This is but the barest catalogue of his work; there is nothing that arises, no part of the life of the village and the country side, to which he does not set his hand.  All this is apart from abstract theology.  Religion, of course, is in his heart; but he does not carry a list of dogmas in his hand, rather keeping his own peculiar office in the background, knowing that many of those with whom he mingles are members of various sects.  He is simply preaching the practical Christianity of brotherhood and goodwill.  It is a work that can never be finished, and that is ever extending.  His leading idea is not to check the inevitable motion of the age, but to lone it.

He is not permitted to pursue this course unmolested; there are parties in the village that silently oppose his every footstep.  If the battle were open it would be easier to win it, but it is concealed.  The Church is not often denounced from the housetop, but it is certainly denounced under the roof.  The poor and ignorant are instructed that the Church is their greatest enemy, the upholder of tyranny, the instrument of their subjection, synonymous with lowered wages and privation, more iniquitous than the landowner.  The clergyman is a Protestant Jesuit—­a man of deepest guile.  The coal club, the cricket, the flower show, the allotments, the village fete, everything in which he has a hand is simply an effort to win the good will of the populace, to keep them quiet, lest they arise and overthrow the property of the Church.  The poor man has but a few shillings a week, and the clergyman is the friend of the farmer, who reduces his wages—­the Church owns millions and millions sterling.  How self-evident, therefore, that the Church is the cottager’s enemy!

See, too, how he is beautifying that church, restoring it, making it light and pleasant to those who resort to it; see how he causes sweeter music and singing, and puts new life into the service.  This a lesson learnt from the City of the Seven Hills—­this is the mark of the Beast.  But the ultimate aim may be traced to the same base motive—­the preservation of that enormous property.

Another party is for pure secularism.  This is not so numerously represented, but has increased of recent years.  From political motives both of these silently oppose him.  Nor are the poor and ignorant alone among the ranks of his foes.  There are some tenant-farmers among them, but their attitude is not so coarsely antagonistic.  They take no action against, but they do not assist, him.  So that, although, as he goes about the parish, he is not greeted with hisses, the clergyman is full well aware that his activity is a thorn in the side of many.  They once reproached him with a too prolonged reverie in the seclusion of the parsonage; now they would gladly thrust him back again.

It may be urged, too, that all his efforts have not produced much visible effect.  The pews are no more crowded than formerly; in some cases the absence of visible effect is said to be extremely disheartening.  But the fact is that it is yet early to expect much; neither must it be expected in that direction.  It is almost the first principle of science that reaction is equal to action; it may be safely assumed, then, that after awhile these labours will bear fruit.  The tone of the rising generation must perforce be softened and modified by them.