more effectual, and more practical in its results, if the opinions which Mr. Robertson avowed were taken as the basis on which it should be conducted.

In former years, Mr. Robertson had delivered a Lecture at Cheltenham, on the Church of England's Independence of the Church of Rome; but it is omitted from this volume, because Mr. Robertson frequently expressed a very strong wish against its being reprinted, observing that his argument against the Church of Rome would now be based on altogether different grounds from those he had taken in that Lecture. Whatever weight may be attached to the critical rendering of certain texts-whatever authority may be claimed in virtue of certain canons or decrees of councils-the great principle that the conscience of each individual man is free to judge the Right, and to act in conformity with that judgment, without any interference or hinderance from any man or set of men-will be found to oppose a firmer barrier than these to Romish progress. The spread of Romish doctrine is simply impossible where this great principle of spiritual freedom is believed and obeyed.

It is very noteworthy, that nearly all these public efforts of Mr. Robertson were in behalf of those engaged in labour. He had a high idea of

Work, regarding it as God's appointment for every man; and while he always avowed his belief that the men of thought were labourers, as much as the men of action, he never lost an opportunity of urging on his hearers that a mere life of pleasure or of fashion-the life of busy idleness-was little better than living death. Some of his noblest utterances were those in which he sought to rouse men up to doing something better worthy of the vocation by which they were called. His own life was one long labour, of which, while others were marvelling at the wonderful gifts and graces it displayed, his own thought ever seemed to be "not as though I had attained." How little he esteemed the gifts which others valued so highly in him, may be gathered from a passage in a letter to a friend, written towards the end of his career. He says

"If you knew how sick at heart I am with the whole work of 'parle-ment,' 'talkee,'' palaver,' or whatever it is calledhow lightly I hold the 'gift of the gab'-how grand and divine the Realm of Silence appears to me in comparison-how humiliated and degraded to the dust I have felt, in perceiving myself quietly taken by gods and men for the popular preacher of a fashionable watering-place-how slight the power seems to me to be given by it of winning souls-and how sternly I have kept my tongue from saying a syllable or a sentence, in pulpit or on platform, because it would be popular”...

When many of the clergy and richer classes

were looking suspiciously at the growing intelligence of working men, and connecting it with revolutionary events then going on in Europe, Mr. Robertson threw himself boldly into their cause, and avowed his belief that they had rights which, if trampled on, it was at the peril of the social fabric; that they had wrongs which it were well for England if she recognized and set herself steadily to remedy. In public and private he ever sought to bring classes together.

*

His pulpit ministrations were chiefly addressed to the richer classes of society, and he never failed to warn them, with a stern yet loving faithfulness, respecting the special responsibilities and temptations to which they were exposed. Most unflinchingly did he seek to impress upon them the duties they owed to those below them in the social scale; while, in speaking to labouring men, he as faithfully told them that one great cause why they were depressed and degraded was to be found in themselves; that when they could exercise self-denial, temperance, steadfastness in self-improvement, it would be simply impossible for any one to keep them down. He told them, too, that in obtaining the mastery over self, they were attaining in God's kingdom a rank and a

* See "The Church's Message to Men of Wealth;" published in the First Series of his Sermons.

nobility greater than any mere earthly title could confer. And both classes responded to his earnest zeal for their welfare, with a genuine love, which is very touching, very refreshing, in a day of conventional flattery and mutual self-laudation. Amongst many illustrations of the feelings of the Working Classes towards him may be mentioned this one. A pair of candlesticks was sent to him, accompanied by a letter, of which the following is a copy :

“SIR,—A humble individual, desirous of acknowledging the unflinching kindness you have shown towards the working classes of this town, begs the acceptance of the enclosed; and, in doing so, he hopes you will pardon what I am afraid you will think an un-English way of sending a note without a name. My apology must be, that as you do not know me, you will not put any wrong construction as to my motive in doing so.

"Nothing but the profoundest respect would have induced me to take the liberty I have.

Believing you to be a man as well as a gentleman, that you can come down to the level of working men, and understand them (a rare qualification now-a-days in one in the class that circumstances has placed you), all working men think it so much the more valuable to have your advice and assistance. May it long be continued.

"I do not complain that we have not the sympathy of the upper classes. I believe we have; but there is not one in fifty that can come down to our circumstances, to the bond of our common nature, to comprehend that, although the mechanic

and artisan of this country are deep thinkers, yet they often stand in need of advice, and the assistance that education gives. We have their good wishes and pecuniary assistance thanks for it, but sometimes a little kindly advice would do far more. It is this difference that makes us feel we could grasp you by the hand as a brother in the cause of progress of the nation. Would that there were more such. How much more would true religion, morals, and sound intellect be brought out. No fear then of the pope or the devil. Believe me, sir, I am very respectfully yours."

*

Referring to this letter, of which he never knew the writer, Mr. Robertson writes to Lady Henley :

"You are quite welcome to copy that note; it does more honour to the writer than to the receiver; but except in cases where you can trust discretion, it would be better not to give my name. Ninety-nine out of a hundred would put my showing it you down to the score of vanity. You can show it, if you like, as a proof of the good and generous feeling sometimes found in lower life; but as there are many who hate me as a heretic, pray do not let them have a handle."

It will not surprise any one who knows human nature, to hear that, while to many people Mr. Robertson's teaching came like light in a dark place, to some it seemed revolutionary in politics, and heretical in creed.

Some influential persons spoke strongly against his teaching and his influence-it is believed with