THE BISHOP OF SALISBURY ON LONDON SOCIETY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1443, 29 December 1886, Page 3

THE BISHOP OF SALISBURY ON LONDON SOCIETY.

Tbe Bishop of Sa’i-bury has been drawing a highly-colored picture of modern British society. He sya ; —Though the vico and the luxury of the rich might he for a while by the poor, the poor were not unobservant of them The secularist newspapers were fu 1 of it. Ihare was not a scandal in hi.h life but was known all over England i - > its darkest c>h'rs, and probib’y much exaggerate! Even what nvght he called the innocent luxuries of tha wealthy were a eoro and terrible trial to tho starving and often uncomplaining masses of the poor. Why should there be this measureless contras this nm qual distribution of grod thines ? That was a ques ion which agsin and again, and If no sufficient reply were made there would gradually be ga'hered np such a flood of bittnr resont*9nt as would sweep away in a rovolu lon not only tbe signs bat also tho hi m s of religion itself.” The right rsv. gentleman then proceeded to answer his own question, and said that “ho boleved that there was only rne answer that O' u'd be m'-do to the question with any approach to reason, and that was that od had ! made the lota of men unrq al in order that tho rich ml bt help the paor.” The p; or. in fact, are tauebc on hiyhauth rity that they a e made poor so that the rich might help them Is there not <m explosive element o(| danger in teaching of this kit d, and particularly as the pro hser indicate •* possible. If not probably, coming ca aslrophrs ? If the rich do not help the poor, they directly defeat tho purposes of tho Almighty, and therefore prepare themselves for extinction. Nc Socialist cf modern time has preached a more revolutionary and levelling doctrine than this ; and it is not unlikely that the Bi hopa words will be echoed from many a Secularist platform, and from many a Socialist outdoor meeting. The Bishop made no classification cf ilch men ; and as we haya rich Bishops and Archbishops, and ploraliats in tho church, they must come under the same condemnation which hangs like a storm-cloud over the destiny of the wealthy. It was a bold thing to interpret the purposes of tho Eternal, and to proclaim it thatj God made the poor in aider that the ylch might be benevolent. —■Echo, , r •»*