Yet they were driven from Russia in 1820,--from Holland
in 1816,--from Switzerland in 1847, and from Germany in 1872. Latterly
they have been expelled from France. Nevertheless, in spite of these
numerous expulsions, and the universal odium in which they are held,--
they still flourish; still are they able to maintain their twenty-two
generals and their four Vicars;--and still all countries have, in their
turn, to deal with their impending or fulfilled invasion. Why is it
that a Society so criminal in historic annals, should yet remain as a
force in our advanced era of civilization? Simply, because it is of One
Mind! Bent on evil, or good,--self-renunciation or self-
aggrandisement,--it is still of One Mind! Friends,--were you like them,
also of One Mind, your injuries, your oppressions, your taxations would
not last long! The remedy for all is easy, and rests with yourselves,--
only yourselves! But some of you have lost heart--and other some have
lost patience. You look round upon the squalid corners of this great
city--you shudder at the cruelty of the daily life with which you have
to contend,--you enter poor rooms, which you are compelled to call
'home,' where the sick and dying, the newly-born and the dead are
huddled all together,--ten, and sometimes fifteen in one small den of
four whitewashed walls;--and sickened and tired, you cry out 'Is life
worth no more than this? Is God's scheme for the human race no more
than this? Then why were we born at all? Or, being born, why may we not
die at once, self-slain?' Ah, yes, dear friends!--you often feel like
this; we all of us often feel like this! But--it is not God who has
made life thus hard for you,--it is yourselves! It is you who consent
to be down-trodden,--it is you who resign your freewill, your thought,
your originality of character, into the dominating power of others.
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