I am often afraid lest, with such a church as this, we should not do what the Church at large and the world expect of us. We number two thousand three hundred or more in church-fellowship; but if we are all idle, or if the most of you are idle, it would be better for me to have had a hundred or so of earnest workers.

There is nothing one dislikes so much as to be reputed to have what we have not. Why, I read, I should think in a dozen newspapers, some time back, the information that I received from America £1,000 a-year. I should like to see it. But just that kind of feeling comes over me when people say, “What a church there is there! What a deal they must do for Christ!” Ah! But if you do not, then what a poor man your minister is to have the reputation of being so rich in the efforts of his people, and then not to have them doing anything!

Oh, don’t do that! I know you may say I am not worthy of you; but I pray you, dear friends, let us try to be worthy of one another; let us fight side-by-side for Christ and for His cause; let us tell upon this neighbourhood; and let us make men know that there is a church in London that does pray, that does wrestle with God, that does work, that does give to His cause, and that will spend and be spent until the members are willing even to lay down their lives upon the altar of God for the promotion of His kingdom.

From The Wicket Gate Magazine, published in the UK, used with permission.