Page:Lectures on Great Men.djvu/16

 Vlll PEEFACE. or rather to evil, might be occupied with better subjects of thought than those they usually have, and that men may be won from gross and polluting pursuits by the provision and adaptation of something better. In ad- dition, therefore, to the direct presentation of Gospel Truth, he sought to illustrate, and practically set forth, the advantages and the pleasures of mental culture. He built a handsome and very comfortable Reading- room for the Parishioners, and provided a Library con- taining books, not merely of a religious character, but of all such kinds as have a tendency to make men wiser in their several stations, or to furnish them with any recreation which may be consistent with the ear- nest pursuit of the serious concerns of life. He was a Pioneer in efforts which have of late become more fre- quent. We seem just beginning to learn, how hard it is for men, living the sad and stimulated life of our crowded cities, to enter that Spiritual Temple in which only Faith and Love can dwell ; and how great the necessity for agencies which may prove vestibules to its courts of holiness and joy. Some practical proof of feeling with men, must accompany preaching to them, if our nation's sins of covetousness and drunkenness are not to continue to our shame and sorrow. Perhaps no conviction more fully possessed the mind of Mr MYERS, than that of the dreadful separation and want of sympathy of the various orders and classes of modern society ; that we have most unwarrantably apos- tatised from that spirit of brotherhood which is at once