THE TERRIBLE PROBLEM OF THE POOR. London, August 11.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 301, 22 September 1888, Page 4

THE TERRIBLE PROBLEM OF THE POOR. London, August 11.

The Lambeth Conference terminated on Saturday week with' a special service at St. Paul's, ab which 144 bishops and a number of distinguished laymen were present. The special feature of this service was a magnificent sermon by the Archbishop of York on what he termed " the terrible problem of the poor." While he was being conducted to the pulpit the Archbishops and Bishops left the choir and seated' themselves under the dome opposite the pulpit on the north side, and as the preacher was to direct his observations to them especially he had to turn his face' from the major part of the congregation. The Archbishop of York, however, has both manly voice and manly presence, and his elocution has all the power of a natural style and impressive emphasis. On this occasion, he preached a remarkably telling discourse, the text being the extract from Paul's Epistle to the Romans — " For the earnest expectation of' the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God " (Bth chap., 19th verse). After the lapse of eighteen centuries, the preacher showed, the world, full of misery, still awaits for a redeeming power, since strife and struggle, pain and death, seem to be inscribed upon the world's foundation stones. He then, gave lea^ono why the faithful should uot lose heart, tut read in the past the triumph of the iuture. In elaborating the proposition that the sins and miseries which yet remain cannot be overcome by mere civilisation, the Archbishop said : The tools which she can use are nob fib for that kind of work. Turn your thoughts to London and New York for a single day. In either city human cieutuies groan and travail, knowing as yet no redemption from sin and also from sorrow by Divine or any love. The night closes over the day of sttuggle, bat iett comes not with the dark. Men watch round death bed?, and while they sorrow feel that death at least is rest. Houseless wandeiers are fmtunate who can sleep unobsened under a tree. ' S n me of them — I know it to bo true — have learned to sleep upon their feet; to them the doorstep is forbidden : they are only allowed such sleep as can consist with moving on. The servants of pleasure are still astir — the pleasure that is made of drink and shameless appetite, which must nob be called brutal in justice to the brute. Consider, too, the poverty a& well as the sin. Wealth was never so great ; poverty was never more stark and grinding. Westward, there are streets and palaces charged to the full from garret to basement with contrivances of luxury buch as no medieval Queen ever dreamt of. Eastward, there aredwellings tarmorenumerous, upon Avhich none of these luxurious inventions have lighted. In many of them a few helpless wemen try to keep up a continuance of iood which barely staves off starvation by the few da ; pence which their work is adjudged to be worth, If our boasted progress becomes moie rapid I do not see why the riches may not grow greater, and the poverty more deadly. W e compassionate the poor ; we are indignant with those who stand next them and do not seem to help. We hear a good deal just now about what is called thesweabing&ystem, which is, alter ail, jin attempt to organise in workshops a number of helpless creatures who, without such organisation, would earn no wage at all. We have been considering this last week, 1 amongst other topics,* the Socialism which i& now making itself felt in every country. Socialism is not so much a sy9tem, a discovery, Jis an outcry of hungry despair. Ids idea i-5 that nothing can be more unjust than the piesent social state; ihat any change, even though ib be through universe il conflagration, must be improvement. WLat'exists, they think, is evil beyond conception. Many of it& poor 'remedies are childi"h, contradictory, a revival of old expeiimen'fe that have ended in failure. "Abolish heir-hip and bucces<«ion," they pay ; " organise workshops without the power to dismiss the useless workers." And so on. The terrible element of this question is that our present pi ogress aggravates both extremes, doubling the I wealth of the rich, halving the wages of an increasing multitude of >;poor. The quick progress of science does not alleviate it ; against the slower progress of spiritual improvement it is the chief resisting agency. You cannot always shut your eyes to the terrible problem of the poor. Perhaps \ou may nob fear that they will ever destroy .-ocieby ; bhey are too weak and helpless lor that. Bub still, even -the mosb placid conscience musb be uneasy. We may sleep in our beds because starving hands can furnish no weapon, kindle no torch : because b ains faint with starvation can conceh eno treasonable plans. But our slaep cannot be so sound if we know that brethren and sisters are starving aiound us. Who was it *who baid " The murmurs of the poor are just. Why this inequality of condition ? Formed as we are ' out of the same mud,' there is no way of justifying this except in saying "thab God ; has committed the -poor to be' rich, and has assigned them their maintenance* out of their superfluity ?" It was no communist. The words are those of Bossuet. Competition, trade, brilliant invention, the hope of profit,have made many rich ; but in the nature of the case, the great commercial machine stands sometimes still, -and then the capital of the rich remains, and the labour, which is the capital of the poor, lies useless, and ,they starve. The power of Christ, on the otherhand, which haswrought such wonders in bhepasb, ennoblingthefamily life, building hospitals,* freeing the slave, organising" the care of the poor, still exists, and if It seems weaker, it is owing to the weaker ' faith iof His followers. Let us consider this deeply with prayers- and tears; nay, with largerand constant sympathy. Let us more actively affirm "the doctrine of love to others. Let us apply 'it to thoughtless marriages, intemperance; and want of thrift" —the chief causes of the helplessness of the people. ' 7 Let us speak of -avarice as a deadly sin ; let' us- explain to" the 'people the< sinjof luxury ; let us charge wealth 'With its proper trusts,* its •' Christian duties, t let us' remind " DiVes 'thafc'oflly not" to thinkjof Lazarus at the gate is a'^in 1 against Christ. "The' sermon being ended,'~the Archbishops and* Bishop's returned td'the sacraViuinCahd the Communion was 'administered' to -them, : Gounod's "Te Deuin 1 * !o wa's'' sung; < and iab the'clnse of'-the' service the vl proeession retired in reverse 1 order' to 'that by £ whicti ib entered.