CHAPTER V.
DISTINGUISHED MEN OF CHRISTIAN FAITH AND PHILANTHROPY—JOSEPH STURGE AND REV. JOHN ANGELL JAMES.
FOLLOWING the order of these concentric circles of arts and influences, we now come to that of Christian philanthropy. And no town in England has produced a more perfect example of this great grace than Birmingham.
Joseph Sturge, take him all in all, did not have, and did not leave his like in England, or in any other country or age. That is my own personal impression; and I knew him intimately during the golden autumn of his great and good life. Many and illustrious have been the philanthropists who have blest the centuries with their thoughts and works of benevolence. Nothing gives more striking proof of the breathing of a divine spirit upon human hearts than the production of such men and women. Now there are several different forms and forces even of genuine, Christian philanthropy. For there is often a form without a
