The second truth which, I think, is illustrated by our experience is this: a movement which is of God, of divine origin, and which is rooted in the will of Him who is the God of Justice, is and must be preceded by prayer. It must have its origin in His own inspiration. Therefore I feel that, in one sense, my own answer to the question,“Was our movement a Christian movement at the beginning?”—my own answer must be, “Yes, it was,” but not in the sense in which it is understood, or misunderstood, by some, such as Dr. Fournier, who think that a number of “women and clergymen,” a great party of orthodox Christians, sprang up in England, in the name of religion, to lead this movement. It may seem a paradox, but it must be stated truly to my inner circle of friends, that this movement was born of God, secretly inaugurated by years of silent prayer—prayer offered in the name of Jesus; and that at the same time it was far from being a movement patronised by Christians at first. Indeed the Christian churches were only very slowly and gradually gained to the condescension of looking at the question. Bishops and clergy, and ministers of different denominations poured upon our little early group all the disdain they felt for us.
Our first years were a conflagration created by the spark of wrath against injustice which our cry of revolt had produced. Our vast populations of the middle and working classes, especially the latter, rose against the legislation we opposed, because it was class legislation. This fact was the iron which entered into the soul of our English people; the fact that men of the upper classes had broken down our ancient safeguards, written in our Constitution since the days of King John, in order that the sons of the upper classes might benefit (as was supposed) by the destruction of the daughters of the people. The wrath of the common people quickly broke into a flame which shook Parliament and our legislators, and in time took hold of the churches, and which turned our country into a veritable battlefield for justice, apart from all religious considerations. I allow that there were among our working men a few groups of devout men, who held meetings quietly for prayer about that question, especially in Scotland; but the great question always was that of justice and class selfishness. There were also, I must recall, individuals among the upper classes who were with us from the first—rare spirits whose sense of justice was outraged by this legislation—certain Members of Parliament (of blessed memory), certain dignitaries of the Church—such as Canon Fowle, who scandalised the respectable community by preaching in his Cathedral on several occasions against the Regulation; such as my revered husband and a few of his clerical friends; and one bishop, whose largeness of view, I believe, was owing to his having been a colonial bishop, accustomed to hear the enlightened views of the poor heathen over whom he exercised his pastoral functions.
Some of the prominent workers with us from the first were Unitarians (including Sir James Stansfeld). I suppose that these would hardly be considered to be orthodox by evangelical Christians. We never asked of our adherents what their religious views or non-views were. We joined hands with all who came to us, and there were many malcontents among these, people who had been ill-used by society, poor failures, people who had been deeply wronged and who longed for retribution; people whose woes cried to heaven, even if they had never learned to send the breath of prayer upwards to Him who bore all our woes.
From the first we had the adhesion and support of noble Jews. I may mention Samuel Montagu, M.P. for Whitechapel, the Jews’ quarter in London. He, Montagu, is a “Hebrew of the Hebrews.” He gave us personal and political help. Some of the members of the Montefiore family joined us. The Chief Rabbi of London helped us. We had letters of adhesion rapidly from Zadok Kahn, Grand Rabbin of Paris; from Astruc, Grand Rabbin of Brussels; and from Ben Israel, Grand Rabbin of Avignon. Ben Israel sent to me and my husband a remarkable book which he had written on the heroic and prominent women, prophetesses and others, of the early Hebrew times. His book showed an intelligent study of the Hebrew Scriptures, and an innate and profound respect for womanhood. These Hebrews whom I have mentioned cannot certainly be ranked among orthodox Christians; yet we felt they were an added strength to us.
I may mention that in 1875, when the first British section of the Federation was formed, a distinguished Indian, Babu Keshub Chunder Sen, joined us, and was elected a member of our first International Committee. This committee was formed in Liverpool, where we resided then, and on it were placed men of various views, some of them decidedly agnostic. Keshub Chunder Sen visited us in our house in Liverpool, and our family were impressed by the sublime calm and elevation of his spirit, in the deep conviction that good would triumph over evil. He was not a Christian.
I think I have said enough to show that we gathered all who desired justice, or who suffered from injustice.
