ESSAY ON BAPTISM 575

twice over;¹ you, artistical Christians, who paint windows and carve capitals; you, ignorant Christians, who deface cathedrals which you ought to bless your brethren for having built; you, logical and erudite Christians, who hunt for red letters, and block out God’s light with old vellum; you, heady and high-minded Christians, who, so only that you obey Evangelist,² never care to enter the house of the Interpreter. All this has been your fault. You have been praying to Christ for a thousand years that He would grant you unity among yourselves, and confirm His Kingdom. You pray every day, and some of you in set forms, for Unity, peace and concord,³ and for the influences of the Holy Spirit. And you see day by day that God does not grant your prayer, and that you are further from Unity than ever. Do you verily suppose that God refuses the prayers of His people, if they have not done something specially to displease Him? Not casual prayers for worldly things-those God may refuse and bless you in refusing. But prayers for Unity and for the shedding of the Holy Ghost He never refused, except in sorrow. Does a Father refuse his son bread, except in sorrow? He might refuse it, if he had ordered the son to go into his field and plough, and the son would not; the Father might wisely and justly say, “You would not work for your bread to-day; and to-day I will not give it you. You shall feel what it is to hunger.” So you Christians continue asking God for bread; but you will not plough for it. You quarrel over your ploughs, and your Heavenly Father day after day refuses you your bread, until you think it a matter of course that He should do so. But He is angry with you, and you are mocking Him. Mocking Him, by praying to Him without exerting yourselves. Mocking Him, by asking for what He has said He will not give you, unless you do this-or that, which you refuse to do. Ask your own consciences what your sin and your failure is-it is not for me to tell you, each man should discover that for himself, and may if he will. But have you so much as taken God’s advice in anything? Have you been wise as serpents-as harmless as doves?⁴ Harmless! You are hindering each other. Wise! You are despising each other. Is your wisdom (such as you have) pure and peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated?⁵ or does it stand astride upon texts, as Apollyon straddled over the road before Christian?⁶ Is it utterly without partiality, and without Hypocrisy? Look to it, you Low Church Christians, how much Radicalism, and Socialism, and Liberalism, and Republicanism, and worldly spite and petty jealousy, and small self-admiration, the Devil has managed to mix up with your honest objections to Episcopacy, and wholesome love of field preaching. Look to it, you High Church Christians, how much Schoolmaster’s respect for the Queen’s English, how much gentlemanly regard for white hands and smooth manners, how much taste for good music well sung, how much impertinent pride in your University learning, ay, and how much downright love of quiet lives and good livings, the Devil uses to help your

¹ [Compare Notes on Sheepfolds, § 40, p. 557, above.]

² [See The Pilgrim’s Progress for Evangelist and the Interpreter.]

³ [The Second Collect in the Order for Morning Prayer.]

⁴ [Matthew x. 16.]

⁵ [James iii. 17.]

⁶ [See, again, The Pilgrim’s Progress: “Then Apollyon straddled quite over the breadth of the way,” etc. (p. 61, Golden Treasury edition).]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]