Revieic of Reiieicg, iOISiOU, 



THE NEW HOUSE OF COMMONS. 



The uet resu.t of the British elections is that there have been elected 512 members, whose one point of agreement 

 is their condemnation of the Administration that made the South African War, as against 158 members who supported 

 It. Majority against the Party that made the war, 354. 



1.— THE CROWNING MERCY. 



" 1 don't believe we ever had a Parliament with so 

 many men in it who will, on their knees, earnestly 

 seek God's guidance ; so many who, in offering them- 

 selves to the country, first offered themselves to God 

 with the words, ' Here am I ; send me !' How are 

 you going to help them to make His paths straight ? 

 It was through the Stale the Church sinned and con- 

 doned the shedding of innocent blood in South 

 Africa. Can it be that the State will atone for that 

 sin by using this Parliament to bring about a great 

 moral revival in the country ?" So writes to me a 

 devout woman in the North Country, voicing the 

 thoughts of many hearts. On Sunday night (Janu- 

 ary 2ist) in Christ Church, Lambeth, I heard the 

 Re\-. F. B. Meyer lead the congregation in exultant 

 praise and prayer to the Lord God Omnipotent for 

 the great wave of righteousness that is sweeping 

 over the land. 



It is probable that no passage in prose or in verse 

 would so exactly express the universal sentiment 

 of all religious peace-loving folk in Great Britain,' 

 while day after day the news of ever-increasing 

 majorities came pouring in from north and south 

 and east and west, as the jubilant refrain that burst 

 from the lips of Miriam as Israel saw the Egyi)tians 

 dead upon the seashore : — 



Sound the loud timbrel o'er Egypt's dark sea; 

 Jehovah hath triumphed. His people are free. 



There has been a whiff of Naseby in the air. 

 When the first polls opened and everything went 

 down, as "we storm home again, horse and foot, 

 upon them with a shock like a tornado torrent, break 

 them, beat them, drive them all adrift," we could 

 understand how when the first gleam of the level sun 

 over St. Abb's Head showed that the Scotch army 

 w^as shivered to utter ruin, Yorkshire Hodgson heard 

 Xol say in the words of the Psalmist — 



Let God arise and scattered 

 Let all His enemies 1>e, 

 And let all those who do Him hate 

 Before His presence flee. 



For if ever there were enemies of God in this world. 

 It was those men who in sheer arrogance and naugh- 

 tiness of spirit plunged this nation into an unjust 

 and wanton war by refusing the oft-repeated, pas- 

 sionately-urged petition of our diminutive adversary 

 that we would submit the dispute to arbitration, and 

 not since the days when Moses raised his jubilant 



song of thanksgiving over Pharaoh and his chariots 

 when the sea co\ered them and they sank as lead in 

 the mighty waters, has any insolent army been sd 

 suddenly and so totally overwhelmed with destruc- 

 tion. What wonder if among all the tabernacles of 

 the Puritans there is going up the exultant cry of 

 grateful praise: — 



Thy right hand, O Lord, is become glorious in power ; 

 Thy right hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy. 

 And in the greatness of Thine excellency Thou hast over- 

 thrown them that rose up against Thee: Thou sentest 

 forth Thy wrath, which consumed them as stubble. 



It will be well if, after the glad strains of the 

 Puritan timbrels have ceased to make melody in the 

 ears of the faithful, they should repeat also Moses' 

 vow of consecration and of service: — 



The Lord is my strength and my song, and He is become 

 my salvation; He is my God, and I will prepare him an 

 habitation; my father's God, and I will exalt Him. 



In the preparation of Britain and its Empire as 

 a fit habitation for the Most High — or, to vary the 

 dialect, in making our people fit for human homes 

 and our houses fit for the soiis of men — the new- 

 House of Commons will find an ample field for its 

 energies. 



When the burying parties were still busy interring 

 the dead who perished in Dunbar fight, Cromwell, 

 the day after the fight, addressed the Speaker of the 

 English Parliament a letter in which, after describ- 

 ing " one of the most signal mercies God hath done 

 for England and His people," he prayed for the 

 leave of a few words. These few words I reprint 

 to-day as the most appropriate of all messages 

 which can be addressed in the words of the living 

 or the dead to the new House of Commons : — 



It is easy to say, Tlie Lord hath done this. But, Sir, it's 

 in your hands, and by these eminent mercies God puts it 

 more into your hands, to g'ive glory to Him; to improve 

 your power, and His blessings, to His praise. We that serve 

 you beg of you not to own us— but God alone. We pray 

 you own His people more and more; for they are the 

 chariots and horsemen of Israel. Disown vourselves;— but 

 own your Authority: and improve it to curb the proud 

 and the insolent, such as would disturb the tranquillity of 

 England, though under what specious pretences soever. " Re- 

 lieve the oppressed, hear the groans of poor prisoners in 

 England. Be pleased to reform the abuses of all profes- 

 sions: — and if there be anyone that makes many poor to 

 make a few rich, that suits not a Commonwealth. If He 

 that strengthens your servants to fight, please to give vour 

 hearts to set upon these things, in order to His glory, and 

 the glory of your Commonwealth— " then " besides the bene- 

 fit Ensrland shall feel thereby, you shall shine forth t» 

 other Nations, who shall emulate the srlorv of such a pat- 

 tern, and through the power of God turn in to the like! 



Our "proud nnd insolent" Jingoes, who have dis- 

 turbed the tranquillity of England, and of Africa anS 



