The vicinity of Notting Hill has, unfortunately, been selected by the Roman Catholics as the scene of their most active operations. Whilst I write, I hear from my open window the sound of “busy workmen” employed on the rising walls of a nunnery of great size and importance. They have just purchased a piece of land in Pottery Lane, once the celebrated Cut-throat Lane, on which they intend building school-rooms. Only a few days ago, I was told that a poor woman had called, seeking relief. On finding she was a stranger to me, and being already overdone with similar cases, I sent a message by the servant, that I was truly sorry for her, but it was not then in my power to attend to her case. Her reply to the servant was, “Ah! the Roman Catholics is coming amongst us, and they’ll never stand by and see us poor people suffer, like you Protestants do.”
Whatever distinctions may prevail in the various sections among Protestants, we surely all agree in this, that we are looking for salvation simply and entirely through the merits of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Compared with _this_, the points on which we differ are few and unimportant, affecting principally what we may call our outside life—belonging to the “wood, hay, stubble” that attaches to the present imperfect state of things, and, if not at last burnt with fire, will, at least, be lost sight of, when, instead of seeing through a glass darkly, the mind grasps the astonishing and overwhelming meaning of being _saved to the uttermost_.
A voice from the enemy’s camp has reached us, that their great hopes of success rest upon the disunion amongst the ranks of Protestants. God grant that these hopes may be disappointed! In times of national calamity, when homes and hearths are threatened by the invasion of a foreign foe, the people are exhorted to let no private consideration, no respect for individual property, _nothing_, in fact, prevent their rising as with the heart of one man, to fight manfully for the defence of their king and their country. Let us, it would be said, only expel this common foe, and mere personal matters can be arranged afterwards.
And now that the foe is bearing down with such a threatening aspect upon the interests of our Master’s kingdom, is it still to be said—“The children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light?” Is it too much to expect that we should work for Him, who _died_ for us?