he came to the front of the platform, lifted up his
eyes, told God why he was there, and besought Him
to bless the discussion in the conversion “of
these poor wandering souls, who have said in their
hearts that there is no God, to a saving faith in
Him and in the blood of Christ.” I expected
that some resentment would be displayed when the wandering
souls found themselves treated like errant sheep,
but to my surprise they listened with perfect silence;
and when he had said “Amen,” there were
great clappings of hands, and cries of “Bravo.”
They evidently considered the prayer merely as an
elocutionary show-piece. The preacher was much
disconcerted, but he recovered himself, and began
his sermon, for it was nothing more. He enlarged
on the fact that men of the highest eminence had believed
in the Old Testament. Locke and Newton had believed
in it, and did it not prove arrogance in us to doubt
when the “gigantic intellect which had swept
the skies, and had announced the law which bound the
universe together was satisfied?” The witness
of the Old Testament to the New was another argument,
but his main reliance was upon the prophecies.
From Adam to Isaiah there was a continuous prefigurement
of Christ. Christ was the point to which everything
tended; and “now, my friends,” he said,
“I cannot sit down without imploring you to turn
your eyes on Him who never yet repelled the sinner,
to wash in that eternal Fountain ever open for the
remission of sins, and to flee from the wrath to come.
I believe the sacred symbol of the cross has not yet
lost its efficacy. For eighteen hundred years,
whenever it has been exhibited to the sons of men,
it has been potent to reclaim and save them.
’I, if I be lifted up,’ cried the Great
Sufferer, ’will draw all men unto Me,’
and He has drawn not merely the poor and ignorant but
the philosopher and the sage. Oh, my brethren,
think what will happen if you reject Him. I
forbear to paint your doom. And think again,
on the other hand, of the bliss which awaits you if
you receive Him, of the eternal companionship with
the Most High and with the spirits of just men made
perfect.” His hearers again applauded vigorously,
and none less so than their appointed leader, who
was to follow on the other side. He was a little
man with small eyes; his shaven face was dark with
a black beard lurking under the skin, and his nose
was slightly turned up. He was evidently a trained
debater who had practised under railway arches, discussion
“forums,” and in the classes promoted
by his sect. He began by saying that he could
not compliment his friend who had just sat down on
the inducements which he had offered them to become
Christians. The New Cut was not a nice place
on a wet day, but he had rather sit at a stall there
all day long with his feet on a basket than lie in
the bosom of some of the just men made perfect portrayed
in the Bible. Nor, being married, should he
feel particularly at ease if he had to leave his wife