Page:Eminent English liberals in and out of Parliament.djvu/232

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
218
EMINENT LIBERALS OUT OF PARLIAMENT.

single influence in South London in favor of Liberalism. At elections, school board and parliamentary, his followers display an energy and discipline which leave nothing to be desired. They are men of faith, who do not lose heart in times of adversity and re-action. Their human sympathies, as well as their spiritual, have been warmed by the flame which burns in the bosom of the devout and fearless Great Heart of the Metropolitan Tabernacle.

If the common characteristic of men of progress, of genuine Radicals, be that they "live not for themselves but for others," then it would be hard to find a better Radical than Mr. Spurgeon. As his Divine Master" went about doing good, so has His disciple ever struggled hard to follow in His footsteps. So much I readily grant. My heart is entirely with this pure-minded, unsophisticated believer; but my unsanctified head will not, alas! follow it. I go to the Tabernacle, and I admire the vastness of the audience, the simple unconventional eloquence of the preacher, the pith and mother- wit of many of his sayings; but, on the whole, the phraseology, if not strange, is almost meaningless to me, and I return to my place about as little edified as if the good man had been talking in some dead language to which I had no key. Instead of attracting me, his familiarity with the Almighty and His ways repels me. He is more intimate with Him than I am with my dearest friend. Is this the unredeemed condition of the theologically -minded spoken of by the Prophet Comte? I ask myself; or what is it?—

"It is growing dark! …
 I come again to the name of the Lord!