LONDON'S BISHOP.

North Otago Times, Volume CVII, Issue 17748, 10 March 1927, Page 7

LONDON'S BISHOP.

I A MAN AMONG MEN. Winnington Ingram, to take .the liberty of calling him by the name that distinguishes him as a person- j ality rather than an ecclesiastic, I seems about as good as a bishop I can be. He has never, it is true. ' fulfilled all the injunctions laid down in Holy Writ for liis guidance. "The bishop therefore must . . . be th>e husband of one wife," so runs part of the apostolic description of the office held to imply " a good work." But perhaps Dr. Ingram has read that as most people choose to read the "Smoking" in tramcar compartments, taking it as permissiv-e rather than mandatory. Also, he can hardly claim to be "no striker," for — but that belongs to a little later in this story, though it came quite early in his caree'r as a padre and did him infinite credit then. , A good sort, this Bishop of London, without a doubt, helping to prove anyway the truth of Ihe Donegal saying that many a kind heart beats beneath a bishop's gaiters. It was that human hecrt, always much more than a mere muscular mechanism for pumping jerks of cosy feeling, that won Bethnal Green to its young parson back in 1889. Thcreabouts ,his was at first a most incomprehensible venture. fWlio is 'e?5' the comment went. "Wot's 'is little game?" They heard j he was', in charge of the new community of students from' Oxford, i "supporting themsclves whjle they i learned to help men like themi selves." It struck them as str.ang'e — i and suspicious. "'Ead of Oxford | 'Ouse, it 'he? Well, wot's Oxford ! 'Ouse? Wot's Oxford 'Ouse got to do with we? P'r'aps he's goin' to stand for Parleymcnt an' tryin' to get at us like this?" Some extra- j ordiriary sagacious ones, having ; learned a ifhing or two;. ventured an- i other guess— ■ " 'E's out to write a | hook about us."'/He wasn't though; he afterwards did write some illum- ' mating things ahout work in great j citics. " | Scaliug the Walls. | He found "the walls were up ! against him," and that they "would j need scaling." And he scaled them. 1 Curiosity deepened. "This 'ere Ox- j ford 'Ouse is 'a kind of hloomin' j 'otel," agrced the costerfblk. "Mr j Ingram, wot's the 'ead Of it, must j make a iine fing out vof it." He did, j but on his £3 a week there was no j "fine fing" for himselk lt proved ; that for others. Not all at once. The scaling of the walls was a,ticklish business. He knew that the weak place in them would be in the hearts of little children; and there he laid assault — especially among the boys, i the young gamins whose noise filled the sordid streets days and night. | The first skirmish was. the: forma- j tion of clubs. So to Oxford House I the boys were coaxed' — to do their | figbting there. Boxing was the •special bait, and how they rosel'And when he put on the gloves with them, and took and gave shrewd knocks in a way that delighted them the news of the fun spread like fire in a dry thicket. ' They were still a bit suspicious, but their fears of some dire intent fled at last when tky found Oxford House opportunities to be their jolly selves, with no dread of "the copper" disturbing them, and in a way that was bettcr than they could manage by themselves. The comradeship grew. They came in and they stayed in; and Winnington Ingram was in his element.

After the Men. But or course the battle was only begun, however well begun. To reach the men — that was the probJem. Off early in the morning to the . iasks that a period of rapid labour development offered them, and not back until seven at night— and then off again to their favourite "pub." Yet the job had to be done. Nothing for it but to saunter up and down the street, loitering near these haunts^, till a chance came to drift casually and without cant into conversation with now ose and now another, and then with groups who looked for this man with the frank smile and "the gift of the gab." Of course they knew him as "a chap with an easy job" -and "a cove that goes to see the missus." But the stories their boys toki them did the trick; the parson who taught them to "spar " and "sparred" with them, played games inside with them night after night, and sometimes in the day joined them in such football and ' cricket as wefe pos-

sible, and coached them in rowing on the Lea, and organised harrierruns of a kind. These men noted that their boys were dropping their hooligan ways, andi whatever they were themselves this made them glad. So the point of contact, the common ground, Avas discovered and used, and the way open for the starting of Working Men's Clubs. In them they learned Winnington Ingram's creed thai iife was not merely jolly — it ought to have friendships that helped. Soon the men got to lcnow each other in a new way. "There's Old Tom, who's at the club every night." "There's Jack, who /gives me points at billiards." Yes, hilliards, bagatelle a reading room, and then debates, lectures, concerts, dramatic pcrformances, and plenty of non-intoxi-cating refreshments — and Dr. Ingram is still sure that these are enough for all the good fellowship worth having. The Centre of the Business. But the sou] and centre of the great business on which he was bent was decper than these things. "Religion," he said, "is the only thing that does any lasting good." So to get these club men to his Sunday services — this was Ihe next step. They took it. They did not mind much, bccausc he talkcd on subjeets, light enough, to be sure, tliat they had sometimes discussed among Ihemaelves; and after the serviccs he invited free discussion. Ilere are some of the queslions they raised for his answcring— and he sever shirkod or helittled them. Will you kindly define God? Whai is Ihe soul? Do you lbink_ of lmaven

as a place or a condition of mind? Why did our Lord come to this little planet to be crucified? How could a good God have created a had dcvil? Why did! God go on creating when the first man and woman proved ' such a failure? Is everything predestined; if so, how can we help ourselves? Or shall we be to blam-e? Who was Cain's wife? Dou you helieve that Balaam's ass really spoke? Can you really credit that Joshua commanded the sun to stand still? It is practicable to take no thought for the morrow, as the Bible tclls us? Has not a man a right ifi he has, say, a shilling he can afford to spend upon amusenient;, to find his amusement in risking it on a bet? The Sunday service drew better than the lectures on the w-eek evenings. There was an early attempt to get the men in when one of the most brilliant young scholars from New Collcge came to help. Not a soul would conre; so Winnington Ingram and his merry men, to make the outsiders think something was going on, shuffled the chairs about for a quarter of an hour, while the lecturer was ignored. Then one man came in, then another; "and that," said Winnington Ingram, "is 1 tli-e way the thing began." It went on, and auite incidentally it carried him to greater — well, wider- opportunities, to toucii^ ^ and the world, - - - •- -