Lords had not always done their duty. Lord Shaftesbury, himself a very
ardent Churchman, wrote, June 16, 1855, in reference to the Religious
Worship Bill: "The Bishops have exhibited great ignorance, bigotry and
opposition to evangelical life and action, and have seriously injured
their character, influence and position."

Mr. Gladstone never displayed more marked respect for the "Nonconformist
conscience" than when, in deference to their earnest appeal, he risked
the great split in the Home Rule ranks that followed his repudiation of
Mr. Parnell. Mr. Gladstone never hesitated or made the slightest
pretense about the matter. If the Nonconformists had been as indifferent
as the Churchmen, his famous letter about the Irish leadership would not
have been written. "He merely acted, as he himself stated, as the
registrar of the moral temperature which made Mr. Parnell impossible.
He knew the men who are the Ironsides of his party too well not to
understand that if he had remained silent the English Home Rulers would
have practically ceased to exist. He saw the need, rose to the occasion
and cleared the obstacle which would otherwise have been a fatal
impediment to the success of his course. Mr. Gladstone is a practical
statesman, and with some instinct divined the inevitable."

Mr. Gladstone's religious belief, as well as his opinion of the Bible
and the plan of salvation revealed in the Gospel, are manifest as
expressed in the following words from his pen:

"If asked what is the remedy for the deeper sorrows of the human
heart--what a man should chiefly look to in his progress through life as
the power that is to sustain him under trials and enable him manfully to
confront his afflictions--I must point him to something which, in a
well-known hymn is called 'the old, old story,' told of in an old, old