The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-10-14 00:00:00

THE BISHOP OF CARLISLE ON BIM-

GARIA AND ENGLAND.

On Sunday morning the Bishop of Carlisle (Dr. Harvey
Goodwin) preached a sermon in Carlisle Cathedral in aid of I
the funds for the relief of the sufferers in Bulgaria.
His lordship took his text from one of the lessons
of the day, "Shall I not visit for these things, saith the
Lord, and shall not my soul be avenged on such a
nation as.this ?" In, applying this text to the subject
In hand the nation would, of course mean the Turks,
and the thing. for which that nation was to be visited
was of couree the Bulgarian atrocities. The hearts of
many of our countrymen had been so much excited
that-they would have been ready to take the whole matter
into their own hands, adopting language such as that of
the text, instead of leaving v.engeance to Him to whom
vengeance belongeth. In other words many of them
would have been prepared to commit themselves to a
programme of driving the Turks out of Europe, without
probably conceiving what was to be done about Asia,
or whither the Turks were to be driven, nor what kind
of war would be likely to be stirred up by the process.
He would not say that any great statesman had com-
mitted himself to that programme, but he felt sure
that if such a programme had been put forward there
would have been found a few weeks ago a very
great deal of zeal to back it. However, he
was not going to allude to the subject further that
day, because he did not think the pulpit the proper
place to discus questions of difficult national policy.
He should be glad if they would join him in looking
at home end endeavouring to form some slight esti-
mate of things among ourselves. First of all, it was
proposed to hold a special mission in the city of Carlisle.
If the spiritual condition of the city had been satis-
factory, one would never have recommended such
a mission. There was, no doubt, a monstrous crop of
ungodliness in this country, and it became more
serious When one tweed from what men do not
do to what they actually do. Drink kills far
more people in this country than the Turks
destroyed in Bulgaria. It had been pressed upon
them that the Turks were so savage In Bulgaria
that they did not spare women and children. Well,
did drink spare them? If the drunken brutalities
witnessed in this countryzere placed before a jury of
Turks what would the verdict be? for whatever vices
they may have, the Mussulmans are, at all events, total
abstainers, and there was plenty to be seen in this
country that would give the Turks a terrible view of
the condition of England. What impression must be
produced upon the minds of Mussulmans and Hindoos
by the amount of practical ungodliness and palpable
sin found in this country? We cannot be altogether
surprised if they go back to the East doubting whether
this religion of ours is worth their trouble or attention.
And while the Christian life of the country is very far
from what it should be, there is also a monstrous
amount of denial of God—sometimes on scientific
grounds, sometimes on others. Then, in addition to
the prevalence of crime and debasing vice, what an
amount of commercial roguery there is! What terrible
crises we have from time to time—crises involving men,
women, and children like the Bulgarian outrages, and
arising out of speculation and illicit trading—in
fact, gambling! The difficulty, a Manchester merchant
had told him the other day, was not so much to find busi-
ness as to avoid the large amount of unsound and
unsafe business which people were ready to thrust
upon you. Then there were battles between
masters and men, strikes and lock-outs, affecting men,
women, and children, like the Bulgarian atrosities
again; goods manufactured for sale and not for use,
and even in many departinpnts pf ordinary articles of
Use there was a difficulty in obtaining honest worth for.
honest money. He had DO desire to take up the words
of the text and say, ".Sball I not visit thee for these
things?" He trusted the Lord would not visit us for
them. He would say, in the words of the poet,
" England, with all thy faults, I love thee still ;" but
while praising her good government, the freedom of her
people, her possession of the true religion, "as the pro-
per study of mankind is man," so the proper study of
Englishmen is England herself, and he urged that
whilathat study may in one way make us proud, in
another way it may make us humble.

The Very Rev, the Dean of Carlisle preached in aid
of the same fund in the afternoon. 40.