Page:The Parochial System (Wilberforce, 1838).djvu/124

 all men and left to perish without pity and without aid.

In conversation, again, more may often be done by the laity than by those who are naturally suspected of a professional bias. They may make known the actual state of things to those among whom they live; they may assert the duty and blessedness of giving up something for its remedy; in a word, they may confess Christ before men. We too little think how much evil we may do, by checking (perhaps by a thoughtless word) the rising of some good desire, in those especially who respect our judgment. A man begins to observe the wretched state of his dependants; he doubts whether he is not bound to do something for them; he is just at a critical point; a word, a look may incline him to the good or to the evil of himself and of thousands. And in this state, if he hears one whom he justly respects express even a passing feeling, that "the expense of restoring the parochial system puts it out of the question," or that, "under the circumstances, it is useless to think of a new church in such and such a district," he may very likely begin to regard the thought which God has put into his mind as romantic and unreasonable—perhaps to be ashamed of having entertained it: and thus God's Spirit is grieved, and the opportunity passes by, and the world engrosses all that he has, and it becomes useless