THE LAWYER THAT TEMPTED CHRIST.

A SERMON

PREACHED IN THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ST. PETER, YORK

BEFORE

THE HON. SIR JOHN BAYLEY, KNT.

ONE OF HIS MAJESTY'S JUSTICES OF THE COURT OF KING'S BENCH

AND

THE HON. SIR JOHN HULLOCK, KNT.

ONE OF HIS MAJESTY'S BARONS OF THE COURT OF EXCHEQUER

AUGUST 1, 1824.

LUKE, X. 25.

prepares, with all professional acuteness, for his humiliation and defeat.

Talking humanly, and we must talk humanly, for our Saviour was then acting a human part, the experiment ended, as all must wish an experiment to end, where levity and bad faith are on one side, and piety, simplicity, and goodness on the other: the objector was silenced, and one of the brightest lessons of the Gospel elicited, for the eternal improvement of mankind.

And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted Him, saying," Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" This lawyer, who is thus represented to have tempted our blessed Saviour, does not seem to have been very much in earnest in the question which he asked: his object does not appear to have been the acquisition of religious knowledge, but the display of human talent. He did not say to himself, I will now draw near to this august. Being; I will inform myself from the fountain of truth, and from the very lips of Christ, I will learn a lesson of salvation; but it occurred to him, that in such a gathering together of the Jews, in such a moment of public agitation, the opportunity of display was not to be neglected; full of that internal confidence which men of talents so ready, and so exercised, are overwhelmed, probably, with the insometimes apt to feel, he approaches our Saviour with all the apparent modesty of interrogation, and saluting him with the appellation of Master,

Still, though we wish the motive for the question had been better, we must not forget the question, and we must not forget who asked the question, and we must not forget who answered it, and what that answer was. The question was the wisest and best that ever came from the mouth of man; the man who asked it was the very person who ought to have asked it; a man

trigues, the bustle, and business of life, and therefore, most likely to forget the interests of another world: the answerer was our blessed Saviour,

semblies can it ever be absent from it. These very same politicians are popular assemblies? I have always now looking in an agony of terror at found that all things, moral or physical, the disfranchisement of Corporations grow in the soil best suited for them. containing twenty or thirty persons, Show me a deep and tenacious earth sold to their representatives, who are and I am sure the oak will spring up themselves perhaps sold to the Governin it. In a low and damp soil I am ment: and to put an end to these equally certain of the alder and the enormous abuses is called Corporation willow. Gentlemen, the free Parlia- robbery, and there are some persons ment of a free People is the native soil wild enough to talk of compensation. of eloquence-aud in that soil will it This principle of compensation you ever flourish and abound-there it will will consider perhaps in the following produce those intellectual effects which instance to have been carried as far as drive before them whole tribes and na- sound discretion permits. When I was tions of the human race, and settle the a young man, the place in England I destinies of man. And, gentlemen, if remember as most notorious for higha few persons of a less elegant and waymen and their exploits was Fincharistocratic description were to become ley Common, near the metropolis; but members of the House of Commons, Finchley Common, gentlemen, in the where would be the evil? They would progress of improvement, came to be probably understand the common peo-enclosed, and the highwaymen lost by ple a great deal better, and in this way these means the opportunity of exerthe feelings and interests of all classes cising their gallant vocation. I rememof people would be better represented. ber a friend of mine proposed to draw The House of Commons thus organised up for them a petition to the House of will express more faithfully the opinions Commons for compensation, which ran of the people. in this manner —“ We, your loyal highwaymen of Finchley Common and its neighbourhood, having, at great expense, laid in a stock of blunderbusses, pistols, and other instruments for plundering the public, and finding ourselves impeded in the exercise of our calling by the said enclosure of The argument of fear is very easily the said Common of Finchley, humbly disposed of: he who is afraid of a knock petition your Honourable House will on the head or a cut on the cheek is a be pleased to assign to us such comcoward; he who is afraid of entailing pensation as your Honourable House greater evils on the country by refusing in its wisdom and justice may think the remedy than by applying it, and fit."-Gentlemen, I must leave the who acts in pursuance of that convic-application to you. tion, is a wise and prudent man nothing can be more different than personal and political fear; it is the artifice of our opponents to confound them together.

The people are sometimes, it is urged, grossly mistaken; but are Kings never mistaken? Are the higher orders never mistaken? never wilfully corrupted by their own interests? The people have at least this superiority, that they always intend to do what is right.

