In Darkest England and The Way Out | Page 4

gone. The general wreck has shattered and disorganised
the whole man.
Alas, what multitudes there are around us everywhere, many known to
my readers personally, and any number who may be known to them by
a very short walk from their own dwellings, who are in this very plight!
Their vicious habits and destitute circumstances make it certain that
without some kind of extraordinary help, they must hunger and sin, and
sin and hunger, until, having multiplied their kind, and filled up the
measure of their miseries, the gaunt fingers of death will close upon
then and terminate their wretchedness. And all this will happen this
very winter in the midst of the unparalleled wealth, and civilisation,
and philanthropy of this professedly most Christian land.
Now, I propose to go straight for these sinking classes, and in doing so
shall continue to aim at the heart. I still prophesy the uttermost
disappointment unless that citadel is reached. In proposing to add one
more to the methods I have already put into operation to this end, do
not let it be supposed that I am the less dependent upon the old plans or
that I seek anything short of the old conquest. If we help the man it is in
order that we may change him. The builder who should elaborate his
design and erect his house and risk his reputation without burning his
bricks would be pronounced a failure and a fool. Perfection of
architectural beauty, unlimited expenditure of capital, unfailing
watchfulness of his labourers, would avail him nothing if the bricks
were merely unkilned clay. Let him kindle a fire. And so here I see the
folly of hoping to accomplish anything abiding, either in the
circumstances or the morals of these hopeless classes, except there be a
change effected in the whole man as well as in his surroundings. To
this everything I hope to attempt will tend. In many cases I shall
succeed, in some I shall fail; but even in failing of this my ultimate
design, I shall at least benefit the bodies, if not the souls, of men; and if
I do not save the fathers, I shall make a better chance for the children.
It will be seen therefore that in this or in any other development that
may follow I have no intention to depart in the smallest degree from the
main principles on which I have acted in the past. My only hope for the
permanent deliverance of mankind from misery, either in this world or
the next, is the regeneration or remaking of the individual by the power

of the Holy Ghost through Jesus Christ. But in providing for the relief
of temporal misery I reckon that I am only making it easy where it is
now difficult, and possible where it is now all but impossible, for men
and women to find their way to the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
That I have confidence in my proposals goes without saying. I believe
they will work. In miniature many of them are working already. But I
do not claim that my Scheme is either perfect in its details or complete
in the sense of being adequate to combat all forms of the gigantic evils
against which it is in the main directed. Like other human things it must
be perfected through suffering. But it is a sincere endeavour to do
something, and to do it on principles which can be instantly applied and
universally developed. Time, experience, criticism, and, above all, the
guidance of God will enable us, I hope, to advance on the lines here
laid down to a true and practical application of the words of the Hebrew
Prophet: "Loose the bands of wickedness; undo the heavy burdens; let
the oppressed go free; break every yoke; deal thy bread to the hungry;
bring the poor that are cast out to thy house. When thou seest the naked
cover him and hide not thyself from thine own flesh. Draw out thy soul
to the hungry-- Then they that be of thee shall build the old waste
places and Thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations."
To one who has been for nearly forty years indissolubly associated with
me in every undertaking I owe much of the inspiration which has found
expression in this book. It is probably difficult for me to fully estimate
the extent to which the splendid benevolence and unbounded sympathy
of her character have pressed me forward in the life-long service of
man, to which we have devoted both ourselves and our children. It will
be an ever green and precious memory to me that amid the ceaseless
suffering of a dreadful malady my dying wife found relief in
considering and developing the suggestions