Page:Speech of the Rev. T. Spencer, of Bath, delivered at the meeting of the Anti-Corn-Law League.pdf/11

3 be frightened even if we are told that we have a Clarkson against us. What matters that, if we have truth Upon our side? So with respect to the influence of the majority of the clergy of England upon my own opinions: though I pay very great respect and deference to such an authority and to such a majority, yet there is one thing in which I think I have the advantage over them, and which ought to bind them as it does me—that is, the doctrine not only of the scriptures which they preach, but of the prayer-book to which they have subscribed. (Hear.) I am not now going to allude to parts of that prayer-book, to which I have referred at other times and in other places—namely, the prayers and thanksgiving for cheapness and plenty; but I would allude to another portion of the prayer-book, viz., as to the right mode of action when a nation is in distress. At this particular time, for instance, many of the clergy are reading the prayer for rain, because we have had three months of dry weather. In my own parish, before I left home yesterday, I was told that one farmer had suffered a loss of 600 in consequence of the exceeding dry weather. In that prayer for rain, I perceive, that the thing which the clergy are taught to desire is, "that we may receive the fruits of the earth to our comfort and to God's honour;" and the meaning of receiving the fruits of the earth to our comfort and to God's honour is explained in those other prayers to mean "cheapness and plenty." I consider, therefore, that to be the standard by which clergymen are to be guided in using these prayers of the church. (Cheers) Now, I have no faith in prayer except it is united with action. The man who says, "Give us this day our daily bread," and does not go to work for it, must be a person of very small sense indeed. (Loud cheers.) I believe there is not an instance in the whole Bible of God's doing anything for man that man could do for himself; and this is a truth which I particularly wish to impress upon the minds of all who respect that book. When we find, for instance, our Lord raising the dead, I do not find that He took away the stone, because that was a thing that man could do: therefore, He says, " Take ye away the stone;" and when the dead was raised (which He alone could do), I do not find that He did any more; but He said, "Loose him, and let him go,"—that being a thing that could be done without His aid. (Cheers.) So, when He fed the multitude, He did not divide them into companies and place them upon the grass—that He told His disciples to do, for they could do it; but the multiplying of the bread was His own business, that He alone could do. When that was done, however, He said, "Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost,"—that being what they could do. So we find it in every case in the scriptures, that when anything is beyond our own power we have a right to ask the Divine assistance; but when it is within our power we have no right to expect the assistance of Providence any farther than we use our own exertions. (Cheers.) I would, then, appeal to the clergy, and Sir Robert Peel as a churchman, as to whether the prayer-book does not lay this down as a foundation—this principle of cheapness and plenty. That is the thing to be prayed for—that is the thing to be sought after; and I would also appeal to Sir Robert Peel from his own statement, for he himself has confessed as much, the the proper rule or government to recognise, and the proper law for the people, is to "buy in the cheapest market and sell in the dearest." This, he says, is abstract truth—the basis on which things are founded; and this, therefore, ought to have been the original basis of our commercial laws. But he justifies himself for not carrying it into effect from the circumstances in which he finds himself in the present day. Now, every Sunday I am bound by my office to offer up a prayer for the Parliament of which he is so conspicuous a member (laughter); and part of that prayer is to this effect:—"That all things may be so ordered and settled by their endeavours upon the best and surest foundation" (which he acknowledges to be cheapness and plenty—which he confesses to be Free Trade—the best and surest foundation). We pray every Sabbath that these "may be so ordered and settled by their endeavours on the best and surest foundation, that peace and happiness, truth and justice, religion and piety, may be established among us for all generations." (Hear.)