The Lord Chancellor of England
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EARL CAIRNS, Lord Chancellor of England, whom
Lord Macnaughton spoke of as the greatest
lawyer
that ever sat upon the woolsack, was a most decided and
consistent Christian.
Addressing a company of working
men, among whom were a number of infidels and agnostics,
he said: "As I am a stranger among you, I do not know
that I have any right to obtrude my opinion. All I can
do is to tell you how this question affects me personally.
If I could take you to my home, you would think it a
luxurious one, and the food on my table is abundant. You
would say that with all this I ought to be a happy man. I
am, indeed, a happy man, but I don't think my furniture
and food have much to do with it. Every day I rise
with the sweet consciousness God loves me and cares
for me. He has pardoned all my sins for Christ's
sake, and I look forward to the future with no
dread. His Spirit proves to me that all this which
is, is only the beginning of joy which is to last through-
out eternity.
"Suppose it were possible for some one to
convince me
that this happiness was all a delusion on my part, my house
would give me little repose, and the food would often
remain on the table untasted. I should wake in the
morning with the feeling that it was scarcely worth while
to get up, so little there would be to live for. The sun
might rise, or it might not--all would be dark to me. You
see, my friends, I could not honestly advise you to do what
some of you say you wish to do--to live without God in the
world when all the time my heart is crying out: ‘Without
Thee I cannot live.’ It is a pleasure to me to know that the
costly things in my house, which you cannot share with me,
are not the things out of which my happiness is made.
Were they necessary to happiness, I should look around
with a sigh and wonder why they are given to so few. Had
I to leave them all to-morrow and betake myself to a
humble home, I should still take my joy with me. My
most earnest desire and prayer for you is that Christ may
reveal Himself to you, satisfying, as I know He only can,
every desire of your hearts."
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