of doing him any good. In many modern schemes of social regeneration
it is forgotten that "it takes a soul to move a body, e'en to a cleaner
sty," and at the risk of being misunderstood and misrepresented, I must
assert in the most unqualified way that it is primarily and mainly for
the sake of saving the soul that I seek the salvation of the body.

But what is the use of preaching the Gospel to men whose whole
attention is concentrated upon a mad, desperate struggle to keep
themselves alive? You might as well give a tract to a shipwrecked
sailor who is battling with the surf which has drowned his comrades and
threatens to drown him. He will not listen to you. Nay, he cannot
hear you any more than a man whose head is underwater can listen to a
sermon. The first thing to do is to get him at least a footing on firm
ground, and to give him room to live. Then you may have a chance.
At present you have none. And you will have all the better opportunity
to find a way to his heart, if he comes to know that it was you who
pulled him out of the horrible pit and the miry clay in which he was
sinking to perdition.


CHAPTER 6. THE VICIOUS.

There are many vices and seven deadly sins. But of late years many of
the seven have contrived to pass themselves off as virtues. Avarice,
for instance; and Pride, when re-baptised thrift and self-respect, have
become the guardian angels of Christian civilisation; and as for Envy,
it is the corner-stone upon which much of our competitive system is
founded. There are still two vices which are fortunate, or
unfortunate, enough to remain undisguised, not even concealing from
themselves the fact that they are vices and not virtues. One is