and the eternal hardly entered his mind. It was as his friends fell away from him, one by one, and as other trials came upon him, that he began to take thought on the state of his soul. It was only when he gave up travelling that he began to attend church, joining the ministry of the Rev. Daniel Moore, whose preaching pricked his conscience, but at first that was all. The sudden death of his brother-in-law, the Rev. Mr. Ray, made a deep impression, but still there was no change from death to life. In 1850 he had a distressing nervous ailment, and when residing at St. Bees gave up all hope of ever being well again. He did recover, however, but only to see his partner, Mr. Groucock, struck down, and to part from him in 1853. Mr. Groucock appears to have been thoroughly changed, and his conversation and that also of Mr. Hitchcock, of St. Paul's Churchyard, were useful to Mr. Moore, who was now deeply in earnest. But he had a long period of unsatisfied longing. While deeply occupied with the great evangelical truths, he suffered much from not having been instructed in the Bible in his youth, and consequently from unreasonable expectations doomed to disappointment. He prayed long that he might experience a striking sudden change. He seemed to envy the experience of those whose transition from darkness to light was as sudden as that of the blind men in the Gospels. It was not God's purpose that he should experience such a change, and he thought his prayer was in vain. At last he came to see that it was his privilege to take the comfort of the promises of the gospel, even though he should not know the rapture of assurance. He received with confidence the truth, "He that heareth my word and believeth on Him that sent me hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death to life." Under the shade of this promise he went on his way with a measure of happiness, pursuing his works of philanthropy in a new and higher spirit, the spiritual welfare of men being now very specially in his view. But we do not find, as we should have exceedingly desired to find, that he turned his religious convictions towards purifying the ways of trade, or modifying the spirit of competition. One plan on which his heart was much set was to establish family worship in the morning of each day for the people in his employment. There were many difficulties, but he persevered. A young man, formerly in the establishment, had studied and taken orders, and, as it was thought that he would attract the employés more readily, he was engaged as chaplain, and commenced his duties in 1856. The arrangement worked fairly, although Mr. Moore never felt that it came up to his desires. It was one of a series of measures set on foot by him for the good of the people, at a time when employers had more encouragement, and the workpeople were more willing to avail themselves of such arrangements than they have been since. The present writer remembers having visited Messrs. Copestake, Moore, Crampton & Co.'s warehouse in 1864, soon after they had inaugurated a new hall, and being struck with the warm interest shown by Mr. Moore in the spiritual welfare of the employés.* He Missionaries to the ever-loved people of Cumberland were next appointed. sought to appoint a Scripture reader in every market town of the country. God raised up qualified men in a wonderful way to help him. To his surprise he met with a great deal of opposition from the clergy. Many useful journals, such as the British Workman, or the Band of Hope, were scattered over the county. But it is easier to say where his Christian philanthropy began than where it stopped. He was particularly interested in all works of the nature of home missions; church and chapel building, colportage, the circulation of Christian books, the Bishop of London's church extension scheme, and all such operations, had his cordial aid. Charitable works were prosecuted with unabated vigour, and he was especially eager to help deserving charities that had fallen low from want of funds. His own benefactions were large, but he never gave money without assuring himself that there was a fair probability of its being usefully employed. For the last three years of his life, his givings amounted to £16,000 a year. Trips abroad brought up new objects of interest, which were promptly met. A visit to Paris led to his offering to supply a Bible for every bedroom in the chief hotels, an offer which was accepted by ten, but declined by three. In spirit, Mr. Moore was catholic. Connected as he had always been with the Church of England, he worked chiefly on her lines, but he seemed to be equally at home among Christian Nonconformists. In his theology he was very decided, and very much opposed to any compromise of evangelical doctrine. Yet even in his case we may see how personal intimacy and personal respect towards a man of another way of thinking dis * See "Heads and Hands in the World of Labour," pp. 172, 173. pose to charitable views. Mr. Moore and Mr. Charles Dickens had been long associated in sundry charitable enterprises, and especially in the Commercial Travellers' Schools. On one occasion, when presiding at what is called a "charitable dinner" on behalf of the schools, Mr. Dickens spoke of Mr. Moore "A name which is a synonym for integrity, enterprise, public spirit and benevolence. He is one of the most zealous officers whom I have ever seen in my life. He appears to me to have been doing nothing during the past week but rushing into and out of railway carriages, and making eloquent speeches at all sorts of public meetings in favour of this charity. Last evening he was at Manchester, and this evening he comes here, sacrificing his time and convenience, and exhausting in the meantime the contents of two vast leaden inkstands, and no end of pens, with the energy of fifty banker's clerks rolled into one." Some time after, Mr. Moore visited Mr. Dickens at Gadshill, and enjoyed himself there for several days. Of that visit he gives this record: "I was delighted to find that Charles Dickens was sound upon the gospel. I found him a true Christian without great profession. I have a great liking for him." In the application of Christianity to the social welfare of the people he was deeply interested. He took part in the Industrial Dwellings movement, originated by Alderman Waterlow. The condition of labourers' cottages in the country occupied much of his thoughts. The illegitimacy so prevalent in his