"The Numbering of the People" / A Sermon in conjunction with the census of 1861 preached in St. Thomas' Church, Islington, on Sunday Evening, April 7
Date: 2021-03-20T00:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Sermons; English -- 19th century; Church of England -- Sermons -- 19th century; Bible. Numbers -- Sermons; Great Britain -- Census; 1861

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Title: "The Numbering of the People"

Author: Islington) George (Vicar of St. Thomas's Allen

Release date: March 20, 2021 [eBook #64876]
Most recently updated: October 18, 2024

Language: English

Credits: Transcribed from the 1861 B. Seeley edition by David Price. Many thanks to the British Library for making their edition available

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK "THE NUMBERING OF THE PEOPLE" ***

Transcribed from the 1861 B. Seeley edition by David Price.  Many thanks to the British Library for making their edition available.

“THE NUMBERING OF THE PEOPLE.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A Sermon

IN CONNECTION WITH THE CENSUS OF 1861,

PREACHED IN

ST.  THOMAS’ CHURCH, ISLINGTON,

On SUNDAY EVENING, APRIL 7,

BY THE

REV. GEORGE ALLEN,
Theological Associate, King’s College, London,
INCUMBENT.

PUBLISHED BY REQUEST.

B. SEELEY, ISLINGTON GREEN;
SEELEY, JACKSON, & HALLIDAY, FLEET STREET.

The profits of publication will be devoted to the purchase of the new
Organ recently erected in the Church.

TO THE MEMBERS OF THE CONGREGATION OF
ST. THOMAS’, ISLINGTON.

My dear Friends,

This Sermon was not written with a view to publication.  I have consented to its being printed at the earnest request of several of the most experienced members of the congregation, to whose judgment, I felt it would be but false modesty not to defer, when they assured me that they considered it might, under God, be the means of doing good, and that its publication would be a source of pleasure to you generally.

The Sermon—prepared amidst the pressure of parochial duties—is printed by desire exactly as it was delivered from the pulpit.  I must therefore crave your indulgence for whatever imperfections may be found in it.

With all its faults, however, I dedicate it to you as an expression of warm affection and gratitude for the many kindnesses I have received at your hands; and earnestly praying that the Almighty will graciously vouchsafe His blessing to this feeble, but I trust sincere, endeavour to promote His glory and your spiritual good,

I have the happiness to subscribe myself,
Your faithful Friend and Minister,
GEORGE ALLEN.

Upper Barnsbury Street, Islington,
8th April, 1861.

A SERMON.

Numbers i. 1, 2, 19.

“And the Lord spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tabernacle of the congregation, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying, take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel . . .  As the Lord commanded Moses, so he numbered them in the wilderness of Sinai.”

The reading the words of the text, dear brethren, will make it obvious, that I desire this evening, to direct your attention to thoughts connected with the great national act now taking place, the numbering the people, the census.  Whilst the preacher of the Gospel should be exceedingly careful, not to allow the things of time and sense to form the burden of his ministry, yet there is much wisdom and profit, in making use of those temporal matters which are engaging men’s thoughts, as vehicles for reminding them of spiritual and eternal verities.  By such a course a fitting direction is given to the minds of believers; their contact with worldly duties is made a means of promoting their spiritual life.  By such a course also the attention of the still unconverted is arrested, and those startling truths which tend to the awakening of the soul, find sometimes, by God’s blessing, a lodgment in the memory, because of their association with topics of worldly interest.  I pray that my endeavour this evening to improve the occasion of this important national act—the taking of the census—by suggesting a few thoughts in connection with it, may be blessed of the Holy Spirit to the honour of our God, and the good of our souls.

I would classify my remarks, because I wish them to form the material of much afterthought on your parts, under these divisions:—

1st.  The propriety and uses of a national census, and our duty with regard to it.

2nd.  The thoughts which arise from the questions of the census paper.

3rd.  An omission in the census paper suggesting an important line of thought.

4th.  The final census.

