Welsh Nationality, and How Alone It is to Be Saved: A Sermon

by William Gabriel Davies

An early stage of society, like that of animal development, is a medley. It is made up of families or tribes, each of which has its own separate organization; and the tendency is, where selfishness and a contentious spirit predominate, to split up into fragments; whereas, on the other hand, where the domestic virtues are highly advanced, and there is a general disposition to sink private interest in public good, men will cling together, thus forming larger communities, exercising more advanced functions, and eventually absorb those weaker tribes which have not acquired these virtues; that is, have not realized, to the same extent, the principle of many members in one body.

It is characteristic of the human mind, in its first attempts to pierce the mists of ignorance and mystery, to embrace, in one view, the whole realm of knowledge, and necessarily to suppose that it is much more limited than it is. The astrologers of old little dreamed that the stars, which were the objects of their superstitions contemplation, were but a small portion of the illimitable universe of worlds. We see at first of any subject which we study but about as much as we see of the stars without the aid of the telescope, or of minute objects near at hand without the aid of the microscope. The realm of knowledge enlarges in proportion as we intimately explore it. The more we discover distinctions, which have been overlooked by previous observers, or the more we differentiate, and at the same time assign the differences their right place in the class, the unity to which they belong, the more we advance that branch of investigation towards which our efforts are turned. In the infancy of knowledge, science, poetry, history, politics, theology, form one medley, like the hydra in the animal world. Pythagoras, because he possessed insufficient powers of abstraction, could not keep mathematics apart from metaphysics, theology, and æsthetics. And Xenophanes must needs, in the philosophical and theological travail of his soul, give expression to his ideas in flowing hexameters. The early ballads were not simply the minstrelsy, but the only chronicles of the period. Out of the medley state, which has now been described, the sciences file in the order of their simplicity, generality, and remoteness from religious, poetic, and political emotion.

The development of knowledge and of civilization, therefore, like that of the animal kingdom, is commensurate with the degree in which labour is divided, while perfect unity is retained. “Now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased Him. And if they were all one member, where were the body?” (where were the multiplicity in the unity?) “But now are they many members, yet but one body.” As a striking instance of the manner in which civilization is effected by this law Guizot tells us that it is more advanced in modern than in ancient times, because it is more complex. In ancient civilization, there was no country population existing as a class distinct from that of the towns, and exercising a power peculiar to itself. By means of the feudal system, however, the country population has assumed a distinct character in modern times, and it wields an influence which greatly modifies the power of the great populous centres. Here we have another instance of differentiation out of a prior medley state, such as existed in the civilization of Greece and of Rome.

So much chiefly for the doctrine of differentiation; now more particularly for that of unity. Let us never forget that God has fashioned the body in such a perfect manner that there should be no schism among the different members, but that there should be “the same care one for another.” Thus it is found to be throughout the region of animal life. There is, at first, no variety in the unity. As animals ascend in the scale of being, variety emerges; organs having special functions to perform are divided off from the structureless germinal matter; but the oneness of the living being is perfectly preserved; there is no schism among the various parts of the body to which a special sphere of labour is allotted. Now this is just what ought to be the case with the great social body. If it advances from one stage to a higher, it must be by division of labour combined with the union of love. It is by division of labour that men acquire that skill and excellence in the arts, that greater accuracy and extent of knowledge in general which enables them to surpass their forefathers. But here we enter the sphere of will and of moral obligation, choice, and duty; and instead of witnessing that harmonious action of many parts exhibited by the involuntary regions of organic life, we witness all those evils which, if they do not have the effect of awakening a nation to the error of its ways, eventually lead to anarchy and decay. What, however, we mostly behold in civilized communities is, that while some are in a highly advanced state, the majority form an appalling mediocrity, while too many are but paupers and criminals. Yea, the social body is seen to have many weak, many diseased parts; and is often, through strife and dissension, threatened with dismemberment. These are the great trials which civilization has to encounter; and amidst great physical progress, notably amidst and wealthy magnificence, there may be much rottenness at the base.

Since communities as they advance become more divided into members having special offices to perform, there is, where the higher emotions, the source of union, are not in the ascendant, a tendency to an isolation of the parts, to one-sidedness, to a want of “the same care one for another,” to those gross inequalities, those frightful extremes which too often reflect such discredit upon our large towns and cities; social disorders which it is the province of the Church to counteract, laying a heavy weight of responsibility upon her, as well as upon the State; and which are found to exist to a far less extent among a Christian and primitive people like the Welsh.

The lower animals exhibit a well-regulated constitution. They fulfil the purpose of their being; there is no schism among their members. “If we saw the lion,” says George Combe, “one day tearing in pieces every animal that crossed his path, and then oppressed with remorse for the death of his victims, or compassionately healing those whom he had mangled, we should exclaim, what an inconsistent creature, and conclude that he could not by any possibility be happy, on account of this opposition between, the principles of his nature.” Now this is just the opposition which deforms human nature. “The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” How is this internal discord to be quelled but by the inner man having the mastery over the inferior propensities of our nature? As long as these latter are not brought under the wholesome restraints of the Gospel, the Master’s easy yoke, the truth which makes us free from carnal bondage; as long as the raging waves of animal passion hear not the voice of Him who says, “Peace, be still,” in vain shall we look for those social and political virtues which constitute the stability of a state; and which, therefore, since self-preservation is the first law of nature, it should be a prime duty of the State to promote. Without vital Christianity, without a large number on the side of God, and forming the salt of the earth, we must expect nothing but general corruption and downfall. We may pride ourselves upon our railways, our steam navigation, our electric telegraphs, and all the rest of our mechanical wonders; we may pride ourselves upon our immense resources, our domestic comforts, our scientific and literary attainments, our proficiency in the fine arts; but if the conscience of the nation be not adequately developed by a devout and enlightened contemplation of God’s holy will, the social body will be constantly reminding us, by its feverish restlessness and by its terrible sores, that it is not nicely compacted together—that “where one member suffers, all the members do not suffer with it,” that we have not paid sufficient heed to “the one thing needful;” and that we are, in consequence, reaping, by way of warning, disquieting and painful intimations that though our progress is rapid, the rails on which we run are alarmingly insecure.

Now among the Welsh people the elements of stability, of unity, are strong, but those of progress or differentiation are weak. Then as regards the people’s social condition in general, it exhibits few of those disheartening extremes which are so often to be met with in our large towns, but presents, with slight deviations, a general level of moderate elevation.

In more civilized communities, and notably in one of them, while the elements of physical and intellectual advancement are in a state of vigorous existence, social virtue and political stability are in a very unsatisfactory condition indeed. There are many members, but they have not arrived at that stage of perfection in which they constitute one body. Let us hope, however, that as chaos preceded cosmos, so it will be with them. Then as respects the various stages of development which exist side by side, they present all the inequalities of a mountain region—

A savage horde amid the civilized;
A servile band among the lordly free.

Now these two requirements, variety and unity, when you go hence to proclaim the Gospel, it will be most important that you should promote. The “unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” will, doubtless, be to you a prime object of cultivation. But will you not also exert yourselves to kindle in the bosom of your country-people that spirit of progress which results from always adding new truths to those of the past; and from continually realizing more and more the truth, beauty, purity, and grandeur of the indwelling Word of God, namely, “His Word abiding in you,” that is, in the children of light, the only medium through which revelation, as distinguished from the mere outward signs which alone can exist in the Book, is kept, by the Holy Spirit, a living saving power on earth.