native county was a subject of eager and painful interest. Going once to Carlisle to see the hiring fair, he was shocked "to see men and women brought like sheep to market, and engaged without knowledge, or references, or character." Mr. Moore could not interest himself in the social welfare of the people without being horrified at the doings of drink. In his own county he did all he could to reduce the number of licences. One day he says in his diary, "Attended a funeral. The man drowned himself; a sad affair. He is the third given to drinking who has died within three weeks." Another day he says, "At Wigton on the bench. Had nine cases of 'drunk and disorderly.' Very sad. Went to a school. The Rev. Mr. was half drunk. He insulted me, and hurt my feelings very much." Mr. Moore seems to have thought that the cure of drunkenness must come from general influences, moral, social, and religious; and yet, for all of this kind that he set in motion, he left the evil much as he found it. Time utterly fails us to speak of all the philanthropical schemes of that active life. In 1859 he was treasurer to the Cumberland Benevolent Society, treasurer to the Commercial Travellers' Schools, trustee to the Warehousemen and Clerks' Schools, trustee to the Cordwainers' and Bread Street Ward Schools, trustee to Nicholson's Charity, Governor and Almoner of Christ's Hospital, trustee to the Penny Bank in Milton Street, chairman and trustee of the Young Men's Christian Association in Marlborough Street, chairman of the General Committee of the Royal Free Hospital, trustee of the Metropolitan Commercial Travellers' and Warehousemen's Association, member of the Board of Management of the Royal Hospital for Incurables, trustee of St. Matthew's Church, St. George's-in-the-East, and also trustee or chairman of institutions in Cumberland whose name was legion. No more can we enter on a very interesting chapter of his life—his work in Paris during the successive famines caused by the siege of the Prussians and the reign of the Communists. It is impossible to calculate the number of lives he was the means of saving, or to estimate the value of the sympathy which he so worthily represented and expressed, and which had so great an effect in drawing together the hearts of two great nations that were not always so friendly. We have said that Mr. Moore never overcame a certain worldly ambition. One of the great objects of that ambition was to acquire the property of Whitehall, an ancient estate and tower in Cumberland, and the chief place in his native parish. It was in the end of 1858, as his wife was dying, that the opportunity to purchase it at length came. At great cost of labour, skill, and money, he restored the ancient castle, and improved to the utmost the whole estate. This work lasted for years. At length, in 1861, the castle was completed, and then there was no end of entertainments and en joyments. Select circles of friends, as well as more miscellaneous parties and great gatherings, amounting sometimes to thousands, enjoyed the hospitalities of his mansion. While acting in Cumberland the country gentleman, he had sometimes very distinguished company in his warehouse in town. When some civic occasion drew to the neighbourhood men like Lord John Russell or the Duke of Cambridge, he would ask them to lunch at the warehouse, and no little pride did he feel in having such guests to entertain there. Mr. Moore married a second time in 1851, his bride being Miss Agnes Breeks, of Warcop, in Westmoreland. In this marriage, as in the former, it was not without difficulty that he achieved his object. Her connections, he said, were very pleasant," but they were awful Tories." He had determined to succeed, and as usual he carried his point. In his country life, he entered with much relish on some sports, which to some seemed a little alien from his religious profession. Like Nimrod, he was a mighty hunter. He loved the sport; it was a great benefit to his health, and he fancied that his presence in the hunting party had a good moral effect. Once he suffered for two years from a dislocated shoulder got in the hunting field. All the skill of the faculty failed to detect what was wrong, it was a poor bone-setter that found out and reduced the dislocation. Years passed on, and Mr. Moore grew more and more in the love and respect of his neighbours, and of a great multitude besides, and in the usefulness of his life. His death was the result of an accident. One day in November, 1876, in one of the streets of Carlisle, he was knocked over by a runaway horse, and his injuries were so serious that in four-and-twenty hours he was dead. The blow was as severe as it was sudden. It was indeed the fall of a prince and a great man in Cumberland. Journals delineated with mingled pride and sadness the remarkable life so suddenly ended. Friends poured in their tributes and their sympathy. Pulpits gladly seized the opportunity to dwell on the remarkable fruit of Christian faith which that life so crowded with benevolence afforded. A great thrill of sorrow and bereavement pervaded the community. The death of such a man was as impressive as his life and character were rare. The monument in Carlisle Cathedral calls him— A MAN OF RARE STRENGTH AND SIMPLICITY OF OF ACTIVE BENEVOLENCE AND WIDE INFLUENCE. HE WAS NOT BORN TO WEALTH, BUT BY ABILITY AND INDUSTRY HE GAINED IT, AS A STEWARD OF GOD AND A DISCIPLE OF THE FOR THE FURTHERANCE OF ALL GOD'S WORKS. GOD'S LOVING CORRECTION. BY CANON BELL, D.D. "Thy gentleness hath made me great."-PSALM xviii. 