which God has afforded, he might yet be saved from the gulf of perdition.

But if a man will not listen to his conscience, he is clearly responsible to the law which he has offended; and it is precisely the same in cases which are reserved for the judgment of God at the last day, as in those which come before a human tribunal. The man who has wilfully set aside the dictates of conscience, and has yielded to temptation, when he knew he ought to have resisted it, and done the devil's work, when he might have lived to the glory of God,—this man will be judged according to that which he hath, not according to that which he hath not. He will not be condemned for his mal-organisation, or for the external circumstances under which he was placed, but because he did not act according to his conscience, and the light and grace given him.

The Christian Churchman knows full well, though the Socialist does not, that the grace given at holy baptism is such as to counteract the evil influence of a corrupt nature; and, without changing the natural organisation, or obliterating the individual character, to sanctify and purify the whole inner man, so that he may live to his Maker's glory. And though the temptations and trials resulting from external circumstances in the present state of society are manifold and serious, yet the ordinances and instructions of the Christian Church, which the providence of God has set as a beacon in this land, if rightly used and obeyed, are sufficient to guide the Chris

tian soul through his perilous journey in peace and safety to the end.

The crime of the Socialist is, that he will not submit to the guidance of God's law. He says with Pharaoh," Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice? I know not the Lord." The holy Gospel is scorned and reviled by these unhappy fanatics. The irrefragable body of evidence on which God has graciously established the truth of Christianity, and which has compelled the assent of the wisest and best men of the modern world, all this is passed over without notice; and it is coolly assumed in the nineteenth century, that the means of salvation, given by God to man, are a mere matter of opinion, to be rejected or received according to our own choice.

common.

As might have been expected, where divine truth is rejected, the most depraved system is raised in its place. Men are to be brought up to live together in herds instead of families. All property is to be The marriage-tie is to be disregarded. It is true that the leaders of Socialism, finding that they had made a mistake, and excited the public disgust, by revealing this last feature of their vile system, have so far modified their plan as to propose that men and women should be bound together for a year before they should be at liberty to choose again,— thus arranging that human beings should live as birds instead of beasts. But it is manifest, on the smallest consideration, that this plan, like the former, would utterly destroy the holy community of families, and

break up that beautiful system whereby God has decreed that we should dwell in love together-the purest blessing enjoyed by man on earth. Instead of a young family, growing up under the care and protection of its lawful and natural parents,-before a child knew its father or mother, they would probably have been separated from each other, and formed new connexions. Instead of brothers and sisters dwelling under one common roof, sharing the affection of their common parents, knit together in love by the long-continued friendship of childhood and youth, each child would have a number of halfbrothers and sisters, some living at one house, and some at another. In short, Family and HOME, those most endearing of all names, would be obliterated from the new moral world, and all would be promiscuous confusion. I would only add to this picture, the incredible absurdity promulgated by the Socialist writers, that men and women are to be free from the restraints of clothing, except for the sake of warmth or ornament; but in-doors, and in fine weather, are to go about, if they please, in a state of nudity and I think enough has been said to give my readers an idea of the mingled wickedness and ridiculousness of the social system, without entering into particulars even more shocking than those which I have already mentioned.

And this is the creed of a considerable number of the manufacturing population of the nineteenth century! The accusers of our Kentish peasantry

may reserve their ridicule for more worthy objects; and the madman Courtenay (if he were living) must hide his diminished rays before the superior lustre of Mr. Robert Owen.

When the Bishop of Exeter laid before the House of Lords some of the details of this most shocking association, the nation was struck with horror at the existence of such a body of men in the heart of our largest cities. Ministers of state declared that they had no notion either of the abominable nature of their doctrines, or the extent to which they had spread. One minister of the crown had the unmanliness and effrontery to blame the clergy for their supineness. It might have been answered, though it was not, that a year at least previously to the time when the ministers of the crown were forced by a Christian bishop to give their attention to an evil which must soon have destroyed the social edifice, the whole subject had been fully deliberated on by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, and steps had been taken, through the means of the press, to check the growing evil.

N

CHAPTER XV.

Our Hero becomes a Socialist.

God proclaims

His hot displeasure against foolish men
That live an atheist life.

Cowper.

Ir is a remarkable phenomenon, how very little the discrimination between truth and falsehood-between moral good or evil-depends on mental quickness or cleverness. God, in His mercy, has given to the most unlettered peasant or mechanic, if he have but an honest and true heart, as much power of distinguishing between right and wrong as to the most learned and enlightened philosopher; and the latter is quite as liable to be blinded to moral truth, by pride and evil habits, as the former.

Amongst those who had heard the Socialist's lectures in the town-hall, there was one who listened with more than ordinary attention. The mind of. Charles Lever was at this time peculiarly open to the reception of error. Trained up in no moral habits of sound and sober judgment; his head filled with a mass of ill-digested notions; puffed up with no slight portion of self-conceit, in consequence of the applause which he received amongst his equals in rank,—he listened with delight to the wild schemes of the Socialist, and fancied that he was following