(I.)  The propriety and uses of a national census, and our duty with regard to it.

Enumerations of the people, more or less complete, have found place in almost all nations.  They seem an obvious necessity in all collections of men pretending to a national existence.  Without them all legislation for the internal welfare of a country and for its external defence must be mere hap-hazard work.  Those to whom is committed the heavy burden of ruling a great people such as this, have I think, a positive right to all that information from the governed which may help them in the discharge of their onerous and responsible duties.  It is not patriotic, to use no loftier term, to look upon our government with the jaundiced eye of suspicion, more especially when it exercises no undue inquisitiveness, and pledges itself, as the government of our day does by the terms of the census forms, that “The facts will be published in general abstracts only, and strict care will be taken that the returns are not used for the gratification of curiosity.”

Of course, dear friends, I am not qualified to speak fully of the uses of a national census—a statesman only could do this, yet it is self-evident that everything which tends to the amelioration of public evils and the furtherance of the public good, must be subserved by the statistics so gained.  Not only distinctive legislation, but also all our schemes for the extension of education and the promotion of the work of Christ’s Church can only find arguments, exactitude, and adaptation from the knowledge to be gained by a national census.  I could enter into some details, were it necessary or desirable in this place, to illustrate and prove these points: but I think you will all be prepared to admit at once that it is self-evident, that the plans of our rulers, and the efforts of the philanthropical among us to do good in their day and generation, must be very greatly facilitated by the information the census papers, if faithfully filled up, will afford.

It seems strange that a measure so obviously proper and useful should have had so many difficulties to contend with, and that these difficulties should not have wholly disappeared before the boasted enlightenment of the nineteenth century.  Prejudice must have been intensely strong in days gone by; for it would seem to have to bear, deservedly, the chief blame for past neglect in seeking the important information which can alone be obtained through this channel.  It was not till 1801, I believe, that the first actual enumeration of the people of England and Scotland took place, although an imperfect attempt to ascertain the number of the population had been made in the previous century.  Since 1801 the census taking has become more general in the United Kingdom.  England and Scotland were again enumerated in 1811, and since then at the decennial periods of 1821, ’31 ’41 ’51; Ireland has also been included in these latter census takings, and we may hope that as the people become more accustomed to the matter, and more thoughtful as to its uses, all remnants of the antiquated prejudice which hindered it so long, will die out.  I would help towards this desirable end by noticing for a passing moment the most prevalent objection urged against the census.

It is not in a few quarters that you hear, and probably in still more quarters the notion is held, that the census is unscriptural, and therefore will bring down upon the nation a curse and not a blessing.  Whence does this notion arise?  From a mistaken interpretation of Scripture.  Do you not remember, says the objector, in a tone which implies that he thinks he is about to demolish your case at once, Do you not remember that David sinned in numbering the people, and that in consequence a pestilence slew thousands of his subjects?  Yes, I remember well the Scripture fact.  David sinned in numbering the people, but that does not therefore prove that numbering the people is an act in itself wrong.  David sinned because he did a right thing from a wrong motive.  Shall we say that almsgiving is sinful because some give from ostentation and pride?  Surely not.  David numbered his people to gratify his pride, to see his way to the carrying out designs of ambitious conquest, concerning which, because he knew he was doing wrong, he took not counsel of God.  And if we now number the people in this vain-glorious, God-neglecting, proud, self-reliant spirit, then we too sin.  But surely to number them with the view, under God, of furthering the internal welfare of the kingdom and securing the defence of the precious privileges God has given us to guard, is not to act in David’s sinful spirit.  Let us pray for ourselves and rulers, my friends, that God may be recognised in this census taking, that thanks may be given to Him for any increase and progress in our nation this census may discover, and that as He has cared for us in the past, we may make all our plans for the future under the direction of His teaching and in dependence upon His blessing.

