ly
men. I have seen worldliness come into the Church--aye, among
Methodists. How many young men have I seen, earnest, zealous, devoted,
doing just that work for God which must be done by young men if the
population of this land is to be won to Christ--they enter into
business-life, by-and-bye God prospers their industry, and they begin to
thrive in the world; and what then? Oh, then this fervour abates--they
get immersed in earthly things. We lose their activities in the Church;
the ungodly part of the world lose the influence of a blessed example and
of their Christian teaching. They are too busy to attend to the service
of God at all on the week days, they say to their ministers: "We will
find the money if you will send men to do the work among these poor
people." Find money to do it! So they ought: but do they think they
place the Church under obligation by doing that? Not a whit. They ought
to be thankful to the Church, and to the God of the Church, that He will
have their money, that God permits them gratefully to recognise in this
way their stewardship; but I say to every such person, if you think you
can purchase exemption from personal devotion to God, and from such
devotion as shall lead you to spread the truth by your personal labour,
to the utmost extent of your ability, you are greatly mistaken. We can
have no such compositions of God's claim; you must not dream of them.
There is a feebleness, therefore, of the Church; oft-times arising from
this cause, a feebleness we must seek to cure, as it only can be cured,
by an increase of our own personal godliness.

But how do we stand just now? God has sometimes admonished this nation
for its ungodliness. I do not speak of the nation now as profane or
criminal. Take the best view of it. And I remember that a great
theologian has said, the true view of man's depravity is not that every
man is profane or intemperate or mischievous--the great proof of the
universal depravity of man is found in man's ungodliness--in his not
recognising the claims of God, and not bowing to his love. We have had
admonition after admonition, within our own lives, most of us. Not long
since God sent a pestilence into our midst--on two remarkable occasions.
Well do I remember the state of the people where I was labouring in one
of the large towns of this country, with between three and four hundred
deaths, from cholera, occurring every week. The people were alarmed.
There w