Page:Eminent English liberals in and out of Parliament.djvu/131

 If a robber assail you with murderous intent, there are "three courses" open to you. You may expostulate with him on the error of his ways; you may exert moderate force to restrain him from burdening his soul with a great crime; and, lastly, you may exhibit true moral courage by running away as fast as ever your legs will carry you: but on no account are you to lay the flattering unction to your soul that, under any circumstances, is there such a thing as "justifiable homicide" possible. Similarly with regard to other questions of vital public interest,—such as the support of religion by state, whether in church or school,—the member for Merthyr finds something like absolute prohibitions where the great majority of professing Christians appear to discover the reverse.

How wonderful is Mr. Richard in his exegesis! How wonderful are the majority of Christians in theirs! How marvellously malleable are the memorials of the Christian faith themselves! Humanly speaking, one would say some of them must be at fault, but which, I am pleased to think, it is not my province to determine. Infidel Radicals are, in these days of general apostasy as thick as blackberries. It is refreshing occasionally—for the sake of variety, if for nothing else—to encounter one who is thoroughly orthodox. "The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner." Nor am I unmindful of the warning, "And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall it will grind him to powder." Suffice it for my purpose to postulate that Mr. Richard is as good a Radical as he is a Christian, and that with him the terms are in a great measure convertible. May Heaven multiply this par-