R. G. Baker

“ Churches and chapels are made gay with shining leaves and scarlet berries; carols are sung in the streets; the words, ‘A merry Christmas to you!’ pass from mouth to mouth; and beef and pudding, the outward form which joy is wont to put on in this cold, hungry climate, smoke on many a board to which, alas! for every other day in the year they are utter strangers. Nay, it is to be hoped that even in union workhouses there is an intermission of gruel for Christmas day.”—Pp. ”

“ And whenever the work of dilapidation begins in one of these tenements, each successive tenant, flying from his hard bargain, leaves it of course more dismantled than he found it; until they become utterly unfit for the occupation of human beings, whether under the summer sun, striking upon their slight and exposed roofs, or the winter wind, penetrating the settlements of their walls and the cracks of their windows. ”

“ While the impressions are yet vivid and authentic of the trial through which we have passed, let us endeavour, as far as we can, in the faithful discharge of our duty towards God and our neighbour, to turn to account, at our own doors, the experience which it has left us. ”

“ This enrolling of our people every tenth year, each man’s family in his own house, may it not read to us some lessons as Christians; while it affords to those who are set over us in the Lord, the materials for their guidance in the great work of government and legislation? Whether we regard it as private individuals, or as fellow-subjects in that civil community with which the Providence of God has connected us, or as members of the Church of Christ and “heirs together of the grace of life,” [7c] it may suggest to us many reflections of thankfulness, self-inquiry and abasement. ”

“ I allude to the crowded manner in which they live together; the landlord of the house too often entirely regardless of any rule for restricting the number of its inmates; and his tenants sometimes deriving a large profit, beyond the amount of their own rent, from the numerous under-tenants whom they admit, without scruple or restraint, to share in the occupation of them. ”

“ I declare, it seems to me that the very idea of worship has almost died out in England. Do you think that if people really felt they were speaking to Almighty God, they would sit at their ease, or look over a book, and never do more? Church of Englandism has such a comfortable look about it; it is the religion of people well to do in the world, and have too much business to transact to turn their minds thoroughly to anything else. It is a one day a week religion. ”

“ If the cupidity of the proprietors of a steam-boat or an omnibus can be restrained, in order that the capacity of those vehicles may be defined, and that we may travel uncrowded in our journeys to and from the metropolis, has it not become at length necessary that some attempt should be made to regulate the stowage of a bed-room, and to rescue civilized and immortal beings from the ruinous consequences of their present mode of living? ”

“ Our national welfare depends not upon miracles, but upon those provisions of human forethought or experience, which, under the Divine blessing, appear best adapted to meet each exigency that arises. And although there is often cause to lament that this blessing is so seldom implored by us distinctly and publicly as a Christian people, and so little acknowledged by us in the many mercies, which, as a Christian people, we are enjoying, yet still we may humbly believe that the inquiry now conducted cannot be displeasing to God. ”

“ But, alas! all that we see and hear forbids us to believe that the only design or effect of this measure is to enable the Romanists to provide for their own people. There is already too much evidence to show that it has all the character of an aggression upon the faith of the members of our Church. It is in full accordance with those measures, which within the last few months have happily awakened the Protestant spirit of our whole people, and have shown in its true colours the influence of that unscriptural and grasping Church from which they sprang. ”

“ And it is a melancholy fact, that while in some other parts of Fulham a considerable number of small houses have been built within the last few years, of a more substantial and commodious style, in order to meet the increasing wants of this portion of the inhabitants, better drained, better ventilated, and in some more healthy localities, they are gradually lapsing into the same state. ”

“ The Protestant professes that the only sure way of knowing God’s will is for every man to read the Holy Scriptures for himself. I take up the Holy Scriptures, therefore, for this purpose, and I find there that our Lord appointed, and the apostles practised, quite another way of learning God’s will and the right road to heaven. I find that our Lord sent, not a message, but messengers; not a book for men to read, but apostles for men to obey ”

“ But surely the thought will occur to some among us, I would to God that it might be brought home by His Spirit to the hearts of all, that there are several other points of inquiry besides these, upon which the great Head of the Church may be expecting, and really does expect, an account to be rendered by us. We may have no power to influence the character or to regulate the habits of those large masses of the people whose irreligion, in the crowded districts that surround us, we may deplore. The influence which is to affect a whole nation falls within the power of very few. ”

“ The Memorialists, therefore, desire to represent to the Metropolitan Commissioners of Sewers their earnest desire that they will, as soon as may be compatible with the other demands upon them in the fulfilment of their arduous office, direct their special inquiries and care to the parish of Fulham, and provide it with a complete system of Sewers, adequate to the wants of its large and continually increasing population. ”

“ How many communicants are there in this family among those who have reached the proper age of full communion with the Church, and with her living Head? How many of the children are really reared in the spirit of their baptismal vows, “virtuously brought up to lead a godly and a Christian life?” [19b] Are not these subjects of inquiry on which there would be too great cause for self-reproach to many among us; the reproach resting upon those who had all the means afforded them for their spiritual sustenance and growth, but have carelessly neglected to improve them? ”

“ But since it has been proved, by the history of such a season as that through which we have been lately carried, to involve the actual considerations of life and death, some power will surely, ere long, be called forth to correct it. ”

“ High rents, far beyond the means of the tenants, but sternly collected as each week comes round, can only be met by the vicious practice of subletting each room or fraction of a room which can by any sacrifice be dispensed with. ”

“ At the time here spoken of, David had been, for nearly forty years, king over “the Lord’s people.” The youngest of eight sons of one of the shepherds of Israel, and raised from that lowly station to the throne by the express appointment of Jehovah, it may well excite our surprise to observe his conduct on the occasion to which the text refers. We might have supposed that the incidents of his early life, no less than the experience of his riper years, would have taught him a more simple spirit of faith and trust than that which he now showed. ”

“ Meanwhile these Societies have solved one most important problem, which cannot too forcibly be urged upon us. They have shown, that without any appeals to the benevolence of the public, healthy and comfortable dwellings can be provided for the working classes of the community, upon reasonable rents, with a remuneration of higher interest for the investment than can be obtained in the Public Securities to those who may be induced to embark their money in such undertakings. ”

“ Paul, with a full conviction of the truth upon his mind, “This I say, that the time is short: it remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none; and they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; and they that use this world, as not abusing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away.” ”

“ That nearly the whole of the houses have no drainage whatever beyond that of cesspools, which in many of the districts occupied by the labouring classes, who are chiefly employed in the market gardens, are badly constructed, placed in situations closely contiguous to the dwellings, and wholly inadequate to provide for the large accumulation of dirt constantly formed and decomposing in such localities ”

“ At a time when books of the most valuable and interesting character are published at prices far below any former precedent, it seems to be little less than the duty of every master of a Christian household to furnish to his servants a collection, however limited, of such works as would be at once most useful and acceptable to them, which a few shillings annually would serve to keep up or to extend. ”

“ It is well known that nearly one-half of the number of deaths that occur among mankind happen before the tenth year of life is completed. Yet have we all been spared, through sickness, and casualties, and during one year of that term through pestilence itself raging at our doors, to see the end of it ”

“ Even the essential whitewashing of the walls within is sometimes imposed as a burden upon the occupier, who of course does it in the most careless way, instead of its being undertaken by the landlord. ”