be true. If the former only were the work required, a mere platform would be sufficient, our religious service would be idle if not impertinent, and we might make common cause with any rabble of Iconoclasts who chose to claim us as allies.

But

Rev. C. Voysey's sermons are to be obtained at St. George's all, every Sunday morning, or from the Author (by post), Camden ouse, Dulwich, S.E. Price one penny postage a halfpenny.

again and again have we urged that our destructive work was only a means to an end; that our motive for it was to clear the ground for the rearing of a better and more enduring temple, and not to make a mere waste howling wilderness where none could again find shelter.

Nor must it be supposed on the other hand that our constructive work is to set up a new set of dogmas in place of the old, or to establish a new authority on the throne of the deposed tyrannies.

That would indeed be comparatively an easy task by the side of what we have undertaken to accomplish. Let any one of us go forth into the streets of London and raise a voice of warning against coming danger, let him but earnestly reveal his anxiety that his fellow-men should not perish in the flames of Hell, but reach eternal bliss; let him say openly and with brazen reiteration that God hath sent him on this errand and inspired him to speak in His name to affrighted souls, and then let him set before the excited crowd as the sole condition of salvation, a belief in the simple doctrines of Theism in which we generally agree; and such a revival you would witness as not even the exploits of Moody and Sankey could equal; no deliverance of soul from ghastly fear by the Blood of Jesus could compare for a moment with the rapture kindled by such a message from God Himself, as that there was no Hell-fire at all, but that He loved every man, woman and child, and would bring them all at last to His eternal home in peace and purity and exceeding joy. This I do not hesitate to state would be the immediate consequence of such a mission, provided the people were in fear of eternal torment, and the missionary could persuade them to believe that God had sent him and had put His own word into the preacher's lips.

But this you see is precisely what we will not, cannot do ; we will not work upon man's fears, we will not dare to assume Divine sanction for our message. We are not superstitious enough to excite sympathy, we are not arrogant or dogmatic enough to make slaves of our brethren. Consequently the great crowd passes us by, and goes where it can find water to assuage its thirst, or fierce stimulants to gratify its passion for spiritual excitement. It goes where it can

make believe there is a Divine oracle and human lips echoing Divine speech. It has no ears for those who cast on the trembling crowd the responsibility of their own salvation or who modestly refuse to stand between them and their God. We are therefore, in a worldly point of view, at an immense disadvantage; we are before our time; we have a message to deliver-but it is to the eager ears of posterity, we have a great work to do-but it is to sow the seeds of a Reformation which the 20th century will enjoy. But thanks be to God, we know what we have to do, we see clearly the end for which we are working; and by His grace we will not falter, or step out of our appointed path for one moment, nỏ, not even to win by it the discipleship of a million souls or to reap the suffrages of a nation.

When therefore, we offer to those who have been alienated from the popular creeds another and a truer religion—as we believe it to be-we will use no guile, we will not assume Divine authority to teach them, nor let them for a moment. regard us in the former light of God's accredited messengers. Our first word shall be one of warning. "Think for yourselves on matters of religion. Each one must find God for himself. We do not speak with authority, we do but speak what we honestly believe. We know that it is better, more reasonable more consoling, more elevating than any other belief in the world, and on that ground alone is it to be accepted; and if this claim does not hold good, if there be found a belief more true, more reasonable, more consoling than ours, for love of God and man tell us of it that we may believe it too. We have struggled hard to find the best and the purest, and till we find a better we will cling to this. Proofs we have none, but we have reasons in plenty. We cannot work a single miracle; but we can understand and use argument. We have none of the juggling powers of priestcraft, but we have the thoughts and feelings of men and largely resort to common sense. When therefore we attempt to define and illustrate what we mean by true Religion, we are but giving our own opinion, not laying down dogmas. And you of all men-you who have already penetrated the flimsy pretexts by which dogmatists varnish their wares and who have come entirely to doubt or to deny all supernatural Revelation

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