But in truth, dear friends, this objection from Scripture is fully met and controverted in Scripture itself.  God can never be the author of evil, yet you will notice in our text, and you will find the same thing in the 26th chapter of this book of Numbers, that God himself, at the commencement and close of Israel’s journey in the wilderness, commanded the numbering of the people above a certain age.  What God has once commanded cannot in itself be wrong, else were God the author of evil.  The right thing becomes a wrong thing in us, when we do it in a wrong and sinful spirit.

And now, dear friends, if you are satisfied that the taking the census is not only not contrary to, but sanctioned by Scripture, and that its uses are most important to the welfare of the state, bear with me if I urge upon you your duty with regard to the paper you will deliver into the hand of the appointed enumerator to-morrow.  You are bound to fill up that paper carefully and faithfully.

I might urge a selfish motive to induce you to do so; the future welfare of the state,—politically, socially, religiously,—depends in a measure upon the exactitude of the returns—the interest of each is bound up in the interest of all—what furthers the public weal will enhance your private benefit.

I urge again this duty upon the ground of your obligations to your neighbour.  To the discharge of this care for his good, religion binds you; and so also your position as a citizen of this country.  You have no right to say you will do, and have a right to do, as you please in this matter.  You receive great and unspeakable benefits from being a member of an organised and governed society, where might is not right, but all are under the protection of the law; and for these benefits you give up,—are bound to give up, a portion of your individual liberty, else were all government at an end, and submit yourself to such ordinances as those who have public authority given to them in this realm consider to be for the common good.

And further, I urge a yet higher motive.  You are bound to see to the filling up of this census paper carefully and faithfully, without any wilful deceit, as a duty to God.  “The powers that be are ordained of God; he therefore that resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God.”  That is a false, dishonest, ungodly axiom which finds place in the world, that men may act, nay are rather to be applauded for acting towards government, in a manner in which they would be ashamed to act towards their fellow men.  To rob and deceive government is no less robbery and deception, in the sight of God, than robbery and deception practised towards private persons.  Public conscience, methinks, needs this lesson in many a particular—in none more than in the matter of withholding legal dues, and thus defrauding not only the public purse, but also our fellow countrymen, our friends and neighbours.

This duty then is before us.  The census paper should be filled up carefully and faithfully, because it is a duty to self, a duty to our neighbours, a duty to our God, so to discharge a work which has Scripture warrant, and on which the material, political, social, religious welfare of our country so much depends.  I do not think, dear friends, that I am acting contrary to my ministerial office in thus speaking, for I remember I am the teacher of the religion which says, “Submit yourself to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether it be to the king as supreme, or unto governors as unto them that are sent by Him for the punishment of evil doers, and for the praise of them that do well;” the religion which says “Honour all men.  Love the brotherhood.  Fear God.  Honour the king.”

(II.)  And now, dear friends, let me invite you to ponder over a few thoughts which arise from the questions of the census.

The census paper lies before us, and as we glance at its headings, we cannot help feeling that it makes a certain stand-point not only in the national, but also in our personal history.  It bids us cast our eyes back upon the past.  It cries to us, in no hesitating tones, as to the present, “Man, know thyself.”  It compels us to look forward into the all-undefined future, and wonder what shall be.

As the questions bid you write concerning yourself and others, surely they bid you ponder over personal and relative duties.  Have they been fulfilled in the past?  Are they being fulfilled at the present?  How will they be fulfilled in the future?

You write in your own name,—your Christian name.  Is it a cheat, or a true outspeaking of your character?

You write your age.  How long have I lived?—ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy years.  The past, the past! the things of which God requires, how spent?  How long have I to live?  When the next census comes, will my name be enrolled in it?  There must come a time when it will cease to be entered in human records.  How soon?  Some died the very day of the last census; some the day, the week, the year after.  It may be thus with me this time.  Am I ready to die?  How long have I to live?

You write the name of your wife.  She sees you write it.  Are not both reminded of solemn vows plighted in the presence of, and in dependence upon the strength and blessing of God?  Have those vows been fulfilled or broken?  Are they being now fulfilled?  Are ye helpers or hinderers of one another’s salvation?

