"PREACHING THE GOSPEL TO THE WORKING CLASSES."
Such is the approved phrase for describing the work in which the Church in this country is supposed to fail. I am not going to find fault with this phrase, or to attempt to throw any doubt on the truth of this supposition; but to expose a chief cause of this failure, and urge the remedy.
The cause is the "Pew System," or, to speak more accurately, the system of appropriation of seats in Churches.
The remedy is the making Churches absolutely free and open.
The practical working and real effects of this appropriation of seats have to be considered; and then the nature of the remedy as it is seen and known in practice.
The last refuge to which ordinary minds betake themselves when they would evade an irresistible argument in favour of any right-principled work, is to say, "Yes, it is very good in theory, but it won't do in practice."
Now I am prepared to show that what we advocate will do, and does do, in practice; but this very common mode of speaking must be noticed, and its true meaning understood.
And what is the true meaning of anything being "good in theory, not in practice?" It means, it is good in itself, in its nature, its essence, but it is not good to be done; in other words, it is good in God's sight, not in ours! It is right, it is good, it is pleasing to God, but that is no reason why it should or could be done!
This implies that our judgment is better than that of God, and that a thing being right does not render it a duty. It might be shown (if this was the proper place) that such a principle, or rather denial of principles, is at the root of all infidelity and all immorality, for it necessarily implies that God does not aid and bless every effort to do His will, whether beset by apparent difficul-