May I mention the order in which the tide of divinely-inspired persons or societies gradually gathered round us. This order, most curiously, is precisely similar to that which existed in the case of the great war in America against negro slavery, which you know, was strongly upheld (I mean slavery was) by many of the churches in America. Our first adherents were of the Society of Friends, the Quakers, that quiet and peaceful body of persons whose active, practical help is always offered to suffering peoples all through the world, in accordance with the rule of George Fox, the founder of their sect, who established the “Committee for Sufferings.” It is the noble obligation of this committee, which exists to this day, to look abroad over all the sufferings of the world, whatever they may be and in whatever land, and to endeavour to alleviate those sufferings. These dear people rallied to us very early. Among them my heart urges me to mention a few of the individuals of that body who joined us and aided us silently with unspoken prayer, and outwardly with brave and wonderful courage. I allude especially to my very early comrades, Margaret Tanner and Mary Priestman. The former has recently entered into her rest; the latter is now old and infirm. You can picture these two ladies and myself, sitting face to face, in gentle consultation. “What shall we do?” One of them replied, “Well, we must rouse the country.” Brave woman! So gentle, so Quakerly, yet convinced that we three poor women must rouse the country. Indeed God does use the weak things of the world to confound the strong. So we formed gradually our “Ladies’ National Association,” the mother, or rather the grandmother of all the societies in which women worked. I should also like to record the memory of several noted Friends in Birmingham, who laboured for us, and some of whom are still alive. I recall too the name of Edward Backhouse, of Sunderland, a true prince of generosity, whose powerful aid helped us through many difficulties in the early days of our campaign. Mr. Thomasson was a pillar of strength to us for many years. Their names are written in heaven.
The religious societies who gave us adherents gradually were, as I have said, first the Friends, then the humblest communities, the Primitive Methodists, the Bible Christians, the United Methodists; then the Wesleyans, who later became a powerful aid to our cause, under the leadership of the late Hugh Price Hughes, a fiery-hearted Welshman, a convinced Abolitionist, and an eloquent pleader for justice. Then followed, but slowly, slowly, and with divided opinions, the Baptists and the Congregationalists, among whom there were some who remained blind to the meaning of our movement for a very long time. The Scottish Churches slowly followed, the narrowly Calvinistic character of some of them tending to cramp their sympathies. Two great leaders of the more enlightened part spoke valiantly for us as early as 1869. I refer to Dr. Guthrie and Dr. Duff, the well-known missionary to India. Nevertheless some few years later, valiant corps of Abolitionists were formed in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Bridge of Allan, men and women, especially women, who laboured with Scottish tenacity and perseverance till quite recent years. I think I have said enough on this subject in reply to the objection that we have departed from our original position, or on the other hand that we were a clique of pious people of no width of view.
May I add a few words to you, my friends, on a subject which is, I am sure, stirring many hearts just now. You feel, I believe, as I do, that Christianity, the true Church of Christ (I use the word in its largest sense), is inclusive, and not exclusive. When the disciples of Christ saw a man casting out devils, who was not a member of their group, they forbade him to do so. What did the Master say? “Forbid him not, for he that is not against us is for us.” We have no intimation that this man ever joined the circle of the disciples, and yet of him the Master said: “He is for us.” I have seen many just men who give life-long labour to casting out the evil spirits of tyranny, oppression and injustice; and of these, whatever their formula of belief may be, the Judge of all will say, “Well done.” There are many outside the Christian pale in whom the Spirit of Christ is working, and many of those who are nominally antagonists of Christianity have been thrown into the position in which they are by the very force of that Spirit within them which leads them to recoil from the manifest unchristliness of the teaching of many of the churches and the intolerance of so-called Christian governments. The true Church of Christ is wider than all communions and creeds. In some of those creeds our God has been so maligned, so caricatured, may I say, that many have been turned into rebels, or apparently rebels, whose hearts are not really estranged from the true God. That poor, unhappy and outwitted son of the Patriarch Isaac, who had in an evil hour sold his birthright for a miserable mess of pottage, cried with a loud and bitter cry: “Hast thou but one blessing, O my father? Bless me, even me also, O my father!” Yes, the Eternal Father will bless the apparently rejected son. There is more than one blessing for the sons of men, however much they may have erred, whose inmost hearts utter this bitter cry. The Good Shepherd said: “I have other sheep which are not of this fold. Them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice!” There I rest.
You will pardon this expression of my heart’s conviction. I do not speak as an orthodox adherent of any church, but as one whom sorrow and love have taught that none of the great human family are forgotten by Him who redeemed them, by the Eternal Father whose name is LOVE.