* Bishop A. F. W. Ingram.
JUDGES V. 23 179
activities and relationships of life. In the language of Deborah, we are summoned " to come to the help of the Lord against the mighty."
(1) No one will question the duty of the Church in the evan- gelization of the world. The Church is bidden go into all the world and preach deliverance to the captives and the opening of the prison doors to them that are bound. It is the Lord's battle. It has the advantage of appealing to the heroic in men, of awaking their deepest sympathies, of commanding their best activities, of moving them to the greatest sacrifices. It is a warfare with error, superstition, cruelty, which is relentless, unending ; and the cry to all who are Christ's, to all who look for the dawn of His day of peace, light, love, is to come up to the help of the Lord among the mighty.
(2) How small is the number of persons who will interest themselves in any work that requires a public spirit ; for instance, in any municipal election on which so much depends! When some theological conviction or political question is to the front they will throw themselves into it ; but when it comes to a matter of the real, quiet, Christlike work that is done by some of our men on County Councils, Boards of Guardians, and other bodies, how very few will give their sympathy and help to it !
(3) How many of the people among us who are in positions of influence in the various occupations feel any kind of responsibility for the elevation of their occupation, feel any desire to make it a stronghold against the power of evil ? How many merchants feel that it belongs to them to elevate the standards of trade ? How many teachers value their relation to the young because they have the chance to strengthen character against temptation ? How many men and women in social life care to develop the higher uses of society, making it the bulwark and the educator of man's purer, finer, deeper life ? Every occupation is capable of this pro- found treatment, besides its mere treatment as a means of liveli- hood or of personal advancement. In every occupation there are some men who conceive of it so. How few they are ! The mass of men who trade and teach and live their social life never get beyond the merely selfish thought about it all. The lack of a sense of responsibility, the selfishness of life, is the great impression that is forced upon us constantly.
i8o THE SIN OF MEROZ
^As I look round London, I see a most tremendous battle eternally going on. I have got to know of late years more of the inner life of some of the great factories, warehouses, houses of business, than I knew five years ago ; and I know that there is a battle in every one of those great houses such as sometimes we, who are outside of them, seldom suspect. Just imagine what that lad has to bear who hears the filthy talk about women from the men, perhaps the elder men, of the place, who ought to be setting him an example. It is only evidence from place after place which I am absolutely bound to believe that has shown me how strong the battle is, where men and lads are herded together day after day. I have known many a man who has had to stand a positive persecution ; I know now some who are in a terribly hot part of the battle. And I can imagine the Captain who is watching it all, and sees the man, perhaps the foreman, perhaps the elder clerk, who, by his position, is the man to put down that kind of thing, skulking and doing nothing ; and I can almost hear the curse of God ring over the man's head, " Curse ye Meroz, curse him because when my little lads are in their day of trial, he comes not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty." ^
(4) To how many Christians does the religious life present itself in the enthusiastic and inspiring aspect of working and fighting for God? Almost all Christiajia never g^- biQyond^the ^jiBtthQught of saving their own -souls. There ie ncthii^-wlaieli so comes to. impress Brmariias the wa-j, in which the vast majority 'of men hold back and, with no ill-will but all good wishes, let the interests of their fellow-men and of goodness and of God take care of themselves.
^ There are people — plenty of people — who will work them- selves into a state of white heat about religious education, but who will not teach in the Sunday Schools. There are people who will attend meetings where they will be inflamed by some theological firebrand, and cheer to the echo, but who will not themselves touch one of the burdens. They will not become managers of Board schools, and show by their presence and sympathy that they regard contact with little children as a blessed thing. They sit like Meroz in their snug drawing-rooms, and lament the sad fate of the children of London, but they do nothing to come in contact with them themselves. They will criticize their best friends, but they do nothing themselves.*