You write the names of your children, ‘the heritage and gift which has come to you from the Lord.’  A fearfully responsible stewardship!  By lip, and life, how have you trained them?  How are you training them?  How will you train them?  Is it in the nurture and admonition of the Lord?  Is it for time or eternity,—for mammon or for God,—for hell or for heaven?  No man liveth to himself.  You must influence their present and eternal state.  How?

And, young people, I have a word for you.  Your father and mother call you, and you stand by their side as they enter your names and ages in the census paper, and so record you as their sons and daughters.  Is it not well for you at such a time to pause, and think, and ask, Have I loved and obeyed the parents God in mercy has given me, as I ought to have done?  Have I honored my father and my mother according to the first commandment with promise?  Have I copied His example, of whom, though He was Lord of All, it is written concerning His conduct as the Son of Man towards His parents, “He was subject unto them”?

The next heaviest curse to the curse of those despising the Saviour, is the curse awaiting those who set light by father or mother.  See to it, my young friends, that that curse light not on you.

You write in the names of your dependents.  Think, do you obey the Scripture injunction, “Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal, knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven”?  Think, will any of them be able to present against you the condemning accusation, “No man cared for my soul”?

Your names are being written in, ye servants.  Should not the question arise in your minds, Am I a servant such as God would approve, ‘obeying in all things my masters according to the flesh; not with eye service, as men pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God: whatsoever I do, doing it heartily as to the Lord, and not unto men; knowing that of the Lord I shall receive the reward of the inheritance; for I serve the Lord Christ’?

You write your occupation.  Is it a calling you are ashamed to write?  We will suppose it is a lawful one.  Arises not the question, How fulfilled?  With industry,—with honesty?  Am I free from the deceits and trickeries so common in profession and trade, labouring to have a conscience void of offence towards God and towards man?  Do I remember, God would have me “diligent in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord”?

Have I ceased to have anything to do with the busy avocations of men?  Is it that sickness has removed me from the active labours of life, or that prosperous circumstances enable me to live at ease, apart from the vexations and cares of business?  How is the leisure,—how are the means spent?  Both are talents for which account must be given.  What account shall I be able to render, when the Lord comes to reckon with His servants?

This census paper,—ten years have passed since the last came.  Ten years!  How quickly flown: and yet a seventh portion of that span of life,—the allotted term, to the end of which so few, few reach.  Ten years! how many sins have the moments which composed them witnessed!  Multitudes forgotten by me; not one unregistered in heaven.  Will they appear against me?  Have they been cancelled?  Have I sought pardon, where alone pardon can be found for them, in the cleansing fountain of the Saviour’s blood?

Ten years!  How many troubles have they witnessed!  Troubles,—ah, but how many mercies too!  Think of THESE.  Troubles and mercies,—which were most in number in the ten years passed?  You can count your troubles, can you count your blessings?  Are you willing, in the next ten years, to make this exchange: to let the troubles of the past ten years be the measure of your mercies in the next ten years; and to let the mercies of the past ten years be the measure of your troubles in the coming ten?

“Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His Holy Name.  Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits.” (Psa. ciii.)

Yes, the past of national mercies and personal mercies, calls for hallelujahs of adoring thanksgiving.  And that past we ought gladly to hail, as the pledge of continued blessing in the future.  Let us enter on that future,—the way we have not passed by heretofore,—singing, “Ebenezer, hitherto the Lord hath helped us.”  “The Lord will provide.”

