Attributes Of God | Endurance | Example | Joy | Perseverance | Poverty | Prayer

DILIGENCE AND PRAYER: LORD SHAFTESBURY (1801- 1885)
On a rainy day in 1885 a funeral procession wound its way to Westminster Abbey. In it were people from all walks of life: representatives of religious societies and charities, flower sellers, street urchins, aristocrats, chimney sweeps, statesmen, clergymen. This motley crowd represented the wide range of interests of Anthony Ashley Cooper, the Earl of Shaftesbury, whose coffin they followed. Through legislation and campaigning, Shaftesbury sought to defend the rights of women and children who worked in the mines, small boys who climbed chimneys to clean them, the mentally ill, the milliners and dressmakers who worked in sweatshops. He promoted industrial training, ‘ragged’ schools for the poor, and the work of organization involved in urban and overseas evangelism and social work. His life was governed by the principle he had written down in his twenty-seventh year: ‘The first principle, God’s honour; the second, man’s happiness; the means, prayer and unremitting diligence.”