The right of disfranchisement, gentlemen, must exist somewhere, and where but in Parliament? If not, how was the Scotch Union, how was the Irish Union, effected? The Duke of Wellington's Administration disfranchised at one blow 200,000 Irish voters

for no fault of theirs, and for no other reason than the best of all reasons, that public expediency required

An Honourable Baronet says, if Parliament is dissolved, I will go to my Borough with the bill in my hand, and will say, "I know of no crime you have committed, I found nothing proved against you: I voted against the bill, and am come to fling myself upon your kindness, with the hope that my conduct will be approved, and that you will return me again to Parliament." That Honourable Baronet may, perhaps, receive from his Borough an answer he little expects" We are above being bribed by such a childish and unworthy artifice; we do not choose

ment, fear no change which draws down upon it the more abundant prayers and blessings of the human race.

ago, the person at the head of his profession, the greatest lawyer now in England, perhaps in the world, stood in this church, on such occasions as the present, as obscure, as unknown, Justice is found, experimentally, to and as much doubting of his future be most effectually promoted by the prospects as the humblest individual opposite efforts of practised and inof the profession here present. If genious men presenting to the selection providence reserve such honours for of an impartial judge the best arguany one who may now chance to hear ments for the establishment and explame, let him remember that there is re-nation of truth. It becomes, then, quired at his hands a zeal for the Es- under such an arrangement, the detablished Church, but a zeal tempered cided duty of an advocate to use all by discretion, compatible with Chris- the arguments in his power to defend tian charity, and tolerant of Christian the cause he has adopted, and to leave freedom. All human establishments the effects of those arguments to the are liable to err, and are capable of judgment of others. However useful improvement: to act as if you denied this practice may be for the promotion this, to perpetuate any infringement of public justice, it is not without danupon the freedom of other sects, how-ger to the individual whose practice ever vexatious that infringement, and it becomes. It is apt to produce a prohowever safe its removal, is not to fligate indifference to truth in higher defend an establishment, but to expose occasions of life, where truth cannot it to unmerited obloquy and reproach. for a moment be trifled with, much Never think it necessary to be weak less callously trampled on, much less and childish in the highest concerns of suddenly and totally yielded up to the life: the career of the law opens to you basest of human motives. It is astonmany great and glorious opportunities ishing what unworthy and inadequate of promoting the Gospel of Christ, notions men are apt to form of the and of doing good to your fellow- Christian faith. Christianity does not creatures: there is no situation of that insist upon duties to an individual, and profession in which you can be more forget the duties which are owing to great and more glorious than when the great mass of individuals, which in the fulness of years, and the ful- we call our country; it does not teach ness of honours, you are found de- you how to benefit your neighbour, fending that Church which first taught and leave you to inflict the most serious you to distinguish between good and injuries upon all whose interest is evil, and breathed into you the ele-bound up with you in the same land. ments of religious life: but when you I need not say to this congregation defend that Church, defend it with that there is a wrong and a right in enlarged wisdom and with the spirit public affairs, as there is a wrong and of magnanimity; praise its great ex- a right in private affairs. I need not cellences, do not perpetuate its little prove that in any vote, in any line of defects, be its liberal defender, be its conduct which affects the public inwise patron, be its real friend. If you terest, every Christian is bound most can be great and bold in human affairs, solemnly and most religiously, to follow do not think it necessary to be narrow the dictates of his conscience. Let it and timid in spiritual concerns: bind be for, let it be against, let it please, yourself up with the real and import- let it displease, no matter with whom ant interests of the Church, and hold it sides, or what it thwarts, it is a yourself accountable to God for its solemn duty, on such occasions, to act safety; but yield up trifles to the altered from the pure dictates of conscience, state of the world. Fear no change and to be as faithful to the interests of which lessens the enemies of that Es- the great mass of your fellow-creatures, tablishment, fear no change which in- as you would be to the interests of any creases the activity of that Establish- individual of that mass. Why, then,

if there be any truth in these observa- | take it as a lottery, in which, after tions, can that man be pure and inno- every effort of your own, it is imposcent before God, can he be quite harm-sible to command success: for this you less and respectable before men, who, are not accountable; but you are in mature age, at a moment's notice, accountable for your purity; you are sacrifices to wealth and power all the accountable for the preservation of fixed and firm opinions of his life; your character. It is not in every who puts his moral principles to sale, man's power to say, I will be a great and barters his dignity and his soul and successful lawyer; but it is in for the baubles of the world? If these every man's power to say, that he will temptations come across you, then re-(with God's assistance) be a good member the memorable words of the Christian and an honest man. Whattext, "What shall I do to inherit eter-ever is moral and religious is in your nal life?" not this- don't do this: it own power. If fortune deserts you, is no title to eternity to suffer deserved do not desert yourself; do not undershame among men endure anything value inward consolation; connect rather than the loss of character; cling God with your labour; remember you to character as your best possession; are Christ's servant; be seeking always do not envy men who pass you in life, for the inheritance of immortal life. only because they are under less moral I must urge you by another motive, and religious restraint than yourself. and bind you by another obligation, Your object is not fame, but honour- against the sacrifice of public princiable fame your object is not wealth, ple. A proud man when he has obbut wealth worthily obtained: your tained the reward, and accepted the object is not power, but power gained wages of baseness, enters into a severe fairly, and exercised virtuously. Long-account with himself, and feels clearly suffering is a great and important lesson in human life; in no part of human life is it more necessary than in your arduous profession. The greatest men it has produced have been at some period of their professional lives ready to faint at the long, and apparently fruitless journey; and if you look at those lives, you will find they have been supported by a confidence (under God) in the general effects of character and industry. They have withstood the allurement of pleasure, which is the first and most common cause of failure; they have disdained the little arts and meannesses which carry base men a certain way, and no further; they have sternly rejected also the sudden means of growing basely rich, and dishonour-lost the purity of his soul. ably great, with which every man is at one time or another sure to be assailed; and then they have broken out into light and glory at the last, exhibiting to mankind the splendid spectacle of great talents long exercised by difficulties, and high principles never tainted with guilt.