But this thought of God’s mercies leads me to notice a connected topic, viz. the propriety and expediency of making special offerings to God on this solemn epoch in our history.  It was suggested to me by a respected member of the congregation, that we should have special collections to-day; and the suggestion was urged by the most forcible of all arguments, an appeal to Scripture.  Exodus xxx. 11–16 was referred to.  It is written there,—

“And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel after their number, then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul unto the Lord, when thou numberest them; that there be no plague among them, when thou numberest them.  This they shall give, every one that passeth among them that are numbered, half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary: (a shekel is twenty gerahs:) an half shekel shall be the offering of the Lord.  Every one that passeth among them that are numbered, from twenty years old and above, shall give an offering unto the Lord.  The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when they give an offering unto the Lord, to make an atonement for your souls.  And thou shalt take the atonement money of the children of Israel, and shalt appoint it for the service of the tabernacle of the congregation; that it may be a memorial unto the children of Israel before the Lord, to make an atonement for your souls.”

In connexion with these verses, I have read the following remarks in a letter in the public press: “There has never, to my knowledge, been in England,” says the writer in the religious periodical, “such a national offering as is here indicated; but there has been on three occasions a remarkable and progressive coincidence of calamity: thus after 1831, cholera; after 1841, blight, influenza, cholera; and after 1851, cholera, murrain, war.”

I deeply regret, my friends, that such words as these have ever appeared in print; none could well be more mischievous, because none could well be more likely to encourage the mistaken notion I met, and I trust controverted, at the beginning of my sermon.  The writer seems to imply, that these calamities followed because an offering was not made.  It is God’s, not man’s province to trace such connections.  I believe he has misconceived the teaching of Exod. xxx. 11–16, and would make a temporary injunction of permanent force.  I state what I believe to be the true meaning of the passage, in the words of a most able biblical scholar: “This tax is not in Scripture mentioned in connection with any other census” (save the one recorded in the first chapter of Numbers), “and we are of opinion that it was only a temporary measure to raise funds for the making of the tabernacle.”

The suggestion therefore kindly made to me, I have not adopted, because I did not think the Scripture proof adduced was sufficient to make it imperative, and I was not willing to press upon your liberality by having a formal collection.  Still I do feel the spirit of Scripture would teach, that this is a very fitting season for making thank-offerings to God, for His love in the past, and for the blessing of continued life.  You who so feel with me can act as your consciences dictate.  Would you devote your offerings to the service of this tabernacle of God, the boxes at the doors can receive them.  Would you rather aid some special religious work, missionary or otherwise, I shall be happy to become the medium of conveying your gifts to the proper persons.

This census paper.  Ten years have passed since the last census.  How many changes in the family have taken place since then?  Some joyful, some sorrowful.  Some joyful surely: names that were missing then, are found now; divided families have become united; little ones, blessed sunbeams from heaven, have been sent to cheer and gladden the home; and poor prodigals have come back again to the early loved threshold, and found peace in a loving father’s embrace, happy, if not only in an earthly father’s, but in a Heavenly One’s too.

But sorrowful changes also, have those ten years seen; and as surely will the next ten.  Another name than that entered at the last census, is now recorded under the division, “Write the name of the head of the family.”  “The head of the family!”  He sleeps in the silent tomb.  And where is now the wife’s, the mother’s, the child’s, the brother’s, or the sister’s name?  ’Twas written in the census paper in 1851; it must not be written in the census paper of 1861.  Their names are written on the churchyard stone, the clods of the valley are sweet to them.  Ah, did we love them as we ought to have done?  Did we love them as we wish now we had done?  Happy, happy, those families, who, united not only in the bonds of nature but of grace, can look forward to the time when, through faith in a living Saviour, they shall meet in that land where partings are unknown; that land where there shall be no more death.

Sorrowful changes have the past ten years seen.  Some filled up the last census paper in a mansion who will fill up this one in a garret.  Riches have taken to themselves wings, and flown away.  Ye who are prosperous now, remember the fleeting character of earthly possessions.  Some entered then the names of children who have since dashed their cup of hope to the ground, and who will this time find entry, not in a father’s home, but in a felon’s prison house.  Well, in heaven you will bless the stroke which taught you this is not your rest, and bid you seek that abiding rest which remaineth for the people of God.  Aye, and even here, amid gloom and sadness, light shall break in upon your darkness, if ye rest, believers, upon the promise, “All things work together for good to them that love God.”

