And I cannot pass this point of my sermon without expressing my sense
of the great work which the Dissenting sects have done, and are
doing, for this land (with which the Bishop of London's plan will in
no wise interfere), in teaching this one thing, which the Church of
England, while trying to carry out her far deeper and higher
conception of organization, has often forgotten; that, after all, and
before all, and throughout all, each man stands alone, face to face
with Almighty God. This idea has helped to give the middle classes
of England an independence, a strong, vigorous, sharp-cut
personality, which is an invaluable wealth to the nation. God forbid
that we should try to weaken it, even for reasons which may seem to
some devout and orthodox.
But all these memberships, after all, are only voluntary ones, not
involuntary. They are assumed by man himself--the worldly
associations on the ground of mutual interest; the spiritual
associations on that of identity of opinions. They are not
instituted by God, and nature, and fact, whether the man knows of
them or not, likes them or not. They are of the nature of clubs, not
of citizenship. They are not founded on that human ground which is,
by virtue of the Incarnation, the most divine ground of all. And for
the many they do not exist. The majority of small shopkeepers, and
the majority of labourers too, are members, as far as they are aware,
of nothing, unless it be a club at some neighbouring public-house.
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