After all, remember that your profession is a lottery in which you may lose as well as win; and you must VOL. II.

that he has suffered degradation: he may hide it by increased zeal and violence, or varnish it over by simulated gaiety; he may silence the world, but he cannot always silence himself. If this is only a beginning, and you mean, henceforward, to trample all principle under foot, that is another thing; but a man of fine parts and nice feelings is trying a very dangerous experiment with his happiness, who means to preserve his general character, and indulge in one act of baseness. Such a man is not made to endure scorn and selfreproach it is far from being certain that he will be satisfied with that unscriptural bargain in which he has gained the honours of the world, and

:

It is impossible in the profession of the law but that many opportunities must occur for the exertions of charity and benevolence: I do not mean the charity of money, but the charity of time, labour, and attention; the protection of those whose resources are feeble, and the information of those whose knowledge is small. In the hands of bad men, the law is sometimes an artifice to mislead, and sometimes

consequences of not doing it, and who of two evils chooses the least.

There are some men much afraid of what is to happen my lively hope of good is, I confess, mingled with very little apprehension; but of one thing I must be candid enough to say that I am much afraid, and that is of the opinion now increasing, that the people are become indifferent to reform; and of that opinion I am afraid, because I believe in an evil hour it may lead some misguided members of the Upper House of Parliament to vote against the bill. As for the opinion itself, I hold it in the utmost contempt. The people are waiting in virtuous patience for the completion of the bill, because they know it is in the hands of men who do not mean to deceive them. I do not believe they have given up one atom of reform-I do not believe that a great people were ever before so firmly bent upon any one measure. put it to any man of common sense, whether he believes it possible, after the King and Parliament have acted as they have done, that the people will ever be content with much less than the present bill contains. If a contrary principle be acted upon, and the bill attempted to be got rid of altogether, I confess I tremble for the consequences, which I believe will be of the worst and most painful description; and this I say deliberately, after the most diligent and extensive inquiry. Upon that diligent inquiry, I repeat again my firm conviction, that the desire of reform has increased, not diminished; that the present repose is not indifference, but the calmness of victory, and the tranquillity of success. When I see all the wishes and appetites of created beings changed, when I see an eagle, that, after long confinement, has escaped into the air, come back to his cage and his chain, when I see the emancipated negro asking again for the hoe which has broken down his strength, and the lash which has tortured his body, I will then, and not till then, believe that the English people will return to their ancient degradation that they will hold out their repentant hands for those manacles which at

this moment lie broken into links at their feet.

SPEECH AT TAUNTON. [From the Taunton Courier, of October 12th, 1831.]

THE Reverend SYDNEY SMITH rose and said: - Mr. Bailiff, I have spoken so often on this subject, that I am sure both you and the gentlemen here present will be obliged to me for saying but little, and that favour I am as willing to confer, as you can be to receive it. I feel most deeply the event which has taken place, because, by putting the two Houses of Parliament in collision with each other, it will impede the public business, and diminish the public prosperity. I feel it as a churchman, because I cannot but blush to see so many dignitaries of the Church arrayed against the wishes and happiIness of the people. I feel it more than all, because I believe it will sow the seeds of deadly hatred between the aristocracy and the great mass of the people. The loss of the bill I do not feel, and for the best of all possible reasons because I have not the slightest idea that it is lost. I have no more doubt, before the expiration of the winter, that this bill will pass, than I have that the annual tax bills will pass, and greater certainty than this no man can have, for Franklin tells us, there are but two things certain in this world—death and taxes. As for the possibility of the House of Lords preventing ere long a reform of Parliament, I hold it to be the most absurd notion that ever entered into human imagination. I do not mean to be disrespectful, but the attempt of the Lords to stop the progress of reform, reminds me very forcibly of the great storm of Sidmouth, and of the conduct of the excellent Mrs. Partington on that occasion. In the winter of 1824, there set in a great flood upon that townthe tide rose to an incredible height— the waves rushed in upon the houses, and everything was threatened with destruction. In the midst of this sublime and terrible storm, Dame Partington, who lived upon the beach, was