This census paper!  Ten years have passed.  Ten years of the time given to work out my salvation with fear and trembling.  Have I gone forward, or have I gone backward in religion?  Am I nearer to, or further from God?  Answer,—am I more like, or more unlike my Saviour?

(III.)  These questions are not asked of me in the census paper.  No, my friends; and the omission of all reference to religion in that paper, is just the very point which I think may suggest a most important line of thought.  Mind, my friends, I find no fault with the census paper for this omission.  One perhaps could wish, that statistics as to the numbers of the various religious bodies, and the number of worshippers, could have been obtained; but I doubt not, there were great difficulties in the way; and temptations to unfair returns, and indulgence of angry passions, may thus perhaps have been avoided.  And, after all, though I will not yield to any man in regret at, and condemnation of, the sad schism and division which exist in Christ’s Church, yet I cannot help feeling, that the absence of distinctive classification of religious bodies in the census, is just what will find place at LAST.  Then the question will not be, were you Episcopalian or Nonconformist? but, Did you love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity and truth?  And, with the Apostle, I say, may grace be with all those who do so.

But, my friends, although the census paper asks you not this year about your professed religion, remember God is always taking His census, as to the state of your REAL religion.  In the never-failing memory of God, your name, age, dwelling, and true description, are all noted down.  He is spying out all our ways.  We cannot keep any secret from Him.  “All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.”  In His census taking, He makes two grand divisions,—foes, friends;—not in His Church, in His Church;—unbelievers, believers;—lost, saved.  Now, my friends, if you could see under which division God has written your names, think you, would it be among the lost or saved?  Nay, you may know that now, for a certainty.  Listen to the Word of God: “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”  Have you repented?  Do you repent?  “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.”  Now have you believed in, do you believe in Jesus for salvation, pardon, acceptance, peace, glory?  “Without holiness no man shall see the Lord.”  Are you fighting against sin, are you striving to be holy?

Oh my friends, it is, methinks, a proud thing to have one’s name enrolled, by means of this census, as a citizen of free happy England; but ’tis a far prouder thing to have it enrolled as a citizen of Heaven, of the kingdom which shall know no decay.

Oh see to it that you make sure work of your state before God.  It is a blessed thing to think, that though God may have had your name for many, many long years in His census book among the list of the lost,—His foes; He is yet willing, nay is longing to transfer it, upon your repentance, faith, obedience, to the list of the saved,—His friends.  See to it, I say, that the name you bear as your description, a Christian, be a true name, witnessed in your occupations of penitence for sin, trust in Jesus, holy living to God; for remember, remember, the

IV.  Final census will ere long be taken, which shall consign each one of us to irretrievable woe, or usher us to inconceivable blessings.  Yes, presently, angels will play the part of enumerators.  They will not indeed seek information of you, for God knows them that are His, and them that are not.  Then before the great white throne you will stand, and all your life will be told.  There an assembled world must meet,—not one missing; and then the angels will play their part in the great, the final census.  Then will they discern between the righteous and the wicked; then will they separate between the just and the unjust, the believers in Jesus, and those who have not believed in Him.  Then will it be declared whether my name, and thine, my friend, be written or not written in the Lamb’s book of life, and on that issue will depend whether we be registered in the book of Eternity as citizens of hell, or as citizens of heaven.

Brethren, now is the time to decide which it will be.  The choice, under God, is in our hands to-day, to-morrow may be too late.

“There’s no repentance in the grave,
Nor hope of pardon there.”

And there, in the grave, you may be, I say not before another census taking comes, but before another day dawns.  The names of some of those who are at this moment written in the census-paper as among the living, will have to be withdrawn, erased, before that paper be handed to the enumerator to-morrow morning, and entered in another register, the register of the dead.  It may be so in the case of some here to-night.  With which one shall it be so?  With which one?  “Lord, is it I?”

SEELEY, ISLINGTON GREEN.

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