35. THROUGHOUT this psalm David, in But whilst David here sings of God's mercy to himself, there can be no doubt that this magnificent psalm has a reference to the Messiah. Indeed, Christ is the main and chiet subject of the song. It has its deepest and most significant fulfilment in Him. The sorrows, the cries, the descent of the eternal Son, His humiliation and His triumphs, are here set to music worthy of the golden harps above. I shall not, however, enter into the pro phetical meaning of the psalm; but, confining myself to this one verse, I shall regard it under the two aspects presented by the two versions-the one which you find in the Bible, the other which is given in the English Prayer-book, and which is the Septuagint translation. The first, "Thy gentleness hath made me great;" the second, "Thy loving correction shall make me great." And, first, "Thy gentleness hath made me great." "Gentleness" is a beautiful attribute of God. It is so human. It was a very marked quality of the Incarnate Saviour. In Him was the prophecy entirely fulfilled: "A bruised reed shall He not break, and smoking flax shall He not quench. He will send forth judgment unto victory." And St. Paul, when appealing to the Corinthian Church, has these words. "Now I, Paul, myself beseech you, by the meekness and gentleness of Christ." This is the God, the Christ, that the Scriptures represent to us. They set Him before us in His winning, our hopes, we must ascribe all to the grace and long-suffering of God, and say to Him, "Thy gentleness hath made me great." Brethren, when speaking of the "gentleness" of God, we are not to consider that it is in any sense weakness. The "gentleness of God does not spring from any easy goodnature, or from an indifference to justice and right, or from a disregard to what is evil. God's "gentleness" is another form of His strength. It speaks of His power; it declares that "He is slow to anger," not because He winks at sin, or connives at it, or is too indolent to punish sin, but because He is "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." He is, in the words of the Psalmist, "strong and patient,” in-patient because He is strong, because “ all power belongeth unto Him." He has the future as well as the present to work in, and therefore there is no need that He should be in a hurry. Now it is this very attribute of "long-suffering" that men abuse. "Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the hearts of the sons of men are fully set in them to do evil." "Tush!" they say, "God will not regard, the Most High will not consider." But let us not so deceive ourselves. According to the old proverb, "Vengeance has leaden feet, but iron hands: "leaden feet," because its approaches are often slow; "iron hands,” because when it does come, it strikes with a crushing might. Listen to the words of God Himself: "Unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth, seeing thou hatest instruction and castest my words behind thee? When thou sawest a thief, thou consentedst with him, and hast been partaker with adulterers. Thou givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue : frameth deceit. Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother; thou slanderest thine own mother's son. These things hast thou done, and I kept silence and thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself; but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes. Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver." attractive aspect, that our hearts may be God is not indifferent to sin. He abhors that which is evil, and He will "not at all acquit the guilty." If you are despising the goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering of God, arguing from past impunity to future, blessing yourself in your heart, and saying, "I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunken ness to thirst," you are only "heaping up "Though the mills of God grind slowly, I pray you to take the forbearance of God as He intends it. He by it would "lead thee to repentance." He does not drive, or drag, or compel thee to the forsaking of indifference and sin-for, alas! you may resist it if ye will-but "He leadeth thee to repentance," draws thee to Him "with the cords of a man, and the bands of love," if ye will only follow and be His for evermore. "And I beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ" not to abuse God's patience and loving-kindness, but to turn unto the Lord thy God, and, throwing down your arms, and yielding yourselves vanquished, to suffer yourselves to be led, like Saul who became Paul, a trophy and captive of the Divine power and love through the world. Oh, "kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish from the way when His wrath is kindled, yea, but a little." Consent to be blessed by Him; to be pardoned, to be healed; consent to be one of those who shall say to Him through the ages of an eternity spent in the light of His face, "Thy gentleness hath made me great." Let us now look at the other rendering of the text: "Thy loving correction shall make me great." "Loving correction "--the correction of love. We are reminded of the prayer of Jeremiah: "O Lord, correct me, but with judgment; not in Thine anger, lest Thou bring me to nothing." That is a statement full of comfort which we find in the Book of Lamentations: "He doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men." Do we not read in these words the assurance that God has no pleasure in the sorrows of His people-no more than a tender parent has in the tears of his children? Why then does He visit them with trials at all? Why does He take the rod into His hand, and smite them till they wince beneath the blow? Why does He cast them into the furnace and try them, even as gold is tried? For the very same reason that the refiner of metals casts his gold into the furnace-that it may be purified from the dross. St. Paul tells us the meaning of our trials. "Tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and expe For rience hope." When God sends us sorrow, And the "correction" is not only "loving" in its ends, but also very lovingly administered. If He strikes with one hand, He always sustains with the other; if He brings tears into the eyes with the rod, He also wipes them away with His hand; if He wounds, He pours balm into the wound, "comforting them that are cast down," and teaching His people that trials are the badge of sonship. And how many of the Lord's people have had this to set against their sorest trials, that they never felt the consolations of God's love to be so great, never realised that God was so near, never knew His dealings to be so kindly, as when they were "cast into darkness and the deeps." They can never forget how fully He fulfilled those gracious promises, "When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee, and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: thou shalt walk through the fire, and not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. Fear not, for I am with thee, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour." And do not His supernatural supports bear evidence to the faithfulness and goodness of God, and form a recompense for the heaviest suffering? What comfort under trial like feeling that "if our afflictions have abounded, the consolations of God have much more abounded"? And |